EMB 



EMB 



another prince, to maintain a good under- 

 standing 1 , and look to the interest of his 

 tnaster Till about two hundred years ago, 

 embassadors in ordinary were not heard 

 of; all, till then, were embassadors extra- 

 ordinary; that is, such as are sent on 

 some particular occasion, and who retire 

 as soon as the affair is dispatched. 



By the law of nations, none under the 

 quality of a sovereign prince can send or 

 receive an embassador. At Athens, em- 

 bassadors mounted the pulpit of the pub- 

 lic orators, and there opened their com- 

 mission, acquainting the people with their 

 errand. At Rome, they were introduced 

 to the Senate, and delivered their com- 

 missions to them. 



Embassadors should never attend any 

 public solemnities, as marriages, funerals, 

 &c. unless their masters have some inter- " 

 est therein: nor must they go into mourn- 

 ing on any occasions of their own, because 

 they represent the persons of their 

 prince. By the civil law, the moveable 

 goods of an embassador, which are ac- 

 counted an accession to his person, can- 

 not be seized OR, neither as a pledge, nor 

 for payment of a debt, nor by order or 

 execution of judgment, nor by the King's 

 or state's leave where he resides, as some 

 conceive; for all actions ought to be far 

 from an embassador, as well that which 

 toucheth his necessaries, as his person: 

 if, therefore, he hath contracted any debt, 

 .he is to be called upon kindly, and if he 

 refuses, then letters of request are to go 

 to his master. Nor can any of the embas- 

 sador's domestic servants, that are regis- 

 tered in the Secretaries of State's Office, 

 be arrested in person or goods: if they 

 are, the process shall be void, and the 

 parties suing out and executing it shall 

 suffer and be liable to such penalties and 

 corporal punishment, as the Lord Chan- 

 cellor, or either of the chief justices, 

 shall think fit to inflict. Yet embassadors 

 cannot be defended when they commit 

 any thing against that state, or the per- 

 son of the prince, with whom they re- 

 side; and if they are guilty of treason, 

 felony, &c. or any other crime against the 

 law of nations, they lose the privilege of 

 an embassador, and may be subject to 

 punishment as private aliens. 



EMBER -weeks, or days, in the Christian 

 Church, are certain seasons of the year, 

 set apart for the imploring God's blessing, 

 by prayer and fasting, upon the ordina- 

 tions performed in the church at such 

 times. These ordination fasts are ob- 

 served four times in the year, viz. the 

 Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, af- 



ter the first Sunday in Lent, after Whit- 

 sunday, after the fourteenth of Septem- 

 ber, and the thirteenth of December ; it 

 being enjoined, by a canon of the church, 

 that deacons and ministers be ordained, 

 or made, only upon the Sundays immedt- 

 ately following these ember fusts. The 

 ember-weeks were formerly observed in 

 different churches with some variety, but 

 were at last settled as they are now ob- 

 serve-d, by the council of Placentia, anno 

 1095 The council of Mentz, convened 

 by Charlemagne, mentions the ember- 

 weeks as a new establishment. 



EMBERIZA, the buntir.g, in natural 

 history, a genus of birds of the order 

 Passeres. Generic character: bill conic; 

 mandibles receding from each other, 

 from the base downwards ; the lower 

 with the sides narrowed in ; the upper 

 containing a large knob, of use to break 

 hard seeds. There are, according to 

 Gmelin, seventy-seven species. Latham 

 enumerates sixty-three, of which the 

 most important are the following: E. ni- 

 valis, the snow bunting. These birds 

 are about the size of a chaffinch, and 

 have been found in the most northern 

 latitudes to which navigators have pene- 

 trated. They are found, not merely on 

 the land about Spitzbergen, but upon 

 the ice contiguous to it, though merely 

 graminivorous birds, of which genus they 

 are the sole species found in that cli- 

 mate. In the north of Great Britian they 

 sometimes appear in vast flocks, and are 

 considered as the harbingers of a severe 

 winter. They are known in Scotland by 

 the name of snow flake. E. hortulana, 

 the ortolan, is somewhat less than the 

 yellow-hammer, is common in France and 

 Italy, in Germany and Sweden. These 

 birds are migratory, and in their pass- 

 age are caught in vast multitudes, to be 

 fed for the table, being considered as 

 extremely delicate and luxurious food. 

 They are enclosed by professional feed- 

 ers in dark rooms, where oats, and other 

 grains, and seeds, are provided for tlv m 

 in the fullest abundance. On these arti- 

 cles they feed with such voracity, that 

 in a short time they attain that size, 

 which it is impossible for them to ex- 

 ceed, and constitute, it may almost be 

 said, one mass of exquisitely flavoured 

 and luscious fat. From this state they 

 would soon sink in lethargy, but they 

 are now killed by their owners for the 

 market. A full-fed ortolan weighs about 

 three ounces. It rarely passes farther 

 north than Russia, and is not to be found 

 in. England, or the United States. By 



