Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/917

* ELGIN. 795 ELGIN MARBLES. nifioent eathednil. partly of Early English and partly of Middle Puiiited architccluie. dedicated to the Holy Trinity, begun by Bishop Andrew Moray in "l224. is now a ruin. The castle, styled of old the manor of Elgin, whose ruins, surmounted by an obelisk — erected to the mem- ory of George, fifth and last Duke of Gordon — trowu the Lady Hill, was a residence of the earls of Moray, for some time superiors of the burgh. Among the modern liuiUlings are Gray's Hospital, Anderson's Institution, county build- ings, court-house, and asylum. Population of Parliamentary burgh, in 1001, 8407. About two miles north of the town on the edge of Loch Spynie are the remains of the strongly fortified palace of the bishops of Moray: and six miles to the soutliwest in a beautiful valley arc the picturesque ruins of the Cistercian Pluscarden Priory, founded about 12.30. Elgin was probably a royal burgh as early as the reign of King David I. (1124-,5:?), and had its privileges con- firmed by several of his successors. ELGIN, el'jin. A city in Kane County. 111.. .37 miles west by north of Chicago, on the Fox River, and on the Chicago. Milwaukee and Saint Paul, and the Chicago and Xorthwestern rail- roads (ilap: Illinois. D 1). The city is in a fine agricultural region, and is the centre of extensive dairy and ice industries. It possesses good water-power, and has numerous manufacturing plants, which include famous watch-factories, eondensed-milk works, a silver plate factory, shirt-factory, case-factory, shoe-factories, ma- chine-shops, foundries, Houring-mills. etc. In the city are the Elgin Academy, a Roman Catholic -seminary, a college of music, and tlie Northern Illinois Hospital for the Insane, accommodating 1800 patients. There are also a school of manual training, the Congressional Library for the Fifth District, Gail Borden Public Library, and several parks. Elgin was settled in 18.35, and was char- tered as a city in 1854. Its government is con- ducted under a charter of 1880, which provides for a mayor, chosen every two years, and a city council, half of whose members are elected in alternate years. Excepting the mayor, clerk, city attorney, treasurer, and the school board, who are elected by the people, all municipal offi- cials are appointed by the executive, with the council's consent. Town meetings are held an- nually. The city owns and operates its water- works and electric-light plant. Population, in ISOO. 17.8-23; in 1000. 22.433. ELGIN, el'gin, TiiOM.^.s BRtCE. seventh Earl of I 1701)1841 ). An English diplomat. He was educated at Harrow, Saint Andrews L'niversity, and in Paris: succeeded to the Earldom of Elgin and Kincardine in 1771: entered the army in 1785. and gradually rose to the rank of major- general. In 1700 he began his dii)loniatic career as a special envoy to tlie Emperor T-enpold II. In 1702 he was made Minister at Brussels, and in 1705 Envoy Extraordinary at Berlin. From 1790 to 1805 he was English .mbnssador to the Ottoman Porte, and it was while occupying this position that he began gathering the collection known as the 'Elgin -Marbles' (q.v.). purcliased by the Government for the British Museum in 181(5. Elgin uas a representative peer from Scotland from 1700 to 1840, but took little part in public affairs after his return from Turkey. Vol. VI. -51. ELGIN, eighth Earl of, and KINCARDINE, twelfth Earl of, .Ia.me.s Bki (.k (ls|l-(i:;i. .V Jirilish diplomat and statesman, the son of the preceding. He was born in London, and was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Ox- ford, where ilc graduated M.A. in 1833. In 1841 Soutliampton elected him a Liberal-Con- servative member of Parliament, but as his father died the same year, he succeeded to the Scotch jjeerage. which excluded him from the House of Commons without admitting him to the House of Lords. He began his olficial career at the age of thirty, as Governor of .Jamaica, and was Governor-General of Canada from 1847 to 1854. His settlement of the free- trade and fishery questions with the United States led to his admission to the English peerage in 1S4U. as first Baron Elgin, with a seat in the House of Lords. In 1857 he proceeded to China with an army, as special envoy to demand reparation for the illegal seizure of a British vessel. At Point de Galle he heard of the Indian Mutiny, and w ilhout hesitation diverted his army to the assistance of Lord Canning, wlio with his help was enabled to hold out until reinforcements arrived. The mission to China was delayed, but eventually Lord Elgin arrived there, and the Tientsin Treaty was consummated in 1858. On his return to England he was appointed Post- master-General, and elected lord rector of Glas- gow University: but as the Chinese refused to ratify their treaty, he went back to China, and with a combined force of English and French captured Peking (in 1860), and this time con- cluded a satisfactory convention, which regulated the Chinese relations with the West down to 1800. In 1862 Lord Elgin became Vice- roy of India, but in the following year death cut short his able service. Consult: Wal- rond (ed.). Letters and Journals of James. Eighth Earl of Elgin (London, 1872) ; Loch, Personal Xarrativc of Occurrences During Lord Elgin's .S'ecoiirf Embassg to China, ISGO (London, 1860) : Oliphant, Xarrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission to China and Japan in the Years 1837- oS-59 (Xew York. 1860) ; Ste])lien. Dictionary of Xational Biography, vii.. ]ip. 104-00, by .rbiithnot : Kaye. hife of Lord Metcalfe (London, 1858). For his Indian administration, see Bibli- ography on IxDi.v. ELGIN MARBLES. A celebrated collection of ancient sculptures, brought from Greece by Thomas, seventh Earl of Elgin, and acquired from him for the British Museum. On his ap- pointment as Ambassador to the Porte in 1700, Lord Elgin prcjiared to have drawings and casts made of the .Athenian sculptures, but vexatious hindrances both at Constant inojdc and on the ress until, in ISOl, he secured a new firman, giving him enlarged powers, and particularly for- bidding any hindrance to his "taking away any pieces of stone with inscriptions or figures." This clause was stretched to cover a wholesale removal not merely of the numerous sculi>tures discovered in excavating, or in the walls and courts of recent buildings, but also of the beat specimens still in situ, .fter a year of toil, the principal figures from the pediments, 15 met- opes and 56 slabs from the frieze of the Par- thenon, one of the so-called Caryatids from the Ercchtheum. part of the frieze of the Temple of
 * >art of the local authorities prevented any prog-