UTRECHT ( Utraject um, or Trajectum ad Rhenum), the provincial capital, is beautifully situated in the midst of a district composed of sand-bills, woody heaths, rich grassy meadows, extensive orchards, flower-gardens, and cultivated fields. It lies 24 rn. s.e. from Amsterdam. When the census was taken (1869), the pop. numbered 59,299; at the end of 1877 it was 67,341. The broad walls have been leveled, planted with trees, and formed into beautiful and well-kept promenades.
Utrecht is favorably situated for trade, being the point from which several railways radiate, and having excellent water-communication by the old Rhine and the Vecht. The staples are grain, cattle, and various manufactures. It is the residence of many noble families, the seat of a university, national veterinary school, national hospital, high military court., the mint, etc. Principal buildings are the cathedral or Domkerk, the town-house, the mint, the university, and several handsome barracks for the infan try and cavalry, especially the Willemskazerne. The cathedral was consecrated to St. Martin about 720. In 1674, a hurricane destroyed the body of the building between the choir and the tower, so that the latter (321 ft. high) is now isolated. The famous university of Utrecht, founded in 1623, numbers about 500 students, and has a good library. Utrecht has been for centuries the head-quarters of the Jansenist church (q.v.). There is a national school, for military surgeons; a grammar-school; normal school' for teachers; a musical college, for elementary singing, the piano, and violin; a historical society; meteorological institute; medical society; pharmaceutical society, etc. Educa tion generally stands high.
The charitable institutions are numerous. Principal industries are—manufacturing tobacco and cigars, woolen fabrics and carpets, making salt, furniture, baskets, tin, copper, and silver work, sawing wood, rope-making, iron-founding, book-printing, etc. The royal cigar factory alone makes 40,000 daily.
Utrecht is one of the oldest cities of the Netherlands, and probably was founded by the Romans. Here the famed union of the northern provinces for the defence of politi cal and religious freedom was formed Jan. 23,1579. For a short time in 1807, Louis Napoleon, king of Holland, resided in Utrecht. It has been the birthplace of many dis tinguished men, among others pope Adrian VI.. in 1459.
Utrecht has acquired a degree of celebrity for the treaties there concluded, which brought to a close the war of the Spanish succession. See SUCCESSION WARS. After this disastrous conflict had endured for more than 10 years, Great Britain, finding that the reasons which had prompted her to engage in ib no longer existed, tried to induce Austria to come to terms with France, but failing in this, at once signed private pre liminary articles for herself, Oct. 8, 1711. On Jan. 12, 1712, a congress was opened at Utrecht; and France, desirous, at almost any price, of detaching Britain from the grand alliance, voluntarily made so many concessions, that the latter had only further to de mand the banishment of the elder pretender, whose sojourn in France had been a source of disquietude, the conclusion of a treaty of commerce, and indemnities for her allies— all which points were at once conceded. But the preposterous demands of Austria,
which included not only the renunciation by the Bourbons of the entire Spanish empire, but the restoration of all those places which had been ceded to France by the treaties of Munster, Nimeguen, and Ryswick, and the retention of all Austria's conquests in Italy, the Low Countries, and Spain, forced the French to break off the conferences, in the hope of making a separate peace with Britain, and compelling the other allies, by negotiation or arms, to lower their pretensions. This plan was successful; agreement on all points at issue was established between France and Britain in Aug., 1712; and arrangements were also come to with Holland, Portugal, Prussia, and Savoy soon afterward. As each of the contracting parties negotiated in its own name, no fewer than nine distinct treaties of peace were signed in the following spring, April 11, 1713. By the treaty between France and Britain, the former ceded St. Kitt's, Hudson bay, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland (the liberty of fishing for cod being reserved), recognized formally the reigning dynasty and the Hanoverian succession, agreed to demolish the fortifications of Dunkirk, engaged that the crowns of France and Spain should never be united, and that no part of the Spanish Netherlands should ever be ceded or transferred to France; and Spain renounced her Italian possessions in favor of Austria, and gave up Gibraltar and Minorca to Britain, with which power she also concluded the assiento treaty. The chief of the special agreements with the other contracting parties were as follows: Ypres, Knocke, etc., to be exchanged with Holland for Douai, Bouchain, etc., and a treaty of commerce to be concluded; both banks of the Amazon to belong to Portugal; Spanish gelders and the district of Kessel, to be ceded to Prussia, and its ruler's title of king, assumed in 1701, formally recognized, Prussia in turn resigning all claims to the princi pality of Orange; the duke of Savoy to obtain Sicily, with the title of king, etc. The treaty of Utrecht did not made peace with Austria and the German empire; but in the at Rastadt and Baden, they agreed to substantially the same terms as were proffered at Utrecht. The electors of Cologne and Bavaria, who had been put, under the ban of the empire, were restored; Sardinia, granted to Bavaria at Utrecht, was restored to Austria; Austria renounced her claims to the Spanish succession; the cession of the Spanish possessions in Italy was confirmed; Breisach and Freiburg, in the Breis-1 gau, were also given to Austria; the highest ridge of the Maritime Alps was made the boundary between France and Savoy; and on failure of the Spanish Bourbons. the crown of Spain was to fall to the house of Savoy.—See lord Mahon's History of the War of Suc cession in Spain (Loud. 1832).