system has been greatly enlarged and improved, but a still better result is anticipated from the barrage of the Nile, a plan projected by M. Mougel and now about to be carried out for the khedive by Mr Fowler. In 1871 the work of building a breakwater to defend the New Harbour at Alexandria from the seas caused by the constant southwest winds was begun. The outer breakwater extends above two miles across the mouth of the harbour, inclosing an area of 1400 acres of calm water. The structure rises 7 feet above the highest sea-level, and is of a uniform width of 20 feet. Harbour works have also been constructed at Suez. At a cost of over £180,000, fourteen fine lighthouses have been erected, seven on the Mediterranean and seven on the Red Sea, whereas at the beginning of the reign of the khedive there was but one. Telegraph lines (begun by the enterprise of Said), have been set throughout Egypt, covering nearly 6000 miles, and putting Alexandria into direct communication with Khartoom; and this branch of the public service is managed by English officials. Submarine telegraphs also bring Egypt into communication with Candia and thence with Constantinople and Otranto, and with Malta and thence with England, France, &c. The post-office was bought by the Government in 1865, and under the management of an English post official has been greatly improved. In about 70 towns and villages offices have been established, and several mails a day are despatched from the chief places. The manufactures of Egypt have been in a declining state for several centuries. Mehemet Ali tried to promote them, by establishing large manufactories of cotton, silk, and woollen goods, tarbooshes, &c., and, especially in Upper Egypt, sugar-refineries. Ibrahim Pasha was much opposed to his father's policy, and in pursuance of his own views he laid out extensive plantations of olive and other trees, erected powerful steam-engines for the irrigation of bis lands, and on all his estates endeavoured to encourage agriculture. It cannot be doubted that had he lived the correctness of his conviction that Egypt is an agricultural, not a manufacturing, country would under his rule have been fully verified. Mehemet Ali introduced cotton and largely cultivated it; the Turkish grandees found that from it they could extract more gain than from other field produce, and large tracts were speedily devoted to its culture. The necessity, however, of excluding the waters of the Nile has caused several destructive inundations; and so long as the cotton growth remained a monopoly of the pasha it was no means of enrichment to the producer. Now, however, that the monopoly is abolished, the trade in cotton is greatly increasing, and this produce will undoubtedly become every year a more important item in the wealth of the country. The old restrictions upon agriculturists have been more or less done away; and the Government, whilst not wholly abandoning Mehemet Ali's views on manufactures, is yet alive to the paramount importance of affording every encouragement to agriculture. The cotton crop in 1875 extended over 871,847 feddáns (-acres, nearly) and produced 2,615,541 quintals (of 110lb) of ginned staple, 1,954,555 ardebbs (of 5 bushels) of seed, and 3,749,446 loads of cotton sticks, altogether reaching a total value of about twelve millions and a quarter.. The wheat crop in the same was estimated at 6,662,632 ardebbs, of the value of E£7,995,158; maize (durah), 10,502,715 ardebbs, E£8,193,000; beans, 4,575,273 ardebbs, E£4,575,273; barley, 3,103,085 ardebbs, E£2,394,000; rice, 98,521 ardebbs, E£738,908. The other crops of Egypt are chiefly clover, sugar-cane, flax, hemp, tobacco, hinnè, and indigo. year = comes to an end (in 1885). The whole revenue may at present roughly be placed at £10,500,000. It is very difficult to estimate the exact amount of direct taxation on the population. One writer places it at 25s. per head per annum; whilst a recent report states that, including the Mukabalah, the annual payment of taxes has lately reached £4! It is certain the taxation at present exceeds the possible returns of the land, and that the felláheen are compelled to borrow money to pay the taxes. The items of expenditure may thus be roughly summarized :-general public administration, £1,300,000; civil list, £600,000; tribute to the Porte, £700,000; army, £700,000; the the rest being devoted to the payment of the debt. The following is an abridgment of the Egyptian budget for 1876 :— During the last fifteen years Egypt has acquired the enormous national debt of about £80,393,000. The attempt to Europeanize the country has entailed a vast expenditure. unnecessary rate of speed, and European contractors have Public works have been carried out at an altogether been employed who have not scrupled to drive bargains exceedingly favourable to themselves and ruinous to the must be added the dishonesty