Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/390

366 the University of Chili, was made a deputy at an early age, and took some part in the parliamentary debates. In 1860 he was made chief of the province of Santiago, and introduced many reforms. In 1862, during Perez's administration, he became secretary of justice and of public instruction; and in 1865, during the war with Spain, he was secretary of war and the navy. In 1871 Errázuriz became president of the republic of Chili, and, while in the discharge of this office, introduced liberal reforms of great importance to the country, tending toward the secularization of public instruction and freedom of worship. He amended the constitution of 1833 by means of a law which was very much discussed in congress, abolished ecclesiastical privileges, and built several railways in the northern and southern parts of the country. He also organized several exhibitions of industry and art, the most important being the &ldquo;Exposición Universal&rdquo; of 1875, held in a magnificent palace built in the &ldquo;Quinta Normal de Agricultura&rdquo; expressly for that purpose. Errázuriz improved the navy by adding to it the two steel men-of-war &ldquo;Cochrane&rdquo; and &ldquo;Blanco Encalada.&rdquo; He also improved the condition of the army, and contributed greatly to the material progress and welfare of his country. He died soon after retiring from office.

ERRETT, Russell, b. in New York city, 10 Nov., 1817; d. in Pittsburg, Pa., 7 April, 1891. In 1829 he adopted journalism as a profession. He was repeatedly elected to the Pennsylvania legislature. In 1861 he was appointed paymaster in the U. S. army, and served in that office till the close of the civil war. He was a state senator in 1867, assessor of internal revenue in 1869-73, and clerk of the state senate in 1860-'1 and 1872-'6. He was elected a representative in congress in 1876 as a Republican, and served in 1877-'83. &mdash; His brother, Isaac, clergyman, b. in New York city, 2 Jan., 1820; d. in Cincinnati, Ohio, 19 Dec., 1888. His parents were converts of Alexander Campbell, and he became a preacher of that denomination in 1840. He held pastorates in Pittsburg, Pa., New Lisbon, Warren, and North Bloomfield, Ohio, Detroit, Muir, and Ionia, Mich., and in Chicago. He was associated with Alexander Campbell in the &ldquo;Millennial Harbinger,&rdquo; and in 1866 he began the publication of &ldquo;The Christian Standard&rdquo; in Cleveland. He was elected president of Alliance college in 1868, but soon resigned, and established himself in Cincinnati, where he continued the publication of the &ldquo;Christian Standard,&rdquo; now the foremost weekly periodical of his church. He received the degree of LL. D. from Butler university in 1886, was corresponding secretary of the Ohio Christian missionary society from 1853 till 1856, and president from 1867 till 1870. He was also corresponding secretary of the General Christian missionary society from 1857 till 1860, and president from 1874 till 1876, and president of the foreign society from 1875 till 1886. Dr. Errett's

books include &ldquo;Debate on Spiritualism with Joel Tiffany&rdquo; (1855); &ldquo;A Brief View of Missions&rdquo; (1857); &ldquo;Walks about Jerusalem&rdquo; (1871); &ldquo;Talks to Bereans&rdquo; (1872); &ldquo;Letters to Young Christians&rdquo; (1875); &ldquo;Review of a Tract by Dr. Thomas O. Summers, entitled ‘Why I am not a Campbellite’ &rdquo;; &ldquo;Evenings with the Bible&rdquo; (2 vols., 1884 and 1887); and numerous pamphlets.

ERSKINE, David Montagu, Baron, diplomat, b. in England in 1776; d. there, 19 March, 1855. He was the son of Thomas Erskine, lord high chancellor of England, and received his education at Eton and Cambridge. He became a barrister at law in 1802, and in 1806 was returned to parliament for Portsmouth. Soon afterward he was sent to the United States as envoy from Great Britain, and continued as such till 1809. For many years he was minister plenipotentiary to the court of Bavaria, and remained there till his withdrawal from active service in 1843. He succeeded to the peerage in 1823. &mdash; His wife, Frances, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 28 June, 1781; d. in England, 25 March, 1843, was the daughter of Gen. John Cadwalader, of Philadelphia, and married Lord Erskine in 1799. She was the great-granddaughter of Judge William Moore, of Moore's Hall, Pa., whose niece married the lord high chancellor Erskine, and hence Baron David Montagu Erskine and his wife were cousins. Lady Erskine was distinguished for her graces of character as well as of person, and was one of the most remarkable beauties of her time. The portrait of her by Gilbert Stuart is considered one of his masterpieces. It is worthy of note, as a proof of the regard evinced by Lord Erskine for the United States, that his eldest sons, Thomas Americus and John Cadwalader, each of whom succeeded to the title, were named, the former after Thomas Cadwalader, his wife's brother, who became an officer during the war of 1812, and the latter after his father-in-law, who was distinguished as a general in the American army during the Revolutionary war. The descendants of Lady Erskine, and therefore of a Revolutionary general, include the present Duke of Portland and the son of Lord Archibald Campbell, prospective Duke of Argyll, his eldest brother being childless.

ERSKINE, Ebenezer, clergyman, b. in Ridley Park, Pa., 31 Jan., 1821. He was graduated at Jefferson college in 1843, and at Princeton theological seminary in 1848. In 1849 he was called to the pastorate of Penn church in Philadelphia, and was ordained by the Presbytery of Philadelphia in September of that year. He held this charge till 1851, and was then for six years pastor of the church in Columbia, Pa. He was pastor in Starling, III., from 1858 till 1864, and from 1865 till 1869 edited the "Northwestern Presbyterian" in Chicago. In 1870 he was called to the church in Newville, Pa. He was moderator of the synod of Harrisburg, and in 1878 became a director of the Princeton theological seminary.