[1] The publications for 1880-1892 were termed the _Transactions of
the Seismological Society of Japan_, and for 1893-1895 the
_Seismological Journal of Japan_. The observations are now published
by the Earthquake Investigation Committee of Japan, and edited by F.
Omori, professor of seismology at the university of Tokyo.
[2] The chief Italian station is at Rocca di Papa near Rome. It is
equipped with delicate instruments designed by its director, Giovanni
Agamennone. The records since 1895 are published in the _Bollettino
della Societa Sismologica Italiana_, edited by Luigi Palazzo,
director of the Central Office for Meteorology and Geodynamics at
Rome.
[3] The chief Austrian publications are:--_Mittheilungen der
Erdbebencommission der k. Akad. der Wissen. in Wien_ (since 1897);
_Die Erdbebenwarte_ (1901-1907); and the "Neueste
Erdbebennachrichten, _Beilage der Monatsschrift Die Erdbebenwarte_."
[4] The "International Seismological Association" was founded at
Strassburg in 1903, and publishes the _Beitraege zur Geophysik_,
edited by George Gerland, director of the Strassburg station; the
papers are printed in several languages.
[5] The records of the British Association stations are published
(since 1896) in the _Reports_. Chile has a national earthquake
service (founded after the Valparaiso earthquake of August 1906)
directed by comte de Montessus de Ballore.
EARTH-STAR (_Geaster_), in botany, a kind of puff-ball, with a distinct
outer coat which, on separating from the inner, splits into several
divisions, which become reflexed and spread like a star. The inner coat
enveloping the spores is supported, like a ball, either with or without
a stalk on the upper face of the star. The spores escape generally by
means of a distinct aperture which appears in the top of the ball. There
are several species in Britain found on the ground or on decaying
leaves. They are rare or local, but more common in the south or
south-east of England than in other parts of Britain.
[Illustration: From Strasburger's _Lehrbuch der Botanik_, by permission
of Gustav Fischer.
_Geaster Granulosus_, nat. size.]
EARTHWORM, the common name of a chaetopod worm found nearly all over the
world. Linnaeus recognized only one species of earthworm and named it
_Lumbricus terrestris_. There are now one thousand well-characterized
species known from different parts of the world, and the number
increases almost daily. The earthworms of England belong entirely to the
three genera _Lumbricus_, _Allolobophora_ and _Allurus_, which are
further subdivided by some systematists; and these genera form the
prevalent earthworm fauna of the Palaearctic region and are also very
numerous in the Nearctic region. Elsewhere they do not appear to be
indigenous, but are replaced by the numerous other genera of the
families enumerated in the article CHAETOPODA (q.v.). It is a remarkable
fact that these genera, comprizing a separate family _Lumbricidae_, when
introduced into tropical and other countries, thrive abundantly and oust
the indigenous forms. In gatherings of earthworms from various
extra-European countries it is always found that if the collections have
been made in cultivated ground and near the coast the worms are of
European species; farther inland the native forms are met with. Inasmuch
as in every case the _Lumbricidae_ from non-European countries are
identical with European species, since it has been shown that these
animals are very readily introduced accidentally with plants, &c., and
in view of the fact that they are impatient of sea water, it seems clear
that the presence of these _Lumbricidae_ in other continents is due to
accidental transportation. Most earthworms live in the soil, which they
devour as they burrow through it. A few, like their allies the river
worms (Limicolae), habitually frequent streams, lakes, &c. One genus, at
any rate, viz. _Pontodrilus_, seeks an unusual environment, and is found
in heaps of sea-weed cast up by the sea. The range of this genus is
therefore naturally wider than that of other genera which are confined
to land masses and cannot cross the sea by their own efforts. It might
be inferred, therefore, and the inference is proved by facts, that truly
oceanic islands have no indigenous fauna of earthworms, but are
inhabited by forms which are identical with those of neighbouring
continents, and doubtless, therefore, accidentally introduced.
Like the leeches the earthworms produce cocoons which are a product of
the glandular epithelium of the clitellum. In these cocoons are
deposited the eggs together with a certain amount of albumen upon which
the developing embryos feed. So far as is known, the production of
cocoons is universal among earthworms and the remaining Oligochaeta of
aquatic habit. The young leave the cocoon as fully formed earthworms in
which, however, the genitalia are not fully developed. There is no free
living larval stage. Out of a single cocoon emerge a varying number of
young worms, the numbers being apparently characteristic of the species.
The work of earthworms in aiding in the production of the subsoil and in
levelling the surface was first studied by C. Darwin, and has since been
investigated by others. This work is partly carried out beneath the
surface and partly on the surface, upon which the worms wander at night
and eject the swallowed and triturated earth; frequently castings of
some height are formed of coiled ropes of agglutinated particles of
mould. The indigenous species of Great Britain, about twenty in number,
do not grow to a greater length than some 10 in.; but in several
tropical countries there are species which grow to a length of from 3 to
6 ft. Thus we have in Natal the gigantic _Microchaeta rappi_, in Ceylon
_Megascolex coeruleus_, in Australia _Megascolides australis_, and an
equally large form in South America. (F. E. B.)
EARWIG, an insect belonging to the _Forficulidae_, a family usually
referred to the Orthoptera, but sometimes regarded as typifying a
special order, to which the names Dermaptera, Dermatoptera and
Euplexoptera have been given, in allusion to certain peculiarities in
the structure of the wings in the species that possess them. The front
wings are short and horny and when at rest meet without overlapping in
the middle line, like the wing-cases of brachelytrous (cocktail)
beetles. The hind wings, on the contrary, are for the most part
membranous and, when extended, of large size; each consists of two
portions, the distal of which, in virtue of the arrangement and jointing
of its nervures, is capable of being both doubled up and folded fanwise
beneath the proximal, which is partly horny when the wing is tucked away
under the front wing-case of the same side. Apart from these
characteristics, the most distinctive feature of earwigs is the presence
at the end of the abdomen of a pair of pincers which are in reality
modified appendages, known as cercopods, and represent the similar limbs
of _Japyx_ and the caudal feelers of _Campodea_ and some other insects.
