ELIZABETH OF FRANCE-ELLENBOROUGH. ers. All modesty and goodness at court, she was here all patience and submission. May 9, 1794, at 7 o'clock in the evening, Elizabeth was led from the Temple to the Conciergerie, because it had been discovered that she had corresponded with the princes, her brothers. She was tried with closed doors. The next morning, she was carried before the revolutionary tribunal, and, when asked her name and rank, she replied with dignity, "I am Elizabeth of France, and the aunt of your king." This bold answer filled the judges with astonishment, and interrupted the trial. Twenty-four other victims were sentenced with her; but she was reduced to the horrible necessity of witnessing the execution of all her companions. She met death with calmness and submission; not a complaint escaped her against her judges and executioners. Without being handsome, Elizabeth was pleasing and lively. Her hair was of a chestnut color; her blue eye had a trace of melancholy in it; her mouth was delicate, her teeth beautiful, and her complexion of a dazzling whiteness; she was modest, and almost timid, in the midst of splendor and greatness, courageous in adversity, pious and virtuous, and her character was spotless. ELIZABETH ISLANDS; small islands near the coast of Massachusetts, between Martha's Vineyard and the continent, included within the township of Chilmark; lon. 70° 38′ to 70° 56′ W.; lat. 41° 24′ to 41°32′ N. They are about 16 in number; the principal of which are Nashawn, Pasqui, Nashawenua, Pinequese, and Chatahunk. Elizabethtown; a borough and posttown of New Jersey, in Essex county, 5 miles S. Newark, 14 S. S. W. New York, 76 N. E. Philadelphia; lon. 74° 7 W.; lat. 40° 39′ N.; population in 1820, 3515. It is situated on a small creek, which flows into Arthur Kull sound, and is a handsome, pleasant and flourishing town, containing a bank, an academy, a printingoffice, and 4 houses of public worship. The Presbyterian and Episcopal churches are large and handsome brick buildings. The town is situated in a very fertile tract of country, and has considerable trade, and some manufactures. Vessels of 20 or 30 tons come up to the town, and those of 200 or 300 come as far as Elizabethtown point, 2 miles distant; and a steamboat plies between New York and the point. This is the oldest town in New Jersey: the ground was purchased of the Indians in 1664, and settled, soon after, by emigrants from Long Island. ELK. (See Deer.) 481 ELL; a measure which obtains, under different denominations, in most countries, whereby cloths, stuffs, linens, silks, &c., are usually measured. The ell English is 5 quarters, or 45 inches; the ell Flemish, 3 quarters, or 27 inches. In Scotland, an ell contains 37 2-10 inches English. On the ELLENBOROUGH (Edward Law), lord, born in 1748, at Great Salkeld, in Cumberland, lord chief justice of the king's bench, was a distinguished lawyer. His father, doctor Edmund Law, bishop of Carlisle, placed him at the charter house, London. He afterwards entered the university at Cambridge, where, in 1771, he obtained a prize medal, given by the chancellor, and, in 1773, a prize. He studied law at Lincoln's Inn, and soon became distinguished in his profession, in which he began his career at the same time with Eldon (q. v.) and Erskine (q. v.) By the patronage of sir Francis Buller, one of the judges of the king's bench, he early obtained a silk gown. trial of Warren Hastings, in 1785, Erskine having refused to undertake the defence, Law served as leading counsel. It required no little courage to encounter such opponents as Burke, Fox, Sheridan, and other eminent men of the time, who conducted the impeachment. Law was assisted by Plomer and Dallas, and, as is well known, obtained the victory. (See Hastings.) The defence did not come on until the fifth year of the trial. To the brilliant cloquence of his adversaries, Law opposed simple, logical, and clear statements. After eight years, in which the trial had occupied 148 days, at an expense of £71,080, Hastings was acquitted. Law's success was now certain. In 1801, he was made attorney-general, and, in 1802, on the death of lord Kenyon, he became lord chief justice of the king's bench, and was created baron. He adopted the title Ellenborough from a small fishing village of that name, where his ancestors had lived for a long time. Under lord Grenville's administration, he became a member of the privy council (1806), which, by many, many, is considered as unconstitutional. In parliament, he was opposed to the emancipation of the Catholics. (See Catholie Emancipation.) He held the office of chief justice for fifteen years, when his health sunk under the duties of the office. The bookseller Hone, having published three well known parodies on the Christian religion, was tried on the indictment for the first before Abbot, for the two others before Ellenborough. Both judges, 482 ELLENBOROUGH-ELLIPSIS. in