[1] Reduced from a large plan of the Escorial in the British Museum,
_Monasterio del Escorial_, published at Madrid in 1876.
ESCOVEDO, JUAN DE (d. 1578), Spanish politician, secretary of Don John
of Austria, and chiefly notable as having been the victim of one of the
mysteries of the 16th century, began life in the household of Ruy Gomez
de Silva, prince of Eboli, the most trusted minister of the early years
of the reign of Philip II. By the will of the prince he was endowed for
life with the post of _Regidor_, or legal representative of the king in
the municipality of Madrid. He was also associated with Antonio Perez as
one of the secretaries who acted as the agents of the king in all
dealings with the various governing boards which formed the Spanish
administration. When Don John of Austria, after the battle of Lepanto in
1571, began to launch on a policy of self-seeking adventure, Escovedo
was appointed as his secretary with the intention that he should act as
a check on these follies. Unhappily for himself and for Don John he went
heart and soul into all the prince's schemes. He began to disobey orders
from Madrid and became entangled in intrigues to manage or even to
coerce the king. In July 1577, and contrary to the king's orders, he
came to Spain from Flanders, where Don John was then governor. It is
said that he discovered the love intrigue between Antonio Perez and the
widowed princess of Eboli, Ana Mendoza de la Cerda. This is, however,
mere gossip and supposition. There can be no doubt that he was a busy
intriguer, or that the king, acting on the then very generally accepted
doctrine that the sovereign has a right to act for the public interest
without regard to forms of law, gave orders to Antonio Perez that he was
to be put out of the way. After two clumsy attempts had been made to
poison him at Perez's table, he was killed by bravos on the night of
Easter Monday, the 31st of March 1578. According to an old tradition the
murder took place outside the church of St Maria in Madrid, which was
pulled down in 1868.
See Gaspar Muro, _La Princesse d'Eboli_ (Paris, 1878); and W.H.
Prescott, _Reign of Philip II._ (1855-59).
ESCUINTLA, the capital of the department of Escuintla, Guatemala; on the
southern slope of the Sierra Madre, 45 m. S.W. of Guatemala city. Pop.
(1905) about 12,000. Escuintla is locally celebrated for its hot mineral
springs. It is the commercial centre of a fertile district, which
produces coffee, cane-sugar and cocoa; it has also a brisk transit trade
in most of the products of Guatemala, owing to its position on the
interoceanic railway between Puerto Barrios on the Atlantic and San Jose
(30 m. S.) on the Pacific. A branch railway which goes westward to San
Augustin meets this line at Escuintla.
ESCUTCHEON (O. Fr. _escucheon_, _escusson_, modern _ecusson_, through a
Late Lat. form from Lat. _scutum_, shield), an heraldic term for a
shield with armorial bearings displayed (see HERALDRY). The word is also
applied to the shields used on tombs, in the spandrils of doors or in
string-courses, and to the ornamented plates from the centre of which
door-rings, knockers, &c., are suspended, or which protect the wood of
the key-hole from the wear of the key. In medieval times these were
often worked in a very beautiful manner.
ESHER, WILLIAM BALIOL BRETT, 1ST VISCOUNT (1817-1899), English lawyer
and master of the rolls, was a son of the Rev. Joseph G. Brett, of
Chelsea, and was born on the 13th of August 1817. He was educated at
Westminster and at Caius College, Cambridge. Called to the bar in 1840,
he went the northern circuit, and became a Q.C. in 1861. On the death of
Richard Cobden he unsuccessfully contested Rochdale as a Conservative,
but in 1866 was returned for Helston in unique circumstances. He and his
opponent polled exactly the same number of votes, whereupon the mayor,
as returning officer, gave his casting vote for the Liberal candidate.
As this vote was given after four o'clock, however, an appeal was
lodged, and the House of Commons allowed both members to take their
seats. Brett rapidly made his mark in the House, and in 1868 he was
appointed solicitor-general. On behalf of the crown he prosecuted the
Fenians charged with having caused the Clerkenwell explosion. In
parliament he took a leading part in the promotion of bills connected
with the administration of law and justice. He was (August 1868)
appointed a justice in the court of common pleas. Some of his sentences
in this capacity excited much criticism, notably so in the case of the
gas stokers' strike, when he sentenced the defendants to imprisonment
for twelve months, with hard labour, which was afterwards reduced by the
home secretary to four months. On the reconstitution of the court of
appeal in 1876, Brett was elevated to the rank of a lord justice. After
holding this position for seven years, he succeeded Sir George Jessel as
master of the rolls in 1883. In 1885 he was raised to the House of Lords
as Baron Esher. He opposed the bill proposing that an accused person or
his wife might give evidence in their own case, and supported the bill
which empowered lords of appeal to sit and vote after their retirement.
The Solicitors Act of 1888, which increased the powers of the
Incorporated Law Society, owed much to his influence. In 1880 he
delivered a remarkable speech in the House of Lords, deprecating the
delay and expense of trials, which he regarded as having been increased
by the Judicature Acts. Lord Esher suffered, perhaps, as master of the
rolls from succeeding a lawyer of such eminence as Jessel. He had a
caustic tongue, but also a fund of shrewd common sense, and one of his
favourite considerations was whether a certain course was "business" or
not. He retired from the bench at the close of 1897, and a viscounty was
conferred upon him on his retirement, a dignity never given to any
judge, lord chancellors excepted, "for mere legal conduct since the time
of Lord Coke." He died in London on the 24th of May 1899.
Lord Esher was succeeded in the title by his only surviving son,
Reginald Baliol Brett (b. 1852), who was secretary to the office of
works from 1895 to 1902, but subsequently came into far greater public
prominence in 1904 as Chairman of the war office reconstitution
committee after the South African War.
ESHER, a township in the Epsom parliamentary division of Surrey,
England, 14-1/2 m. S.W. of London by the London & South Western railway
(Esher and Claremont station). It is pleasantly situated on rising
ground above the river Mole, 3 m. from its junction with the Thames. To
the north-west lie the grounds of Esher Place. Of the mansion-house
founded by William of Waynflete, bishop of Winchester (c. 1450), in
which Cardinal Wolsey resided for three or four weeks after his sudden
fall from power in 1529, only the gatehouse remains. It is known as
Wolsey's Tower, but is apparently part of Waynflete's foundation. A new
mansion was erected in 1803. To the south is Claremont Palace, built by
the great Lord Clive (1769) on the site of a mansion of Sir John
Vanbrugh. In 1816 it was the residence of Princess Charlotte, wife of
Prince (afterwards King) Leopold. She died here in 1817, and on the
death of her husband in 1865 the property passed to the crown. Louis
Philippe, ex-king of the French, resided here from 1848 until his death
in 1850. In 1882 Claremont became the private property of Queen
Victoria. Christ Church, Esher, contains fine memorials of King Leopold
and others, and one of its three bells is said to have been brought from
San Domingo by Sir Francis Drake. To the north near the railway station
is Sandown Park, where important race meetings are held. Esher is
included in the urban district of Esher and The Dittons, of which Thames
Ditton is a favourite riverside resort. The whole district is largely
residential. Pop. (1901) 9489.
ESKER (O. Irish _eiscir_), a local name for long mounds of glacial
gravel frequently met with in Ireland. Eskers (the Swedish _asar_) are
among the occasionally puzzling relics of the British glacial period.
They wind from side to side across glaciated country and have evidently
been formed by channels upon or under the ice. "Where streams of
considerable size form tunnels under or in the ice these may become more
or less filled with wash, and when the ice melts the aggraded channels
appear as long ridges of gravel and sand known as _eskers_. It has been
thought that similar ridges are sometimes formed in valleys cut in the
ice from top to bottom, and even that they rise from gravel and sand
lodged in super-glacial channels. The latter at least is probably rare,
as the surface streams have usually high gradients, swift currents and
smooth bottoms, and hence give little opportunity for lodgment. In the
case of ice-sheets, too, in which eskers are chiefly developed, there is
usually no surface material except at the immediate edge, where the ice
is thin and its layers upturned" (T.C. Chamberlin and R.D. Salisbury,
_Geology, Processes and their Results_). Eskers are to be distinguished
from kames (q.v.).