The _Forficulidae_ are almost cosmopolitan; but the various species and
genera differ from each other both in structure and size to a
comparatively slight extent. The length and armature of the pincers and
the presence or absence of wings are perhaps the most important features
used by systematists in distinguishing the various kinds. Of particular
zoological interest in this connexion is a Ceylonese genus _Dyscritina_,
in which the cercopods are long, many-jointed and filiform during the
early stages of growth, and only assume at the last moult the forcipate
structure characteristic of the family. The best known earwig is the
common European species, _Forficula auricularia_. This insect is
gregarious and nocturnal. It hides by day under stones or the loosened
bark of trees or in any crevice or hole sheltered from the light. At
night it crawls about in search of food, which consists to a small
extent of dead animal or vegetable matter, but principally, as gardeners
are aware, of the petals and other parts of flowers of growing shoots
and soft ripe fruit. During the winter earwigs lie dormant; but in the
early months of the year females with their eggs may be found in the
soil, frequently in deserted earthworm burrows. Maternal instincts are
well developed, both the eggs, which number about fifty, and the young
being carefully brooded and watched over by the parent. Except for the
absence of wings, the young are miniature models of the adult. As growth
proceeds the integument is periodically cast; and at the final moult the
perfect winged insect appears. Males and females are like each other in
size, but may be distinguished by the difference in the number of
visible abdominal segments, the male having nine and the female seven.
In the male, moreover, the pincers are caliper-like and toothed at the
base, whereas in the female they are untoothed and only lightly curved
at the tip. These differences suggest that the pincers aid in the
pairing of the sexes. However that may be, they are known to be used in
the folding of the wings; and their importance as weapons of defence is
attested by the precision and effect with which they are wielded against
assailants like ants. (R. I. P.)
EASEMENT (Fr. _aise_; O. Fr. _aisement_; Anglo-Lat. _aisiamentum_, a
privilege or convenience), in English law, a species of "servitude" or
limited right of use over land belonging to another. It is distinguished
from _profits a prendre_--another species of servitude which involves a
right to participate in the profits of the soil of another--since an
easement confers merely a convenience (_aisiamentum_) to be exercised
over the land of another (without any participation in the profits of
it), i.e. a right to use the soil or produce of the soil in a way
tending to the more convenient enjoyment of another piece of land. Thus
a right of way is an easement, a right of common is a profit. An
easement is distinguishable also from a licence, which, unless it is
coupled with a grant, is personal to both grantor and grantee and is
neither binding on the licensor, nor, in general, assignable by the
licensee; while both the benefit and the burden of an easement are
annexed to land (Gale on _Easements_, 8th ed. p. 2). With easements are
sometimes classed certain closely allied "natural rights," such as a
landowner's right to lateral support for his soil in its natural state,
and a riparian owner's right to the natural flow of a stream.
The essential features of an easement, in the strict sense of the term,
are therefore these: (i.) It is an incorporeal right; a right to the use
and enjoyment of land--not to the land itself; (ii.) it is imposed upon
corporeal property; (iii.) it is a right without profit; (iv.) it
requires for its constitution two distinct tenements--the "dominant
tenement" which enjoys the right, and the "servient tenement" which
submits to it. This last characteristic excludes from the category of
easements the so-called "easements _in gross_," such as a right of way
conferred by grant independently of the possession of any tenement by
the grantee. The true easement is an "appendant" or "appurtenant" right,
not a "right in gross."
Further classifications of easements must be noted. They are divided
into (a) _affirmative_ or _positive_, those which authorize the
commission of an act by the dominant owner, e.g. rights of way, a right
to draw water from a spring, rights of aqueduct, and _negative_, when
the easement restricts the rights of the servient owner over his own
property, e.g. prevents him from building on land so as to obstruct
ancient lights (cf. also the right to the support of neighbouring soil);
(b) _continuous_, of which the enjoyment may be continual without the
interference of man, e.g. access to light, and _discontinuous_, where
there must be a fresh act on each occasion of the exercise of the right,
e.g. a right of way, or right to draw water; (c) _apparent_, where there
are visible external signs of the exercise of the right, e.g. a right to
dam up a watercourse, and _non-apparent_, where such signs are absent,
e.g. a right to lateral support from land, a prohibition to build above
a certain height.
_Acquisition of Easements._--Easements may be acquired (a) by express
grant, either by statute, or by deed _inter vivos_, or by will; (b) by
an implied grant; (c) by express or implied reservation, e.g. by the
owner of land in selling the fee (as to implied reservation, see Gale on
_Easements_, 8th ed. pp. 137 et seq.); (d) by prescription, either at
common law or under the Prescription Act 1832. An express grant, or
express reservation, of an easement cannot be effected except by deed.
An easement arises by implied grant where a man makes one part of his
tenement dependent on another, or makes the parts mutually
interdependent, and grants any such part with the dependence attaching
to it to another person (Innes, _Law of Easements_, 7th ed. p. 10). For
example, a man builds two houses, each of which by the plan of
construction receives support from the other; this mutual right of
support is a _quasi_-easement, of which on severance of the tenements
the grantee of one will have the benefit; where the enjoyment of the
severed tenement could not be had at all without such a right, it is
said to be an "easement of necessity."
Easements are acquired by prescription at common law by proof of
"immemorial user" by the dominant owner and those through whom he
claims. At one time it was thought that such proof must date back to the
first year (1189) of Richard I. (see preamble to Prescription Act 1832).
The ground, however, on which prescription was admitted as a means of
acquiring easements was the fiction of a "lost grant." Long enjoyment of
the right pointed to its having had a legal origin in a grant from the
servient owner, and so any period of reasonably long use came to be
accepted. A "lost grant" may be presumed to have been made (the question
is one of fact) if 20 years' uninterrupted enjoyment is shown. To avoid
the difficulties of proof of prescriptive right at common law, the
Prescription Act 1832 established shorter periods of user. In the case
of easements, other than light, the periods of prescription are 20 years
for a claim that may be defeated, and 40 years for an indefeasible claim
(s. 2). The right of access of light is dealt with under s. 3 (see
ANCIENT LIGHTS). The enjoyment to become prescriptive must be open, i.e.
of such a character that the owner of the tenement said to be servient
has a reasonable opportunity of becoming aware of the adverse claim
(_Union Lighterage Co._ v. _London Graving Dock Co._, 1902, 2 Ch. 557);
and it must be enjoyed as of right (_Gardner_ v. _Hodgson's Kingston
Brewery Co._, 1903, A.C. 229) as against the owner of the tenement
affected (_Kilgour_ v. _Gaddes_, 1904, 1 K.B. 457). The periods of
prescription are to be reckoned backwards from the time when some suit
or matter involving the claim of the dominant owner has arisen (s. 4).
Nothing is to be deemed an interruption unless the act of interruption
has been submitted to, or acquiesced in, for a year (s. 4).
Easements may be extinguished (i.) by express release--here an
instrument under seal is necessary; (ii.) by "merger," i.e. where both
tenements become the property of the same owner; (iii.) by abandonment
through non-user. In the case of discontinuous easements, the shortest
period of non-user may suffice if there is direct evidence of an
intention to abandon.
