Chapter 7

See M. Buchheister, “Die Elbe u. der Hafen von Hamburg,” inMitteil. d. Geog. Gesellsch. in Hamburg(1899), vol. xv. pp. 131-188; V. Kurs, “Die künstlichen Wasserstrassen des deutschenReichs,” inGeog. Zeitschrift(1898), pp. 601-617; and (the official)Der Elbstrom(1900); B. Weissenborn,Die Elbzölle und Elbstapelplätze im Mittelalter(Halle, 1900); Daniel,Deutschland; and A. Supan,Wasserstrassen und Binnenschifffahrt(Berlin, 1902).

1SeeDer Bau des Elbe-Trave Canals und seine Vorgeschichte(Lübeck, 1900).

ELBERFELD,a manufacturing town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, on the Wupper, and immediately west of and contiguous to Barmen (q.v.). Pop. (1816) 21,710; (1840) 31,514; (1885) 109,218; (1905) 167,382. Elberfeld-Barmen, although administratively separate, practically form a single whole. It winds, a continuous strip of houses and factories, for 9 m. along the deep valley, on both banks of the Wupper, which is crossed by numerous bridges, the engirdling hills crowned with woods. Local intercommunication is provided by an electric tramway line and a novel hanging railway—on the Langen mono-rail system—suspended over the bed of the river, with frequent stations. In the centre of the town are a number of irregular and narrow streets, and the river, polluted by the refuse of dye-works and factories, constitutes a constant eyesore. Yet within recent years great alterations have been effected; in the newer quarters are several handsome streets and public buildings; in the centre many insanitary dwellings have been swept away, and their place occupied by imposing blocks of shops and business premises, and a magnificent new town-hall, erected in a dominant position. Among the most recent improvements must be mentioned the Brausenwerther Platz, flanked by the theatre, the public baths, and the railway station and administrative offices. There are eleven Evangelical and five Roman Catholic churches (noticeable among the latter the Suitbertuskirche), a synagogue, and chapels of various other sects. Among other public buildings may be enumerated the civic hall, the law courts and the old town-hall.

The town is particularly rich in educational, industrial, philanthropic and religious institutions. The schools include the Gymnasium (founded in 1592 by the Protestant community as a Latin school), the Realgymnasium (founded in 1830, for “modern” subjects and Latin), the Oberrealschule and Realschule (founded 1893, the latter wholly “modern”), two girls’ high schools, a girls’ middle-class school, a large number of popular schools, a mechanics’ and polytechnic school, a school of mechanics, an industrial drawing school, a commercial school, and a school for the deaf and dumb. There are also a theatre, an institute of music, a library, a museum, a zoological garden, and numerous scientific societies. The town is the seat of the Berg Bible Society. The majority of the inhabitants are Protestant, with a strong tendency towards Pietism; but the Roman Catholics number upwards of 40,000, forming about one-fourth of the total population. The industries of Elberfeld are on a scale of great magnitude. It is the chief centre in Germany of the cotton, wool, silk and velvet manufactures, and of upholstery, drapery and haberdashery of all descriptions, of printed calicoes, of Turkey-red and other dyes, and of fine chemicals. Leather and rubber goods, gold, silver and aluminium wares, machinery, wall-paper, and stained glass are also among other of its staple products. Commerce is lively and the exports to foreign countries are very considerable. The railway system is well devised to meet the requirements of its rapidly increasing trade. Two main lines of railway traverse the valley; that on the south is the main line from Aix-la-Chapelle, Cologne and Düsseldorf to central Germany and Berlin, that on the north feeds the important towns of the Ruhr valley.

The surroundings of Elberfeld are attractive, and public grounds and walks have been recently opened on the hills around with results eminently beneficial to the health of the population.

In the 12th century the site of Elberfeld was occupied by the castle of the lords of Elverfeld, feudatories of the archbishops of Cologne. The fief passed later into the possession of the counts of Berg. The industrial development of the place started with a colony of bleachers, attracted by the clear waters of the Wupper, who in 1532 were granted the exclusive privilege of bleaching yarn. It was not, however, until 1610 that Elberfeld was raised to the status of a town, and in 1640 was surrounded with walls. In 1760 the manufacture of silk was introduced, and dyeing with Turkey-red in 1780; but it was not till the end of the century that its industries developed into importance under the influence of Napoleon’s continental system, which barred out British competition. In 1815 Elberfeld was assigned by the congress of Vienna, with the grand-duchy of Berg, to Prussia, and its prosperity rapidly developed under the Prussian Zollverein.

See Coutelle,Elberfeld, topographisch-statistische Darstellung(Elberfeld, 1853); Schell,Geschichte der Stadt Elberfeld(1900); A. Shadwell,Industrial Efficiency(London, 1906); and Jorde,Führer durch Elberfeld und seine Umgebung(1902).