and extravagance of the Egyptian Exchequer. To these causes of expenditure Government officials, the waste of money on works which have proved unproductive and useless, and the heavy damages given against the khedive in the extraordinary award of the late emperor Napoleon as arbitrator in the dispute with the Suez Canal Company. To meet the heavy expenses resulting from these causes, five loans have from time to time been raised. The first was borrowed by Said Pasha in 1862, and amounted to only £3,292,800 nominal, to be repaid in thirty years, interest 7 per cent., and sinking fund 1 per cent. The present viceroy then raised the 1864 loan of £5,804,200 nominal, with interest and sinking fund at 7 and 3.87 per cent., redeemable in 15 years. The next loan, of 1868, redeemable in 1898, was for £11,890,000 nominal (of which only £7,193,334 was received), with apparent interest and sinking fund of 7 and 1 per cent., really 11-56 and 168 per cent. on amount received, or altogether 18 per cent, annual charge. The loan of 1873 was for the nominal amount of £32,000,000 at 7 and 1 per cent. interest and sinking fund; but, as only £20,062,658 was received, the interest and sinking fund became really 11 and 162 per cent. The actual amount received was, however, slightly increased by part being paid in Egyptian Treasury bonds. Besides these, in 1866 a railway Joan had been raised, of the nominal amount of £3,000,000 at 7 per cent. This was repaid in 6 annual instalments of £500,000 each, the last being in January 1874. Two loans secured on the Daira estates of the khedive have been transferred to the state for value received; these are the Anglo-Egyptian loan of 1865 for £3,000,000 at 9 per cent. interest, with sinking fund of 3.27 per cent; and the Mustafa-Pasha loan of 1867 for £2,080,000 at 9 and 3.4 per cent. interest and sinking fund. The khedive raised also a personal loan secured on his private estates (Daira) in 1870; £5,000,000 was received, for which £7,142,860 was to be paid back in twenty years, with interest at 7 per cent on this nominal "None of the Egyptian foans," Mr Cave observes, "cost less than 12 per cent. per annum, while some cost more than 13 per cent. per annum, and the railway loan even 26-9 per cent. per annum, including sinking funds." amount. These loans hardly sufficed to meet the necessities for which they were raised, and the exorbitant interest charged on the nominal sums, of which the khedive received little more than half, effectually crippled the resources of the country. In 1871 another fatal step was taken. A measure was passed by which a landowner might redeem half his land-tax in perpetuity by paying six years' tax in advance, either in one payment or in six yearly instalments. As, however, few but the wealthiest proprietors could afford this additional charge on their incomes, the six instalments were commuted into twelve, a discount of 8 per cent. being allowed on each instalment. This composition tax is called the "Mukabalah." By this measure the Government, for the sake of the immediate possession of about £27,000,000, will sacrifice from 1885 onwards about £2,500,000 annually of certain revenue. For the overtaxed felláheen the change is most advantageous, if only they can avail themselves of it; for the Government it nearly resembles suicide. a sinking fund of 1 per cent; preference stock, £17,000,000, interest 5 per cent.; and the three short loans, interest 7 per cent., redeemable at 80 instead of 100, and to be paid off by the Mukabalah. Besides these, there is the private Daïra debt of the khedive. The scheme is perhaps the best that can be devised under the present perplexing conditions; and if the Egyptian Government can maintain its revenue and will hold to its engagements there is every probability that the debts will be paid off at the appointed times. When the Mukabalah falls in in 1885 the three short loans will (presumably) have been paid off. The preference debt is to be redeemed in 65 years by the operation of a sinking fund of £35,744 a year, and the unified debt in the same time and after a similar manner. With a view to insure the carrying out of these reforms, the khedive has appointed English and French comptrollersgeneral, who are intrusted with the collection of the revenue and the appropriation of it to the purposes settled by the financial scheme. A European Commission of the Public Debt has also been appointed for receiving the revenue devoted to the payment of the debt charges; and another commission, composed of three Europeans and two natives, controls the railways and the port of Alexandria. So long as the present arrangement is held to, and if no unforeseen decrease takes place in the revenue, the financial position of Egypt may be considered hopeful. The khedive has been the subject of much censure at the hands of his bondholders. It must however be remembered that he