A word may be added here as to the right to air. It is an actionable
nuisance to cause pollution of the air entering a dwelling-house. The
owner of a dwelling-house may by prescription acquire a right to the
passage of air through it by a defined channel; and the enjoyment
without interruption of ventilation by means of air flowing in a
definite channel, with the knowledge of the owner and occupier of the
adjoining premises, creates a presumption of the grant of such an
easement (see Gale on _Easements_, 8th ed. p. 338).
In _Scots Law_ the term "easement" is unknown. Both the name "servitude"
and the main species of servitudes existing in Roman law (q.v.) have
been adopted. The classification of servitudes into positive and
negative, &c., and the modes of their creation and extinction, are
similar to those of English law. The statutory period of prescription is
40 years (Scots Acts 1617, c. 12), or 20 years in the case of enjoyment
under any _ex facie_ valid irredeemable title duly recorded in the
appropriate register of sasines (Conveyancing [Scotland] Act 1874).
There are certain servitudes special to Scots law, e.g. "thirlage," by
which lands are "thirled" or bound to a particular mill, and the
possessors obliged to grind their grain there, for payment of certain
_multures_ (quantities of grain or meal, payable to the mill-owner) and
_sequels_ (small quantities given to the mill servants) as the customary
price of grinding. Statutory provision has been made for the commutation
of these duties (Thirlage Act 1799), and they have now almost
disappeared.
The French Code Civil (Arts. 637 et seq.) and the other European codes
(e.g. Belgium, arts. 637 et seq.; Holland, arts. 721 et seq.; Italy,
arts. 531 et seq.; Spain, arts. 530 et seq.; Germany, arts. 1018 et
seq.) closely follow Roman law. French law is in force in Mauritius, and
has been followed in Quebec (Civil Code, arts. 499 et seq.) and St Lucia
(Civil Code, arts. 449 et seq.). In India the law is regulated, on
English lines, by the Easements Act 1882 (Act v. of 1882). The term
"easements," however, in India includes _profits a prendre_. In the
South African colonies the law of easements is based on the Roman Dutch
law (see Maasdorp, _Institutes of Cape Law_, 1904; Bk. ii. p. 166 et
seq.). In most of the other colonies the law of easements is similar to
English law. In some, however, it has been provided by statute that
rights to the access and use of light or water cannot be acquired by
prescription: e.g. Victoria (Water Act 1890, No. 1156, s. 3), Ontario
(Real Property Limitation Act, Revised Stats. Ontario, 1897; c. 133, s.
36, light).
In the _United States_ the law of easements is founded upon, and
substantially identical with, English law. The English doctrine,
however, as to acquisition of right of light and air by prescription is
not accepted in most of the States.
AUTHORITIES.--_English Law_: Gale, _Law of Easements_ (8th ed.,
London, 1908); Goddard, _Law of Easements_ (6th ed., London, 1904);
Innes, _Digest of the Law of Easements_ (7th ed., London, 1903).
_Indian Law_: Peacock, _Easements in British India_ (Calcutta, 1904);
Hudson and Inman, _Law of Light and Air_ (2nd ed., London, 1905).
_Scots Law_: Erskine, _Principles of the Law of Scotland_ (20th ed.,
Edinburgh, 1903). _American Law_: Jones, _Law of Easements_ (New York,
1898); Bouvier, _Law Dict._ (Boston and London, 1897); _Ruling Cases_,
London and Boston, 1894-1901, tit. _Easement_ (American Notes).
(A. W. R.)
EAST, ALFRED (1849- ), English painter and etcher, was born at
Kettering on the 15th of December 1849. One of the most prominent among
modern English landscape painters, he received his art education first
at the Glasgow School of Art and then in Paris at the Ecole des
Beaux-Arts, and under Robert-Fleury and Bouguereau. His landscapes are
remarkable for the lyrical use of colour and for the pleasing rhythm of
line which is the result of careful selection and building up of the
elements that constitute the scene. Based on keen observation of the
colour of nature and on careful studies of the details, they are
arranged with a rare and by no means obvious sense of balance and
compositional beauty which summarily discards all disturbing accidents
of nature. He also achieved distinction as an etcher, and published an
instructive and useful volume on landscape painting (London, 1906). He
began to exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1882, and was elected an
associate. In 1906 he became president of the Royal Society of British
Artists. Many of his works are to be found in the English provincial
galleries; Manchester owns "The Silent Somme" and "Autumn"; Liverpool,
"Gibraltar from Algeciras"; Leeds, "The Golden Valley"; Birmingham,
"Hayle from Lelant"; Preston, "An Idyll of Spring"; and Hull, "Evening
on the Cotswolds." His "Passing Storm" is at the Luxembourg; "The Nene
Valley" at the Venice gallery; and "A Haunt of Ancient Peace" at the
National gallery in Budapest. In 1903 he received the order of the Crown
of Italy in connexion with his services to the Venice international
exhibition; and he was made an honorary member of the Japanese Meiji
Bijutsu Kai.
EAST ANGLIA, one of the kingdoms into which Anglo-Saxon Britain was
divided. Bede gives no information about its origin except that its
earliest settlers were Angles. The kingdom of East Anglia comprised the
two counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. With regard to the western boundary
we have no accurate information, but it was probably formed by the fens
of Cambridgeshire.
This kingdom first appears in Bede's narrative early in the 7th century,
when its power was at its height. Towards the end of the reign of
AEthelberht, who died about 616, Raedwald of East Anglia, who had
apparently spent some time at the court of Kent, began to win for
himself the chief position among the Anglo-Saxon kings of his day. His
position was assured, at least temporarily, in 617, when he decided to
espouse the cause of the Northumbrian prince Edwin, then a fugitive at
his court, and defeated AEthelfrith of Northumbria on the banks of the
Idle, a tributary of the Trent, in Mercian territory. Raedwald had been
converted to Christianity in Kent, but after his return home he
relapsed, according to Bede, owing to the influence of his wife, and
there were to be seen in the same building a Christian and a pagan
altar. Bede states that Raedwald was the son of Tytili, the son of Wuffa,
from whom the East Anglian royal family derived their name Wuffingas.
