shows the passions and manners of a fashionable French lady, and the fine story of the "Absentee" exposes the folly and mortifications of those Irish families of fortune who leave their native country seats to be scorned in frivolous though brilliant society in London. On the death of her father in 1817 her career of authorship was for a time interrupted. She did not resume her works of fiction till she had expressed her affection for him by completing the memoir which he had begun of his own life, and she also completed and published, under the titles of "Rosamond" and "Harriet and Lucy," some stories for juvenile readers which had been begun by him 50 years before. Among the most ardent admirers of her novels was Sir Walter Scott, who avows that it was her humorous, tender, and admirable delineations of Irish character which prompted him to attempt similar portraitures of his own country. In 1823 she spent a fortnight with Scott at Abbotsford, by whom the visit was subsequently returned at Edgeworthtown. She did not reappear as a novelist till 1834, when her exquisite story of "Helen" was published; and her career of authorship terminated with the child's story of "Orlandino," which appeared in 1847. With the exception of a trip to the continent and a short residence at Clifton, she passed the latter years of her life at Edgeworthtown, unspoiled by literary fame, loved in the family circle which daily assembled in the library, and admired by all as a pattern of an intellectual and amiable woman. Her novels and miscellaneous pieces were first collected in 14 vols. (London, 1825). New editions appeared in London in 18 vols. in 1832, in 9 vols. in 1848, and again in 1856 in 10 vols. 12mo. They have been often republished in the United States. EDGEWORTH DE FIRMONT, HENRY ALLEN, the last confessor of King Louis XVI. of France, cousin of the authoress Maria Edge. worth, born in Edgeworthtown, Ireland, in 1745, died in Mitau, Russia, May 22, 1807. His father, an Anglican clergyman who became a convert to Catholicism and went to reside in France, borrowed the name of Firmont from an elevation on his estate. Henry, after having studied under the Jesuits at Toulouse and at the Sorbonne in Paris, was admitted to orders, chosen for confessor to Elizabeth, grand-daughter of Louis XV., and gained general esteem by his virtues and piety. He was selected by Louis XVI., after that monarch's condemnation to death, to render him the consolations of religion. He braved the popular indignation by passing with the king his last days, and ascending the scaffold with him. Just before the fall of the fatal axe, he addressed to him the words: "Son of St. Louis, ascend to heaven." He returned to Ireland in 1796, and was offered a pension which he refused to accept. He afterward accompanied the count of Provence (Louis XVIII.) to Russia, where his death was occasioned by his solicitous attentions to the French prisoners of war. He left a volume of "Memoirs," published in English by C. S. Edgeworth (London, 1815), and in French by Dupont (Paris, 1815). His letters have also been collected and published. EDICT (Lat. edico, to declare), in Roman law, a general order published by the prætor when he entered upon his office, containing the system of rules by which he proposed to administer justice during the year of his office; also an annual proclamation made by the ædiles. In actual practice it was not, however, a new ordinance compiled every year by either the prætor or ædiles, but was substantially the same ordinance reenacted with some occasional modifications. The prætorian edict was revised or recompiled in the reign of Hadrian under the name of edictum perpetuum, after which it remained unaltered. The same term was applied to an ordinance or decree enacted by the emperor without the authority of the senate. It has also been used in modern legislation to express a decree of a monarchical government in relation to some specific subject, as the edict of Nantes. EDINBURGH (Celtic, Dun-edin), the metropolis of Scotland, finely situated on a congeries of hills, about 2 m. from its port of Leith, on the S. side of the firth of Forth, 337 m. in a direct line N. N. W. from London, but by railway, via Trent valley, 3983; lat. 55° 57' N.; long. 3° 11' W.; pop. of the city and suburbs in 1851, 160,302. The city is surrounded on 3 sides, at greater or lesser distances, with a number of hills, forming a picturesque background to the view. High above the city, on the W., towers the castle, on a rock 300 feet high, while to the E. rise the heights of Calton Hill, Arthur's Seat, 822 feet above the sea, and Salisbury Craigs, 547 feet, separated from each other by a deep ravine. The appearance of the city and surrounding landscape is exceedingly picturesque; viewed from whatever point, whether from the ramparts of the castle overlooking the new town, from the crags or Calton Hill, or from the lower parts of the city looking up at the heights, the scene is equally striking. The city proper is 2 m. in length by 2 in breadth, or including Leith and the