ESKILSTUNA, a town of Sweden in the district (_lan_) of Sodermanland, on
the Hjelmar river, which unites lakes Hjelmar and Malar, 65 m. W. of
Stockholm by rail. Pop. (1900) 13,663. The place is mentioned in the
13th century, and is said to derive its name from Eskil, an English
missionary who suffered martyrdom on the spot. It rose into importance
in the reign of Charles X., who bestowed on it considerable privileges,
and gave the first impulse to its manufacturing activity. It is the
chief seat in Sweden of the iron and steel industries, its cutlery being
especially noted, while damascened work is a specialty. There is a
technical school for the metal industries. There are, in the town or its
neighbourhood, great engineering, gun-making, and rolling and polishing
works and breweries. The largest mechanical works are those of Munktell
and Tunafors. The Karl Gustaf Stads rifle factory was established in
1814.
ESKIMO, ESKIMOS or ESQUIMAUX (a corruption of the Abnaki Indian
_Eskimantsic_ or the Ojibway _Ashkimeq_, both terms meaning "those who
eat raw flesh": they call themselves "Innuit," "the people"), a North
American Indian people, inhabiting the arctic coast of America from
Greenland to Alaska, and a small portion of the Asiatic shore of Bering
Strait. On the American shores they are found, in broken tribes, from
East Greenland to the western shores of Alaska--never far inland, or
south of the region where the winter ice allows seals to congregate.
Even on hunting expeditions they never travel more than 30 m. from the
coast. Save a slight admixture of European settlers, they are the only
inhabitants of both sides of Davis Strait and Baffin Bay. They extend as
far south as about 50 deg. N. lat. on the eastern side of America, and
in the west to 60 deg. on the eastern shore of Bering Strait, while 55
deg. to 60 deg. are their southern limits on the shore of Hudson Bay.
Throughout all this range there are no other tribes save where the
Kennayan and Ugalenze Indians (of western America) come down to the
shore to fish. The Aleutians are closely allied to the Eskimo in habits
and language. H.J. Rink divides the Eskimo into the following groups,
the most eastern of which would have to travel nearly 5000 m. to reach
the most western: (1) The East Greenland Eskimo, few in number, every
year advancing farther south, and coming into contact with the next
section. (2) The West Greenlanders, civilized, living under the Danish
crown, and extending from Cape Farewell to 74 deg. N. lat. (3) The
Northern-most Greenlanders--the Arctic Highlanders of Sir John
Ross--confined to Smith, Whale, Murchison and Wolstenholme Sounds, north
of the Melville Bay glaciers. These--the most isolated and uncivilized
of all the Eskimo--had no boats or bows and arrows until about 1868. (4)
The Labrador Eskimo, mostly civilized. (5) The Eskimo of the middle
regions, occupying the coasts from Hudson Bay to Barter Island, beyond
Mackenzie river, inhabiting a stretch of country 2000 m. in length and
800 in breadth. (6) The Western Eskimo, from Barter Island to the
western limits in America. (7) The Asiatic Eskimo.
The Eskimo are not a tall race, their height varying from 5 ft. 4 in. to
5 ft. 10 in., but men of 6 ft. are met. Both men and women are muscular
and active, the former often inclining to fat. The faces of both have a
pleasing, good-humoured expression, and not infrequently are even
handsome. The typical face is broadly oval, flat, with fat cheeks;
forehead not high, and rather retreating; teeth good, though, owing to
the character of the food, worn down to the gums in old age; nose very
flat; eyes rather obliquely set, small, black and bright; head largish,
and covered with coarse black hair, which the women fasten up into a
knot on the top, and the men clip in front and allow to hang loose and
unkempt behind. Their skulls are of the mesocephalic type, the height
being greater than the breadth; according to Davis, 75 is the index of
the latter and 77 of the former. Some of the tribes slightly compress
the skulls of their new-born children laterally (Hall), but this
practice is a very local one. The men have usually a slight moustache,
but no whiskers, and rarely any beard. The skin has generally a "bacony"
feel, and when cleaned of the smoke, grease and other dirt--the
accumulation of which varies according to the age of the individual--is
only so slightly brown that red shows in the cheeks of the children and
young women. The hands and feet are small and well formed. The Eskimo
dress entirely in skins of the seal, reindeer, bear, dog, or even fox,
the first two being, however, the most common. The men's and women's
dress is much the same, a jacket suit, the trousers tucked into
seal-skin boots. The jacket has a hood, which in cold weather is used to
cover the head, leaving only the face exposed. The women's jacket has a
large hood for carrying a child and an absurd-looking tail behind, which
is, however, usually tucked up. The women's trousers are usually
ornamented with eider-duck neck feathers or embroidery of native dyed
leather; their boots, which are of white leather, or (in Greenland) dyed
of various colours, reach over the knees, and in some tribes are very
wide at the top, thus giving them an awkward appearance and a clumsy
waddling walk. In winter two suits are worn, one with the hair inside,
the other with it outside. They also sometimes wear shirts of
bird-skins, and stockings of dog or young reindeer skins. Their clothes
are very neatly made, fit beautifully, and are sewn with "sinew-thread,"
with a bone needle if a steel one cannot be had. In person the Eskimo
are usually filthy, and never wash. Infants are, however, sometimes
cleaned by being licked by their mother before being put into the bag of
feathers which serves as their bed, cradle and blankets.
In summer the Eskimo live in conical skin tents, and in winter usually
in half-underground huts of stone, turf, earth and bones, entered by a
long tunnel-like passage, which can only be traversed on all fours.
Sometimes, if residing temporarily at a place, they will erect neat
round huts of blocks of snow with a sheet of ice for a window. In the
roof are deposited their spare harpoons, &c; and from it is suspended
the steatite basin-like lamp, the flame of which, the wick being of
moss, serves as fire and light. On one side of the hut is the bench
which is used as sofa, seats and common sleeping place. The floor is
usually very filthy, a pool of blood or a dead seal being often to be
seen there. Ventilation is almost non-existent; and after the lamp has
blazed for some time, the heat is all but unbearable. In the summer the
wolfish-looking dogs lie outside on the roof of the huts, in the winter
in the tunnel-like passage just outside the family apartment. The
Western Eskimo build their houses chiefly of planks, merely covered on
the outside with green turf. The same Eskimo have, in the more populous
places, a public room for meetings. "Council chambers" are also said to
exist in Labrador, but are only known in Greenland by tradition.
Sometimes in south Greenland and in the Western Eskimo country the
houses are made to accommodate several families, but as a rule each
family has a house to itself.
The Eskimo are solely hunters and fishers, and derive most of their food
from the sea. Their country allows of no cultivation; and beyond a few
berries, roots, &c., they use no vegetable food. The seal, the reindeer
and the whale supply the bulk of their food, as well as their clothing,
light, fuel, and frequently also, when driftwood is scarce or
unavailable, the material for various articles of domestic economy. Thus
the Eskimo canoe is made of seal-skin stretched on a wooden or whalebone
frame, with a hole in the centre for the paddler. It is driven by a
bone-tipped double-bladed paddle. A waterproof skin or entrail dress is
tightly fastened round the mouth of the hole so that, should the canoe
overturn, no water can enter. A skilful paddler can turn a complete
somersault, boat and all, through the water. The Eskimo women use a
flat-bottomed skin luggage-boat. The Eskimo sledge is made of two
runners of wood or bone--even, in one case on record, of frozen salmon
(Maclure)--united by cross bars tied to the runners by hide thongs, and
drawn by from 4 to 8 dogs harnessed abreast. Some of their weapons are
ingenious--in particular, the harpoon, with its detachable point to
which an inflated sealskin is fastened. When the quarry is struck, the
floating skin serves to tire it out, marks its course, and buoys it up
when dead. The bird-spears, too, have a bladder attached, and points at
the sides which strike the creature should the spear-head fail to wound.
An effective bow is made out of whale's rib. Altogether, with meagre
material the Eskimo show great skill in the manufacture of their
weapons. Meat is sometimes boiled, but, when it is frozen, it is often
eaten raw. Blood, and the half-digested contents of the reindeer's
paunch, are also eaten; and sometimes, but not habitually, blubber. As a
rule this latter is too precious: it must be kept for winter fuel and
light. The Eskimo are enormous eaters; two will easily dispose of a seal
at a sitting; and in Greenland, for instance, each individual has for
his daily consumption, on an average, 2-1/2 lb. of flesh with blubber,
and 1 lb. of fish, besides mussels, berries, sea-weed, &c., to which in
the Danish settlements may be added 2 oz. of imported food. Ten pounds
of flesh, in addition to other food, is not uncommonly consumed in a day
in time of plenty. A man will lie on his back and allow his wife to feed
him with tit-bits of blubber and flesh until he is unable to move.