received but half of the sums supposed to have reached him. Of the £45,000,000 received he has paid back over £30,000,000 in interest, &c., and £10,000,000 went in the Suez Canal indemnity, so that only £4,000,000 could have been squandered. That the khedive is no financier is obvious; but he seems honestly determined to pay his debts, and if there was any dishonesty in the matter of the loans it was not on the khedive's side. The principal exports from Egypt are cotton, cereals, and sugar. In 1875, 163,912,336 lb of raw cotton was exported to Great Britain, at the value of £6,668,340; and the total cotton export is estimated at over two millions and a half of quintals. Of beans, 490,257 ardebbs were exported in 1875; of wheat, 836,997 ardebbs; of sugar, 986,000 quintals. Maize, barley, flax, natron, dates, hinnè, and other produce form less important items in the list of exports. The total value of exports is estimated at between twelve about five millions and a half of pounds and consist chiefly of and thirteen million of pounds. The imports are estimated at manufactured goods, coals, oil, wine, machinery, &c. Of the whole commerce about 70 per cent. is with Great Britain. There is also a considerable transit trade, which, however, has necessarily diminished since the opening of the Suez Canal. The Egyptian measures are-the fitr, or space measurea by the extension of the thumb and first finger; the shibr, or span; and the cubit (of three kinds, 223, 25, and 26 inches). The measure of land is the feddán, very nearly equal to the English acre, subdivided into 24 keeráts, and each of these into 330 (formerly 3331) kasabehs, or rods, the kasabeh being a square measure with side of 22 kabdehs, each equalling 6 inches. The ardebb is equal to about 5 bushels, and is divided into 6 weybehs, and each weybch into 24 rubas. In 1875 the khedive procured a temporary respite from his difficulties by the sale of the Suez Canal shares to the British Government; and then, at last aware of the critical state of his finances, and of the incompetence of Easterns to mend it, His Highness requested the British Government to provide him with some experienced financier to carry out a thorough reform. In December the Right Honourable Stephen Cave, M.P., accompanied by Colonel Stokes, R.E., and clerks, was sent out, and after some months' examination wrote an elaborate report on the Egyptian finances. But after Mr Cave's departure, and the publication of his report, Egyptian credit fell still lower, till in 1876 the khedive, finding himself totally unequal to meet the demands of his creditors, and weary of renewing bonds at ruinous rates, suspended payment for a time. A French scheme was then urged upon him with so much insistance that on May 7 he adopted it in a decree which announced the consolidation of all the state and Daïra loans, and the distribution of a bonus of 25 per cent. to holders of treasury bonds. These bonds had then reached a sum exceeding £20,000,000, and were held chiefly by French firms. The arrangement speaks for itself. It was immediately quashed by the firm action of the English Stock Exchange; and the Right Honourable G. J. Goschen, M.P., and M. Joubert were sent out to attempt the adjustment of the affairs of Egypt. The result was a scheme which the khedive accepted, and which may shortly be described as follows: the private Daïra debt was separated from the state debt; the three small loans of 1864, 1866, and 1867 were reserved to be paid off by the Mukabalah; the bonus on the treasury bonds was cut down to 10 per cent.; and £17,000,000 was converted into a preference stock, secured on railways and harbour dues. The standard unit of currency is the kirsh, or piastre The state debt was thus divided into three classes:-unified (about 21d.), which is coined in gold pieces of 5, 10, debt of £59,000,000, interest percent., reduced till 1885 by | 20, 25, 50, 100 piastres; silver of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 piastres, The weights are these:- 64 kamhahs (or grains of wheat), or 48 habbehs (or grains of 12 dirhems=1 wukeeyeh or ounce (about 575 gr.) 86 wukkahs 1 kantár or cwt. (-991.) 24 keeráts-1 mithkál or weight of a deenár (-72 gr.) The French metrical system has been established by the khedive, but has not yet been generally adopted. EHRENBREITSTEIN, a small town in Prussia, in the circle of Coblentz, situated on the right bank of the Rhine, and connected with the town of Coblentz by a bridge of boats, is of importance as possessing a magnificent fortress erected upon a precipitous rock 401 feet above the Rhine. The castle which occupied the site of the modern building is said to have been presented in 636 by the Franconian king Dagobert to the archbishops of Treves. It was twice taken by the French-in 1631 and 1799; and at the peace of Lunéville in 1801 they blew it up before evacuating it. At the second