suburbs, 24 by 34. From its many open spaces, it covers more ground in proportion to its population than most other British cities. Its situation is exposed, but salubrious. Snow seldom lies long. Neither summer heat nor winter cold is excessive, the mean temperature of summer being 57° 2′, of winter 38° 4′; annual fall of rain, 24 inches; proportion of deaths, 1 in 36.45. The streets are paved and lighted, and the city is supplied with water at the rate of 25 gallons daily to each inhabitant. The merchants form an incorporate guild under a charter from Charles II., and there are also 14 incorporated trades. Government is vested in 31 town councillors, a dean of guild elected by the guild, and a convener of trades chosen by the representatives of the incorporated trades. These 33 officers select from their number a lord provost, 4 bailies, and a treasurer. The city became insolvent in 1833, and its property has since been held by trustees. turesque and dirty, the latter unsurpassed for The revenue of the corporation in 1854 amount- regularity and elegance. The old town mainly ed to £24,000. A police force of 327 men is occupies a ridge between the castle on the W. and maintained at a cost of £38,746, payable from Holyrood house on the E., and includes on the S. an assessment of 18. 2d. per £ rental. Paupers a hollow occupied by an old street known immeare supported by an assessment, exclusive of diately S. of the castle as the West-port, and the many munificent charities. In 1853 the further to the E. as the Cowgate. N. of the old number of permanent paupers was 4,599, cost- town, and separating it from the new, was ing per head £8 10s. for adults, and £7 108. for formerly a small body of water called the North children at nurse, the amount of assessment being loch, which is now drained and occupied by a £42,062.-Edinburgh has but little commerce or market place, abattoirs, railway termini, &c. manufacturing industry. There are 28 brew- In the old town can be seen the peculiarities eries of strong ale, 16 carriage factories, and sev- of the domestic architecture of former times in eral shawl weavers. Glass blowing and lace the dwelling houses of 5 and 6, and even of 11 making are carried on to a small extent. Edin- stories, including attics, laid out in flats, or sepaburgh is, however, the seat of an extensive book rate tenements on the successive floors, with trade, and second only to London among British a stone staircase common to all. In the new cities in printing and publishing, engraving, and town the houses are almost universally 3 stories all other ancillaries to literature. There are in height, with attic and sunk basement, and of nearly 70 printing offices, with 1,200 employees. tasteful architecture. The whole city is built The number of periodicals and reviews published of stone. The castle crowns the summit of a in 1858 was 20, and of daily and weekly newspa- precipitous rock. It is a picturesque object, but pers 26, 8 of which have been established since far from impregnable; it has quarters for 2,000 1855. A considerable passenger traffic arises men. It dates as a place of defence from the 5th from the number of railways which centre in century, but its present fortifications are modern. the city, viz. the Edinburgh and Glasgow, Its curiosities are the crown, sceptre, sword of North British, Caledonian, Grantown, and Dal- state, and wand constituting the regalia of Scotkeith, together with the Union canal, which con- land; Mons Meg, a huge cannon, constructed, it nects the firths of Forth and Clyde. There are is supposed, at Mons, Flanders, in 1496, of bars 10 joint stock banking companies, of which 5 and hoops; an armory capable of stacking 30,000 are Edinburgh institutions, and 5 branches. muskets, and a lately discovered chapel of the Regular markets are held thrice a week, with 10th century. A prominent feature of the old cattle and horse fairs in the first week of No- town is its principal street, the High street, of vember, and on the first and second Mondays historic celebrity, which is one mile long, and of April. The chief judicial authority of Edin- in some parts 90 feet wide, and, under the conburgh is the court of session, which is the su-,tinuous names of Castle Hill, Lawnmarket, High preme civil court of Scotland. It consists of 13 judges, constituting an inner and an outer house; the inner house comprises the "first division," presided over by the lord president and 3 senior puisne judges, and the "second division," under the lord justice clerk and 3 senior puisne judges; the outer house consists of the remaining 5 puisne judges officiating as lords ordinary, each sitting singly. An appeal lies from the decision of a lord ordinary to the inner house, and thence only to the British house of lords. A court of exchequer still nominally exists, but its functions are discharged by 2 judges of the court of session acting as barons of the exchequer. The lord president (as lord justice general), lord justice clerk, and 5 puisne judges of the court of session, also constitute the court of justiciary, having supreme criminal jurisdiction, which sits as occasion requires, with periodical circuit assizes. Lawyers privileged to practise before the supreme courts must belong to the faculty of advocates, which consists of 400 to 500 barristers, or to that of the writers to the signet, comprising 600 to 700 members. An ancient court called the convention of royal burghs meets annually in Edinburgh, the provost presiding; and a commissary court still exists, although its functions are almost merged in the court of session.