EMBRYO-SAC, the name given to the megaspore of seed-plants. In Angiosperms
the ripe embryo-sac is typically a large ovoid sac enclosed in a thin
membrane and lined by cytoplasm; it contains seven or sometimes eight
nuclei with associated masses of cytoplasm, distributed in a characteristic
manner. At the apical end, next the micropyle, is the egg-apparatus,
comprising the egg-cell or ovum flanked by the two synergidae or
helping-cells, while the basal or chalazal end is occupied by the three
antipodal 'cells'. The cavity of the sac is filled with cell-sap traversed
by stout protoplasmic strands, suspended in which, near the centre, are two
polar nuclei, or a single fusion-nucleus formed by the union of these. A
characteristic feature of Angiosperms is the process of 'double
fertilization'. The pollen-tube contains two male gametes, both functional;
one fertilizes the egg-cell, the resulting zygote or oospore giving rise by
cell-division and growth to the embryo; the other unites with the
fusion-nucleus (or the two polar nuclei), and the product is the origin of
the special nutritive tissue or endosperm, which is used up by the embryo,
either during ripening of the seed (exalbuminous seeds), or at germination
(albuminous seeds). See _Gymnosperms_; _Ovule_.
EM'DEN, a town of Prussia, province of Hanover, near the mouth of the Ems,
occupying a low flat intersected by numerous canals. It was raised to the
rank of a free Imperial city in 1595, was made a free port in 1751, was
incorporated with the kingdom of Hanover in 1815, and in 1866 was united to
Prussia. The principal building is the great church, built in 1455. The
harbours admit large vessels, and several canals run inland. It exports
grain, dairy produce, and gin, and has shipbuilding yards, and manufactures
hosiery and leather. Pop. 24,000.
EM'ERALD, a variety of beryl, a well-known gem of pure green colour,
somewhat harder than quartz; specific gravity, 2.67 to 2.73. It is a
silicate of aluminium and the rare element glucinum or beryllium, which was
detected in it by Vauquelin after it had been discovered by the same
chemist in the beryl. Its colour is due to the presence of chromium, of
which there may be 0.2 to 0.3 per cent present. Its natural form is either
rounded or that of a short six-sided prism. It is one of the softest of the
precious stones, but is not acted on by acids. Emeralds of large size and
at the same time free from flaws are rare and more valuable than diamonds
or rubies; the largest on record is said to have been possessed by the
inhabitants of the valley of Manta in Peru when the Spaniards first arrived
there. It was as big as an ostrich egg, and was worshipped as _the mother
of emeralds_. The ancients, who valued them, especially for engraving, are
said to have procured them from Ethiopia and Egypt. The finest are now
obtained from Colombia. The Oriental emerald is a variety of the ruby, of a
green colour, and is an extremely rare gem.
EMERALD GREEN, a vivid light-green pigment, an aceto-arsenite of copper,
used both in oil and water-colour painting. It is extremely poisonous.
Hydrated chromium sesquioxide is another mineral emerald green. There is
also an aniline dye of this name.
EMERALD LORE The emerald as a sacred stone was anciently believed to blind
a serpent which gazed at it, but to strengthen human eyes, and was,
according to Theophrastus, worn as a ring-stone on account of this
property. It was confused with 'false emerald', a kind of malachite. This
fact explains the reference to ancient kings presenting blocks of emerald 1
or 2 cubits long to temples. The Babylonian name was _barraktu_, the
Sanskrit _marakata_, the Hebrew _bareket_ or _barkat_, the Greek _maragdos_
or _smaragdos_.
EMERGENCES, in botany. See _Hairs of Plants_.
EM'ERSON, Ralph Waldo, an American poet and prose writer, born at Boston,
25th May, 1803, died 27th April, 1882. He graduated at Harvard in 1821, for
five years taught in a school, and in 1829 became minister of a Unitarian
Church in Boston, but in 1832 resigned his charge. He spent the greater
part of 1833 in Europe, and on his return began his career as a lecturer on
various subjects, in which capacity he acted for a long series of years. In
1835 he took up his permanent residence at Concord, Mass., and in 1836
published a small volume called _Nature_. He was one of the original
editors of _The Dial_, a transcendental magazine begun in 1840. Two volumes
of his essays were published, in 1841 and 1844, and his poems in 1846. His
miscellaneous addresses had been published in England in 1844, and on
visiting Great Britain in 1847 he was welcomed by a large circle of
admirers. In 1850 he published _Representative Men_; in 1856, _English
Traits_; in 1860, _The Conduct of Life_; in 1869, _May Day and Other
Poems_, and _Society and Solitude_; in 1871, _Parnassus_, a collection of
poems; in 1876, _Letters and Social Aims_. Emerson showed certain
similarities with Carlyle, of whom he was a friend and correspondent. Their
correspondence appeared in 1883. He was not only one of the most original
and influential writers that the United States have produced, but also one
of the most helpful and influential ethical teachers of the nineteenth
century. His gospel of self-reliance, his insistence on the duty of
self-respect, and the obligation to listen to the voice of one's own soul,
have exerted a wide influence which has grown steadily.--BIBLIOGRAPHY:
J. E. Cabot, Emerson's Complete Works (11 vols.); G. W. Cooke, _Ralph Waldo
Emerson: his Life, Writings and Philosophy_; J. Elliott Cabot, _A Memoir of
Ralph Waldo Emerson_; R. Garnett, _Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson_; G. S.
Woodberry, _Ralph Waldo Emerson_; J. A. Hill, _Emerson and his Philosophy_.
EM'ERY (formerly _emeril_, from O. Fr. _emeril_; Gr. _smiris_, emery), an
impure variety of corundum, of blackish or bluish-grey colour, chiefly
found in shapeless masses and mixed with other minerals. It contains about
82 per cent of alumina, and a small portion of iron; is very hard; is
practically infusible, and is not attacked by acids. The best emery is
brought from the Levant, chiefly from the Island of Naxos. It is employed
in cutting and polishing precious stones; in smoothing the surface of the
finer kinds of lenses preparatory to their being polished; in the polishing
of marble; by cutlers, locksmiths, glaziers, and other artisans. For all
these purposes it is pulverized in large iron mortars or in steel mills,
and the powder, which is rough and sharp, is carefully washed and sifted
into eight or ten different degrees of fineness. Emery-paper and
emery-cloth are made by laying a thin coat of glue upon the fabric, and
dusting the emery from a sieve of the required size.
EMET'IC is a substance given to produce vomiting, either acting directly on
the nerves of the stomach, or indirectly through the bloodstream on the
vomiting centre in the brain. In the first group are common salt, mustard,
ipecacuanha, and sulphate of zinc; and apomorphine, which is given
hypodermically, is an example of the second. Emetics are not now so widely
used, as in many cases the stomach can be more effectively emptied and then
washed out by the passage of the stomach-tube.
EM'ETINE is an alkaloid present in ipecacuanha. It is a powerful emetic,
and whether given by the mouth or hypodermically produces vomiting with
nausea and depression. It acts chiefly as a local irritant to the lining of
the stomach. In minute doses it stimulates expectoration from the lungs.
[Illustration: Emeu or Emu (_Dromaeus novae-hollandiae_)]
EMEU, or EMU, a large flightless running bird (_Dromaeus novae-hollandiae_,
and _D. irroratus_), formerly dispersed over the whole Australian
continent, but now almost extinct in many districts. It is allied to the
cassowary, but is distinguished by the absence of a 'helmet' on the top of
the head. It nearly equals the ostrich in bulk, being thicker in the body,
though its legs and neck are shorter. Its feet are three-toed (the ostrich
has two toes), and its feathers, which are double, are of a dull
sooty-brown colour, those about the neck and head being of a hairy texture.
The wings are small and useless for flight, but the bird can run with great
speed. The flesh of the young emeu is by some considered a delicacy. The
emeu is a bird of the plain, the cassowary of the forest. It is easily
tamed, and may be kept out of doors in temperate climates. It feeds on
vegetable matter, fruits, and roots.
EMEU WREN (_Stipit[=u]rus malach[=u]rus_), a small Australian bird allied
to the warblers, somewhat similar to a wren, but having the tail-feathers
long, soft, and thinly barbed, similar to emeu feathers.
EMIGRATION, the movement of individuals or groups from one state or country
to a colony or another country, to be distinguished from _migration_, which
describes the movement of peoples or races from one geographical area to
another, and from _colonization_, which implies the foundation of a new
state or extension of the sway of the colonists' state of origin. Thus the
term does not strictly apply to the migrations of prehistoric times; nor to
the movements of the Indo-European races (to which reference occurs in the
Old Testament) which took place before the state as a territorial
conception had developed; nor does it describe the great barbarian
invasions of the early Christian era. There was comparatively little
emigration among the Greeks and Romans, movement among the former being
usually for the foundation of colonies or new states, and among the latter
as a means of consolidating conquests. In Europe up to the seventeenth
century, emigration was sporadic, notable instances being the movement from
Flanders to England in the fourteenth century, and of Protestants from
France to England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the
seventeenth century, with the growth of European colonies in America and
the East, there was much emigration to those places, notably from Spain,
Portugal, and Great Britain to America, and from the Netherlands to the
East. In the eighteenth century the movement slackened, but in the
nineteenth century, largely as the result of the industrial revolution and
the decay of agriculture, the great era of emigration began, especially
from the United Kingdom. During the nineteenth century the main stream has
flowed westward into America from Europe. Particularly important have been
the emigration of Irish to the United States, and of Germans to South
America. There has also been considerable movement from Russia into the
United Kingdom, in many cases as a half-way house to the United States. In
the East, emigration from China and Japan to the United States and
Australia, and from India to British tropical colonies, has been important.
It is noticeable that the Latin and Yellow races as a rule emigrate with
the idea of returning ultimately to their native country; with the
Anglo-Saxon, Teutonic, and Slav races the aim of a permanent domicile is
predominant.
The most important causes of emigration are love of adventure, political or
religious difficulties, and economic pressure. Forced emigration, in the
shape of transportation, was formerly of some importance, especially in the
case of America and Australia, but is now negligible; and before the
European War, emigration from Russia was chiefly for political or religious
reasons. To-day economic forces are the most powerful. The direction of the
flow of emigration is partly determined by its causes. When these are
political or religious, emigrants go where they expect to find freedom, as
with the Huguenots in the seventeenth century. When economic forces are at
work, emigration takes place towards newer and less developed countries,
where pressure on the means of subsistence is less marked than elsewhere.
Assistance given to emigrants, such as grants of land, loans of capital,
and passages at reduced rates also has an influence, likewise the
regulations of the countries concerned regarding emigration and
immigration. In Australia and the United States, regulations forbidding the
entrance of Yellow races have checked the movement of Chinese and Japanese
to those countries; and the Government of India discourages emigration save
under adequate safeguard for proper pay and treatment.
The results of emigration vary with the economic and other circumstances of
the countries concerned. The country from which the movement takes place
loses intellectual and physical labour power which the other country gains;
but may benefit by relief given to a congested labour market. This was the
case with the Netherlands in the seventeenth century, and the United
Kingdom in the early nineteenth century. The general tendency is for
emigration to benefit the world as a whole by enabling labour to go where
it can be most productively employed. This increases world production,
opens up new markets, and so indirectly benefits the older countries.
Sometimes, however, emigration may cause an industry merely to be
transferred from one country to another, as in the case of the
fourteenth-century Flemish emigration to England. The importance of these
results of emigration in any particular case depends on the class of people
who emigrate, and on the volume of emigration. Deportation of criminals
obviously benefited only the deporting country. Emigration on political or
religious grounds has frequently deprived one country of, and given to
another, a vigorous and industrious stock, as in the case of the French
Huguenots driven from France to England in the late seventeenth century by
the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Economic pressure tends to send
abroad agricultural and other unskilled labour. The majority of emigrants
from Great Britain in the nineteenth century belonged to this class. Youth
and adaptability, however, are more important qualities for an emigrant
than a high level of skill in any trade; and it is probable, therefore,
that on the whole emigration has relieved Europe of labour whose supply was
in excess of the demand for it, and has never given newer countries the
material they require. The political consequences of emigration may also be
important. Some writers claim that it has assisted the spread of democracy.
Whether this is an advantage is a matter for individual judgment. But
emigration may certainly have much influence in creating and maintaining
friendly relations between States; or, as shown by Irish influence in the
United States, it may embitter the feeling between them.--BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Mayo-Smith, _Emigration and Immigration_; S. C. Johnson, _History of
Emigration from the United Kingdom to North America, 1763-1912_.
['E]MIGR['E]S ([=a]-mi-gr[=a]s), a name given more particularly to those
persons who left France during the Revolution of 1789. At the head of these
emigrants stood the royal princes of Cond['e], Provence, and Artois, the
first of whom collected a part of the fugitives to co-operate with the
allied armies in Germany for the restoration of the monarchy. At Coblentz a
particular court of justice was established to settle causes relating to
the French _['e]migr['e]s_. The corps of Cond['e] was finally taken into
the Russian service, and was disbanded in the Russian-Austrian campaign of
1799. When Napoleon became emperor he granted permission to all but a few
of the emigrants to return to their country; but many declined to return
until after his downfall. By the Charter of 1814 they were shut out from
the recovery of their estates and privileges; and though, by a law of 27th
April, 1825, some compensation was decreed to them, the grant was withdrawn
again after the July revolution.
