WILLIAM, a Scottish prelate and statesman of considerable eminence, was born at Glasgow in 1431. He received his education at the university of that city, and in the learning which distinguished the period he made extraordinary proficiency. He afterwards studied civil and canon law in the university of Paris, where in due time he became professor, and for six years discharged the duties of his office with great reputation. On his return to Scotland he entered into holy orders, and was successively appointed official of Glasgow, St Andrews, and Lothian. He was also admitted a member of the privy-council; and on the occasion of a misunderstanding between James III. of Scotland and Louis XI. of France, his powerful mediation at the latter court, in conjunction with the Bishop of Dunkeld and the Earl of Buchan, effected an amicable reconciliation. For the diplomatic ability which Elphinstone on this occasion displayed, the king rewarded him with the see of Ross, from which he was translated to that of Aberdeen about 1484. He subsequently held the office of chancellor of the kingdom; and besides carrying on negotiations with the English king, he acted as mediator between James and the discontented nobility. During his residence at Aberdeen, Elphinstone appears to have declined all interference with public affairs of a political nature, and to have confined himself to the discharge of his episcopal duties. But when James IV. ascended the throne, his abilities as a statesman were again called forth, and he was chosen ambassador to the Emperor Maximilian, in order to negotiate a marriage between his royal master and the emperor's daughter. The bishop's mission, although it failed in the object for which it was set on foot, was not without its salutary effects, and was the means of terminating an enmity which had long existed between the Dutch and Scots. The masterly manner in which he conducted this affair raised him in the estimation of James, who undertook nothing of importance without first procuring his sanction. Elphinstone was also the zealous patron of learning; and it is generally believed that the establishment of a university at Aberdeen was entirely owing to his influence with the pope, from whom he obtained a bull for that purpose; and it was almost entirely by his exertions that King's College was undertaken and completed. At his death, which took place in 1514, he bequeathed a sum of 10,000 pounds Scots for its erection and endowment, as well as for the maintenance of a bridge over the Dee. Although at his death he had attained the age of about eighty-three, his constitutional vigour was very little impaired, and all the faculties of his mind were in full force; but the calamity which the nation sustained at Flodden Field had broken his heart. Besides a history of Scotland now preserved among the Fairfax MSS. in the Bodleian Library, Elphinstone wrote a book of canons and some lives of Scottish saints.

ELSINOE or ELISNEUR (Danish Helsingør), a seaport-town of Denmark Proper, on the east coast of the island of Seeland. It stands at the narrowest part of the Sound, opposite the Swedish town of Helsingborg, from which it is three miles distant. The town is well-built, and contains some good buildings, among which are two churches, the town-hall, high school, hospital, theatre, and a quarantine establishment. Pop. (1850) 8111. On a tongue of land east of the town stands the castle and fortress of Kronborg (Crown Castle), the guns of which command the Sound in all directions. It was built by Frederick II., towards the end of the sixteenth century, and is a magnificent, solid, and venerable Gothic structure. The great tower, and the lighthouse which rises at the N.W. angle of the courtyard, command fine views of the strait and the neighbouring countries. The principal object of interest within the castle is the apartment in which the unfortunate Queen Matilda, sister of George III. was confined. All merchant vessels are obliged, under certain reservations depending on the weather, to salute the castle by lowering their top-sails in passing. In the vicinity is Marienstift (Mary's delight), till lately a royal chateau, now the property of the corporation, and let to a private family. The pleasure-grounds are open to the public, and command fine views. Elsinore is 26 miles from Copenhagen, with which in summer it has steamboat communication twice a-day. All merchant ships passing the Sound have to clear out at Elsinore. The Sound duties had their origin in an agreement between the king of Denmark and the Hanse towns, by which the former undertook to construct lighthouses, landmarks, &c., along the Cattegat, and the latter to pay duty for the same. The annual amount of the Sound dues may be computed in round numbers at L230,000. The average number of vessels that passed the Sound in the ten years from 1843 to 1852 was 18,088, and of British 4900; the greatest number of vessels in one year was in 1847, 21,526, and of British, in 1849, 6846. Ships of war are exempt from duty. Most maritime nations have consuls here. Elsinore is well known as the scene of Shakspeare's tragedy of Hamlet. It was the birthplace of Saxo-Grammaticus, the celebrated Danish historian of the twelfth century, from which Shakspeare derived the materials of his drama.