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Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 17, Slice 7 - "Mars" to "Matteawan"
Author: Various
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 17, Slice 7 - "Mars" to "Matteawan"" ***
Transcriber's notes:
(1) Numbers following letters (without space) like C2 were originally
printed in subscript. Letter subscripts are preceded by an
underscore, like C_n.
(2) Characters following a carat (^) were printed in superscript.
(3) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective
paragraphs.
(4) Macrons and breves above letters and dots below letters were not
inserted.
(5) [root] stands for the root symbol; [alpha], [beta], etc. for greek
letters.
(6) The following typographical errors have been corrected:
ARTICLE MARSHALLTOWN: "The city is situated in a rich agricultural
region, and is a market for grain, meat cattle, horses and swine."
'meat' amended from 'neat'.
ARTICLE MARTIN, BON LOUIS HENRI: "His knowledge of the middle ages
is inadequate, and his criticisms are not discriminating." 'middle'
amended from 'mddile'.
ARTICLE MARTIN, SIR THEODORE: "Then came translations of the Vita
Nuova of Dante, and the first part of Goethe's Faust." 'Then'
amended from 'The'.
ARTICLE MARVELL, ANDREW: "Marvell's connexion with Hull had been
strengthened by the marriages of his sisters with persons of local
importance ..." 'been' amended from 'heen'.
ARTICLE MARX, HEINRICH KARL: "This average rate of profits, added
to the actual cost price of a given commodity ..." 'of' amended
from 'or'.
ARTICLE MARX, HEINRICH KARL: "... see J. Stammhammer, Bibliographie
des Sozialismus und Kommunismus (Jena, 1893) ..." 'Sozialismus'
amended from 'Soziatismus'.
ARTICLE MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS: "On the 28th of November she was
removed to Sheffield Castle, where she remained for the next
fourteen years in charge of the earl of Shrewsbury." 'fourteen'
amended from 'fourteeen'.
ARTICLE MASULIPATAM: "During the wars of the Carnatic, the English
were temporarily expelled from the town, which was held by the
French for some years." added 'from'.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA
A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE
AND GENERAL INFORMATION
ELEVENTH EDITION
VOLUME XVII, SLICE VII
Mars to Matteawan
ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:
MARS MASAI
MARSALA MASANIELLO
MARSDEN, WILLIAM MASAYA
MARSEILLES MASCAGNI, PIETRO
MARSH, ADAM MASCARA
MARSH, GEORGE PERKINS MASCARENE ISLANDS
MARSH, HERBERT MASCARON, JULES
MARSH, NARCISSUS MASCHERONI, LORENZO
MARSH, OTHNIEL CHARLES MASCOT
MARSH MASDEU, JUAN FRANCISCO
MARSHAL MASERU
MARSHALL, ALFRED MASHAM, ABIGAIL
MARSHALL, JOHN (American jurist) MASHAM, SAMUEL CUNLIFFE LISTER
MARSHALL, JOHN (British surgeon) MASHONA
MARSHALL, STEPHEN MASK
MARSHALL (Missouri, U.S.A.) MASKELYNE, NEVIL
MARSHALL (Texas, U.S.A.) MASOLINO DA PANICALE
MARSHALL ISLANDS MASON, FRANCIS
MARSHALLTOWN MASON, GEORGE
MARSHALSEA MASON, GEORGE HEMMING
MARSHBUCK MASON, JAMES MURRAY
MARSHFIELD MASON, SIR JOHN
MARSH GAS MASON, JOHN
MARSHMAN, JOSHUA MASON, JOHN YOUNG
MARSI MASON, SIR JOSIAH
MARSIGLI, LUIGI FERDINANDO MASON, LOWELL
MARSILIUS OF PADUA MASON, WILLIAM
MARSIVAN MASON AND DIXON LINE
MARS-LA-TOUR MASON CITY
MARSTON, JOHN MASONRY
MARSTON, PHILIP BOURKE MASPERO, GASTON CAMILLE CHARLES
MARSTON MOOR, BATTLE OF MASS
MARSUPIALIA MASSA
MARSUPIAL MOLE MASSACHUSETTS
MARSUS, DOMITIUS MASSACRE
MARSYAS MASSAGE
MARTABAN MASSAGETAE
MARTELLO TOWER MASSA MARITTIMA
MARTEN, HENRY MASSAWA
MARTEN MASSÉNA, ANDRÉ
MARTENS, FRÉDÉRIC FROMMHOLD DE MASSENBACH, CHRISTIAN KARL VON
MARTENS, GEORG FRIEDRICH VON MASSENET, JULES ÉMILE FRÉDÉRIC
MARTENSEN, HANS LASSEN MASSEREENE, JOHN CLOTWORTHY
MARTHA'S VINEYARD MASSEY, SIR EDWARD
MARTÍ, JUAN JOSÉ MASSEY, GERALD
MARTIAL MASSICUS, MONS
MARTIALIS, QUINTUS GARGILIUS MASSIF
MARTIAL LAW MASSILLON, JEAN BAPTISTE
MARTIGNAC, JEAN BAPTISTE GAY MASSILLON
MARTIGUES MASSIMO
MARTIN, ST MASSINGER, PHILIP
MARTIN (several popes) MASSINISSA
MARTIN, BON LOUIS HENRI MASSON, DAVID
MARTIN, CLAUD MASSON, LOUIS CLAUDE FRÉDÉRIC
MARTIN, FRANÇOIS XAVIER MAST
MARTIN, HOMER DODGE MASTABA
MARTIN, JOHN MASTER
MARTIN, LUTHER MASTER AND SERVANT
MARTIN, SIR THEODORE MASTER OF THE HORSE
MARTIN, WILLIAM MASTER OF THE ROLLS
MARTIN, SIR WILLIAM FANSHAWE MASTIC
MARTIN OF TROPPAU MASTIGOPHORA
MARTIN (bird) MASTODON
MARTINEAU, HARRIET MAS'UDI
MARTINEAU, JAMES MASULIPATAM
MARTINET MAT
MARTÍNEZ DE LA ROSA, DE PAULA MATABELE
MARTINI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA MATACHINES
MARTINI, SIMONE MATADOR
MARTINIQUE MATAMOROS
MARTINSBURG MATANZAS
MARTINS FERRY MATARÓ
MARTINUZZI, GEORGE MATCH
MARTIUS, CARL FRIEDRICH VON MATE (companion)
MARTOS, CHRISTINO MATÉ (shrub)
MARTOS MATERA
MARTYN, HENRY MATERIALISM
MARTYN, JOHN MATER MATUTA
MARTYR MATHEMATICS
MARTYROLOGY MATHER, COTTON
MARULLUS, MICHAEL TARCHANIOTA MATHER, INCREASE
MARUM, MARTIN VAN MATHER, RICHARD
MARUTS MATHERAN
MARVELL, ANDREW MATHESON, GEORGE
MARX, HEINRICH KARL MATHEW, THEOBALD
MARY (the mother of Jesus) MATHEWS, CHARLES
MARY (Magdalene) MATHEWS, THOMAS
MARY I. MATHY, KARL
MARY II. MATILDA (queen of England)
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS MATILDA (countess of Tuscany)
MARY (duchess of Burgundy) MATINS
MARY (queen of France) MATLOCK
MARY OF LORRAINE MATOS FRAGOSO, JUAN DE
MARY OF MODENA MATRASS
MARY OF ORANGE MATRIARCHATE
MARYBOROUGH (Ireland) MATRIMONY
MARYBOROUGH (Queensland) MATRIX
MARYBOROUGH (Victoria, Australia) MATROSS
MARYLAND MATSUKATA
MARYPORT MATSYS, QUINTIN
MARZABOTTO MATTEAWAN
MASACCIO
MARS, in astronomy, the fourth planet in the order of distance from the
sun, and the next outside the earth. To the naked eye it appears as a
bright star of a decidedly reddish or lurid tint, which contrasts
strongly with the whiteness of Venus and Jupiter. At opposition it is
brighter than a first magnitude star, sometimes outshining even Sirius.
It is by virtue of its position the most favourably situated of all the
planets for observation from the earth. The eccentricity of its orbit,
0.0933, is greater than that of any other major planet except Mercury.
The result is that at an opposition near perihelion Mars is markedly
nearer to the earth than at an opposition near aphelion, the one
distance being about 35 million miles; the other 63 million. These
numbers express only the minimum distances at or near opposition, and
not the distance at other times. The time of revolution of Mars is
686.98 days. The mean interval between oppositions is 2 years 49½ days,
but, owing to the eccentricity of the orbit, the actual excess over two
years ranges from 36 days to more than 2½ months. Its period of rotation
is 24 h. 37 m. 22.66 s. (H. G. Bakhuyzen).
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Orbits of Mars and the Earth, showing aspects of
the planet relative to the earth and sun.]
_Motions._--The accompanying diagram will convey a notion of the varied
aspects presented by the planet, of the cycles of change through which
they go, and of the order in which the oppositions follow each other.
The outer circle represents the orbit of Mars, the inner one that of the
earth. AE is the line of the equinoxes from which longitudes are
counted. The perihelion of Mars is in longitude 335° at the point [pi].
The ascending node [Omega] is in longitude 47°. The line of nodes makes
an angle of 74° with the major axis, so that Mars is south of the
ecliptic near perihelion, but north of it near aphelion. Around the
inner circle, representing the earth's orbit, are marked the months
during which the earth passes through the different parts of the orbit.
It will be seen that the distance of Mars at the time of any opposition
depends upon the month in which opposition occurs. The least possible
distance would occur in an opposition about the end of August, a little
before Mars reached the perihelion, because the eccentricity of the
earth's orbit throws our planet a little farther from the sun and nearer
the orbit of Mars in July than it does in August. The opposition of 1909
occurred on the 24th of September, at a point marked by the year near
the equinox, and the month and years of the oppositions following, up to
1941, are also shown in the same way. Tracing them around, it will be
seen that the points of opposition travel around the orbit in about 16
years, so that oppositions near perihelion, when Mars is therefore
nearest the earth, occur at intervals of 15 or 17 years.
The axis of rotation of the planet is inclined between 23° and 24° to
the orbit, and the equator of the planet has the same inclination to the
plane of the orbit. The north pole is directed toward a point in
longitude 355°, in consequence of which the projection of the planet's
axis upon the plane of the ecliptic is nearly parallel to the line of
our equinoxes. This projection is shown by the dotted line SP-NP, which
corresponds closely to the line of the Martian solstices. It will be
seen that at a September opposition the north pole of the planet is
turned away from the sun, so that only the southern hemisphere is
presented to us, and only the south pole can be seen from the earth. The
Martian vernal equinox is near Q and the northern solstice near A. Here
at the point S.P. the northern hemisphere is turned toward the sun. It
will be seen that the aspect of the planet at opposition, especially the
hemisphere which is visible, varies with the month of opposition, the
general rule being that the northern hemisphere of the planet is
entirely seen only near aphelion oppositions, and therefore when
farthest from us, while the southern hemisphere is best seen near
perihelion oppositions. The distances of the planet from the sun at
aphelion and at perihelion are nearly in the ratio 6:5. The intensity of
the sun's radiation on the planet is as the inverse square of this
ratio. It is therefore more than 40% greater near perihelion than near
aphelion. It follows from all this that the southern hemisphere is
subjected to a more intense solar heat than the northern, and must
therefore have a warmer summer season. But the length of the seasons is
the inverse of this, the summer of the northern hemisphere being longer
and the heat of the southern hemisphere shorter in proportion.
_Surface Features._--The surface features of the planet will be better
understood by first considering what is known of its atmosphere and of
the temperature which probably prevails on its surface. One method of
detecting an atmosphere is through its absorption of the different rays
in the spectrum of the sunlight reflected from the planet. Several
observers have thought that they saw fairly distinct evidence of such
absorption when the planet was examined with the spectroscope. But the
observations were not conclusive; and with the view of setting the
question at rest if possible, W. W. Campbell at the Lick Observatory
instituted a very careful series of spectroscopic observations.[1] To
reduce the chances of error to a minimum the spectrum of Mars was
compared with that of the moon when the two bodies were near each other.
Not the slightest difference could be seen between any of the lines in
the two spectra. It being certain that the spectrum of the moon is not
affected by absorption, it followed that any absorption produced by the
atmosphere of Mars is below the limit of perception. It was considered
by Campbell that if the atmosphere of Mars were ¼ that of the earth in
density, the absorption would have been visible. Consequently the
atmosphere of Mars would be of a density less than ¼ that of the
earth.[2]
Closely related to the question of an atmosphere is that of possible
clouds above the surface of the planet, the existence of which, if real,
would necessarily imply an atmosphere of a density approaching the limit
set by Campbell's observations. The most favourable opportunity for
seeing clouds would be when they are formed above a region of the planet
upon which the sun is about to rise, or from which it has just been
setting. The cloud will then be illuminated by the sun's rays while the
surface below it is in darkness, and will appear to an observer on the
earth as a spot of light outside the terminator, or visible edge of the
illuminated part of the disk. It is noticeable that phenomena more or
less of this character, though by no means common, have been noted by
observers on several occasions. Among these have been the Mt Hamilton
and Lowell observers, and W. H. Pickering at Arequipa. Campbell has
shown that many of them may be accounted for by supposing the presence
of mountains not more than two miles in height, which may well exist on
the planet. While this hypothesis will serve to explain several of these
appearances, this can scarcely be said of a detached spot observed on
the evening of the 26th of May 1903, at the Lowell Observatory.[3] Dr
Slipher, who first saw it, was so struck by the appearance of the
projection from the terminator upon the dark side of the disk that he
called the other observers to witness it. Micrometric measures showed
that it was some 300 miles in length, and that its highest point stood
some 17 miles above the surface of the planet. That a cloud should be
formed at such a height in so rare an atmosphere seems difficult to
account for except on the principle that the rate of diminution of the
density of an atmosphere with its height is proportional to the
intensity of gravity, which is smaller on Mars than on the earth. The
colour was not white, but tawny, of the tint exhibited by a cloud of
dust. Percival Lowell therefore suggests that this and other appearances
of the same kind seen from time to time are probably dust clouds,
travelling over the desert, as they sometimes do on the earth, and
settling slowly again to the ground.
_Temperature._--Up to a recent time all that could be said of the
probable temperature of Mars was that, being more distant from the sun
than the earth, and having a rarer atmosphere, it had a general mean
temperature probably below that of the earth. Greater precision can now
be given to this theoretical conclusion by recent determination of the
law of radiation of heat by bodies at different temperatures. Regarding
it as fairly well established that at ordinary temperatures the
radiation varies directly as the fourth power of the absolute
temperature, it is possible when the "solar constant" is known to
compute the temperature of a non-coloured body at the distance of Mars
which presents every part of its surface in rapid succession to the
sun's rays in the absence of atmosphere only. This has been elaborately
done for the major planets by J. H. Poynting,[4] who computes that the
mean temperature of Mars is far below the freezing point of water. On
the other hand an investigation made by Lowell in 1907,[5] taking into
account the effect of the rare atmosphere on the heat lost by
reflection, and of several other factors in the problem hitherto
overlooked, led him to the conclusion that the mean temperature is about
48° Fahr.[6] But the temperature may rise much above the mean on those
regions of the surface exposed to a nearly vertical noon-day sun. The
diurnal changes of temperature, being diminished by an atmosphere, must
be greater on Mars than on the earth, so that the vicissitudes of
temperature are there very great, but cannot be exactly determined,
because they must depend upon the conductivity and thermal capacity of
the matter composing the surface of the planet. What we can say with
confidence is that, during the Martian winter of between eight and
twelve of our months, the regions around either pole must fall to a
temperature nearer the absolute zero than any known on this planet. In
fact the climatic conditions in all but the equatorial regions are
probably of the same nature as those which prevail on the tops of our
highest mountains, except that the cold is more intense.[7]
Having these preliminary considerations in mind, we may now study the
features presented to our view by the surface of the planet. These have
a permanence and invariability which markedly differentiate them from
the ever varying surfaces of Jupiter and Saturn, and show that what we
see is a solid surface, like that of our earth. They were observed and
delineated by the leading astronomers of the 16th century, especially
Huygens, Cassini and Hooke. These observers could only distinguish the
different regions upon the planet as bright or dark. Reasoning as they
did in the case of the moon, it was naturally supposed that the brighter
regions were land and the darker ones seas. The observers of our time
find that the darker regions have a slightly blue-green aspect, which
might suggest the idea of water, but are variegated in a way to show
that they must be composed of a solid crust, like the brighter regions.
