Eigg (eg), an island on the west coast of Scotland, county of Inverness, about 10 miles from the mainland, and 5 miles long by about 3 broad. It has bold, rocky shores, and terminates to the south in a lofty promontory called the Scuir of Eigg, with a peak of columnar pitchstone porphyry 1339 feet above the sea, and on one side perpendicular as a wall. It is the scene of the massacre, towards the end of the sixteenth century, of 200 Macdonalds by the Macleods of Skye, who suffocated them in a cave where they had taken refuge. Pop. 211.
Eight-hour Day. The eight-hour day was proposed in England as early as 1833, and in 1869 the Trade Union Congress of Birmingham formulated the demand that this ideal working day should be adopted throughout the United Kingdom. The Trade Unions and the Socialists sought to secure the establishment of the eight-hour day through legislation, and it gradually came into force not only in coal-mining, but in various trades and industries. The agitation in favour of an eight-hour day became very strong in Europe towards the end of the nineteenth and at the beginning of the twentieth centuries, and in England it was granted to miners in 1908, and to railway employees in 1919. Since the European War the movement has made great headway, and it now forms part of the
programme of the Labour parties in almost all European countries.—Bibliography: Hedfield and Gibbins, A Shorter Working Day; Robertson, The Eight Hour Question.
Eighty Club, The, a club formed in 1879 by a number of prominent English Liberals with a view to the promotion of the success of Liberalism at the general election of 1880, whence its name. The members lecture on political subjects and address Liberal associations throughout the country. Women were first admitted to membership in 1920.
Eikon Basilikē (ī´kon ba-sil´i-kē; Gr., 'the royal image'), the name of a book published shortly after the execution of Charles I in Jan., 1649, and supposed by some to have been written by the king himself. At the Restoration Gauden, afterwards Bishop of Worcester, laid claim to the authorship, and a memorandum in the copy of the Earl of Anglesea, Lord Privy Seal under Charles II, affirms his claim with the authority of Charles II and the Duke of York. The Royalist Clarendon, author of the History of the Rebellion, accepted this statement, but others refused to credit Gauden with the authorship. Within a year of its publication, 48,000 copies of the book were sold, and the republicans put forward Milton to answer it, his Eikonoklastes (that is 'image-breaker') appearing the same year, by order of Parliament. The Eikon Basilikē professes to be a sort of private journal of the king, written in an affectedly dignified strain, and containing numerous assertions of love for his misguided and ungrateful people.—Cf. Almack, Bibliography of the King's Book, or Eikon Basilikē.
Eildon Hills (ēl´don), a picturesque hill-mass with three summits, south of Melrose, Roxburghshire, Scotland, reaching a height of nearly 1400 feet, fabled to have been cleft in three by Michael Scott.
Eileithyia (ī-lī-thī´ya), the Greek name of the ancient Egyptian city Nekheb (the modern El-Kab), on the Nile, some distance above Esneh. Important remains have been obtained from rock-tombs in the neighbourhood, and there are several ruined temples.
Eilenburg (ī´lėn-bu¨rh), a town, Prussian Saxony, 26 miles N.N.E. of Merseburg, on an island of the Mulde. It has manufactures of calico. Pop. 17,400.
Eimbeck (īm´bek), or Einbeck, a town of Prussia, province of Hanover, 40 miles south of Hanover, once famous for its beer (Eimbecker Bier, whence Bock). Pop. 9430.
Einsiedeln (īn´zē-dėln), a village and district, Switzerland, in the canton and 9 miles north by east of Schwyz, 3000 feet above the sea, celebrated for its Benedictine abbey. An image of the Virgin, alleged to possess miraculous powers, annually attracts immense numbers of pilgrims. Pop. 8438.