Peace of Paris the French paid 15,000,000 francs to the Prussian Government for its restoration, and the works begun in 1816 were completed in ten years. The town possesses a few ships, and has a wine and carrying trade. In 1875 the population, including the garrison, was 4901. See COBLENTZ. EIBENSTOCK, a town in Saxony, in the circle of Zwickau, is situated on the borders of Bohemia, 16 miles S.S.E. of Zwickau. It possesses chemical and tobacco manufactories, and tin and iron works. Lace-making was introduced in 1775 by Clara Angermann. It has also a large cattle market. Population in 1875, 6553. EICHENDORFF, JOSEPH, FREIHERR VON (1788-1857), a German poet and romance-writer, was born at Lubowitz, near Ratibor, in Prussia. He studied law at Halle and Heidelberg from 1805 to 1808. After a visit to Paris he went to Vienna, where he resided until 1813, when he joined the Prussian army as a volunteer. When peace was concluded in 1815 he left the army, and in the following year he was appointed to a judicial office at Breslau. He subsequently held similar offices at Dantzic, Königsberg, and Berlin. Retiring from the public service in 1844, he afterwards resided successively in Dantzic, Vienna, Dresden, and Berlin. He died at Neisse on the 26th November 1857. Eichendorff was one of the most distinguished of the later members of the German romantic school. His genius was essentially lyrical, and he was deficient in the distinctive dramatic faculty. On this account he is most successful in his shorter romances and dramas, where constructive power is least called for. His first work, a romance entitled Ahnung und Gegenwart, appeared in 1815. This was followed at short intervals by several others, among which the foremost place is by general consent assigned to Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts (Berlin, 1824), which has often been reprinted. Of his dramas may be mentioned Ezzelin von Romano, a tragedy (1828); Meierbeths Glück und Ende, a tragedy (1828); and Die Freier, a comedy (1833). He also translated Calderon's Geistliche Schauspiele (1846) from the Spanish. Eichendorff's lyric poems were of a very high order, and many of them were set to music by composers of eminence. In the later years of his life he published several valuable works on subjects in literary history and criticism, such as Ueber die ethische und religiöse Bedeutung der neueren romantischen Poesie in Deutschland (1847), Der deutsche Roman des 18. Jahrhundert in seinem Verhältniss zum Christenthum (1851), and Geschichte der poetischen Literatur Deutschlands (1856). An edition of his collected works in six volumes appeared at Leipsic in 1870. EICHHORN, JOHANN GOTTFRIED (1752-1827), an eminent scholar, historian, and writer on biblical criticism, was born at Dörrenzimmern, in the duchy of HohenloheOehringen, on the 16th October 1752. Here his father was minister, but shortly after the birth of Johann he was appointed superintendent of the state school in Weikersheim. At his father's school and at the gymnasium at Heilbronn young Eichhorn received his early education. In 1770 he entered the university of Göttingen, where he remained till 1774. In 1774 he received the rectorship of the gymnasium at Oehrdriff, and in the following year was made professor of Oriental languages at Jena. On the death of Michaelis in 1788 he was elected ordinary professor of philosophy at Göttingen, where he lectured not only on the Oriental languages and on the exegesis of the Old and New Testaments, but also on general history. In 1811 he was made doctor of theology, in 1813 jcint-director of the Royal Scientific Society of Gottingen, and in. 1819 Geheimer | He is the author besides of Einleitung in das deutsche Justizrath of Hanover. His health was shattered by an Privatrecht mit Einschluss des Lehnrechts and the Grundsätze attack of inflammation of the lungs in the year 1825, but des Kirchenrechts der kath. und evang. Religionspartei in he regularly continued his prelections to a large number of Deutschland. students until attacked by fever on the 14th June 1827. EICHSTÄDT, or EICHSTÄTT, originally Eistet, a town He died on the 27th of that month. Eichhorn is the in the Bavarian district of Franconia, is situated in a deep author of a good many historical works, but it is as a valley on the Altmühl, about 35 miles south of Nuremberg. biblical critic that he is best known. He may almost be It is inclosed by walls, and has a very antique appearance. said to have originated the science of biblical criticism, for It is the seat of a bishop, and since 1838 of the appeal he first properly recognized its scope and the problems it court of Middle Franconia. The making of stoneware, had to solve, and began many of its most important discus-iron smelting, brewing, and weaving constitute its chief insions. He was the first to see the necessity of finding a dustries. It possesses a