EASTERN QUESTION. The complicated problem of international politics growing out of the relations of Turkey and the Balkan nationalities to the great Powers of Europe and to each other. The problem has occupied the attention of Europe, in more or less degree, since the second half of the eighteenth century, when the rapid curtailment of the Ottoman power through the Russian advance southward seemed to threaten the establishment of Russian supremacy in the southeast of Europe at the expense of Austria. In the beginning the decline of Turkey chiefly concerned only these two powers. Subsequently, however, the interests of Great Britain became more closely bound up with the fortunes of the Turkish Empire as the importance of the British possessions in India increased, and with it the necessity of preserving a safe and short line of communication between England and the Far Orient. France, too, was involved in the web of diplomacy, first and naturally, as one of the great powers, secondly because of its ancient connection with the Porte, and, thirdly, because of the developments resulting from the ambitious schemes of Mehemet Ali of Egypt. Germany, until the very last years of the nineteenth century, disclaimed all in terest in the Eastern Question, but at that time German capital had not yet entered extensively into railroad and other business enterprises in Syria, which at present have resulted in establishing close relations with the Ottoman Government. The Eastern Question entered upon its modern phase in the Crimean War (q.v.), and assumed definite form at the Congress of Paris in 1856, whose work was slightly modified by the London Protocol of 1871. The opening of a new highway to the East by the Suez Canal and the English occupation of Egypt have helped to complicate the Eastern Question. A new phase of it developed when Russia decided to break the old arrangements and began a war with Turkey in 1877. The new status created by this war, the full results of which Russia was not allowed to

reap, was embodied in the treaty arrangements of the Congress of Berlin. This arrangement still holds so far as the signatory powers are concerned, but considerable changes have taken place through the annexation of Eastern Rumelia to Bulgaria in 1885, the shifting of the boundary line between Greece and Turkey as a result of the war of 1897, and the establishment of autonomy in Crete.

Though affairs in Eastern Asia have tended to divert attention from the Eastern Question proper, the problem is still a vital one and fraught with great importance to the future development of international relations. Russia has her eye still fastened upon Constantinople; Great Britain must still defend her position in

Egypt; above all, Austria-Hungary must, in very self-preservation, seek to retain her influence among the Slav peoples of the Balkans. The balance of adjustment in that peninsula at present is delicate, with Austrian influence predominant in Servia, with Russian influence powerful in Bulgaria, and Greece still anxious to restore, in some measure at least, the ancient Byzantine or Greek Empire. Consult: Holland, Studies in International Law (Oxford, 1898); id., The European Concert and the Eastern Ques. tion (Oxford, 1885); de Monicault, La question

d'orient (Paris, 1898). See BULGARIA; GREECE; MONTENEGRO; RUMANIA; RUSSIA; RUSSO-TURKISH WAR; SERVIA; TURKEY; BERLIN, CONGRESS

OF.

EASTERN RITE, CHURCHES OF THE. The name given to various bodies of Armenian, Coptic, Greek, and Syrian Christians, most of whom were formerly Nestorians or Eutychians, but who have acknowledged the supremacy of the Pope and returned into communion with Western Christendom. They have been allowed to retain some of their traditional usages, such as the use of the vernacular in public worship, communion in both kinds, and the permission of (a single) marriage to the clergy below the rank of bishop. They are under the special care of a section of the Propaganda created by Pius IX. in 1862, called Super Negotiis Orientalium. Among these branches of Roman Catholics there are about eighty bishops, of whom five are patriarchs, and fifteen archbishops.

EASTERN RUMELIA. See BULGARIA.

ware also.

counties of Accomac and Northampton in VirEASTERN SHORE. A name given to the ginia, and to all of Maryland lying east of Chesapeake Bay, and sometimes including Delapeaches and garden vegetables, and equally It is a fertile region, famous for famous for oysters. and level, is generally healthful, and the climate The country, though low is mild and equable. It is intersected by railroads, only a single line, however, running the length of the Virginia peninsula. There is convenient steamboat navigation. Until invaded by railroads, and divided up into small ownerships, the southern was the 'blue-blood' section of Virginia, the leading inhabitants being noted for their aristocratic tendencies and hospitality.