The latter have a decidedly warm red or ochre tint, which gives the
characteristic colour to the planet as seen by the naked eye. The
regions in equatorial and middle latitudes, which are those best seen
from our planet, show a surface of which the general aspect is not
dissimilar to that which would be presented by the deserts of our earth
when seen from the moon. With each improvement in the telescope the
numerous drawings of the planet show more definiteness and certainty in
details. About 1830 a fairly good map was made by W. Beer and J. H.
Mädler, a work which has been repeated by a number of observers since
that time. The volume of literature on the subject, illustrated by
drawings and maps, has become so great that it is impossible here to
present even an abstract of it; and it would not be practicable, even
were it instructive, to enter upon any detailed description of Martian
topography. A few great and well-marked features were depicted by the
earliest observers, who saw them so plainly that they may be recognized
by their drawings at the present time. There is also a general agreement
among nearly all observers with good instruments as to the general
features of the planet, but even in the latest drawings there is a
marked divergence as to the minuter details. This is especially true of
the boundaries of the more ill-defined regions, and of the faint and
difficult markings of various kinds which are very numerous on every
part of the planet. There is not even a close agreement between the
drawings by the same observer at different oppositions; but this may be
largely due to seasonal and other changes.
The most striking feature, and one which shows the greatest resemblance
to a familiar terrestrial process, is that when either polar region
comes into view after being turned nearly a year away from the sun, it
is found to be covered with a white cap. This gradually contracts in
extent as the sun shines upon it during the remaining half of the
Martian year, sometimes nearly disappearing. That this change is due to
the precipitation of watery vapour in the form of ice, snow or frost
during the winter, and its melting or evaporation when exposed to the
sun's rays, is so obvious a conclusion that it has never been seriously
questioned. It has indeed been suggested that the deposit may be frozen
carbonic acid. While we cannot pronounce this out of the question, the
probabilities seem in favour of the deposit being due to the
precipitation of aqueous vapour in a frozen form. At a temperature of
-50° C., which is far above what we can suppose to prevail in the polar
regions during the winter, the tension of aqueous vapour is 0.034 mm. On
the other hand Faraday found the tension of carbonic acid to be still an
entire atmosphere at as low a temperature as -80° C. Numerically exact
statements are impossible owing to our want of knowledge of the actual
temperature, which must depend partly upon air currents between the
equator and the poles of Mars. It can, however, be said, in a general
way, that a proportion of aqueous vapour in the rare atmosphere of Mars,
far smaller than that which prevails on the earth, would suffice to
explain the observed formation and disappearances of the polar caps.
Since every improvement in the telescope and in the conditions of
observation must enable modern observers to see all that their
predecessors did and yet more, we shall confine our statements to the
latest results. These may be derived from the work of Professor Lowell
of Boston, who in 1894 founded an observatory at Flagstaff, Arizona,
7250 ft. above sea-level, and supplied it with a 24´´ telescope, of
which the main purpose was the study of Mars. This work has been
continued with such care and assiduity that its results must take
precedence of all others in everything that relates to our present
subject.[8]
Among the more probable conclusions to be drawn from Lowell's
observations, the following are of most interest. The darker areas are
all seamed by lines and dots darker than themselves, which are permanent
in position, so that there can be no bodies of water on the planet. On
the other hand, their colour, blue-green, is that of vegetation. This
fades out as vegetation would at certain seasons to faint blue-green,
but in some places to a tawny brown. Each hemisphere undergoes these
changes in its turn, the changes being opposite in opposite
hemispheres. The changes in the dark areas follow some time after the
melting of the polar caps. The aspect of these areas suggests old sea
bottoms, and when on the terminator appear as depressions, though this
may be only apparent and due to the dark colour. The smoothness and soft
outline of the terminator shows that there are no mountains on Mars
comparable with ours, but that the surface is surprisingly flat. White
spots are occasionally visible in the tropical and temperate regions,
which are perhaps due to the condensation of frost or snow, or to saline
exudation such as seasonally occurs in India (Lowell). Moreover in
winter the temperate zones are more or less covered by a whitish veil,
which may be either hoar frost or cloud. A spring haze seems to surround
the north polar cap during its most extensive melting; otherwise the
Martian sky is quite clear, like that of a dry desert land. When either
polar cap is melting it is bordered by a bluish area, which Lowell
attributes to the water produced by the melting. But the obliquity at
which the sun's rays strike the surface as the cap is melting away is so
great that it would seem to preclude the possibility of a temperature
high enough to melt the snow into water. Under the low barometric
pressure prevailing on the planet, snow would evaporate under the
influence of the sun's rays without changing into water. It is also
contended that what looks like such a bluish border may be formed around
a bright area by the secondary aberration of a refracting telescope.[9]
The modern studies of Mars which have aroused so much public interest
began with the work of Schiaparelli in 1877. Accepting the term "ocean,"
used by the older observers, to designate the widely extended darker
regions on the planet, and holding that they were really bodies of
water, he found that they were connected by comparatively narrow
streaks. (Schiaparelli considered them really water until after the
Lowell observations.) In accordance with the adopted system of
nomenclature, he termed these streaks _canale_, a word of which the
proper rendering into English would be _channels_. But the word was
actually translated into both English and French as canal, thus
connoting artificiality in the supposed waterways, which were attributed
to the inhabitants of the planet. The fact that they were many miles in
breadth, and that it was therefore absurd to call them canals, did not
prevent this term from being so extensively used that it is now scarcely
possible to do away with it. A second series of observations was made by
Schiaparelli at the opposition of 1879, when the planet was farther
away, but was better situated as to altitude above the horizon. He now
found a number of additional channels, which were much finer than those
he had previously drawn. The great interest attaching to their seemingly
artificial character gave an impetus to telescopic study of the planet
which has continued to the present time. New canals were added,
especially at the Lowell Observatory, until the entire number listed in
1908 amounted to more than 585. The general character of this complex
system of lines is described by Lowell as a network covering the whole
face of the planet, light and dark regions alike, and connecting at
either end with the respective polar caps there. At their junctions are
small dark pinheads of spots. The lines vary in size between themselves,
but each maintains its own width throughout. But the more difficult of
these objects are only seen occasionally and are variable in
definiteness. Of two canals equally well situated for seeing, only one
may be visible at one time and only the other at other times. If this
variability of aspect among different canals is true as they are seen
from the Lowell Observatory, we find it true to a much greater extent
when we compare descriptions by different observers. At Flagstaff, the
most favourably situated of all the points of observation, they are seen
as fine sharp lines, sometimes as well marked as if drawn with a pencil.
But other observers see them with varying degrees of breadth and
diffuseness.
One remarkable feature of these objects is their occasional
"gemination," some of the canals appearing as if doubled. This was
first noticed by Schiaparelli, and has been confirmed, so far as
observations can confirm it, by other observers. Different explanations
of this phenomenon have been suggested, but the descriptions of it are
not sufficiently definite to render any explanation worthy of entire
confidence possible. Indeed the more cautious astronomers, who have not
specially devoted themselves to the particular phenomena, reserve a
doubt as to how far the apparent phenomena of the finer canals are real,
and what the markings which give rise to their appearance might prove to
be if a better and nearer view of the planet than is now possible could
be obtained. Of the reality of the better marked ones there can be no
doubt, as they have been seen repeatedly by many observers, including
those at the Lick Observatory, and have actually been photographed at
the Lowell Observatory. The doubt is therefore confined to the vast
network of lines so fine that they never certainly have been seen
elsewhere than at Flagstaff. The difficulty of pronouncing upon their
reality arises from the fact that we have to do mainly with objects not
plainly visible (or, as Lowell contends, not plainly visible elsewhere).
The question therefore becomes one of psychological optics rather than
of astronomy. When the question is considered from this point of view it
is found that combinations of light and shaded areas very different from
continuous lines, will, under certain conditions, be interpreted by the
eye as such lines; and when such is the case, long practice by an
observer, however carefully conducted, may confirm him in this
interpretation. To give a single example of the principles involved; it
is found by experiment that if, through a long line so fine as to
approach the limit of visibility, segments not too near each other, or
so short that they would not be visible by themselves, be taken out,
their absence from the line will not be noticed, and the latter will
still seem continuous.[10] In other words we do not change the aspect of
the line by taking away from it a part which by itself would be
invisible. This act of the eye, in interpreting a discontinuous series
of very faint patches as a continuous line, is not, properly speaking,
an optical illusion, but rather a habit. The arguments for the reality
of all the phenomena associated with the canals, while cogent, have not
sufficed to bring about a general consensus of opinion among critics
beyond the limit already mentioned.
Accepting the view that the dark lines on Mars are objectively real and
continuous, and are features as definite in reality as they appear in
the telescope, Professor Lowell has put forth an explanation of
sufficient interest to be mentioned here. His first proposition is that
lines frequently thousands of miles long, each following closely a great
circle, must be the product of design rather than of natural causes. His
explanation is that they indicate the existence of irrigating canals
which carry the water produced annually by the melting of the polar
snows to every part of the planet. The actual canals are too minute to
be visible to us. What we really see as dark lines are broad strips of
vegetation, produced by artificial cultivation extending along each
border of the irrigating streams. On the other hand, in the view of his
critics, the quantity of ice or snow which the sun's rays could melt
around the poles of Mars, the rate of flow and evaporation as the water
is carried toward the equator, and several other of the conditions
involved, require investigation before the theory can be
established.[11]
The accompanying illustrations of Mars and its canals are those of
Lowell, and represent the planet as seen by the Flagstaff observers.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
_Satellites and Pole of Mars._--At the opposition of Mars which occurred
in August 1877 the planet was unusually near the earth. Asaph Hall, then
in charge of the 26´´ telescope at the Naval Observatory in Washington,
took advantage of this favourable circumstance to make a careful search
for a visible satellite of the planet. On the night of the 11th of
August he found a faint object near the planet. Cloudy weather
intervened, and the object was not again seen until the 16th, when it
was found to be moving with the planet, leaving no doubt as to its being
a satellite. On the night following an inner satellite much nearer the
planet was observed. This discovery, apart from its intrinsic interest,
is also noteworthy as the first of a series of discoveries of satellites
of the outer planets. The satellites of Mars are difficult to observe,
on account not merely of their faintness, but of their proximity to the
planet, the light of which is so bright as to nearly blot out that of
the satellite. Intrinsically the inner satellite is brighter than the
outer one, but for the reason just mentioned it is more difficult to
observe. The names given them by Hall were Deimos for the outer
satellite and Phobos for the inner one, derived from the mythological
horses that drew the chariot of the god Mars. A remarkable feature of
the orbit of Phobos is that it is so near the planet as to perform a
revolution in less than one-third that of the diurnal rotation of Mars.
The result is that to an inhabitant of Mars this satellite would rise in
the west and set in the east, making two apparent diurnal revolutions
every day. The period of Deimos is only six days greater than that of a
Martian day; consequently its apparent motion around the planet would be
so slow that more than two days elapse between rising and setting, and
again between setting and rising.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
Owing to the minuteness of these bodies it is impossible to make any
measures of their diameters. These can be inferred only from their
brightness. Assuming them to be of the same colour as Mars, Lowell
estimates them to be about ten miles for Deimos and somewhat more for
Phobos. But these estimates are uncertain, not only from the somewhat
hypothetical character of the data on which they rest, but from the
difficulty of accurately estimating the brightness of such an object in
the glare of the planet.
A long and careful series of observations was made upon these bodies by
other observers. Later, especially at the very favourable oppositions of
1892 and 1894, observations were made by Hermann Struve at Poulkova, who
subjected all the observations up to 1898 to a very careful discussion.
He showed that the inclination of the planes of the orbits to the
equator of the planet is quite small, thus making it certain that these
two planes can never wander far from each other. In the following
statement of the numerical elements of the entire system, Struve's
results are given for the satellites, while those of Lowell are adopted
for the position of the plane of the equator.
The relations of the several planes can be best conceived by considering
the points at which lines perpendicular to them, or their poles, meet
the celestial sphere. By theory, the pole of the orbital plane of each
satellite revolves round the pole of a certain fixed plane, differing
less from the plane of the equator of Mars the nearer the satellite is
to Mars. Lowell from a combination of his own observations with those
of Schiaparelli, Lohse and Cerulli, found for the pole of the axis of
rotation of Mars[12]:--
R.A. = 317.5°; Dec. = +54.5°; Epoch, 1905.
Tilt[13] of Martian Equator to Martian ecliptic, 23°. 59´. Hermann
Struve, from the observations of the satellites, found theoretically the
following positions of this pole, and of those of the fixed planes of
the satellite orbits for 1900:--
Pole of Mars: R.A. = 317.25° Dec. = 52.63°
Pole of fixed plane for Phobos = 317.24° = 52.64°
Pole of fixed plane for Deimos = 316.20° = 53.37°
Lowell's position of the pole is that now adopted by the British
Nautical Almanac.
The actual positions of the poles of the satellite--orbits revolve
around these poles of the two fixed planes in circles. Putting N for the
right-ascensions of their nodes on the plane of the terrestrial equator,
and J for their angular distance from the north terrestrial pole, N, and
J, for the corresponding poles of the fixed planes, and t for the time
in years after 1900, Struve's results are:--
Deimos.
N1 = 46°.12´ + 0.463´ t; J =36°.42´ - 0.24´ t
(N - N1) sin J = 97.6´ sin (356.8° - 6.375° t)
J - J1 = 97.6 cos (356.8° - 6.375° t)
Phobos.
N1 = 47° 14.3´ + 0.46´ t; J1 = 37° 21.9´ - 0.24´ t
(N - N1) sin J = 53.1´ sin (257°.1´ - 158.0° t)
J - J1 = 53.1´ cos (257°1´ - 158.0 t)
The other elements are:--
Deimos. Phobos.
Mean long. 1894, Oct. o.o G.M.T 186.25° 296.13°
Mean daily motion (tropical) 285.16198° 1128.84396°
Mean distance ([Delta] = 1) 32.373´´ 12.938´´
Long. of pericentre, ([pi] + N) 264° + 6.375°t 14° + 158.0°t
Eccentricity of orbit 0.0031 0.0217
Epoch for t 1900.0 1900.0
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Flammarion, _La Planète Mars et ses conditions
d'habitilité_ (Paris, 1892), embodies so copious a _résumé_ of all the
publications and drawings relating to Mars up to 1891 that there is
little occasion for reference in detail to early publications. Among
the principal sources may be mentioned the _Monthly Notices_ and
_Memoirs_ of the Royal Astronomical Society, the publications of the
Astronomical Society of the Pacific, especially vols. vi., viii. and
ix., containing observations and discussions by the Mt Hamilton
astronomers, and the journals, _Sidereal Messenger, Astronomy_ and
_Astrophysics_ and _Astrophysical Journal_. Schiaparelli's extended
memoirs appeared under the general title _Osservazioni astronomiche e
fisiche sull' asse di rotazione e sulla topografia del pianeta Marte_,
and were published in different volumes of the _Memoirs_ of the _Reale
Accademia dei Lincei_ of Rome. The observations and drawings of Lowell
are found _in extenso_ in _Annals_ of the Lowell Observatory. Lowell's
conclusions are summarized in _Mars and its Canals_, by Percival
Lowell (1906), and _Mars as the Abode of Life_ (1909). In connexion
with his work may be mentioned _Mars and its Mystery_, by Edward S.
Morse (Boston, 1906), the work of a naturalist who made studies of the
planet at the Lowell Observatory in 1905. Brief discussions and
notices will also be found in the Lowell Observatory _Bulletins_. The
optical principles involved in the interpretations of the canals are
discussed in recent volumes of the _Monthly Notices, R.A.S_., and in
the _Astrophysical Journal_. In 1907 the veteran A. R. Wallace
disputed Lowell's views vigorously in his _Is Mars Habitable?_ and was
briefly answered by Lowell in _Nature_, who contended that Wallace's
theory was not in accord with celestial mechanics. (S. N.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Astronomy and Astrophysics_, iii. 752, and _Astron. Soc. of the
Pacific, Publications_, vi. 273 and ix. 109.