ELBEUF,a town of northern France in the department of Seine-Inférieure, 14 m. S.S.W. of Rouen by the western railway. Pop. (1906) 17,800. Elbeuf, a town of wide, clean streets, with handsome houses and factories, stands on the left bank of the Seine at the foot of hills over which extends the forest of Elbeuf. A tribunal and chamber of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a lycée, a branch of the Bank of France, a school of industry, a school of cloth manufacture and a museum of natural history are among its institutions. The churches of St Étienne and St Jean, both of the Renaissance period with later additions, preserve stained glass of the 16th century. The hôtel-de-ville and the Cercle du Commerce are the chief modern buildings. The town with its suburbs, Orival, Caudebec-lès-Elbeuf, St Aubin and St Pierre, is one of the principal and most ancient seats of the woollen manufacture in France; more than half the inhabitants are directly maintained by the staple industry and numbers more by the auxiliary crafts. As a river-port it has a brisk trade in the produce of the surrounding district as well as in the raw materials of its manufactures, especially in wool from La Plata, Australia and Germany. Two bridges, one of them a suspension-bridge, communicate with St Aubin on the opposite bank of the Seine, and steamboats ply regularly to Rouen.

Elbeuf was, in the 13th century, the centre of an important fief held by the house of Harcourt, but its previous history goes back at least to the early years of the Norman occupation, when it appears under the name of Hollebof. It passed into the hands of the houses of Rieux and Lorraine, and was raised to the rank of a duchy in the peerage of France by Henry III. in favour of Charles of Lorraine (d. 1605), grandson of Claude, duke of Guise, master of the hounds and master of the horse of France. The last duke of Elbeuf was Charles Eugène of Lorraine, prince de Lambesc, who distinguished himself in 1789 by his energy in repressing risings of the people at Paris. He fought in the army of the Bourbons, and later in the service of Austria, and died in 1825.

ELBING,a seaport town of Germany, in the kingdom of Prussia, 49 m. by rail E.S.E. of Danzig, on the Elbing, a small river which flows into the Frische Haff about 5 m. from the town, and is united with the Nogat or eastern arm of the Vistula by means of the Kraffohl canal. Pop. (1905) 55,627. By the Elbing-Oberländischer canal, 110 m. long, constructed in 1845-1860, Lakes Geserich and Drewenz are connected with Lake Drausen, and consequently with the port of Elbing. The old town was formerly surrounded by fortifications, but of these only a few fragments remain. There are several churches, among them the Marienkirche (dating from the 15th century and restored in 1887), a classical school (Gymnasium) founded in 1536, a modern school (Realschule), a public library of over 28,000 volumes, and several charitable institutions. The town-hall (1894) contains a historical museum.

Elbing is a place of rapidly growing industries. At the great Schichau iron-works, which employ thousands of workmen, are built most of the torpedo-boats and destroyers for the German navy, as well as larger craft, locomotives and machinery. In addition to this there are at Elbing important iron foundries, and manufactories of machinery, cigars, lacquer and metal ware, flax and hemp yarn, cotton, linen, organs, &c. There is a considerable trade also in agricultural produce.

The origin of Elbing was a colony of traders from Lübeck and Bremen, which established itself under the protection of a castle of the Teutonic Knights, built in 1237. In 1246 the town acquired “Lübeck rights,”i.e.the full autonomy conceded by the charterof the emperor Frederick II. in 1226 (seeLübeck), and it was early admitted to the Hanseatic League. In 1454 the town repudiated the overlordship of the Teutonic Order, and placed itself under the protection of the king of Poland, becoming the seat of a Polish voivode. From this event dates a decline in its prosperity, a decline hastened by the wars of the early 18th century. In 1698, and again in 1703, it was seized by the elector of Brandenburg as security for a debt due to him by the Polish king. It was taken and held to ransom by Charles XII. of Sweden, and in 1710 was captured by the Russians. In 1772, when it fell to Prussia through the first partition of Poland, it was utterly decayed.

See Fuchs,Gesch. der Stadt Elbing(Elbing, 1818-1852); Rhode,Der Elbinger Kreis in topographischer, historischer, und statistischer Hinsicht(Danzig, 1871); Wernick,Elbing(Elbing, 1888).

ELBOW, in anatomy, the articulation of thehumerus, the bone of the upper arm, and theulnaandradius, the bones of the forearm (seeJoints). The word is thus applied to things which are like this joint in shape, such as a sharp bend of a stream or river, an angle in a tube, &c. The word is derived from the O. Eng.elnboga, a combination ofeln, the forearm, andboga, a bow or bend. This combination is common to many Teutonic languages, cf. Ger.Ellbogen.Elnstill survives in the name of a linear measure, the “ell,” and is derived from the O. Teut.alina, cognate with Lat.ulnaand Gr.ὠλένη, the forearm. The use of the arm as a measure of length is illustrated by the uses ofulna, in Latin, cubit, and fathom.

