EICHWALD, EDWARD. 



ELDON, EARL OF. 



Mi 



Oosehen be alto carried on the ' Z^iUchrift fur geshichtliche Rechte 

 wineflKhafV Berlin, 1815-1843. 



KICHWALD, EDWARD, a Russian naturalist, was born it. 

 llituu on the 4th of July 1795, and was educated in the frymnanium 

 of that town till 1814, when ha went to Berlin, where he studied 

 medicine and natural history. In 1817 ho began to travel, and visited 

 Germany, Switzerland, France, and England. After residing at Wilna 

 and Dorpat during the yean 1819-28, he waa appointed professor of 

 zoology and midwifery in the university of Casau. Two years after- 

 wards he undertook a scientific journey to the Caspian Sea, to the 

 Caucasus, and into Persia. On his return in 1S27 he was mtde pro- 

 fessor of zoology and comparative anatomy in the university of Wilna, 

 and again set out to investigate the western provinces of Russia as fur 

 as the Black Sea. The university of Wilna waa suppressed, but Kich- 

 wald remained as secretary of tne Medieo-Chirurgical Academy there 

 till 1838, when he removed to St Petersburg as professor of mineralogy 

 and zoology in the academy of that city. On receiving the appoint- 

 ment he undertook a new journey and traversed Esthonia, Finland, 

 the government of St. Petersburg, and the Scandinavian provinces. 

 In 1840 be made a geological journey through Italy, Sicily, and 

 Algeria. The results of his journeys have been published in numerous 

 works, of which the more important are ' Zoologia special!*,' 1829 ; 

 ' Sketches of Natural History from Lithuania, Volhynia, and Podolia,' 

 1830 ; ' 1'Untanim novarum quas in Itinero Caspio-Caucasio obnerva- 

 bit, 1 1831-33; ' Hemoria Bojani,' 1835; 'Treatise on the Mineral 

 Wealth of the Western Provinces of Russia,' 1835 ; ' Ancient Orogra- 

 phy of the Caspian Sea, of the Caucasus, and of the Southern Provinces 

 of Russia,' 1S33 ; ' On the Strata of the Silurian System of Esthonia,' 

 1840; ' Fannia Caspio-Caucasia,' 1846; 'Observations in Natural 

 History during a Journey through the Tyrol,' 1851; ' The Paleontology 

 of Rusnia,' 1851. Eichwald has been created a councillor of state by 

 the Emperor of Rusria, and he in member of a number of scientific 

 societies. 



ELAOABATLUS, called also HELIOQABA'LUS, was the grandson 

 of Mieaa, sister to the empress Julia, the wifj of Septimius Severus. 

 Mesa had two daughters, Saemis, or Seminmira, the mother of Varius 

 Avitus Bassianus, afterwards called Elagabalus, who was reported to 

 be the illegitimate son of Caracalla and Maminasa, mother of Alexander 

 Several. Elagabalus was born at Antioch A.D. 204. Mieaa took care 

 of his infancy and placed him, when five years of age, in the temple 

 of the Sun at Euie*a to bo educated by the priests ; and through her 

 influence he was made, while vet a boy, high priest of the Sun. That 

 divinity was called in Syria ' Ela.-abal,' which name the boy assumed. 

 After the death of Caracalla and the elevation of Macrinus, the latter 

 having incurred by his severity the dislike of the soldiers, M;esa availed 

 herself of this feeling to induce the officers to rise in favour of her 

 grandson, whom she presented to them as the son of the murdered 

 Caracalla, Elagabalus, who was then in his fifteenth year, was proclaimed 

 emperor by the legion stationed at Emeea. Having put himself at 

 their head he was attacked by Macrinus, who at first had the advantage, 

 but be and his mother Satnis, with great spirit, brought the soldiers 

 again to the charge, and defeated Macrinus, who was overtaken in his 

 flight and pnt to death A.D. 218. Elagabalus having entered Antioch, 

 wrote a letter to the senate, professing to take for his model Marcus 

 Aureiius Antoninus, a name revered at Rome : Elagabalus also assumed 

 that emperor's name. The senate acknowledged him, and he set off 

 for Rome, but tarried several months on his way amidst festivals and 

 amusement*, sn<l at last stopped at Nicomedia for the winter. In the 

 following year be arrived at Rome, and began a career of debauchery, 

 extravagance, and cruelty, which lasted the remaining three years of 

 bis reign, and the dinguating details of which are given by Lampri- 

 dlus, Herodianus, and Dion. Some critics have imagined, especially 

 from the shortness of bis reign, that there must be some exaggeration 

 in these account*, for be could hardly have done in so short a time 

 all the m inch iff that is attributed to him. That he was extremely 

 dissolute and totally incapable is certain ; and this is not to be 

 wondered at, from bis previous eastern education, his extreme youth, 

 the corrupt example of bis mother, his sudden elevation, and the 

 general profligacy of the times. He surrounded himself with gladia- 

 tors, actors, and other bane favourites, who made an unworthy use of 

 thrir influence. He married several wives, among others a vestal. 

 The imperial palace became a scene of debauch and open pnwtitution. 