EMILIAN PROVINCES, a term applied to certain Italian provinces annexed to
the kingdom of Sardinia in 1860. They comprised the northern part of the
States of the Church (Romagna) and the Duchies of Modena and Parma.
EM'INENCE, an honorary title formerly applied to the Emperor and higher
officials of the Empire, but restricted in 1630 by Pope Urban VIII to
cardinals. Up to that time they had been called _illustrissimi_ and
_reverendissimi_.
EMIR (em'[=e]r), the title given by Mohammedans to independent chiefs or
princes, _Amir_ or _Ameer_ being the same word (the _Amir_ of Afghanistan).
When associated with other words it may designate various dignitaries. Thus
the caliphs styled themselves _Emir-al-Mumenin_, Prince of the Faithful;
_Emir-al-Omrah_, Prince of Princes, was the title of governors of certain
provinces. The title is also given in Turkey to all the real or supposed
descendants of Mohammed, through his daughter Fatimah.
EMMERICH (em'e-ri_h_), a town, Rhenish Prussia, on the right bank of the
Rhine, 5 miles N.E. of Cleves. It joined the Hanseatic League in 1407. It
carries on an active trade chiefly with Holland. Pop. 13,418.
EM'MET, Robert, an Irish rebel, born at Cork in 1778. He was expelled from
Trinity College, Dublin, in 1798, on the ground of exciting disaffection
and rebellion, and having become an object of suspicion to the Government,
quitted Ireland. He returned there on the repeal of the suspension of the
Habeas Corpus Act, and became a member of the Society of United Irishmen
for the establishment of the independence of Ireland. In July, 1803, he was
the ringleader in the foolish rebellion in which Lord Kilwarden and others
perished. He was arrested a few days afterwards, tried, and executed. His
fate excited special interest from his attachment to Sarah Curran, daughter
of the celebrated barrister. Their sad fates were commemorated by his
college friend, Moore, in _Oh, Breathe Not his Name_, and _She is Far from
the Land where her Young Hero Sleeps_.
EMOTION, a term variously used by psychologists; sometimes as one of the
divisions of feeling, the other being sensation; sometimes as opposed to
feeling when the latter is identified with sensation, and sometimes as
distinct from both sensation and feeling, when the last term is rigidly
confined to the sense of pleasure or pain. In any of these uses, however,
emotions are distinguished from sensations in that sensations are primary
forms of consciousness arising by external excitation, are comparatively
simple and immediately presentative phenomena, and are definite in
character and capable of localization; while emotions are secondary or
derived forms of consciousness, are complex and representative, and are
vague and diffused. Sensations are said to be 'peripherally initiated',
while emotions are centrally initiated. When, in addition to its being
distinguished from sensation, it is also distinguished from feeling,
emotion is applied to the whole physical condition accompanying the sense
of pleasure or pain (feeling). The muscles of the body and the organic
functions of the system are often considerably influenced by emotion, which
naturally seeks an outward expression unless held in check by what Darwin
has called serviceable associated habits.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Bain, _The
Emotions and the Will_; J. McCosh, _The Emotions_.
EMPED'OCLES (-kl[=e]z), a Greek philosopher of Agrigentum, in Sicily, born
about 490 B.C. He is said to have introduced the democratic form of
government into his native city, and the Agrigentines regarded him with the
highest veneration as public benefactor, poet, orator, physician, prophet,
and magician. Aristotle states that he died in obscurity, at the age of
sixty years, in the Peloponnesus; but he is also said to have thrown
himself into the crater of Mount Etna, in order to make it be believed, by
his sudden disappearance, that he was of divine origin, and had been
translated to heaven alive (cf. Matthew Arnold's _Empedocles on Etna_).
According to Lucian, however, his sandals were thrown out from the volcano,
and the manner of his death revealed. Empedocles held earth, water, fire,
air, as the four fundamental and indestructible elements from whose union
and separation everything that exists is formed. To these material elements
are added the two moving or operative principles of love and hatred, or
attraction and repulsion. He wrote his philosophy in verse; of his chief
work, _On Nature_, about 400 lines out of the original 5000 are preserved.
EM'PEROR (from the Lat. _imper[=a]tor_; in Ger. _Kaiser_, from _Caesar_),
the title of the highest rank of sovereigns. The word _imperator_, from
_imper[=a]re_, to command, in its most general sense signified the
commander of an army. After the overthrow of the Roman republic _imperator_
became the title of the rulers or emperors, and indicated their supreme
power. Victorious generals were still, however, sometimes saluted with the
title _imperator_, in its original sense. With the fall of Rome the title
was lost in the West, but was kept up in the Eastern or Byzantine Empire
for nearly ten centuries. In 800 it was renewed in the West when
Charlemagne was crowned, by Leo III, as 'Carolus Augustus, the God-sent,
pious, and great emperor of Rome'. It was, however, for many centuries
considered necessary to be crowned at Rome, in order to be formally
invested with the title of _emperor_. The imperial dignity became extinct
in the East after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, but the title was
adopted by Peter I of Russia in 1721. Napoleon I adopted the old idea of an
empire as a general union of states under the protection, or at least
political preponderance, of one powerful state; and he was followed in this
by his nephew, Napoleon III. In 1806 the first German Empire, 1000 years
old, became extinct, and the German Emperor, Francis II, adopted the title
of Francis I, Emperor of Austria. In Dec., 1870, the second German Empire
was formed, King William of Prussia having accepted the imperial office and
title offered him at Versailles. This empire came to an end in Nov. 1918.
Britain is considered as an empire, the crown as imperial, and the
Parliament is styled the _Imperial Parliament of Great Britain and
Ireland_. Queen Victoria assumed the title of _Empress of India_ in 1876,
but the British sovereign has not the imperial title in reference to the
home dominions. The sovereigns of Japan and Morocco are often, though with
little propriety, called _emperors_.--Cf. Articles _Imperator_ and
_Princeps_ in Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_.
EMPEROR MOTH (_Saturnia pavonia_) a British moth belonging to a family
Saturniidae, of which some Indian species produce tussore silk. The colour
is greyish-brown, with a faint purple tinge. The wings are about 3 inches
in expanse, and in the centre of each is a large eye-like spot. The larva
is of a bright-green colour, and studded with large rose-coloured or yellow
tubercles.
EMPETRA'CEAE, a small nat. ord. of heath-like Dicotyledons, of which the
type is the crow-berry.
EM'PHASIS, in rhetoric, a special stress or force given to some syllable,
word, or words in speaking, in order to impress the hearers in some desired
manner, thus differing from _accent_, the position of which is fixed.
EMPHYSE'MA is a distention of the tissues with air or other gases. Several
forms are recognized: _pulmonary emphysema_, due to dilatation of the
minute air-passages with loss of elasticity of the lung tissues; _surgical
emphysema_, due to distention of the subcutaneous tissues by air, seen in
certain wounds and injuries; _atrophic emphysema_, due to a senile
condition of the lung tissues.
EMPIRE DAY, a British imperial celebration which is held annually on the
24th of May, the birthday of Queen Victoria. The celebration was officially
held for the first time in 1904, and has since gained wide recognition,
mainly owing to the unremitting efforts of the twelfth Earl of Meath.
EMPIR'IC (Gr. _empeiria_, experience) was used in medical history to denote
one of a sect of physicians who held that observation and experience were
the basis of medicine. The modern use of the term, medically, is restricted
to one who practises medicine without any professional education or
training.
EMPIRICISM (Gr. _empeiria_, experience), the philosophical theory according
to which sense-experience is the source of all knowledge, i.e. that we can
investigate the world only through the experience of our senses. It denies
the existence of any _a priori_ possibility of knowledge, and maintains
that the mind is at first a _tabula rasa_, a clean slate, upon which all
the characters are inscribed by experience. The term empiricism is,
however, now applied to any philosophical system which finds all its
material in experience. The philosophy of empiricism has been particularly
developed by English writers of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth
centuries, such as Locke, Hume, and J. S. Mill. John Locke was the first to
express the view in a systematic form. Among more modern empiricists are
William James and John Dewey.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Green, _Prolegomena to
Ethics_; James, _Essays in Radical Empiricism_.
EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY ACT, a British Act of Parliament passed in 1880, by
which, within certain limits, an injured workman or, in event of his death,
his relatives or representatives may claim from the employer compensation
for injuries received in his service. The law on this subject was improved
by the Workmen's Compensation Act (1897) and its amending Act (1900). These
applied to those employed on, in, or about railways, factories, mines,
quarries, engineering works, buildings, and to agricultural labourers. An
Act of 1906 added other classes of workers, including domestic servants.
The maximum compensation on death is three years' earnings or L150,
whichever is larger, but not more than L300. Contracting-out is carefully
safeguarded. The maximum weekly benefit was raised from L1 to L1, 5s. in
1917, and L1, 15s. in 1920, in cases of total incapacity. Recommendations
by the Board of Trade Departmental Committee were made public in July,
1920. These suggest greater powers of Government control, compulsory
insurance, and greatly increased compensation in cases of death and total
incapacity.
EMPLOYMENT BUREAUS were first established on a considerable scale in the
United Kingdom by the Labour Exchanges Act, 1909. They were to some extent
based upon the German public labour exchanges, which came into being after
1893 in most large towns, and were either municipal or maintained by
voluntary associations and supported by the municipality. Their chief
object was to put employers and work-people into touch with a view to
employment. Before 1909 a few public employment bureaus had been
established in Great Britain. An Act of 1905 established distress
committees in boroughs and urban districts, which were given power to
establish labour exchanges. These powers were in some cases exercised,
either by taking over existing bureaus or establishing new ones. Only in
London was the system of importance. The 1909 Act gave the Board of Trade
power to establish labour exchanges; and, by regulations under the Act, the
United Kingdom has been divided into divisions in each of which are a
number of exchanges of different grades. The system is industrial and not
eleemosynary, aiming solely at providing a recognized market-place for
labour. No fees are charged, and use of the exchanges is voluntary.
Work-people may register at an exchange between certain hours, and, when a
suitable vacancy occurs, the applicant is sent to the employer.
Applications for work-people are generally received by telephone, and are
recorded if no suitable applicant is available. An important part of the
work of the labour exchange is in connection with Unemployed Insurance,
under Part II, National Insurance Act, 1911. This provided for payment of
unemployed benefit in a limited number of occupations. Subsequent Acts
(notably that of 1920) have extended the system to cover the majority of
occupations. The scheme is contributory, but the State shares the cost with
employers and work-people.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: W. H. Beveridge, _Unemployment_;
F. A. Keller, _Out of Work: a study of unemployment_.
EM'POLI, a town in North Italy, on the left bank of the Arno, 16 miles
W.S.W. of Florence; it has an old collegiate church with good paintings,
and manufactures of straw-bonnets. Pop. 21,500.
EMPO'RIA, a town of the United States, in Kansas, on the Neosho River, with
a normal school, and a good trade in grain and cattle. Pop. 9050.
EMPYREU'MA, the smell arising from organic matter when subjected to the
action of fire, but not enough to carbonize it entirely. The products of
imperfect combustion, as from wood heated in heaps or distilled in close
vessels, are frequently distinguished as empyreumatic.
EMS, or BAD EMS, a beautiful watering-place in the Prussian province of
Hesse-Nassau, on the River Lahn, not far from its confluence with the
Rhine. Its mineral waters are warm--from 70deg to 118deg F.,--contain large
quantities of carbonic acid gas, and are used in chronic catarrhs,
pulmonary complaints, diseases of the stomach, gout, and some diseases of
the urinary vessels. There are about 8000 visitors each season. Pop. 6850.
EMS, a river of North-West Germany, which flows north-west through Rhenish
Prussia and Hanover, and falls into the Dollart Estuary near Emden; length
230 miles.
EMU. See _Emeu_.
EMUL'SINE, or SYNAPTASE, originally the name given to the mixture of
enzymes in bitter and sweet almonds. Emulsine has the property of being
able to hydrolyse the glucoside amygdalin to glucose, benzaldehyde, and
hydrocyanic acid.
E'MYS, a genus of water-tortoises native to Europe and North America, and
belonging to the family Testudinidae, which includes most reptiles of the
tortoise kind.
ENALIOSAU'RIANS ('sea-lizards'), a group of gigantic Mesozoic reptiles of
which the ichthyosaurus and plesiosaurus were the chief.
[Illustration: Alfred's Jewel
A jewel of blue enamel enclosed in a setting of gold, with the words round
it: "Aelfred had me wrought", found at Athelney, Somersetshire, in the
seventeenth century.]
ENAM'EL, a vitreous glaze coloured with metallic oxides, and, when first
introduced, made to adhere by fusion on metals, &c. The ancient Babylonians
enamelled bricks. No finer enamelling on bronze was done than that done in
early Britain. The ancient Britons achieved great skill in decorating
bronze shields, armlets, chariot pieces, helmets, &c., with red, blue, and
white enamels during the Late Celtic (Early Iron Age) period and later.