The Eskimo cannot be strictly called a wandering race. They are nomadic
only in so far that they have to move about from place to place during
the fishing and shooting season, following the game in its migrations.
They have, however, no regular property. They possess only the most
necessary utensils and furniture, with a stock of provisions for less
than one year; and these possessions never exceed certain limits fixed
upon by tradition or custom. Long habit and the necessities of their
life have also compelled those having food to share with those having
none--a custom which, with others, has conduced to the stagnant
conditions of Eskimo society and to their utter improvidence.
Their intelligence is considerable, as their implements and folk-tales
abundantly prove. They display a taste for music, cartography and
drawing, display no small amount of humour, are quick at picking up
peculiar traits in strangers, and are painfully acute in detecting the
weak points or ludicrous sides of their character. They are excellent
mimics and easily learn the dances and songs of the Europeans, as well
as their games, such as chess and draughts. They gamble a little--but in
moderation, for the Eskimo, though keen traders, have a deep-rooted
antipathy to speculation. When they offer anything for sale--say at a
Danish settlement in Greenland--they always leave it to the buyer to
settle the price. They have also a dislike to bind themselves by
contract. Hence it was long before the Eskimo in Greenland could be
induced to enter into European service, though when they do they pass to
almost the opposite extreme--they have no will of their own. Public
licentiousness or indecency is rare among them. In their private life
their morality is, however, not high. The women are especially erring;
and in Greenland, at places where strangers visit, their extreme laxity
of morals, and their utter want of shame, are not more remarkable than
the entire absence of jealousy or self-respect on the part of their
countrymen and relatives. Theft in Greenland is almost unknown; but the
wild Eskimo make very free with strangers' goods--though it must be
allowed that the value they attach to the articles stolen is some excuse
for the thieves. Among themselves, on the other hand, they are very
honest--a result of their being so much under the control of public
opinion. Lying is said to be as common a trait of the Eskimo as of other
savages in their dealings with Europeans. They have naturally not made
any figure in literature. Their folk-lore is, however, extensive, and
that collected by Dr Rink shows considerable imagination and no mean
talent on the part of the story-tellers. In Greenland and Labrador most
of the natives have been taught by the missionaries to read and write
in their own language. Altogether, the literature published in the
Eskimo tongue is considerable. Most of it has been printed in Denmark,
but some has been "set up" in a small printing-office in Greenland, from
which about 280 sheets have issued, beside many lithographic prints. A
journal (_Atuagagldliutit nalinginarmik tusaruminasassumik univkat_,
i.e. "something for reading, accounts of all entertaining subjects") has
been published since 1861.
The Eskimo in Greenland and Labrador are, with few exceptions, nominally
at least, Christians. The native religion is a vague animism, and
consists of a belief in good and evil spirits, limited each to its own
sphere; in a Heaven and Hell; and a childish faith is placed in the
native wizards, who are regarded as intermediaries between mankind and
the spirit-powers. The worship of the whale-spirit, so important a
factor in their daily economy, is prevalent.
As regards language, the idiom spoken from Greenland to north-eastern
Siberia is, with a few exceptions, the same; any difference is only that
of dialect. It differs from the whole group of European languages, not
merely in the sound of the words, but more especially, according to
Rink, in the construction. Its most remarkable feature is that a
sentence of a European language is expressed in Eskimo by a single word
constructed out of certain elements, each of which corresponds in some
degree to one of our words. One specimen commonly given to visitors to
Greenland may suffice: _Savigiksiniariartokasuaromaryotittogog_, which
is equivalent to "He says that you also will go away quickly in like
manner and buy a pretty knife." Here is one word serving in the place of
17. It is made up as follows: _Savig_ a knife, _ik_ pretty, _sini_ buy,
_ariartok_ go away, _asuar_ hasten, _omar_ wilt, _y_ in like manner,
_otit_ thou, _tog_ also, _og_ he says.
The Eskimo have no chiefs or political and military rulers. Fabricius
concisely described them in his day: "_Sine Deo, domino, reguntur
consuetudine_." The government is mainly a family one, though a man
distinguished for skill in the chase, and for strength and shrewdness,
often has considerable power in the village. No political or social tie
is recognized between the villages, though general good-fellowship seems
to mark their relations. They never go to war with each other; and
though revengeful and apt to injure an enemy secretly, they rarely come
to blows, and are morbidly anxious not to give offence. Indeed, in their
intercourse with each other, all Eskimo indulge in much hyperbolical
compliment. But they are not without courage. On the Coppermine and
Mackenzie rivers, where they sometimes come into collision with their
American-Indian kinsmen, they fight fiercely. Polygamy is rare, but the
rights of divorce and re-marriage are unrestricted. The Eskimo have
intricate rules governing the ownership of property and the rights of
the hunter. As a race they are singularly undemonstrative. When they met
each other they used to rub noses together, but this, though a common
custom still among the wild Eskimo, is entirely abandoned in Greenland
except for the petting of children. There is, in Greenland at least, no
national mode of salutation, either on meeting or parting. When a guest
enters a house, commonly not the least sign is made either by him or his
host. On leaving a place they sometimes say "inuvdluaritse," i.e. live
well, and to a European "aporniakinatit," i.e. do not hurt thy head,
viz. against the upper part of the doorway. The Eskimo, excluding the
few on the Asiatic coast, are estimated at about 29,000.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Dr H.J. Rink, _Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo_
(1875); _Danish Greenland; its People and its Products_ (1877);
_Eskimo Tribes_ (1887); J. Richardson, _Polar Regions_ (1861), pp.
298-331; Sir Clements Markham, _Arctic Papers of the R. G. S._ (1875),
pp. 163-232; Simpson, _ibid._ pp. 233-275; "Hans Hendriks the Eskimo's
Memoirs," _Geographical Magazine_ (Feb. 1878, et seq.); Fridtjof
Nansen, _Eskimo Life_ (1894); R.E. Peary, _Northward over the Great
Ice_, vol. i. appendix ii.; F. Boas, "The Central Eskimo," _Sixth
Annual Report of Bureau of Ethnology_ (1884-1885); J. Murdoch, "The
Point Barrow Eskimo," _Ninth Annual Report_ (1887-1888); E.W. Nelson,
"The Eskimo about Bering Strait," _Eighteenth Annual Report_, part 1
(1896-1897).
ESKI-SHEHR, a town of Asia Minor, in the Kutaiah sanjak of the Brusa
(Khudavendikiar) vilayet. It is a station on the Haidar Pasha-Angora
railway, 194-1/2 m. from the former and 164 m. from Angora, and the
junction for Konia; and is situated on the right bank of the Pursak Su
(_Tembris_), a tributary of the Sakaria, at the foot of the hills that
border the broad treeless valley. Pop. 20,000 (Moslems 15,000,
Christians 5000). Eski-Shehr, i.e. "the old town," lies about a mile
from the ruins of the ancient Phrygian Dorylaeum. The latter is
mentioned in connexion with the wars of Lysimachus and Antigonus (about
302 B.C.), and frequently figures in Byzantine history as an imperial
residence and military rendezvous. It was the scene of the defeat of the
Turks under Kilij-Arslan by the crusaders in 1097, and fell finally to
the Turks of Konia in 1176. The town is divided by a small stream into a
commercial quarter on low ground, in which are the bazaars, khans and
the hot sulphur springs (122 deg. F.) which are mentioned as early as
the 3rd century by Athenaeus; and a residential quarter on the higher
ground. The town is noted for its good climate, the Pursak Su for the
abundance of its fish, and the plain for its fertility. About 18 m. to
the E. are extensive deposits of meerschaum. The clay is partly
manufactured into pipes in the town, but the greater proportion finds
its way to Europe and especially to Germany. The annual output is valued
at L272,000.
See Murray's _Hdbk. to Asia Minor_ (1893); V. Cuinet, _Turquie d'Asie_
(Paris, 1894).
