ELBERFELD, a manufacturing town of Rhenish Prussia in the government of Düsseldorf, situated in the narrow valley of the Wupper, about 19 miles E. of the town of Düsseldorf 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 Romanesque 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 town3 in Germany. A great variety of textile fabrics in cotton, wool, and silk are manufactured 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 are the public library, the museum, and the Berg Bible Society. The inhabitants are mainly Protestants, with a strong tendency towards pietism; but the Roman Catholics number upwards of 14,000, and the J ewish community has recently erected a new synagogue. ...