Indeed it is believed that the _champlev['e]_ process of excavating hollows
for enamel on metal in various flowing and artistic designs of symbolic
character was developed in pre-Roman Britain. Philostratus, a third-century
classical writer, referring to the enamelled trappings of horses, remarks
that "the barbarians who reside in Ocean pour these colours on heated
bronze, so that they adhere and become hard as stone". Beautiful specimens
of enamelled bronze found in England, Scotland, and Ireland, preserved in
the British Museum, include the Battersea and Witham shields, bridle-bits
from Dumfries, and Rise, near Hull, and an enamelled 'terret' from the
Fayum, Egypt, whither, archaeologists believed, it was taken by some Roman
soldier. Enamelling on bronze and iron was practised in Central Europe and
at Koban in the Caucasus at an earlier date than in Italy and Egypt.
Byzantine enamels on gold date from the tenth century. M. Salomon Reinach
was the first to point out that red enamels were used as substitutes for
coral, which, by the way, had a religious value as a 'life giver' and
'protector'. The later blue enamel may have been a substitute for
lapis-lazuli, and other enamels, white, violet, green, and yellow, for
other sacred stones. The ancient enamels are more or less opaque.
Transparent enamels were favoured in the thirteenth century by Italian
goldsmiths. A favourite method of applying enamel is known as
_cloisonn['e]_, which means inlaid between partitions. The design is
outlined in bent-wire fillets, which are fastened to the plate by means of
silver solder or the enamel itself. In _champlev['e]_ work the plate itself
is scooped out into channels for the enamel. The distinction between
_cloisonn['e]_ and _champlev['e]_ work, therefore, is something like the
distinction between a breastwork and a trench. Enamelled glass is really
deeply coloured glass. Bicycle enamel is made of asphalt or resin dissolved
in oil, each coat being hardened by heat. Enamel paint is made by mixing
copal varnish, &c., with metallic oxides. A special preparation is applied
to leather which is afterwards heated--this is 'patent leather'. Enamel
painting dates back to the sixteenth century and is used nowadays chiefly
for street signs and advertisements. The term 'enamel' is applied to the
hard protective coating of teeth.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. Molinier, _Dictionnaire
des ['e]mailleurs_; H. Cunynghame, _Art of Enamelling_; A. Fisher, _The Art
of Enamelling upon Metal_; H. M. Chapin, _How to Enamel_.
ENA'RA, a lake in the north of Finland, about 50 miles long by 30 miles
broad. It is studded by innumerable islets, receives several streams, and
is connected by the Patsjoki with the Arctic Ocean. At its south-west
extremity is a small fishing-town of the same name, with an annual fair.
ENARE'A, a region belonging to the country of the Gallas, south of
Abyssinia. Sakha is the principal town. Coffee and ivory are the chief
exports. The inhabitants are the most civilized of the Gallas.
[Illustration: Encarpus, from Palazzo Niccolini, Rome]
ENCAR'PUS, in architecture, a sculptured ornament in imitation of a garland
of fruits, leaves, or flowers, suspended between two points. The garland is
widest in the middle, and diminishes gradually to the points of suspension,
from which the ends generally hang down. The encarpus is sometimes composed
of an imitation of drapery similarly disposed, and sometimes of an
assemblage of musical instruments, implements of war or of the chase.
ENCAUSTIC PAINTING, a kind of painting practised by the ancients, for the
perfecting of which heating or burning-in was required. Pliny distinguishes
three species, in all of which wax was used with colours, and applied
either with bronze instruments (cauteria), a sharp-pointed tool (cestrum),
or brushes. The art has been revived in modern times, but has not been
greatly employed. As the chief aim in encaustic painting was the securing
of permanence and durability by the application of heat, the word
_encaustic_ has been applied to other and widely different processes. Thus
it has been used for painting on earthen vessels, for painting on porcelain
and work in enamel; and in the same way it was given to the painting on
glass of the Middle Ages.--Cf. A. P. Laurie, _Greek and Roman Methods of
Painting_.
ENCAUSTIC TILES, ornamental paving-tiles of baked pottery, much used during
the Middle Ages in the pavements of churches and other ecclesiastical
buildings. The encaustic tile, strictly so-called, was decorated with
patterns formed by different coloured clays inlaid in the tile and fired
with it. The art appears to have originated in the latter part of the
twelfth century, to have attained its highest perfection during the
thirteenth, and to have sunk into disuse in the fifteenth. During the whole
of this period it was principally carried on in England and Normandy. After
a long lapse the art was revived in England in 1830 by Wright, a Shelton
potter. In modern manufacture two methods are employed, the 'plastic' and
the 'semi-dry' or 'dust' method. The first is, in all essentials, that used
in the Middle Ages, except, perhaps, in the perfection of modern moulding
appliances; the second consists in ramming pulverized clay with a minimum
of moisture into metal dies, the subsequent firing of tiles thus
consolidated being attended with less risk from shrinkage.
ENCE'NIA, festivals anciently commemorative of the founding of a city or
the dedication of a church; and in later times periodical ceremonies, as at
Oxford, in commemoration of founders and benefactors.
ENCEPHALARTOS, a genus of Cyeads, natives of Africa. Meal (Kaffir-bread) is
made from the pith by the natives.
ENCHANTER'S NIGHTSHADE, a name common to plants of the genus Circaea, nat.
ord. Onagraceae, of which there are two British species, _C. luteti[=a]na_
and _C. alp[=i]na_. The former is about a foot and a half high, and has
delicate ovate leaves, small white flowers tinged with pink, and small
roundish fruits covered with hooked bristles. It abounds in shady woods.
_C. alp[=i]na_, which is similar, but smaller and more delicate, is found
in Scotland and north of England. They have no affinity with the
nightshades.
ENCHORIAL (en-k[=o]'ri-al) WRITING, the form of writing used by the old
Egyptians for the common purposes of life, as distinct from the
hieroglyphic and hieratic (used by the priests). It is also called
_Demotic_.
ENCKE (en'ke), Johann Franz, German astronomer, born at Hamburg in 1791,
died in 1865. He studied under the astronomer Gauss at G[:o]ttingen. During
the War of Liberation (1813-5) he served as artillerist in the German army,
and after the peace became assistant in the observatory of Seeberg, near
Gotha. Here he calculated the orbit of the comet observed by Mechain, Miss
Herschel, and Pons, predicted its return, and detected a gradual
acceleration of movement, ascribed by him to the presence of a resisting
medium. The comet is now known as Encke's comet. The fame of his works _Die
Entfernung der Sonne_ (The Distance of the Sun) and _Der Venusdurchgang von
1769_ (Transit of Venus of 1769) led to his appointment as director of the
Berlin Observatory (1825), a position which he held till his death. From
1830 he edited the _Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch_.
ENCKE'S COMET. This object was seen in 1786, and at some subsequent
returns, before it was discovered by Encke in 1819 to be a periodic comet.
It has since been observed at numerous returns. It revolves round the sun
in about three and one-third years, having the shortest period of any comet
known. It has exhibited very prominently the feature, shown by many comets,
of a contraction of the head or coma on approaching the sun. Encke's comet
long manifested the most remarkable feature of a shortening of its period
by about two and a half hours in each revolution. The suggestion was made
that this was due to resistance by a rare medium generally diffused in the
solar system, which had the effect of reducing its aphelion distance and
diminishing its orbit. This, however, is improbable, as other comets show
no similar effect. The cause remains undiscovered, and a further
extraordinary fact is that the shortening of period is found since 1868 to
have been only half of its previous amount.
ENCLAVE ([.a]n-kl[=a]v), a term used in German and French to denote a place
or country which is entirely surrounded by the territories of another
power.
[Illustration: Fossil Encrinites
Group of Pear-encrinites, much reduced, on left, and part of a
Pear-encrinite, reduced, on right.]
EN'CRINITE, or CRINOIDEA (Gr. _krinon_, lily, and _eidos_, form), a name
often applied to all the marine animals of the class Crinoidea or
stone-lilies, phylum Echinodermata, except feather-stars; but more
specifically restricted to the genera having rounded, smooth stems attached
to the bottom, and supporting the body of the animal, which has numerous
jointed arms radiating from a central disc, in which the mouth is situated.
Encrinites were exceedingly numerous in past ages of the world's history;
of those still existing our knowledge has been greatly increased of recent
years through deep-sea dredging. Some of these forms are very graceful and
interesting. See _Crinoidea_; _Echinodermata_.
ENCY'CLICAL, a sort of circular letter or manifesto issued by a pope, and
directed to the Roman Catholic clergy generally or to those of a certain
country or area, giving instructions as to conduct to be observed at
certain conjunctures, condemning erroneous doctrines, &c. The encyclical,
which is a somewhat less formal document than a bull, was especially
favoured by Pope Pius IX and Leo XIII. Pope Pius IX issued one in 1864,
wherein he condemned eighty alleged errors in modern ideas of religion and
civilization, and Pius X issued another in 1907, wherein he condemned
modernism. A number of encyclicals was issued by Pope Leo XIII on Bible
Study, Socialism, Capital and Labour.
ENCYCLOPEDIA (Gr. _en_, in, _kyklos_, a circle, and _paideia_,
instruction), a systematic view of the whole extent of human knowledge or
of particular departments of it, with the subjects arranged generally in
alphabetic order. Varro and Pliny the elder, among the Romans, attempted
works of an encyclopedic nature, the latter in his well-known _Historia
Naturalis_, or _Natural History_. Other ancient encyclopedic works were
those of Stobaeus and Suidas, and especially of Marcianus Capella. In the
thirteenth century a work on a regular plan was compiled by the Dominican
Vincent of Beauvais (died 1264), in which was exhibited the whole sum of
the knowledge of the Middle Ages. His work was entitled _Speculum
Historiale, Naturale, Doctrinale_, to which an anonymous author added, some
years later, a _Speculum Morale_. Roger Bacon's _Opus Majus_ also belonged
to the encyclopedic class. An exceedingly popular work was the _De
Proprietatibus Rerum_ of Bartholomeus de Glanvilla, an English Franciscan
friar, which maintained its reputation from 1360 to the middle of the
sixteenth century. In the seventeenth century various encyclopedic works
were compiled, such as the Latin one of Johann Heinrich Alsted (in 7 vols.,
Herborn, 1620). In 1674 appeared the first edition of Moreri's _Le Grand
Dictionnaire Historique_; in 1677 Johann Jacob Hoffmann published at Basel
his _Lexicon Universale_; and in 1697 appeared Bayle's famous _Dictionnaire
Historique et Critique_, which is still of great value. The first English
alphabetical encyclopaedia was the _Lexicon Technicum_, published in 1704.
Among the chief English works of this kind are: 1. Ephraim Chambers's
_Cyclopaedia, or A Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences_, published in
1728 in 2 vols. folio. 2. _The Encyclopaedia Britannica_, published in
Edinburgh, in nine editions--the first in 1788, the ninth in 1875-88 (24
vols. 4to, with supplement, 11 vols., 1902-3). The tenth edition was
published in 1902, and the eleventh issued in 1910-11 by the University
Press, Cambridge. 3. Rees' _Cyclopaedia_, 39 vols. 4to, illustrated,
1802-20. 4. _Edinburgh Encyclopaedia_, 1810-30, 18 vols. 4to, conducted by
Sir David (then Dr.) Brewster. 5. _Encyclopaedia Metropolitana_, London, 29
vols. 4to, and containing some valuable complete treatises. 6. _The London
Encyclopaedia_, by Thomas Curtis, 22 vols. 4to; London, 1829. 7. _The Penny
Cyclopaedia_, in 28 vols. small folio, 1833-43; since recast under the name
of the _English Cyclopaedia_. 8. _Chambers's Encyclopaedia_, in 10 vols. 9.
_The Popular Encyclopaedia_, issued in 14 vols. 10. Harmsworth's _Universal
Encyclopedia_. 11. Nelson's _The New Age Encyclopaedia_. 12. _The New
Gresham Encyclopedia_, 12 vols. (one being index). The chief American
encyclopaedias are the _Encyclopaedia Americana_, in 13 vols.; the _New
American Cyclopaedia_, in 16 vols.; _Johnson's Universal Cyclopedia_, 8
vols.; _The New International Encyclopaedia_, 25 vols. Of the French
cyclopaedias the most famous is the great _Dictionnaire Encyclop['e]dique_,
by Diderot and D'Alembert (see next article); the _Encyclop['e]die
M['e]thodique, ou par Ordre des Mati[`e]res_, Paris, 1781-1832, in 201
vols. 4to, of which 47 are plates; the _Encyclop['e]die Moderne_, 1824-32,
26 vols.; the _Encyclop['e]die des Gens du Monde_, 1835-44, 22 vols.; the
_Dictionnaire de la Conversation et de la Lecture_, 1851-58; the excellent
_Grande Encyclop['e]die_, 31 vols.; and the large and valuable _Grand
Dictionnaire Universel du XIX^e Si[`e]cle_, published by Larousse, 16 vols.
folio (with supplementary vols.); _The Nouveau Larousse Illustr['e]_, 7
vols. Numerous works of this kind have been published in Germany, the most
popular being the _Conversations-Lexikon_ of Brockhaus; Meyer's
_Konversations-Lexicon_; Pierer's _Konversations-Lexikon_; and that issued
by Spamer. The most comprehensive is the _Allgemeine Encyklop[:a]die_,
originally edited by Professors Ersch and Gruber, begun in 1818, and not
yet completed. _The Rousskiy Entsiklopeditsheskiy Slovarj_, the best
Russian encyclopedia, in 43 vols, was published between 1905 and 1908.