-Edinburgh is divided into the old and new towns, the former pic street, and Canongate, occupies the crest of the ridge from the castle to the valley in which lies the palace of Holyrood. On High street is the high church, dedicated to St. Giles, the patron saint of the city, and noticeable for its tower surmounted by an imperial crown in masonry; after the reformation it was divided by interior walls into 4 places of worship, in one of which John Knox officiated; his house still stands in the vicinity. Behind St. Giles is parliament square, containing the old parliament house of Scotland, now used as a court house; also the advocates' and signet libraries. In the old town are also the exchange, the Tron kirk, and Victoria hall, a modern structure in which the general assembly of the Scotch church meets. At the foot of the Canongate is Holyrood house, formerly a residence of the kings. The edifice is of ancient date, but little if any of the present structure is older than the reign of James V. The building is quadrangular in form, with an open court 94 feet square in the centre, but has nothing imposing in its architecture. Within the palace is the chamber of Mary, queen of Scots, in which her bed, though in a decayed state, may still be seen. Charles X. of France, after his flight in 1830, resided for some time in the palace, and Queen Victoria, whose statue adorns it, resides there on her visits to Edinburgh. In the gallery are mythical portraits of 106 Scot tish sovereigns. Adjoining the palace are the ruins of an abbey founded in 1128, and the space around the abbey and palace to the distance of 100 yards toward the city, but countryward embracing a circuit of 5 m., including Salisbury Craigs and Arthur's Seat, is a sanctuary in which debtors are privileged from arrest. The Cowgate, once an aristocratic but now a mean street, winds tortuously along the base of the hill, with a fringe of squalid alleys, until it expands into the Grass market, a spacious rectangle, in which is the new corn exchange, facing the spot where the Covenanter martyrs were executed in the latter half of the 17th century. A little S. stands Heriot's hospital, on the site called High Riggs. The heights of the old town are connected with the new by the south and north bridges on the line of Nicholson, a spacious street. The south bridge, and at another place George IV.'s bridge, span the Cowgate high above the roofs of the houses, while the north bridge throws its 3 principal arches across the hollow formerly occupied by North Loch. Nicholson leads into Prince's street at the theatre, a plain structure, and opposite the register house, a square fireproof building for the preservation of records, which has in front a bronze equestrian statue of Wellington. To the right, along Waterloo place, is Calton Hill, 344 feet above sea level, rising with an abrupt face to the E., but the whole covered with verdure except where it is dotted with monuments. Of these the most conspicuous are Nelson's, a tall circular tower; the national monument to the memory of Scotchmen who fell in the Napoleonic wars, which was intended to be a facsimile of the Parthenon, but for lack of funds only 12 columns have been erected; a monument to Prof. Playfair; one to Dugald Stewart, in imitation of the choragic monument of Lysicrates at Athens; and a Corinthian temple, with a statue to Robert Burns. On the hill are also the high school and observatory, and at the base are the massive castellated buildings of the gaol and bridewell, which superseded the old "heart of Mid-Lothian," pulled down in 1817. From Waterloo place Prince's street runs in a direct line, forming a terrace along the edge of the gardens of North Loch, and directly fronting the castle. This is considered one of the finest promenades in Europe. On Prince's street stands the noble Gothic tabernacle erected as a monument to Sir Walter Scott. A little further are the royal institution, on the roof of which is a statue of Queen Victoria, and the national gallery, two classic structures, the 1st Grecian Doric, the 2d Ionic. An immense causeway, called the earthen mound, formed from the debris of excavations, here unites the old and new towns. At the head of the mound is a handsome edifice in the Tudor style, erected for the college of the Free Presbyterian church.