good many educational institutions. firm historical foundation for everything in Christianity Among its principal buildings are the palace occupied by that was to be accepted as fact. Preliminary to his the dukes of Leuchtenberg, with its beautiful park, and couendeavours towards this end, he took for granted that taining a celebrated Brazilian cabinet; the town-house; the all the so-called supernatural facts relating to the Old cathedral, containing some beautiful paintings and windows, and New Testaments were explicable on natural principles. and the grave of Wilibald, the first bishop and founder of He sought to judge them from the stand-point of the the town; and the church of St Walpurgis, under whose ancient world, and to account for them by the supersti- altar the bones of the saint of that name are said to rest. tious beliefs which were then generally in vogue. He Near the town is the famous stronghold Wilibaldsburg, did not perceive in the biblical books any religious ideas occupying the site of a Roman castle, and built for a of much importance for modern times; they interested bishop's residence by St Wilibald in 740. him merely historically, and for the light they cast upon antiquity. The supernatural element which they contained he attributed partly to the artificial delusions of magic, and partly to the natural delusions of a superstitious time. He regarded as ungenuine many books of the Old Testament and some of the Epistles, and he was the first to suggest that the Gospels were compiled by later writers from documents which have now perished. He did not appreciate as sufficiently as Strauss and the Tübingen critics the difficulties which a natural theory has to surmount, nor did he support his conclusions by such elaborate and minute discussions as they have deemed necessary, but he may be justly denominated the founder of their school of biblical criticism. Eichstädt was founded by St Wilibald in 745. The bones of St Walpurgis were brought to the town in 871, and from that time it became a great resort of pilgrims. Through the death of Count von Hirschberg in 1305, the bishopric became one of the richest foundations of Germany. It was secularized in 1802, became a principality of E. Bavaria in the same year, and still in the same year passed into the possession of Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany, who again transferred it to Bavaria in 1805. In 1817 it was assigned to the duke of Leuchtenberg. It lost its principality in 1854. The population in 1875 was 7136. EIDER (Icelandic, Eur), a large marine Duck, the Somateria mollissima of ornithologists, famous for its down, which, from its extreme lightness and elasticity, is in great request for filling bed-coverlets. This bird generally frequents low rocky islets near the coast, and in Iceland and His principal works were-Geschichte des Ostindischen Handels vor Norway has long been afforded every encouragement and Mohammed, Gotha, 1775; Allgemeine Bibliothek der biblischen Literatur (10 vols. Lpz. 1787-1801); Einleitung in das Alte Testament protection, a fine being inflicted for killing it during the (5 vols. Gött. 1824); Einleitung in das Neue Testament (5 vols. breeding-season, or even for firing a gun near its haunts, Gött. 1824-27); Einleitung in die apokryphischen Schriften des while artificial nesting-places are in many localities contrived Alten Testaments (Gött. 1798); Commentarius in apocalypsin for its further accommodation. From the care thus taken Joannis (2 vols. Gött. 1791); Die Hebr. Propheten (3 vols. Gött. 1616- of it in those countries it has become exceedingly tame at 20); Allgemeine Geschichte der Cultur und Literatur des neuern Europa (2 vols. Gött. 1796-99); Literärgeschichte (1st vol. Gött. its chief resorts, which are strictly regarded as property, 1799, 2d ed. 1813, 2d vol. 1814); Geschichte der Literatur von ihrem and the taking of eggs or down from them, except by Anfange bis auf die neuesten Zeiten (8 vols. Gött. 1805-12); Ueber- authorized persons, is severely punished by law. In sicht der Französischen Revolution (2 vols. Gött. 1797); Well-appearance the Eider is somewhat clumsy, though it flies geschichte (3d ed. 5 vols. Gött. 1819-20); Geschichte der drei letzten fast and dives admirably. The female is of a dark reddishJahrhunderte (3d ed. 6 vols. Hanover, 1817-18); Urgeschichte des erlauchten Hauses der Welfen (Hanover, 1817). EICHHORN, KARL FRIEDRICH (1781-1854), a son of the preceding, and a learned writer on jurisprudence, was born at Jena on the 20th November 1781. He entered the university of Göttingen in 1797. In 1805 he obtained the professorship of law at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, holding it till 1811, when he accepted the same chair at Berlin. On the call to arms in 1813 he became a captain of horse, and he received at the end of the war the decoration of the Iron Cross. In 