ENCYCLOP['E]DIE ([.a]n-sik-lo-p[=a]-d[=e]), THE FRENCH, one of the most
important literary enterprises of the eighteenth century, originated in a
French translation of Ephraim Chambers's _Cyclopaedia_. Diderot was
appointed to edit it, and enlisted the ablest men of the time as
contributors. D'Alembert (who wrote the famous _Discours pr['e]liminaire_)
edited the mathematics; Rousseau wrote the musical articles; Daubenton,
those connected with natural history; the Abb['e] Yvon, those on logic,
metaphysics, and ethics; Toussaint, those on jurisprudence; Buffon
contributed the article _Nature_; and Montesquieu, Voltaire, Euler,
Marmontel, D'Holbach, Turgot, Grimm, and Condorcet took some share in the
great work. Diderot himself was a prolific contributor on a wide variety of
topics. The prospectus appeared in Nov., 1750, and the first volume in
1751, the whole being completed, despite fierce opposition, in 1765. The
contributors to the _Encyclop['e]die_, the majority of whom held unorthodox
views on religious, political, and social subjects, are known as the
_Encyclop['e]distes_.
ENDEM'IC (Gr. _en_ and _demos_, people) is a term applied to diseases
peculiar to people of a particular district or of a nation or country. The
cause of this may be due to the physical characters of the place, or to the
mode of living, habits, &c., of the people. Diseases endemic in one region
may appear elsewhere when similar influences arise.
EN'DERBY LAND, an island in the Antarctic Ocean, long. 50deg E., crossed by
the Antarctic Circle. It was discovered by John Biscoe in 1831.
EN'DIVE. See _Chicory_.
ENDLESS SCREW, a mechanical contrivance, consisting of a screw the thread
of which gears into a wheel with skew teeth, the obliquity corresponding to
the angle of pitch of the screw. It is generally employed as a means of
producing slow motion in the adjustments of machines, rather than as
transmitter of any great amount of power.
ENDLICHER (end'li-h[.e]r), Stephen Ladislaus, Hungarian botanist, born at
Presburg in 1804. He was successively court-librarian at Vienna, and keeper
of the natural history museum; and in 1840 was appointed professor of
botany in the University of Vienna, and director of the botanic garden,
which he immediately began to reorganize. He took part on the popular side
in the German revolution of 1848, and died by his own hand in 1849. Among
his chief botanical works are his _Genera Plantarum_, a systematic treatise
on botany; and his _Enchiridion Botanicum_, or _Manual of Botany_.
ENDOCARDI'TIS, is inflammation of the endocardium, which is the lining
membrane of the internal surface of the heart.
ENDODERMIS, the innermost layer of the cortex. It acts as a 'physiological
barrier' between the vascular tissues and the cortex, its structure being
such as to compel all interchange of water and other materials between the
two to pass through the living protoplasm of the endodermal cells. Sec
_Tissues of Plants_.
ENDOG'AMY (Gr. _endon_, within, _gamos_, marriage), a custom among some
savage peoples of marrying only within their own tribe: opposite to
_exogamy_.
ENDOGENOUS PLANTS, old name for monocotyledons (q.v.).
ENDOGENOUS STRUCTURES, in botany, are those which arise in the interior of
the parent organ. Lateral roots furnish the best example. Opposed to
exogenous structures (see also _Branching_ and _Root_).
EN'DOMORPH, a term applied to crystals of minerals enclosed in those of
other minerals.
EN'DOPARASITE (Gr. _endon_, within), a parasite living within, and at the
expense of, another organism, as opposed to an _ectoparasite_, which
attacks its host from the exterior.
EN'DOSKELETON, in anatomy, a term applied to the internal bony structure of
man and other animals (Gr. _endon_, within), in contradistinction to
_exoskeleton_, which is the outer and hardened covering of such animals as
the crab and lobster.
EN'DOSMOSE, or ENDOSMO'SIS, the transmission of liquids or gases through
porous septa or partitions from the exterior to the interior of a vessel.
When two different liquids or gases are separated by a porous vessel, the
two fluids pass through the walls of the vessel at different rates, causing
a change of volume and of pressure inside and outside the vessel. Endosmose
is the name applied to the flow towards the fluid which is increasing in
volume. When the transfer of liquid across the porous partition takes place
in a cell through which an electric current is flowing the effect is called
electrical endosmose.
EN'DOSPERM, the tissue surrounding the embryo in many seeds and contained
with it within the testa. It forms a supply of food for the germinating
embryo, and is also called albumen.
ENDYM'ION, in Greek mythology, a huntsman, a shepherd, or a king of Elis,
who is said to have asked of Zeus, or to have received as a punishment,
eternal sleep. Others relate that Sel[=e]n[=e] or Diana (the moon) conveyed
him to Mount Latmos in Caria, and threw him into a perpetual sleep in order
that she might enjoy his society whenever she pleased. Endymion is also
supposed to be a personification of the sun, or of the plunge of the
setting sun into the sea.--Cf. Keats, _Endymion_.
ENERGY, PHYSICAL, is the capacity which a body or system of bodies has for
doing work. Work is done when a force is overcome, and it is measured by
the product of the force and the distance through which it is overcome. A
quantity of energy is therefore expressed in terms of the same units as
work, e.g. the foot-pound and the erg. Energy exists in two forms.
Potential energy is that which a body possesses in virtue of its position.
For instance, by winding up a clock weight it is given a certain amount of
potential energy, which it slowly expends in driving the clock; a bent
spring and a mass of compressed air also possess energy in the potential
form. This kind may also be noted in the voltaic cell and the charged
condenser, and in a chemical form in coal and gunpowder. Kinetic energy is
possessed by bodies in virtue of their motion. Thus a moving bullet and a
falling hammer contain kinetic energy; bodies which are in a state of
vibration are also sources of this form of energy, which is diffused from
the body through the surrounding medium in the form of waves, whether of
sound, heat, light, or the ether waves of radio-telegraphy. Energy may thus
exist in any of the following forms: mechanical (potential, kinetic),
sound, heat, light, magnetic, electrostatic, electromagnetic, chemical.
Energy may be transformed from one kind into another. When a pendulum is
vibrating, there is a continual transformation of potential into kinetic
energy, and vice versa. By rubbing the hands together we convert mechanical
energy into heat. In an electric tramway system we may note a whole series
of transformations. The chemical energy of the fuel is turned into heat in
the furnace and boiler; this, again, into kinetic energy of the turbine and
dynamo; the latter gives out electric current, the energy of which, after
suffering slight losses as heat in the overhead wire, and as light and
sound in the spark at the trolley, passes into the motor, to reappear as
kinetic energy of the car.
The transformation of energy takes place according to a definite law. The
principle of the conservation of energy states that the total amount of
energy in a self-contained finite system is constant. This implies that
energy cannot be destroyed, and that when a certain amount of energy
disappears, an equal amount appears in another form. This principle is
apparently contradicted in many cases of transformation, since it is
impossible to transform energy by natural process, or by the use of
mechanism, without doing work in overcoming frictional or resisting forces.
In all such cases the energy spent is converted into heat, which is less
available as useful energy. The experiments of Rumford, Davy, and Joule
were instrumental in establishing the equivalence of mechanical energy and
heat. Rumford showed that water could be boiled by means of the heat
produced by rotating a blunt boring-tool within a cannon, and pointed out
that the heat liberated was, in another form, the energy spent in driving
the blunt drill. Davy caused two pieces of ice to be rubbed together within
a vacuum at a temperature below zero, and melted the ice, thus showing
that, since ice has to absorb heat in order to melt, the supply of heat
could not have come from the ice itself, but must have resulted from the
work done in rubbing. It has to be remembered that, in the time of Rumford
and Davy, the belief was prevalent that heat or caloric was a material
substance, and not a form of motion.
A further and most important step was made by Dr. J. P. Joule, of
Manchester, who measured the amount of mechanical work which is spent in
producing one unit of heat. This is known as the mechanical equivalent of
heat, or Joule's equivalent. Two hanging weights were geared to a set of
paddles which could rotate within a cylindrical copper vessel filled with
water, and supplied with fixed vanes. The weights were released, and in
descending a measured distance caused the paddles to churn the water in the
vessel, and thus the water was slightly warmed. This operation was repeated
several times, and the rise of temperature of the water was measured by
means of a delicate thermometer. When corrections for friction, cooling,
and other losses had been applied, Joule calculated that 772 foot-pounds of
work were expended in raising 1 lb. of water 1deg F. The experiment has
been repeated in various forms, and the value now accepted for Joule's
equivalent is 777.
Although energy cannot be destroyed, nor, it may be added, created, it may
be rendered less available for use. The various forms of energy may be
classified according to their availability, and in this respect mechanical
energy is one of the most available, and low-temperature heat is one of the
least available. The latter is therefore classed as a lower form of energy,
and when energy is converted from a more available to a less available
form, it is said to be dissipated or degraded. Now, during any
transformation of energy, a part of the energy is spent in overcoming
friction forces, and is thus degraded.
The problem of economizing our stores of energy is one which is now
attracting more attention than it did formerly. With the greater scarcity
of coal, and the future prospect of its complete absence, other natural
sources of energy are being investigated. Oil has been discovered in this
country, but not in large quantities. Waterfalls have long been employed
for driving mills wherever this type of power could be obtained cheaply and
conveniently; the resources of the Highlands in this respect have not been
utilized to any great extent. At Kinlochleven, where the valley has been
dammed across to obtain sufficient water-power, an aluminium industry has
sprung up. There is a scheme on foot at the present time to make use of the
tidal energy of the Severn. Here and there windmills may be seen which
drive water-pumps employed for draining purposes. On the Severn, near
Ironbridge, a ferry is in use which employs the force of the river current
to propel the ferryboat across the river. In warmer countries batteries of
mirrors have been employed to concentrate the sun's heat for use in the
absence of fuel. In large towns the presence of unconsumed carbon (soot) in
the atmosphere raises the question not only of fuel economy but also of
public health.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Kelvin and Tait, _Natural Philosophy_;
Balfour Stewart, _Conservation of Energy_; Deschanel, _Heat, Light, &c._;
E. Buckingham, _Thermodynamics_.
ENFANTIN ([.a][n.]-f[.a][n.]-ta[n.]), Barth['e]lemy Prosper, one of the
chief founders of St. Simonism; born at Paris 1796, died in 1864. In 1825
he became acquainted with St. Simon, who in dying confided to him the task
of continuing the work. This he did with success until after the Revolution
of 1830, when, as the representative of the social and religious theories
of the school, he quarrelled with Bazard, the representative of its
political ideas. Enfantin organized model communities, which quickly fell
to pieces; the new organ of the sect, _Le Globe_, was a failure; their
convent at M['e]nilmontant, of which Enfantin was 'supreme father', was
broken up by the Government (1832). He himself was imprisoned as an
offender against public morality (being an advocate of free love), and on
his release attempted to found a model colony in Egypt, which was broken up
in the second year. He then retired to Tain (Dr[^o]me), where he lived for
some time as a farmer. In 1841 he was sent as member of a commission to
explore the industrial resources of Algiers, and on his return published a
work on the _Colonization of Algiers_ (1848). On the Revolution of 1848 he
started a new journal, _Le Cr['e]dit Public_, but after two years withdrew
from public notice. He afterwards held a post on the Lyons and
Mediterranean Railway until his death. Among his works are: _Doctrine de
St. Simon_, _La Religion St. Simonienne_.
EN'FIELD, a town, England, county Middlesex, 9 miles N. by E. London. It is
the seat of the Government manufactory of rifles and small-arms. It gives
its name to the British rifle (Lee-Enfield), which helped to win the
European War. Pop. 56,338.
ENFILADE FIRE, fire directed down the length of a trench or a line of
troops from a point at right angles to their front. Its moral effect is
very great, as it usually comes from an unexpected direction, and the
target presented to it is generally more vulnerable. Trenches give much
less protection against oblique or enfilade fire than they do against
frontal fire, although the main purpose of 'bays' is to lessen the effect
of enfilading.
EN'GADINE, a beautiful valley in Switzerland, in the Grisons, on the banks
of the Inn, bordering on the Tyrol, about 50 miles long, but in some parts
very narrow, divided into Upper and Lower. The pop. of the whole valley
amounts to about 12,000. The language generally spoken is the Ladin, a
branch of the Romanic tongue. The cold, dry climate and mineral springs
have made the valley a favourite resort for invalids.
