Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/736

 724 ESCHENBAOH ESCOBAR Y MENDOZA natural -born subjects, between whom and the deceased there were lineal or collateral alien ancestors through whom they would be obliged to claim; but the statute 11 and 12 William III., o. 6, provides that an intermediate alien ancestor shall not impede the descent to one otherwise capable of inheriting. The law of escheat in the United States varies from the English in several particulars. In New York, and generally in the other states, the ultimate property to lands is deemed to be in the people ; and whenever in any private ownership there is a failure of descent by want of heirs, the property escheats to the people, or, as is more commonly said, to the state. The escheated lands are to be held, however, subject to all the trusts, encumbrances, &c., that they would have been had they descended ; and authority is given to the courts of "the state to direct a conveyance to the parties equitably entitled thereto. Conviction of any criminal offence except treason produces no forfeiture of lands or personal property ; and where the punish- ment is imprisonment for life, the convict is deemed civilly dead, and his heirs take by immediate descent as they would upon his natural death. In the case of outlawry for treason there is a forfeiture of lands to the state during the life of the offender. The lands of a person dying intestate who is illegitimate do not necessarily escheat, but descend to his mother if living, or if she is dead, to the rela- tives on the part of the mother. As estates tail do not exist in the United States, many of the questions which arise in England upon the failure of particular heirs do not occur here. Properly speaking, an escheat to any private individual is unknown to our law. Not only feudal incidents, but the theory upon which they were founded, have been abrogated. In respect to aliens, a statutory provision similar to what has been enacted in England, as above mentioned, removes all disability of inheriting by reason of an intervening alien ancestor. Where property is purchased by an alien, or has been otherwise acquired, as by claim of inheritance, there being no other heirs, al- though by operation of law it escheats to the state, yet is his title good until divested by some proceeding on the part of the state to enforce the escheat; that is to say, it is valid against all other claimants, and even against the state itself until judgment has been ren- dered by some court declaring the escheat. In many of the states alienage of heirs is no longer a ground of escheat, aliens being allowed by statute to take by purchase or inheritance without restriction or impediment. ESCHENBACH, Wolfram von, a German minne- singer, belonging to the circle of poets which near the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century frequented the court of the landgrave Herman I. of Thuringia. He was of noble birth, fought under the banner of different lords in the civil wars of the time, and made his longest abode at the court of Eisenach, in the mountain castle of Wartburg, where the landgrave Herman collected the most illustrious minnesingers. There he became associated with Hejnrich von Veldeck, Wal- ther von der Vogelweide, and other bards, and, according to tradition, engaged about 1207 in the poetical contest known as " the war of the Wartburg," and concluded by the magician Klingsor, the legends of which were collected in a famous poem about a century later. Esch- enbach afterward sang at other courts, and died about 1225. Some of his poems are ori- ginal, and others are imitations of troubadour songs and trouvere romances. Friedrich von Schlegel has called Eschenbach the greatest poet that Germany has produced. The first critical edition of his works was by Lachmann (Berlin, 1833 ; 2d ed., 1854). They have been turned into modern German by San Marte (Magdeburg, 1836-'41 ; 2d ed., Leipsic, 1858), and his Parcival and Titurel by Simrock (Stutt- gart, 1842 ; 2d ed., 1857). ESCHENMAYER, Karl Adolf Atignst TOD, a Ger- man philosopher, born at Neuenburg, in Wiir- temberg, July 4, 1768, died Nov. 17, 1852. From 1811 to 1836 he taught philosophy and medicine and afterward practical philosophy at the university of Tubingen. He produced a great variety of writings, chiefly on philosophy. His religious views are strongly tinged with mysticism, and several of his writings are di- rected against the theories of Hegel and against the " Life of Jesus " by Strauss. Among his principal works are Religiomphilosophie (3 vols. 8vo, Tubingen, 1818-'21), Mysterien des innern Lebens, crlautert am der QescMchte der Seherin von Prevorst (Tubingen, 1830), and Orundziige einer christlichen PJiilosophie (Ba- sel, 1840). ESCHWEGE, a town of Prussia, in the prov- ince of Hesse-Nassau, on the Werra, 27 m. S. E. of Cassel; pop. in 1871, 7,377. It consists of the old town on the left bank of the Werra, the new town on the right bank, and Brucken- hausen on a small island, connected with the other parts by stone bridges. It has an old castle, and manufactories of linen and woollen, leather, glue, soap, and oil. ESCHWEILER, a town of Prussia, in the province of the Rhine, on the Inde, 8 m. N. E. of Aix-la-Chapelle ; pop. in 1871, 15,550. It has manufactories of iron ware, machines, needles, wire, silk goods, ribbons, and leather. In the neighborhood are lead and coal mines. ESCOBAR Y MENDOZA, Antonio, a Spanish casu- ist, born in Valladolid in 1589, died July 4, 1669. He was a Jesuit, distinguished for elo- quence, and preached daily, and sometimes twice a day, during 50 years. He was also an indefatigable writer, and won a high reputation in his order for his works, which comprise over 40 volumes. His private life was marked by simplicity and purity; but the "probabilistic" principles on which is based the solution of many of his "cases of conscience" left him open to misconception and animadversion.