in the cortes as deputy from Almeria. The winter journey appears to have given a fatal shock to a constitution thus weakened, and he died on the 23rd of May, 1842, of an inflammation in the throat. Even in those agitated times, the death at the age of thirty-two, of one so gifted with powers of which his country had so much need, produced a profound impression, and his funeral was the occasion of an almost national outbreak of grief. His personal character was such as, in the eyes of those who knew him, almost to redeem the vices with which it was defaced. Of handsome person and winning manners, he yet chose to veil the kindness of his heart—continually shown by acts of self-sacrifice—behind an appearance of well-bred cynicism. As an orator, his most successful efforts were made amidst the barricades of 1835 and 1836. In more regular assemblies, his forte consisted chiefly in the occasional utterance of a pungent epigram at the right moment, or the audacity which ventured on defiance of authority, when no one else was bold enough to refuse submission. His set speeches were less fortunate, owing to a certain degree of hesitation, and the physical weakness to which, in his later years, he was subject. It is, however, as a poet that he has the greatest claim on the notice of English readers. A biography and criticism, perhaps too laudatory, may be found in Mr. Kennedy's Modern Poets and Poetry of Spain, together with translations of some of the finest of his shorter pieces. Perhaps it is upon these productions that Espronceda's fame will chiefly rest. His enthusiastic editors have attempted to establish for him a claim to rank with Goethe and Byron; but it is probable that much of the charm of Espronceda's poems—in the estimation of his countrymen at least—consists in the inspiration drawn from his great predecessors rather than his own creative powers. Measured, however, by actual service to the literature of his country, Espronceda's merit is not small. He first rendered the stately Castilian tongue pliable to the swift passions of a youth living in an age of revolution. He first demanded of song that it should utter the thoughts, the speculations, the aspirations of to-day, and cease the eternal reiteration of impossible love-makings and fabulous tales of chivalry. Among the minor poems, besides those mentioned above, is one on "The Last Night of the Condemned to Death;" "The Pirate;" a "Hymn to the Sun," and others, of considerable merit. A poem somewhat in the style of Don Juan, but with supernatural environment, entitled the "Student of Salamanca," displays considerable richness and pliancy of versification. A fragment of a larger poem, "El Diablo mundo" (the Devil-world) is a Faust after the author's own peculiar views of life, and has perhaps more originality and power than nine-tenths of similar attempts. Espronceda, as much as any writer of the present day, has succeeded in strengthening the bonds between literature and life among his countrymen. His faults lie with what else of him could perish; but his works, marred though they were by the troubles of the time and by his own errors, will yet live and fructify.—F. M. W.
ESQUIROL, Jean Ettienne Dominique, a French physician, celebrated all over the world as the advocate of ameliorating the severe treatment of the insane. He was born at Toulouse in the year 1772, and studied medicine in Paris, where he became clinical clerk to Pinel at the hospital of Salpetriere, devoted to the treatment of the insane. He joined the army, but lost no opportunity of studying the phenomena of insanity. In 1811 he was appointed successor to Pinel at the Salpetriere. Here he immediately put in practice the views he had entertained of treating maniacs. The manacles were removed from their limbs, and kindness and regard for their feelings took the place of physical restraint and coercion. The change was marvellous, and from that time to this the treatment of the insane has been conducted on these humane principles, and a success attained that had never been possible otherwise. What Howard did for the criminal, Esquirol did for the insane. His labours are full of interest, and his works on insanity of great value. He died in Paris in 1840.—E. L.
ESSARTS, Pierre des, a French statesman, was born about 1360. He was one of the body of auxiliaries sent by the French court to aid the Scots in their wars with the English, and was taken prisoner at the battle of Homeldon, 7th May, 1402. After his release he was appointed by the duke of Burgundy in 1408 provost of Paris, and had also charge of the finances. He discharged the duties of his office with great ability and courage, but rendered himself obnoxious to many of the citizens by his cruelty. He subsequently drew off from the new duke of Burgundy. Jean Sans Peur, and secretly attached himself to the duke of Orleans. On discovering this defection, Jean suspended Essarts from his office, and he retired to Cherbourg. He returned to Paris, however, in April 1413, and became governor of the Bastille. But he was soon after taken prisoner in an insurrection of the faction called the Butchers, brought to trial, and beheaded 1st July, 1413.—J. T.