ENGAGED COLUMN, in architecture, a column attached to a wall so that part
of it (usually less than half) is concealed.
ENGELS, FRIEDRICH, German Socialist, born at Barmen in 1820, died 1895. He
was the son of a rich cotton-spinner, and although destined for a
commercial career, he began to collaborate on the _Deutsch-Franzosische
Jahrb[:u]cher_ issued in Paris by Karl Marx and Arnold Ruge. He helped Marx
to organize the Communist League in 1846, and took part in the Revolution
of 1848 at Baden. From 1850 to 1869 he lived at Manchester as manufacturer.
An intimate friend of Marx, he helped the latter to spread social
democratic ideas, and was part author, of the _Communist Manifesto_. After
the death of Marx he edited the second and third volumes of _Das Kapital_.
Engel's own works include: _The Condition of the Working Classes in England
in 1844_; _The Origin of the Family_; _Private Property and the State_; and
_Socialism, Utopian and Scientific_.--Cf. Karl Kautsky, _Friedrich Engels:
his Life, his Work, and his Writings_.
ENGHIEN ([.a][n.]-gi-[.a][n.]), or _Enguien_, a town in Hainault, Belgium,
between Brussels and Tournai. It has a superb castle, and gave the title of
duke to a prince of the house of Bourbon Cond['e] in memory of the victory
gained here by the great Cond['e]. Pop. 4540.
ENGHIEN ([.a][n.]-gi-[.a][n.]), Louis Antoine Henri de Bourbon, Duke of,
born at Chantilly in 1772; son of Louis Henry Joseph Cond['e], Duke of
Bourbon. On the outbreak of the Revolution he quitted France, travelled
through various parts of Europe, and went in 1792 to Flanders to join his
grandfather, the Prince of Cond['e], in the campaign against France. From
1796 to 1799 he commanded with distinguished merit the vanguard of
Cond['e]'s army, which was disbanded at the Peace of Lun['e]ville (1801).
He then took up residence as a private citizen at Ettenheim in Baden, where
he married the Princess Charlotte de Rohan Rochefort. He was generally
looked upon as the leader of the _['e]migr['e]s_ (q.v.), and was suspected
by the Bonapartists of complicity in the attempt of Cadoudal to assassinate
the first consul. An armed force was sent to seize him in Baden in
violation of all territorial rights, and he was brought to Vincennes on the
20th March, 1804. A trial, which was a mere form, was held the same night;
and on the following morning he was shot in the ditch outside the walls. It
was this event which drew from Fouch['e] the comment, since become
proverbial: "C'est plus qu'un crime, c'est une faute" ("It is worse than a
crime, it is a blunder").
EN'GINE. See _Internal Combustion Engines_; _Steam-engines_.
ENGINEERING, the profession concerned in applying the forces of nature to
the service of man. It is divided into two groups, civil engineering and
military engineering. This grouping of the profession of engineering is
adopted in the Charter of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Army
engineers are organized as Royal Engineers. Candidates intending to become
Royal Engineer officers have to pass the Army Entrance Examination to gain
admission to Woolwich. At Woolwich they receive a course of technical
instruction, and then proceed to military engineering duties in the Royal
Engineers. Naval engineers enter the service as naval cadets. The education
of all naval cadets is the same, no matter in what branch of the service
they may ultimately specialize, up to the rank of sub-lieutenant, when
specialization begins. The engineering lieutenants undergo a special course
of engineering training at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and then go
to sea. Naval engineers are called upon to undergo a severe medical
examination, as the conditions of service call for robust men.
In the ordinary way the term _civil engineering_ is not used in the
technical sense explained above, but is the name given to one of the
sections into which the whole group is divided. The 'civil' engineer
undertakes the design and erection of constructional works, such as
harbours, docks, railways, buildings, bridges, &c. A person entering the
profession of civil engineering usually receives a technical education at a
technical school, or at a university, and then enters the office of a
practising civil engineer. He will spend a part of his time at the
drawing-board, learning the details of design, and a part of his time
actually in the field or on works, assisting in the supervision of the
work. The other departments of the group of 'civil engineers'--as distinct
from military engineers--are mechanical engineers, electrical engineers,
motor engineers, telegraph engineers, radio engineers, mining engineers,
aeronautical engineers, &c. With the exception of mining, the courses of
training in these sections are very much the same, and consist of a
technical course in a college or a university, followed by a practical
training as a pupil in a works. The prior technical education is now being
insisted upon by most of the large engineering firms, and, in many of the
best works, special courses of instruction are given to apprentices as part
of their training by the most experienced engineers of the company. In
mining, the orthodox training consists of a technical course in one of the
mining schools, followed by practical work in a mine. In this country every
mining engineer who intends to take a position of responsibility must
qualify by passing a Board of Trade examination. Sea-going marine
engineering officers have, in addition to undergoing the usual training, to
pass the sea-going engineers' examination of the Board of Trade. It will be
seen from the above remarks that the courses of training for engineers
depend entirely upon the particular branch of engineering which is to be
entered. As this point is often not finally settled till fairly late in a
young man's career, it is possibly unwise for him to take his initial
training in too narrow a groove. A sound, general technical education,
combined with three or four years' experience in a general engineering
works, will fit him for specializing in very many sections of engineering,
whereas if he intends to enter the mining or the civil engineering
professions, a sound technical course, followed by a few years' experience
in civil or mining engineering work abroad will usually fit him for a
specialized post later on.
ENGINEERS, ROYAL. Military engineers in one form or another, and under
various names, have existed in England since the eleventh century. In those
early days men of some education--often monks--were appointed as
Ingeniatores Regis to undertake the manufacture of the king's engines of
war, and to build his castles. In later years they became known as
Attilators, and when, with the gradual introduction of gunpowder for
military purposes, a combined train was formed, are considered to have
given their name to what we now call artillery. In the early seventeenth
century this train, composed of engineers and artillery, was merely a
temporary corps raised for a particular war and disbanded on its
conclusion; but in 1698, when the expediency of maintaining a standing army
had been to some extent recognized, the first permanent train was raised.
In 1716 a separate body of engineers was formed, but without military rank,
and it was not till 1782 that military titles were conferred on the
officers of engineers. In 1787 the Corps of Engineers became by Royal
Warrant the Corps of Royal Engineers, with the mottoes _Ubique_ and _Quo
fas et gloria ducunt_, which are also borne by the Royal Regiment of
Artillery. For a considerable period the rank and file of the corps were
known as the 'Royal Sappers and Pioneers', and the term 'Sapper' is still
used to denote a private of the corps. Among the present-day peace-time
duties of the Royal Engineers are the construction and maintenance of
barracks and military works generally, while for war purposes the corps is
organized into mobile units known as field squadrons and companies for
general field-work, and into more highly specialized units for mining,
heavy bridging, and railway work. The corps is recruited almost entirely
from among artisans and tradesmen, and a field company of a total strength
of 184 all ranks has representatives of no fewer than nineteen trades in
it.
[Illustration]
ENGLAND, including _Wales_, the southern and larger portion of the Island
of Great Britain, is situated between 50deg and 55deg 46' N. lat., and 1deg
46' E. and 5deg 42' W. long. On the north it is bounded by Scotland; on all
other sides it is washed by the sea: on the east by the North Sea; on the
south by the English Channel; and on the west by St. George's Channel and
the Irish Sea. Its figure is, roughly speaking, triangular, but with many
windings and indentations, the coast-line measuring not less than 2765
miles. The length of the country, measured on a meridian from Berwick
nearly to St. Alban's Head, is 365 miles. Its breadth, measured on a
parallel of latitude, attains its maximum between St. David's Head, in
South Wales, and the Naze, in Essex, where it amounts to 280 miles. The
area is 37,340,388 acres or 58,310 sq. miles, of which 32,559,868 acres or
50,874 sq. miles are in England, and 4,780,470 acres or 7466 sq. miles in
Wales. This is exclusive of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, which
together would add 193,647 acres or 302 sq. miles more to the area. The
subdivision of England into shires or counties does not appear to have
assumed a definite form till the time of Alfred. The existing division was
first completed under Henry VIII. There are now 'administrative counties'
and 'registration counties', differing in area from the old counties;
London being now a county. The figures in the table (p. 241) refer to the
old counties.
The capital of England and of the British Empire is London. The cities next
in size (in order of population) are: Liverpool, Manchester and Salford,
Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol, Bradford, Nottingham, and Hull.
_Physical Features._--The chief indentations are: on the east, the Humber,
the Wash, and the Thames estuary: on the west, the Solway Firth, Morecambe
Bay, Cardigan Bay, and the Bristol Channel; those on the south are less
prominent, though including some useful harbours. The greater part of the
coast consists of cliffs, in some places clayey, in others rocky, and
sometimes jutting out, as at Whitby and Flamborough Head on the east,
Beachy Head, the Isle of Portland, the Lizard and Land's End on the south
and south-west, St. David's Head and St. Bees Head on the west, into bold,
lofty, and precipitous headlands. The most extensive stretches of flat
coast are on the east, in the county of Lincoln, and from the southern part
of Suffolk to the South Foreland in Kent, and in Sussex and Hants on the
south coast. The chief islands are: Holy Island, the Farne Islands,
Sheppey, and Thanet on the east coast; the Isle of Wight on the south; the
Scilly Isles at the south-west extremity; and Lundy Island, Anglesey, Holy
Island, and Walney on the west.
[Illustration]
The loftiest heights of England and Wales are situated at no great distance
from its western shores, and consist not so much of a continuous chain as
of a succession of mountains and hills stretching, with some interruptions,
from north to south, and throwing out numerous branches on both sides, but
particularly to the west, where all the culminating summits are found. The
northern portion of this range has received the name of the Pennine chain.
It is properly a continuation of the Cheviot Hills, and, commencing at the
Scottish border, proceeds south for about 270 miles till, in the counties
of Derby and Stafford, it assumes the form of an elevated moorland plateau.
In Derbyshire The Peak rises to the height of 2080 feet. By far the most
important of its offsets are those of the west, more especially if we
include in them the lofty mountain masses in North-Western England
sometimes classed separately as the Cumbrian range. Amidst these mountains
lie the celebrated English lakes, of which the most important are
Windermere, Derwent Water, Coniston Lake, and Ullswater. Here also is the
highest summit of Northern England, Scawfell (3210 feet). The Pennine
chain, with its appended Cumbrian range, is succeeded by one which
surpasses both these in loftiness and extent, but has its great nucleus
much farther to the west, where it covers the greater part of Wales,
deriving from this its name, the Cambrian range. Its principal ridge
stretches through Carnarvonshire from N.N.E to S.S.W., with Snowdon (3571
feet) as the culminating point of South Britain. Across the Bristol Channel
from Wales is the Devonian range. It may be considered as commencing in the
Mendip Hills of Somerset, and then pursuing a south-westerly direction
through that county and the counties of Devon and Cornwall to the Land's
End, the wild and desolate tract of Dartmoor forming one of its most
remarkable features (highest summit, Yes Tor, 2050 feet). Other ranges are
the Cotswold Hills proceeding in a north-easterly direction from near the
Mendip Hills; the Chiltern Hills taking a similar direction farther to the
east; and the North and South Downs running eastward, the latter reaching
the south coast near Beachy Head, the former reaching the south-east coast
at Folkestone.
Column Headings:
A - Area in Statute Acres, 1921 (Land and Inland Water). Counties,
including County Boroughs,
B - _Census Population._ Counties, including County Boroughs, 1911.
C - _Census Population._ Counties, including County Boroughs, 1921.
