Eldon, John Scott, Earl of, Lord Chancellor of England, born in 1751 at Newcastle-on-Tyne, died in London, 13th Jan., 1838. His father was a coal-dealer and public-house keeper of means, and John was educated with his brother William (afterwards Lord Stowell) at Newcastle, and at Oxford, where he obtained a fellowship. He was called to the Bar in 1776, and in 1782 was made King's Counsel. Next year he entered Parliament, supported Pitt, and was made Solicitor-General, and knighted. In 1792 he purchased the estate of Eldon. In 1793 he became Attorney-General, and in 1799 was created Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and raised to the peerage and the House of Lords by the title of Baron Eldon. On the accession of the Addington ministry he became Lord Chancellor (1801), and retained this post under the subsequent administration of Pitt until the death of the latter in 1806. A year later, however, he resumed the chancellorship under Liverpool, and held it without break for twenty years. In 1821 he was created an earl by George IV. On the accession of the Canning ministry in 1827 he resigned the chancellorship, and never again held office. As a lawyer he was a master of English jurisprudence; as a politician he was opposed to reform, and by no means free from the charge of servility and intrigue.
El Dora´do, a country that Orellana, the lieutenant of Pizarro, pretended he had discovered in South America, between the Orinoco and Amazon Rivers; and which he named thus on account of the immense quantities of gold and precious metals which, he asserted, he had seen in Manoa, the capital of the country. The term El Dorado was first applied to a South American tribal king who was said to cover his body annually with gold-dust. It now designates any place abounding in gold, or offering opportunities for the acquisition of sudden wealth.
Eleanor Crosses (el´i-nor), memorial crosses erected on the spots where the bier of Eleanor, the wife of Edward I, rested on its way from Grantham to Westminster. Twelve were erected, but only three, those of Northampton, Geddington, and Waltham, remain.
Eleat´ic School, a Grecian philosophical sect, so called because it originated in Elea (Lat. Velia), a town of Magna Græcia (Southern Italy), of which also three of its most celebrated teachers, Parmenides, Zeno, and Leucippus, were natives. The founder was Xenophanes of Colophon, who came to Elea late in life, bringing with him the physical theories of the Ionian school, to which he added a metaphysic. The two schools soon drifted widely apart, especially in respect of method. In opposition to the physical philosophy of the Ionian school, and also the doctrine of Heraclitus, who taught that everything is flux, the Eleatic philosophers asserted that change and difference are only empty illusions, and that the only true reality is changeless being. Starting from the observation of external nature, the Ionians endeavoured to discover some elementary principle, as water, air, fire, or a combination of elements, by the action of which the phenomena they observed might be accounted for. The Eleans made the abstract idea of Being or God, deduced from the contemplation of the Universe as a whole, their starting-point. Their reasonings sometimes led them to deny the reality of external phenomena altogether.
Elecampane (el-i-kam-pān´; Inŭla Helēnium), a plant of the nat. ord. Compositæ, found in Britain and other parts of Europe, and in Asia. It is 3 or 4 feet high; the radical leaves are often 2 feet and more in length; the flowers are large and yellow; the root, which is perennial, possesses a bitter camphor-like taste. It was formerly much used as a stimulant for all the secreting organs, and in tuberculosis on account of the germicidal action of the bitter principle (helenin) which it contains.
Election, in theology, the doctrine that God has from the beginning elected a portion of mankind to eternal life, passing by the remainder. It is founded on the literal sense of certain passages of Scripture, and has been amplified by the labours of systematic theologians into a complete and logical system. It dates in ecclesiastical history from the time of Augustine; but Calvin has stated it so strongly and clearly in his Institutes that it is generally associated with his name.
