wanting only the hands and feet and part of the nose, while even the surface of the latter is very little injured.

Emancipation in Great Britain.-The system of slavery was abolished thoughout all the British Colonies by act of Parliament in 1833, when a bill was passed which gave freedom to all classes and indemnified their owners with an award of £23,000,000. According to this act, slavery was to cease on August 1, 1834, but the slaves were to continue with their former owners as apprentices for a certain period. This apprenticeship, however, did not work satisfactorily to either side, and complete emancipation took place in 1838. In 1787 the subject of the suppression of the slave trade was agitated in London and received the support of Mr. Pitt, the Prime Minister, and William Wilberforce, a member of Parliament, and in 1791 a bill forbidding the further importation of slaves was offered by Wilberforce in Parliament, but was not passed. The conquest of the Dutch colonies in America by the British led to such an increase in the British slave-trade that in 1805 the traffic was forbidden in the conquered colonies; and in 1806 the friends of emancipation gained still another step by the passage of an act forbidding British subjects to engage in the trade, and the following year a general abolition bill making all slavetrade illegal after January 1, 1808, was adopted by Parliament. This, however, did not have the desired effect, as British subjects still continued the trade under the flags of other nations. So, in 1811, it was made a felony, punishable with imprisonment at hard labor or transportation; and subsequent laws made it piracy, to be punished with transportation for life. From this time until the passage of the Emancipation bill the subject was continually pressed upon the attention of Parliament. Slavery existed in Great Britain in Saxon and Norman times, when the peasantry were sold in the market like cattle for exportation, and were looked upon as mere chattels, to be bought and sold with the land upon which they toiled. In Scotland, even as late as 1780, a law existed which compelled colliers, on entering a mine, to perpetual service there, the right to their labor passing with the mine to an inheritor or purchaser, and their children being in like manner attached to the mine, and forbidden under severe penalty to seek other employment.

Emancipation Proclamation, Localities not Affected by.The Emancipation Proclamation, being a war measure, did not affect the condition of slavery in any portions of the United States not in rebellion against the Government; hence the slaves held in certain parishes in Louisiana, certain counties in Virginia, and in the forty-eight counties which form West Virginia, were not freed until the passage of the thirteenth amendment. The parishes excepted in Louisiana were St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans. The counties in Virginia were Berkeley,

Accomack, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth.

Ember-Days are days set apart in the calendar of the Romish and Episcopal Churches for the purposes of fasting and prayer, imploring a divine blessing upon the fruits of the earth, and upon the ordinations performed at that time. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday in the week following the first Sunday in Lent, Whitsunday, the 14th of September, and the 13th of December, are called ember-days, and the weeks in which they occur are called ember-weeks.

Emery is found, upon analysis, to be composed of alumina, oxide of iron, and silica with a little lime. It is a dull, opaque substance, sometimes of a grayish-black, sometimes of a bluish color, and it is prepared for use by crushing the lumps in a stampmill, and then passing the powder through sieves of different degrees of fineness. For the most delicate uses of opticians the powder is graded by the process known to chemists as elutriation. Emery was for a long time brought from the Island of Naxos, in the Grecian Archipelago. The Greek Government granted a monopoly of its trade to an English merchant. In 1847 Dr. J. Lawrence Smith, an American explorer in the employ of the Turkish Government, found deposits of the mineral at various points in Asia Minor, and the monopoly was destroyed and the price lowered. Deposits of emery have since been found in Bohemia, in the Ural Mountains, in Australia, and in North Carolina, Georgia and Montana. The supply from these deposits is too small, however, to compete with that which is brought from Turkey and Naxos.

English Crown Jewels.-The present collection of crown jewels of England consists of the crown made for Charles II, the crown made for the Queen of James II and his ivory scepter, the crown made for George IV, Prince of Wales, and that of the late Prince Consort; also the crown made for the coronation of Queen Victoria, which contains gems valued at $600,000, numerous articles of gold and silver studded with gems, the royal spurs, swords, bracelets, the basin in which all royal infants are christened, and the spoons and cups with which they are fed. The most celebrated and remarkable diamond in the collection is known as the Kch-i-noor, or Mountain of Light, which weighed, after cutting, 106 carats. This stone once belonged to Runjee Singh, the ruler of Lahore, India, but on the annexation of the Punjab in 1849 was surrendered to the British Government. The collection also contains a ruby diamond that was worn by the Black Prince, and numbers of other precious stones. With very few exceptions all the articles in the present collection are of comparatively modern date, as during the time of the Commonwealth the royal regalia was sold. The crown jewels are kept in an immense glass case in the Tower of London, and are on exhibition to visitors.