their charges to the jury, declared the publications to be libels; yet the jury returned a verdict of not guilty, and the spectators manifested their satisfaction by applause. This event had an unfavorable effect on lord Ellenborough's already feeble health, and, after a long sickness, he resigned his office in 1818. He died December 13 of the same year, at the age of seventy years. Lord Ellenborough enjoys a high reputation for legal ability. ELLERY, William, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was born at Newport, Rhode Island, December 22, 1727. He entered Harvard college at the age of 16, and left it in his 20th year, with the reputation of a sound scholar. After studying the law for the regular term, he began the practice, and continued it successfully during 20 years. The part which he took with his native state, in promoting resistance to the mother country, occasioned his election to the congress of 1776. Of this body he was a zealous, spirited and most serviceable member. His dwelling-house at Newport, and other portions of his property, were destroyed by the British army, under general Pigot. Mr. Ellery continued a member of congress until the year 1785. Soon after this period, he accepted the office of chief justice of the superior court of Rhode Island. When the present federal government was organized, he accepted from general Washington the collectorship of the customs for the town of Newport-a post which he filled during the remainder of his estimable life. This venerable man died at the age of 92, February 15, 1820. He expired without sickness or pain, reading Cicero De Officiis, in his armchair. ELLIOTT, Stephen, an eminent American botanist and man of letters, was born at Beaufort, in South Carolina, November 11, 1771. He was first placed at the grammar school in Beaufort, whence he was transferred to Yale college, in 1787. Here he was distinguished for scholarship and good character. On his return home, he applied himself to the improvement of his paternal estate, which, though impaired by the casualties of the revolution, was still ample. His leisure hours, at this period, were given to history and poetry. His devotion to natural history began some time after. At the age of 22, Mr. Elliott was returned by his district as a member of the state legislature of South Carolina. In this sphere he soon obtained consider able influence by his zeal, urbanity, knowledge, and powers of argument. As a member of the senate, he introduced and carried various important bills, improving the public economy, and particularly the plan of the state bank, which was adopted by the legislature in the year 1812. Of this bank Mr. Elliott was chosen president, and discharged his of fice with great ability until the time of his death. Although the care of the bank rested mainly on him, he found time to complete his two volumes of the botany of South Carolina, which are held in high estimation, and to make considerable contributions to the literary and scientific societies of which he became a member. He was president of the literary society of Charleston, and of the literary and philosophical society, and professor of natural history and botany in the medical college. His learned and elegant papers and lectures obtained universal applause. Mr. Elliott was well acquainted with French and Italian literature, and the scientific works of the French school, particularly in geology, mineralogy, conchology, and botany. He has left a collection in the several branches of natural history, scientifically arranged, which is said to be scarcely excelled by any private one in the United States. He was the chief editor of the Southern Review, and author of ten of the longest and most admired articles of that periodical work. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Yale college, and again by Harvard university. Few of his American contemporaries equalled him in variety of talents, attainments and labors. None possessed a more amiable temper, or honorable spirit. Mr. Elliott was above six feet in height, with a robust frame and noble countenance. He died in the early part of 1830. Most of his productions remain in manuscript. Such of them as have been published will perpetuate his name creditably for his country. ELLIPSIS; 1. in grammar and rhetoric; the omission of one or more words, which may be easily supplied by the imagination. It is used to express passion, or for the sake of conciseness. The latter is particularly the case in familiar phrases. 