Election, in politics, the selection by voting of a person or persons to occupy some post or office. The most important elections are those of the members of the legislative assemblies of the different countries, and as to the manner in which these are carried out strict laws are in force. In such elections voting by ballot is now general. The chief forms of election in Britain are parliamentary and municipal elections, in both of which the basis of the suffrage (or right of voting) is the payment of poor rates. Members of Parliament formerly required a property qualification in England and Ireland; but this restriction, which never existed in Scotland, has been abolished. In both parliamentary and municipal elections the ballot has been in operation since 1872. For the prevention of bribery and corrupt practices many Acts have been passed, of which that now in operation came into force in Oct., 1883, and has been annually renewed. By it persons convicted of treating, bribery,
personation, and undue influence are liable to imprisonment with hard labour, and to disqualification in respect of the franchise and public offices. It also imposes many limitations with regard to the number of assistants and committee-rooms, and the use of conveyances. By the Reform Act of 1918, the maximum expenditure for campaign purposes during parliamentary elections is to be sevenpence per elector in county constituencies, and fivepence per elector in boroughs. By this Act the cost of registration is paid half out of local rates, and half by the State. At election times the returning officer's expenses are to be paid by the Treasury. Under the provisions of the Ballot Act the returning officer is required, in the case of a county election, to give notice of an election within two days after that on which he receives the writ; or in the case of a borough election, to give notice on the day on which he receives the writ, or at the latest on the day following. In county or district borough elections the nomination must take place within ten days of the receipt of the writ, at least three clear days, however, being allowed to elapse between the first public notice and the day of nomination. In ordinary borough elections the candidate must be nominated not earlier than the third day after public notice, and not later than the fourth day after that on which the writ is received. A candidate is nominated in writing, with the signatures of a proposer, seconder, and eight other electors, all registered in the constituency to be represented. In the event of there being more candidates than vacancies, the returning officer adjourns the election for the purpose of taking a poll. The polling must take place not less than two or more than six clear days after the day of nomination, if it be a county or district borough election; in the case of an ordinary borough, it must take place not more than three clear days after nomination, Sundays, Christmas Day, &c., not being counted as days. Where the votes for rival candidates are equal, the returning officer, if registered in the constituency, may give the casting-vote. If he decline to do so, a scrutiny is demanded, which usually results in certain deductions on the ground of spoiled papers, disqualified voters, &c., sufficient to give one candidate priority. In elections for the school boards the cumulative system of voting is employed (see Cumulative Vote).—Cf. C. Seymour and D. P. Frary, How the World Votes.
Elector (Ger. Kurfürst, 'electoral prince'), the title of certain princes of the Holy Roman Empire, who had the right of electing the emperors. In the reign of Conrad I, King of Germany (912-918), the dukes and counts became gradually independent of the sovereign, and assumed the right of choosing future monarchs. In the thirteenth century the number of these electors was seven—the Archbishops of Mainz, Cologne, and Trèves, the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine, the Duke of Saxony, and the Margrave of Brandenburg. In 1648 an eighth electorate was created to make room for Bavaria, and Hanover was added as a ninth in 1692. The votes of the Palatinate and of Bavaria were merged in one in 1777. In 1802 the two ecclesiastical electors of Cologne and Trèves were set aside, and Baden, Würtemberg, Hesse-Cassel, and Salzburg declared electorates; so that there were ten electors in 1806 when the old German Empire was dissolved.—Cf. Viscount Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire.
Electrical Fishes, a name given to fishes possessing the property of communicating an electric shock when touched with the hand or any electric conductor. One of the best known is the electric eel (Gymnōtus electricus), a native of South America. It is of nearly equal thickness throughout; head and tail obtuse; ordinary length, 3½ to 4 feet. The seat of the four electrical organs is along the under side of the tail, and they are said to possess the power of knocking down a man, and of painfully numbing the affected limb for several hours after the shock. After a few discharges, however, the faculty of producing a shock is impaired, and an interval of rest is required for a new storage of force. Similar but less-marked powers are possessed by an African cat-fish (Malapterurus electricus), in which the electric organ invests the entire body as a sort of jacket under the skin. Still feebler in this respect are the electric rays, of which the best known (species of Torpedo) are native to the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans. Here the electric organ consists of a large mass on each side of the front part of the body.