Page:Imperialdictiona02eadi Brandeis.pdf/303

ESP but after taking his place in the senate he retired to Logrono, and here it was that the events of 1854 found him. The Queen Christina had returned to Spain; the Sartorius ministry had succeeded that of Narvaez. Among many schemes afloat at that period, was one for a union of Spain with Portugal, under a prince of the house of Braganza. Several military men who were suspected of favouring these designs, among them O'Donnell and Ros de Olanus, were deprived of their dignities and ordered under arrest. A military outbreak at Saragossa on the 20th February, 1854, was followed by a more serious revolt at Madrid, headed by O'Donnell, Dulce, and others. The combat of Vicalvaro, on the 30th June, led to no decisive success on either side; but meanwhile the provinces had risen, and Espartero placed himself at the head of the insurrection in Saragossa. A popular outbreak in Madrid obliged the ministry to yield, and on the 19th July the provisional power was intrusted to General San Miguel, with a view to allow time for recalling Espartero, as the only man capable of directing the national affairs. He did not hasten to accept the proffered dignity; but at length, 28th July, he entered Madrid, and a cabinet was formed; Espartero being president, and O'Donnell minister-of-war. The constituent cortes met on the 8th of November, special reservation of the rights of the sovereign being made; and a constitution similar in spirit to that of 1837 was once more established. The practical work of the new government was impeded by the jealousies of the two principal members. The departure of the Queen Christina, which the government was compelled to connive at, was the first step in an unpopular career, and the discussions on railway concessions and church property contributed to weaken the administration. An intrigue prompted, it was openly asserted, if not from the Tuileries, at least from Paris, brought matters to a crisis. The minister of the interior, Escosura, having made certain reports unfavourable to O'Donnell, the latter demanded his dismissal. A "crisis" ensued, Espartero and all the ministers resigned, and O'Donnell was commissioned to form a cabinet. The cortes, with one dissentient, voted want of confidence in the new ministry. Madrid rose in insurrection, but the cortes and the populace were alike put down by the soldiery—the loss on both sides being estimated at a thousand—and the whole kingdom was placed in a state of siege. Espartero, after lying perdu for some time, retired into privacy; and his public career may be regarded as closed. That he has deserved well of his country few will deny; and if he has erred, it has not been in the direction usual with military rulers, but rather from an irresolution which has sometimes been characterized as sluggishness, and which has been accounted for by physical incapacity for severe exertion. There is a large work on Espartero's life by Florez (Madrid, 1843); and a memoir in the third volume of the Galerie des contemporains Illustres. Among other pamphlets we may cite one by M. A. Principe—Espartero—see Pasado, &c., Madrid, 1847; another, Espartero, pagmas contemporanes escritas por el mismo, Madrid, 1846; and a more recent one, Espartero, y la Revolucion, 1854.—F. M. W.  ESPEJO,, a Spanish traveller, settled in Mexico, where he acquired considerable wealth. In 1582 he undertook an expedition in search of the mission which had started two years before, under Agustin Ruiz, into the unknown territories north of Mexico. Finding, on his arrival at Poala, that Ruiz and his companions had perished, Espejo pursued his course, and in the country of Civola found the cross which Coronado had planted there in 1542. This shows that Espejo was not, as some have stated, the discoverer of New Mexico. His investigations, however, as to the remaining civilization of the Indian tribes, as they are related in Hayburgh's Voyages and in Mendoza's History of China, possess considerable value, and are confirmed by later travellers. On reaching the territory of the Tamas, they refused to receive him, or to supply him with the means of life, and he returned to the valley of St. Bartolomeo in 1583.—F. M. W.  ESPEN,, an eminent canonist, author of "Jus Ecclesiasticum Universum," was born at Louvain in 1646, and died at Amersfort in 1728. He occupied for a number of years a chair in the college of Adrian VI., but spent the greater part of his life in retirement. His works were collected at Paris in 1753, 4 vols. folio.—J. S., G.  