ELBURZ,orAlburz(from O. Pers.Hara-bere-zaiti, the “High Mountain”), a great chain of mountains in northern Persia, separating the Caspian depression from the Persian highlands, and extending without any break for 650 m. from the western shore of the Caspian Sea to north-eastern Khorasan. According to the direction, or strike, of its principal ranges the Elburz may be divided into three sections: the first 120 m. in length with a direction nearly N. to S., the second 240 m. in length with a direction N.W. to S.E., and the third 290 m. in length striking S.W. to N.E. The first section, which is connected with the system of the Caucasus, and begins west of Lenkoran in 39° N. and 45° E., is known as the Talish range and has several peaks 9000 to 10,000 ft. in height. It runs almost parallel to the western shore of the Caspian, and west of Astara is only 10 or 12 m. distant from the sea. At the point west of Resht, where the direction of the principal range changes to one of N.W. to S.E., the second section of the Elburz begins, and extends from there to beyond Mount Demavend, east of Teheran. South of Resht this section is broken through at almost a right angle by the Safid Rud (White river), and along it runs the principal commercial road between the Caspian and inner Persia, Resht-Kazvin-Teheran. The Elburz then splits into three principal ranges running parallel to one another and connected at many places by secondary ranges and spurs. Many peaks of the ranges in this section have an altitude of 11,000 to 13,000 ft., and the elevation of the passes leading over the ranges varies between 7000 and 10,000 ft. The highest peaks are situated in the still unexplored district of Talikan, N.W. of Teheran, and thence eastwards to beyond Mount Demavend. The part of the Elburz immediately north of Teheran is known as the Kuh i Shimran (mountain of Shimran, from the name of the Shimran district on its southern slopes) and culminates in the Sar i Tochal (12,600 ft.). Beyond it, and between the border of Talikan in the N.W. and Mount Demavend in the N.E., are the ranges Azadbur, Kasil, Kachang, Kendevan, Shahzad, Varzeh, Derbend i Sar and others, with elevations of 12,000 to 13,500 ft., while Demavend towers above them all with its altitude of 19,400 ft. The eastern foot of Demavend is washed by the river Herhaz (called Lar river in its upper course), which there breaks through the Elburz in a S.-N. direction in its course to the Caspian, past the city of Amol. The third section of the Elburz, with its principal ranges striking S.W. to N.E., has a length of about 290 m., and ends some distance beyond Bujnurd in northern Khorasan, where it joins the Ala Dagh range, which has a direction to the S.E., and, continuing with various appellations to northern Afghanistan, unites with the Paropamisus. For about two-thirds of its length—from its beginning to Khush Yailak—the third section consists of three principal ranges connected by lateral ranges and spurs. It also has many peaks over 10,000 ft. in height, and the Nizva mountain on the southern border of the unexplored district of Hazarjirib, north of Semnan, and the Shahkuh, between Shahrud and Astarabad, have an elevation exceeding 13,000 ft. Beyond Khush Yailak (meaning “pleasant summer quarters”), with an elevation of 10,000 ft., are the Kuh i Buhar (8000) and Kuh i Suluk (8000), which latter joins the Ala Dagh (11,000).

The northern slopes of the Elburz and the lowlands which lie between them and the Caspian, and together form the provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran and Astarabad, are covered with dense forest and traversed by hundreds (Persian writers say 1362) of perennial rivers and streams. The breadth of the lowlands between the foot of the hills and the sea is from 2 to 25 m., the greatest breadth being in the meridian of Resht in Gilan, and in the districts of Amol, Sari and Barfurush in Mazandaran. The inner slopes and ranges of the Elburz south of the principal watershed, generally the central one of the three principal ranges which are outside of the fertilizing influence of the moisture brought from the sea, have little or no natural vegetation, and those farthest south are, excepting a few stunted cypresses, completely arid and bare.

“North of the principal watershed forest trees and general verdure refresh the eye. Gurgling water, strips of sward and tall forest trees, backed by green hills, make a scene completely unlike the usual monotony of Persian landscape. The forest scenery much resembles that of England, with fine oaks and greensward. South of the watershed the whole aspect of the landscape is as hideous and disappointing as scenery in Afghanistan. Ridge after ridge of bare hill and curtain behind curtain of serrated mountain, certainly sometimes of charming greys and blues, but still all bare and naked, rugged and arid” (“Beresford Lovett,Proc. R.G.S., Feb. 1883).

The higher ranges of the Elburz are snow-capped for the greater part of the year, and some, which are not exposed to the refracted heat from the arid districts of inner Persia, are rarely without snow. Water is plentiful in the Elburz, and situated in well-watered valleys and gorges are innumerable flourishing villages, embosomed in gardens and orchards, with extensive cultivated fields and meadows, and at higher altitudes small plateaus, under snow until March or April, afford cool camping grounds to the nomads of the plains, and luxuriant grazing to their sheep and cattle during the summer.

(A. H.-S.)