+--------------------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
| | A | B | C |
+--------------------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
| ENGLAND. | | | |
| Bedfordshire | 302,942 | 194,588 | 206,478 |
| Berkshire | 463,830 | 280,794 | 294,807 |
| Buckinghamshire | 479,360 | 219,551 | 236,209 |
| Cambridgeshire | 315,168 | 128,322 | 129,594 |
| Isle of Ely | 238,073 | 69,752 | 73,778 |
| Cheshire | 657,950 | 954,779 | 1,025,423 |
| Cornwall | 868,167 | 328,098 | 320,559 |
| Cumberland | 973,086 | 265,746 | 273,037 |
| Derbyshire | 650,369 | 683,423 | 714,539 |
| Devonshire | 1,671,364 | 699,703 | 709,488 |
| Dorsetshire | 625,612 | 223,266 | 228,258 |
| Durham | 649,244 | 1,369,860 | 1,478,506 |
| Essex | 979,532 | 1,350,881 | 1,468,341 |
| Gloucestershire | 805,842 | 736,097 | 757,668 |
| Herefordshire | 538,924 | 114,269 | 113,118 |
| Hertfordshire | 404,523 | 311,284 | 333,236 |
| Huntingdonshire | 233,985 | 55,577 | 54,748 |
| Kent | 975,965 | 1,045,591 | 1,141,867 |
| Lancashire | 1,194,555 | 4,767,832 | 4,928,359 |
| Leicestershire | 532,779 | 476,553 | 494,522 |
| Lincolnshire | | | |
| The parts of Holland | 263,355 | 82,849 | 85,225 |
| The parts of Kesteven | 469,142 | 111,324 | 108,237 |
| The parts of Lindsey | 972,796 | 369,787 | 408,643 |
| London | 74,850 | 4,521,685 | 4,483,249 |
| Middlesex | 148,692 | 1,126,465 | 1,253,164 |
| Monmouthshire | 349,552 | 395,719 | 450,700 |
| Norfolk | 1,315,064 | 499,116 | 504,277 |
| Northamptonshire | 585,148 | 303,797 | 302,430 |
| Soke of Peterborough | 53,464 | 44,718 | 46,954 |
| Northumberland | 1,291,515 | 696,893 | 746,138 |
| Nottinghamshire | 540,123 | 604,098 | 641,134 |
| Oxfordshire | 479,220 | 189,484 | 189,558 |
| Rutlandshire | 97,273 | 20,346 | 18,368 |
| Shropshire | 861,800 | 246,307 | 242,959 |
| Somersetshire | 1,037,594 | 458,025 | 465,682 |
| Southampton | 958,896 | 862,393 | 910,333 |
| Isle of Wight | 94,146 | 88,186 | 94,697 |
| Staffordshire | 741,318 | 1,279,649 | 1,349,225 |
| Suffolk, East | 557,353 | 277,155 | 291,006 |
| Suffolk, West | 390,916 | 116,905 | 108,982 |
| Surrey | 461,833 | 845,578 | 930,377 |
| Sussex, East | 530,555 | 487,070 | 532,206 |
| Sussex, West | 401,916 | 176,308 | 195,795 |
| Warwickshire | 605,275 | 1,247,418 | 1,390,092 |
| Westmoreland | 504,917 | 63,575 | 65,740 |
| Wiltshire | 864,101 | 286,822 | 292,213 |
| Worcestershire | 458,352 | 387,688 | 405,876 |
| Yorkshire, East Riding | 750,115 | 432,759 | 460,717 |
| " North Riding | 1,362,058 | 419,546 | 456,312 |
| " West Riding | 1,773,529 | 3,045,377 | 3,181,654 |
| +-------------+-------------+-------------+
| Totals | 32,559,868 | 34,045,290 | 35,678,530 |
| | | | |
| WALES. | | | |
| Anglesey | 176,630 | 50,928 | 51,695 |
| Brecknockshire | 469,281 | 59,287 | 61,257 |
| Cardiganshire | 443,189 | 59,879 | 61,292 |
| Carmarthenshire | 588,472 | 160,406 | 175,069 |
| Carnarvonshire | 366,005 | 125,043 | 131,034 |
| Denbighshire | 426,080 | 144,783 | 154,847 |
| Flintshire | 163,707 | 92,705 | 106,466 |
| Glamorganshire | 520,456 | 1,120,910 | 1,252,701 |
| Merionethshire | 422,372 | 45,565 | 45,450 |
| Montgomeryshire | 510,110 | 53,146 | 51,317 |
| Pembrokeshire | 393,003 | 89,960 | 92,056 |
| Radnorshire | 301,165 | 22,590 | 23,528 |
| +-------------+-------------+-------------+
| Totals, Wales | | | |
| (12 counties) | 4,780,470 | 2,025,202 | 2,206,712 |
| | | | |
| Totals, England | | | |
| and Wales | 37,340,338 | 36,070,492 | 37,885,242 |
+--------------------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
A large part of the surface of England consists of wide valleys and plains.
Beginning in the north, the first valleys on the east side are those of the
Coquet, Tyne, and Tees; on the west the beautiful valley of the Eden,
which, at first hemmed in between the Cumbrian range and Pennine chain,
gradually widens out into a plain of about 470 sq. miles, with the town of
Carlisle in its centre. The most important of the northern plains is the
Vale of York, which has an area of nearly 1000 sq. miles. Properly speaking
it is still the same plain which stretches, with scarcely a single
interruption, across the counties of Lincoln, Suffolk, and Essex, to the
mouth of the Thames, and to a considerable distance inland, comprising the
Central Plain and the region of the Fens. On the west side of the island,
in South Lancashire and Cheshire, is the fertile Cheshire Plain. In Wales
there are no extensive plains, the valleys generally having a narrow rugged
form favourable to romantic beauty, but not compatible with great
fertility. Wales, however, by giving rise to the Severn, can justly claim
part in the vale, or series of almost unrivalled vales, along which it
pursues its romantic course through the counties of Montgomery, Salop,
Worcester, and Gloucester. South-east of the Cotswold Hills is Salisbury
Plain, but it is only in name that it can be classed with the other plains
and level lands of England, being a large elevated plateau, of an oval
shape, with a thin chalky soil only suitable for pasture. In the south-west
the only vales deserving of notice are those of Taunton in Somerset and
Exeter in Devon. A large portion of the south-east may be regarded as a
continuous plain, consisting of what are called the Wealds of Sussex,
Surrey, and Kent, between the North and South Downs, and containing an area
of about 1000 sq. miles. The south-east angle of this district is occupied
by the Romney Marsh, an extensive level tract composed for the most part of
a rich marine deposit. Extensive tracts of a similar nature are situated on
the east coast, in Yorkshire and Lincoln, where they are washed by the
Humber; and in the counties which either border the Wash, or, like
Northampton, Bedford, Huntingdon, and Cambridge, send their drainage into
it by the Nene and the Ouse. Many of these lands are naturally the richest
in the kingdom, but have been utilized only by means of drainage.
England is well supplied with rivers, many of them of great importance to
industry and commerce. Most of them carry their waters to the North Sea. If
we consider the drainage as a whole, four principal river basins may be
distinguished, those of the Thames, Wash, and Humber belonging to the North
Sea; and the Severn belonging to the Atlantic. The basin of the Thames has
its greatest length from east to west, 130 miles, and its average breadth
about 50 miles, area 6160 sq. miles. The river itself, which is the chief
of English rivers, has a length of 215 miles. The basin of the Wash
consists of the subordinate basins of the Great Ouse, Nene, Welland, and
Witham, which all empty themselves into that estuary, and has an area
computed at 5850 sq. miles. The basin of the Severn consists of two
distinct portions, that on the right bank, of an irregularly oval shape,
and having for its principal tributaries the Teme and the Wye; and that on
the left, of which the Upper Avon is the principal tributary stream. The
area of the whole basin is 8580 sq. miles. The next basin, that of the
Humber, the largest of all, consists of the three basins of the Humber
proper, the Ouse, and the Trent, and its area is 9550 sq. miles, being
about one-sixth of the whole area of England and Wales. Other rivers
unconnected with these systems are the Tyne, Wear, and Tees in the
north-east; the Eden, Ribble, Mersey, and Dee in the north-west. The
south-coast streams are very unimportant except for their estuaries.
For the minerals, climate, agriculture, manufactures, &c., of England, see
the article _Britain_.
[Illustration]
_Civil History._--The history of England proper begins when it ceased to be
a Roman possession. (See _Britain_.) On the withdrawal of the Roman forces,
about the beginning of the fifth century A.D., the South Britons, or
inhabitants of what is now called England, were no longer able to withstand
the attacks of their ferocious northern neighbours, the Scots and Picts.
They applied for assistance to Aetius, but the Roman general was too much
occupied in the struggle with Attila to attend to their petition. In their
distress they appear to have sought the aid of the Saxons; and according to
the Anglo-Saxon narratives three ships, containing 1600 men, were
dispatched to their help under the command of the brothers Hengist and
Horsa. Vortigern, a duke or prince of the Britons, assigned them the Isle
of Thanet for habitation, and, marching against the northern foe, they
obtained a complete victory. The date assigned to these events by the later
Anglo-Saxon chronicles is A.D. 449, the narratives asserting further that
the Saxons, finding the land desirable, turned their arms against the
Britons, and, reinforced by new bands, conquered first Kent and ultimately
the larger part of the island. Whatever the credibility of the story of
Vortigern, it is certain that in the middle of the fifth century the
occasional Teutonic incursions gave place to persistent invasion with a
view to settlement. These Teutonic invaders were Low German tribes from the
country about the mouths of the Elbe and the Weser, the three most
prominent being the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes. Of these the Jutes
were the first to form a settlement, taking possession of part of Kent and
the Isle of Wight; but the larger conquests of the Saxons in the south and
the Angles in the north gave to these tribes the leading place in the
kingdom. The struggle continued 150 years, and at the end of that period
the whole southern part of Britain, with the exception of Strathclyde,
Wales, and West Wales (Cornwall), was in the hands of the Teutonic tribes.
This conquered territory was divided among a number of small states or
petty chieftaincies, seven of the most conspicuous of which are often
spoken of as the _Heptarchy_. These were: 1. The kingdom of Kent; founded
by Hengist in 455; ended in 823. 2. Kingdom of South Saxons, containing
Sussex and Surrey; founded by Ella in 477; ended in 689. 3. Kingdom of East
Angles, containing Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, Ely (Isle of); founded by
Uffa in 571 or 575; ended in 792. 4. Kingdom of West Saxons, containing
Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Wilts, Hants, Berks, and part of Cornwall; founded
by Cerdic 519; swallowed up the rest in 827. 5. Kingdom of Northumbria,
containing York, Durham, Cumberland, Westmorland, Northumberland, and the
east coast of Scotland to the Firth of Forth; founded by Ida 547; absorbed
by Wessex in 827. 6. Kingdom of East Saxons, containing Essex, Middlesex,
Hertford (part); founded by Erchew in 527: ended in 823. 7. Kingdom of
Mercia, containing Gloucester, Hereford, Worcester, Warwick, Leicester,
Rutland, Northampton, Lincoln, Huntingdon, Bedford, Buckingham, Oxford,
Stafford, Derby, Salop, Nottingham, Chester, Hertford (part); founded by
Cridda about 584; absorbed by Wessex in 827. Each state was, in its turn,
annexed to more powerful neighbours; and at length, in 827, Egbert, by his
valour and superior capacity, united in his own person the sovereignty of
what had formerly been seven kingdoms, and the whole came to be called
England, that is Angle-land.
[Illustration]
While this work of conquest and of intertribal strife had been in progress
towards the establishment of a united kingdom, certain important changes
had occurred. The conquest had been the slow expulsion of a Christian race
by a purely heathen race, and the country had returned to something of its
old isolation with regard to the rest of Europe. But before the close of
the sixth century Christianity had secured a footing in the south-east of
the island. Ethelberht, King of Kent and suzerain over the kingdoms south
of the Humber, married a Christian wife, Bertha, daughter of Charibert of
Soissons, and this event indirectly led to the coming of St. Augustine. The
conversion of Kent, Essex, and East Anglia was followed by that of
Northumberland and then by that of Mercia, of Wessex, of Sussex, and lastly
of Wight, the contest between the two religions being at its height in the
seventh century. The legal and political changes immediately consequent
upon the adoption of Christianity were not great, but there resulted a more
intimate relation with Europe and the older civilizations, the introduction
of new learning and culture, the formation of a written literature, and the
fusion of the tribes and petty kingdoms into a closer and more lasting
unity than that which could have been otherwise secured.
The kingdom, however, was still kept in a state of disturbance by the
attacks of the Danes, who had made repeated incursions during the whole of
the Saxon period, and about half a century after the unification of the
kingdom became for the moment masters of nearly the whole of England. But
the genius of Alfred the Great, who had ascended the throne in 871,
speedily reversed matters by the defeat of the Danes at Ethandune (878).
Guthrum, their king, embraced Christianity, became the vassal of the Saxon
king, and retired to a strip of land on the east coast including
Northumbria and called the Danelagh. The two immediate successors of
Alfred, Edward (901-925) and Athelstan (925-940), the son and the grandson
of Alfred, both vigorous and able rulers, had each in turn to direct his
arms against these settlers of the Danelagh. The reigns of the next five
kings, Edmund, Edred, Edwy, Edgar, and Edward the Martyr, are chiefly
remarkable on account of the conspicuous place occupied in them by Dunstan,
who was counsellor to Edmund, minister of Edred, treasurer under Edwy, and
supreme during the reigns of Edgar and his successor. It was possibly due
to his policy that from the time of Athelstan till after the death of
Edward the Martyr (978 or 979) the country had comparative rest from the
Danes. During the tenth century many changes had taken place in the
Teutonic constitution. Feudalism was already taking root; the king's
authority had increased; the folkland was being taken over as the king's
personal property; the nobles by birth, or ealdormen, were becoming of less
importance in administration than the nobility of thegns, the officers of
the king's court. Ethelred (978-1016), who succeeded Edward, was a minor,
the government was feebly conducted, and no united action being taken
against the Danes, their incursions became more frequent and destructive.
Animosities between the English and the Danes who had settled among them
became daily more violent, and a general massacre of the latter took place
in 1002. The following year Sweyn invaded the kingdom with a powerful army
and assumed the crown of England. Ethelred was compelled to take refuge in
Normandy; and though he afterwards returned, he found in Canute an
adversary no less formidable than Sweyn. Ethelred left his kingdom in 1016
to his son Edmund, who displayed great valour, but was compelled to divide
his kingdom with Canute; and when he was assassinated in 1017 the Danes
succeeded the sovereignty of the whole.