[2] According to Percival Lowell these results were, however,
inconclusive because the strong atmospheric lines lie redwards beyond
the part of the spectrum then possible to observe. Subsequently, by
experimenting with sensitizing dyes, Dr Slipher of the Lowell
Observatory succeeded in 1908 in photographing the spectrum far into
the red. Comparison spectrograms of Mars and the Moon, taken by him
at equal altitudes on such plates, eight in all, show the "a" band,
the great band of water-vapour was distinctly stronger in the
spectrum of Mars, thus affording what appeared decisive evidence of
water vapour in the atmosphere of the planet.
[3] Lowell, _Mars and its Canals_, p. 101.
[4] _Phil. Trans._, vol. 202 A, p. 525.
[5] _Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sciences_, vol. xlii. No. 25.
[6] Professor F. W. Very concurs with Lowell (_Phil. Mag._, 1908).
[7] According to Lowell, the climatic conditions are proportionally
warm in summer.
[8] The great space penetration of the Lowell Observatory is shown in
the case of stars. More stars have been mapped there in a given space
than at the Lick, and Mr Ritchey of the Yerkes Observatory found
stars easily visible there which were only just perceptible at
Yerkes.
[9] As against this, Lowell's answer is that the effect is not
optical; for the belt surrounds the _melting_, not the _making_ cap.
[10] For limits of this theory and Lowell's view of its
inapplicability to Mars, see _Astrophys. Jour._, Sept. 1907.
[11] Prof. Lowell's theory is supported by so much evidence of
different kinds that his own exposition should be read _in extenso_
in _Mars and its canals_ and _Mars as the abode of life_. In order,
however, that his views may be adequately presented here, he has
kindly supplied the following summary in his own words:--
"Owing to inadequate atmospheric advantages generally, much
misapprehension exists as to the definiteness with which the surface
of Mars is seen under good conditions. In steady air the canals are
perfectly distinct lines, not unlike the Fraunhofer ones of the
Spectrum, pencil lines or gossamer filaments according to size. All
the observers at Flagstaff concur in this. The photographs of them
taken there also confirm it up to the limit of their ability. Careful
experiments by the same observers on artificial lines show that if
the canals had breaks amounting to 16 m. across, such breaks would be
visible. None are; while the lines themselves are thousands of miles
long and perfectly straight (_Astrophys. Journ._, Sept. 1907).
Between expert observers representing the planet at the same epoch
the accordance is striking; differences in drawings are differences
of time and are due to seasonal and secular changes in the planet
itself. These seasonal changes have been carefully followed at
Flagstaff, and the law governing them detected. They are found to
depend upon the melting of the polar caps. After the melting is under
way the canals next the cap proceed to darken, and the darkening
thence progresses regularly down the latitudes. Twice this happens
every Martian year, first from one cap and then six Martian months
later from the other. The action reminds one of the quickening of the
Nile valley after the melting of the snows in Abyssinia; only with
planet-wide rhythm. Some of the canals are paired. The phenomenon is
peculiar to certain canals, for only about one-tenth of the whole
number, 56 out of 585, ever show double and these do so regularly.
Each double has its special width; this width between the pair being
400 m. in some cases, only 75 in others. Careful plotting has
disclosed the fact that the doubles cluster round the planet's
equator, rarely pass 40° Lat., and never occur at the poles, though
the planet's axial tilt reveals all its latitudes to us in turn. They
are thus features of those latitudes where the surface is greatest
compared with the area of the polar cap, which is suggestive. Space
precludes mention of many other equally striking peculiarities of the
canals' positioning and development. At the junctions of the canals
are small, dark round spots, which also wax and wane with the
seasons. These facts and a host of others of like significance have
led Lowell to the conclusion that the whole canal system is of
artificial origin, first because of each appearance and secondly
because of the laws governing its development. Every opposition has
added to the assurance that the canals are artificial; both by
disclosing their peculiarities better and better and by removing
generic doubts as to the planet's habitability. The warmer
temperature disclosed from Lowell's investigation on the subject, and
the spectrographic detection by Slipher of water-vapour in the
Martian air, are among the latest of these confirmations."--[ED.]
[12] _Bulletin Lowell Obsy., Monthly Notices, R.A.S._ (1905), 66, p.
51.
[13] _St Petersburg Memoirs_, series viii., Phys. Mars-classe, vol.
viii.
MARSALA, a seaport of Sicily, in the province of Trapani, 19 m. by rail
S. of Trapani. Pop. (1881), 19,732; (1901), 57,567. The low coast on
which it is situated is the westernmost point of the island. The town is
the seat of a bishop, and the cathedral contains 16 grey marble columns,
which are said to have been intended for Canterbury Cathedral in
England, the vessel conveying them having been wrecked here. The town
owes its importance mainly to the trade in Marsala wine.
Marsala occupies the site of _Lilybaeum_, the principal stronghold of
the Carthaginians in Sicily, founded by Himilco after the abandonment of
_Motya_. Neither Pyrrhus nor the Romans were able to reduce it by siege,
but it was surrendered to the latter in 241 B.C. at the end of the First
Punic War. In the later wars it was a starting point for the Roman
expeditions against Carthage; and under Roman rule it enjoyed
considerable prosperity (_C.I.L._ x. p. 742). It obtained municipal
rights from Augustus and became a colony under Pertinax or Septimus
Severus. The Saracens gave it its present name, _Marsa Ali_, port of
Ali. The harbour, which lay on the north-east, was destroyed by Charles
V. to prevent its occupation by pirates. The modern harbour lies to the
south-east. In 1860 Garibaldi landed at Marsala with 1000 men and began
his campaign in Sicily. Scanty remains of the ancient _Lilybaeum_
(fragments of the city walls, of squared stones, and some foundations of
buildings between the walls and the sea) are visible; and the so-called
grotto and spring of the Sibyl may be mentioned. To the east of the town
is a great fosse which defended it on the land side, and beyond this
again are quarries like those of Syracuse on a small scale. The modern
town takes the shape of the Roman camp within the earlier city, one of
the gates of which still existed in 1887. The main street (the Cassaro)
perpetuates the name _castrum_.
MARSDEN, WILLIAM (1754-1836), English orientalist, the son of a Dublin
merchant, was born at Verval, Co. Wicklow on the 16th of November 1754.
He was educated in Dublin, and having obtained an appointment in the
civil service of the East India Company arrived at Benkulen, Sumatra, in
1771. There he soon rose to the office of principal secretary to the
government, and acquired a knowledge of the Malay language and country.
Returning to England in 1779 with a pension, he wrote his _History of
Sumatra_, published in 1783. Marsden was appointed in 1795 second
secretary and afterwards first secretary to the admiralty. In 1807 he
retired and published in 1812 his _Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay
Language_, and in 1818 his translation of the _Travels of Marco Polo_.
He was a member of many learned societies, and treasurer and
vice-president of the Royal Society. In 1834 he presented his collection
of oriental coins to the British Museum, and his library of books and
Oriental MSS. to King's College, London. He died on the 6th of October
1836.
Marsden's other works are: _Numismata orientalia_ (London, 1823-1825);
_Catalogue of Dictionaries, Vocabularies, Grammars and Alphabets_
(1796); and several papers on Eastern topics in the _Philosophical
Transactions_ and the _Archaelogia_.
MARSEILLES, a city of southern France, chief seaport of France and of
the Mediterranean, 219 m. S. by E. of Lyons and 534 m. S.S.E. of Paris,
by the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée railway. Pop. (1906), commune 517,498;
town 421,116. Marseilles is situated on the Golfe du Lion on the eastern
shore of a bay protected to the south by Cape Croisette but open towards
the west; to the east the horizon is bounded by an amphitheatre of
hills, those in the foreground clothed with vegetation while the more
distant eminences are bare and rugged. The city is built on undulating
ground and the south-western and most aristocratic quarter covers the
slopes of the ridge crowned by a fort and the church of Notre-Dame de la
Garde and projecting westward into the bay to form a protection for the
harbour. The newest and most pleasant portion lies on the south-eastern
slope of the ridge, between the southern end of the Rue Paradis and the
Prado avenues, which is better protected than most other quarters from
the mistral that blows down the Rhone valley, and where in summer the
temperature is always a little lower than in the centre of the town. The
old harbour of Marseilles opens on the west to the Golfe du Lion, the
famous Rue Cannebière[1] prolonged by the Rue Noailles leading E.N.E.
from its inner end. These two streets are the centre of the life of the
city. Continued in the Allées de Meilhan and the Boulevard de la
Madeleine, they form one of its main arteries. The other, at right
angles with the first, connects the Place d'Aix with the spacious and
fashionable Promenade du Prado, by way of the Cours Belsunce and the Rue
de Rome. Other fine streets--the Rue St Ferréol, the Rue Paradis and the
Rue Breteuil are to the south of the Cannebière running parallel with
the Rue de Rome. To these must be added the neighbouring avenue of
Pierre Puget named after the sculptor whose statue stands in the Borély
Park. The Prado, with its avenues of trees and fine houses, runs to
within a quarter of a mile of the Huveaune, a stream that borders the
city on the south-east, then turns off at right angles and extends to
the sea, coming to an end close to the Borély Park and the race-course.
From its extremity the Chemin de la Corniche runs northwards along the
coast, fringed by villas and bathing establishments, to the Anse des
Catalans, a distance of 4½ miles.
The old town of Marseilles is bounded W. by the Joliette basin and the
sea, E. by the Cours Belsunce, S. by the northern quay of the old port,
and N. by the Boulevard des Dames. It consists of a labyrinth of steep,
dark and narrow streets inhabited by a seafaring population. Through its
centre runs the broad Rue de la République, extending from the
Cannebière to the Place de la Joliette. The entrance to the old harbour
is defended by Fort St Jean on the north and Fort St Nicolas on the
south. Behind the latter is the Anse (Creek) de la Réserve. Beyond this
again, situated in succession along the shore, come the Château du
Pharo, given by the empress Eugénie to the town, the Anse du Pharo, the
military exercising ground, and the Anse des Catalans. To the old
harbour, which covers only 70 acres with a mean depth of 19½ ft. and is
now used by sailing vessels, the basin of La Joliette (55 acres) with an
entrance harbour was added in 1853. Communicating with the old harbour
by a channel which passes behind Fort St Jean, this dock opens on the
south into the outer harbour, opposite the palace and the Anse du Pharo.
A series of similar basins separated from the roadstead by a jetty 2½ m.
long was subsequently added along the shore to the north, viz. the
basins of Lazaret and Arenc, bordered by the harbour railway station and
the extensive warehouses of the Compagnie des Docks et Entrepôts, the
Bassin de la Gare Maritime with the warehouses of the chamber of
commerce; the Bassin National with the refitting basin, comprising six
dry docks behind it; and the Bassin de la Pinède entered from the
northern outer harbour. These new docks have a water area of 414 acres
and over 11 m. of quays, and are commodious and deep enough for the
largest vessels to manoeuvre easily.
In the roads to the south-west of the port lie the islands of Ratonneau
and Pomègue, united by a jetty forming a quarantine port. Between them
and the mainland is the islet of Château d'If, in which the scene of
part of Dumas' _Monte Cristo_ is laid.
Marseilles possesses few remains of either the Greek or Roman periods of
occupation, and is poor in medieval buildings. The old cathedral of la
Major (Sainte-Marie-Majeure), dating chiefly from the 12th century and
built on the ruins of a temple of Diana, is in bad preservation. The
chapel of St Lazare (late 15th century) in the left aisle is in the
earliest Renaissance style, and a bas-relief of white porcelain by Lucca
della Robbia is of artistic value. Beside this church and alongside the
Joliette basin is a modern building begun in 1852, opened for worship in
1893 and recognized as the finest modern cathedral in France. It is a
Byzantine basilica, in the form of a Latin cross, 460 ft. long, built in
green Florentine stone blended with white stone from the neighbourhood
of Arles. The four towers which surmount it--two at the west front, one
over the crossing, one at the east end--are roofed with cupolas. Near
the cathedral stands the bishop's palace, and the Place de la Major,
which they overlook, is embellished with the statue of Bishop Belsunce,
who displayed great devotion during the plague of 1720-1721. The
celebrated Notre-Dame de la Garde, the steeple of which, surmounted by a
gilded statue of the Virgin, 30 ft. in height, rises 150 ft. above the
summit of the hill on which it stands, commands a view of the whole port
and town, as well as of the surrounding mountains and the neighbouring
sea. The present chapel is modern and occupies the site of one built in
1214.
On the south side of the old harbour near the Fort St Nicolas stands the
church of St Victor, built in the 13th century and once attached to an
abbey founded early in the 4th century. With its lofty crenellated walls
and square towers built of large blocks of uncemented stone, it
resembles a fortress. St Victor is built above crypts dating mainly
from the 11th century but also embodying architecture of the Carolingian
period and of the early centuries of the Christian era. Tradition
relates that St Lazarus inhabited the catacombs under St Victor; and the
black image of the Virgin, still preserved there, is popularly
attributed to St Luke. The spire, which is the only relic of the ancient
church of Accoules, marks the centre of Old Marseilles. At its foot are
a "calvary" and a curious underground chapel in rock work, both modern.
Notre-Dame du Mont Carmel, also in the old town, occupies the place of
what was the citadel of the Massaliots when they were besieged by Julius
Caesar.
Of the civil buildings of the city, the prefecture, one of the finest in
France, the Palais de Justice, in front of which is the statue of the
advocate Antoine Berryer (1790-1868) and the Exchange, all date from the
latter half of the 19th century. The Exchange, built at the expense of
the Chamber of Commerce, includes the spacious hall of that institution
with its fine mural paintings and gilding. The hôtel-de-ville (17th
century) stands on the northern quay of the old harbour. All these
buildings are surpassed by the Palais Longchamp (1862-1870), situated in
the north-east of the town at the end of the Boulevard Longchamp. The
centre of the building is occupied by a monumental _château d'eau_
(reservoir). Colonnades branch off from this, uniting it on the left to
the picture gallery, with a fine collection of ancient and modern works,
and on the right to the natural history museum, remarkable for its
conchological department and collection of ammonites. In front are
ornamental grounds; behind are extensive zoological gardens, with the
astronomical observatory. The museum of antiquities is established in
the Château Borély (1766-1778) in a fine park at the end of the Prado.
It includes a Phoenician collection (containing the remains that support
the hypothesis of the Phoenician origin of Marseilles), an Egyptian
collection, numerous Greek, Latin, and Christian inscriptions in stone,
&c. A special building within the city contains the school of art with a
valuable library and a collection of medals and coins annexed to it. The
city also has a colonial museum and a laboratory of marine zoology. The
triumphal arch of Aix, originally dedicated to the victors of the
Trocadéro, was in 1830 appropriated to the conquests of the empire.
The canal de Marseille, constructed from 1837 to 1848, which has
metamorphosed the town and its arid surroundings by bringing to them the
waters of the Durance, leaves the river opposite Pertuis. It has a
length of 97 miles (including its four main branches) of which 13 are
underground, and irrigates some 7500 acres. After crossing the valley of
the Arc, between Aix and Rognac, by the magnificent aqueduct of
Roquefavour, it purifies its waters, charged with ooze, in the basins of
Réaltort. It draws about 2200 gallons of water per second from the
Durance, supplies 2450 horse-power to works in the vicinity of
Marseilles, and ensures a good water-supply and efficient sanitation to
the city.
Marseilles is the headquarters of the XV. army corps and the seat of a
bishop and a prefect. It has tribunals of first instance and of
commerce, a chamber of commerce, a board of trade arbitration, and a
branch of the Bank of France. The educational institutions include a
faculty of science, a school of medicine and pharmacy, and a faculty
(_faculté libre_) of law, these three forming part of the university of
Aix-Marseille; lycées for boys and girls, a conservatoire of music, a
school of fine art, a higher school of commerce, a school for ships'
boys, a school of navigation and industrial schools for both sexes.