ELCHE,a town of eastern Spain, in the province of Alicante, on the river Vinalapo. Pop. (1900) 27,308. Elche is the meeting-place of three railways, from Novelda, Alicante and Murcia. It contains no building of high architectural merit, except, perhaps, the collegiate church of Santa Maria, with its lofty blue-tiled dome and fine west doorway. But the costume and physiognomy of the inhabitants, the narrow streets and flat-roofed, whitewashed houses, and more than all, the thousands of palm-trees in its gardens and fields, give the place a strikingly Oriental aspect, and render it unique among the cities of Spain. The cultivation of the palm is indeed the principal occupation; and though the dates are inferior to those of the Barbary States, upwards of 22,500 tons are annually exported. The blanched fronds are also sold in large quantities for the processions of Palm Sunday, and after they have received the blessing of the priest they are regarded throughout Spain as certain defences against lightning. Other thriving local industries include the manufacture of oil, soap, flour, leather, alcohol and esparto grass rugs. The harbour of Elche is Santa Pola (pop. 4100), situated 6 m. E.S.E., where the Vinalapo enters the Mediterranean, after forming the wide lagoon known as the Albufera de Elche.

Elche is usually identified with the IberianHelike, afterwards the Roman colony ofIliciorIllici. From the 8th century to the 13th it was held by the Moors, who finally failed to recapture it from the Spaniards in 1332.

ELCHINGEN,a village of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, not far from the Danube, 5 m. N.E. from Ulm. Here, on the 14th of October 1805, the Austrians under Laudon weredefeated by the French under Ney, who by taking the bridge decided the day and gained for himself the title of duke of Elchingen.

ELDAD BEN MAḤLI,also surnamed had-Dani, Abu-Dani, David-had-Dani, or the Danite, Jewish traveller, was the supposed author of a Jewish travel-narrative of the 9th centuryA.D., which enjoyed great authority in the middle ages, especially on the question of the Lost Ten Tribes. Eldad first set out to visit his Hebrew brethren in Africa and Asia. His vessel was wrecked, and he fell into the hands of cannibals; but he was saved by his leanness, and by the opportune invasion of a neighbouring tribe. After spending four years with his new captors, he was ransomed by a fellow-countryman, a merchant of the tribe of Issachar. He then (according to his highly fabulous narrative) visited the territory of Issachar, in the mountains of Media and Persia; he also describes the abodes of Zabulon, on the “other side” of the Paran Mountains, extending to Armenia and the Euphrates; of Reuben, on another side of the same mountains; of Ephraim and Half Manasseh, in Arabia, not far from Mecca; and of Simeon and the other Half of Manasseh, in Chorazin, six months’ journey from Jerusalem. Dan, he declares, sooner than join in Jeroboam’s scheme of an Israelite war against Judah, had migrated to Cush, and finally, with the help of Naphthali, Asher and Gad, had founded an independent Jewish kingdom in the Gold Land of Havila, beyond Abyssinia. The tribe of Levi had also been miraculously guided, from near Babylon, to Havila, where they were enclosed and protected by the mystic river Sambation or Sabbation, which on the Sabbath, though calm, was veiled in impenetrable mist, while on other days it ran with a fierce untraversable current of stones and sand.

Apart from these tales, we have the genuine Eldad, a celebrated Jewish traveller and philologist; who flourishedc.A.D.830-890; to whom the work above noticed is ascribed; who was a native either of S. Arabia, Palestine or Media; who journeyed in Egypt, Mesopotamia, North Africa, and Spain; who spent several years at Kairawan in Tunis; who died on a visit to Cordova, and whose authority, as to the lost tribes, is supported by a great Hebrew doctor of his own time, Ẓemaḥ Gaon, the rector of the Academy at Sura (A.D.889-898). It is possible that a certain relationship exists (as suggested by Epstein and supported by D.H. Müller) between the famous apocryphalLetter of Prester John(ofc.A.D.1165) and the narrative of Eldad; but the affinity is not close. Eldad is quoted as an authority on linguistic difficulties by the leading medieval Jewish grammarians and lexicographers.

The work ascribed to Eldad is in Hebrew, divided into six chapters, probably abbreviated from the original text. The first edition appeared at Mantua about 1480; the second at Constantinople in 1516; this was reprinted at Venice in 1544 and 1605, and at Jessnitz in 1722. A Latin version by Gilb. Génébrard was published at Paris in 1563, under the title ofEldad Danius ... de Judaeis clausis eorumque in Aethiopia ... imperio, and was afterwards incorporated in the translator’sChronologia Hebraeorumof 1584; a German version appeared at Prague in 1695, and another at Jessnitz in 1723. In 1838 E. Carmoly edited and translated a fuller recension which he had found in a MS. from the library of Eliezer Ben Hasan, forwarded to him by David Zabach of Morocco (seeRelation d’Eldad le Danite, Paris, 1838). Both forms are printed by Dr Jellinek in hisBet-ha-Midrasch, vols. ii. p. 102, &c., and iii. p. 6, &c. (Leipzig, 1853-1855). See also Bartolocci,Bibliotheca magna Rabbinica, i. 101-130; Fürst,Bibliotheca Judaica, i. 30, &c.; Hirsch Graetz,Geschichte der Juden(3rd ed., Leipzig, 1895), v. 239-244; Rossi,Dizionario degli Ebrei; Steinschneider,Cat. librorum Hebraeorum in bibliotheca Bodleiana, cols. 923-925; Kitto’sBiblical Cyclopaedia(3rd edition,sub nomine); Abr. Epstein,Eldad ha-Dani(Pressburg, 1891); D.H. Müller, “Die Recensionen und Versionen des Eldad had-Dani,” inDenkschriften d. Wiener Akad.(Phil.-Hist. Cl.), vol. xli. (1892), pp. 1-80.