[Illustration]
Canute (Knut), who espoused the widow of Ethelred, that he might reconcile
his new subjects, obtained the name of Great, not only on account of his
personal qualities, but from the extent of his dominions, being master of
Denmark and Norway as well as England. In 1035 he died, and was followed in
England by two other Danish kings, Harold and Hardicanute, whose joint
reigns lasted till 1042, after which the English line was again restored in
the person of Edward the Confessor. Edward was a weak prince, and in the
latter years of his reign had far less real power than his brother-in-law
Harold, son of the great Earl Godwin. On Edward's death in 1066 Harold
accordingly obtained the crown. He found, however, a formidable opponent in
the second-cousin of Edward, William of Normandy, who instigated the Danes
to invade the northern counties, while he, with 60,000 men, landed in the
south. Harold vanquished the Danes, and hastening southwards met the
Normans near Hastings, at Senlac, afterwards called Battle. Harold and his
two brothers fell (14th Oct., 1066), and William (1066-87) immediately
claimed the government as lawful King of England, being subsequently known
as William I, the Conqueror. For some time he conducted the government with
great moderation; but being obliged to reward those who had assisted him,
he bestowed the chief offices of government upon Normans, and divided among
them a great part of the country. The revolts of the native English which
followed were quickly crushed, Continental feudalism in a modified form was
established, and the English Church reorganized under Lanfranc as
Archbishop of Canterbury.
At his death, in 1087, William II, commonly known by the name of Rufus, the
Conqueror's second son, obtained the crown, Robert, the eldest son,
receiving the duchy of Normandy. In 1100, when William II was accidentally
killed in the New Forest, Robert was again cheated of his throne by his
younger brother Henry (Henry I), who in 1106 even wrested from him the
duchy of Normandy. Henry's power being secured, he entered into a dispute
with Anselm the Primate, and with the Pope, concerning the right of
granting investure to the clergy. He supported his quarrel with firmness,
and brought it to a not unfavourable issue. His reign was also marked by
the suppression of the greater Norman nobles in England, whose power (like
that of many Continental feudatories) threatened to overshadow that of the
king, and by the substitution of a class of lesser nobles. In 1135 he died
in Normandy, leaving behind him only a daughter, Matilda.
By the will of Henry I his daughter Maud or Matilda, wife of Geoffrey
Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, and frequently styled the Empress Matilda,
because she had first been married to Henry V, Emperor of Germany, was
declared his successor. But Stephen, son of the Count of Blois, and of
Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror, raised an army in Normandy,
landed in England, and declared himself king. After years of civil war and
bloodshed an amicable arrangement was brought about, by which it was agreed
that Stephen should continue to reign during the remainder of his life, but
that he should be succeeded by Henry, son of Matilda and the Count of
Anjou. Stephen died in 1154, and Henry Plantagenet ascended the throne with
the title of Henry II, being the first of the Plantagenet or Angevin kings.
A larger dominion was united under his sway than had been held by any
previous sovereign of England, for at the time when he became King of
England he was already in the possession of Anjou, Normandy, and Aquitaine.
Henry II found far less difficulty in restraining the licence of his barons
than in abridging the exorbitant privileges of the clergy, who claimed
exemption not only from the taxes of the State, but also from its penal
enactments, and who were supported in their demands by the Primate Becket.
The king's wishes were formulated in the Constitutions of Clarendon (1164),
which were at first accepted and then repudiated by the Primate. The
assassination of Becket, however, placed the king at a disadvantage in the
struggle, and after his conquest of Ireland (1171) he submitted to the
Church, and did penance at Becket's tomb. Henry was the first who placed
the common people of England in a situation which led to their having a
share in the Government. The system of frank-pledge was revived, trial by
jury was instituted by the Assize of Clarendon, and the Eyre courts were
made permanent by the Assize of Nottingham. To curb the power of the nobles
he granted charters to towns, freeing them from all subjection to any but
himself, thus laying the foundation of a new order in society.
Richard I, called Coeur de Lion, who in 1189 succeeded to his father, Henry
II, spent most of his reign away from England. Having gone to Palestine to
join in the third crusade, he proved himself an intrepid soldier. Returning
homewards in disguise through Germany, he was made prisoner by Leopold,
Duke of Austria, but was ransomed by his subjects. In the meantime John,
his brother, had aspired to the crown, and hoped, by the assistance of the
French, to exclude Richard from his right. Richard's presence for a time
restored matters to some appearance of order; but having undertaken an
expedition against France, he received a mortal wound at the siege of
Ch[^a]lons, in 1199.
John was at once recognized as King of England, and secured possession of
Normandy; but Anjou, Maine, and Touraine acknowledged the claim of Arthur,
son of Geoffrey, second son of Henry II. On the death of Arthur, while in
John's power, these four French provinces were at once lost to England.
John's opposition to the Pope in electing a successor to the see of
Canterbury in 1205 led to the kingdom being placed under an _Interdict_;
and, the nation being in a disturbed condition, he was at last compelled to
receive Stephen Langton as archbishop, and to accept his kingdom as a fief
of the papacy (1213). His exactions and misgovernment had equally embroiled
him with the nobles. In 1213 they refused to follow him to France, and, on
his return defeated, they at once took measures to secure their own
privileges and abridge the perogatives of the Crown. King and barons met at
Runnymede, and on 15th June, 1215, the Great Charter (Magna Charta) was
signed. It was speedily declared null and void by the Pope and war broke
out between John and the barons, who were aided by the French king. In
1216, however, John died, and his turbulent reign was succeeded by the
almost equally turbulent reign of his son Henry III.
During the first years of the reign of Henry III the abilities of the Earl
of Pembroke, who was regent until 1219, retained the kingdom in
tranquillity; but when, in 1227, Henry assumed the reins of government he
showed himself incapable of managing them. The Charter was three times
reissued in a modified form, and new privileges were added to it, but the
king took no pains to observe its provisions. The struggle, long maintained
in the Great Council (henceforward called Parliament) over money grants and
other grievances, reached an acute stage in 1263, when civil war broke out.
Simon de Montfort, who had laid the foundations of the House of Commons by
summoning representatives of the shire communities to the Mad Parliament of
1258, had by this time engrossed the sole power. He defeated the king and
his son Edward at Lewes in 1264, and in his famous Parliament of 1265 still
further widened the privileges of the people by summoning to it burgesses
as well as knights of the shire. The escape of Prince Edward, however, was
followed by the battle of Evesham (1265), at which Earl Simon was defeated
and slain, and the rest of the reign was undisturbed.
On the death of Henry III, in 1272, Edward I succeeded without opposition.
From 1276 to 1284 he was largely occupied in the conquest and annexation of
Wales, which had become practically independent during the barons' wars. In
1292 Baliol, whom Edward had decided to be rightful heir to the Scottish
throne, did homage for the fief to the English king; but when, in 1294, war
broke out with France, Scotland also declared war. The Scots were defeated
at Dunbar (1296), and the country placed under an English regent; but the
revolt under Wallace (1297) was followed by that of Bruce (1306), and the
Scots remained unsubdued. The reign of Edward was distinguished by many
legal and legislative reforms, such as the separation of the old king's
court into the Court of Exchequer, Court of King's Bench, and Court of
Common Pleas, and the passage of the Statute of Mortmain. In 1295 the first
perfect Parliament was summoned, the clergy and barons by special writ, the
commons by writ to the sheriffs directing the election of two knights from
each shire, two citizens from each city, two burghers from each borough.
Two years later the imposition of taxation without consent of Parliament
was forbidden by a special Act (De Tallagio non Concedendo). The great aim
of Edward, however, to include England, Scotland, and Wales in one kingdom
proved a failure, and he died in 1307 marching against Robert Bruce.
The reign of his son Edward II was unfortunate to himself and to his
kingdom. He made a feeble attempt to carry out his father's last and
earnest request to prosecute the war with Scotland, but the English were
almost constantly unfortunate; and at length, at Bannockburn (1314), they
were defeated by Robert Bruce, which ensured the independence of Scotland.
The king soon proved incapable of regulating the lawless conduct of his
barons; and his wife, a woman of a bold, intriguing disposition, joined in
the confederacy against him, which resulted in his imprisonment and death
in 1327.
The reign of Edward III was as brilliant as that of his father had been the
reverse. The main projects of the third Edward were directed against
France, the crown of which he claimed in 1328 in virtue of his mother, the
daughter of King Philip. The victory won by the Black Prince at Cr['e]cy
(1346), the capture of Calais (1347), and the victory of Poitiers (1356),
ultimately led to the Peace of Br['e]tigny in 1360, by which Edward III
received all the west of France on condition of renouncing his claim to the
French throne. (See _Br['e]tigny_.) Before the close of his reign, however,
these advantages were all lost again, save a few principal towns on the
coast.
Edward III was succeeded in 1377 by his grandson Richard II, son of Edward
the Black Prince. The people of England now began to show, though in a
turbulent manner, that they had acquired just notions of government. In
1380 an unjust and oppressive poll-tax brought their grievances to a head,
and 100,000 men, under Wat Tyler, marched towards London (1381). Wat Tyler
was killed while conferring with the king, and the prudence and courage of
Richard appeased the insurgents. Despite his conduct on this occasion,
Richard was deficient in the vigour necessary to curb the lawlessness of
the nobles. In 1398 he banished his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke; and on the
death of the latter's father, the Duke of Lancaster, unjustly appropriated
his cousin's patrimony. To avenge the injustice Bolingbroke landed in
England during the king's absence in Ireland, and at the head of 60,000
malcontents compelled Richard to surrender. He was confined in the Tower,
and despite the superior claims of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, Henry
was appointed king (1399), the first of the House of Lancaster. Richard
was, in all probability, murdered early in 1400.
The manner in which the Duke of Lancaster, now Henry IV, acquired the crown
rendered his reign extremely turbulent, but the vigour of his
administration quelled every insurrection. The most important--that of the
Percies of Northumberland, Owen Glendower, and Douglas of Scotland--was
crushed by the battle of Shrewsbury (1403). During the reign of Henry IV
the clergy of England first began the practice of burning heretics under
the Act _de haeretico comburendo_, passed in the second year of his reign.
The Act was chiefly directed against the Lollards, as the followers of
Wycliffe now came to be called. Henry died in 1413, leaving his crown to
his son, Henry V, who revived the claim of Edward III to the throne of
France in 1415, and invaded that country at the head of 30,000 men. The
disjointed councils of the French rendered their country an easy prey; the
victory of Agincourt was gained in 1415; and after a second campaign a
peace was concluded at Troyes in 1420, by which Henry received the hand of
Katherine, daughter of Charles VI, was appointed regent of France during
the reign of his father-in-law, and declared heir to the throne on his
death. The two kings, however, died within a few weeks of each other in
1422, and the infant son of Henry thus became King of England (as Henry VI)
and France at the age of nine months.
England, during the reign of Henry VI, was subjected, in the first place,
to all the confusion incident to a long minority, and afterwards to all the
misery of a civil war. Henry allowed himself to be managed by anyone who
had the courage to assume the conduct of his affairs, and the influence of
his wife, Margaret of Anjou, a woman of uncommon capacity, was of no
advantage either to himself or the realm. In France (1422-53) the English
forces lost ground, and were finally expelled by the celebrated Joan of
Arc, Calais alone being retained. The rebellion of Jack Cade in 1450 was
suppressed, only to be succeeded by more serious trouble. In that year
Richard, Duke of York, the father of Edward, afterwards Edward IV, began to
advance his pretensions to the throne, which had been so long usurped by
the House of Lancaster. His claim was founded on his descent from the third
son of Edward III, Lionel, Duke of Clarence, who was his
great-great-grandfather on the mother's side, while Henry was the
great-grandson on the father's side of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster,
the fourth son of Edward III. Richard of York was also grandson on the
father's side of Edmund, fifth son of Edward III. The wars which resulted,
called the Wars of the Roses, from the fact that a red rose was the badge
of the House of Lancaster and a white one that of the House of York, lasted
for thirty years, from the first battle of St. Albans, 22nd May, 1455, to
the battle of Bosworth, 22nd Aug., 1485. Henry VI was twice driven from the
throne (in 1461 and 1471) by Edward of York, whose father had previously
been killed in battle in 1460. Edward of York reigned as Edward IV from
1461 till his death in 1483, with a brief interval in 1471; and was
succeeded by two other sovereigns of the House of York, first his son
Edward V, who reigned for eleven weeks in 1483; and then by his brother
Richard III, who reigned from 1483 till 1485, when he was defeated and
slain on Bosworth field by Henry Tudor, of the House of Lancaster, who then
became Henry VII.
