ESTATE DUTIES 



2982 



ESTER 



construction and repair, and the 

 laws concerning the relations of 

 landlord and tenant. See Surveyor. 



Estate Duties. Name given in 

 the United Kingdom to the duties 

 paid on the estates of deceased 

 persons. They date from 1894, 

 before which time there were death 

 duties of various kinds, including 

 legacy, probate, and succession 

 duties. In 1894 two new principles 

 were introduced. Real property, 

 hitherto exempt from charges of 

 this kind, was made to pay at the 

 same rate as personal property, 

 and the duties were levied on a 

 graduated scale. The first scale 

 was from 1 p.c. on small estates to 

 8 p.c. on those over 1,000,000 in 

 value. The duties on the larger 

 estates were increased several 

 times, these rising to 10, 15, and 

 then to 20 p.c., and in 1919 there 

 was another increase on the latter, 

 the scale rising to 40 p.c. on estates 

 of 2,000,000 and over. In 1917-18 

 the receipts from the estate duty 

 were 25,742,554. 



Gifts made within three years of 

 death, unless part of the deceased's 

 normal expenditure, are charged 

 with duty. Payment may be made 

 in real or leasehold property ; also 

 in war loan, which is taken at its 

 nominal value. Estates under 500 

 may pay an inclusive fee of 30s. 

 or 50s., which covers all duties. 

 Interest on the duty on personal 

 property is charged at the rate of 

 4 p.c., reckoned from the day of 

 death. On real estate this can 

 be paid by instalments, on which 

 interest is only charged after 

 twelve months. "See The Law and 

 Practice of the Estate Duty, A. W. 

 Soward, 5th ed. 1914. 



Estates. Word used for " an 

 organized collection, made by re- 

 presentation or otherwise, of the 

 several orders, states, or condi- 

 tions of men who are recognized as 

 possessing political power." Its 

 interest is now solely historical, 

 although we still speak of the es- 

 tates of the realm. In France, 

 Germany, and some other Euro- 

 pean countries, the same idea is 

 translated by the word states, and 

 so we have the states-general of 

 France and the Dutch Republic. 



The idea of estates began about 

 the 13th century with the growth 

 of the representative system, and 

 we soon find them in Spain and 

 France, as well as in England and 

 Scotland. In France the various 

 provinces, e.g. Brittany and Lan- 

 guedoc, had their local estates, and 

 in Spain the various kingdoms had 

 theirs. The German countries had 

 also their estates who met in a land- 

 tag or diet. It is usual to assume the 

 number of estates as three, but this 

 is purely accidental. In Sweden 



and Aragon there were four estates. 

 In England the merchants and. 

 lawyers might easily have formed a 

 Separate estate, but they did not, 

 and so we have the three estates of 

 lords spiritual, lords temporal, and 

 commons, sitting, however, in two 

 houses. In Scotland the lesser 

 barons formed a separate estate, 

 not sitting, as they did in England, 

 with the representatives of the 

 towns. The sovereign is sometimes 

 referred to as an estate of the 

 realm, and the press is known, a 

 tribute to its power, as the fourth 

 estate, a phrase said to be due to 

 Burke. See Diet ; Landtag ; Par- 

 liament ; Representation. 



Estcourt. Town of Natal. It 

 stands at an elevation of 3,830 ft., 

 on the rly. from Pietermaritzburg 

 to Ladysmith, 76 m. N.W. of 

 the former. It was the scene of 

 important operations during the 

 S. African War. At Weenen, 28 

 m. E., parties of Boers were mas- 

 sacred by the Zulus in 1838. 

 Pop. 1,295. 



Este (anc. Ateste). City of Italy, 

 in the prov. of Padua. It stands on 

 the slopes of the Euganean Hills, 

 20 m. by rly. S.W. of Padua. It 

 is enclosed by medieval walls, has 

 a ruined castle, a cathedral, and 

 two other churches, one with a 

 leaning bell -tower. The National 

 Museum is rich in prehistoric, la- 

 custrine, and sepulchral relics, 

 besides Greco-Roman antiquities. 

 The manufactures include pottery, 

 ropes, and iron goods. A Roman 



Rinaldo, Cardinal 

 d'Este 



From an old print 



Este. 



The Villa d'Este at Tivoli, near Rome, built by 

 Cardinal Ippolito d'Este in 1549 



town, it became the seat of the 

 Este family in the 10th century, 

 and in 1405 it surrendered to 

 Venice. Pop. 11,704. 



Este. Name of a noble Italian 

 family founded by Oberto II (c. 

 1015), margrave of Casalmaggiore. 

 His grandson, Azzo II, became 

 duke of Milan, and his sons, Guelph 

 and Fulco, founded the German 

 and Italian branches of the family 

 respectively. From the former the 



Hanoverian sovereigns of Great 

 Britain are descended. 



From the latter 

 Italian family 

 which held 

 the lordships 

 of F e r r a r a, 

 Modena, and 

 R e g g i o, the 

 emperor 

 Frederick III 

 making Barco 

 d'Este (d. 

 1471) duke of 

 Modena and 

 Reggio in 

 1452, while Pope Paul II created 

 him duke'iof Ferrara in 1471. His 

 brother, Ercole I (1431-1505), was 

 father of Beatrice (1475-97), 

 duchess of Milan, one of the most 

 beautiful and cultured women of 

 the Italian renaissance. 



Alfonso I (1486-1 534), who mar- 

 ried Lucrezia Borgia as his second 

 wife, he being her third husband, 

 was a statesman and a soldier. 

 His son, Cardinal Ippolito (1509- 

 72), built the magnificent Villa 

 d'Este at Tivoli. Alfonso II 

 (1533-97) kept a luxurious court, 

 where he detained the poet Tasso, 

 who was in love with his sister 

 Eleanora. Alfonso IV (1634-62) 

 was father of Maria Beatrice, queen 

 of James II of England. The 

 Italian branch of the family ended 

 with Ercole III (1727-1803), who 

 was dispossessed of the duchy of 

 Modena by the treaty of Campo- 

 formio in 1797, and whose only 

 daughter, Maria 

 Beatrice, married 

 Archduke Ferdi- 

 nand, third son 

 of Francis I of 

 Austria. His son 

 Francis IV (1779 

 -1846) was made 

 duke of Modena 

 by the congress 

 of Vienna in 

 1814, but his son 

 Francis V (1819- 

 75) was dispos- 

 sessed by the 

 incorporation of 

 the duchy in 

 the kingdom of 

 Italy in 1859. See 

 Modena. Pron. 

 Es-ty. 



Ester. Substance formed by the 

 union of alcohols and acids with 

 the elimination of water. Gmelin 

 first used the term ester to distin- 

 guish this class of compounds from 

 simple and mixed " ethers." An 

 ether is an oxide of the alcohol 

 radical analogous to metallic 

 oxides, whereas in esters both an 

 alcohol radical and an acid radical 

 are present. Esters are prepared (1 ) 

 by the direct action of an acid upon 



