HESSE.HOMBURG, formerly an independent German landgraviate. but now forming a portion of the kingdom of Prussia. The landgraviate was divided into the provinces of Homburg and Meisenheim; the former bounded by Hesse-Darmstadt and Hesse-Nassau, and the latter by Rhenish the Bavarian palatinate.
Giving 105.98 sq.m. for the superficial area, and 26,817 for rite population of the entire landgraviate. rile former of these provinces is a fruitful district lying on the slopes of the Taunus mountains, which produces grain, wine, and timber; while the latter is moun tainous, and yields large quantities of coal and iron, and some excellent wine. The budget for 1861 gives the following amounts: namely, receipts, 500,520 florins; expendi ture, 441,166 florins, leaving a surplus of 59,354 florins. The debt was, in 1865, 3,000,000 florins.
The troops of the were 366 men, including a reserve of 100, which com prised the contingent of Hesse-Homburg to the federal army. Hesse-Homburg was represented by Hesse-Darmstadt in the limited council of the diet, hut it held one inde pendent vote in the plenum, or full council. The established religion was Protestant, to which 19,000 of the inhabitants belonged, the great majority of whom were attached to the reformirte kirche, while there were 4,950 Catholics, and about 1000 Jews. Ilesse Homburg had a legislative representative chamber, and the government was divided into the three departments of justice, the interior, and finances.
The landgraviate was an integral part of Hesse-Darmstadt (to which it reverted on the failure of the direct line in 1866) till it was transferred, on the death of the landgraf. in 1500. to his younger son, Friedrich I., in whose family it remained as an independent state till 1866. Little change was effected in the province till the congress of Vienna.
when it was augmented by the addition of Meissenberg. In 1817 Hesse-Homburg wa admitted into the German confederation. In 1830 disturbances broke out in .Meisenheim. but although they were soon quelled, in consequence of the powers accorded to the land graf by the diet, several .'severe edicts were published in 1832 against the liberals, which excited considerable disaffection. The opening of the springs and baths at Homburg in 1833 proved an unexpected source of wealth to the state, and after the addition of gam bling saloons, the establishment constituted a very important branch of the revenue. Attempts were more than once made by the diet to put down the gambling-tables; but whenever the pressure of federal intervention was removed, gambling was always resumed with fresh spirit; in 1862 however, the deputies passed a law for its gradual suppression, and since the passing of Hesse-Homburg into the hands of the Prussian government, the system has been completely suppressed. Since their first opening, play. with only temporary abatement, was prosecuted at all hours and seasons by all ranks, from peasants to princes and princesses, and almost at all ages, excepting among the subjects of Hesse-Homburg, who were stringently forbidden to participate in it.
In 1835 Hesse-Homburgjoined the Zollverein (q.v.). In Mar. 1866, on the death, without heirs, of the last landgraf, Ferdinand Heinrich Friedrich, who succeeded his brother, Philip August, in 1848. the ]andgraviatc fell to Hesse-Darmstadt, but remained united with that duchy only a few months, being ceded to Prussia on Sept. 13, 1866. It now forms part of the Prussian provinces of Hesse-Nassau and Rhenish Prussia. See GERMANY.