_Trade and Industry._--Marseilles is the western emporium for the
Levant trade and the French gate of the Far East. It suffers, however,
from the competition of Genoa, which is linked with the Rhine basin by
the Simplon and St Gotthard railway routes, and from lack of
communication with the inland waterways of France. In January 1902 the
chamber of deputies voted £3,656,000 for the construction of a canal
from Marseilles to the Rhone at Arles. This scheme was designed to
overcome the difficulties of egress from the Rhone and to make the
city the natural outlet of the rich Rhone basin. Much of the activity
of the port is due to the demand for raw material created by the
industries of Marseilles itself. The imports include raw silk, sesame,
ground-nuts and other oil-producing fruits and seeds largely used in
the soap manufacture, cereals and flour, wool, hides and skins, olive
and other oils, raw cotton, sheep and other livestock, woven goods,
table fruit, wine, potatoes and dry vegetables, lead, cocoon silk,
coffee, coal, timber. The total value of imports was £64,189,000 in
1907, an increase of £18,000,000 in the preceding decade. The exports,
of which the total value was £52,901,000 (an increase of £21,000,000
in the decade) included cotton fabrics, silk fabrics, cereals and
flour, hides and skins, wool fabrics, worked skins, olive and other
oils, chemical products, wine, refined sugar, raw cotton, wool, coal,
building-material, machinery and pottery.
The port is the centre for numerous lines of steamers, of which the
chief are the Messageries Maritimes, which ply to the eastern
Mediterranean, the east coast of Africa, Australia, India, Indo-China,
Havre and London, and the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, whose
vessels run to Algiers, Tunis, Malta, Corsica, Morocco and the
Antilles. In addition many important foreign lines call at the port,
among them being the P. and O., the Orient, the North German Lloyd,
and the German East Africa lines.
Marseilles has five chief railway stations, two of which serve the new
harbours, while one is alongside the old port; the city is on the main
line of the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée railway from the Riviera and
Toulon to Paris via Arles, Avignon and Lyons, another less important
line connecting it with Aix.
Soap-making, introduced in antiquity from Savona and Genoa, is carried
on in upwards of fifty factories. These utilize the products of the
oil-distilleries and of the chemical works, the latter being also an
important adjunct to the manufacture of candles, another leading
industry. A large quantity of iron, copper and other ores is smelted
in the blast-furnaces of Saint Louis in the vicinity and in other
foundries, and the Mediterranean Engineering Company and other
companies have large workshops for the construction or repair of
marine steam-engines and every branch of iron shipbuilding. To these
industries must be added flour-milling, the manufacture of semolina
and other farinaceous foods and of biscuits, bricks and tiles, rope,
casks, capsules for bottles and other tin-goods, tanning, distilling,
brewing and sulphur- and sugar-refining. There are state tobacco and
match factories.
_History._--The Greek colony of Massalia (Lat. _Massilia_) was founded
by the mariners of Phocaea in Asia Minor, about 600 B.C. The settlement
of the Greeks in waters which the Carthaginians reserved for their own
commerce was not effected without a naval conflict; it is not improbable
that the Phoenicians were settled at Marseilles before the Greek period,
and that the name of the town is the Phoenician for "settlement."
Whether the judges (_sophetim_, "suffetes") of the Phoenician
sacrificial tablet of Marseilles were the rulers of a city existing
before the advent of the Phocaeans, or were consuls for Punic residents
in the Greek period, is disputed. In 542 B.C. the fall of the Phocaean
cities before the Persians probably sent new settlers to the Ligurian
coast and cut off the remote city of Massalia from close connexion with
the mother country. Isolated amid alien populations, the Massaliots made
their way by prudence in dealing with the inland tribes, by vigilant
administration of their oligarchical government, and by frugality united
to remarkable commercial and naval enterprise. Their colonies spread
east and west along the coast from Monaco to Cape St Martin in Spain,
carrying with them the worship of Artemis; the inland trade, in which
wine was an important element, can be traced by finds of Massalian coins
across Gaul and through the Alps as far as Tirol. In the 4th century
B.C. the Massaliot Pytheas visited the coasts of Gaul, Britain and
Germany, and Euthymenes is said to have sailed down the west coast of
Africa as far as Senegal. The great rival of Massalian trade was
Carthage, and in the Punic Wars the city took the side of Rome, and was
rewarded by Roman assistance in the subjugation of the native tribes of
Liguria. In the war between Caesar and Pompey Massilia took Pompey's
side and in A.D. 49 offered a vain resistance to Caesar's lieutenant
Trebonius. In memory of its ancient services the city, "without which,"
as Cicero says, "Rome had never triumphed over the Transalpine nations,"
was left as a _civitas libera_, but her power was broken and most of her
dependencies taken from her. From this time Massilia has little place in
Roman history; it became for a time an important school of letters and
medicine, but its commercial and intellectual importance declined. The
town appears to have been christianized before the end of the 3rd
century, and at the beginning of the 4th century was the scene of the
martyrdom of St Victor. Its reputation partly revived through the names
of Gennadius and Cassian, which give it prominence in the history of
Semi-Pelagianism and the foundation of western monachism.
After the ravages of successive invaders, Marseilles was repeopled in
the 10th century under the protection of its viscounts. The town
gradually bought up their rights, and at the beginning of the 13th
century was formed into a republic, governed by a _podestat_, who was
appointed for life, and exercised his office in conjunction with 3
notables, and a municipal council, composed of 80 citizens, 3 clerics,
and 6 principal tradesmen. During the rest of the middle ages, however,
the higher town was governed by the bishop, and had its harbour at the
creek of La Joliette which at that period ran inland to the north of the
old town. The southern suburb was governed by the abbot of St Victor,
and owned the Port des Catalans. Situated between the two, the lower
town, the republic, retained the old harbour, and was the most powerful
of the three divisions. The period of the crusades brought prosperity to
Marseilles, though throughout the middle ages it suffered from the
competition of Pisa, Genoa and Venice. In 1245 and 1256 Charles of
Anjou, count of Provence, whose predecessors had left the citizens a
large measure of independence, established his authority above that of
the republic. In 1423 Alphonso V. of Aragon sacked the town. King René,
who had made it his winter residence, however, caused trade, arts and
manufactures again to flourish. On the embodiment of Provence in the
kingdom of France in 1481, Marseilles preserved a separate
administration directed by royal officials. Under Francis I. the
disaffected constable Charles de Bourbon vainly besieged the town with
the imperial forces in 1524. During the wars of religion, Marseilles
took part against the Protestants, and long refused to acknowledge Henry
IV. The loss of the ancient liberties of the town brought new
disturbances under the Fronde, which Louis XIV. came in person to
suppress. He entered the town by a breach in the walls and afterwards
had Fort St Nicolas constructed. Marseilles repeatedly suffered from the
plague, notably from May 1720 to May 1721.
During the Revolution the people rose against the aristocracy, who up to
that time had governed the commune. In the Terror they rebelled against
the Convention, but were promptly subdued by General Carteaux. The wars
of the empire, by dealing a blow to their maritime commerce, excited the
hatred of the inhabitants against Napoleon, and they hailed the return
of the Bourbons and the defeat of Waterloo. The news of the latter
provoked a bloody reaction in the town against those suspected of
imperialism. The prosperity of the city received a considerable impulse
from the conquest of Algeria and from the opening of the Suez Canal.
See P. Castanier, _Histoire de la Provence dans l'antiquité_, vol. ii.
(Paris, 1896); E. Caman, _Marseille au XX^me siècle_ (Paris, 1905); P.
Joanne, _Marseille et ses environs_.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] From the Latin _cannabis_, Provençal _cannèbe_, "hemp," in
allusion to the rope-walks formerly occupying its site.
MARSH, ADAM (ADAM DE MARISCO) (d. c. 1258), English Franciscan, scholar
and theologian, was born about 1200 in the diocese of Bath, and educated
at Oxford under the famous Grosseteste. Before 1226 Adam received the
benefice of Wearmouth from his uncle, Richard Marsh, bishop of Durham;
but between that year and 1230 he entered the Franciscan order. About
1238 he became the lecturer of the Franciscan house at Oxford, and
within a few years was regarded by the English province of that order as
an intellectual and spiritual leader. Roger Bacon, his pupil, speaks
highly of his attainments in theology and mathematics. His fame,
however, rests upon the influence which he exercised over the statesmen
of his day. Consulted as a friend by Grosseteste, as a spiritual
director by Simon de Montfort, the countess of Leicester and the queen,
as an expert lawyer and theologian by the primate, Boniface of Savoy, he
did much to guide the policy both of the opposition and of the court
party in all matters affecting the interests of the Church. He shrank
from office, and never became provincial minister of the English
Franciscans, though constantly charged with responsible commissions.
Henry III. and Archbishop Boniface unsuccessfully endeavoured to secure
for him the see of Ely in 1256. In 1257 Adam's health was failing, and
he appears to have died in the following year. To judge from his
correspondence he took no interest in secular politics. He sympathized
with Montfort as with a friend of the Church and an unjustly treated
man; but on the eve of the baronial revolution he was on friendly terms
with the king. Faithful to the traditions of his order, he made it his
ambition to be a mediator. He rebuked both parties in the state for
their shortcomings, but he did not break with either.
See his correspondence, with J. S. Brewer's introduction, in
_Monumenta franciscana_, vol. i. (Rolls ser., 1858); the biographical
notice in A. G. Little's Grey _Friars in Oxford_ (Oxford, 1892), where
all the references are collected. On Marsh's relations with
Grosseteste, see _Roberti Grosseteste epistolae_, ed. H. R. Luard
(Rolls ed., 1861), and F. S. Stevenson, _Robert Grosseteste_ (London,
1809). (H. W. C. D.)
MARSH, GEORGE PERKINS (1801-1882), American diplomatist and philologist,
was born at Woodstock, Vermont, on the 15th of March 1801. He graduated
at Dartmouth College in 1820, was admitted to the bar in 1825, and
practised law at Burlington, Vermont, devoting himself also with ardour
to philological studies. In 1835 he was a member of the Supreme
Executive Council of Vermont, and from 1843 to 1849 a Whig
representative in Congress. In 1849 he was appointed United States
minister resident in Turkey, and in 1852-1853 discharged a mission to
Greece in connexion with the imprisonment by the authorities of that
country of an American missionary, Dr Jonas King (1792-1869). He
returned to Vermont in 1854, and in 1857 was a member of the state
railway commission. In 1861 he became the first United States minister
to the kingdom of Italy, and died in that office at Vallombrosa on the
23rd of July 1882. He was buried in a Protestant cemetery in Rome. Marsh
was an able linguist, writing and speaking with ease the Scandinavian
and half a dozen other European languages, a remarkable philologist for
his day, and a scholar of great breadth, knowing much of military
science, engraving and physics, as well as of Icelandic, which was his
specialty. He wrote many articles for Johnson's _Universal Cyclopaedia_,
and contributed many reviews and letters to the _Nation_. His chief
published works are: _A Compendious Grammar of the Old Northern or
Icelandic Language_ (1838), compiled and translated from the grammars of
Rask; _The Camel, his Organization, Habits, and Uses, with Reference to
his Introduction into the United States_ (1856); _Lectures on the
English Language_ (1860); _The Origin and History of the English
Language_ (1862; revised ed., 1885); and _Man and Nature_ (1865). The
last-named work was translated into Italian in 1872, and, largely
rewritten, was issued in 1874 under the title _The Earth as Modified by
Human Action_; a revised edition was published in 1885. He also
published a work on _Mediaeval and Modern Saints and Miracles_ (1876).
His valuable library was presented in 1883 by Frederick Billings to the
university of Vermont. His second wife, CAROLINE (CRANE) MARSH
(1816-1901), whom he married in 1839, published _Wolfe of the Knoll and
other Poems_ (1860), and the _Life and Letters of George Perkins Marsh_
(New York, 1888). This last work was left incomplete, the second volume
never having been published. She also translated from the German of
Johann C. Biernatzki (1795-1840), _The Hallig; or the Sheepfold in the
Waters_ (1856).
MARSH, HERBERT (1757-1839), English divine, was born at Faversham, Kent,
on the 10th of December 1757, and was educated at St John's College,
Cambridge, where he was elected fellow in 1782, having been second
wrangler and second Smith's prizeman. For some years he studied at
Leipzig, and between 1793 and 1801 published in four volumes a
translation of J. D. Michaelis's _Introduction to the New Testament_,
with notes of his own, in which he may be said to have introduced German
methods of research into English biblical scholarship. His _History of
the Politics of Great Britain and France_ (1799) brought him much notice
and a pension from William Pitt. In 1807 he was appointed Lady Margaret
professor of divinity at Cambridge, and lectured to large audiences on
biblical criticism, substituting English for the traditional Latin. Both
here, and afterwards as bishop of Llandaff (1816) and of Peterborough
(1819), he stoutly opposed hymn-singing, Calvinism, Roman Catholicism,
and the Evangelical movement as represented by Charles Simeon and the
Bible Society. Among his writings are _Lectures on the Criticism and
Interpretation of the Bible_ (1828), _A Comparative View of the Churches
of England and Rome_ (1814), and _Horae Pelasgicae_ (1815). He died at
Peterborough on the 1st of May 1839.
MARSH, NARCISSUS (1638-1713), archbishop of Dublin and Armagh, was born
at Hannington, Wiltshire, and educated at Oxford. He became a fellow of
Exeter College, Oxford, in 1658. In 1662 he was ordained, and presented
to the living of Swindon, which he resigned in the following year. After
acting as chaplain to Seth Ward, bishop of Exeter and Salisbury, and
Lord Chancellor Clarendon, he was elected principal of St Alban Hall,
Oxford, in 1673. In 1679 he was appointed provost of Trinity College,
Dublin, where he did much to encourage the study of the Irish language.
He helped to found the Royal Dublin Society, and contributed to it a
paper entitled "Introductory Essay to the Doctrine of Sounds" (printed
in _Philosophical Transactions_, No. 156, Oxford, 1684). In 1683 he was
consecrated bishop of Ferns and Leighlin, but after the accession of
James II. he was compelled by the turbulent soldiery to flee to England
(1689), where he became vicar of Gresford, Flint, and canon of St Asaph.
Returning to Ireland in 1691 after the battle of the Boyne, he was made
archbishop of Cashel, and three years later he became archbishop of
Dublin. About this time he founded the Marsh Library in Dublin. He
became archbishop of Armagh in 1703. Between 1699 and 1711 he was six
times a lord justice of Ireland. He died on the 2nd of November 1713.
MARSH, OTHNIEL CHARLES (1831-1899), American palaeontologist, was born
in Lockport, New York, on the 29th of October 1831. He graduated at Yale
College in 1860, and studied geology and mineralogy in the Sheffield
scientific school, New Haven, and afterwards palaeontology and anatomy
in Berlin, Heidelberg and Breslau. Returning to America in 1866 he was
appointed professor of vertebrate palaeontology at Yale College, and
there began the researches of the fossil vertebrata of the western
states, whereby he established his reputation. He was aided by a private
fortune from his uncle, George Peabody, whom he induced to establish the
Peabody Museum of Natural History (especially devoted to zoology,
geology and mineralogy) in the college. In May 1871 he discovered the
first pterodactyl remains found in America, and in subsequent years he
brought to light from Wyoming and other regions many new genera and
families, and some entirely new orders of extinct vertebrata, which he
described in monographs or periodical articles. These included remains
of the Cretaceous toothed birds _Hesperornis_ and _Ichthyornis_, the
Cretaceous flying-reptiles (_Pteranodon_), the swimming reptiles or
Mosasauria, and the Cretaceous and Jurassic land reptiles (_Dinosauria_)
among which were the _Brontosaurus_ and _Atlantosaurus_. The remarkable
mammals which he termed Brontotheria (now grouped as Titanotheriidae),
and the huge Dinocerata, one being the _Uintatherium_, were also brought
to light by him. Among his later discoveries were remains of early
ancestors of horses in America. On becoming vice-president of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1875 he gave an
address on the "Introduction and Succession of Vertebrate Life in
America," summarizing his conclusions to that date. He repeatedly
organized and often accompanied scientific exploring expeditions in the
Rocky Mountains, and their results tended in an important degree to
support the doctrines of natural selection and evolution. He published
many papers on these, and found time--besides that necessarily given to
the accumulation and care of the most extensive collection of fossils in
the world--to write _Odontornithes: A Monograph on the Extinct Toothed
Birds of North America_ (1880); _Dinocerata: A Monograph on an Extinct
Order of Gigantic Mammals_ (1884); and _The Dinosaurs of North America_
(1896). His work is full of accurately recorded facts of permanent
value. He was long in charge of the division of vertebrate palaeontology
in the United States Geological Survey, and received many scientific
honours, medals and degrees, American and foreign. He died in New Haven
on the 18th of March 1899.