ESMARCH, JOHANNES FRIEDRICH AUGUST VON (1823-1908), German surgeon, was
born at Tonning, in Schleswig-Holstein, on the 9th of January 1823. He
studied at Kiel and Gottingen, and in 1846 became B.R.K. von Langenbeck's
assistant at the Kiel surgical hospital. He served in the
Schleswig-Holstein War of 1848 as junior surgeon, and this directed his
attention to the subject of military surgery. He was taken prisoner, but
afterwards exchanged, and was then appointed as surgeon to a field
hospital. During the truce of 1849 he qualified as _Privatdocent_ at
Kiel, but on the fresh outbreak of war he returned to the troops and was
promoted to the rank of senior surgeon. In 1854 he became director of the
surgical clinic at Kiel, and in 1857 head of the general hospital and
professor at the university. During the Schleswig-Holstein War of 1864
Esmarch rendered good service to the field hospitals of Flensburg,
Sundewitt and Kiel. In 1866 he was called to Berlin as member of the
hospital commission, and also to take the superintendence of the surgical
work in the hospitals there. When the Franco-German War broke out in 1870
he was appointed surgeon-general to the army, and afterwards consulting
surgeon at the great military hospital near Berlin. In 1872 he married
Princess Henrietta of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, aunt of
the Empress Auguste Victoria. In 1887 a patent of nobility was conferred
on him. He died at Kiel on the 23rd of February 1908. Esmarch was one of
the greatest authorities on hospital management and military surgery. His
_Handbuch der kriegschirurgischen Technik_ was written for a prize
offered by the empress Augusta, on the occasion of the Vienna Exhibition
of 1877, for the best handbook for the battlefield of surgical appliances
and operations. This book is illustrated by admirable diagrams, showing
the different methods of bandaging and dressing, as well as the surgical
operations as they occur on the battlefield. Esmarch himself invented an
apparatus, which bears his name, for keeping a limb nearly bloodless
during amputation. No part of Esmarch's work is more widely known than
that which deals with "First Aid," his _First Aid on the Battlefield_ and
_First Aid to the Injured_ being popular manuals on the subject. The
latter is the substance of a course of lectures delivered by him in 1881
to a "Samaritan School," the first of the kind in Germany, founded by
Esmarch in 1881, in imitation of the St John's Ambulance classes which
had been organized in England in 1878. These lectures were very generally
adopted as a manual for first aid students, edition after edition having
been called for, and they have been translated into numerous languages,
the English version being the work of H.R.H. Princess Christian. No
ambulance course would be complete without a demonstration of the
Esmarch bandage. It is a three-sided piece of linen or cotton, of which
the base measures 4 ft. and the sides 2 ft. 10 in. It can be used folded
or open, and applied in thirty-two different ways. It answers every
purpose for temporary dressing and field-work, while its great
recommendation is that the means for making it are always at hand.
ESNA, or ESNEH, a town of Upper Egypt on the W. bank of the Nile, 454 m.
S.S.E. of Cairo by rail, the railway station being on the opposite side
of the river. Pop. (1897) 16,000, mostly Copts. Esna, one of the
healthiest towns in Egypt, is noted for its manufactures of pottery and
its large grain and live stock markets. It formerly had a large trade
with the Sudan. A caravan road to the south goes through the oasis of
Kurkur. The trade, almost stopped by the Mahdist Wars, is now largely
diverted by railway and steamboat routes. There is, however,
considerable traffic with the oasis of Kharga, which lies almost due
west of the town. Nearly in the centre of the town is the Ptolemaic and
Roman temple of the ram-headed Khnum, almost buried in rubbish and
houses. The interior of the pronaos is accessible to tourists, and
contains the latest known hieroglyphic inscription, dating from the
reign of Decius (A.D. 249-251). With Khnum are associated the goddesses
Sati and Neith. In the neighbourhood are remains of Coptic buildings,
including a subterranean church (discovered 1895) in the desert half a
mile beyond the limits of cultivation. The name Esna is from the Coptic
_Sne_. By the Greeks the place was called Latopolis, from the worship
here of the latus fish. In the persecutions under Diocletian A.D. 303,
the Christians of Esna, a numerous body, suffered severely. In later
times the town frequently served as a place of refuge for political
exiles. The so-called Esna barrage across the Nile (built 1906-1908) is
30 m. higher up stream at Edfu.
ESOTERIC, having an inner or secret meaning. This term, and its
correlative "exoteric," were first applied in the ancient Greek
mysteries to those who were initiated ([Greek: eso], within) and to
those who were not ([Greek: exo], outside), respectively. It was then
transferred to a supposed distinction drawn by certain philosophers
between the teaching given to the whole circle of their pupils and that
containing a higher and secret philosophy which was reserved for a
select number of specially advanced or privileged disciples. This
distinction was ascribed by Lucian (_Vit. Auct._ 26) to Aristotle
(q.v.), who, however, uses [Greek: exoterikoi logoi] (_Nic. Ethics_)
merely of "popular treatises." It was probably adopted by the
Pythagoreans and was also attributed to Plato. In the sense of mystic it
is used of a secret doctrine of theosophy, supposed to have been
traditional among certain disciples of Buddhism.
ESPAGNOLS SUR MER, LES, the name given to the naval victory gained by
King Edward III. of England over a Spanish fleet off Winchelsea, on the
29th of August 1350. Spanish ships had fought against England as the
allies or mercenaries of France, and there had been instances of
piratical violence between the trading ships of both nations. A Spanish
merchant fleet was loading cargoes in the Flemish ports to be carried to
the Basque coast. The ships were armed and had warships with them. They
were all under the command of Don Carlos de la Cerda, a soldier of
fortune who belonged to a branch of the Castilian royal family. On its
way to Flanders the Spanish fleet had captured a number of English
trading ships, and had thrown the crews overboard. Piratical violence
and massacre of this kind was then universal on the sea. On the 10th of
August, when the king was at Rotherhithe, he announced his intention of
attacking the Spaniards on their way home. The rendezvous of his fleet
was at Winchelsea, and thither the king went by land, accompanied by his
wife and her ladies, by his sons, the Black Prince and John of Gaunt, as
well as by many nobles. The ladies were placed in a convent and the king
embarked on his flagship, the "Cog Thomas," on the 28th of August. The
English fleet did not put to sea but remained at anchor, waiting for the
appearance of the Spaniards. Its strength is not known with certainty,
but Stow puts it at 50 ships and pinnaces. Carlos de la Cerda was
obviously well disposed to give the king a meeting. He might easily
have avoided the English if he had kept well out in the Channel. But he
relied on the size and strength of his 40 large ships, and in
expectation of an encounter had recruited a body of mercenaries--mostly
crossbowmen--in the Flemish ports. In the afternoon of the 29th of
August he bore down boldly on King Edward's ships at anchor at
Winchelsea. When the Spaniards hove in sight, the king was sitting on
the deck of his ship, with his knights and nobles, listening to his
minstrels who played German airs, and to the singing of Sir John
Chandos. When the look-out in the tops reported the enemy in sight, the
king and his company drank to one another's health, the trumpet was
sounded, and the whole line stood out. All battles at that time, whether
on land or sea, were finally settled by stroke of sword. The English
steered to board the Spaniards. The king's own ship was run into by one
of the enemy with such violence that both were damaged, and she began to
sink. The Spaniard stood on, and the "Cog Thomas" was laid alongside
another, which was carried by boarding. It was high time, for the king
and his following had barely reached the deck of the Spaniard before the
"Cog Thomas" went to the bottom. Other Spaniards were taken, but the
fight was hot. La Cerda's crossbowmen did much execution, and the
higher-built Spaniards were able to drop bars of iron or other weights
on the lighter English vessels, by which they were damaged. The conflict
was continued till twilight. At the close the large English vessel
called "La Salle du Roi," which carried the king's household, and was
commanded by the Fleming, Robert of Namur, afterwards a knight of the
Garter, was grappled by a big Spaniard, and was being dragged off by
him. The crew called loudly for a rescue, but were either not heard or,
if heard, could not be helped. The "Salle du Roi" would have been taken
if a Flemish squire of Robert of Namur, named Hannequin, had not
performed a great feat of arms. He boarded the Spaniard and cut the
halyards of her mainsail with his sword. The Spanish ship was taken.