ELDER(Gr.πρεσβύτερος), the name given at different times to a ruler or officer in certain political and ecclesiastical systems of government.

1. The office of elder is in its origin political and is a relic of the old patriarchal system. The unit of primitive society is always the family; the only tie that binds men together is that of kinship. “The eldest male parent,” to quote Sir Henry Maine,1“is absolutely supreme in his household. His dominion extends to life and death and is as unqualified over his children and their houses as over his slaves.” The tribe, which is a later development, is always an aggregate of families or clans, not a collection of individuals. “The union of several clans for common political action,” as Robertson Smith says, “was produced by the pressure of practical necessity, and always tended towards dissolution when this practical pressure was withdrawn. The only organization for common action was that the leading men of the clans consulted together in time of need, and their influence led the masses with them. Out of these conferences arose the senates of elders found in the ancient states of Semitic and Aryan antiquity alike.”2With the development of civilization there came a time when age ceased to be an indispensable condition of leadership. The old title was, however, generally retained,e.g.theγέροντεςso often mentioned in Homer, theγερουσίαof the Dorian states, thesenatusand thepatres conscriptiof Rome, the sheikh or elder of Arabia, the alderman of an English borough, the seigneur (Lat.senior) of feudal France.

2. It was through the influence of Judaism that the originally political office of elder passed over into the Christian Church and became ecclesiastical. The Israelites inherited the office from their Semitic ancestors (just as did the Moabites and the Midianites, of whose elders we read in Numbers xxii. 7), and traces of it are found throughout their history. Mention is made in Judges viii. 14 of the elders of Succoth whom “Gideon taught with thorns of the wilderness and with briers.” It was to the elders of Israel in Egypt that Moses communicated the plan of Yahweh for the redemption of the people (Exodus iii. 16). During the sojourn in the wilderness the elders were the intermediaries between Moses and the people, and it was out of the ranks of these elders that Moses chose a council of seventy “to bear with him the burden of the people” (Numbers xi. 16). The elders were the governors of the people and the administrators of justice. There are frequent references to their work in the latter capacity in the book of Deuteronomy, especially in relation to the following crimes—the disobedience of sons; slander against a wife; the refusal of levirate marriage; manslaughter; and blood-revenge. Their powers were gradually curtailed by (a) the development of the monarchy, to which of course they were in subjection, and which became the court of appeal in questions of law;3(b) the appointment of special judges, probably chosen from amongst the elders themselves, though their appointment meant the loss of privilege to the general body; (c) the rise of the priestly orders, which usurped many of the prerogatives that originally belonged to the elders. But in spite of the rise of new authorities, the elders still retained a large amount of influence. We hear of them frequently in the Persian, Greek and Roman periods. In the New Testament the members of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem are very frequently termed “elders” orπρεσβύτεροι, and from them the name was taken over by the Church.

3. The name “elder” was probably the first title bestowed upon the officers of the Christian Church—since the word deacon does not occur in connexion with the appointment of the Seven in Acts vi. Its universal adoption is due not only to its currency amongst the Jews, but also to the fact that it was frequently used as the title of magistrates in the cities and villages of Asia Minor. For the history of the office of elder in the early Church and the relation between elders and bishops seePresbyter.

4. In modern times the use of the term is almost entirely confined to the Presbyterian church, the officers of which are always called elders. According to the Presbyterian theory of church government there are two classes of elders—“teaching elders,” or those specially set apart to the pastoral office, and “ruling elders,” who are laymen, chosen generally by the congregation and set apart by ordination to be associated with the pastor in the oversight and government of the church. Whenthe word is used without any qualification it is understood to apply to the latter class alone. For an account of the duties, qualifications and powers of elders in the Presbyterian Church seePresbyterianism.

See W.R. Smith,History of the Semites; H. Maine,Ancient Law; E. Schürer,The Jewish People in the Time of Christ; J. Wellhausen,History of Israel and Judah; G.A. Deissmann,Bible Studies, p. 154.

1Ancient Law, p. 126.2Religion of the Semites, p. 34.3There is a hint at this even in the Pentateuch, “every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge themselves.”

1Ancient Law, p. 126.

2Religion of the Semites, p. 34.

3There is a hint at this even in the Pentateuch, “every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge themselves.”