 EUtabalua bring attached to the superstitions of the East, raised a 

 temple on the Palatine bill to the Syrian god whose name be bore, 

 and plundered the temples of the Roman gods to enrich bis own. He 

 pnt to death many senators; he established a senate of women, under 

 the prssUsOM of his mother Snsmia, which body decided all questions 

 relative to female dmsw, viU, precedence, amusements, Ac. He 

 wore bis pontifical Test as high priest of the Sun, with a rich tiara 

 OB bis bc*l. His grandmother Miosa, seeing bis folly, thought of con- 

 ciliating the Romans by associating with him as Ctcaar his younger 

 cousin, Alexander Severus, who soon became a favourite with the 

 people. KUgabalu., who bad consented to the association, became 

 afterwards jealous of his cousin, and wihed to deprive him of his 

 honour*, bat he could not obtain the consent of the senate. His 

 next meature was to spread the report of Alexander's death, which 

 produced an insurrection among the prsrtorians, and Elagabalus having 

 repaired to their camp to quell the mutiny, was murdered together 



with his mother and favourites, and his body was thrown into the 

 Tiber, March, A.D. 222. He was succeeded by Alexander Severus. 

 [ScvERUS.] The coinn of Elagabalua bear the names of Marcus Aure- 

 iius Antoninus, liko those of Caracalla, with which they are often eon- 

 founded. Tho names of Varius Avitus Bassianus, which he also bore 

 before his elevation to the throne, are not found on liU medals. He 

 took the name of Varius from Sextos Varius Maroellus, who was bis 

 mother's husband. 



British Museum. 



Coin of Klignbalni. 

 Actual si/e. Copper, 



Weight 310 giains. 



ELDON, JOHN SCOTT, EARL OF, rose to the eminent station 

 which he ultimately held from a bumble beginning. All that is 

 known about his ancestry is that his grandfather is reported by tradi- 

 tion to have been a clerk in the office of a coal-fitter at Newcastle, 

 and a man of very good repute ; he i< described in a written docu- 

 ment, of the year 1716, as William Scott, of Sandgate (one of the 

 streets of that town), yeoman. His son, M r. William Scott, the father 

 of Lord Eldon, followed the business of what is called a coal-fitter, 

 defined by bis son's biographer to be " the factor who conducts the 

 sales between the owner and the shipper, taking the shipper's order 

 for the commodity, supplying the cargo to him, and receiving from 

 him the price of it for the owner." In this line he prospered so much 

 that at his death, at the age of seventy-nine, 6th November 1776, he 

 appears to have left to his family, including what some of them bad 

 previously received from him, property to the amount of between 

 thirty and forty thousand pounds. Mr. William Scott was twice 

 married, liy his first wife, Isabella Noble, who died January 1 7 

 had three children, all of whose descendants arc extinct ; by his second, 

 Jane Atkinson, daughter of Henry Atkinson, Esq., of Newcastle, whom 

 he married in August 1740, he had thirteen children, of whom the 

 eldest son, William, afterwards Lord Stowell, was born in 1745, and 

 of whom John, the future chancellor, was the eighth. 



John Scott was born in 1751 as he believed, on the 4th of June 

 at his father's house in Love-lane, Newcastle, the site of which is now 

 partly occupied by other smaller houses, partly taken in to widen 

 Forater-street. He was educated, with his elder brothers, William and 

 Henry, at the grammar school of his native place, commonly called 

 the Head School, where the head master was the Rev. Hugh Moises, a 

 respectable scholar and an excellent teacher, but one who did not 

 spare the rod. William went to Oxford in 1761. [STOWELL, LORD.] 

 It was their father's intention to bring up John to bis own business; 

 but when he was making arrangements for that purpose in 1766, 

 William wrote home from Oxford, advising that he should be sent up 

 to him : " I can," he said, " do better for him here." Accordingly, 

 on the 15th of May of that year, be was entered a commoner of 

 University College. On the llth of July 1767, be was elected to a 

 fellowship in bis college, having then juat completed his sixteenth 

 year; he took his Bachelor's degree 20th February 1770; gained, in 

 1771, the chancellor's prize of 201. for an English prose essay on TIi- 

 Advantages and Disadvantages of Foreign Travel' (published iu ' Tul- 

 boys's Collection of the Oxford English Prize Essays,' 1830) ; but for- 

 feited his fellowship by running off, on the 18th of November 1772, 

 with Miss Elizabeth Surteea, daughter of Aubone Surtees, Esq., banker 

 of Newcastle, whojn he married at Blackshiels, in Scotland, the next 

 day. The lady's father waa very angry ; and it was some little tune 

 before he was reconciled ; but at last he agreed to givo his daughter a 

 portion of 10002., Mr. Scott making over to his son an equal turn. 

 Meanwhile, it is said, a grocer of Newcastle, a friend of the family, 

 who was well to do in the world, had kindly offered to take the young 

 man into partnership; and it waa only another interference <>!' hii 

 elder brother William which prevented the father closing with this 

 proposal. It was then determined that he should enter into holy 

 orders if a University College living frll vacant during the twelve 

 months of grace, as they are called, for which be WAS still allowed to 

 hold bis fellowship ; that event did not happen, and he then made up 

 his mind, it is said with some reluctance, to try the profession of the 

 law. He had entered himself a student of the Middle Temple iu 

 January 1773 ; and be took his degree of Master of Arts on the 13th 

 mary iu the same year. 



During the years 1774 and 1775 he held the office of a tutor of 

 University Co.Jege, where his brother William was at the time senior 

 tutor ; but it i believed that all he did in that capacity was to attend 

 to the law studies of some of the members of the college. He 

 received none of the emoluments of the office. One or both of these 



