most extravagant and luxurious in Europe, and he himself as the most dissolute and magnificent of princes. His lavish expenditure, though it enriched his capital with treasures of art, impoverished both Poland and Saxony, and laid the foundations for the future misfortunes of those countries. He died, 1st February 1733, from mortification of an old wound. Of his numerous natural children, the most famous was the distinguished general, Maurice of Saxony.
AUGUSTUS III., or FREDERICK AUGUSTUS II., Elector
of Saxony and King of Poland, only legitimate son of
Augustus the Strong, was born at Dresden, 7th October
1696. He was brought up in the Protestant faith, but in
1712, while on his travels, he entered the Church of Rome,
though his change of opinion was not publicly known till
1717. In 1733 he succeeded his father as elector of
Saxony, and put forward claims to the kingdom of Poland.
The Polish nobles, however, had become dissatisfied with
foreign rule, and endeavoured to reinstate Stanislaus Lesz-
czinski, whose daughter was married to Louis XV. of France.
Russia and Austria, probably bribed, but certainly dread
ing French influence in Poland, supported Augustus, who
was elected, though in an informal manner, and by
their aid established himself in the kingdom. On the
death of Charles of Austria in 1740, Saxony at first
joined the league against Maria Theresa, but jealousy of the
Prussian successes in the first campaign caused Augustus
to unite with the empress when war broke out a second
time in 1744. His forces were completely defeated by
Frederick, and Saxony was overrun and pillaged by the
Prussian troops. Eleven years later Augustus joined the
alliance against Frederick, which gave rise to the Seven
Years War. He was again unfortunate ; the whole Saxon
army was surrounded and compelled to surrender at Pirna
in 1756, and during the remainder of the war Saxony and
Poland were the seats of operations, and suffered severely.
Augustus died 5th October 1763, surviving only by a few
months the peace of Hubertsburg. During his reign
considerable additions were made to the collections of art
treasures formed by his father, and Dresden began to be
celebrated throughout Europe for its china and pictures.
AUK, a name common to several species of sea-fowl belonging, with one exception, to the family Alcidæ. Of these, special interest attaches to the Great Auk, or Gare-fowl (Alca impennis), from the circumstance that there is no authentic record of its having been taken, or even seen alive, for more than a quarter of a century. In the autumn of 1821 Dr Fleming, while on a cruise through the Hebrides, observed and described one which had been taken alive in the sea off St Kilda and put on board the yacht. With a rope attached to one of its legs, this specimen was occasionally allowed to disport itself in its native element, where it astonished every one by the rapidity with which it swam under water. On one of these occasions it got loose from its bonds, and was soon beyond reach of pursuit. Another specimen had been observed a few years before off Papa Westra, one of the Orkney Islands, but in spite of the exertions of the crew of a six-oared boat, continued for several hours, the auk could not be overtaken. This specimen, however, was afterwards secured, and is now in the British Museum. The Great Auk measures about three feet in length, has a large bill, but wings so small as to be totally useless for flying, serving, however, as powerful swimming organs It is said to have laid a single egg on the bare rock,—usually, from the inability of the bird to rise on wing to the higher cliffs, close to the water edge. Its food, according to Fabricius, consisted of the lump-sucker and other fishes of a similar size. From the earliest existing accounts, the Great Auk does not appear to have ever been more than an occasional visitant to the British Isles, and then chiefly to the sea around St Kilda and the Orkneys, while Iceland, the Faroes, and the islets about Newfoundland, appear to have been its proper home. The probability that this bird is now totally extinct gives special value to the remains of it now existing. These, according to Professor Newton, are as follows:—71 or 72 skins, 9 skeletons, 38 or 41 detached bones of different birds, and 65 eggs. The other Auks are the Puffin, the Razorbill, and the Little Auk, all widely distributed along the northern-temperate and Arctic coasts.
AULIC COUNCIL (from the Latin aula, a hall, in German, Reichshofrath), one of the two supreme courts of the old Germanic empire, the other being the imperial chamber (Reichskammergericht). It was called into existence in 1501 by the Emperor Maximilian, and was by him intended to counterbalance the influence of the im perial chamber, which he had been compelled to form by the states six years before. The Aulic Council had in many respects equal power with the chamber ; from its- decisions there was no appeal, and under its special juris diction were included the consideration of the imperial reserved rights, fees, and privileges, the settlement of disputes as to precedence among the several states, and the arrangement of matters relating to the Italian posses sions of the empire. All questions of law could be sub mitted either to this council or to the chamber. The members were at first appointed by the emperor, at whose death the court dissolved, and new appointments were made by his successor. The power of the council increased under several of the emperors ; it was formally recognised as coequal with the imperial chamber ; and after the peace of Westphalia its organisation was altered so as to meet the requirements of the time. It then and afterwards consisted of a president, vice-president, and eighteen councillors, all selected and paid by the emperor, and of a vice-chancellor, whose appointment rested with the electorate of Mainz. Six members were Protestants, and the votes of these six, when unanimous, could not be overturned by any majority of the others. The councillors were divided into two parties the first consisting of the counts and barons, the second of the men of learning, who possessed equal rights with the nobles, but were more highly paid. At the dissolution of the old Germanic imperial system in 1806, the Aulic Council in its former signification came to an end, though an Austrian court bearing the same title still continued to sit in Vienna.
AULIS, a town in Bœotia, supposed to have been situated on a rocky peninsula between two bays, about three miles S. of Chalcis. During the Trojan war it was the rendezvous of the Greek fleet, and has obtained celebrity as the scene of the sacrifice of Iphigenia. Pausanias states that in his day there was still to be seen here the temple of Artemis ascribed to Agamemnon.
AUMALE, formerly ALBEMARLE, from the" Latin Alba
Maria, a town of France, in the department of Seine
Inf^rieure, on the banks of the Bresle, 35 miles N.E. of
Rouen. Grain and hemp are cultivated in the neighbour
hood ; cloth is manufactured ; and the town has a trade in
wool and cattle. Population, 2229. Aumale was erected
by William the Conqueror into a countship, which was
afterwards held in succession by the houses of Castile,
Dammartin, Harcourt, and Lorraine; and in 1547 it was
raised to the rank of a dukedom in favour of Francis of
Lorraine. It afterwards passed to the house of Savoy,
from whom it was purchased in 1675 by Louis XIV., who
conferred it as an apanage on one of his natural sons. In
1769 it came into possession of the house of Orleans. The
earl of Albemarle, in the British peerage, derives his title
from Aumale.