Henry VII was at this time the representative of the House of Lancaster,
and in order at once to strengthen his own title, and to put an end to the
rivalry between the Houses of York and Lancaster, he married, in 1486,
Elizabeth, the sister of Edward V and heiress of the House of York. His
reign was disturbed by insurrections attending the impostures of Lambert
Simnel (1487), who pretended to be a son of the Duke of Clarence, brother
of Edward IV, and of Perkin Warbeck (1488), who affirmed that he was the
Duke of York, younger brother of Edward V; but neither of these attained
any magnitude. The king's worst fault was the avarice which led him to
employ in schemes of extortion such instruments as Empson and Dudley. His
administration throughout did much to increase the royal power and to
establish order and prosperity. He died in 1509.
The authority of the English Crown, which had been so much extended by
Henry VII, was by his son Henry VIII exerted in a tyrannical and capricious
manner. The most important event of the reign was undoubtedly the
Reformation; though it had its origin rather in Henry's caprice and in the
casual situation of his private affairs than in his conviction of the
necessity of a reformation in religion, or in the solidity of reasoning
employed by the reformers. Henry had been espoused to Catherine of Spain,
who was first married to his elder brother Arthur, a prince who died young.
Henry became disgusted with his queen, and enamoured of one of her maids of
honour, Anne Boleyn. He had recourse, therefore, to the Pope to dissolve a
marriage which had at first been rendered legal only by a dispensation from
the Pontiff; but, failing in his desires, he broke away entirely from the
Holy See, and in 1534 got himself recognized by Act of Parliament as the
head of the English Church. He died in 1547. He was married six times, and
left three children, each of whom reigned in turn. These were: Mary, by his
first wife, Catherine of Aragon; Elizabeth, by his second wife, Anne
Boleyn; and Edward, by his third wife, Jane Seymour.
Edward, who reigned first, with the title of Edward VI, was nine years of
age at the time of his succession, and died in 1553, when he was only
sixteen. His short reign, or rather the reign of the Earl of Hertford,
afterwards Duke of Somerset, who was appointed regent, was distinguished
chiefly by the success which attended the measures of the reformers, who
acquired great part of the power formerly engrossed by the Catholics. The
intrigues of Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, during the reign of Edward,
caused Lady Jane Grey to be declared his successor; but her reign, if it
could be called such, lasted only a few days. Mary, daughter of Henry VIII,
was placed upon the throne, and Lady Jane Grey and her husband were both
executed. Mary, a bigoted Catholic, seems to have wished for the crown only
for the purpose of re-establishing the Roman Catholic faith. Political
motives had induced Philip of Spain to accept of her as a spouse; but she
could never prevail on her subjects to allow him any share of power. She
died in 1558.
Elizabeth, who succeeded her sister Mary, was attached to the Protestant
faith, and found little difficulty in establishing it in England. Having
concluded peace with France (1559), Elizabeth set herself to promote the
confusion which prevailed in Scotland, to which her cousin Mary had
returned from France as queen in 1561. In this she was so far successful
that Mary placed herself in her power (1568), and after many years
imprisonment was sent to the scaffold (1587). As the most powerful
Protestant nation, and as a rival to Spain in the New World, it was natural
that England should become involved in difficulties with that country. The
dispersion of the Armada by the English fleet under Howard, Drake, and
Hawkins was the most brilliant event of a struggle which abounded in minor
feats of valour. In Elizabeth's reign London became the centre of the
world's trade, the extension of British commercial enterprise being
coincident with the ruin of Antwerp in 1585. The Parliament was increased
by the creation of sixty-two new boroughs, and its members were exempted
from arrest. In literature not less than in politics and in commerce the
same full life displayed itself, and England began definitely to assume the
characteristics which distinguish her from the other European nations of
to-day.
To Elizabeth succeeded (in 1603) James VI of Scotland and I of England, son
of Mary Queen of Scots and Darnley. His accession to the crown of England
in addition to that of Scotland did much to unite the two nations, though a
certain smouldering animosity still lingered. His dissimulation, however,
ended in his satisfying neither of the contending ecclesiastical
parties--the Puritans or the Catholics; and his absurd insistence on his
divine right made his reign a continuous struggle between the prerogative
of the Crown and the freedom of the people. His extravagance kept him in
constant disputes with the Parliament, who would not grant him the sums he
demanded, and compelled him to resort to monopolies, loans, benevolences,
and other illegal methods. The nation at large, however, continued to
prosper through the whole of his reign. His son Charles I, who succeeded
him in 1625, inherited the same exalted ideas of royal prerogative, and his
marriage with a Catholic, his arbitrary rule, and illegal methods of
raising money provoked bitter hostility. Under the guidance of Laud and
Strafford things went from bad to worse. Civil war broke out in 1642
between the king's party and that of the Parliament, and the latter proving
victorious, in 1649 the king was beheaded.
A Commonwealth or republican government was now established, in which the
most prominent figure was Oliver Cromwell. Mutinies in the army among
Fifth-monarchists and Levellers were subdued by Cromwell and Fairfax, and
Cromwell, in a series of masterly movements, subjugated Ireland and gained
the important victories of Dunbar and Worcester. At sea Blake had destroyed
the Royalist fleet under Rupert, and was engaged in an honourable struggle
with the Dutch under van Tromp. But within the governing body matters had
come to a deadlock. A dissolution was necessary, yet Parliament shrank from
dissolving itself, and in the meantime the reform of the law, a settlement
with regard to the Church, and other important matters remained untouched.
In April, 1653, Cromwell cut the knot by forcibly ejecting the members and
putting the keys of the House in his pocket. From this time he was
practically head of the Government, which was vested in a council of
thirteen. A Parliament--the Little or Barebones Parliament--was summoned,
and in the December of the same year Cromwell was installed Lord Protector
of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. With more than the
power of a king, he succeeded in dominating the confusion at home, and made
the country feared throughout the whole of Europe. Cromwell died in 1658,
and the brief and feeble protectorate of his son Richard followed.
There was now a widespread feeling that the country would be better under
the old form of government, and Charles II, son of Charles I, was called to
the throne by the Restoration of 1660. He took complete advantage of the
popular reaction from the narrowness and intolerance of Puritanism, and
even endeavoured to carry it to the extreme of establishing the Catholic
religion. The promises of religious freedom made by him before the
Restoration in the Declaration Breda were broken by the Test and
Corporation Acts, and by the Act of Uniformity, which drove two thousand
clergymen from the Church and created the great dissenting movement of
modern times. The Conventicle and Five-mile Acts followed, and the 'Drunken
Parliament' restored Episcopacy in Scotland. At one time even civil war
seemed again imminent. The abolition of the censorship of the press (1679)
and the reaffirmation of the Habeas Corpus principle are the most
praiseworthy incidents of the reign.
[Illustration]
As Charles II left no legitimate issue, his brother the Duke of York
succeeded him as James II (1685-8). An invasion by an illegitimate son of
Charles, the Duke of Monmouth who claimed the throne, was suppressed, and
the king's arbitrary rule was supported by the wholesale butcheries of such
instruments as Kirke and Jeffreys. The king's zealous countenance of Roman
Catholicism and his attempts to force the Church and the universities to
submission provoked a storm of opposition. Seven prelates were brought to
trial for seditious libel, but were acquitted amidst general rejoicings.
The whole nation was prepared to welcome any deliverance, and in 1688
William of Orange, husband of James's daughter Mary, landed in Torbay.
James fled to France, and a convention summoned by William settled the
crown upon him, he thus becoming William III. Annexed to this settlement
was a Declaration of Rights circumscribing the royal prerogative by
depriving him of the right to exercise dispensing power, or to exact money,
or maintain an army without the assent of Parliament. This placed
henceforward the right of the British sovereign to the throne upon a purely
statutory basis. The Toleration Act, passed in 1689, released dissent from
many penalties. An armed opposition to William lasted for a short time in
Scotland, but ceased with the fall of Viscount Dundee, the leader of
James's adherents; and though the struggle was prolonged in Ireland, it was
brought to a close before the end of 1691. The following year saw the
origination of the national debt, the exchequer having been drained by the
heavy military expenditure. A Bill for triennial Parliaments was passed in
1694, the year in which Queen Mary died. For a moment after her death
William's popularity was in danger, but his successes at Namur and
elsewhere, and the obvious exhaustion of France, once more confirmed his
power. The Treaty of Ryswick followed in 1697, and the death of James II in
exile in 1701 removed a not unimportant source of danger. Early in the
following year William also died, and by the Act of Settlement Anne
succeeded him.
The closing act of William's reign had been the formation of the grand
alliance between England, Holland, and the German Empire, and the new
queen's rule opened with the brilliant successes of Marlborough at Blenheim
(1704) and Ramilies (1706). Throughout the earlier part of her reign the
Marlboroughs practically ruled the kingdom, the duke's wife, Sarah
Jennings, being the queen's most intimate friend and adviser. In 1707 the
history of England becomes the history of Britain, the Act of Union passed
in that year binding the Parliaments and Realms of England and Scotland
into a single and more powerful whole. See _Britain_.
_Ecclesiastical History._--The first religion of the Celts of England was
Druidism. It has been conjectured that Christianity may have reached
Britain by way of France (Gaul) before the conclusion of the first, or not
long after the commencement of the second century, but the period and
manner of its introduction are uncertain. It had, however, made
considerable progress in the island previous to the time of Constantine the
Great (306-337). Several bishops from Britain sat in the Councils of Nice
(325), Sardica (347), and Ariminum, in Italy (359); and in 519 an
ecclesiastical synod of all the British clergy was held by St. David,
Archbishop of Caerleon, for extirpating the remains of the Pelagian heresy.
A period of almost total eclipse followed the inroad of the pagan Saxons,
and it was not till A.D. 570 that signs of change showed themselves in the
new nationality. On the coming of Austin, or St. Augustine, sent over in
596 by Gregory the Great, a residence at Canterbury was assigned to him,
and Ethelberht, King of Kent, and most of his subjects, adopted
Christianity. Other missionaries followed; East Saxons were soon after
converted by Mellitus; and a bishop's see was established at London, their
capital, early in the seventh century. The Northumbrians were next
converted, an event accelerated by the marriage of their king, Edwin, with
a daughter of Ethelberht, and by the labours of the missionary Paulinus.
The influence of Edwin and Paulinus also secured the conversion of
Carpwald, King of the East Angles; and, as a reward to Paulinus, Edwin
erected a see at York, and obtained an archbishop's pall for him from Pope
Honorius I, who sent one at the same time to Canterbury. The conversion of
the other kingdoms followed in the course of the seventh century.
As Kent and Wessex received Christianity from Roman and Frankish
missionaries, and Mercia and Northumberland through the Scottish St. Aidan
(for Northumbria had apostatized after the death of its first Christian
king, and received Christianity anew from a Scottish source), there were
certain differences between the Churches, especially concerning the time of
keeping Easter. To promote the union of the Churches thus founded in
England with the Church of Rome, a grand council was summoned by Theodore
of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, at Hertford, A.D. 673, when uniformity
was secured among all the English Churches, and the see of Canterbury made
supreme.
The clergy in course of time attained, particularly after the Norman
Conquest, to such a height of domination as to form an _imperium in
imperio_. Under Anselm (1093-1109) the Church was practically emancipated
from the control of the State, and the power of the Pope became supreme.
The result was a considerable increase of monasticism in England, and the
prevalence of the greatest abuses under the cloak of Church privilege.
Several monarchs showed themselves restive under the Papal control, but
without shaking off the yoke; and though Henry II succeeded in abating some
evils, yet the severity of the penance exacted from him for the murder of
Becket is a striking proof of the power that the Church then had in
punishing offences committed against itself. The reaction set in during the
reign of Henry III, when the vigorous independence of Robert Grosseteste
did much to stimulate the individual life of the English Church. With the
reign of Edward I the new system of Parliaments came as an effective rival
of the Church Synods, and various Acts restrained the power of the clergy.
In the fourteenth century the teaching of Wycliffe promised to produce a
thorough revolt from Rome; but the difficulties of the House of
Lancaster--which drove its members to propitiate the Church--and the Wars
of the Roses, prevented matters coming to a head.
A steady decay of vital power set in, however, and when Henry VIII resolved
to recast the English Church there was no effective protest. In 1531 the
convocation of the clergy addressed a petition to Henry VIII as the chief
protector and only and supreme lord of the English Church. Not very long
after, the Parliament abolished appeals to the see of Rome, dispensations,
licences, bulls of institution for bishoprics and archbishoprics, the
payment of Peter's-pence, and the annates. In 1534 the Papal authority was
set aside by Act of Parliament, and by another Act of Parliament, passed in
1535, Henry assumed the title of supreme head of the Church of England.
These Acts, although they severed the connection between the English Church
and the Holy See, did not alter the religious faith of the Church. But
under Edward VI the Duke of Somerset, the protector of the realm during the
minority of the king, caused a more thorough reform of the doctrines and
ceremonies of the Church to be made. At his instigation Parliament in 1547
repealed the statute of the six articles promulgated by Henry VIII, and in
1551 a new confession of faith was embodied in forty-two articles, denying
the infallibility of councils, keeping only two sacraments, baptism and the
Lord's Supper, and rejecting the real presence, the invocation of saints,
prayer for the dead, purgatory, and the celibacy of the clergy. At the same
time a new liturgy was composed, in which English was substituted for
Latin.
[Illustration: Consecration of a Saxon Church