See obituary by Dr Henry Woodward (with portrait) in _Geol. Mag._
(1899), p. 237.
MARSH (O. F. _mersc_, for _merisc_, a place full of "meres" or pools;
cf. Ger. _Meer_, sea, Lat. _mare_), an area of low-lying watery land.
The significance of a marsh area is not so much in the manner of its
formation as in the peculiar chemical and physical results that
accompany it, and its relation to the ecology of plant and animal life.
Chemically it is productive of such gases as arise from decomposing
vegetation and are transitory in their effects, and in the production of
hydrated iron oxide, which may be seen floating as an iridescent scum at
the edge of rusty, marshy pools. This sinks into the soil and forms a
powerful iron cement to many sandstones, binding them into a hard local
mass, while the surrounding sandstones are loose and friable. A curious
morphological inversion follows in a later geological period, the marsh
area forming the hard cap of a hill (see MESA) while the surrounding
sandstones are weathered away. Salt marshes are a feature of many
low-lying sea-coasts and areas of inland drainage.
MARSHAL (med. Lat. _marescalcus_, from O.H.Ger. _marah_, horse, and
_scalc_, servant), a title given in various countries to certain
military and civil officers, usually of high rank. The origin and
development of the meaning of the designation is closely analogous with
that of constable (q.v.). Just as the title of constable, in all its
medieval and modern uses, is traceable to the style and functions of the
Byzantine count of the stable, so that of marshal was evolved from the
title of the _marescalci_, or masters of the horse, of the early
Frankish kings. In this original sense the word survived down to the
close of the Holy Roman empire in the titular office of _Erz-Marschalk_
(arch-marshal), borne by the electors of Saxony. Elsewhere the meaning
of office and title was modified. The importance of cavalry in medieval
warfare led to the marshalship being associated with military command;
this again led to the duty of keeping order in court and camp, of
deciding questions of chivalry, and to the assumption of judicial and
executive functions. The marshal, as a military leader, was originally a
subordinate officer, the chief command under the king being held by the
constable; but in the 12th century, though still nominally second to the
constable, the marshal has come to the forefront as commander of the
royal forces and a great officer of state. In England after the Conquest
the marshalship was hereditary in the family which derived its surname
from the office, and the hereditary title of earl-marshal originated in
the marriage of William Marshal with the heiress of the earldom of
Pembroke (see EARL MARSHAL). Similarly, in Scotland, the office of
marischal (from the French _maréchal_), probably introduced under David
I., became in the 14th century hereditary in the house of Keith. In 1485
the Scottish marischal became an earl under the designation of
earl-marischal, the dignity coming to an end by the attainder of George,
10th earl-marischal, in 1716. In France, on the other hand, though under
Philip Augustus the marshal of France (_marescalcus Franciae_) appears
as commander-in-chief of the forces, care was taken not to allow the
office to become descendible; under Francis I. the number of marshals of
France was raised to two, under Henry III. to four, and under Louis XIV.
to twenty. Revived by Napoleon, the title fell into abeyance with the
downfall of the Second empire.
In England the use of the word marshal in the sense of commander of an
army appears very early; so Matthew Paris records that in 1214 King John
constituted William, earl of Salisbury, _marescalcus_ of his forces. The
modern military title of field marshal, imported from Germany by King
George II. in 1736, is derived from the high dignity of the
_marescalcus_ in a roundabout way. The _marescalcus campi_, or _maréchal
des champs_, was originally one of a number of officials to whom the
name, with certain of the functions, of the marshal was given. The
marshal, being responsible for order in court and camp, had to employ
subordinates, who developed into officials often but nominally dependent
upon him. On military expeditions it was usual for two such marshals to
precede the army, select the site of the camp and assign to the lords
and knights their places in it. In time of peace they preceded the king
on a journey and arranged for his lodging and maintenance. In France
_maréchal des logis_ is the title of superior non-commissioned officers
in the cavalry.
Similarly at the king's court the _marescalcus aulae_ or _intrinsecus_
was responsible for order, the admission or exclusion of those seeking
access, ceremonial arrangements, &c. Such "marshals" were maintained,
not only by the king, but by great lords and ecclesiastics. The more
dignified of their functions, together with the title, survive in the
various German courts, where the court marshal (_Hofmarschall_) is
equivalent to the English lord chamberlain. Just as the _marescalcus
intrinsecus_ acted as the vicar of the marshal for duties "within" the
court, so the _marescalcus forinsecus_ was deputed to perform those acts
of serjeanty due from the marshal to the Crown "without." Similarly
there appears in the statute 5 Edw. III. cap. 8, a _marescalcus banci
regii_ (_maréchal du Banc du Roy_), or marshal of the king's bench, who
presided over the Marshalsea Court, and was responsible for the safe
custody of prisoners, who were bestowed in the _mareschalcia_, or
Marshalsea prison. The office of marshal of the queen's bench survived
till 1849 (see LORD STEWARD; and MARSHALSEA). The official known as a
judge's marshal, whose office is of considerable antiquity, and whose
duties consisted of making abstracts of indictments and pleadings for
the use of the judge, still survives, but no longer exercises the above
functions. He accompanies a judge of assize on circuit and is appointed
by him at the beginning of each circuit. His travelling and other
expenses are paid by the judge, and he receives an allowance of two
guineas a day, which is paid through the Treasury. He introduces the
high sheriff of the county to the judge of assize on his arrival, and
swears in the grand jury. For the French _maréchaussée_ see FRANCE: §
_Law and Institutions_.
In the sense of executive legal officer the title marshal survives in
the United States of America in two senses. The United States marshal is
the executive officer of the Federal courts, one being appointed for
each district, or exceptionally, one for two districts. His duties are
to open and close the sessions of the district and circuit courts, serve
warrants, and execute throughout the district the orders of the court.
There are United States marshals also in Alaska, Hawaii, Porto Rico and
the Philippines. They are appointed by the President, with the advice
and consent of the Senate, for a term of four years, and, besides their
duties in connexion with the courts, are employed in the service of the
internal revenue, public lands, post office, &c. The temporary police
sworn in to maintain order in times of disturbance, known in England as
special constables, are also termed marshals in the United States. In
some of the southern and western states of the Union the title marshal
has sunk to that of the village policeman, as distinct from the county
officers known as sheriffs and those of the justices' courts called
constables.
In England the title of marshal, as applied to an executive officer,
survives only in the army, where the provost marshal is chief of the
military police in large garrisons and in field forces. Office and title
were borrowed from the French _prévot des maréchaux_, the modern
equivalent of the medieval _praepositus marescalcorum_ or _guerrarum_.
MARSHALL, ALFRED (1842- ), English economist, was born in London on
the 26th of July 1842. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School
and St John's College, Cambridge, being second wrangler in 1865, and in
the same year becoming fellow of his college. He became principal of
University College, Bristol, in 1877, and was lecturer and fellow of
Balliol College, Oxford in 1883-1884. He was professor of political
economy at Cambridge University from 1885 to 1908, and was a member of
the Royal Commission on Labour in 1891. He became a fellow of the
British Academy in 1902. He wrote (in conjunction with his wife)
_Economics of Industry_ (1879), whilst his _Principles of Economics_
(1st ed., 1890) is a standard English treatise.
MARSHALL, JOHN (1755-1835), American jurist, chief-justice of the U.S.
Supreme Court, was born on the 24th of September 1755 at Germantown (now
Midland), in what four years later became Fauquier county, Virginia. He
was of English descent, the son of Thomas Marshall (1732-1806) and his
wife Mary Isham Keith. Marshall served first as lieutenant and after
July 1778 as captain in the Continental Army during the War of
Independence. He resigned his commission early in 1781; was admitted to
the bar after a brief course of study, first practised in Fauquier
county; and after two years began to practise in Richmond. In 1786 we
find him counsel in a case of great importance, _Hite_ v. _Fairfax_,
involving the original title of Lord Fairfax to that large tract of
country between the headwaters of the Potomac and Rappahannock, known as
the northern neck of Virginia. Marshall represented tenants of Lord
Fairfax and won his case. From this time, as is shown by an examination
of Call's _Virginia Reports_ which cover the period, he maintained the
leadership of the bar of Virginia. He was a member of the Virginia
Assembly in 1782-1791 and again in 1795-1797; and in 1788, he took a
leading part in the Virginia Convention called to act on the proposed
constitution for the United States, with Madison ably urging the
ratification of that instrument. In 1795 Washington offered him the
attorney-generalship, and in 1796, after the retirement of James Monroe,
the position of minister to France. Marshall declined both offers
because his situation at the bar appeared to him "to be more independent
and not less honourable than any other," and his "preference for it was
decided." He spent the autumn and winter of 1797-1798 in France as one
of the three commissioners appointed by President John Adams to adjust
the differences between the young republic and the directory. The
commission failed, but the course pursued by Marshall was approved in
America, and with the resentment felt because of the way in which the
commission had been treated in France, made him, on his return,
exceedingly popular. To this popularity, as well as to the earnest
advocacy of Patrick Henry, he owed his election as a Federalist to the
National House of Representatives in the spring of 1799, though the
feeling in Richmond was overwhelmingly in favour of the opposition or
Republican party. His most notable service in Congress was his speech on
the case of Thomas Nash, alias Jonathan Robbins, in which he showed that
there is nothing in the constitution of the United States which prevents
the Federal government from carrying out an extradition treaty. He was
secretary of state under President Adams from the 6th of June 1800 to
the 4th of March 1801. In the meantime he had been appointed
chief-justice of the Supreme Court, his commission bearing date the 31st
of January. Thus while still secretary he presided as chief-justice.
At the time of Marshall's appointment it was generally considered that
the Supreme Court was the one department of the new government which had
failed in its purpose. John Jay, the first chief-justice, who had
resigned in 1795, had just declined a reappointment to the
chief-justiceship on the ground that he had left the bench perfectly
convinced that the court would never acquire proper weight and dignity,
its organization being fatally defective. The advent of the new
chief-justice was marked by a change in the conduct of business in the
court. Since its organization, following the prevailing English custom,
the judges had pronounced their opinions seriatim. But beginning with
the December term 1801, the chief-justice became practically the sole
mouthpiece of the court. For eleven years the opinions are almost
exclusively his, and there are few recorded dissents. The change was
admirably adapted to strengthen the power and dignity of the court. The
chief-justice embodied the majesty of the judicial department of the
government almost as fully as the president stood for the power of the
executive. That this change was acquiesced in by his associates without
diminishing their goodwill towards their new chief is testimony to the
persuasive force of Marshall's personality; for his associates were not
men of mediocre ability. After the advent of Mr Justice Joseph Story the
practice was abandoned. Marshall, however, still delivered the opinion
in the great majority of cases, and in practically all cases of any
importance involving the interpretation of the Constitution. During the
course of his judicial life his associates were as a rule men of
learning and ability. During most of the time the majority were the
appointees of Democratic presidents, and before their elevation to the
bench supposed to be out of sympathy with the federalistic ideas of the
chief-justice. Yet in matters pertaining to constitutional construction,
they seem to have had hardly any other function than to add the weight
of their silent concurrence to the decision of their great chief. Thus
the task of expounding the constitution during the most critical period
of its history was his, and it was given to him to preside over the
Supreme Court when it was called upon to decide four cases of vital
importance: _Marbury_ v. _Madison_, _M'Culloch_ v. _Maryland_, _Cohens_
v. _Virginia_ and _Gibbons_ v. _Ogden_. In each of these cases it is
Marshall who writes the opinion of the court; in each the continued
existence of the peculiar Federal system established by the Constitution
depended on the action of the court, and in each the court adopted a
principle which is now generally perceived to be essential to the
preservation of the United States as a federal state.
In _Marbury_ v. _Madison_, which was decided two years after his
elevation to the bench, he decided that it was the duty of the court
to disregard any act of Congress, and, therefore, a fortiori any act
of a legislature of one of the states, which the court thought
contrary to the Federal Constitution.
In _Cohens_ v. _Virginia_, in spite of the contention of Jefferson and
the then prevalent school of political thought that it was contrary to
the Constitution for a person to bring one of the states of the United
States, though only as an appellee, into a court of justice, he held
that Congress could lawfully pass an act which permitted a person who
was convicted in a state court, to appeal to the Supreme Court of the
United States, if he alleged that the state act under which he was
convicted conflicted with the Federal Constitution or with an act of
Congress.
In _M'Culloch_ v. _Maryland_, though admitting that the Federal
government is one of delegated powers and cannot exercise any power
not expressly given in the Constitution, he laid down the rule that
Congress in the exercise of a delegated power has a wide latitude in
the choice of means, not being confined in its choice of means to
those which must be used if the power is to be exercised at all.
Lastly, in _Gibbons_ v. _Ogden_, he held that when the power to
regulate interstate and foreign commerce was conferred by the
Constitution on the Federal government, the word "commerce" included
not only the exchange of commodities, but the means by which
interstate and foreign intercourse was carried on, and therefore that
Congress had the power to license vessels to carry goods and
passengers between the states, and an act of one of the states making
a regulation which interfered with such regulation of Congress was,
_pro tanto_, of no effect. It will be seen that in the first two cases
he established the Supreme Court as the final interpreter of the
Constitution.
The decision in _M'Culloch_ v. _Maryland_, by leaving Congress
unhampered in the choice of means to execute its delegated powers,
made it possible for the Federal government to accomplish the ends of
its existence. "Let the end be legitimate," said Marshall in the
course of its opinion, "let it be within the scope of the
Constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly
adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the
letter and spirit of the Constitution, are constitutional."
If the decision in _M'Culloch_ v. _Maryland_ gave vigour to all
Federal power, the decision in _Gibbons_ v. _Ogden_, by giving the
Federal government control over the means by which interstate and
foreign commerce is carried on, preserved the material prosperity of
the country. The decision recognizes what the framers of the
Constitution recognized, namely that the United States is an economic
union, and that business which is national should be under national,
not state, control.
Though for the reasons stated, the four cases mentioned are the most
important of his decisions, the value of his work as an expounder of the
Constitution of the United States is not to be measured by these cases
alone. In all he decided forty-four cases involving constitutional
questions. Nearly every important part of the Constitution of the United
States as it existed before the amendments which were adopted after the
Civil War, is treated in one or more of them. The Constitution in its
most important aspects is the Constitution as he interpreted it. He did
not work out completely the position of the states in the Federal
system, but he did grasp and establish the position of the Federal
legislature and the Federal judiciary. To appreciate his work, however,
it is necessary to see that it was the work not of a statesman but of a
judge. Had Marshall been merely a far-seeing statesman, while most of
his important cases would have been decided as he decided them, his
life-work would have been a failure. It was not only necessary that he
should decide great constitutional questions properly, but also that the
people of the United States should be convinced of the correctness of
his interpretation of the Constitution. His opinions, therefore, had to
carry to those who studied them a conviction that the constitution as
written had been interpreted according to its evident meaning. They
fulfilled this prime requisite. Their chief characteristic is the
cumulative force of the argument. The ground for the premiss is
carefully prepared, the premiss itself is clearly stated; nearly every
possible objection is examined and answered; and then comes the
conclusion. There is little or no repetition, but there is a wealth of
illustration, a completeness of analysis, that convinces the reader, not
only that the subject has been adequately treated, but that it has been
exhausted. His style, reflecting his character, suits perfectly the
subject matter. Simple in the best sense of the word, his intellectual
processes were so clear that he never doubted the correctness of the
conclusion to which they led him. Apparently from his own point of view,
he merely indicated the question at issue, and the inexorable rules of
logic did the rest. Thus his opinions are simple, clear, dignified.
