LORCA, a town of eastern Spain, in the province of Murcia, on the right bank of the river Sangonera (here called the Guadalantin or Guadalentin) and on the Murcia-Baza railway. Pop. (1900) 69,836. It occupies a height crowned by a medieval fortress, among the foothills of the Sierra del Caño. Its older parts, Moorish in many features and with narrow irregular streets, contrast with the modern parts, which have broad streets and squares, and many fine public buildings—theatre, town hall, hospitals, courts of justice and a bridge over the Sangonera. There is an important trade in agricultural products and live stock, as well as manufactures of woollen stuffs, leather, gunpowder, chemicals and porcelain. Silver, sulphur and lead are found in the neighbourhood.
Lorca is the Roman Eliocroca (perhaps also the Ilorci of Pliny, N.H. iii. 3) and the Moorish Lurka. It was the key of Murcia during the Moorish wars, and was frequently taken and retaken. On the 30th of April 1802 it suffered severely by the bursting of the reservoir known as the Pantano de Puentes, in which the waters of the Sangonera were stored for purposes of irrigation (1775–1785); the district adjoining the river, known as the Barrio de San Cristobal, was completely ruined, and more than six hundred persons perished. In 1810 Lorca suffered greatly from the French invasion. In 1886 the Pantano, which was one of the largest of European reservoirs, being formed by a dam 800 ft. long and 160 ft. high, was successfully rebuilt.
LORCH, a town in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau,
romantically situated on the right bank of the Rhine, 8 m.
below Rüdesheim by the railway Frankfort-on-Main-Wiesbaden-Cologne.
Pop. (1905) 2269. It has a fine Gothic Roman Catholic
church—St Martin’s—dating from the 14th century. The
slopes of the hills descending to the Rhine are covered with
vineyards, which produce excellent wine. In the neighbourhood
of Lorch, which was mentioned as early as 832, is the ruined
castle of Nollich.
LORCH, a town in the kingdom of Württemberg, on the Rems,
26 m. E. from Stuttgart by the railway to Nördlingen. Pop.
(1905) 3033. It possesses a fine Protestant church dating from
the 12th century. Its industries include carriage-building and
the manufacture of cement and paper. On the Marienberg
lying above the town stands the former Benedictine monastery
of Lorch, founded about 1108 by Frederick of Hohenstaufen,
and in 1563 converted into an Evangelical college. Here
Schiller passed a portion of his school days. The church contains
several tombs of the Hohenstaufen family. The Roman limes
began at Lorch and Roman remains have been found in the
neighbourhood of the town.
See Kirn, Führer durch das Kloster Lorch (Lorch, 1888); and Steimle, Kastell Lorch (Heidelberg, 1897).
LORD, JOHN (1810–1894), American historical writer and
lecturer, was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the 27th
of December 1810. He was the nephew of Nathan Lord (1792–1870),
president of Dartmouth College from 1828 to 1863. He
graduated at Dartmouth in 1833, and at Andover Theological
Seminary in 1837. His course at the Seminary was interrupted
by a period of teaching—at Windham, Connecticut (1834),
and at Norwich (1834–1835)—and by a tour in 1836 through
New York and Ohio, in which he lectured on the dark ages.
He was agent and lecturer for the American Peace Society
(1837–1839), and for a brief time was a Congregational pastor
in turn at New Marlboro and West Stockbridge, Massachusetts,
and at Utica, New York. About 1840 he became a professional
lecturer on history. He lectured extensively for fifty years,
especially in the United States and Great Britain, and introduced,
with success, the mid-day lecture. He was lecturer on history in
Dartmouth from 1869 to 1876. He received, in 1864, the degree
of LL.D. from the University of the City of New York. From
1854 he made his home in Stamford, Connecticut, where he
died on the 15th of December 1894. His works include,
besides several school and college histories, The Old Roman
World: the Grandeur and Failure of Civilization (1867); Ancient
States and Empires (1869); Two German Giants: Frederick the
Great and Bismarck (1885); and Beacon Lights of History
(8 vols., 1884–1896), his chief contribution to historical
literature.
See The Life of John Lord (1896) by Rev. Alexander S. Twombley, D. D. (in “Beacon Lights of History”), which is based chiefly upon Lord’s Reminiscences of Fifty Years in the Lecture Field.
LORD (O. Eng. hláford, i.e. hláfweard, the warder or keeper
of bread, hláf, loaf; the word is not represented in any other
Teutonic language), in its primary sense, the head of a household,
the master of those dependent on him for their daily bread,
correlative to O. Eng. hláf-aéta, loaf-eater, servant; the word
frequently occurs in this sense in the Bible, cf. Matt. xxiv. 45.
As a term implying the ownership of property, “lord” survives
in “lord of the manor” and “landlord.” The chief applications
are due to its use as the equivalent of Lat. dominus, Gr. κύριος
and Fr. seigneur; thus in the Old Testament it represents
Yahweh, Jehovah, and in the New Testament κύριος, as a
title of Jesus Christ. Selden’s words may be quoted for the
more general meanings of “lord”; “the name Dominus is . . .
to be thought of only as a distinguishing attribute of Greatness
and as our English word Lord is; and that without any relation
of it to an Interest of property or to servitude, and only as it
denotes such Superiours as King or Subjects of the greater
Nobility with us and men of special Eminency in other States,
known by the names of Heeren, Dons, Sieurs, signiors, seigneurs
. . . and the like.” It is thus not only a general word for a
prince or sovereign, but also the common word for a feudal
superior, and particularly of a feudal tenant holding directly
of the king, a baron (q.v.), hence a peer of the realm, a member
of the House of Lords, constituted of the lords temporal and
the lords spiritual; this is the chief modern usage. The prefix
“lord” is ordinarily used as a less formal alternative to the
full title, whether held by right or by courtesy, of marquess,
earl or viscount, and is always so used in the case of a baron
(which in English usage is generally confined to the holder of
a foreign title). Where the name is territorial, the “of” is
dropped, thus, the marquess of A., but Lord A. The younger
sons of dukes and marquesses have, by courtesy, the title of
Lord prefixed to the Christian and surname, e.g. Lord John
Russell. In the case of bishops, the full and formal title of
address is the Lord Bishop of A., whether he be a spiritual peer
or not. Many high officials of the British government have the
word “lord” prefixed to their titles; some of them are treated
in separate articles; for lord privy seal see Privy Seal. In
certain cases the members of a board which has taken the place of
an office of state are known as lords commissioners or, shortly,
lords of the office in question, e.g. lords of the treasury, civil
or naval lords of the admiralty. For lord lieutenant and lord
mayor see Lieutenant and Mayor. As the proper form of
address “my lord” is used not only to those members of the
nobility to whom the title “Lord” is applicable, and to bishops,
but also to all judges of the High Court in England, and of the
Scottish and Irish Superior Courts, and to lord mayors and
lord provosts (see also Lady).
LORD ADVOCATE, or king’s advocate, the principal law-officer of the crown in Scotland. His business is to act as a public prosecutor, and to plead in all causes that concern the crown. He is at the head of the system of public prosecutions by which criminal justice is administered in Scotland, and thus his functions are of a far more extensive character than those of the English law-officers of the crown. He is aided by a solicitor-general and by subordinate assistants called advocates-depute. The office of king’s advocate seems to have been established about the beginning of the 16th century. Originally he had no power to prosecute crimes without the concurrence of a private party; but in the year 1597 he was empowered to prosecute crimes at his own instance. He has the privilege of pleading in court with his hat on.