King Edward is said to have captured 14 of the enemy. What his own loss
was is not stated, but as his own vessel, and also the vessel carrying
the Black Prince, were sunk, and from the peril of "La Salle du Roi," we
may conclude that the English fleet suffered heavily. There was no
pursuit, and a truce was made with the Basque towns the next year.
The battle with "the Spaniards on the sea" is a very typical example of
a medieval sea-fight, when the ships were of the size of a small coaster
or a fishing smack, were crowded with men, and when the personal prowess
of a single knight or squire was an important element of strength.
The only real authority for the battle is Froissart, who was at
different times in the service of King Edward or of his wife, Philippa
of Hainaut, and of the counts of Namur. He repeated what was told him
by men who had been present, and dwells as usual on the "chivalry" of
his patrons. See his _Chroniques_, iv. 91. (D. H.)
ESPALIER (a French word, derived from the Ital. _spalliera_, something
to rest the _spalla_ or shoulder against; the word is ultimately the
same as _epauliere_, a shoulder-piece), a lattice-work or row of stakes,
originally shoulder high, on which fruit trees, shrubs and flowers,
particularly roses and creepers, are trained. Espaliers are usually made
of larch or other wood, iron and metal rails being too great conductors
of heat and cold. The advantage of this method of training is that the
fruit, &c, is more easily got at, and while protected from wind, is
freely exposed to sun and air, and not so open to extreme changes of
temperature as when trained on a wall. (See HORTICULTURE.)
ESPARTERO, BALDOMERO (1792-1879), duke of Vitoria, duke of Morella,
prince of Vergara, Count Luchana, knight of the Toison d'Or, &c. &c.,
Spanish soldier and statesman, was born at Granatulu, a town of the
province of Ciudad Real, on the 27th of February 1792. He was the ninth
child of a carter, who wanted to make him a priest, but the lad at
fifteen enlisted in a battalion of students to fight against the armies
of Napoleon I. In 1811 Espartero was appointed a lieutenant of Engineers
in Cadiz, but having failed to pass his examination he entered a line
regiment. In 1815 he went to America as a captain under General Morillo,
who had been made commander-in-chief to quell the risings of the
colonies on the Spanish Main. For eight years Espartero distinguished
himself in the struggle against the colonists. He was several times
wounded, and was made major and colonel on the battlefields of
Cochabamba and Sapachni. He had to surrender to Sucre at the final
battle of Ayacucho, which put an end to Castilian rule. He returned to
Spain, and, like most of his companions in arms, remained under a cloud
for some time. He was sent to the garrison town of Logrono, where he
married the daughter of a rich landowner, Dona Jacinta Santa Cruz, who
eventually survived him. Henceforth Logrono became the home of the most
prominent of the Spanish political generals of the 19th century.
Espartero became in 1832, on the death of King Ferdinand VII., one of
the most ardent defenders of the rights of his daughter, Isabella II.
The government sent him to the front, directly the Carlist War broke
out, as commandant of the province of Biscay, where he severely defeated
the Carlists in many encounters. He was quickly promoted to a divisional
command, and then made a lieutenant-general. At times he showed
qualities as a _guerillero_ quite equal to those of the Carlists, like
Zumalacarregui and Cabrera, by his daring marches and surprises. When he
had to move large forces he was greatly superior to them as an organizer
and strategist, and he never disgraced his successes by cruelty or
needless severity. Twice he obliged the Carlists to raise the siege of
Bilbao before he was appointed commander-in-chief of the northern army
on the 17th of September 1836, when the tide of war seemed to be setting
in favour of the pretender in the Basque provinces and Navarre, though
Don Carlos had lost his ablest lieutenant, the Basque Zumalacarregui.
His military duties at the head of the principal national army did not
prevent Espartero from showing for the first time his political
ambition. He displayed such radical and reforming inclinations that he
laid the foundations of his popularity among the lower and middle
classes, which lasted more than a quarter of a century, during which
time the Progressists, Democrats and advanced Liberals ever looked to
him as a leader and adviser. In November 1836 he again forced the
Carlists to raise the siege of Bilbao. His troops included the British
legion under Sir de Lacy Evans. This success turned the tide of war
against Don Carlos, who vainly attempted a raid towards Madrid.
Espartero was soon at his heels, and obliged him to hurry northwards,
after several defeats. In 1839 Espartero carefully opened up
negotiations with Maroto and the principal Carlist chiefs of the Basque
provinces. These ended in their accepting his terms under the famous
convention of Vergara, which secured the recognition of their ranks and
titles for nearly 1000 Carlist officers. Twenty thousand Carlist
volunteers laid down their arms at Vergara; only the irreconcilables led
by Cabrera held out for a while in the central provinces of Spain.
Espartero soon, however, in 1840, stamped out the last embers of the
rising, which had lasted seven years. He was styled "El pacificador de
Espana," was made a grandee of the first class, and received two
dukedoms.
During the last three years of the war Espartero, who had been elected a
deputy, exercised from his distant headquarters such influence over
Madrid politics that he twice hastened the fall of the cabinet, and
obtained office for his own friends. At the close of the war the queen
regent and her ministers attempted to elbow out Espartero and his
followers, but a _pronunciamiento_ ensued in Madrid and other large
towns which culminated in the marshal's accepting the post of prime
minister. He soon became virtually a dictator, as Queen Christina took
offence at his popularity and resigned, leaving the kingdom very soon
afterwards. Directly the Cortes met they elected Espartero regent by 179
votes to 103 in favour of Arguelles, who was appointed guardian of the
young queen. For two years Espartero ruled Spain in accordance with his
Radical and conciliatory dispositions, giving special attention to the
reorganization of the administration, taxation and finances, declaring
all the estates of the church, congregations and religious orders to be
national property, and suppressing the _diezma_, or tenths. He
suppressed the Republican risings with as much severity as he did the
military _pronunciamientos_ of Generals Concha and Diego de Leon. The
latter was shot in Madrid. Espartero crushed with much energy a
revolutionary rising in Barcelona, but on his return to Madrid was so
coldly welcomed that he perceived that his prestige was on the wane. The
advanced Progressists coalesced with the partisans of the ex-regent
Christina to promote _pronunciamientos_ in Barcelona and many cities.
The rebels declared Queen Isabel of age, and, led by General Narvaez,
marched upon Madrid. Espartero, deeming resistance useless, embarked at
Cadiz on the 30th of July 1843 for England, and lived quietly apart from
politics until 1848, when a royal decree restored to him all his honours
and his seat in the senate. He retired to his house in Logrono, which he
left six years later, in 1854, when called upon by the queen to take the
lead of the powerful Liberal and Progressist movement which prevailed
for two years. The old marshal vainly endeavoured to keep his own
Progressists within bounds in the Cortes of 1854-1856, and in the great
towns, but their excessive demands for reforms and liberties played into
the hands of a clerical and reactionary court and of the equally
retrograde governing classes. The growing ambition of General O'Donnell
constantly clashed with the views of Espartero, until the latter, in
sheer disgust, resigned his premiership and left for Logrono, after
warning the queen that a conflict was imminent between O'Donnell and the
Cortes, backed by the Progressist militia. O'Donnell's _pronunciamiento_
in 1856 put an end to the Cortes, and the militia was disarmed, after a
sharp struggle in the streets of the capital. After 1856 Espartero
resolutely declined to identify himself with active politics, though at
every stage in the onward march of Spain towards more liberal and
democratic institutions he was asked to take a leading part. He refused
to allow his name to be brought forward as a candidate when the Cortes
of 1868, after the Revolution, sought for a ruler. Espartero, strangely
enough, adopted a laconic phrase when successive governments on their
advent to power invariably addressed themselves to the venerable
champion of liberal ideas. To all--to the Revolution of 1868, the
Constituent Cortes of 1869, King Amadeus, the Federal Republic of 1873,
the nameless government of Marshal Serrano in 1874, the Bourbon
restoration in 1875--he simply said: "Cumplase la voluntad nacional"
("Let the national will be accomplished"). King Amadeus made him prince
of Vergara. The Restoration raised a statue to him near the gate of the
Retiro Park in Madrid. Spaniards of all shades, except Carlists and
Ultramontanes, paid homage to his memory when he passed away at his
Logrono residence on the 8th of January 1879. His tastes were singularly
modest, his manners rather reserved, but always kind and considerate for
humble folk. He was a typical Spanish soldier-politician, though he had
more of the better traits of the soldier born and bred than of the arts
of the statesman. His military instincts did not always make it easy for
him to accommodate himself to courtiers and professional politicians.
