Formerly 3 entrepots (Pirna, Dresden, and Magdeburg), 35 tolls, and numerous corporations of privileged watermen, opposed almost insurmountable obstacles to the navigation ; the Austrians and the Saxons alone could navigate the Upper Elbe, that is, from Magdeburg to where it ceases to be navigable, and the Prussians and Hamburgers had the sole privilege of navigating the Lower Elbe. But new regulations were introduced by a convention con cluded on the 13th June 1821 between all the bordering states, viz., Austria, Saxony, Prussia, Hanover, Denmark (for Holstein and Lauenburg), the grand duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and the three principalities of Anhalt. Every merchant, to whatever bordering state he might belong, was allowed with his own vessel and crew to navigate the whole course of the river without interruption ; the 35 tolls were reduced to 14 ; the heavy dues which were levied upon goods of the first necessity were reduced to one for the cargo (Elbe Toll) and another for the ship (Recogni- tionsgcliiihrcn) ; and each state was bound to watch over the portion of river which passed through their territories, and to preserve it from everything injurious to commerce or navigation. It was also arranged that a commission should meet from time to time for the revision of the tariff, &c., and the investigation of all matters connected with the utilization of the river. By the second of these commissions, which met at Dresden in 1842, an additional Naviga tion Act was published in 1844; in the third, at Magdeburg in 1850, it was proposed by Austria to remove the Elbe tolls altogether, but Hanover and some other states refused ; in the fourth, at Ham burg, 1858, the same objections still carried the day ; but in 1861 the fifth commission decided that only one common toll for all the riparian states should be left at AVittenberge ; and after numerous difficulties, the federative council of the German empire succeeded in securing the complete freedom of the river in 1870. A compensa tion of 1,000,000 thalers was granted to Mecklenburg- Schwerin, and of 85,000 to Auhalt.
ELBERFELD, a manufacturing town of Rhenish Prussia in the government of Diisseldorf, situated in the narrow valley of the Wupper, about 19 miles E. of the town of Diisseldorf on the Berg and Mark railway. Though for the most part of modern erection, it has a large number of irregular and narrow streets, and altogether presents rather an unprepossessing appearance ; the very river, polluted as it is with the refuse of dye-works and factories, rather increasing the unseemliness. The newer quarters, however, must be excepted from this description, and many of the public buildings are large and handsome. Of these the most important are the town-house, in the modern llomanesque style, the provincial court, the exchange, the post office, the orphanage, the lunatic asylum, St Joseph s hospital, the infirmary, the Female Society s hospital, the railway company s offices, the gymnasium, and the technical school. The educational institutions include 27 popular schools where no fees are paid, and the whole system of relief for the poor is so well arranged that it has excited imitation in several towns in Germany. A great variety of textile fabrics in cotton, wool, and silk are mamifar-tiired on an extensive scale ; and besides dye-works and chemical works of proportionate importance, there may be mentioned button-factories, lace-factories, a brewery, a foundry, and soap-works. The town is the seat of a considerable number of industrial, philanthropic, intellectual, and religious institutions, among which the most noticeable ara the public library, the museum, and the Berg Bible Society. The inhabitants are mainly Protestants, with a strong tendency towards pietism ; but the Pioman Catholics number upwards of 14,000, and the Jewish community has recently erected a new synagogue. The Elberf elder Zeitung and several other newspapers are published in the town. In 1840 the population was 31,514; in 1864, G3,300 ; and in 1875, 80,599.
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Plan of Elberfeld. 1 Post Office, I- Townhouse. a. Evangel. Luth. Church. 4. Evangel. Reformed Church. i. Barracks. f. Catholic Church. 7. Hospital. 8. Gasworks. 9. Poorhouse. 10. Old Market.
The site of Elberfeld was marked in the 12th century by a castle belonging to the lords of Elverfeld, which was afterwards united with the Berg possessions, and held by the family of .Nesselrode ; but it was not till the 16th century that the nucleus of the present industrial development was formed by the establishment on the banks of the Wupper of- a number of bleachers, who obtained a monopoly in 1532. Municipal rights were granted in 1(310, a great increase of the manufactures effected in the beginning of the 18th century, silk-weaving introduced in 1760, and the dyeing of Turkey red commenced in 1780.
Sec Coutelle, Elberfeld, topographisch-statistischeDarstelltiny, Elberfeld, 1S53 Langewiesche, Elberfeld und Barmen, Barmen, 1863.
ELBEUF, a town of France in the department of Seine Infdrieure, 13 miles S. of Rouen, on the left bank of the Seine, with a station on the railway between Oissel and Serquigny. It has three parish churches, a Protestant place of worship, a town-house with a natural history museum, a public library, a hospital, an industrial society, an archaeological society, and a chamber of arts and sciences. The churches of St Etienne and St Jean are both of some antiquity, and preserve stained glass of the 15th and IGth centuries. The town is one of the principal seats of the woollen manufacture in France : more than half of the inhabitants are directly maintained by the staple industry, and numbers more by the auxiliary crafts. As a river-port it has a brisk trade in the produce of the surrounding district as well as in the raw materials of its manufactures. A suspension bridge communicates with St Aubin, and steam-boats ply regularly to Rouen. The population, which was only about 4600 in the end of last century, amounted in 1831 to 10,258, and in 1872 to 22,563. If the quasi- suburban towns of Caudebec-les-Elbeuf, Saint-Pierre-lcs- Elbeuf, and St Aubin-jouxte-Boulleng be included, this great industrial congeries will comprise upwards of 39,000 inhabitants.
Elbeuf is an old town, and the site was probably occupied during the Roman period. In the 14th century it was made a countship, and in 1554 it passed by marriage to Duke Piene of Lorraine. By King Henry III. it was raised to the rank of a duchy in favour of Charles, grandson of Claude of Lorraine, but the dukes of Elbeuf made no figure in history, and in 1763 the title passed to the house of Harcourt. The town and its industries were greatly patronized by Colbert ; but the revocation of the Edict of Nantes soon after neutralized the beneficial effects of his regulations, and it was not till 1814 that the removal of Belgian competition gave the new impetus which is still at work. In that year there were 80 factories producing goods to the value of 25 millions of francs ; in 1840 the factories numbered 200, and the value of the goods amounted to 40 or 45 millions.
circle in the government of Dantzig, 36 miles E.S.E. of the city of that name, on the Elbing, a small river which flows into the Frische Haff about four miles from the town, and is united with the Nogat or eastern arm of the Vistula by means of the Kraffohl canal. The old town was formerly surrounded by fortifications, but of these only a few fragments remain. There are seven Evangelical, one Roman Catholic, and two Mennonite churches, a synagogue,
a gymnasium founded in 153G, with a public library of