2. In mathematics; one of the conic sections. (See Cone.) Kepler discovered that the planets describe such a curve in revolving about the sun. It presents to the eye, at once, variety and regularity, and is, therefore, preferred by painters to the circle for the outline of their pictures. Two points in the longest diameter have this peculiarity: the sum of two straight ELLIPSIS-ELLSWORTH. lines drawn from them to any point in the circumference is always the same, to whatever point they are drawn. An ellipsis may, therefore, be formed by taking two points upon a plane, attaching to them a ring of thread, and following it round with a pencil, keeping it extended in the form of a triangle. The points where the thread is fixed are called the foci. ELLIPTICITY OF THE TERRESTRIAL SPHEROID. (See Degree, Measurement of.) ELLIS, George, an ingenious writer, a native of London, was educated at Westminster school and Trinity college, Cambridge. He obtained an office under government during the administration of Mr. Pitt, and was secretary to lord Malmesbury, in his embassy to Lisle, in 1797. He was one of the junto of wits concerned in the well known political satire, The Rolliad, and wrote a preface, notes and appendix to Way's translation from the French of Le Grand's Fabliaux; besides which, he published Specimens of the early English Poets, with an Historical Sketch of the Rise and Progress of English Poetry and Language, 3 volumes Svo.; and Specimens of early English Metrical Romances, 3 vols. 8vo. The two latter works have passed through several editions; and they display much ingenuity, and a general, though not a profound acquaintance with English literature. Mr. Ellis, who was a fellow of the royal society, and the society of antiquaries, died in 1815, aged 70. ELLORA. (See Elora.) ELLSWORTH, Oliver, an American judge and statesman, was born at Windsor, in Connecticut, April 29th, 1745. His father was a farmer, and his own youth was passed alternately in agricultural labors and liberal studies. At the age of 17, he entered Yale college, which he subsequently left for the college of Nassau hall, at Princeton. After completing his academic course at Princeton, in 1766, he studied law, and was admitted to the bar, in 1771, in the county of Hartford, Connecticut, where he commenced the practice, and acquired in a few years a high professional reputation, that occasioned his appointment as state's attorney. From the commencement of the revolutionary struggle, Mr. Ellsworth sided with the colonies; he went into actual service against the enemy, with the militia of Connecticut, and, as a member of the general assembly of that state, took a large share in all the political discussions and measures. In 1777, he was chosen a delegate to the congress of the United States, in which 483 body he continued for three years. In 1780, he became a member of the council of Connecticut, and, in 1784, was appointed a judge of the superior court of the state--an office which he filled for several years with great reputation. In 1787, he was chosen, by the legislature, one of the delegates of Connecticut to the convention for framing a federal constitution, to be held in Philadelphia. In this illustrious assembly, he obtained much influence and distinction. It is believed, that the present organization and mode of appointment of the senate were suggested by him. As he was called away by other duties, his name is not among those of the signers of the constitution which was adopted, but he approved the work, and warmly supported it in the state convention. Two of his very able speeches in its defence are preserved in the third volume of Carey's American Museum. When the constitution was ratified, judge Ellsworth was elected a senator in the first congress, which met at New York, in 1789; and he retained his seat till 1796, during almost the whole of president Washington's administration. The bill for organizing the judiciary department was drawn up by him, and the part which he took in most of the great questions of politics or public economy, raised him to a lofty eminence in the eyes of the country. In 1796, when Mr. Jay resigned the office of chief justice of the supreme court of the United States, president Washington appointed Mr. Ellsworth his successor. To this trust he proved fully equal, though he had been long estranged from the practice of his profession. All his habits and faculties were specially adapted to the discharge of judicial functions. At the close of the year 1799, he was selected to be one of the three envoys to France, governor Davie, of North Carolina, and the honorable William Vans Murray, being his colleagues, in order to adjust those differences which had assumed the character of war. For this errand he was not so well qualified as for the career which he had previously run; but the convention, which was concluded by the envoys with the French government, obtained the assent of the president and the senate. His health was so much impaired by a long and tempestuous sea voyage, that he was obliged to pass over to England from France, in order, chiefly, to try the efficacy of the British mineral waters. same cause induced him to transmit from England, to president Washington, his resignation of the office of chief justice. As The soon as he