-The ground plan of the new town is a regular parallelogram of 3,900 feet by 1,090, Prince's street forming the S. line, George street, 115 feet in width, the middle line, and Queen street the N., with cross streets every 250 yards. George street contains statues of George IV. and of Pitt, and, in St. Andrew's square, a fluted column 153 feet in height with a statue to Lord Melville. Continuous from the new town extends another parallelogram, containing numerous fashionable streets and squares, as Great King street, Moray and Drummond places, &c. South of the old town are the "Meadows," a level park 1 m. in circumference; also Burntisland links, a sandy plain much used as a field for the national game of golf. Further are the pleasant suburbs of Newington and Morningside, the latter containing the lunatic asylum. Dean bridge spans the water of Leith at a height of 109 feet above the river bed, and connects the new town with the country to the N. Leith, the port of Edinburgh, lies about 2 m. N. of the city, and is approached by a spacious street called Leith walk.-Edinburgh, including Leith, possessed, according to the census of 1851, 123 places of worship, providing accommodation for 81,873 persons, equal to one seat for every two of the population, and classified as follows: Baptist 7, Catholic and Apostolic church 1, Episcopal 10, Established 26, Free 29, Friends 1, Glassites 1, Independent 6, Isolated 8, Jews 1, New Church 1, Original Seceders 1, Primitive 1, Relief Presbyterian 1, Roman Catholic 4, Unitarian 1, United Presbyterian 20, Wesleyan 4. The 15 city churches of the establishment are in charge of the civic corporation, who appoint the 18 ministers and pay them from a tax of 6 per cent. on the city rental. This tax is a source of heartburning to citizens of other denominations, but has been collected for 2 centuries. At present it amounts to about £10,000 net per annum, giving to each minister an average stipend of £568. The 25 ministers of the Free (or opposition) church receive from voluntary sources an average emolument of £289 each. The annual assembly of the churches of Scotland, Established and Free, meet annually in May. Each has a training school for teachers, and seminaries for divinity students.-The university of Edinburgh was founded in 1582, with a charter from James VI. The corporation of the city have the appointments to the greater number of the chairs, the crown having the nomination to the others, excepting 3. There are 32 professorships, divided into the 4 faculties of theology, law, medicine, and arts, with power to confer the usual degrees of Scotch colleges, viz.: D.D., LL.D., M.D., and A.M. An act passed Aug. 2, 1858, gives power to commissioners (appointed by the queen in council) to revise the foundations, or bursaries, to regulate the elections of university officers, to prescribe the course of study and the amount of fees, to report on the expediency of founding a new national university of Scotland, and to make arrangements for converting the present universities into colleges of the said university. Average attendance of students at the university of Edinburgh, 1,500. The winter session commences Nov. 1, and closes at the end of April; the summer ses sion (mostly for medical studies) extends from the 1st Monday of May to the end of June. Students are non-resident, and little supervision is exercised over them. To qualify for a degree in arts, attendance and examination are exacted in the classes of Latin, Greek, mathematics, moral and natural philosophy, and rhetoric. Bursaries, or foundations, of an aggregate annual value of £1,172, are participated in by 80 students. A litigation on a legacy left by the late Gen. Reid for the promotion of musical education was concluded in 1855, and a sum amounting to about £62,000 placed at the disposal of the university. The present principal is the Rev. Dr. Lee; secretary, Alexander Smith, the poet. The college building consists of a single quadrangle, having its main front, 356 feet, on South Bridge street. It is of Roman architecture, heavy in design and massive in execution. Within the edifice is the museum, rich in objects of natural history, to which the late Prof. Edward Forbes bequeathed a valuable collection. The number of visitors in 1857 was 75,754, of whom about 4,000 were students. Until recently the library, which contains over 100,000 volumes, was entitled to a copy of every book published in Britain, but the privilege is now abrogated in consideration of an annual grant of £575, beside which it receives £1 from every student who matriculates, £5 from every new professor, and a percentage on the graduation fees in medicine and arts. The other libraries of Edinburgh are: the advocates' library, and that of the writers to the signet, beside 5 public collections. The advocates', which was founded in 1682 by Sir George Mackenzie, contains about 150,000 volumes and 2,000 MSS. The signet library has 70,000 volumes, and both are open to the public under most liberal regulations. The faculties of surgeons and physicians have each extensive libraries, as has also the royal society, incorporated in 1788, for philosophic research. The institutions named have also valuable museums of their respective specialities. The Free church college has 6 professors, with a course of study embracing divinity, church history, oriental languages, exe getical theology, apologetics and pastoral theology, natural science, logic, and metaphysics; session from the 1st Tuesday of November to the beginning of April. The high school is another celebrated educational establishment, dating from the early part of the 16th century. Its curriculum of study occupies 6 years, and embraces Latin, Greek, French, German, geography, history, natural science, with the ordinary branches of a commercial education. Average number of pupils 300 to 400; quarterly fees 78. 