(A. E. H.)
ESPARTO, or SPANISH GRASS, _Stipa tenacissima_, a grass resembling the
ornamental feather-grass of gardens. It is indigenous to the south of
Spain and the north of Africa (where it is known as Halfa or Alfa), and
is especially abundant in the sterile and rugged parts of Murcia and
Valencia, and in Algeria, flourishing best in sandy, ferruginous soils,
in dry, sunny situations on the sea coast. Pliny (_N.H._ xix. 2)
described what appears to have been the same plant under the name of
_spartum_, whence the designation _campus spartarius_ for the region
surrounding New Carthage. It attains a height of 3 or 4 ft. The stems
are cylindrical, and clothed with short hair, and grow in clusters of
from 2 to 10 ft. in circumference; when young they serve as food for
cattle, but after a few years' growth acquire great toughness of
texture. The leaves vary from 6 in. to 3 ft. in length, and are
grey-green in colour; on account of their tenacity of fibre and
flexibility they have for centuries been employed for the making of
ropes, sandals, baskets, mats and other articles. Ships' cables of
esparto, being light, have the quality of floating on water, and have
long been in use in the Spanish navy.
Esparto leaves contain 56% by weight of fibre, or about 10% more than
straw, and hence have come into requisition as a substitute for linen
rags in the manufacture of paper. For this purpose they were first
utilized by the French, and in 1857 were introduced into Great Britain.
When required for paper-making the leaves should be gathered before they
are quite matured; if, however, they are obtained too young, they
furnish a paper having an objectionable semi-transparent appearance. The
leaves are gathered by hand, and from 2 to 3 cwt. may be collected in a
day by a single labourer. They are generally obtained during the dry
summer months, as at other times their adherence to the stems is so firm
as often to cause the uprooting of the plants in the attempt to remove
them. Esparto may be raised from seed, but cannot be harvested for
twelve or fifteen years after sowing.
Another grass, _Lygeum Spartum_, with stiff rush-like leaves, growing in
rocky soil on the high plains of countries bordering on the
Mediterranean, especially of Spain and Algeria, is also a source of
esparto.
For the processes of the paper manufacturer esparto is used in the dry
state, and without cutting; roots and flowers and stray weeds are first
removed, and the material is then boiled with caustic soda, washed, and
bleached with chlorine solution. Sundry experiments have been made to
adapt esparto for use in the coarser textile fabrics. Messrs A. Edger
and B. Proctor in 1877 directed attention to the composition of the slag
resulting from the burning of esparto, which they found to be strikingly
similar to that of average medical bottle glass, the latter yielding on
analysis 66.3% of silica and 25.1% of alkalies and alkaline earths, and
the slag 64.6 and 27.45% of the same respectively.
ESPERANCE, a small seaport on a fine natural harbour on the south coast
of West Australia, 275 m. north-east from Albany. It is a summer resort,
and in the neighbourhood are interesting caves. Its importance as a
seaport is due to its being on the high road between the eastern states
and the gold-fields, and the nearest place for the shipment of gold from
the Coolgardie fields.
ESPERANTO, an artificial international auxiliary language (see UNIVERSAL
LANGUAGES), first published in 1887, seven years after the appearance of
its predecessor Volapuk (q.v.), which it has now completely supplanted.
Its author was a Russian physician, Dr L. Zamenhof, born in 1859 at
Bielostok, where the spectacle of the feuds of the four races--each
speaking different languages--which inhabit it (Russians, Poles, Germans
and Jews) at an early date suggested to him the idea of remedying the
evil by the introduction of a neutral language, standing apart from the
existing national languages. His first idea was to resuscitate some dead
language. Then he tried to construct a new language on an a priori
basis. At the same time he made what he appears to have considered the
great discovery that the bulk of the vocabulary of a language consists
not of independent roots, but of compounds and derivatives formed from a
comparatively small number of roots.
At first he tried to construct his roots a priori by arbitrary
combinations of letters. Then he fell back on the plan of taking his
roots ready-made from existing languages, as the inventor of Volapuk had
done before him. But instead of taking them mainly from one language, he
has selected them from the chief European languages, but not
impartially. Like all inventors of artificial languages, he is more
ready to experiment with foreign languages than with his own; and hence
the Slavonic roots in Esperanto are much less numerous than those taken
from the other European languages. Here his choice has been to some
extent guided by considerations of internationality, although he has not
fully grasped the importance of the principle of maximum
internationality, so well worked out in the latest rival of
Esperanto--Idiom Neutral (see UNIVERSAL LANGUAGES). Thus he adopts a
large number of international words--generally unaltered except in
spelling--such as _teatr_, _tabak_, even when it would be easy to form
equivalent terms from the roots already existing in the language. Where
there is no one international word, he selects practically at random,
keeping, however, a certain balance between the Romance words, taken
chiefly from Latin (_tamen_) and French (_trotuar_), on the one hand,
and the Germanic on the other hand, the latter being taken sometimes
from German (_nur_, "only"), sometimes from English, the words being
generally written more or less phonetically (_rajt_ = right). Most of
the Germanic words are badly chosen from the international point of
view. Thus the German word quoted above would not be intelligible to any
one ignorant of German. Indeed, from the international point of view all
specially German words ought to be excluded, or else reduced to the
common Germanic form; thus _trink_ ought to be made into _drink_, the
_t_ being a specially German modification of the _d_, preserved not only
in English but in all the remaining Germanic languages. This incongruous
mixture of languages is not only jarring and repulsive, but adds greatly
to the difficulty of mastering the vocabulary for the polyglot as well
as the monolingual learner.
The inventor has taken great pains to reduce the number of his roots to
a minimum; there are 2642 of them in his dictionary, the _Universala
Vortaro_ (from Ger. _Wort_, "word"), which does not include such
international words as _poezio_, _telefono_; these the learner is
supposed to recognize and form without help. The most eccentric feature
of the vocabulary, and the one to which it owes much of its brevity, is
the extensive use of the prefix _mal-_ to reverse the meaning of a word,
as in _malamiko_, "enemy," and even _malbona_, "bad."
The phonology of the language is very simple. The vowels are only five
in number, _a_, _e_, _i_, _o_, _u_, used without any distinction of
quantity, as in Russian. There are six diphthongs, expressed by an
unnecessarily complicated notation. The consonant-system is simple
enough in itself, but is greatly complicated in writing by the excessive
and mostly unnecessary use made of diacritical letters not only for
simple sounds but also for consonant-groups. _c_ is used for _ts_, as in
Polish.
The grammar is, like that of Volapuk, partly borrowed from existing
languages, partly _a priori_ and arbitrary. The use of the final vowels
belongs to the latter category. The use of _-a_ to indicate adjectives
and of _-o_ to indicate nouns as in _kara amiko_, "dear (male) friend,"
is a source of confusion to those familiar with the Romance languages,
and has proved a bar to the diffusion of Esperanto among the speakers of
these languages. On the other hand, the following paradigm will show how
faithfully Esperanto can reproduce the defects of conventional European
grammar:--
Singular. Plural.
Nominative _la bona patro_ _la bonaj patroj_
Accusative _la bonan patron_ _la bonajn patrojn._
It is difficult to see why the accusative should be kept when all the
other cases are replaced by prepositions.
The verb is better than the noun. Its inflections are _-as_ present,
_-is_ preterite, _-os_ future, _-us_ conditional, _-u_ imperative and
subjunctive, _-i_ infinitive, together with the following participles:--
Active. Passive.
Present _-anta_ _-ata_
Preterite _-inta_ _-ita_
Future _-onta_ _-ota_
The inventor has followed the good example of his native language in
using _esti_, "to be," as the auxiliary verb both in the passive, where
it is combined with passive participles, and in the secondary tenses of
the active (perfect, pluperfect, &c.), where it is of course combined
with the active participles. The participles can be made into nouns and
adverbs by changing the final _-a_ into _-o_ and _-e_ respectively: thus
_tenonto_, "the future holder," _perdinte_, "through having lost."