acquired some fresh strength, he returned to his native country, and retired to his family residence at Windsor, in Connecticut. In 1802, he entered again into the council of the state, and, in 1807, was elected the chief justice of the state, but declined this station. The nephritic complaints, to which he had been long subject, attained a fatal violence this year, and caused his death, in the 63d year of his age. Oliver Ellsworth was one of the most distinguished of the revolutionary patriots of America, of her statesmen and her lawyers. He filled a large space in the eyes of his countrymen. His person al character and domestic life were exemplary. His friend, doctor Dwight, has commemorated his merits in his Travels in New England. ELLWOOD, Thomas, an early writer among the Quakers, was born in 1639, at Crowell, near Thame, in Oxfordshire, where he received such an education as the humble circumstances of his parents would afford. In his 21st year, he was induced to join the society of Friends, by the preaching of one Edward Burroughs, and he soon after published his first piece, entitled An Alarm to the Priests, or a Message from Heaven to warn them. He subsequently became reader to Milton, with whom he improved himself in the learned languages, but was soon obliged to quit London on account of his health. In the year 1665, he procured a lodging for Milton at Chalfont, Bucks, and was the occasion of his writing Paradise Regain ed, by the following observation made on the return of the Paradise Lost, which the poet had lent him to read in manuscript: "Thou hast said much of paradise lost, but what hast thou to say of paradise found?" In 1705, he published the first part of Sacred History, or the Historical Parts of the Old Testament, and, in 1709, Sacred History, &c. of the New Testament; which production was well received, and is still held in some estimation. His other works are numerous; among them, Davideis, the Life of David, King of Israel, a poem, which is more distinguished for piety than poetry. He died in 1713, aged 74. His life, written by himself, affords many interesting particulars of the history of his sect. ELM. The species of elin (ulmus) are trees or shrubs, with alternate rough and simple leaves, and fascicles of small, inconspicuous flowers, which appear before the foliage. About twenty species are known, all inhabiting the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere, and three of them natives of the United States:-1. U. Americana (American or white elm) is found from the forty-ninth to the thirtieth parallel of latitude, is abundant in the Western States, and extends beyond the Mississippi, but attains its loftiest stature between lat. 42° and 46°; here it reaches the height of 100 feet, with a trunk four or five feet in diameter, rising sometimes 60 or 70 feet, when it separates into a few primary limbs, which are at first approximate, or cross each other, but gradually diverge, diffusing on all sides long, arched, pendulous branches, which float in the air. It has been pronounced by Michaux "the most magnificent vegetable of the temperate zone." Its wood is not much esteemed, but has been used for the naves of wheels in the state of New York, for chair-bottoms, and sometimes, in Maine, for the keels of vessels. 2. U. fulva (red or slippery elm) is common in the W Vest, but comparatively rare in the Atlantic states; it is also found over a great extent of country in Canada, Missouri, and as far south as latitude 31°; it attains the height of fifty or sixty feet, with a trunk 15 or 20 inches in diameter; the wood is stronger and of a better quality than that of the white elm, is employed in the West in constructing houses, and is the best in the United States for blocks, but its scarcity in the Atlantic states prevents its being much used for that purpose. The leaves and bark yield an abundant mucilage, to which it owes its name, and which is a valuable remedy in coughs, and especially in dysentery and other bowel complaints. This, as well as every other kind of domestic medicine, is prepared and put up, with most singular nicety and care, at the Shaker establishment, at Canterbury, N. H. 3. U. alata (wahoo) inhabits from lat. 37° to Florida, Louisiana, and Arkansas, and is a small tree, sometimes 30 feet high, remarkable from the branches being furnished, on two opposite sides, with wings of cork, two or three lines wide; the wood is fine-grained, compact and heavy, and has been used in the South for the naves of coach wheels. The wood of the U. campestris of the eastern continent is superior to that of either of the American species, and, indeed, is one of the most useful in the mechanic arts, being employed for gun-carriages, blocks of ships, gunwales, &c., and is every where preferred by wheelwrights for the naves and felloes of wheels. The lower classes in England use it almost exclusively for coffins, probably on