According to the _Historia Brittonum_ Guffa (Wuffa) was the son of
(Guecha) Wehha, who first ruled the East Angles in Britain. This would
put the organization of the kingdom in the first or second quarter of
the 6th century. Eorpwald, the son of Raedwald, was converted to
Christianity by Edwin, but was soon afterwards slain by Ricberht (627 or
628), whereupon the kingdom again became pagan for three years, when
Sigeberht, the brother of Eorpwald, became king and founded a see for
Felix at Dunwich. Sigeberht also founded a school in East Anglia, and on
the arrival of an Irish missionary named Furseus he built him a
monastery at _Cnobheresburg_, perhaps to be identified with Burgh
Castle. Before 644, however, Sigeberht resigned the crown in favour of
his brother Ecgric and retired to a monastery. Shortly afterwards both
brothers were slain by Penda of Mercia in his invasion of East Anglia,
and Anna became king. This king was an enthusiastic Christian, and
converted Coenwalh, king of Wessex, who had fled to his court. Two of
his daughters, Saethryth and AEthelberg, took the veil; while another,
Sexburg, was married to Earconberht, king of Kent; and a fourth,
AEthelthryth, after two marriages, with Tondberht of the South Gyrwe and
Ecgfrith of Northumbria, became abbess of Ely. In 654 Anna was slain by
Penda of Mercia, and was succeeded by his brother AEthelhere, who was
killed in 655 at the Winwaed, fighting for the Mercian king against
Oswio of Northumbria. In 673 Archbishop Theodore divided the East
Anglian diocese into two, Elmham being the seat of the northern, Dunwich
that of the southern bishop. A long blank follows in the history of this
kingdom, until in 792 we find Offa of Mercia slaying AEthelberht, king of
East Anglia, who is said to have been his son-in-law. East Anglia was
subject to the supremacy of the Mercian kings until 825, when its people
slew Beornwulf of Mercia, and with their king acknowledged Ecgberht
(Egbert) of Wessex as their lord. In 870 Edmund, king of East Anglia,
was killed by the Danes under I'varr and Ubbi, the sons of Ragnar
Loethbrok.
The following is a list of the kings of East Anglia of whom there is
record:--Wehha; Wuffa; Raedwald, son of Tytili and grandson of Wuffa
(reigning 617); Eorpwald, son of Raedwald (d. 627 or 628); Sigeberht,
brother of Eorpwald; Ecgric, brother of Sigeberht (both slain before
644); Anna, son of Ene and grandson of Tytili (d. 654); AEthelhere,
brother of Anna (d. 655); AEthelwald, a third brother; Aldwulf (succ.
663, d. 713), son of AEthelric and grandson of Ene; Elfwald, son of
Aldwulf (d. 749); Hun Beonna and Alberht; AEthelberht (792); Edmund
(870).
After the death of Ragnar Loethbrok's sons East Anglia was occupied by the
Danish king Guthrum, who made a treaty with Alfred settling their
respective boundaries, probably about 880. Guthrum died in 890. A later
king named Eohric took up the cause of AEthelwald, the son of AEthelred
I., and was slain in the fight with the Kentish army at the Holm in 905.
A war broke out with King Edward the Elder in 913; in 921 a king whose
name is unknown was killed at the fall of Tempsford, and in the same
year the Danes of East Anglia submitted to Edward the Elder. From this
time, probably, East Anglia was governed by English earls, the most
famous of whom were AEthelstan, surnamed Half-King (932-956) and his
sons, AEthelwold (956-962), and AEthelwine, surnamed _Dei amicus_
(962-992).
See Bede, _Hist. Eccl._ (ed. C. Plummer, Oxford. 1896), ii. 5, 15,
iii. 7, 8, 18-20, 22, iv. 3, 5, 23; _Saxon Chronicle_ (ed. Earle and
Plummer, Oxford, 1899), s. a. 823, 838, 866, 870, 880, 885, 890, 894,
905, 921; _Historia Brittonum_ (San-Marte, 1844), s. 59; H. Sweet,
_Oldest English Texts_, p. 171 (London, 1885). (F. G. M. B.)
EASTBOURNE, a municipal borough (1883) in the Eastbourne parliamentary
division of Sussex, England, 61 m. S.S.E. of London by the London,
Brighton & South Coast railway. Pop. (1891) 34,969; (1901) 43,344;
(local census, 1909) 49,286. It is situated 3 m. N.E. of Beachy Head,
the loftiest headland on the English Channel coast. It once consisted of
three parts--the village of East Bourne, a mile inland; South Bourne,
lying back from the shore; and Seahouses, facing the beach. The church
of St Mary, the ancient parish church of East Bourne, is a fine
transitional Norman building; and there are numerous modern churches and
chapels. The principal buildings and institutions are the town hall and
municipal buildings, the Princess Alice Memorial and other hospitals, a
free library and, among many high-class schools, Eastbourne College for
boys, founded in 1867. There is a fine pier with pavilion, and a marine
parade nearly 3 m. in extent, arranged in terraced promenades.
Devonshire Park of 13 acres is pleasantly laid out, and contains a
pavilion and a theatre. The duke of Devonshire is the principal
landowner. Golf links are laid out on the neighbouring downs. A Roman
villa was formerly seen close to the shore, but it is not now visible.
The corporation consists of a mayor, 8 aldermen and 24 councillors. In
1910 the corporation promoted a bill in parliament to add the Hampden
Park district in the parish of Willingdon to the borough and to make
Eastbourne, with this extension, a county borough.
EAST CHICAGO, a city of Lake county, Indiana, U.S.A., on Lake Michigan,
about 19 m. S.E. of the business centre of Chicago. Pop. (1890) 1255;
(1900) 3411 (1331 foreign-born); (1910) 19,098. It is served by several
railways, including the Pennsylvania, the Wabash, the Chicago Terminal
Transfer (whose shops are here), the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, the
Chicago, Indiana & Southern, and the Indiana Harbor railways. East
Chicago covers an area whose greatest dimensions are 4 by 31/2 m. That
part of the city along the lake, known as Indiana Harbor, dates from
1901 and has grown very rapidly because of its position at the
southernmost part of the Calumet District, and because of the meeting
here of railway and lake commerce. A good harbour has been constructed,
a new ship canal connecting the harbour with the Calumet river. East
Chicago is industrially virtually a part of "Greater" Chicago; among its
manufactures are iron and steel, cement, lumber, boilers, hay presses,
chains, chemicals and foundry products. East Chicago was chartered as a
city in 1893.
EASTER, the annual festival observed throughout Christendom in
commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The name Easter (Ger.
_Ostern_), like the names of the days of the week, is a survival from
the old Teutonic mythology. According to Bede (_De Temp. Rat._ c. xv.)
it is derived from _Eostre_, or _Ostara_, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of
spring, to whom the month answering to our April, and called
_Eostur-monath_, was dedicated. This month, Bede says, was the same as
the _mensis paschalis_, "when the old festival was observed with the
gladness of a new solemnity."
The name of the festival in other languages (as Fr. _paques_; Ital.
