EDEN EDICT. 



793 



attached the artist to his service by marks of favour. 

 He was commissioned to engrave, on copper, the 

 Holy Family of Raphael, and Alexander's Visit_ to 

 the Family of Darius, by Lebnui. He executed, 

 likewise, the Battle of the Four Cavaliers, after 

 Leonardo da Vinci. In his great works from histo- 

 rical pictures, his choice is often to be regretted. 

 Many paintings first obtained celebrity by his 

 masterly engravings. Edelinck was no less happy 

 in his portraits, and left a great number of the 

 most distinguished persons of his age. Many of 

 them are found in Perrault's collection of famous 

 men. A peculiarly chaste and brilliant burin, a 

 noble style, correct and easy drawing, truth and 

 inimitable harmony of execution, have raised the 

 works of this artist above any others of his nation. 

 Edelinck was engraver to the king, and counsellor 

 of the royal academy of painters, when he died, in 

 1707, aged fifty-eight. Neither his brother, nor his 

 son equalled him. 



EDEN. See Paradise. 



EDEN, Sir FREDERIC MORTON, baronet ; a British 

 diplomatist and statistical writer. He was sent 

 ambassador to Berlin in 1792, and in the following 

 year was removed to Vienna. In March, 1794, he 

 quitted that court for Madrid ; but, returning thither 

 again, he concluded, in May, 1795, a treaty of alli- 

 ance offensive and defensive, between England and 

 Austria. He died at his house in Pall-Mail, Nov. 

 14, 1809. He was the author of a work of consid- 

 erable research, entitled The State of the Poor, or 

 History of the Labouring Classes in England ; 1797, 

 3 vols. 4to. 



EDGAR, one of the most distinguished of the 

 Saxon kings of England, was the son of king Edmund. 

 He succeeded to the throne in 959, and managed the 

 civil and military affairs of his kingdom with great 

 vigour and success. He maintained a body of troops 

 to control the mutinous Northumbrians, and repel 

 the incursions of the Scots, and fitted out a powerful 

 navy to protect his subjects from the Danes. By 

 these precautions, he not only prevented invasion 

 from the Danes, but secured the submission of the 

 independent provinces of Wales and Ireland, and 

 the surrounding islands. During the reign of Edgar, 

 wolves were nearly extirpated from the southern 

 parts of the island, by exchanging a tribute from 

 Wales for payment in the heads of these animals. 

 His adventure and marriage with the beautiful 

 Klfrida, daughter of the earl of Devonslure, are 

 well known. He died in 975, and was succeeded 

 by his son, Edward the Martyr. 



EDGEWORTH DE FIRMONT, HENRY ESSEX, 

 father-confessor of Louis XVI. ; born 1745, in 

 Ireland, in the village of Edgeworthtown. His father, 

 an Episcopalian clergyman, adopted the Catholic 

 faith with his family, and went to France. Henry 

 studied first under the Jesuits at Toulouse, and then 

 at the Sorbonne in Paris. His piety and virtue 

 obtained him the confidence of the princess Elizabeth, 

 sister of Louis XVI., who chose him for her con- 

 fessor. The revolution broke out, and the king was 

 thrown into prison. Elizabeth was an angel of 

 consolation to her brother during his confinement, 

 and by her means Louis was first made acquainted 

 with the character of Firmont, who then lived in 

 concealment at Choisy-le-Roi, under the name of 

 Essex. When the king was informed of his con- 

 demnation, he requested a delay of three days, to pre- 

 pare himself to appear before his God, and free 

 communication with a priest of his own choice. 

 This was Edgeworth. The convention assented to 

 the latter request, but refused the respite. Edge- 

 worth discharged the duties devolving on him with 

 the deeptst devotion. He offered personally to 



attend the king to the place of execution. EJge- 

 worth ascended the scaffold with him; the execu- 

 tioner placed the king under the guillotine ; Edge- 

 worth exclaimed, " Son of St Louis, ascend to 

 heaven!" and the axe fell. Edgeworth succeeded 

 in escaping from France in safety, and arrived in 

 England in 1796. Pitt offered him a pension in the 

 name of the king, which he declined. He soon 

 after followed Louis XVIII. to Blankenburg, in 

 Brunswick, and thence to Mittau. As he had de- 

 voted his life to soothe the unhappy in the true spirit 

 of Christian charity, he lost it in services of benevo- 

 lence. In 1807, a number of French prisoners of 

 war were brought to Mittau, where Edgeworth was 

 living with Louis XVIII. A contagious fever made 

 the most dreadful devastation among them. Edge- 

 worth, so far from being repelled oy the danger, 

 devoted himself to the care of the sick, and was 

 himself attacked by the disease, of which he died, 

 May 21, 1807. The duchess of Angouleme attended 

 him hi his sickness ; the royal family followed him 

 to the tomb, and Louis XVIII. wrote his epitaph. 



EDGEWORTH, RICHARD LOVELL, a gentleman 

 distinguished for the versatility of his talents, was 

 bom in 1744, at Bath, of a family possessed of landed 

 property at Edgeworthtown, in the south of Ireland. 

 He received his education at Trinity college, Dublin, 

 and Corpus Christi, Oxford, after which he entered 

 at the Temple, but not probably with any serious 

 intention of adopting the law as a profession. Me- 

 chanics and general literature chiefly attracted his 

 attention. .He formed an acquaintance with doctor 

 Erasmus Darwin, Mr Thomas Day, and other men 

 of congenial pursuits, to whose researches, as well 

 as his own, what may be termed practical philosophy 

 is not a little indebted. In 1767, he contrived a 

 telegraph, with regard to which, however, lie had 

 not the merit of having started the original idea, 

 neither did he bring it into general use. After 

 residing some years in England, he went to France, 

 where he was engaged in the direction of some 

 works on the Rhone at Lyons. In the latter part 

 of his life, he resided much on his own estate, occu- 

 pying himself with plans for constructing rail-roads, 

 draining bogs, and other undertakings for the im- 

 provement of agriculture, manufactures, and com- 

 merce. Much of his time, too, was devoted to 

 literature, and, in conjunction with his daughter, 

 the celebrated Maria Edgeworth, he wrote a Treatise 

 on Practical Education, one on Professional Educa- 

 tion, as well as some subsidiary works, all remark- 

 able for the air of good sense, and adaptation to the 

 exigencies of common life, which they exhibit. He 

 died in June, 1817. Mr Edgeworth married four 

 wives, of whom two were sisters. His Memoirs, 

 partly written by himself and partly by his daughter, 

 were published in 1821. 



EDICT; a public proclamation. In ancient 

 Rome, the higher officers of state, who were elected 

 annually, publicly declared, at their entrance upon 

 office, the principles by which they should conduct 

 their administration. This was done particularly 

 by the ^Ediles (q. v.), who superintended buildings 

 and markets, and by the pretors, as supreme judges. 

 These annual proclamations, by which the deficien- 

 cies of the general statutes were supplied, and the 

 laws were adapted to the peculiar wants of the 

 period, gradually acquired a certain permanency, as 

 each officer retained, unaltered, most of the regula- 

 tions of his predecessor edictum tralatitium) ; and 

 they became, in fact, the source of the whole system 

 of Roman law, which, being founded on the official 

 authority of the authors, was called jus Aonorarmni, 

 and was opposed to the strictly formal law,j civile. 

 The edictum pratoris, under the emperor Adrian, 



