formerly a province of France, bounded on the east by the Rhine, on the south by Switzerland, on the west by Lorraine, and on the north by the palatinate of the Rhine. It was formerly a part of Germany, but was given to France by the treaty of Munster. It is one of the most fruitful and plentiful provinces in Europe, abounding in corn, wine, wood, flax, tobacco, pulse, fruits, &c. The mountains which divide it from Lorraine are very high; and generally covered with fir, beech, oak, and hornbeam. Those on the side of Switzerland are less high; and Alsace, furnished with all sorts of wood, as well for fuel as building. The country itself is diversified with rising hills and fertile vales, besides large forests; but that between the rivers Ill, Hart, and the Rhine, as far as Strasburg, is inferior to the rest, on account of the frequent overflowing of the Rhine. In High Alsace there are mines of silver, copper, and lead. They however work none but those of Giromany, from which are annually drawn 1600 marks of silver, each mark being eight ounces; and 24,000 pounds of copper: but the expence of working them is equal almost to the profit. There are iron works in several parts of Alsace, and particularly at Betford. There is a mineral spring at Sultsbach, near Munster, in High Alsace; which is in great reputation for the palsy, weakness of the nerves, and the gravel.—The original inhabitants of Alsace are honest and good-natured, but wedded to their own manners and customs. The fruitfulness of their country renders them indolent and inactive; for the Swiss make their hay and reap their corn, as well as manage the vintage of High Alsace, which sends a great deal of money out of the province. The common language is the German; but the better sort of people in the towns speak French; and, even in the country, they speak French well enough to be understood.

The number of inhabitants since the peace in 1814, has been computed at 915,191, who are mostly Lutherans and Roman Catholics. By the late division of France this province forms two departments, viz. those of the Upper and Lower Rhine; the capital of the former being Colmar, and that of the latter Strasburg; but formerly it was divided into Upper and Lower Alsace, the former contained 32 large and small towns, and the latter 39, and in both there are upwards of 1000 market towns and villages. The Rauraci, Sequani, and Mediomatrici, were the ancient inhabitants of this province. Under the Merovingian kings its name first occurs in the history of France, and it most probably is derived from the river Ell or Ill, the inhabitants on the borders of which were called Elsasson, from whom the country itself was afterwards denominated Elsas, in Latin Elsatia, Alisatia, and Alsatia. The Romans wrested it from the Celtæ; from them it passed into the hands of the Germans; and after the famous battle of Tolbiac, gained by Clovis in 496, it passed into the possession of the Franks. It was incorporated at a future period with the kingdom of Austrasia; and, in 1752, it was subjected, like the rest of the monarchy, to the laws of Pepin and his successors. Lotharius, the eldest son of Lewis Debonnaire, at the decease of his father in 840, obtained it, and united it to that part of the empire of the Franks which fell to him, and was generally known by the name of Lotharingia, or Lorraine. Afterwards it fell to his youngest son Lotharius by inheritance, and after him, in 869, it became a province of Germany, and was governed by dukes.

About a century before the title of duke was abolished, the provincial counts who governed under them in Alsace, assumed the title of Landgraves, and the countries over which they presided, obtained the name of Landgravates, the one superior and the other inferior. The best part of the inferior was conveyed to the bishops of Strasburg in 1375, who assumed the title of Landgrave of Alsace. In after times, the government was given by the emperors to several families, until at last Ferdinand I. bestowed it upon the German line of his own family, and consequently it remained in the house of Austria. The property of the town of Brisac, the landgrave of the Upper and Lower Alsace, Sundgau, and the districts of the ten united imperial cities in Alsace, with the whole sovereignty belonging to them, was for ever ceded by the emperor to the crown of France, at the peace of Munster in 1648. The perpetual sovereignty of the city of Strasbourg, together with all its dependencies on the left of the Rhine, were ceded to France by the peace of Ryswick in 1697.