_pasqua_; Span. _pascua_; Dan. _paaske_; Dutch _paasch_; Welsh _pasg_)
is derived from the Lat. _pascha_ and the Gr. [Greek: pascha]. These in
turn come from the Chaldee or Aramaean form [Hebrew: pascha] _pascha'_,
of the Hebrew name of the Passover festival [Hebrew: pesach] _pesach_,
from [Hebrew: pasach] "he passed over," in memory of the great
deliverance, when the destroying angel "passed over the houses, of the
children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians" (Exod. xii.
27).
An erroneous derivation of the word _pascha_ from the Greek [Greek:
paschein], "to suffer," thus connected with the sufferings or passion of
the Lord, is given by some of the Fathers of the Church, as Irenaeus,
Tertullian and others, who were ignorant of Hebrew. St Augustine (_In
Joann. Tract._ 55) notices this false etymology, shows how similarity of
sound had led to it, and gives the correct derivation.
There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the
New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers. The sanctity
of special times was an idea absent from the minds of the first
Christians. "The whole of time is a festival unto Christians because of
the excellency of the good things which have been given" is the comment
of St Chrysostom on 1 Cor. v. 7, which has been erroneously supposed to
refer to an apostolic observance of Easter. The ecclesiastical historian
Socrates (_Hist. Eccl._ v. 22) states, with perfect truth, that neither
the Lord nor his apostles enjoined the keeping of this or any other
festival. He says: "The apostles had no thought of appointing festival
days, but of promoting a life of blamelessness and piety"; and he
attributes the observance of Easter by the church to the perpetuation of
an old usage, "just as many other customs have been established."
This is doubtless the true statement of the case. The first Christians
continued to observe the Jewish festivals, though in a new spirit, as
commemorations of events which those festivals had foreshadowed. Thus
the Passover, with a new conception added to it of Christ as the true
Paschal Lamb and the first fruits from the dead, continued to be
observed, and became the Christian Easter.
Although the observance of Easter was at a very early period the
practice of the Christian church, a serious difference as to the day for
its observance soon arose between the Christians of Jewish and those of
Gentile descent, which led to a long and bitter controversy. The point
at issue was when the Paschal fast was to be reckoned as ending. With
the Jewish Christians, whose leading thought was the death of Christ as
the Paschal Lamb, the fast ended at the same time as that of the Jews,
on the fourteenth day of the moon at evening, and the Easter festival
immediately followed, without regard to the day of the week. The Gentile
Christians, on the other hand, unfettered by Jewish traditions,
identified the first day of the week with the Resurrection, and kept the
preceding Friday as the commemoration of the crucifixion, irrespective
of the day of the month. With the one the observance of the day of the
month, with the other the observance of the day of the week, was the
guiding principle.
Generally speaking, the Western churches kept Easter on the first day of
the week, while the Eastern churches followed the Jewish rule, and kept
Easter on the fourteenth day. St Polycarp, the disciple of St John the
Evangelist and bishop of Smyrna, visited Rome in 159 to confer with
Anicetus, the bishop of that see, on the subject; and urged the
tradition, which he had received from the apostle, of observing the
fourteenth day. Anicetus, however, declined to admit the Jewish custom
in the churches under his jurisdiction, but readily communicated with
Polycarp and those who followed it. About forty years later (197) the
question was discussed in a very different spirit between Victor, bishop
of Rome, and Polycrates, metropolitan of proconsular Asia. That province
was the only portion of Christendom which still adhered to the Jewish
usage, and Victor demanded that all should adopt the usage prevailing at
Rome. This Polycrates firmly refused to agree to, and urged many weighty
reasons to the contrary, whereupon Victor proceeded to excommunicate
Polycrates and the Christians who continued the Eastern usage. He was,
however, restrained from actually proceeding to enforce the decree of
excommunication, owing to the remonstrance of Irenaeus and the bishops
of Gaul. Peace was thus maintained, and the Asiatic churches retained
their usage unmolested (Euseb. _H.E._ v. 23-25). We find the Jewish
usage from time to time reasserting itself after this, but it never
prevailed to any large extent.
A final settlement of the dispute was one among the other reasons which
led Constantine to summon the council of Nicaea in 325. At that time the
Syrians and Antiochenes were the solitary champions of the observance of
the fourteenth day. The decision of the council was unanimous that
Easter was to be kept on Sunday, and on the same Sunday throughout the
world, and "that none should hereafter follow the blindness of the
Jews" (Socrates, _H.E._ i. 9). The correct date of the Easter festival
was to be calculated at Alexandria, the home of astronomical science,
and the bishop of that see was to announce it yearly to the churches
under his jurisdiction, and also to the occupant of the Roman see, by
whom it was to be communicated to the Western churches. The few who
afterwards separated themselves from the unity of the church, and
continued to keep the fourteenth day, were named _Quartodecimani_, and
the dispute itself is known as the _Quarto-deciman_ controversy.
Although measures had thus been taken to secure uniformity of
observance, and to put an end to a controversy which had endangered
Christian unity, a new difficulty had to be encountered owing to the
absence of any authoritative rule by which the paschal moon was to be
ascertained. The subject is a very difficult and complex one (see also
CALENDAR). Briefly, it may be explained here that Easter day is the
first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox. This, of
course, varies in different longitudes, while a further difficulty
occurred in the attempt to fix the correct time of Easter by means of
cycles of years, when the changes of the sun and moon more or less
exactly repeat themselves. At first an eight years' cycle was adopted,
but it was found to be faulty, then the Jewish cycle of 84 years was
used, and remained in force at Rome till the year 457, when a more
accurate calculation of a cycle of 532 years, invented by Victorius of
Acquitaine, took its place. Ultimately a cycle of 19 years was accepted,
and it is the use of this cycle which makes the Golden Number and Sunday
Letter, explained in the preface to the Book of Common Prayer,
necessary. Owing to this lack of decision as to the accurate finding of
Easter, St Augustine tells us (_Epist._ 23) that in the year 387 the
churches of Gaul kept Easter on the 21st of March, those of Italy on the
18th of April, and those of Egypt on the 25th of April; and it appears
from a letter of Leo the Great (_Epist._ 64, _ad Marcian._) that in 455
there was a difference of eight days between the Roman and the
Alexandrine Easter. Gregory of Tours relates that in 577 "there was a
doubt about Easter. In Gaul we with many other cities kept Easter on the
fourteenth calends of May, others, as the Spaniards, on the twelfth
calends of April."