Intensely interesting, the interest is in the argument, not in its
expression. He had, in a wonderful degree, the power of phrase. He
expressed important principles of law in language which tersely yet
clearly conveyed his exact meaning. Not only is the Constitution
interpreted largely as he taught the people of the United States to
interpret it, but when they wish to express important constitutional
principles which he enunciated they use his exact words. Again, his
opinions show that he adhered closely to the words of the Constitution;
indeed no one who has attempted to expound that instrument has confined
himself more strictly to an examination of the text. In the proper,
though not in the historical, sense he was the strictest of strict
constructionalists, and as a result his opinions are practically devoid
of theories of government, sovereignty and the rights of man.
A single illustration of his avoidance of all theory and his adherence
to the words of the Constitution will suffice. In the case of the
_United States_ v. _Fisher_ the constitutional question involved was
the power of Congress to give to the United States a preference over
all other creditors in the distribution of the assets of a bankrupt.
Such an act can be upheld on the ground that all governments have
necessarily the right to give themselves priority. Not so Marshall. To
him the act must be supported, if supported at all, not on any theory
of the innate nature of the government, national or otherwise, but as
a reasonable means of carrying out one of the express powers conferred
by the Constitution on the Federal government. Thus, he upholds the
act in question because of the power expressly conferred on the
Federal government to pay the debts of the union, and as a necessary
consequence of this power the right to make remittances by bills or
otherwise and to take precautions which will render the transactions
safe.
It is important to emphasize the fact that Marshall adhered in his
opinions to the Constitution as written, not only because it is a fact
which must be recognized if we are to understand the correct value of
his work in the field of constitutional law, but also because there
exists to-day a popular impression that by implication he stretched to
the utmost the powers of the Federal government. This impression is due
primarily to the ignorance of many of those who have undertaken to
praise him. During his life he was charged by followers of the States
Rights School of political thought with upholding Federal power in cases
not warranted by the constitution. Later, however, those who admired a
strong national government, without taking the trouble to ascertain
whether the old criticism by members of the States Rights Party was
just, regarded the assumption on which it was founded as Marshall's best
claim to his country's gratitude.
As a constitutional lawyer, Marshall stands without a rival. His work on
international law and admiralty is of first rank. But though a good, he
was not a great, common law or equity lawyer. In these fields he did not
make new law nor clarify what was obscure, and his constitutional
opinions which to-day are found least satisfactory are those in which
the question to be solved necessarily involves the discussion of some
common-law conception, especially those cases in which he was required
to construe the restriction imposed by the Constitution on any state
impairing the obligation of contracts. His decision in the celebrated
case of _Dartmouth College_ v. _Woodward_, in which he held that a state
could not repeal a charter of a private corporation, because a charter
is a contract which a subsequent act of the state repealing the charter
impairs, though of great economic importance, does not touch any
fundamental question of constitutional law. The argument which he
advances lacks the clearness and finality for which most of his opinions
are celebrated. It is not certain with whom he thought the contract was
made: with the corporation created by the charter, with the trustees of
the corporation, or with those who had contributed money to its objects.
Of the wonderful persuasive force of Marshall's personality there is
abundant evidence. His influence over his associates, already referred
to, is but one example though a most impressive one. From the moment he
delivered the opinion in _Marbury_ v. _Madison_ the legal profession
knew that he was a great judge. Each year added to his reputation and
made for a better appreciation of his intellectual and moral qualities.
The bar of the Supreme Court during his chief-justiceship was the most
brilliant which the United States has ever known. Leaders, not only of
legal, but political thought were among its members; one, Webster, was a
man of genius and commanding position. To a very great degree Marshall
impressed on the members of this bar and on the profession generally his
own ideas of the correct interpretation of the Constitution and his own
love for the union. He did this, not merely by his arguments but by the
influence which was his by right of his strong, sweet nature. Statesmen
and politicians, great and small, were at this time, almost without
exception, members of the bar. To influence the political thought of the
bar was to a great extent to influence the political thought of the
people.
In 1782 he married Mary Willis Ambler, the daughter of the then
treasurer of Virginia. They had ten children, six of whom grew to full
age. For the greater part of the forty-eight years of their married life
Mrs Marshall suffered intensely from a nervous affliction. Her condition
called out the love and sympathy of her husband's deep and affectionate
nature. Judge Story tells us: "That which, in a just sense, was his
highest glory, was the purity, affectionateness, liberality and
devotedness of his domestic life." For the first thirty years of his
chief-justiceship his life was a singularly happy one. He never had to
remain in Washington for more than three months. During the rest of the
year, with the exception of a visit to Raleigh, which his duties as
circuit judge required him to make, and a visit to his old home in
Fauquier county, he lived in Richmond. His house on Shockhoe Hill is
still standing.
On Christmas Day 1831 his wife died. He never was quite the same again.
On returning from Washington in the spring of 1835 he suffered severe
contusions, from an accident to the stage coach in which he was riding.
His health, which had not been good, now rapidly declined and in June he
returned to Philadelphia for medical attendance. There he died on the
6th of July. His body, which was taken to Richmond, lies in Shockhoe
Hill Cemetery under a plain marble slab, on which is a simple
inscription written by himself. In addition to his decisions Marshall
wrote a famous biography of George Washington (5 vols., 1804-1807; 2nd
ed., 2 vols., 1832), which though prepared hastily contains much
material of value.
The principal sources of information are: an essay by James B. Thayer
(Boston and New York, 1904); _Great American Lawyers_ (Philadelphia,
1908), ii. 313-408, an essay by Wm. Draper Lewis; and Allan B.
Magruder, _John Marshall_ (Boston, 1885), in the "American Statesmen
Series." The addresses delivered on Marshall Day, the 4th of February
1901, are collected by John F. Dillon (Chicago, 1903). In the
"Appendix" to Dillon's collection will be found the "Discourse" by
Joseph Story and the "Eulogy" by Horace Binney, both delivered soon
after Marshall's death. For a study of Marshall's decisions, the
_Constitutional Decisions of John Marshall_, edited by Joseph P.
Collon, Jr. (New York and London, 1905), is of value. (W. D. L.)
MARSHALL, JOHN (1818-1891), British surgeon and physiologist, was born
at Ely, on the 11th of September 1818, his father being a lawyer of that
city. He entered University College, London, in 1838, and in 1847 he was
appointed assistant-surgeon at the hospital, becoming in 1866 surgeon
and professor of surgery. He was professor of anatomy at the Royal
Academy from 1873 till his death. In 1883 he was president of the
College of Surgeons, also Bradshaw lecturer (on "Nerve-stretching for
the relief or cure of pain"), Hunterian orator in 1885, and Morton
lecturer in 1889. In 1867 he published his well-known textbook _The
Outlines of Physiology_ in two volumes. He died on the 1st of January
1891. "Marshall's fame," wrote Sir W. MacCormac in his volume on the
_Centenary of the College of Surgeons_ (1900), "rests on the great
ability with which he taught anatomy in relation to art, on the
introduction into modern surgery of the galvano-cautery, and on the
operation for the excision of varicose veins. He was one of the first to
show that cholera might be spread by means of drinking water, and issued
a report on the outbreak of cholera in Broad Street, St James's, 1854.
He also invented the system of circular wards for hospitals, and to him
are largely owing the details of the modern medical student's
education."
MARSHALL, STEPHEN (c. 1594-1655), English Nonconformist divine, was born
at Godmanchester in Huntingdonshire, and was educated at Emmanuel
College, Cambridge (M.A. 1622, B.D. 1629). After holding the living of
Wethersfield in Essex he became vicar of Finchingfield in the same
county, and in 1636 was reported for "want of conformity." He was a
preacher of great power, and influenced the elections for the Short
Parliament of 1640. Clarendon esteemed his influence on the
parliamentary side greater than that of Laud on the royalist. In 1642 he
was appointed lecturer at St Margaret's, Westminster, and delivered a
series of addresses to the Commons in which he advocated episcopal and
liturgical reform. He had a share in writing _Smectymnuus_, was
appointed chaplain to the earl of Essex's regiment in 1642, and a member
of the Westminster Assembly in 1643. He represented the English
Parliament in Scotland in 1643, and attended the parliamentary
commissions at the Uxbridge Conference in 1645. He waited on Archbishop
Laud before his execution, and was chaplain to Charles I. at Holmby
House and at Carisbrooke. A moderate and judicious presbyterian, he
prepared with others the "Shorter Catechism" in 1647, and was one of the
"Triers," 1654. He died in November 1655 and was buried in Westminster
Abbey, but his body was exhumed and maltreated at the Restoration. His
sermons, especially that on the death of John Pym in 1643, reveal
eloquence and fervour. The only "systematic" work he published was _A
Defence of Infant Baptism_, against John Tombes (London, 1646).
MARSHALL, a city and the county-seat of Saline county, Missouri, U.S.A.,
situated a little W. of the centre of the state, near the Salt Fork of
the La Mine River. Pop. (1890), 4297; (1900), 5086 (208 being
foreign-born and 98 negroes); (1910) 4869. It is served by the Missouri
Pacific and the Chicago & Alton railways. The city is laid out regularly
on a high, undulating prairie. It is the seat of Missouri Valley College
(opened 1889; co-educational), which was established by the Cumberland
Presbyterian church, and includes a preparatory department and a
conservatory of music. The court-house (1883), a Roman Catholic convent
and a high school (1907) are the principal buildings. The Missouri
colony for the feeble-minded and epileptic (1899) is at Marshall. The
principal trade is with the surrounding farming country. The
municipality owns and operates the waterworks. Marshall was first
settled and was made the county seat in 1839; it became a town in 1866
(re-incorporated 1870) and a city in 1878.
MARSHALL, a city and the county-seat of Harrison county, Texas, U.S.A.,
about 145 m. E. by S. of Dallas. Pop. (1890), 7207; (1900) 7855 (3769
negroes); (1910) 11,452. Marshall is served by the Texas & Pacific and
the Marshall & East Texas railways, which have large shops here. Wiley
University was founded in 1873 by the Freedman's Aid Society of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, and Bishop College, was founded in 1881 by
the American Baptist Home Mission Society and incorporated in 1885.
Marshall is situated in a region growing cotton and Indian corn,
vegetables, small fruits and sugar-cane; in the surrounding country
there are valuable forests of pine, oak and gum. In the vicinity of the
city there are several lakes (including Caddo Lake) and springs
(including Hynson and Rosborough springs). The city has a cotton
compress, and among its manufactures are cotton-seed oil, lumber, ice,
foundry products and canned goods. The municipality owns and operates
the waterworks. Marshall was first settled in 1842, was incorporated in
1843, and received a city charter in 1848; in 1909 it adopted the
commission form of government.
MARSHALL ISLANDS, an island group in the western Pacific Ocean
(Micronesia) belonging to Germany. The group consists of a number of
atolls ranged in two almost parallel lines, which run from N.W. to S.E.
between 4° and 15° N. and 161° and 174° E. The north-east line, with
fifteen islands, is called Ratak, the other, numbering eighteen, Ralik.
These atolls are of coralline formation and of irregular shape. They
rise but little above high-water mark. The highest elevation occurs on
the island of Likieb, but is only 33 ft. The lagoon is scarcely more
than 150 ft. deep and is accessible through numerous breaks in the reef.
On the outward side the shore sinks rapidly to a great depth. The
surface of the atolls is covered with sand, except in a few places where
it has been turned into soil through the admixture of decayed
vegetation. The reef in scarcely any instance exceeds 600 ft. in width.
The climate is moist and hot, the mean temperature being 80.50° F.
Easterly winds prevail all the year round. There is no difference
between the seasons, which, though the islands belong to the northern
hemisphere, have the highest temperature in January and the lowest in
July. Vegetation, on the whole, is very poor. There are many coco-nut
palms, bread-fruit trees (_Artocarpus incisa_), various kinds of
bananas, yams and taro, and pandanus, of which the natives eat the
seeds. From the bark of another plant they manufacture mats. There are
few animals. Cattle do not thrive, and even poultry are scarce. Pigs,
cats, dogs and rats have been imported. There are a few pigeons and
aquatic birds, butterflies and beetles. Crustacea and fish abound on the
reefs.
The natives are Micronesians of a dark brown colour, though lighter
shades occur. Their hair is not woolly but straight and long. They
practise tattooing, and show Papuan influence by distending the
ear-lobes by the insertion of wooden disks. They are expert navigators,
and construct curious charts of thin strips of wood tied together with
fibres, some giving the position of the islands and some the direction
of the prevailing winds. Their canoes carry sails and are made of the
trunk of the bread-fruit tree. The people are divided into four classes,
of which only two are allowed to own land. The islands lie entirely
within the German sphere of interest, and the boundaries were agreed
upon between Great Britain and Germany on the 10th of April 1889. Their
area is estimated at 160 sq. m., with 15,000 inhabitants, who are
apparently increasing, though the contrary was long believed. All but
about 250 are natives. The administrator of the islands is the governor
of German New Guinea, but a number of officials reside on the islands.
There is no military force, the natives being of peaceful disposition.
The chief island and seat of government is Jaluit. The most populous
island is Majeru, with 1600 inhabitants. The natives are generally
pagans, but a Roman Catholic mission has been established, and the
American Mission Board maintains coloured teachers on many of the
islands. There is communication with Sydney by private steamer, and a
steamer sails between Jaluit and Ponape to connect with the French boats
for Singapore. The chief products for export are copra, tortoise-shell,
mother-of-pearl, sharks' fins and trepang. The natives are clever
boat-builders, and find a market for their canoes on neighbouring
islands. They have made such progress in their art that they have even
built seaworthy little schooners of 30 to 40 tons. The only other
articles they make are a few shell ornaments.
The Marshall Islands may have been visited by Alvaro de Saavedra in
1529, Captain Wallis touched at the group in 1767, and in 1788 Captains
Marshall and Gilbert explored it. The Germans made a treaty with the
chieftains of Jaluit in 1878 and annexed the group in 1885-1886.
See C. Hager, _Die Marshall-Inseln_ (Leipzig, 1886); Steinbach and
Grösser, _Wörterbuch der Marshall-Sprache_ (Hamburg, 1902).
MARSHALLTOWN, a city and the county-seat of Marshall county, Iowa,
U.S.A., near the Iowa River and about 60 m. N.E. of Des Moines. Pop.
(1890), 8914; (1900), 11,544, of whom 1590 were foreign-born; (1910
census) 13,374. Marshalltown is served by the Chicago & North-Western,
the Chicago Great Western, and the Iowa Central railways, the last of
which has machine shops here. At Marshalltown are the Iowa soldiers'
home, supported in part by the Federal Government, and St. Mary's
institute, a Roman Catholic commercial and business school. The city is
situated in a rich agricultural region, and is a market for grain, meat
cattle, horses and swine. There are miscellaneous manufactures, and in
1905 the factory product was valued at $3,090,312. The municipality owns
and operates its waterworks and its electric-lighting plant.
Marshalltown, named in honour of Chief Justice John Marshall, was laid
out in 1853, and became the county-seat in 1860. It was incorporated as
a town in 1863, and was chartered as a city in 1868.
MARSHALSEA, a prison formerly existing in Southwark, London. It was
attached to the court of that name held by the steward and marshal of
the king's house (see LORD STEWARD and MARSHAL). The date of its first
establishment is unknown, but it existed as early as the reign of Edward
III. It was consolidated in 1842 with the queen's bench and the Fleet,
and was then described as "a prison for debtors and for persons charged
with contempt of Her Majesty's courts of the Marshalsea, the court of
the queen's palace of Westminster, and the high court of admiralty, and
also for admiralty prisoners under sentence of courts martial." It was
abolished in 1849. The Marshalsea Prison is described in Charles
Dickens' _Little Dorrit_.
MARSHBUCK, a book-name proposed for such of the African bushbucks or
harnessed antelopes as have abnormally long hoofs to support them in
walking on marshy or swampy ground. (See BUSHBUCK and ANTELOPE.)