account of its durability in moist situations. This tree might ELM-ELORA. be advantageously introduced into the United States. ELMINA, or LA MINA, or ODDENA, or ST. GEORGE DEL MINA; a town in Africa, on the Gold coast, situated in a low, flat peninsula, near the two forts St. George d'Elmina and Conradsburg; lon. 1° 50′ W.; lat. 5° 10′ N.; population about 15,000. It is the capital of the Dutch settlements in Western Africa, and the most respectable fortress on the Gold coast. The town is large, and remarkably dirty; some of the houses are built of stone, but they are huddled together in a confused manner. The country around is for the most part open and flat, the soil generally light. The inhabitants of the town are traders, fishermen, and persons employed as servants to traders. The citadel of Elmina, standing in the centre of the Gold coast, is very commodiously situated for the purposes of trade, and the protection and security of the trader. Its situation is upon a rock, bounded on one side by the ocean, and also defended by strong bastions. 485 in 1825. He published an edition of the following tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides: Acarnanes, in 1809; Edipus Tyrannus, 1811; Heraclidæ, 1815; Medea, 1818; Bacchæ, 1821; and Edipus Coloneus, 1823. ELONGATION, in astronomy, the angle under which we see a planet from the sun, when reduced to the ecliptic; or it is the angle formed by two lines drawn from the earth to the sun and planet, when reduced as above. ELOPEMENT is when a married woman, of her own accord, departs from her husband, and dwells with an adulterer; for which, without voluntary reconciliation to the husband, she shall lose her dower. By eloping and living apart from the husband, he is discharged of the future debts, and no longer liable to support her. ELORA; a town in Hindostan, in the province of Dowlatabad; lon. 75° 23′ E.; lat. 19° 58′ N.; about 18 miles N. E. of Aurungabad, 260 miles from Bombay, 650 from Madras, and more than 1000 from Calcutta ; inhabited by Bramins onELMO'S FIRE, ST.; an appearance caused ly. About a mile west of the place is a by fiery meteors in the atmosphere. It chain of mountains, of reddish granite, often seen playing about the masts and out of which the famous temples of rigging of ships. If two flames are visi- Elora are excavated. These temples must ble (Castor and Pollux), the sailors con- be counted among the most stupendous sider it a good omen; if only one, which works ever executed by man. The cirthey call Helene, they regard it as a bad one. cuit of the excavations is about two ELMSLEY, Peter, D. D., an eminent schol- leagues. The temples are 100 feet high, ar and philologist, was born in 1773, and 145 feet long, and 62 feet wide. They educated at Oxford. Having inherited a contain thousands of figures, appearing, fortune from his uncle, he devoted the re- from the style of their sculpture, to be of mainder of his life to literature. In 1802, ancient Hindoo origin. Every thing about being then resident in Edinburgh, he be- them, in fact, indicates the most persevercame one of the original contributors ing industry in executing one of the to the Edinburgh Review, in which boldest plans. Their origin is prior to the the articles on Heyne's Homer, Schweig- period of history. A tradition says that hauser's Athenæus, Bloomfield's Prome- Visvacarma was the architect of the chief theus, and Porson's Hecuba, are from his temple, and that Vishnoo and the Sanpen. He also wrote occasionally, at a thones were his assistants. The chief subsequent period, in the Quarterly Re- temple still bears the name of Visvacarma. view. In_the_pursuit of his philological The vault is supported by several rows of studies, Mr. Elmsley afterwards visited columns, which form three galleries, one most of the principal libraries on the con- above the other. 24 colossal monolithes, tinent, and spent the whole of the winter representing Indian gods, are placed in of 1818 in the Laurentian Library at Flor- separate divisions, the sculpture of which, ence. The year following, he accepted a though, on the whole, it may be called commission from the government to su- rude, shows, in some parts, an advanced perintend, in conjunction with sir Hum- period of art, and a certain developement phrey Davy, the unrolling of the Her- of taste. On each side of the colonnades culanean papyri; in which the selec- of the great temple are hewn out sphinxes, tion of the manuscripts was left to his quite in the Egyptian style. These rejudgment. On his return to England, he markable works, which will probably persettled at Oxford, and, having taken the ish from exposure to air and moisture, if degree of doctor of divinity, obtained soon nothing is done for their preservation, after the headship of Alban hall, and the were first described by the English capCamden professorship in 1823. He died tain T. B. Seely, in his Wonders of Elora |