The table of the forty-five correlative pronouns, adjectives and adverbs
is also elaborate and ingenious.
Much ingenuity is displayed in the syntax, as well as some happy
simplifications. But, on the other hand, there is much in it that is
fanciful, arbitrary and vague, as in the use of the definite
article--where the author has unfortunately followed French rather than
English usage--and in the moods of the verb.
The following specimens will show the general character of this
easy-flowing but somewhat heavy and monotonous language--"bad Italian,"
as it is called by its detractors:--
Patro nia, kiu estas en la cielo, sankta estu via nomo; venu regeco
via; estu volo via, kiel en la cielo, tiel ankau sur la tero. Panon
nian ciutagan donu al ni hodiau; kaj pardonu al ni suldojn niajn, kiel
ni ankau pardonas al niaj suldantoj; kaj ne konduku nin en tenton, sed
liberigu nin de la malbono.
Estimata Sinjoro. Per tiu ci libreto mi havas la honoron prezenti al
vi la lingvon internacian Esperanto. Esperanto tute ne havas la
intencon malfortigi la lingvon naturan de ia popolo. Gi devas nur
servi por la rilatoj internaciaj kaj por tiuj verkoj au produktoj,
kiuj interesas egale la tutan mondon.
In summing up the merits and defects of Esperanto we must begin by
admitting that it is the most reasonable and practical artificial
language that has yet appeared. Its inventor has had the double
advantage of being able to profit by the mistakes of his predecessors,
and of being himself, by force of circumstances, a better linguist. It
must further be admitted that he has made as good a use of these
advantages as was perhaps possible without systematic training in
scientific philology in its widest sense. This last defect explains why
the enthusiasm which his work has excited in the great world of
linguistic dilettantes has not been shared by the philologists: in spite
of its superiority to Volapuk, they see in it the same radical defects.
Whether they are rash or not in predicting for it a similar fate,
remains to be seen. The Esperantists, warned by the fate of Volapuk,
have adopted the wise policy of suppressing all internal disunion by
submitting to the dictatorship of the inventor, and so presenting a
united front to the enemy. One thing is clear: either Esperanto must be
taken as it is without change, or else it must crumble to pieces; its
failure to work out consistently the principle of the maximum of
internationality for its root-words is alone enough to condemn it as
hopelessly antiquated even from the narrow point of view which regards
"international" as synonymous with "European"--a view which political
development in the Far East has made equally obsolete. (H. Sw.)
ESPINAY, TIMOLEON D' (1580-1644), French soldier, was the eldest of the
four sons of Francois d'Espinay, seigneur de Saint Luc (1554-1597), and
was himself marquis de Saint Luc. In 1603 he accompanied Sully in his
embassy to London. In 1622, in his capacity as vice-admiral of France,
he gained some advantages over the defenders of La Rochelle, obliging
the Huguenot commander, Benjamin de Rohan, seigneur de Soubise, to
evacuate the islands of Re and Oleron. In 1627 he was named
lieutenant-general of Guienne and marshal of France.
ESPINEL, VICENTE MARTINEZ (1551-1624), Spanish poet and novelist, was
baptized on the 28th of December 1551, and educated at Salamanca. He was
expelled from the university in 1572, and served as a soldier in
Flanders, returning to Spain in 1584 or thereabouts. He took orders in
1587, and four years later became chaplain at Ronda, absented himself
from his living, and was deprived of his cure; but his musical skill
obtained for him the post of choirmaster at Plasencia. His _Diversas
Rimas_ (1591) are undeniably good examples of technical accomplishment
and caustic wit. Espinel, however, survives as the author of a clever
picaresque novel entitled _Relaciones de la vida del Escudero Marcos de
Obregon_ (1618). It is, in many passages, an autobiography of Espinel
with picturesque embellishments. Marcos is not a chivalresque "esquire,"
but an adventurer who seeks his fortune by attaching himself to great
men; and the object of the author is to warn young men against such a
life. Apart from the unedifying confessions of the hero, the book
contains curious anecdotes concerning prominent contemporaries, and the
episodical stories are told with great spirit; the style is extremely
correct, though somewhat diffuse. Le Sage has not scrupled to borrow
from _Marcos de Obregon_ many of the incidents and characters in _Gil
Blas_--a circumstance which induced Isla to give to his Spanish
translation of Le Sage's work the jesting title, _Gil Blas restored to
his Country and his Native Tongue_. In the 1775 edition of the _Siecle
de Louis XIV._ Voltaire grossly exaggerates in saying that _Gil Blas_ is
taken entirely from _Marcos de Obregon_. Espinel was a clever musician
and added a fifth string to the guitar. He revived the measure known as
_decimas_ or _espinelas_, consisting of a stanza of ten octosyllabic
lines. Most of the poems which he left in manuscript remain unpublished
owing to their licentious character.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--J. Perez de Guzman's edition of _Marcos de Obregon_
(Barcelona, 1881) includes a valuable introduction; Leo Claretie, _Le
Sage romancier_ (Paris, 1890), discusses exhaustively the question of
Le Sage's indebtedness to Espinel. For some previously unpublished
poems see Pedro Salva y Mallen, _Catalogo de la biblioteca de Salva_
(Valencia, 1872).
ESPIRITO SANTO, a maritime state of Brazil, bounded N. by Bahia, E. by
the Atlantic Ocean, S. by Rio de Janeiro, and W. by Minas Geraes. Pop.
(1890) 135,997; (1900) 209,783; area, 17,316 sq. m. With the exception
of Sergipe it is the smallest of the Brazilian states. The western
border of the state is traversed by low ranges of mountains forming a
northward continuation of the Serra do Mar. The longest and most
prominent of these ranges, which are for the most part the eastern
escarpments of the great Brazilian plateau, is the Serra dos Aymores,
which extends along fully two-thirds of the western frontier. Farther S.
the ranges are much broken and extend partly across the state toward the
seaboard; the more prominent are known as the Serra do Espigao, Serra da
Chibata, Serra dos Piloes and Serra dos Purys. The eastern and larger
part of the state belongs to the coastal plain, in great part low and
swampy, with large areas of sand barrens, and broken by isolated groups
and ranges of hills. With the exception of these sandy plains the
country is heavily forested, even the mountain sides being covered with
vegetation to their summits. The northern and southern parts are
fertile, but the central districts are comparatively poor. The coastal
plain comprises a sandy, unproductive belt immediately on the coast,
back of which is a more fertile tertiary plain, well suited, near the
higher country, to the production of sugar and cotton. The inland
valleys and slopes are very fertile and heavily forested, and much of
the Brazilian export of rosewood and other cabinet woods is drawn from
this state. There is only one good bay on the coast, that of Espirito
Santo, on which the port of Victoria is situated. The river-mouths are
obstructed by sand bars and admit small vessels only. The principal
rivers of the state are the Mucury, which rises in Minas Geraes and
forms the boundary line with Bahia, the Itaunas, Sao Domingos, Sao
Matheus, Doce, Timbuhy, Santa Maria, Jucu, Benevente, Itapemirim, and
Itabapoana, the last forming the boundary line with Rio de Janeiro. The
Doce, Sao Matheus, and Itapemirim rise in Minas Geraes and flow entirely
across the state. The lower courses of these rivers are generally
navigable, that of the Rio Doce for a distance of 90 m. The climate of
the coastal zone and deeper valleys is hot, humid and unhealthy,
malarial fevers being prevalent. In the higher country the temperature
is lower and the climate is healthy. Espirito Santo is almost
exclusively agricultural, sugar-cane, coffee, rice, cotton, tobacco,
mandioca and tropical fruits being the principal products. Agriculture
is in a very backward condition, however, and the state is classed as
one of the poorest and most unprogressive in the republic. The rivers
and shallow coast waters are well stocked with fish, but there are no
fishing industries worthy of mention. There are three railway lines in
operation in the state--one running from Victoria to Cachoeira do
Itapemirim (50 m.), and thence, by another line, to Santo Eduardo in Rio
de Janeiro (58 m.), where connexion is made with the Leopoldina system
running into the national capital, and a third running north-westerly
from Victoria to Diamantina, Minas Geraes, about 450 m. The chief cities
and towns of the state, with their populations in 1890, are Victoria,
Sao Matheus (municipality, 7761) on a river of the same name 16 m. from
the sea, Serra (municipality, 6274), Guarapary (municipality, 5310), a
small port S. by W. of the capital, Conceicao da Barra (municipality,
5628), the port of Sao Matheus and Cachoeira do Itapemirim (4049), an
important commercial centre in the south.