The ancient British and Celtic churches followed the cycle of 84 years
which they had originally received from Rome, and their stubborn refusal
to abandon it caused much bitter controversy in the 8th century between
their representatives and St Augustine of Canterbury and the Latin
missionaries. These latter unfairly attempted to fix the stigma of the
Quartodeciman observance on the British and Celtic churches, and they
are even now sometimes ignorantly spoken of as having followed the
Asiatic practice as to Easter. This, however, is quite erroneous. The
British and Celtic churches always kept Easter according to the Nicene
decree on a Sunday. The difference between them and the Roman Church, at
this period, was that they still followed the 84 years' cycle in
computing Easter, which had been abandoned at Rome for the more accurate
cycle of 532 years. This difference of calculation led to Easter being
observed on different Sundays, in certain years, in England, by the
adherents of the two churches. Thus Bede records that in a certain year
(which must have been 645, 647, 648 or 651) Queen Eanfleda, who had
received her instruction from a Kentish priest of the Roman obedience,
was fasting and keeping Palm Sunday, while her husband, Oswy, king of
Northumbria, following the rule of the British church, was celebrating
the Easter festival. This diversity of usage was ended, so far as the
kingdom of Northumbria was concerned, by the council of Streaneshalch,
or Whitby, in 654. To Archbishop Theodore is usually ascribed the credit
of ending the difference in the rest of England in 669.
The Gregorian correction of the calendar in 1582 has once more led to
different days being observed. So far as Western Christendom is
concerned the corrected calendar is now universally accepted, and Easter
is kept on the same day, but it was not until 1752 that the Gregorian
reformation of the calendar was adopted in Great Britain and Ireland.
Jealousy of everything emanating from Rome still keeps the Eastern
churches from correcting the calendar according to the Gregorian
reformation, and thus their Easter usually falls before, or after, that
of the Western churches, and only very rarely, as was the case in 1865,
do the two coincide.
Easter, as commemorating the central fact of the Christian religion, has
always been regarded as the chief festival of the Christian year, and
according to a regulation of Constantine it was to be the first day of
the year. This reckoning of the year as beginning at Easter lingered in
France till 1565, when, by an ordinance of Charles IX., the 1st of
January finally took its place.
Four different periods may be mentioned as connected with the observance
of Easter, viz. (1) the preparatory fast of the forty days of Lent; (2)
the fifteen days, beginning with the Sunday before and ending with the
Sunday after Easter, during which the ceremonies of Holy Week and the
services of the Octave of Easter were observed; this period, called by
the French the _Quinzaine de Paques_, was specially observed in that
country; (3) the Octave of Easter, during which the newly-baptized wore
their white garments, which they laid aside on the Sunday after Easter,
known as _Dominica in albis depositis_ from this custom; another name
for this Sunday was _Pascha clausum_, or the close of Easter, and from a
clipping of the word "close" the English name of "Low" Sunday is
believed to be derived; (4) Eastertide proper, or the paschal season
beginning at Easter and lasting till Whit Sunday, during the whole of
which time the festival character of the Easter season was maintained in
the services of the church.
Many ecclesiastical ceremonies, growing up from early times, clustered
round the celebration of the Easter festival. One of the most notable of
these was the use of the paschal candle. This was a candle of very large
dimensions, set in a candlestick big enough to hold it, which was
usually placed on the north side, just below the first ascent to the
high altar. It was kept alight during each service till Whitsuntide. The
Paschal, as it was called at Durham cathedral, was one of the chief
sights of that church before the Reformation. It was an elaborate
construction of polished brass, and, contrary to the usual custom, seems
to have been placed in the centre of the altar-step, long branches
stretching out towards the four cardinal points, bearing smaller
candles. The central stem of the candlestick was about 38 ft. high, and
bore the paschal candle proper, and together they reached a combined
height of about 70 ft., the candle being lighted from an opening above.
Other paschal candles seem to have been of scarcely less size. At
Lincoln, c. 1300, the candle was to weigh three stones of wax; at
Salisbury in 1517 it was to be 36 ft. long; and at Westminster in 1558
it weighed no less than 3 cwt. of wax. After Whitsuntide what remained
was made into smaller candles for the funerals of the poor. In the
ancient churches at Rome the paschal candlesticks were fixtures, but
elsewhere they were usually movable, and were brought into the church
and set up on the Thursday before Easter. At Winchester the paschal
candlestick was of silver, and was the gift of Canute. Others of more or
less importance are recorded as having been at Canterbury, Bury St
Edmunds, Hereford and York. The burning of the paschal candle still
forms part of the Easter ceremonial of the Roman Catholic Church (see
LIGHTS, CEREMONIAL).
The liturgical colour for Easter was everywhere white, as the sign of
joy, light and purity, and the churches and altars were adorned with the
best ornaments that each possessed. Flowers and shrubs no doubt in early
times were also used for this purpose, but what evidence there is goes
against the medieval use of such decorations, which are so popular at
the present day.
It is not the purpose of this article to enter on the wide subject of
the popular observances, such as the giving and sending of Pasch or
Easter eggs as presents. For such the reader may consult Brand's
_Popular Antiquities_, Hone's _Every-Day Book_, and Chambers's _Book of
Days_.
AUTHORITIES.--Bingham, _Antiquities of the Christian Church_; Bede,
_Ecclesiastical History of England_; Procter and Frere, _A New History
of the Book of Common Prayer_ (London, 1901); Surtees Society, _Rites
of Durham_, ed. J.T. Fowler (1903); De Morgan, _Companion to the
Almanac_ (1845); De Moleon, _Voyages liturgiques_ (Paris, 1718).
(T. M. F.)
EASTER ISLAND (Rapanui, i.e. Great Rapa), an island in the eastern part
of the South Pacific ocean, belonging to Chile (since 1888), in 27 deg. 8'
S. and 109 deg. 28' W., 1400 m. E. of Pitcairn, and 2000 m. from the South
American coast. It is roughly triangular in shape, with its hypotenuse
12 m. long running north-east and south-west, and its three angles
marked by three volcanic peaks, of which the north-eastern reaches 1768
ft. of altitude. The area of the island is 45 sq. m. The coast has no
good natural harbour, and landing is difficult. There is no lack of
fertile soil, and the climate is moist enough to make up for the absence
of running water. Formerly the island appears to have been wooded, but
it now presents only a few bushes (_Edwardsia_, _Broussonetia_, &c.),
ferns, grasses, sedges, &c. The natives grow bananas in the shelter of
artificial pits, also sugar-canes and sweet potatoes, and keep a few
goats and a large stock of domestic fowls, and a Tahitian commercial
house breeds cattle and sheep on the island.
It is doubtful whether Rapanui was discovered by Davis in 1686, though
it is sometimes marked Davis Island on maps. Admiral Roggeveen reached
it on Easter day 1722; in 1774 Captain Cook discovered it anew and
called it Teapi or Waihu. It was subsequently visited by La Perouse
(1776), Kotzebue (1816), &c. At the time of Roggeveen's discovery the
island probably contained from 2000 to 3000 inhabitants of Polynesian
race, who, according to their own tradition, came from Rapa Iti (Little
Rapa) or Oparo, one of the Tubuai or Austral group. In 1863 a large
proportion of the inhabitants were kidnapped by the Peruvians and
transported to work at the guano diggings on the Chincha Islands. The
next year a Jesuit mission from Tahiti reached the island and succeeded
in the task of civilization. The natives, who number scarcely one
hundred, are all Christians.