EASTER TERM. One of the four regular terms of the courts of common law in England. It was formerly dependent upon the movable feast of Easter, and was hence called a movable term. It commenced on the Wednesday fortnight after Easter Sunday, and lasted till the following Monday three weeks. It was at a later period converted by act of Parliament into a fixed term, beginning on the 15th of April and ending on the 8th to the 13th of May in every year. If any of the days between the Thursday before and the Wednesday after Easter fall within term, no sittings in bane (q.v.) are held on those days, and the term is prolonged a corresponding number of days. See TERMS of Court.

EAST GREENWICH, grinʼij. A town and the county-seat of Kent County, R. I., 14 miles south of Providence; on Greenwich Bay, a branch of Narragansett Bay, and on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (Map: Rhode Island, C 3). There is a good harbor; also a public library; and the town has a bleachery, and manufactures of cotton and yarn. Population in 1890, 3127; in 1900, 2775.

cotton

EAST HAM. See HAM, EAST AND WEST.

EASTHAMPTON. A town, including three villages, in Hampshire County, Mass., situated in the valley of the Connecticut, four and onequarter miles southwest of Northampton; on the New York, New Haven and Hartford, and the Boston and Maine railroads (Map: Massachusetts, B 3). The manufactures include rubber and elastic goods, buttons, shoe-web, cotton

goods, and yarns. Easthampton has a public library, and the Williston Seminary, a wellknown preparatory school for boys. The government is administered by annual town meetings. The water-works are owned and operated by the municipality. Easthampton was first settled in 1665, was incorporated as a district in 1785, and was organized as a town in 1809. It was the scene of an Indian massacre on May 13, 1704, in which 19 persons were killed. Population, in 1890, 4395; in 1900, 5603.

EAST HAM/PTON. A town in Suffolk County, N. Y., at the eastern end of Long Island, on the Long Island Railroad, 102 miles from New York (Map: New York, H 5). It is noted for its picturesqueness, and is a popular summer resort. It was the home of John Howard Payne. Clinton Academy, incorporated in 1784, is situated here. At the neighboring Montauk Point, owing to the healthfulness of the situation, an army camp was established after the Spanish American War. The government is administered by town meetings, held every two years. town, settled in 1649, came under the jurisdiction of Connecticut in 1657 and under that of New York in 1664. During the Revolution it was frequently pillaged by the English. Population (town including part of Sag Harbor village), in 1890, 2431; in 1900, 3746. Consult: Hedges, History of the Town of East Hampton ( (Sag Harbor, 1897); and Gardener, Records of East Hampton (4 vols., Sag Harbor, 1886-89).

The

EAST HART FORD. A town in Hartford County, Conn., east of Hartford; on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (Map: Connecticut, E 2). It has a town library, and the Raymond Library; and is engaged principally in paper-making, tobacco-growing, and market-gardening. There are also railroad shops. East Hartford was settled in 1640-50, and was incorporated in 1783. The government is administered by town meetings. Population, in

1890, 4455; in 1900, 6406.

EAST HUMBOLDT MOUNTAINS. A range of lofty mountains in Elko County, Nev., about fifty miles long, and extending from north to south (Map: Nevada, F 1). They are a northern continuation of the Ruby Mountains, and are well wooded. Fremont's Pass is in this

range.

EAST INDIA ARMY. Originally, the troops in the pay and employment of the East India Company. They were largely natives, with a scattering of European adventurers, liberated convicts, and army deserters. Later a few regiments were raised in England, which since the Act of 1861 reorganizing the Indian army have been a part of the British regular army, under the army numbers of the 105th, 106th, 107th, 108th, and 109th Regiments of Infantry, and the Twenty-first Regiment of Hussars.