ESSE, André de Montalembert d', a celebrated military commander of the sixteenth century, was born in 1483. The chivalrous bravery for which he was distinguished during the Italian wars procured for him the especial favour of Francis I., by whom he was chosen one of the four knights (the king himself being one) who, in 1520, at a passage of arms held between Ardres and Guines, challenged all comers. The renown of D'Esse was greatly increased by his successful defence of Landrecies against the besieging army of Charles V. During the reign of Henry II., he made two campaigns in Scotland at the head of six thousand men. He was killed whilst conducting the defence of Terouanne in 1558.—R. M., A.
ESSEN, Hans Henrik, Count of, born in Westgothland in 1755. He entered the army in the reign of Gustav III., accompanied the king on his various journeys and campaigns, and was by his side when he was slain by Ankarström. From 1795-97 he was overstatholder at Stockholm, and in 1796 accompanied Gustav IV. to St. Petersburg. In 1800 he was appointed governor-general of Pomerania; in 1807 he defended Stralsund against the French; in 1810 he went to Paris to conclude the peace, and in 1814 was appointed under Bernadotte, to command the army against Norway; and after this country was united to Sweden, he was appointed rigststatholder in Norway, and chancellor of the university of Christiania. He died, statholder of Skaane, in 1824—M. H.
ESSEX, Devereaux, Earls of, descended from a house of high rank in Normandy. The progenitor of the English branch of the family came over at the Norman conquest. They remained commoners, however, until 1461, when Sir Walter Devereux, who had married the heiress of Lord Ferrars of Chartley, was summoned to parliament by that title. He fell at the battle of Bosworth in 1485, fighting for Richard III., and was succeeded by his son, who married the heiress of the great houses of Bourchier and De Bohun. Their son was in 1550 created Viscount Hereford—a dignity which is still possessed by his descendants, and is the oldest viscounty in England. The greatest man of the family was—
Walter Devereux, first earl of Essex, grandson of the first Viscount Hereford. He was born in 1541, and in the nineteenth year of his age succeeded to the honours and estates of the family on the death of his grandfather. His family had, at an early period, embraced the protestant faith, and the young lord, in 1561 or 1562, married Lettice, the daughter of Sir Francis Knollys, a leading member of the puritan party. The mother of Lettice Knollys was first cousin to Queen Elizabeth. His marriage procured for Devereux an introduction to the court, where his ability and accomplishments placed him so high in the favour of the queen, that she styled him "the rare jewel of her realm, and the bright ornament of her nobility." In 1569, when the "rebellion of the north" broke out, he raised and equipped at his own charge a considerable body of troops, and materially assisted in suppressing that insurrection. As a reward for his services at this critical juncture, the earldom of Essex, which formerly had been held by his ancestors, the Bourchiers, was conferred upon him in 1572. In the following year he volunteered his services to suppress an insurrection which was then raging in Ulster, engaging to maintain at his own cost one half of the troops required for the enterprise. The queen lent him ten thousand pounds, to assist in paying the heavy preliminary expenses, on the security of his estates in Essex, but, with her usual parsimony, exacted ten per cent, interest, with forfeiture for non-punctuality of payment. There is every reason to believe that Essex was induced to undertake this hazardous expedition through the influence of Leicester, who was jealous of his growing favour with the queen, and is said, even at this period, to have formed an attachment to the Countess Lettice. Essex embarked at Liverpool on the 16th of August, 1573, along with the Lords Rich and Darcy, and many knights and gentlemen who accompanied him as volunteers. Soon after his arrival, however, he was abandoned by the greater part of