1817 he was offered the chair of law at Göttingen, and, preferring it to the Berlin professorship, taught at Göttingen with great success till ill health compelled him to resign in 1828. His successor in the Berlin chair having died in 1832, he again entered on its duties, but resigned it two years afterwards. In 1832 he also received an appointment in the ministry of foreign affairs, which, with his labours on many state committees and his legal researches and writings, occupied him till his death in July 1854. Eichhorn is regarded as one of the principal authorities on German constitutional law. His chief work is Deutsche Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte, 4 vols. In company first with Savigny and Göschen, and then with Rüdorf, he edited the Zeitschrift für geschichtliche Rechtswissenschaft. brown colour barred with brownish-black. The adult male in spring is conspicuous by his pied plumage of sable beneath, and creamy-white above: a patch of shining sea. green on his head is only seen on close inspection. This plumage he is considered not to acquire until his third year, being when young almost exactly like the female, and it is certain that the birds which have not attained their full dress remain in flocks by themselves without going to the breeding-stations. The nest is generally in some convenient corner among large stones, hollowed in the soil, and furnished with a few bits of dry grass, seaweed, or heather. By the time that the full number of eggs (which rarely if ever exceeds five) is laid the down is added. Generally the eggs and down are taken at intervals of a few days by the owners of the "Eider-fold," and the birds are thus kept depositing both during the whole season; but some experience is needed to insure the greatest profit from each commodity. Every Duck is ultimately allowed to hatch an egg or two to keep up the stock, and the down of the last nest is gathered after the birds have left the spot. The story of the Drake's furnishing down, after the Duck's supply is exhausted, is a fiction. He never goes near the nest. The eggs have a strong flavour, but are much relished by both Icelanders and Norwegians. In the Old World the Eider breeds in suitable localities from Spitsbergen to the Farn Islands off the coast of Northumberland-where it is known as St Cuthbert's Duck. Its food consists of marine animals (mollusks and crustaceans), and hence the young are not easily reared in captivity. The Eider of the New World differs somewhat from our own, and has been described as a distinct species (S. dresseri). Though much diminished in numbers by persecution, it is still abundant on the coast of Newfoundland and thence northward. In Greenland also, Eiders are very plentiful, and it is supposed that three-fourths of the supply of down sent to Copenhagen comes from that country. The limits of the Eider's northern range are not known, but the late Arctic Expedition does not seem to have met with it after leaving the Danish settlements, and its place is taken by an allied species, the King-Duck (S. spectabilis), a very beautiful bird which sometimes appears on the British coast. The female greatly resembles that of the Eider, but the male has a black chevron on his chin and a bright orange prominence on his forehead, which last seems to have given the species its English name. On the west coast of North America the Eider is represented by a species (S. v-nigrum) with a like chevron, but otherwise resembling the Atlantic bird. In the same waters two other fine species are also found (S. fischeri and S. stelleri), one of which (the latter) also inhabits the Arctic coast of Russia and East Finmark and has twice reached England. The Labrador Duck (S. labradoria), which is now believed to be extinct (see BIRDS, vol. iii. p. 735), also belongs to this group. (A. N.) EILENBURG, a town of Prussia, in the province of Saxony, government of Merseburg, and circle of Delitzsch, is situated on an island formed by the Mulde, about 18 miles north-east of Leipsic. The principal structures are the hospital, the infirmary, three churches, and the castle. From the last-mentioned, formerly known as Ilburg, and in the time of Henry the Fowler an important post of defence against the Sorbs and Wends, the town received its name. The industries include the manufacture of chemicals, cloth, quilting, calico, cigars, and agricultural implements, bleaching, dyeing, wax-refining, brick-making, and trade in cattle. In the neighbourhood is the iron-foundry of Erwinhof. The population was 10,312 in 1875 EINBECK, or EIMBECK, a town of Prussia, in the landrost of Hildesheim, and province of Hanover, formerly chief town of the principality of Grubenhagen, is situated on the Ilme, 39 miles south of Hanover. It possesses a cathedral, five churches, a Jewish synagogue, a progymnasium and other schools, and several endowed institutions. Among