Easter Island is famous for its wonderful archaeological remains. Here
are found immense platforms built of large cut stones fitted together
without cement. They are generally built upon headlands, and on the
slope towards the sea. The walls on the seaside are, in some of the
platforms, nearly 30 ft. high and from 200 to 300 ft. long, by about 30
ft. wide. Some of the squared stones are as much as 6 ft. long. On the
land side of the platforms there is a broad terrace with large stone
pedestals upon which once stood colossal stone images carved somewhat
into the shape of the human trunk. On some of the platforms there are
upwards of a dozen images, now thrown from their pedestals and lying in
all directions. Their usual height is from 14 to 16 ft., but the largest
are 37 ft., while some are only about 4 ft. They are formed from a grey
trachytic lava found at the east end of the island. The top of the heads
of the images is cut flat to receive round crowns made of a reddish
vesicular tuff found at a crater about 8 m. distant from the quarry
where the images were cut. A number of these crowns still lie at the
crater apparently ready for removal, some of the largest being over 10
ft. in diameter. In the atlas illustrating the voyage of La Perouse a
plan of the island is given, with the position of several of the
platforms. Two of the images are also represented in a plate. One
statue, 8 ft. in height and weighing 4 tons, was brought to England, and
is now in the British Museum. In one part of the island are the remains
of stone houses nearly 100 ft. long by about 20 ft. wide. These are
built in courses of large flat stones fitted together without cement,
the walls being about 5 ft. thick and over 5 ft. high. They are lined on
the inside with upright slabs, on which are painted geometrical figures
and representations of animals. The roofs are formed by placing slabs so
that each course overlaps the lower one until the opening becomes about
5 ft. wide, when it is covered with flat slabs reaching from one side to
the other. The lava rocks near the houses are carved into the
resemblance of various animals and human faces, forming, probably, a
kind of picture writing. Wooden tablets covered with various signs and
figures have also been found. The only ancient implement discovered on
the island is a kind of stone chisel, but it seems impossible that such
large and numerous works could have been executed with such a tool. The
present inhabitants of Easter Island know nothing of the construction of
these remarkable works; and the entire subject of their existence in
this small and remote island is a mystery.
EASTERN BENGAL AND ASSAM, a province of British India, which was
constituted out of Assam and the eastern portion of Bengal on the 16th
of October 1905. Area 111,569 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 30,961,459. It is
situated between 20 deg. 45' and 28 deg. 17' N., and between 87 deg. 48' and 97 deg. 5'
E. The province, as thus reconstituted, consists of the Bengal districts
of Dacca, Mymensingh, Faridpur, Backergunje, Tippera, Noakhali,
Chittagong, Chittagong Hill Tracts, Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri,
Rangpur, Bogra, Pabna, Malda, and the native states of Kuch Behar and
Hill Tippera; and the whole of the former area of Assam consisting of
the districts of Goalpara, Kamrup, Darrang, Nowgong, Sibsagar,
Lakhimpur, Sylhet, Cachar, Garo Hills, Khasi and Jaintia Hills, Naga
Hills and Lushai Hills. It is bounded on the N. by Bhutan, on the W. by
Burma, on the S. by Burma and the Bay of Bengal, and on the E. by
Bengal. The line of demarcation between Bengal and the new province
begins at the frontier of Bhutan, east of Darjeeling, runs south-west to
Sahibganj on the Ganges and thence follows the course of the Ganges down
to the deltaic branch, called the Haringhata, which leaves the main
stream above Goalanda, and the course of the latter, which runs south
into the Bay of Bengal. The capital of the province is Dacca, and its
chief port is Chittagong.
The Bengal districts which were transferred to Eastern Bengal and Assam
comprised northern and eastern Bengal, the most prosperous and least
overcrowded portion of Bengal. The land there is less densely populated,
wages are higher and food cheaper, and the rainfall more copious and
more regular, while the staple crops of jute, tobacco and rice command a
higher price relative to the rent of the land than in Behar or other
parts of Bengal. The population are largely Mahommedans and of a more
virile stock than the Bengali proper. Northern Bengal corresponds almost
exactly with the Rajshahi division and lies within the boundaries of the
Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers. It contains much high land of a stiff red
clay, with an undulating surface covered for the most part with scrub
jungle. The inhabitants are Indo-Chinese, not Indo-Aryans as in Bengal
proper, and are Mahommedan by religion instead of Hindu. Eastern Bengal
consists of the Dacca and Chittagong divisions which are mainly Bengali
in race and Hindu in religion. For the Assamese districts see ASSAM. The
province as a whole contains 18,036,688 Mahommedans and 12,036,538
Hindus. In language 27,272,895 of the inhabitants speak Bengali,
1,349,784 speak Assamese, and the remainder Hindi and various hill
dialects, Manipuri, Bodo, Khasi and Garo. The administration is in the
hands of a lieutenant-governor, assisted by a legislative council of
fifteen members. Under him are five commissioners, and financial matters
are regulated by a board of revenue consisting of two members.
The constitution of the new province arose out of the fact that Bengal
had grown too unwieldy for the administration of a single
lieutenant-governor. In 1868 Sir Stafford Northcote drew attention to
the greatly augmented demands that the outlying portions of Bengal made
on the time and labour of the government. At that time the population of
the province was between 40 and 50 millions, and the question was left
in abeyance until 1903, when the population had risen to 781/2 millions.
In the meantime the importance of rendering Assam a self-contained and
independent administration with a service of its own, and of providing
for its future commercial expansion, had arisen. These two
considerations led Lord Curzon to propose that Bengal should be lopped
of territory both on its eastern and western borders, and that all the
districts east of the Brahmaputra should be constituted into a separate
province. This proposal was bitterly opposed by the Hindus of Bengal on
the ground that it would destroy the unity of the Bengali race; and
their agitation was associated with the _Swadeshi_ (own country)
movement for the boycott of British goods.
After the constitution of the province in October 1905, the agitation in
Eastern Bengal increased. Public meetings of protest were held,
vernacular broadsheets containing scandalous attacks on the British
authorities were circulated, schoolboys and others were organized and
drilled as so-called "national volunteers," and employed as pickets to
prevent the sale of British goods. Such was the state of things when Sir
J. Bampfylde Fuller entered on his office as first lieutenant-governor
of Eastern Bengal in January 1906. His reception was ominous.
