AITKEN, ROBERT INGERSOLL, an American sculptor,• born in San Fran cisco and was professor of sculpture at public schools, studied art at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art in San Fran cisco and was professor of scupture at this institution from 1901 to 1904. He showed remarkable talent in the making of portrait busts. Among those which and for needle and pin making. There are also immense manufactures of ma chinery, bells, glass buttons, chemicals and cigars. The city is rich in histori cal associations. It emerged from histor ical obscurity about the time of Pepin; and Charlemagne founded its world-wide celebrity. Whether it was his birthplace is doubtful, but in 814 it became his grave. In 796 he had rebuilt the impe rial palace, as well as the chapel in which Pepin had celebrated Christmas in 765. The present town-house was built in 1353 on the ruins of the palace. The ancient cathedral is in the form of an octagon, which, with various additions round it, forms on the outside a sixteen-sided fig ure. In the middle of the octagon, a stone, with the inscription "Carolo Magno," marks the site of the grave of Charlemagne. In 1215 Frederick II. caused the remains of the emperor to be inclosed in a costly shrine. The columns brought by Charlemagne from the palace of the Exarch at Ravenna, to decorate the interior of the octagon, had been car ried off by the French; but most of them were restored at the Peace of Paris, and replaced in 1846. The town-house con tains the coronation hall in which 35 German emperors and 11 empresses have celebrated their coronation banquet. The emperors were crowned in Aix-la-Cha pelle from Louis the Pious to Ferdinand I. (813-1531). Seventeen imperial diets
and 11 provincial councils were held within its walls. The name of the place is derived from the springs, for which it has been always famous. They are effi cacious in cases of gout, rheumatism, cutaneous diseases, etc. In 1793, and again in 1794, Aix-la-Chapelle was occu pied by the French. By the treaties con cluded at Campo Formio and Luneville, it was formally ceded to France, until in 1915 it fell to Prussia. The town has been the meeting place for many impor tant peace congresses. The first Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668) ended the war carried on between France and Spain for the possession of the Spanish Nether lands. The second Peace of Aix-la-Cha pelle (1748) concluded the war respect ing the succession of Maria Theresa to the empire.
The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle was held in 1818, for regulating the affairs of Europe after the war. It began on Sept. 30, and ended on Nov. 21. Its principal object was the withdrawal from France of the army of occupation, 150,000 strong, as well as the receiving of France again into the alliance of the great powers. The Emperors of Russia and Austria and the King of Prussia were present in person. The five great powers assembled signed a protocol announcing a policy known as that of the "Holy Alliance." During the World War the city played an important part as a Ger man depot, due to its nearness to the western front. As a result of the armi stice Belgian troops occupied the city in December, 1919.