OBITUARIES, FOREIGN. (ELLIS FKRUKHON. 



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Ellis, Thomas Edward, Welsh politician, 

 born in Cynlas, Merioneth, in 1859; died in 

 Cannesj France, April 5, 1899. He was the son 

 of a farmer, and learned English as a foreign 

 tongue. He entered the Bala Theological Col- 

 lege to prepare himself for the Welsh Calvinistic 

 ministry, studied afterward at University Col- 

 lege, Aberystwith, and thence went to Oxford, 

 where he took classical honors. After acting as 

 private secretary to John Brunner, he became the 

 leader of the Young Wales party, being elected 

 to Parliament in 1880. The tithe troubles of 1887 

 afforded the opportunity for pleading the cause 

 of land reform, Church disestablishment, and edu- 

 cation in Wales. He helped in the elaboration of 

 the schemes of education carried through by the 

 Liberal party, obtained an electoral success for 

 his party in the county councils when they were 

 first instituted, many Welsh nationalists being 

 elected on his programme, and in 1892 he. was 

 appointed a junior Lord of the Treasury. From 

 1894 till his death he was the Liberal whip in the 

 House of Commons. 



Ennery, Adolphe Philippe d', a French 

 dramatist, born in Paris in 1811; died there, 

 Jan. 26, 1899. He was of Hebrew parentage. 

 Starting in life as a clerk, he took to journalism, 

 and then turned to the drama, which he worked 

 as a profitable business, studying scenic effects 

 and the possibilities of the stage; startling, but 

 not intricate plots; novel situations; the quick 

 change from tragic to comic scenes, and the con- 

 trast between serious and ludicrous characters; 

 and conventional morality, such as the general 

 public likes. Thus he came to be the master of 

 modern melodrama, whose plays were the staple 

 attraction of country theaters, and were played 

 in Paris, sometimes three in one night on the 

 stages of different theaters. His first attempt 

 was Emile, on le fils d'un Pair de France (1831). 

 His Honneur de ma Fille (1835) was followed by 

 others in quick succession. From 1837 he pro- 

 duced almost every year one play or two, some- 

 times six or seven, and kept it up for fifty years, 

 amassing a fortune of 6,000,000 francs. Some of 

 his successful plays are the Prise de Pekin, Deux 

 Orphelines, Martyre, La Grace de Dieu, Dame de 

 St. Tropes, and Aieule. He possessed collections 

 of Chinese and Japanese art, which he intended to 

 bequeath to the state. 



Erckmann, Emile, French novelist, born in 

 Pfalzburg in 1822; died in Paris, March 14, 1899. 

 He was the son of a bookseller, and studied law, 

 but his talent for writing was early developed, 

 and in 1847 he formed a literary partnership with 

 M. Chatrian, then a professor at Pfalzburg. In 

 the time of the second empire tales and legends 

 of Alsace-Lorraine, signed by the coupled names 

 of Erckmann and Chatrian, had some success, 

 and long romances which followed attained an 

 enormous popularity. The most celebrated of 

 these was Le Conscrit de 1813. When interest in 

 these began to wane, it was revived for a time by 

 the success of the plays of Erckmann-Chatrian. 

 Le Juif Polonais and L'Ami Fritz were dramas 

 of considerable merit; the Rantzau, though of 

 mediocre quality, was scarcely less remunerative. 

 When their financial success was at the flood 

 the two associates quarreled over business mat- 

 ters. They were business partners, rather than 

 collaborators, for Chatrian attended to the ad- 

 vertisement and sale of the productions of Erck- 

 mann, who after they separated continued to 

 write industriously, and his writings, although no 

 longer in fashion, showed no diminution of merit. 

 The short stories, strong in local color and senti- 

 ment, descriptive power, and keen and humorous 



characterization of types of people, are still rel- 

 ished. 



Farrer, Lord, an English economist and ad- 

 ministrator, born in London in IHIM; died at 

 Dorking, Oct. 11, 1899. Thomas Henry Farrer 

 was the son of an eminent lawyer, and was edu- 

 cated at Eton and Oxford, was called to the bar, 

 and then entered the civil service as a clerk iii 

 the Board of Trade. Rising to be pennawnt 

 secretary, he held that post nearly forty years, 

 and was the arbiter in many decisions of tin- 

 Board of Trade. But in later years he could not 

 shape the policy of the Government in accord- 

 ance with the Manchester theories of unrestricted 

 individualism and lainsez fairc, which he was 

 about the last economist in England to uphold 

 in their purity. As a thoroughgoing individual- 

 ist, it was the easier for him to appease the 

 shipowners when Parliament imposed restric- 

 tions for the benefit of seamen and the rail- 

 road managers and shareholders when the regu- 

 lation of railroads was made more and more 

 stringent. He fought against forms of Gov- 

 ernment interference that since he retired have 

 been introduced, and as adviser on commercial 

 treaties he resisted unflinchingly and successfully 

 every form of protection or retaliation. He was 

 a leader in the organization of the Gold-Standard 

 Defense Association in 1895. 



Paure, Frar^ois Felix, President of the 

 French Republic, born Jan. 30, 1841; died in 

 Paris, Feb. 16, 1899. He was descended from 

 humble Provengal ancestors, received a good com- 

 mercial education, learned the leather business 

 from the foundation, became a shipowner and 

 shipbuilder at Havre, entered the Chamber of 

 Deputies at the age of forty, held various minis- 

 terial posts, and was elected President of the re- 

 public on Jan. 17, 1895 (see Annual Cyclopaedia 

 for 1895, page 280). He was a representative bour- 

 geois,^ and his very lack of renown and political 

 prestige made him popular with the middle 

 classes, and his humble origin and the fact that 

 he had once worn the workingman's blouse as a 

 tanner's apprentice pleased the fancy of the prole- 

 tariat. The nation was more than satisfied when 

 it found that this President, selected almost by 

 chance and previously so inconspicuous, dis- 

 played extraordinary tact and dignity of style 

 in his public utterances and communications 

 with the heads of foreign states, and maintained 

 the dignity of his office with graceful ease. The 

 visit of the Czar to Paris in the autumn of 1896, 

 and President Faure's return visit to St. Peters- 

 burg in the following year, marked by the open 

 avowal of the Franco-Russian alliance, cast a 

 temporary halo of glory about the presidency 

 of F6lix Faure, which began to fade, however, 

 when the fickle and impulsive French public 

 ceased to value the Russian alliance. President 

 Faure's popularity diminished rapidly, and his 

 taste for display and etiquette, which the people 

 had first admired and encouraged, made him a 

 butt for satire and detraction. His health broke 

 dow r n under the burden of responsibility that was 

 imposed by the scandals and animosities of the 

 Dreyfus crisis, and he was suddenly stricken by 

 apoplexy. 



Ferguson, John, British journalist, born in 

 Lanarkshire, Scotland, Oct. 28, 1851; died in 

 London, April 3, 1899. For nearly a score of 

 years he contributed special articles to the Lon- 

 don Times, besides writing regularly for the 

 Referee, the Academy, and other periodicals. 

 Among his published works are The Insanity of 

 Genius and The Human Machine: An Inquiry 

 into the Divinity of Human Faculty (1899). 