Ensilage is fodder preserved in a silo. A silo is a cistern or vat, air and water-tight on the bottom and sides, with an open top, constructed of masonry or concrete. It may be square, rectangular, round or oval in shape, with perpendicular sides. Corn, sorgho, rye, oats, millet, clover, and all the grasses are taken directly from the fields, run through a cutter which cuts them into pieces less than half an inch in length, and trampled down solidly in the silo and subjected to heavy and continuous pressure. The fodder thus treated retains all its natural juices, and is used for feeding stock during the winter.

Escurial is a famous monastery of New Castile, situated thirty miles northwest of Madrid, Spain. It was built, so it is said, in fulfillment of a vow made by Philip II during the battle of St. Quentin. On that occasion he implored the aid of St. Lorenzo, on whose day (August 10, 1557) the battle was fought, and vowed that should victory be granted him he would dedicate a monastery to the saint. The Escurial is built in the form of a gridiron, in allusion to the instrument of St. Lorenzo's martyrdom, and forms a huge rectangular parallelogram, 744 feet from north to south and 580 feet from east to west, and divided into long courts, which indicate the interstices of the bars. Towers at each angle of this parallelogram represent the feet of the gridiron, which is supposed to be lying upside down; and from the center of one of the sides a range of buildings abut, forming the royal residence and representing the handle. The Escurial was begun in 1563 and finished in 1584, and was intended to serve as a palace, mausoleum and monastery. It has a splendid chapel, built in general imitation of St. Peter's at Rome, with three naves, 320 feet long and 320 feet in height to the top of the cupola. The pantheon or royal tomb, from a design after the Roman pantheon, is a magnificently-decorated octagonal chamber, 36 feet in diameter by 38 feet high, in the eight sides of which are numerous black marble sarcophagi. Kings only and the mothers of kings are buried here. It is stated that the Escurial has 14,000 doors and 11,000 windows, and that its cost was 6,000,000 ducats. Its library, previous to 1808, when the Escurial was sacked by the French, contained 30,000 printed and 4,300 manuscript volumes, chiefly treasures of Arabic literature. These were sent to Madrid at the time referred to, and upon their return it was found that nearly one-third of them had been lost. The buildings were seriously damaged by fire in 1872. The correct name of the Escurial is El real sitio de San Lorenzo el real del Escorial.

Etching, Art of.-About the middle of the fifteenth century Tomaso Finiguerra, a Florentine, introduced the art of etching. In Germany, Italy and France its value met with prompt recognition, but it was not carried to a state of perfection till later times. It was at first regarded as an industrial art, but it soon grew to have a higher value, reproducing in graceful freedom and precision of touch the very feeling of the artist. The first step in

trans

etching is to cover the plate with a composition of wax, asphaltum, gum-mastic, resin, etc., dissolved by heat. An outline of the design, made on paper in pencil or red chalk, is then ferred" to the surface of this composition by being passed through a press. The subject is then drawn on the ground with the etching-point, which cuts through it and exposes the copper. Etching-points or needles resemble large sewing-needles shortened and fixed into handles four or five inches long. Some are made oval, to produce broader lines. A rim of wax being put around the plate, acid is poured on, and corrodes the copper not protected by the ground. If the acid is found not to have acted sufficiently, it may be applied again to the whole design, or only to portions of it, by stopping up, with a mixture of lampblack and Venice turpentine, applied with a camel's-hair pencil, what has been sufficiently bitten-in. When a series of parallel lines are wanted, as in backgrounds, etc., an ingenious machine called a ruler is employed, the accuracy of whose operation is exceeding perfect. This is made to act on the etching-ground by a point or diamond connected with the apparatus, and the tracings are bit in with aqua fortis in the ordinary way. The art of etching was popularized by Sandro Botticello, who embellished an edition of Dante" with etching illustrations about the end of the fifteenth century. The great German etchers of that time were Shoengauer, Bechellin and Wohlgemuth, and the Italian representatives were Bacio Baldini, Pollajuoli and Montegna. In the succeeding century Goltzius and others reproduced the works of the old masters, through etching, with wonderful mobility. Toward the latter end of the seventeenth century the art was carried to a high degree of perfection by Le Bas and by the Spanish school. Then, for a time, the art declined, its place being taken by steel-engraving, which in turn gave way to the chromo, and that to the lithograph. The revival of the art in England is largely due to Philip Gilbert Hamerton. At that time Seymour Haden was the leading etcher in England, as was Count de Gravesande in France. Whistler, the eccentric American, is now one of the leading lights in the art in England, and Hamilton Hamilton is probably the most popular etcher in America. Among the greatest of modern etchers are Salonne, Couteau, Waltner, Rajon, De Baines and Koepping.