the manufactures are linen and woollen goods, spun stockings, carpets, sugar, leather, cigars, chemicals, and beer, for which last the place was once famous. Population in 1875, 6384. Einbeck owes its rise to the frequent pilgrimages made in early times to the "Blood of the Saviour" at the cathedral chapel. It was a fortified Hanse town, and in 1542 joined the Smalcaldic League. On March 24, 1626, it was taken by Pappenheim, and on October 14, 1641, by Piccolomini; and during the Seven Years' War it was repeatedly occupied by the French. EINSIEDELN, a town in the canton of Schwyz, in Switzerland, situated in the valley of the Sihl, eight miles N.N.E. of Schwyz. The Benedictine abbey of Einsiedeln, founded about the middle of the 9th century, was several times partially or wholly destroyed by fire. The present edifice, in the Italian style, was erected in 1704–19, and stands at an elevation of 2985 feet above sea-level. It contains a library of 40,000 volumes, 1190 manuscripts, and 1015 incunabula, and in connection with it are a priests' seminary, a gymnasium, and a lyceum. The emperors Otto the Great and Henry II. made valuable presents to the abbey, and in 1274 Rudolf of Hapsburg created the abbot a prince. The treasury was plundered by the French in 1798. The abbey has for centuries been noted for its sacred image of the Virgin, which brings to it yearly an average of 150,000 pilgrims, chiefly on the 14th of September. Most of the buildings of Einsiedeln are inns for the entertainment of the pilgrims, with whom the inhabitants traffic in missals, sacred pictures, rosaries, crucifixes, and medallions. The Reformer Zwingli preached at Einsiedeln in 1516-18, and not far from the town is the house where Paracelsus is said to have been born. Population about 7650. EISENACH, the chief town of the Eisenach circle and of the administrative department of Saxe-WeimarEisenach, lies in a romantic district at the north-west end of the Thuringian wood. It is situated on the Hörsel, at the junction of the Thuringian and Werra railways, and 44 miles west from Weimar. In its neighbourhood is the Wartburg, where Luther on his return from the Diet of Worms was imprisoned, and where from May 1521 to March 1522 he devoted himself to the translation of the Bible. On a high rock on the south side of the town are the ruins of the castle of Mädelstein. Eisenach is the birth-place of Sebastian Bach, and he and Luther were educated at its gymnasium, then the Latin school. Among the public buildings may be mentioned the tower of St Nicholas, the castle, rebuilt in 1742, and the town-house, erected in 1641. Eisenach has a manufactory for cotton cloth, and a large woollen and several other mills. Population in 1875, 16,163. EISENBERG, a town in the west circle of the duchy of Saxe-Altenburg, and 24 miles W.S.W. of Altenburg. It is very old, and has changed possessors more than once, but was joined to Saxe-Altenburg in 1826. It possesses an old castle and a beautiful church. Its industries are principally woollen and porcelain manufactures, linen-weaving, and shoe-making. Population in 1875, 5509. EISENBURG, or VAS VÁRMEGYE, a county of Western Hungary, on the Styrian frontier, inclosed on the north, cast, and south by the counties of Sopron, Veszprim, and Szala, and on the west by the Styrian circle of Gratz. Its area is 1536 geogr. square miles. Though mountainous in the west and south, the land is generally fertile. The chief river is the Raab, which receives the Pinka, Sorok, Gyöngyös, and other streams. The natural and agricultural products consist of coals, mineral waters, quicksilver, corn, wine, fruit, and tobacco. Game, wild fowl, and fish are also plentiful. The population in 1870 amounted to 331,602, of whom nearly three-fourths were Roman Catholics, the rest chiefly Protestants and Jews. According to nationality about 140,000 are Magyars, 120,000 Germans, and the remainder Croatians and Slovaks. The principal town is Szembathely or Stein-amAnger. EISENSTADT, or KIS-MARTON, a royal free town of East Hungary, in the vármegye or county of Sopron or Oedenburg, in 47° 51′ N. lat. and 16° 30′ E. long., is situated at the foot of the Leitha mountain range, not far from the west bank of Lake Neusiedl, 26 miles S.E. of Vienna. The town is famous as being the seat of Prince Eszterházy, whose castle of Kis-Marton is one of the finest palaces in Hungary. It was built by Prince Paul, palatine of Hungary, in 1683, but was improved and added to in 1805. The park, which is very large, has a fine orangery, and several conservatories, containing many thousand varieties of exotic plants. The town itself is walled round, and has three main streets, with an old church, a town-hall, hospitals, and monasteries of the Brothers of Charity and of the Franciscans. To the north of the town there are exten sive zoological gardens. The population in 1870 amounted to 2476. |