6d. to £1 58. for each class. The Edinburgh academy is an institution of a similar nature, with a 7 years' course of study, at a scale of fees calculated for the wealthier classes-£7 for the 1st year, increasing to £11 108. the last. The following schools existed in 1854: Established church 20, Free church 22, United Presbyterian 10, Scottish Episcopal 5, Roman Catholic 4, not denomi national 81; total 92, beside numerous private institutions, naval and military academy, 2 Dr. Bell's schools, with 600 pupils, Lancastrian ragged and industrial schools. The grants to elementary schools (in the whole county) from parliamentary votes, from 1833 to 1857 inclusive, amounted to £41,580.-An admirable peculiarity of the Edinburgh educational system is the number of charitable foundations, called hospitals, which perform the double duty of charity and education. Heriot's hospital, the chief of these, was founded by the bequest of George Heriot, goldsmith to James VI., for the maintenance and education of sons of burgesses unable to maintain them. Thirty boys were admitted into the hospital on its opening in 1659. At present it bestows a thorough education on 180, boarding them for 7 years, and presenting them with £50 when apprenticed. The revenues of the hospital having outgrown its expenditures, 12 free schools have been established, which educate gratuitously 3,000 pupils. Donaldson's hospital is a more recent foundation of a kindred nature, established by the legacy in 1830 of James Donaldson, a printer. It already contains 300 inmates. Both the above-named hospitals have extensive buildings, Heriot's S. and Donaldson's 1 m. W. of the city. In addition to these are the following hospitals, partly for education of youth, and partly for maintenance of poor citizens: Trinity, for aged burgesses, 108 inmates; merchant maiden, 100 girls; trades maiden, 48 girls; George Watson's, 86 boys; orphan, 100 boys and girls; John Watson's, 120 boys and girls; Gillespie's, 200 boys and 40 aged persons; Cauvin's, 26 boys; Stewart's, for boys; Chalmers's, for sick and disabled; Fettes's, for young poor; the royal infirmary, with 400 beds; also 3 poorhouses.-The royal institution building is the property of the board of trustees for manufactures in Scotland. This body was organized in 1727, with power to administer a grant of £2,000 per annum contained in the articles of union between England and Scotland, for the encouragement of manufactures and the fisheries. In 1809 a separate fishery board was organized, and for many years the funds of the board of manufactures have been applied to the encouragement of art, chiefly through the school of design. The seat of this school contains accommodation for the board of British herring fishery; the royal society of Scotland, the most influential of the learned societies, and which publishes its transactions; the society of antiquaries; the royal institution, incorporated for the encouragement of the fine arts; and the school of design, with fine collections of paintings and statuary. The last was established on a humble scale in 1760 as a drawing academy, in which Wilkie and many of the most eminent Scottish artists were educated. Having been enlarged into a general school of design for manufactures, architectural and general ornament, as well as the study of the antique, it has at present about 200 students, including several school teachers. Art is further represented by the Scotch national gallery of art, the royal Scottish academy, and the royal association for the promotion of the fine arts in Scotland. Antiquities are represented by the society of antiquaries, and agriculture by the highland and agricultural society of Scotland, which has done much for the development of the farming resources of the country. Industry is further encouraged by the establishment of an industrial museum for Scotland, comprising a museum proper, laboratory lectures (attended in 1857 by 20 pupils, beside 40 students of the university class of technology), and a library which was formally organized in 1857. A site for the new museum has been acquired; the cost of the building will be about £40,000, and a vote of £10,000 was proposed to parliament in 1857, which, however, was postponed. Botany is fostered by the botanic garden, which is the only one in Scotland, and is supported by government; astronomy, by the observatory, presided over by the astronomer royal for Scotland, who, beside his ordinary duties, lectures on practical astronomy at the university. The observatory is situated on Calton Hill, and is the property of the government, which grants £100 per annum for its support. Its lat. is 55° 57′ 23.2" N.; long. 3° 10′ 45′′ of space, or Oh. 12m. 43.0s. of time, W. of Greenwich. An act authorizing the government to acquire the theatre royal and adjacent property for the erection of a new general post office was passed in 1858.