ELDER(O. Eng.ellarn; Ger.Holunder; Fr.sureau), the popular designation of the deciduous shrubs and trees constituting the genusSambucusof the natural order Caprifoliaceae. The Common Elder,S. nigra, the bourtree of Scotland, is found in Europe, the north of Africa, Western Asia, the Caucasus, and Southern Siberia; in sheltered spots it attains a height of over 20 ft. The bark is smooth; the shoots are stout and angular, and the leaves glabrous, pinnate, with oval or elliptical leaflets. The flowers, which form dense flat-topped clusters (corymbose cymes), with five main branches, have a cream-coloured, gamopetalous, five-lobed corolla, five stamens, and three sessile stigmas; the berries are purplish-black, globular and three- or four-seeded, and ripen about September. The elder thrives best in moist, well-drained situations, but can be grown in a great diversity of soils. It grows readily from young shoots, which after a year are fit for transplantation. It is found useful for making screen-fences in bleak, exposed situations, and also as a shelter for other shrubs in the outskirts of plantations. By clipping two or three times a year, it may be made close and compact in growth. The young trees furnish a brittle wood, containing much pith; the wood of old trees is white, hard and close-grained, polishes well, and is employed for shoemakers’ pegs, combs, skewers, mathematical instruments and turned articles. Young elder twigs deprived of pith have from very early times been in request for making whistles, popguns and other toys.

The elder was known to the ancients for its medicinal properties, and in England the inner bark was formerly administered as a cathartic. The flowers (sambuci flores) contain a volatile oil, and serve for the distillation of elder-flower water (aqua sambuci), used in confectionery, perfumes and lotions. The leaves of the elder are employed to impart a green colour to fat and oil (unguentum sambuci foliorumandoleum viride), and the berries for making wine, a common adulterant of port. The leaves and bark emit a sickly odour, believed to be repugnant to insects. Christopher Gullet (Phil. Trans., 1772, lxii. p. 348) recommends that cabbages, turnips, wheat and fruit trees, to preserve them from caterpillars, flies and blight, should be whipped with twigs of young elder. According to German folklore, the hat must be doffed in the presence of the elder-tree; and in certain of the English midland counties a belief was once prevalent that the cross of Christ was made from its wood, which should therefore never be used as fuel, or treated with disrespect (seeQuart. Rev.cxiv. 233). It was, however, a common medieval tradition, alluded to by Ben Jonson, Shakespeare and other writers, that the elder was the tree on which Judas hanged himself; and on this account, probably, to be crowned with elder was in olden times accounted a disgrace. In Cymbeline (act iv. s. 2) “the stinking elder” is mentioned as a symbol of grief. In Denmark the tree is supposed by the superstitious to be under the protection of the “Elder-mother”: its flowers may not be gathered without her leave; its wood must not be employed for any household furniture; and a child sleeping in an elder-wood cradle would certainly be strangled by the Elder-mother.

Several varieties are known in cultivation:aurea, golden elder, has golden-yellow leaves;laciniata, parsley-leaved elder, has the leaflets cut into fine segments;rotundifoliahas rounded leaflets; forms also occur with variegated white and yellow leaves, andvirescensis a variety having white bark and green-coloured berries. The scarlet-berried elder,S. racemosa, is the handsomest species of the genus. It is a native of various parts of Europe, growing in Britain to a height of over 15 ft., but often producing no fruit. The dwarf elder or Danewort (supposed to have been introduced into Britain by the Danes),S. Ebulus, a common European species, reaches a height of about 6 ft. Its cyme is hairy, has three principal branches, and is smaller than that ofS. nigra; the flowers are white tipped with pink. All parts of the plant are cathartic and emetic.

ELDON, JOHN SCOTT,1stEarl of(1751-1838), lord high chancellor of England, was born at Newcastle on the 4th of June 1751. His grandfather, William Scott of Sandgate, a suburb of Newcastle, was clerk to a “fitter”—a sort of water-carrier and broker of coals. His father, whose name also was William, began life as an apprentice to a fitter, in which service he obtained the freedom of Newcastle, becoming a member of the gild of Hoastmen (coal-fitters); later in life he became a principal in the business, and attained a respectable position as a merchant in Newcastle, accumulating property worth nearly £20,000.

John Scott was educated at the grammar school of his native town. He was not remarkable at school for application to his studies, though his wonderful memory enabled him to make good progress in them; he frequently played truant and was whipped for it, robbed orchards, and indulged in other questionable schoolboy freaks; nor did he always come out of his scrapes with honour and a character for truthfulness. When he had finished his education at the grammar school, his father thought of apprenticing him to his own business, to which an elder brother Henry had already devoted himself; and it was only through the interference of his elder brother William (afterwards Lord Stowell,q.v.), who had already obtained a fellowship at University College, Oxford, that it was ultimately resolved that he should continue the prosecution of his studies. Accordingly, in 1766, John Scott entered University College with the view of taking holy orders and obtaining a college living. In the year following he obtained a fellowship, graduated B.A. in 1770, and in 1771 won the prize for the English essay, the only university prize open in his time for general competition.