Before the Indian Mutiny in 1857, the army in the pay of the East India Company consisted of about 24.000 British regulars, lent from the English military establishment, but paid for by the company; 18.000 European troops, raised and drilled in England, but the property of the company; 180.000 native regulars; and 60,000 native irregular horse-about 280.000 in all. In 1861 the East India army ceased to exist, the Europeans joining the British Army, as before stated, and the native troop forming the nu

cleus of what is now the British Indian native army, for which see paragraphs on armies of the British Empire, under the title ARMIES.

one

EAST INDIA COMPANY. The name given to trading companies entrusted by various European governments with the monopoly of their trade with the East Indies. The most important was the ENGLISH COMPANY, the original charter of which was obtained from Queen Elizabeth on December 31, 1600, granting for fifteen years the monopoly of trade with all parts of the world, not held by friendly European powers, between the Cape of Good Hope eastward to the Straits of Magellan. There were originally 125 stockholders, from whom were chosen each year the governor and twenty-four directors, to manage all the business of the company. The original stock was £72,000; indeed, the first voyages of the company were undertaken at the risk of such of the stockholders as would advance the requisite capital. In 1612 it was made a jointstock company, with £400,000 capital. At the had increased to three millions, and in 1853 it beginning of the eighteenth century, the stock

was valued at six.

At first the venture was esteemed to be of

such a precarious nature that the company was aided by exemption from export duties, and in

other ways.

With

The first voyages, however, were highly successful, and the trade continued to increase, notwithstanding the bitter and often bloody struggles with foreign companies, the wealth of the Orient having attracted other European nations than the English. The Portuguese had a practical monopoly of the trade during the sixteenth century, but they made but sorry traders, being rather concerned with establishing them the whole trade was an empire and spreading Catholicism. a royal monopoly. When Portugal was united with Spain under Philip II., nearly all its East Indian possessions were lost to the Dutch in the wars of the latter against Spain. The Dutch, who were traders only, looking for immediate returns, and being without far-sighted plans of future gains and empire, did not maintain their great advantage. In their struggle with the English Company, they indeed maintained their establishments in the Spice Islands, Sumatra, Java, Malacca, and elsewhere, and drove the English away, but they lost their possessions in India. Then came the most serious struggle between the English and the French company, the latter having been established in 1664. It began in 1745, and was not finally terminated until 1761. Victory fell to the English through the genius of Clive, the Frenchmen La Bourdonnais and Dupleix (qq.v.). These wars caused the Europeans to mingle in the affairs of the native States, with the result that during the eighteenth century the English Company had become a great territorial power, and laid the foundations of the British Empire in India.

As a trading organization, it held for over two hundred years the practical monopoly of the trade of Great Britain with the Far East. The most important trade was with India and China, importing tea, pepper, spices, drugs, calicoes, silks, diamonds, etc. Its chief exports were the precious metals, for which reason the company was, from its inception, very unpopular at home. According to the current economic doctrine of

the day, only that trade should be encouraged which found markets for English goods, and brought money into the country, thereby promoting the national welfare. It was urged in reply that more money came into England by the sale of Oriental goods than the company could possibly take away-reasoning which experience proved to be correct.

For this and other reasons, the stockholders often had difficulty in getting their charter renewed, having usually to pay for it by a loan to the Government, or some other service, although they usually succeeded in maintaining their monopoly. In 1650, and again in 1655, they absorbed rival companies, which had been incorporated under the Commonwealth and Protectorate. Indeed, in 1653, the experiment of free trade with India was tried, but proved a failure. After the Revolution of 1688, which, in the Declaration of Rights, maintained the right of interlopers to trade, the company experienced great difficulty in obtaining a Parliamentary charter in addition to the royal charter they already possessed. Parliament was opposed to monopolies on principle, and favored the admission of interlopers to the trade. The company maintained that the interlopers were quite irresponsible, and, if unsuccessful in trade, often took reprisals on the natives, and embroiled them with the latter. Nevertheless, a new general company, open to all individuals, was established in 1698. After bitter struggles and great confusion in the trade, both companies were united by act of Parliament in 1702. Every member holding over £500 of stock was entitled to from one to four votes, according to his holding, in the general court of proprietors, who elected the governor, and a board of twenty-four directors from among the holders of not less than £2000 of stock. The directors were chosen for four years, six retiring each year.