Representative bodies that were dominated by Hindus refused to vote the
usual addresses of welcome, and non-official Hindus abstained from
paying the customary calls. There were, however, no further overt signs
of objection to the lieutenant-governor personally, and after a month or
two--in spite of, or perhaps because of, his efforts to restrain
sedition and to keep discipline in the schools--there was a decided
change in the attitude of Hindu opinion. At Dacca, in July, for
instance, the reception at Government House was attended by large
numbers of Bengali gentlemen, who assured the lieutenant-governor that
"the trouble was nearly ended." The agitation was, in fact, largely
artificial, the work of Calcutta lawyers, journalists and schoolmasters;
the mass of the people, naturally law-abiding, was unmoved by it so long
as the government showed a firm hand; while the Mussulmans, who formed a
large proportion of the whole, saw in the maintenance of the partition
and of the prestige of the British government the guarantees of their
own security.
All seemed to be going well when an unfortunate difference of opinion
occurred between the lieutenant-governor and the central government,
resulting in the resignation of Sir Bampfylde Fuller (August 1906) and
in ulterior consequences destined to be of far-reaching import. The
facts are briefly as follows. Acting on a report of Dr P. Chatterji,
inspector of schools, dated January 2, 1906, the lieutenant-governor, on
the 10th of February, addressed a letter to the registrar of Calcutta
University recommending that the privilege of affiliation to the
university should be withdrawn from the Banwarilal and Victoria high
schools at Sirajganj in Pabna, as a punishment for the seditious conduct
of both pupils and teachers. Apart from numerous cases of illegal
interference with trade and of disorder in the streets reported against
the students, two specific outrages of a serious character were
instanced as having occurred on the 15th of November: the raiding of a
cart laden with English cloth belonging to Marwari traders, and a
cowardly assault by some 40 or 50 lads on the English manager of the
Bank of Bengal. These outrages "were not the result of thoughtlessness
or sudden excitement, but were the outcome of a regularly organized
scheme, set on foot and guided by the masters of these schools, for
employing the students in enforcing a boycott." All attempts to discover
and punish the offenders had been frustrated by the refusal of the
school authorities to take action, and in the opinion of the
lieutenant-governor the only course open was to apply the remedy
suggested in the circular letter addressed to magistrates and collectors
(October 10, 1905) by Mr R.W. Carlyle, the officiating chief secretary
to the government of Bengal, directing them, in the event of students
taking any part in political agitation, boycotting and the like, to
inform the heads of schools or colleges concerned that, unless they
prevented such action being taken by the boys attending their
institutions, their grant-in-aid and the privilege of competing for
scholarships and of receiving scholarship-holders would be withdrawn,
and that the university would be asked to disaffiliate their
institutions.
The reply, dated July 5th, from the secretary in the home department of
the government of India, was--to use Sir Bampfylde's own later
expression--to throw him over. It was likely that a difference of
opinion in the syndicate of the university would arise as to the degree
of culpability that attached to the proprietors of the schools; in the
event of the syndicate taking any "punitive action," the matter was
certain to be raised in the senate, and would lead to an acrimonious
public discussion, in which the partition of Bengal and the
administration of the new province would be violently attacked; and in
the actual state of public opinion in Bengal it seemed to the government
of India highly inexpedient that such a debate should take place.
"Collective punishment," too, "would be liable to be misconstrued in
England," and the government preferred to rely on the gradual effect of
the new university regulations, which aimed "at discouraging the
participation of students in political movements by enforcing the
responsibility of masters and the managing committees of schools for
maintaining discipline."
On receipt of this communication Sir Bampfylde Fuller at once tendered
his resignation to the viceroy (July 15). He pointed out that to
withdraw from the position taken up would be "concession, not in the
interests of education, but to those people in Calcutta who have been
striving to render my government impossible, in order to discredit the
partition"; that previous concessions had had merely provocative
effects, and that were he to give way in this matter his authority would
be so weakened that he would be unable to maintain order in the country.
On the 3rd of August, after some days of deliberation, the viceroy
telegraphed saying that he was "unable to reconsider the orders sent,"
and accepting Sir Bampfylde's resignation. By the Anglo-Indian press the
news was received with something like consternation, the _Times of
India_ describing the resignation as one of the gravest blunders ever
committed in the history of British rule in India, and as a direct
incentive to the forces of disquiet, disturbance and unrest. Equally
emphatic was the verdict of the Mussulman community forming two-thirds
of the population of Eastern Bengal. On the 7th of August, the day of
Sir Bampfylde Fuller's departure from Dacca, a mass-meeting of 30,000
Mahommedans was held, which placed on record their disapproval of a
system of government "which maintains no continuity of policy," and
expressed its feeling that the lowering of British prestige must
"alienate the sympathy of a numerically important and loyal section of
His Majesty's subjects"; and many meetings of Mussulmans subsequently
passed resolutions to the same general effect. The _Akhbar-i-Islam_, the
organ of Bombay Mussulman opinion, deplored the "unwise step" taken by
the government, and ascribed it to Lord Minto's fear of the Babu press,
a display of weakness of which the Babus would not be slow to take
advantage.
This latter prophecy was not slow in fulfilling itself. So early as the
8th of August Calcutta was the scene of several large demonstrations at
which the Swadeshi vow was renewed, and at which resolutions were passed
declining to accept the partition as a settled fact, and resolving on
the continuance of the agitation. The tone of the Babu press was openly
exultant: "We have read the familiar story of the Russian traveller and
the wolves," said a leading Indian newspaper in Calcutta. "The British
government follows a similar policy. First the little babies were
offered up in the shape of the _Bande Mataram_ circular and the Carlyle
circular. Now a bigger boy has gone in the person of our own Joseph.
Courage, therefore, O wolves! Press on and the horse will soon be yours
to devour! Afterwards the traveller himself will alone be left."[1] The
task before the new lieutenant-governor of Eastern Bengal, the Hon. L.
Hare, was obviously no easy one. The encouragement given to sedition by
the weakness of the government in this case was shown by later events in
Bengal and elsewhere (see INDIA: _History, ad fin._).
For the early history of the various portions of the province see BENGAL
and ASSAM.
See Sir James Bourdillon, _The Partition of Bengal_ (Society of Arts,
1905); official blue-books on _The Reconstitution of the Provinces of
Bengal and Assam_ (Cd. 2658 and 2746), and _Resignation of Sir J.
Bampfylde Fuller_, lieutenant-governor, &c. (Cd. 3242). A long letter
from Sir J.B. Fuller, headed _J'accuse_, attacking the general policy
of the Indian government in regard to the seditious propaganda,
appeared in _The Times_ of June 6, 1908.