His wife was the eldest daughter of Aubone Surtees, a Newcastle banker. The Surtees family objected to the match, and attempted to prevent it; but a strong attachment had sprung up between them. On the 18th November 1772 Scott, with the aid of a ladder and an old friend, carried off the lady from her father’s house in the Sandhill, across the border to Blackshiels, in Scotland, where they were married. The father of the bridegroom objected not to his son’s choice, but to the time he chose to marry; for it was a blight on his son’s prospects, depriving him of his fellowship and his chance of church preferment. But while the bride’s family refused to hold intercourse with the pair, Mr Scott, like a prudent man and an affectionate father, set himself to make the best of a bad matter, and received them kindly, settling on his son £2000. John returned with his wife to Oxford, and continued to hold his fellowship for what is called the year of grace given after marriage, and added to his income by acting as a private tutor. After a time Mr Surtees was reconciled with his daughter, and made a liberal settlement on her.

John Scott’s year of grace closed without any college living falling vacant; and with his fellowship he gave up the church and turned to the study of law. He became a student at the Middle Temple in January 1773. In 1776 he was called to the bar, intending at first to establish himself as an advocate in his native town, a scheme which his early success led him to abandon, and he soon settled to the practice of his profession in London, and on the northern circuit. In the autumn of the year in which he was called to the bar his father died, leaving him a legacy of £1000 over and above the £2000 previously settled on him.

In his second year at the bar his prospects began to brighten. His brother William, who by this time held the Camden professorship of ancient history, and enjoyed an extensive acquaintance with men of eminence in London, was in a position materially to advance his interests. Among his friends was the notorious Andrew Bowes of Gibside, to the patronage of whose house the rise of the Scott family was largely owing. Bowes having contested Newcastle and lost it, presented an election petition against the return of his opponent. Young Scott was retained as junior counsel in the case, and though he lost the petition he did not fail to improve the opportunity which it afforded for displaying his talents. This engagement, in the commencement of hissecond year at the bar, and the dropping in of occasional fees, must have raised his hopes; and he now abandoned the scheme of becoming a provincial barrister. A year or two of dull drudgery and few fees followed, and he began to be much depressed. But in 1780 we find his prospects suddenly improved, by his appearance in the case ofAckroydv.Smithson, which became a leading case settling a rule of law; and young Scott, having lost his point in the inferior court, insisted on arguing it, on appeal, against the opinion of his clients, and carried it before Lord Thurlow, whose favourable consideration he won by his able argument. The same year Bowes again retained him in an election petition; and in the year following Scott greatly increased his reputation by his appearance as leading counsel in the Clitheroe election petition. From this time his success was certain. In 1782 he obtained a silk gown, and was so far cured of his early modesty that he declined accepting the king’s counselship if precedence over him were given to his junior, Thomas (afterwards Lord) Erskine, though the latter was the son of a peer and a most accomplished orator. He was now on the high way to fortune. His health, which had hitherto been but indifferent, strengthened with the demands made upon it; his talents, his power of endurance, and his ambition all expanded together. He enjoyed a considerable practice in the northern part of his circuit, before parliamentary committees and at the chancery bar. By 1787 his practice at the equity bar had so far increased that he was obliged to give up the eastern half of his circuit (which embraced six counties) and attend it only at Lancaster.

In 1782 he entered parliament for Lord Weymouth’s close borough of Weobley, which Lord Thurlow obtained for him without solicitation. In parliament he gave a general and independent support to Pitt. His first parliamentary speeches were directed against Fox’s India Bill. They were unsuccessful. In one he aimed at being brilliant; and becoming merely laboured and pedantic, he was covered with ridicule by Sheridan, from whom he received a lesson which he did not fail to turn to account. In 1788 he was appointed solicitor-general, and was knighted, and at the close of this year he attracted attention by his speeches in support of Pitt’s resolutions on the state of the king (George III., who then laboured under a mental malady) and the delegation of his authority. It is said that he drew the Regency Bill, which was introduced in 1789. In 1793 Sir John Scott was promoted to the office of attorney-general, in which it fell to him to conduct the memorable prosecutions for high treason against British sympathizers with French republicanism,—amongst others, against the celebrated Horne Tooke. These prosecutions, in most cases, were no doubt instigated by Sir John Scott, and were the most important proceedings in which he was ever professionally engaged. He has left on record, in hisAnecdote Book, a defence of his conduct in regard to them. A full account of the principal trials, and of the various legislative measures for repressing the expressions of popular opinion for which he was more or less responsible, will be found in Twiss’sPublic and Private Life of the Lord Chancellor Eldon, and in theLives of the Lord Chancellors, by Lord Campbell.