Espirito Santo formed part of one of the original captaincies which were
given to Vasco Fernandes Coutinho by the Portuguese crown. The first
settlement (1535) was at the entrance to the bay of Espirito Santo, and
its name was afterwards given to the bay and captaincy. It once included
the municipality of Campos, now belonging to the state of Rio de
Janeiro.
The islands of Trinidade and Martim Vaz, which lie about 715 m. E. of
Victoria, belong politically to this state. They are uninhabited, but
considerable importance is attached to the former because Great Britain
has twice attempted to take possession of it. It rises 1200 ft. above
sea-level and is about 6 m. in circumference, but it has no value other
than that of an ocean cable station. An excellent description of this
singular island is to be found in E.F. Knight's _Cruise of the "Alerte"_
(London, 1895).
ESPRONCEDA, JOSE IGNACIO JAVIER ORIOL ENCARNACION DE (1808-1842),
Spanish poet, son of an officer in the Bourbon regiment, was born at or
near Almendralejo de los Barros on the 25th of March 1808. On the close
of the war he was sent to the preparatory school of artillery at
Segovia, and later became a pupil of the poet Lista, then professor of
literature at St Matthew's College in Madrid. In his fourteenth year he
had attracted his master's attention by his verses, and had joined a
secret society. Sentenced to five years' seclusion in the Franciscan
convent at Guadalajara, he began an epic poem entitled _Pelayo_, of
which fragments survive. He escaped to Portugal and thence to England,
where he found the famous Teresa whom he had met at Lisbon; here, too,
he became a student of Shakespeare, Milton and Byron. In 1830 he eloped
with Teresa to Paris, took part in the July revolution, and soon after
joined the raid of Chapalangarra on Navarre. In 1833 he returned to
Spain and obtained a commission in the queen's guards. This, however, he
soon forfeited by a political song, and he was banished to Cuellar,
where he wrote a poor novel entitled _Sancho Saldana o el Castellano de
Cuellar_ (1834). He took an active part in the revolutionary risings of
1835 and 1836, and, on the accession to power of the Liberal party in
1840, was appointed secretary of legation at the Hague; in 1842 he was
elected deputy for Almeria, and seemed likely to play a great part in
parliamentary life. But his constitution was undermined, and, after a
short illness, he died at Madrid on the 23rd of May 1842. His poems,
first published in 1840, at once gained for him a reputation which still
continues undiminished. The influence of Byron pervades Espronceda's
life and work. It is present in an ambitious variant on the Don Juan
legend, _El Estudiante de Salamanca_, Elvira's letter being obviously
modelled on Julia's letter in _Don Juan_; the _Cancion del Pirata_ is
suggested by _The Corsair_; and the Byronic inspiration is not wanting
even in the noble fragment entitled _El Diablo Mundo_, based on the
story of Faust. But in _El Mendigo_, in _El Reo de Muerte_, in _El
Verdugo_, and in the sombre vehement lines, _A Jarifa en una orgia_,
Espronceda approves himself the most potent and original lyrical poet
produced by Spain during the 19th century.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--_Obras poeticas y escritos en prosa_ (Madrid, 1884),
edited by Blanca Espronceda de Escosura, the poet's daughter (the
second volume has not been published); E. Rodriguez Solis,
_Espronceda; su tiempo, su vida, y sus obras_ (Madrid, 1883); E.
Pineyro, _El Romanticismo en Espana_ (Paris, 1904).
ESQUIRE (O. Fr. _escuyer_, Mod. Fr. _ecuyer_, derived through the form
_escudier_ from Med. Lat. _scutarius_, "shield-bearer"), originally the
attendant on a knight, whose helm, shield and lance he carried at the
tournament or in the field of battle. The esquire ranked immediately
below the knight bachelor, and his office was regarded as the apprentice
stage of knighthood. The title was regarded as one of function, not of
birth, and was not hereditary. In time, however, its original
significance was lost sight of, and it came to be a title of honour,
implying a rank between that of knight and valet or gentleman, as it
technically still remains. Thus in the later middle ages esquire
(_armiger_) was the customary description of holders of knight's fees
who had not taken up their knighthood, whence the surviving custom of
entitling the principal landowner in a parish "the squire" (see SQUIRE).
Camden, at the close of the 16th century, distinguished four classes
entitled to bear the style: (1) The eldest sons of knights, and their
eldest sons, in perpetual succession; (2) the eldest sons of the younger
sons of peers, and their eldest sons, in like perpetual succession; (3)
esquires created by royal letters patent or other investiture, and their
eldest sons; (4) esquires by office, e.g. justices of the peace and
others who bear any office of trust under the crown. To these the
writer in the 3rd edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ (1797) added
Irish peers and the eldest sons of British peers, who, though they bear
courtesy titles, have in law only the right to be styled esquires.
Officers of the king's courts, and of the royal household, counsellors
at law and justices of the peace he described as esquires only "by
reputation"; and justices of the peace have the title only as long as
they are in commission; while certain heads of great landed families are
styled "esquires" by prescription. "But the meaner ranks of people," he
adds indignantly, "who know no better, do often basely prostitute this
title; and, to the great confusion of all rank and precedence, every man
who makes a decent appearance, far from thinking himself in any way
ridiculed by finding the superscription of his letters thus decorated,
is fully gratified by such an address."
It is clear, however, that the title of esquire was very loosely used at
a much earlier date. On this point Selden is somewhat scornfully
explicit. "To whomsoever, either by blood, place in the State or other
eminency, we conceive some higher attribute should be given, than that
sole Title of Gentleman, knowing yet that he hath no other honorary
title legally fixed upon him, we usually style him an _Esquire_, in such
passages as require legally that his degree or state be mentioned; as
especially in Indictments and Actions whereupon he may be outlawed.
Those of other nations who are Barons or great Lords in their own
Countries, and no knights, are in legal proceedings stiled with us,
Esquires only. Some of our greatest Heralds have their divisions of
Esquires applied to this day. I leave them as I see them, where they may
easily be found." Coke, too, says that every one is entitled to be
termed esquire who has the legal right to call himself a gentleman (2.
_Institutes_, 688).
At the present time the following classes are recognized as esquires on
occasions of ceremony or for legal purposes:--(1) All sons of peers and
lords of parliament during their fathers' lives, and the younger sons of
such peers, &c., after their fathers' deaths; the eldest sons of peers'
younger sons, and their eldest sons for ever. (2) Noblemen of all other
nations. (3) The eldest sons of baronets and knights. (4) Persons
bearing arms and the title of esquire by letters patent. (5) Esquires of
the Bath and their eldest sons. (6) Barristers-at-law. (7) Justices of
the peace and mayors while in commission or office. (8) The holders of
any superior office under the crown. (9) Persons styled esquires by the
sovereign in their patents, commissions or appointments.[1] (10)
Attorneys in colonies where the functions of counsel and attorney are
united (in England solicitors are "gentlemen," not "esquires").
In practice, however, the title of esquire, now to all intents and
purposes meaningless, is given to any one who "can bear the port, charge
and countenance of a gentleman." The word has followed the same course
as that of "gentleman" (q.v.), and for very similar reasons. It is still
not customary in Great Britain to address e.g. a well-to-do person
engaged in trade as esquire at his shop; it would be offensive not to do
so at his private residence. In America, on the other hand, the use of
the word "esquire" is practically obsolete, "Mr" ("Mister" or "Master,"
at one time the title special to a "gentleman") being the general form
of address.
See Selden, _Titles of Honor_ (1672); Camden, _Britannia_ (ed. London,
1594); Coke, _Institutes_; _Enc. of the Laws of England_, s.
"Esquire"; Du Cange, _Glossarium_ (ed. 1886), s. "Scutarius,"
"Scutifer" and "Armiger"; _New English Dictionary_, s. "Esquire."
(W. A. P.)