SAARLOUIS  , a

town and former fortress of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine Province, situated in a fertile district on the left bank of the Saar, and on the railway from Saarbrucken to Trier, 4c M . S. of the latter . Pop . (1905) 8313 . The town is well laid out and has spacious streets and a handsome market square . It contains a Roman Catholic and a• Protestant church, a town hall, the walls of the council chamber in which are hung with Gobelins, the gift of Louis XIV., a classical school and a hospital . There are coal-mines in the vicinity, and the town has consider-able manufactures of porcelain, enamel wares and leather, as well as a brisk trade in cattle and grain . Saarlouis was founded in 1681 by Louis XIV. of France, and was fortified by Vauban in 168o-1685 . By the peace of Paris, in 1815, it was ceded to the allies and by them was made over to Prussia . The fortifications were dismantled in 1889 . Marshal Ney was born here . See Niessen, Geschichte des Kreises Saarlouis (Saarlouis, 1893 and 1897) ; and Baltzer, Historische Notizen fiber die Stadt Saarlouis (Trier, 1865) .