-Edinburgh is of high antiquity. Its castle rock is said to have been a stronghold of the natives long before their subjugation by the Romans. It was known as Castelh-Mynyd-Agned, or the fortress of the hill of Agnes. Subsequently it was called in the Gaelic Magh-dun, in the British Mai-din, from which in English it came to be styled the Maiden Castle, and by the Latin writers of the middle ages Castrum Puellarum. To account for this appellation, a romantic story was invented that the British kings in times of war or trouble sent their daughters to this stronghold. At the beginning of the 7th century, when the Anglo-Saxons were dominant in the south of Scotland, the place began to be called Edwin's burgh, from Edwin the king of Northumbria, who occasionally made it his residence. The Celtic inhabitants turned the English phrase into Dun-edin, which is also descriptive of the natural features of the site the words signifying "the face of a hill." About the middle of the 9th century Edinburgh seems to have been a considerable village, and the possession of its castle was often contested in the wars between the Scots and the Anglo-Saxons. When the Scots regained Lothian in the 11th century, Edinburgh castle began to be frequently occupied as a royal residence. In the reign of David I. the town was reckoned one of the 4 chief places of the kingdom, and in its immediate vicinity this monarch founded the abbey of Holyrood. The canons of the abbey built a suburb westward from their church till it met the town, and the part of the city thus created still retains the name of Canongate. In the 12th century, William the Lion, who made the castle his residence, added largely to the town and constituted it a royal burgh. In 1215 the first parliament of Alexander I. was held there. In June, 1291, the castle, with nearly all the other fortresses of Scotland, was surrendered to Edward I. of England. In 1813 it was stormed at midnight, Feb. 28, by the Scots under Randolph, earl of Moray, who destroyed it. It was retaken and rebuilt by the English under Edward III., who placed there a strong garrison and made it for a time his residence. In 1337 it was unsuccessfully besieged by the Scots under Sir Andrew Moray, and in 1361 was taken by stratagem by Sir William Douglas. During the reign of David II. it was the seat of numerous parliaments, and though not the unquestioned metropolis, was held to be the chief town of Scotland. In 1384 it was visited by Froissart in company with a party of French knights. He calls it the Paris of Scotland, and describes it as consisting of 4,000 houses, so poor that they could not afford the knights due accommodation. After the murder of James I. at Perth in 1437, Edinburgh became decisively the national capital. His son James II. was conveyed thither for security from the murderers of his father, and continued to hold his court there. He was particularly attached to the place, and granted the city a variety of privileges and immunities, favored by which it grew rapidly in wealth and population. James III. bestowed upon it a banner which is called the blue blanket, from its color, and is still preserved as a sort of palladium of the city. In 1508 Chapman and Millar, under a royal charter, introduced the printing press. In 1513 the city was desolated by a plague, and the magistrates and many of the burgesses fell with James IV. in the fatal battle of Flodden. During the minority of James V. Edinburgh was the scene of many tumults between rival factions. In a fight between the Hamiltons and the Douglases 200 men were slain in the streets. This affair is popularly known as "clear the causeway." In 1532 the college of justice was established, and the city thenceforth became the chief seat of law for the whole kingdom. At this time, too, the High street was first paved and lighted. In August, 1534, Norman Gourlay and David Straiton were condemned and executed for Protestantism. In 1544 the earl of Hertford with an English army landed near Leith and set fire to the city, but could not take the castle. To defend it from the English, it was garrisoned by French troops in 1548. In 1556 the preaching of John Knox the reformer caused an outbreak of disturbances, which by the aid of Queen Elizabeth of England finally resulted in the triumph of the Protestants; and the first assembly of the reformed kirk met in the city in 1560, under the sanction of the municipal authorities. In August, 1561, the young and beautiful Mary, queen of Scots, arrived from France. In 1565 she married Darnley at Holyrood, and in Feb. 1567, her husband was blown up with gunpowder while sleeping in the house |