MARSHFIELD, a city of Wood county, Wisconsin, about 165 m. N.W. of
Milwaukee. Pop. (1890), 3450; (1900), 5240, of whom 1161 were
foreign-born; (1905) 6036; (1910) 5783. It is served by the Chicago &
North-Western, the Chicago, St Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha, and the
Minneapolis, St Paul & Sault Ste Marie railways. It contains the
mother-house of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother. Lumbering is the
most important industry, and there are various manufactures. The city is
situated in a clover region, in which dairying is important, and
Guernsey and Holstein-Friesland cattle are raised. The municipality owns
and operates the waterworks and the electric-lighting plant. The site of
Marshfield was part of a tract granted by the Federal government to the
Fox River Improvement Company, organized to construct a waterway between
the Mississippi river and Green Bay, and among the original owners of
the town site were Samuel Marsh of Massachusetts (in whose honour the
place was named) and Horatio Seymour, Ezra Cornell, Erastus Corning, and
William A. Butler of New York. Marshfield was settled about 1870, and
was first chartered as a city in 1883.
MARSH GAS (methane), CH4, the first member of the series of paraffin
hydrocarbons. It occurs as a constituent of the "fire-damp" of
coal-mines, in the gases evolved from volcanoes, and in the gases which
arise in marshy districts (due to the decomposition of vegetable matter
under the surface of water). It is found associated with petroleum and
also in human intestinal gases. It is a product of the destructive
distillation of complex organic matter (wood, coal, bituminous shale,
&c.), forming in this way from 30 to 40% of ordinary illuminating gas.
It may be synthetically obtained by passing a mixture of the vapour of
carbon bisulphide with sulphuretted hydrogen over red-hot copper (M.
Berthelot, _Comptes rendus_, 1856, 43, p. 236), CS2 + 2H2S + 8Cu = 4Cu2S
+ CH4; by passing a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide over reduced
nickel at 200-250° C., or hydrogen and carbon dioxide at 230-300° C. (P.
Sabatier and J. B. Senderens, _Comptes rendus_, 1902, 134, pp. 514,
689); by the decomposition of aluminium carbide with water [H. Moissan,
_Bull. Soc. Chim._, 1894, (3) 11, p. 1012]; and by heating phosphonium
iodide with carbon bisulphide in a sealed tube to 120-140° C. (H. Jahn,
_Ber._, 1880, 13, p. 127). It is also obtained by the reduction of many
methyl compounds with nascent hydrogen; thus methyl iodide dissolved in
methyl alcohol readily yields methane when acted on by the zinc-copper
couple (J. H. Gladstone and A. Tribe, _Jour. Chem. Soc._, 1884, 45, p.
156) or by the aluminium-mercury couple. It may be obtained in an
indirect manner from methyl iodide by conversion of this compound into
zinc methyl, or into magnesium methyl iodide (formed by the action of
magnesium on methyl iodide dissolved in anhydrous ether), and
decomposing these latter substances with water (E. Frankland, 1856; V.
Grignard, 1900),
Zn(CH4)2 + H2O = 2CH4 + ZnO; 2CH3MgI + H2O = 2CH4 + MgI2 + MgO.
In the laboratory it is usually prepared by J. B. A. Dumas' method
(_Ann._, 1840, 33, p. 181), which consists in heating anhydrous sodium
acetate with soda lime, CH3CO2Na + NaOH = Na2CO3 + CH4. The product
obtained by this method is not pure, containing generally more or less
ethylene and hydrogen.
Methane is a colourless gas of specific gravity 0.559 (air = 1). It may
be condensed to a colourless liquid at -155° to -160° C. under
atmospheric pressure (S. Wroblewsky, _Comptes rendus_, 1884, 99, p.
136). It boils at -162° C. and freezes at -186° C. Its critical
temperature is -99.5° C. (J. Dewar). The gas is almost insoluble in
water, but is slightly soluble in alcohol. It decomposes into its
constituents when passed through a red-hot tube, small quantities of
other hydrocarbons (ethane, ethylene, acetylene, benzene, &c.) being
formed at the same time. It burns with a pale flame, and when mixed with
air or oxygen forms a highly explosive mixture. W. A. Bone (_Jour. Chem.
Soc._, 1902, 81, p. 535; 1903, 83, p. 1074) has shown that in the
oxidation of methane by oxygen at 450-500° C. formaldehyde (or possibly
methyl alcohol) is formed as an intermediate product, and is ultimately
oxidized to carbon dioxide. Methane is an exceedingly stable gas, being
unaffected by the action of chromic acid, nitric acid, or a mixture of
nitric and sulphuric acids. Chlorine and bromine, however, react with
methane, gradually replacing hydrogen and forming chlor- and
brom-substitution products.
MARSHMAN, JOSHUA (1768-1837), English Baptist missionary and
orientalist, was born on the 20th of April 1768, at Westbury Leigh, in
Wiltshire. He followed the occupation of a weaver until 1794, but having
meanwhile devoted himself to study he removed to Broadmead, Bristol, to
take charge of a small school. In 1799 he was sent by the Baptist
Missionary Society to join their mission at Serampur. Here, in addition
to his more special duties, he studied Bengali and Sanskrit, and
afterwards Chinese. He translated the Bible into various dialects, and,
aided by his son, established newspapers and founded Serampur College.
He received the degree of D.D. from Brown University, U.S.A., in 1810.
He died at Serampur on the 5th of December 1837. His son, John Clark
Marshman (1704-1877), was official Bengali translator; he published a
_Guide to the Civil Law_ which, before the work of Macaulay, was the
civil code of India, and wrote a _History of India_ (1842).
Marshman translated into Chinese the book of Genesis, the Gospels, and
the Epistles of Paul to the Romans and the Corinthians; in 1811 he
published _The Works of Confucius, containing the Original Text, with
a Translation_, and in 1814 his _Clavis Sinica_. He was also the
author of _Elements of Chinese Grammar, with Preliminary Dissertation
on the Characters and Colloquial Mediums of the Chinese_, and was
associated with W. Carey in the preparation of a Sanskrit grammar and
of a Bengali-English dictionary.
See J. C. Marshman, _Life and Times of Carey, Marshman and Ward_ (2
vols., 1859).
MARSI, an ancient people of Italy, whose chief centre was Marruvium, on
the eastern shore of Lake Fucinus. They are first mentioned as members
of a confederacy with the Vestini, Paeligni and Marrucini (Liv. viii.
29, cf. viii. 6, and Polyb. ii. 24, 12). They joined the Samnites in 308
B.C. (Liv. ix. 41), and on their submission became allies of Rome in 304
B.C. (Liv. ix. 45). After a short-lived revolt two years later, for
which they were punished by loss of territory (Liv. x. 3), they were
readmitted to the Roman alliance and remained faithful down to the
social war, their contingent (e.g. Liv. xliv. 46) being always regarded
as the flower of the Italian forces (e.g. Hor. _Od._ ii. 20, 18). In
this war, which, owing to the prominence of the Marsian rebels is often
known as the Marsic War, they fought bravely against odds under their
leader Q. Pompaedius Silo, and, though they were frequently defeated,
the result of the war was the enfranchisement of the allies (see ROME:
_History_, "The Republic"). The Marsi were a hardy mountain people,
famed for their simple habits and indomitable courage. It was said that
the Romans had never triumphed over them or without them (Appian). They
were also renowned for their magicians, who had strange remedies for
various diseases.
The Latin colony of Alba Fucens near the north-west corner of the lake
was founded in the adjoining Aequian territory in 303, so that from the
beginning of the 3rd century the Marsians were in touch with a
Latin-speaking community, to say nothing of the Latin colony of Carsioli
(298 B.C.) farther west. The earliest pure Latin inscriptions of the
district seem to be _C.I.L._ ix. 3827 and 3848 from the neighbourhood of
Supinum; its character generally is of the Gracchan period, though it
might be somewhat earlier.
Mommsen (_Unteritalische Dialekten_, p. 345) pointed out that in the
social war all the coins of Pompaedius Silo have the Latin legend
"Italia," while the other leaders in all but one case used Oscan.
The chief record of the dialect or patois we owe to the goddess Angitia,
whose chief temple and grove stood at the south-west corner of Lake
Fucinus, near the inlet to the _emissarius_ of Claudius (restored by
Prince Torlonia), and the modern village of Luco. She (or they, for the
name is in the plural in the Latin inscription next cited) was widely
worshipped in the central highlands (Sulmo, _C.I.L._ ix. 3074, Furfo
Vestinorum, ibid. 3515) as a goddess of healing, especially skilled to
cure serpent bites by charms and the herbs of the Marsian woods. Her
worshippers naturally practised the same arts--as their descendants do
(see A. de Nino's charming collection of _Usi e costumi abruzzesi_),
their country being in Rome counted the home of witchcraft; see Hor.
_Sal._ 1, 9, 29, _Epod._ 17, 28, &c.
The earliest local inscriptions date from about 300 to 150 B.C. and
include the interesting and difficult bronze of Lake Fucinus, which
seems to record a votive offering to Angitia, if _A(n)ctia_, as is
probable, was the local form of her name. Their language differs very
slightly from Roman Latin of that date; for apparently contracted forms
like _Fougno_ instead of _Fucino_ may really only be a matter of
spelling. In final syllables the diphthongs _ai_, _ei_, _oi_, all appear
as _e_. On the other hand, the older form of the name of the tribe (dat.
plur. _Martses_ = Lat. _Martiis_) shows its derivation and exhibits the
assibilation of _-tio-_ into _-tso-_ proper to many Oscan dialects (see
OSCA LINGUA) but strange to classical Latin.
See R. S. Conway, _The Italic Dialects_, pp. 290 seq. (from which some
portions of this article are taken by permission of the syndics of the
Camb. Univ. Press); on the Fucino-Bronze, ib. p. 294. (R. S. C.)
MARSIGLI [Latinized MARSILIUS], LUIGI FERDINANDO, Count (1658-1730),
Italian soldier and scientific writer, was born at Bologna on the 10th
of July 1658. After a course of scientific studies in his native city he
travelled through Turkey collecting data on the military organization of
that empire, as well as on its natural history. On his return he entered
the service of the emperor Leopold (1682) and fought with distinction
against the Turks, by whom he was wounded and captured in an action on
the river Raab, and sold to a pasha whom he accompanied to the siege of
Vienna. His release was purchased in 1684, and he afterwards took part
in the war of the Spanish succession. In 1703 he was appointed second in
command under Count Arco in the defence of Alt-Breisach. The fortress
surrendered to the duke of Burgundy, and both Arco and Marsigli were
court martialled; the former was condemned to death and the latter
cashiered, although acquitted of blame by public opinion. Having thus
been forced to give up soldiering, he devoted the rest of his life to
scientific investigations, in the pursuit of which he made many journeys
through Europe, spending a considerable time at Marseilles to study the
nature of the sea. In 1712 he presented his collections to his native
city, where they formed the nucleus of the Bologna Institute of Science
and Art. He died at Bologna on the 1st of November 1730. Marsigli was a
fellow of the London Royal Society and a member of the Paris Academy of
Science.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--A list of his works, over twenty in number, is given in
Niceron's _Memoirs_; his _Breve ristretto del saggio fisico intorno
alla storia del mare_ was published at Venice in 1711, and again at
Amsterdam (in French) in 1725; the _Stato militare dell' impero
ottomano_ was published at Amsterdam and the Hague in Italian and
French (1732), the _Osservazioni intorno al Bosforo Tracio_ in Rome
(1681) and the _Danubius pannonico-mysicus_, a large work in six
volumes containing much valuable historic and scientific information
on the Danubian countries, at the Hague (1725). See Fontenelle,
"Éloge" in the _Mém. de l'acad. des sciences_ (Paris, 1730); Quincy,
_Mémoires sur la vie de M. le comte Marsigli_ (Zürich, 1741), and
Fantuzzi's biography of Marsigli (Bologna, 1770).
MARSILIUS OF PADUA [MARSIGLIO MAINARDINO] (1270-1342), Italian medieval
scholar, was born at Padua, and at first studied medicine in his own
country. After practising various professions, among others that of a
soldier, he went to Paris about 1311. The reputation which he had gained
in the physical sciences soon caused him to be raised to the position of
rector of the university (for the first term of the year 1313). While
still practising medicine he entered into relations with another master
of Paris, the philosopher John of Jandun, who collaborated with him in
the composition of the famous _Defensor pacis_ (1324), one of the most
extraordinary political and religious works which appeared during the
14th century. A violent struggle had just broken out between pope John
XXII. and Louis of Bavaria, king of the Romans, and the latter, on being
excommunicated and called upon to give up the empire, only replied to
the pope's threats with fresh provocations. Marsilius of Padua and John
of Jandun, though they had both reason to be grateful for the benefits
of John XXII., chose this moment to demonstrate, by plausible arguments,
the supremacy of the Empire, its independence of the Holy See, and the
emptiness of the prerogatives "usurped" by the sovereign pontiffs--a
demonstration naturally calculated to give them a claim on the gratitude
of the German sovereign.
The _Defensor pacis_, as its name implies, is a work intended to restore
peace, as the most indispensable benefit of human society. The author of
the law is the people, i.e. the whole body, or at least the most
important part (_valentior_) of the citizens; the people should
themselves elect, or at least appoint, the head of the government, who,
lest he should be tempted to put himself above the scope of the laws,
should have at his disposal only a limited armed force. This chief is
responsible to the people for his breaches of the law, and in serious
cases they can condemn him to death. The real cause of the trouble which
prevails among men is the papacy, a "fictitious" power, the development
of which is the result of a series of usurpations. Marsilius denies, not
only to the pope, but to the bishops and clergy, any coercive
jurisdiction or any right to pronounce on their own authority
excommunications and interdicts, or in any way to impose the observation
of the divine law. He is not opposed to penalties against heretics, but
he would have them pronounced only by civil tribunals. Desiring to see
the clergy practise a holy poverty, he proposes the suppression of
tithes and the seizure by the secular power of the greater part of the
property of the church. The clergy, thus deprived of its wealth,
privileges and jurisdiction, is further to be deprived of independence,
for the civil power is to have the right of appointing to benefices,
&c. The supreme authority in the church is to be the council, but a
council summoned by the emperor. The pope, no longer possessing any more
power than other bishops (though Marsilius recognizes that the supremacy
of the Church of Rome goes back to the earliest times of Christianity),
is to content himself with a pre-eminence mainly of an honorary kind,
without claiming to interpret the Holy Scriptures, define dogmas or
distribute benefices; moreover, he is to be elected by the Christian
people, or by the delegates of the people, i.e. the princes, or by the
council, and these are also to have the power to punish, suspend or
depose him. Such is this famous work, full of obscurities, redundancies
and contradictions, in which the thread of the argument is sometimes
lost in a labyrinth of reasonings and citations, both sacred and
profane, but which nevertheless expresses, both in religion and
politics, such audacious and novel ideas that it has been possible to
trace in it, as it were, a rough sketch of the doctrines developed
during the periods of the Reformation and of the French Revolution. The
theory was purely democratic, but was all ready to be transformed, by
means of a series of fictions and implications, into an imperialist
doctrine; and in like manner it contained a visionary plan of
reformation which ended, not in the separation of the church from the
state, but in the subjection of the church to the state. To overthrow
the ecclesiastical hierarchy, to deprive the clergy of all their
privileges, to reduce the pope to the rank of a kind of president of a
Christian republic, which governs itself, or rather submits to the
government of Caesar--such is the dream formed in 1324 by two masters of
the university of Paris.