Meanwhile the increasing political power of the company furnished endless opportunities for corruption among its servants in India, and for misrule and oppression of the natives. Its baneful influence in corrupting Parliament was well known. It was quite natural, therefore, that in 1769 a more complete control by the Government was established. In 1784 an act originated by the younger Pitt gave to the King the power of appointing a Board of Control over the civil and military, but not the commercial, acts of the company. In 1813 the trade with India was thrown open, the company maintaining its existence as a political body for the government of India only, and in 1833 its last great monopoly, the trade to China, was abolished, the dividends of the company being guaranteed by taxes levied on the India possessions. Its inability to cope with the terrible Indian revolt of 1857 gave Parliament reason for concentrating all its powers in the Imperial Government, which guaranteed a 101⁄2 per cent. yearly dividend on £6,000,000 of its stock. Henceforth the East India Campany continued to exist as an organization for receiving and distributing these dividends only.

THE DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY was incorporated by the States General of Holland in 1602, with a capital of 6,600,000 florins. It was the union of several smaller companies which had been formed in consequence of successful voyages to the Spice Islands, beginning with 1595, when Philip of Spain closed the port of Lisbon to the

Dutch. Its monopoly extended from the Cape of Good Hope to the Straits of Magellan, with sovereign rights in whatever territory it might acquire. The first expeditions (1602-05) were very successful, and resulted in permission from the native States to use a large number of ports, and to build a fortified factory in Java. In 1605 began the sixty years' war with Spain, at the end of which the Dutch Company had despoiled Portugal, which was then united with Spain, of all its East Indian possessions, and had supplanted the Portuguese in the Sunda and Molucca Islands, Ceylon, the Malabar Coast, Malacca, Japan, and the Cape of Good Hope. As a basis of their power the Dutch secured vast territorial possessions in the Sunda Islands, especially in Java, Sumatra, and Celibes, and in the Moluccas. They had other stations but they were for trade only, and were unfortified. The most influential founder of the Dutch Indian Empire was Governor Jan Pietersz Coen, who, in 1619, established Batavia in Java as its capital. Hither came the ships from all the other stations, a centralization which enabled them to control the trade. In the insular possessions of the company the native governments were left in control, subject only to taxes and to the trade monopoly of the company.

Directed by practical merchants of experience, the company prospered. Between 1602 and 1696, the dividends were never less than 12 and sometimes as high as 63 per cent. The charter was renewed every twenty years, in return for financial concessions made to the State, to which the company in 1696 contributed 8,000,000 florins, in addition to 400.000 florins for the privilege of raising taxes. It was of far greater importance than any other company during this period. But in the eighteenth century came the decline, due to the control of the company by a few rich families, who used it as a means of immediate gain, and to its cruel conduct toward the natives, by which its territorial possessions came into great disorder. No dividends were paid after 1724. When the English attacked its possessions in 1780, on the pretext that Holland was about to join the league of neutrals in favor of America, the Dutch Company was incapable of resistance. It lost practically all of its possessions, and although most of them were returned to Holland by the treaty of 1815, in the meantime (1795) the company itself had been abolished and its possessions incorporated with those of the State, which also assumed its debts.

THE FRENCH EAST INDIA COMPANY was established in 1664, during the reign of Louis XIV., through the instrumentality of Colbert, under the name of La Compagnie des Indes Orientales. Its original capital was 6,000,000 livres, afterwards increased to 15.000.000 of which the king subscribed 3,000,000. It was founded under favorable conditions, with almost complete sovereignty of the territory it might acquire, and with all possible protection from the French Government. It served the political purpose of operating against the powerful Dutch Company, against which, however, it made but little headway. Under the governorship of the Dutchman Caron, the first French factory was established at Surat, and successful negotiations were begun with Persia and Indo-China. His successor Francois Martin founded Pondichery in 1676, and under his long and prudent administration, which lasted