ESPER,, born in 1742; died in 1810. He was professor of philosophy at Erlangen, but is only known as a naturalist. Esper is chiefly known by his works on the "Lepidoptera of Europe," and a treatise on the "Zoophytes," which is still of value.—J. S.  ESPER,, a German philosopher and naturalist, born in 1732; died in 1781. He studied for the protestant ministry, and rose to a high position in the church, but he is best known by his labours as a naturalist. One of the bone caverns in the neighbourhood of Muggendorf, which furnished him with materials for some of his publications, now bears his name.—J. S., G.  ESPERIENTE, P. C. See.  ESPERNON,, Duc d', born in 1554, was of an old family in Languedoc, and took a prominent part in the affairs of France, till the middle of the following century. He was at the siege of Rochelle before he had reached the age of twenty, distinguished himself in other military actions, and commanded at La Fere in 1580. These services and the special favour of Henry III. procured for him his peerage, and the estates from which he took his title. Other gifts followed—provincial governorships, the colonelcy-in-chief of the infantry, and the rank of admiral—which aggravated the discontent with which the nobility saw a dukedom of such recent creation take precedence next to the princes of the blood. At length the representations of the duc de Guise induced the monarch to recall the appointments which he had bestowed upon the favourite, and D'Espernon withdrew into Angoulême. A formal surrender of the places which he held as governor being afterwards demanded of him, he raised a considerable force, charged Guise and his party with attempts on the crown, and by the aid which he furnished to the alarmed monarch, recovered his former position and influence. Henry IV. made him governor of Provence, which, however, he failed to bring into due subjection. Several important towns successfully resisted his arms, and the severity of his rule led to the recall of his commission; but he again refused to submit, and it was not till he had been more than once worsted in the field, that he consented to take the government of Limousin instead of Provence. He recovered ere long the favour of Henry IV., and was in attendance on him when he was assassinated. In the consequent disputes respecting the regency, he supported Marie de Medicis the queen, and was rewarded with further preferment at her court. Having returned again into Angoulême, he received her when Louis XIII. banished her from Blois, and acted as her confidant in her treaty with the king and Richelieu. He subsequently held the governorship of Guienne, but involved himself in troubles which seriously affected his health. He died in 1642.—W. B.  ESPINASSE,, a French general, born in 1815, studied at St. Cyr, served with distinction in Algeria, and after taking part in the Roman campaign of 1848, obtained a colonelcy. In the following year he was rewarded for his services in connection with the coup d'etat by the rank of general of brigade, and aid-de-camp to the emperor. On the outbreak of the Russian war, he assumed the command of a brigade in the Crimea, and distinguished himself at the battle of the Tchernaya and at the taking of the Malakoff. He returned to France with the rank of general of division, and in 1858 was appointed to the post of minister of the interior, which he held for a few months. This gallant general fell at the battle of Magenta in 1859.—J. S., G. <section end="303H" /> <section begin="303Zcontin" />ESPINEL,, a Spanish poet, born at Ronda in Grenada, in 1544. He obtained ecclesiastical preferment, but was more celebrated as a professor of poetry. The other facts known about him are—that he was for some time a soldier in Flanders; that he had a quarrel with Cervantes; that he was kind to Lope de Vega in his younger days, and is accordingly praised in the Laurel de Apolo; and that he died at Madrid in great poverty at the age of ninety. As a musician he attained some fame, and is said to have added the fifth string to the guitar. As a poet, one of his claims to notice is the invention of the décimas—a measure consisting of ten verses of eight syllables each—sometimes called after him Espinelas. His works are a translation of the Ars Poetica; a poem, "Casa de las Memorias" (the House of Recollections); and several biographical memoirs, chiefly of Andalusian poets. The work, however, by which he is chiefly known is entitled "Vida del Escudero Marcus de Obregon," of which it is enough to say that it suggested many parts of Gil Bias, although it is not true, as Voltaire states, that Le Sage borrowed his whole work from Espinel. There is a good English translation of Marcus de Obregon, by Langston, 1816, <section end="303Zcontin" />