Ethiopia, Ancient.-Very little is known concerning the people of ancient Ethiopia, their customs and laws; but the inscriptions on temples and tombs in their country strongly resemble those of the Egyptians, and it is probable that the manners, religion, etc., of the two nations had many points of agreement. The country is supposed to have contained great wealth, as within its limits have been discovered the ruins of large cities and architectural monuments which are not surpassed by those of Upper Egypt. Ancient Ethiopia included modern Nubia, Sennaar and Abyssinia, together with as much of the country west of the White

Nile as was then habitable and inhabited. The Abyssinians are believed to be descendants of the ancient race of Ethiopians.

European Cathedrals.-Among the most noted and magnificent cathedrals in Europe are St. Peters, in Rome; the Cathedral of Cologne, and that of Milan; St. Mark's, in Venice; Westminster and Saulsbury, in England; Rouen and Notre Dame, in France; Seville and Strasburg, in Spain and Germany respectively. St. Paul's, in London, though architecturally much inferior to the others, is yet so noted as to deserve a brief description. It is built in the form of a cross, 514 feet long and 287 feet wide. The cost of the whole building, which is of Portland stone, was nearly $4,000,000, being the proceeds of a tax on the coal brought into the port of London during its erection. The edifice was built under the direction of Sir Christopher Wren, was thirty-five years in course of erection, and was commenced and finished under the same bishop, the same architect and the same mason. The great bell of this cathedral is only tolled on the occasion of a death in the royal family. St. Peter's, at Rome, was commenced about the year 1503 by Julius II under the direction of Bramanti, but the present form of the basilica is due almost entirely to Michael Angelo. The interior is 613 feet in length, the height of the nave 152 1-2 feet; the lagth of the transepts is 446 1-2 feet; the interior diameter of the dome is 139 feet, the exterior 195 1-2. The colonnades around the piazza inclose a space 787 feet in diameter, and are connected with the facade by two galleries 296 feet in length. The facade is 379 feet long and 148 1-2 high, and contains five doors, which admit to the grand entrance, which occupies the whole width of the church, 468 feet long, 66 high and 50 wide. The heighth from the pavement to the top of the cross is 476 feet. The Cologne cathedral is one of the noblest specimens of Gothic architecture in Europe. It is said to have had its origin in an erection by Archbishop Hildebold, during the reign of Charlemagne, in 814. Frederic the Red-bearded bestowed upon it, in 1162, the bones of the three holy kings, which he took from Milan, and this gift contributed greatly to the increase of its importance. The bones are retained as precious relics to this day, but the old structure was burned in 1248. According to some accounts the present cathedral was begun in the same year, but others fix the date of its commencement in 1270-'75. To whom the design of this noble building is to be ascribed is uncertain. The work was carried on, sometimes more actively, sometimes more slowly, till the era of the Reformation, when it was suspended; and during the subsequent centuries not only was nothing done to advance it, but what had been already executed was not kept in repair. In the beginning of the present century, however, attention was directed to its unrivaled beauties, and the necessary funds to repair and complete it according to the original designs were raised. The body of the church measures 500 feet in length and 230 feet in breadth; the towers are above 500 feet high. Since 1823 $4,500,000 have been