In 1799 the office of chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas falling vacant, Sir John Scott’s claim to it was not overlooked; and after seventeen years’ service in the Lower House, he entered the House of Peers as Baron Eldon. In February 1801 the ministry of Pitt was succeeded by that of Addington, and the chief justice now ascended the woolsack. The chancellorship was given to him professedly on account of his notorious anti-Catholic zeal. From the peace of Amiens (1802) till 1804 Lord Eldon appears to have interfered little in politics. In the latter year we find him conducting the negotiations which resulted in the dismissal of Addington and the recall of Pitt to office as prime minister. Lord Eldon was continued in office as chancellor under Pitt; but the new administration was of short duration, for on the 23rd of January 1806 Pitt died, worn out with the anxieties of office, and his ministry was succeeded by a coalition, under Lord Grenville. The death of Fox, who became foreign secretary and leader of the House of Commons, soon, however, broke up the Grenville administration; and in the spring of 1807 Lord Eldon once more, under Lord Liverpool’s administration, returned to the woolsack, which, from that time, he continued to occupy for about twenty years, swaying the cabinet, and being in all but name prime minister of England. It was not till April 1827, when the premiership, vacant through the paralysis of Lord Liverpool, fell to Canning, the chief advocate of Roman Catholic emancipation, that Lord Eldon, in the seventy-sixth year of his age, finally resigned the chancellorship. When, after the two short administrations of Canning and Goderich, it fell to the duke of Wellington to construct a cabinet, Lord Eldon expected to be included, if not as chancellor, at least in some important office, but he was overlooked, at which he was much chagrined. Notwithstanding his frequent protests that he did not covet power, but longed for retirement, we find him again, so late as 1835, within three years of his death, in hopes of office under Peel. He spoke in parliament for the last time in July 1834.

In 1821 Lord Eldon had been created Viscount Encombe and earl of Eldon by George IV., whom he managed to conciliate, partly, no doubt, by espousing his cause against his wife, whose advocate he had formerly been, and partly through his reputation for zeal against the Roman Catholics. In the same year his brother William, who from 1798 had filled the office of judge of the High Court of Admiralty, was raised to the peerage under the title of Lord Stowell.

Lord Eldon’s wife, his dear “Bessy,” his love for whom is a beautiful feature in his life, died before him, on the 28th of June 1831. By nature she was of simple character, and by habits acquired during the early portion of her husband’s career almost a recluse. Two of their sons reached maturity—John, who died in 1805, and William Henry John, who died unmarried in 1832. Lord Eldon himself survived almost all his immediate relations. His brother William died in 1836. He himself died in London on the 13th of January 1838, leaving behind him two daughters, Lady Frances Bankes and Lady Elizabeth Repton, and a grandson John (1805-1854), who succeeded him as second earl, the title subsequently passing to the latter’s son John (b. 1846).

Lord Eldon was no legislator—his one aim in politics was to keep in office, and maintain things as he found them; and almost the only laws he helped to pass were laws for popular coercion. For nearly forty years he fought against every improvement in law, or in the constitution—calling God to witness, on the smallest proposal of reform, that he foresaw from it the downfall of his country. Without any political principles, properly so called, and without interest in or knowledge of foreign affairs, he maintained himself and his party in power for an unprecedented period by his great tact, and in virtue of his two great political properties—of zeal against every species of reform, and zeal against the Roman Catholics. To pass from his political to his judicial character is to shift to ground on which his greatness is universally acknowledged. His judgments, which have received as much praise for their accuracy as abuse for their clumsiness and uncouthness, fill a small library. But though intimately acquainted with every nook and cranny of the English law, he never carried his studies into foreign fields, from which to enrich our legal literature; and it must be added that against the excellence of his judgments, in too many cases, must be set off the hardships, worse than injustice, that arose from his protracted delays in pronouncing them. A consummate judge and the narrowest of politicians, he was doubt on the bench, and promptness itself in the political arena. For literature, as for art, he had no feeling. What intervals of leisure he enjoyed from the cares of office he filled up with newspapers and the gossip of old cronies. Nor were his intimate associates men of refinement and taste; they were rather good fellows who quietly enjoyed a good bottle and a joke; he uniformly avoided encounters of wit with his equals. He is said to have been parsimonious, and certainly he was quicker to receive than to reciprocate hospitalities; but his mean establishment and mode of life are explained by the retired habits of his wife, and herdislike of company. His manners were very winning and courtly, and in the circle of his immediate relatives he is said to have always been lovable and beloved.

“In his person,” says Lord Campbell, “Lord Eldon was about the middle size, his figure light and athletic, his features regular and handsome, his eye bright and full, his smile remarkably benevolent, and his whole appearance prepossessing. The advance of years rather increased than detracted from these personal advantages. As he sat on the judgment-seat, ‘the deep thought betrayed in his furrowed brow—the large eyebrows, overhanging eyes that seemed to regard more what was taking place within than around him—his calmness, that would have assumed a character of sternness but for its perfect placidity—his dignity, repose and venerable age, tended at once to win confidence and to inspire respect’ (Townsend). He had a voice both sweet and deep-toned, and its effect was not injured by his Northumbrian burr, which, though strong, was entirely free from harshness and vulgarity.”

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