important cities in Gaul. In the 4th century this importance was increased by the foundation of its bishopric, and after the destruction of Eauze in the 9th century it became the metropolis of Novempopulana. Till 732, Auch stood on the right bank of the Gers, but in that year the ravages of the Saracens drove the inhabitants to take refuge on the left bank of the river, where a new city was formed. In the 10th century Count Bernard of Armagnac founded the Benedictine abbey of St Orens, the monks of which, till 1308, shared the jurisdiction over Auch with the archbishops—an arrangement which gave rise to constant strife. The counts of Armagnac possessed a castle in the city, which was the capital of Armagnac in the middle ages. During the Religious Wars of the 16th century Auch remained Catholic, except for a short occupation in 1569 by the Huguenots under Gabriel, count of Montgomery. In the 18th century it was capital of Gascony, and seat of a generality. Antoine Mégret d’Etigny, intendant from 1751 to 1767, did much to improve the city and its commerce.
AUCHMUTY, SIR SAMUEL (1756–1822), British general, was born at New York in 1756, and served as a loyalist in the American War of Independence, being given an ensigncy in the royal army in 1777, and in 1778 a lieutenancy in the 45th Foot, without purchase. When his regiment returned to England after the war, having neither private means nor influence, he exchanged into the 52nd, in order to proceed to India. He took part in the last war against Hyder Ali; he was given a staff appointment by Lord Cornwallis in 1790, served in the operations against Tippoo Sahib, and continued in various staff appointments up to 1797, when he returned to England a brevet lieut.-colonel. In 1800 he was made lieut.-colonel and brevet colonel; and in the following year, as adjutant-general to Sir David Baird in Egypt, took a distinguished share in the march across the desert and the capture of Alexandria. On his return to England in 1803 he was knighted, and three years later he went out to the River Plate as a brigadier-general. Auchmuty was one of the few officers who came out of the disastrous Buenos Aires expedition of 1806–7 with enhanced reputation. While General Whitelocke, the commander, was cashiered, Auchmuty was at once re-employed and promoted major-general, and was sent out in 1810 to command at Madras. In the following year he commanded the expedition organized for the conquest of Java, which the governor-general, Lord Minto, himself accompanied. The storming of the strongly fortified position of Meester Cornelis (28th August 1811), stubbornly defended by the Dutch garrison under General Janssens, practically achieved the conquest of the island, and after the action of Samarang (September 8th) Janssens surrendered. Auchmuty received the thanks of parliament and the order of K.C.B. (G.C.B. in 1815), and in 1813, on his return home, was promoted to the rank of lieut.-general. In 1821 he became commander-in-chief in Ireland, and a member of the Irish privy council. He died suddenly on the 11th of August 1822.
AUCHTERARDER (Gaelic, “upper high land”), a police burgh of Perthshire, Scotland, 1334 m. S.W. of Perth by the Caledonian railway. Pop. (1901) 2276. It is situated on Ruthven Water, a right-hand tributary of the Earn. The chief manufactures are those of tartans and other woollens, and of agricultural implements. At the beginning of the 13th century it obtained a charter from the earl of Strathearn, afterwards became a royal burgh for a period, and was represented in the Scottish parliament. Its castle, now ruinous, was built as a hunting-lodge for Malcolm Canmore, but of the abbey which it possessed as early as the reign of Alexander II. (1198–1249) no remains exist. The ancient church of St Mungo, now in ruins, was a building in the Norman or Early Pointed style. The town was almost entirely burned down by the earl of Mar in 1716 during the abortive Jacobite rising. It was in connexion with this parish that the ecclesiastical dispute arose which led to the disruption in the Church of Scotland in 1843. The estate of Kincardine, 1 m. south, gives the title of earl of Kincardine to the duke of Montrose. The old castle, now in ruins, was dismantled in 1645 by the marquis of Argyll in retaliation for the destruction of Castle Campbell in Dollar Glen on the south side of the Ochils. The old ruined castle of Tullibardine, 2 m west of the burgh, once belonged to the Murrays of Tullibardine, ancestors of the duke of Atholl, who derives the title of marquis of Tullibardine from the estate. The ancient chapel adjoining, also ruinous, was a burial-place of the Murrays.
AUCHTERMUCHTY (Gaelic, “the high ground of the wild sow”), a royal and police burgh of Fifeshire, Scotland, built on an elevation about 9 m. W. by S. of Cupar, with a station on a branch of the North British railway from Ladybank to Mawcarse Junction. Pop. 1387. The rapid Loverspool Burn divides the town. The principal industries include the weaving of linen and damasks, bleaching, distilling and malting. John Glas, founder of the sect known as Glassites or Sandemanians, was a native of the town. A mile and a half to the south-west is the village of Strathmiglo (pop. 966), on the river Eden, with a linen factory and bleaching works.
AUCKLAND, GEORGE EDEN, Earl of (1784–1849), English statesman, was the second son of the 1st Baron Auckland. He completed his education at Oxford, and was admitted to the bar in 1809. His elder brother was drowned in the Thames in the following year; and in 1814, on the death of his father, he took his seat in the House of Lords as Baron Auckland. He supported the Reform party steadily by his vote, and in 1830 was made president of the Board of Trade and master of the Mint. In 1834 he held office for a few months as first lord of the admiralty, and in 1835 he was appointed governor-general of India. He proved himself to be a painstaking and laborious legislator, and devoted himself specially to the improvement of native schools, and the expansion of the commercial industry of the nation committed to his care. These useful labours were interrupted in 1838 by complications in Afghanistan, which excited the fears not only of the Anglo-Indian government but of the home authorities. Lord Auckland resolved to enter upon a war, and on the 1st of October 1838 published at Simla his famous manifesto dethroning Dost Mahommed. The early operations were crowned with success, and the governor-general received the title of earl of Auckland. But reverses followed quickly, and in the ensuing campaigns the British troops suffered the most severe disasters. Lord Auckland had the double mortification of seeing his policy a complete failure and of being superseded before his errors could be rectified. In the autumn of 1841 he was succeeded in office by Lord Ellenborough, and returned to England in the following year. In 1846 he was made first lord of the admiralty, which office he held until his death, on the 1st of January 1849. He died unmarried, and the earldom became extinct, the barony (see below) passing to his brother Robert.
See S. J. Trotter, The Earl of Auckland (“Rulers of India” series), 1893.
AUCKLAND, WILLIAM EDEN, 1st Baron (1745–1814), English statesman, son of Sir Robert Eden, 3rd Bart., of Windlestone Hall, Durham, and of Mary, daughter of William Davison, was born in 1745, educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, and called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1768. In 1771 he published Principles of Penal Law, and was early recognized as an authority on commercial and economic questions, and in 1772 he was appointed an under secretary of state. He represented New Woodstock in the parliaments of 1774 and 1780, and Heytesbury in those of 1784 and 1790. In 1776 he was appointed a commissioner on the board of trade and plantations. In 1778 he carried an act for the improvement of the treatment of prisoners, and accompanied the earl of Carlisle as a commissioner to North America on an unsuccessful mission to settle the disputes with the colonists. On his return in 1779 he published his widely read Four Letters to the Earl of Carlisle, and in 1780 became chief secretary for Ireland. He was elected to the Irish House of Commons as member for Dungannon in 1781 and sworn of the Irish privy council, and while in Ireland established the National Bank. He advised the increase of the secret service fund, and was reputed, according to Lord Charlemont (a political opponent), as especially skilful in the arts of