When in 1326 Louis of Bavaria saw the arrival in Nuremberg of the two
authors of the book dedicated to him, startled by the boldness of their
political and religious theories, he was at first inclined to treat them
as heretics. He soon changed his mind, however, and, admitting them to
the circle of his intimates, loaded them with favours. Having become one
of the chief inspirers of the imperial policy, Marsilius accompanied
Louis of Bavaria to Italy, where he preached or circulated written
attacks against the pope, especially at Milan, and where he came within
the sight of the realization of his wildest utopias. To see a king of
the Romans crowned emperor at Rome, not by the pope, but by those who
claimed to be the delegates of the people (Jan. 17, 1328), to see John
XXII. deposed by the head of the Empire (April 18), and a mendicant
friar, Pietro de Corbara, raised by an imperial decree to the throne of
St Peter (as Nicholas V.) after a sham of a popular election (May 12),
all this was merely the application of principles laid down in the
_Defensor pacis_. The two authors of this book played a most active part
in the Roman Revolution. Marsilius, appointed imperial vicar, abused his
power to persecute the clergy who had remained faithful to John XXII. In
recompense for his services, he seems to have been appointed archbishop
of Milan, while his collaborator, John of Jandun, obtained from Louis of
Bavaria the bishopric of Ferrara.
Marsilius of Padua also composed a treatise _De translatione imperii
romani_, which is merely a rearrangement of a work of Landolfo Colonna,
_De jurisdictione imperatoris in causa matrimoniali_, intended to prove
the exclusive jurisdiction of the emperor in matrimonial affairs, or
rather, to justify the intervention of Louis of Bavaria, who, in the
interests of his policy, had just annulled the marriage of the son of
the king of Bohemia and the countess of Tirol. But, above all, in an
unpublished work preserved at Oxford, the _Defensor minor_, Marsilius
completed and elaborated in a curious manner certain points in the
doctrine laid down in the _Defensor pacis_. In it he deals with
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, penances, indulgences, crusades and
pilgrimages, vows, excommunication, the pope and the council, marriage
and divorce. Here his democratic theory still more clearly leads up to a
proclamation of the imperial omnipotence.
Marsilius of Padua does not seem to have lived long after 1342. But the
scandal provoked by his _Defensor pacis_, condemned by the court of
Avignon in 1326, lasted much longer. Benedict XII. and Clement VI.
censured it in turn; Louis of Bavaria disowned it. Translated into
French, then into Italian (14th century) and into English (16th
century), it was known by Wycliffe and Luther, and was not without an
influence on the Reform movement.
See J. Sullivan, _American Historical Review_, vol. ii. (1896-1897),
and _English Historical Review_ for April 1905; _Histoire littéraire
de la France_ (1906), xxxiii. 528-623; Sigmund Riezler, _Die
literarischen Widersacher der Päpste zur Zeit Ludwig des Baiers_
(Leipzig, 1874).
There are numerous manuscripts of the _Defensor pacis_ extant. We will
here mention only one edition, that given by Goldast, in 1614, in vol.
i. of his _Monarchia sacri imperii_; an unpublished last chapter was
published by Karl Müller, in 1883, in the _Göttingische gelehrte
Anzeigen_, pp. 923-925.
Count Lützow in _The Life and Times of Master John Hus_ (London and
New York, 1909), pp. 5-9, gives a good abstract of the Defensor pacis
and the relations of Marsilius to other precursors of the Reformation.
(N. V.)
MARSIVAN, or MERZIFUN (anc. _Phazemon?_), a town in the Amasia sanjak of
the Sivas vilayet of Asia Minor, situated at the foot of the Tavshan
Dagh. Pop. about 20,000, two-thirds Mussulman. It is a centre of
American missionary and educational enterprise, and the seat of Anatolia
College, a theological seminary, and schools which were partly destroyed
in the anti-Armenian riots of 1893 and 1895. There is also a Jesuit
school. Marsivan is an unusually European place both in its aspect and
the commodities procurable in the bazaar.
MARS-LA-TOUR, a village of Lorraine, between Metz and the French
frontier, which formed part of the battlefield of the 16th of August
1870. The battle is often called the battle of Mars-la-Tour, though it
is more usually named after Vionville. (See METZ; and FRANCO-GERMAN
WAR.) At Mars-la-Tour occurred the destruction of the German 38th
brigade.
MARSTON, JOHN (c. 1575-1634), English dramatist and satirist, eldest son
of John Marston of Coventry, at one time lecturer of the Middle Temple,
was born in 1575, or early in 1576. Swinburne notes his affinities with
Italian literature, which may be partially explained by his parentage,
for his mother was the daughter of an Italian physician, Andrew Guarsi.
He entered Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1592, taking his B.A. degree in
1594. The elder Marston in his will expresses regret that his son, to
whom he left his law-books and the furniture of his rooms in the Temple,
had not been willing to follow his profession. John Marston married Mary
Wilkes, daughter of one of the royal chaplains, and Ben Jonson said that
"Marston wrote his father-in-law's preachings, and his father-in-law his
sermons." His first work was _The Metamorphosis of Pigmalions Image, and
certaine Satyres_ (1598). "Pigmalion" is an erotic poem in the metre of
_Venus and Adonis_, and Joseph Hall attached a rather clumsy epigram to
every copy that was exposed for sale in Cambridge. In the same year
Marston published, under the pseudonym of W. Kinsayder, already employed
in the earlier volume, his _Scourge of Villanie_, eleven satires, in the
sixth of which he asserted that Pigmalion was intended to parody the
amorous poetry of the time. Both this volume and its predecessor were
burnt by order of the archbishop of Canterbury. The satires, in which
Marston avowedly took Persius as his model, are coarse and vigorous. In
addition to a general attack on the vices of his age he avenges himself
on Joseph Hall who had assailed him in _Virgidemiae_. He had a great
reputation among his contemporaries. John Weever couples his name with
Ben Jonson's in an epigram; Francis Meres in _Palladis tamia_ (1598)
mentions him among the satirists; a long passage is devoted to "Monsieur
Kinsayder" in the _Return from Parnassus_ (1606), and Dr Brinsley
Nicholson has suggested that _Furor poeticus_ in that piece may be a
satirical portrait of him. But his invective by its general tone, goes
far to justify Mr W. J. Courthope's[1] judgment that "it is likely
enough that in seeming to satirize the world without him, he is usually
holding up the mirror to his own prurient mind."
On the 28th of September 1599 Henslowe notices in his diary that he lent
"unto Mr Maxton, the new poete, the sum of forty shillings," as an
advance on a play which is not named. Another hand has amended "Maxton"
to "Mastone." The earliest plays to which Marston's name is attached are
_The History of Antonio and Mellida. The First Part_; and _Antonio's
Revenge. The Second Part_ (both entered at Stationers' Hall in 1601 and
printed 1602). The second part is preceded by a prologue which, in its
gloomy forecast of the play, moved the admiration of Charles Lamb, who
also compares the situation of Andrugio and Lucia to Lear and Kent, but
the scene which he quotes gives a misleading idea of the play and of the
general tenor of Marston's work.
The melodrama and the exaggerated expression of these two plays offered
an opportunity to Ben Jonson, who had already twice ridiculed Marston,
and now pilloried him as Crispinus in _The Poetaster_ (1601). The
quarrel was patched up, for Marston dedicated his _Malcontent_ (1604) to
Jonson, and in the next year he prefixed commendatory verses to
_Sejanus_. Far greater restraint is shown in _The Malcontent_ than in
the earlier plays. It was printed twice in 1604, the second time with
additions by John Webster. _The Dutch Courtezan_ (1605) and
_Parasitaster, or the Fawne_ (1606) followed. In 1605 _Eastward Hoe_,[2]
a gay comedy of London life, which gave offence to the king's Scottish
friends, caused the playwrights concerned in its production--Marston,
Chapman and Jonson--to be imprisoned at the instance of Sir James
Murray. _The Wonder of Women, or the Tragedie of Sophonisba_ (1606),
seems to have been put forward by Marston as a model of what could be
accomplished in tragedy. In the preface he mocks at those authors who
make a parade of their authorities and their learning, and the next
play, _What you Will_ (printed 1607; but probably written much earlier),
contains a further attack on Jonson. The tragedy of _The Insatiate
Countesse_ was printed in 1613, and again, this time anonymously, in
1616. It was not included in the collected edition of Marston's plays in
1633, and in the Duke of Devonshire's library there is a copy bearing
the name of William Barksteed, the author of the poems, _Myrrha, the
Mother of Adonis_ (1607), and _Hiren and the Fair Greek_ (1611). The
piece contains many passages superior to anything to be found in
Marston's well-authenticated plays, and Mr A. H. Bullen suggests that it
may be Barksteed's version of an earlier one drafted by Marston. The
character and history of Isabella are taken chiefly from "The Disordered
Lyfe of the Countess of Celant" in William Paynter's _Palace of
Pleasure_, derived eventually from Bandello. There is no certain
evidence of Marston's authorship in _Histriomastix_ (printed 1610, but
probably produced before 1599), or in _Jacke Drums Entertainement, or
the Comedie of Pasquil and Katherine_ (1616), though he probably had a
hand in both. Mr R. Boyle (_Englische Studien_, vol. xxx., 1901), in a
critical study of Shakespeare's _Troilus and Cressida_, assigns to
Marston's hand the whole of the action dealing with Hector, with the
prologue and epilogue, and attributes to him the bombast and coarseness
in the last scenes of the play. It will be seen that his undoubted
dramatic work was completed in 1607. It is uncertain at what time he
exchanged professions, but in 1616 he was presented to the living of
Christchurch, Hampshire. He formally resigned his charge in 1631, and
when his works were collected in 1633 the publisher, William Sheares,
stated that the author "in his autumn and declining age" was living "far
distant from this place." Nevertheless he died in London, in the parish
of Aldermanbury, on the 25th of June 1634. He was buried in the Temple
Church.
Marston's works were first published in 1633, once anonymously as
_Tragedies and Comedies_, and then in the same year as _Workes of Mr
John Marston_. _The Works of John Marston_ (3 vols.) were reprinted by
Mr J. O. Halliwell (Phillipps) in 1856, and again by Mr. A. H. Bullen
(3 vols.) in 1887. His _Poems_ (2 vols.) were edited by Dr A. B.
Grosart in 1879. The British Museum Catalogue tentatively assigns to
Marston _The Whipper of the Satyre his pennance in a white sheete; or,
the Beadle's Confutation_ (1601), a pamphlet in answer to _The
Whipping of the Satyre_. For an account of the quarrel of Dekker and
Marston with Ben Jonson see Dr R. A. Small, _The Stage Quarrel
between Ben Jonson and the so-called Poetasters_; in E. Koelbing,
_Forschungen zur englischen Sprache und Litteratur_, pt. i. (1899).
See also three articles _John Marston als Dramatiker_, by Ph.
Aronstein in _Englische Studien_ (vols. xx. and xxi., 1895), and
"Quellenstudien zu den Dramen Ben Jonsons, John Marstons ..." by Emil
Koeppel (_Münchener Beiträge zur roman. und engl. Philologie_, pt. xi.
1895).
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Hist. of Eng. Poetry_, iii. 70.
[2] Revived at Drury Lane (1751) as _The Prentices_, in 1775 as _Old
City Manners_, and said to have suggested Hogarth's "Industrious and
Idle Prentices."
MARSTON, PHILIP BOURKE (1850-1887), English poet, was born in London on
the 13th of August 1850. His father, JOHN WESTLAND MARSTON (1819-1890),
of Lincolnshire origin, the friend of Dickens, Macready and Charles
Kean, was the author of a series of metrical dramas which held the stage
in succession to the ambitious efforts of John Tobin, Talfourd, Bulwer
and Sheridan Knowles. His chief plays were _The Patrician's Daughter_
(1841), _Strathmore_ (1849), _A Hard Struggle_ (1858) and _Donna Diana_
(1863). He was looked up to as the upholder of the outworn tradition of
the acted poetic drama, but his plays showed little vitality, and
Marston's reviews for the _Athenaeum_, including one of Swinburne's
_Atalanta in Calydon_, and his dramatic criticisms embodied in _Our
Recent Actors_ (1888) will probably claim a more enduring reputation.
His _Dramatic and Poetical Works_ were collected in 1876. The son,
Philip Bourke, was born in a literary atmosphere. His sponsors were
Philip James Bailey and Dinah Mulock (Mrs Craik). At his father's house
near Chalk Farm he met authors and actors of his father's generation,
and subsequently the Rossettis, Swinburne, Arthur O'Shaughnessy and
Irving. From his earliest years his literary precocity was overshadowed
by misfortunes. In his fourth year, in part owing to an accident, his
sight began to decay, and he gradually became almost totally blind. His
mother died in 1870. His _fiancée_, Mary Nesbit, died in 1871; his
closest friend, Oliver Madox Brown, in 1874; his sister Cicely, his
amanuensis, in 1878; in 1879 his remaining sister, Eleanor, who was
followed to the grave after a brief interval by her husband, the poet
O'Shaughnessy, and her two children. In 1882 the death of his chief
poetic ally and inspirer, Rossetti, was followed closely by the tragedy
of another kindred spirit, the sympathetic pessimist, James Thomson ("B.
V."), who was carried dying from his blind friend's rooms, where he had
sought refuge from his latest miseries early in June of the same year.
It is said that Marston came to dread making new friendships, for fear
of evil coming to the recipients of his affection. In the face of such
calamities it is not surprising that Marston's verse became more and
more sorrowful and melancholy. The idylls of flower-life, such as the
early and very beautiful "The Rose and the Wind" were succeeded by
dreams of sleep and the repose of death. These qualities and gradations
of feeling, reflecting the poet's successive ideals of action and
quiescence, are traceable through his three published collections,
_Songtide_ (1871), _All in All_ (1875) and _Wind Voices_ (1883). The
first and third, containing his best work, went out of print, but
Marston's verse was collected in 1892 by Mrs Louise Chandler Moulton, a
loyal and devoted friend, and herself a poet. Marston read little else
but poetry; and of poetic values, especially of the intenser order, his
judgment could not be surpassed in sensitiveness. He was saturated with
Rossetti and Swinburne, and his imitative power was remarkable. In his
later years he endeavoured to make money by writing short stories in
_Home Chimes_ and other American magazines, through the agency of Mrs
Chandler Moulton. His popularity in America far exceeded that in his own
country. His health showed signs of collapse from 1883; in January 1887
he lost his voice, and suffered intensely from the failure to make
himself understood. He died on the 13th of February 1887.
He was commemorated in Dr Gordon Hake's "Blind Boy," and in a fine
sonnet by Swinburne, beginning "The days of a man are threescore years
and ten." There is an intimate sketch of the blind poet by a friend,
Mr Coulson Kernahan, in _Sorrow and Song_ (1894), p. 127. (T. Se.)
MARSTON MOOR, BATTLE OF, was fought on the 2nd of July 1644 on a moor
(now enclosed) seven miles west of York, between the Royalist army under
Prince Rupert and the Parliamentary and Scottish armies under the earl
of Manchester, Lord Fairfax and Lord Leven. For the operations that
preceded the battle see GREAT REBELLION. Rupert had relieved York and
joined forces with the marquess of Newcastle's army that had defended
that city, and the Parliamentarians and Scots who had besieged it had
drawn off south-westward followed by the Royalists. On the morning of
the 2nd of July, however, Rupert's attack on their rearguard forced them
to halt and deploy on rising ground on the south edge of the moor, their
position being defined on the right and left by Long Marston and
Tockwith and divided from the Royalist army on the moor by a lane
connecting these two villages. The respective forces were--Royalists
about 18,000, Parliamentarians and Scots about 27,000. The armies stood
front to front. On the Royalist right was half the cavalry under Rupert;
the infantry was in the centre in two lines and the left wing of cavalry
was under General (Lord) Goring. The lane along the front was held by
skirmishers. On the other side the cavalry of the Eastern Association
under Lieut.-General Cromwell and that of the Scots under Major-General
Leslie (Lord Newark) formed the left, the infantry of the Eastern
Association under Major-General Crawford, of the Scots under Lord Leven,
and of the Yorkshire Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax was in the
centre and the Yorkshire cavalry under Sir Thomas Fairfax was on the
right wing.
During the afternoon there was a desultory cannonade, but neither side
advanced. At last, concluding from movements in the enemy's lines that
there would be no fighting that day, Rupert and Newcastle strolled away
to their coaches and their soldiers dismounted and lay down to rest. But
seeing this Cromwell instantly advanced his wing to the attack (5 p.m.).
His dragoons drove away the skirmishers along the lane, and the line
cavalry crossed into the moor. The general forward movement spread along
the Parliamentary line from left to right, the Eastern Association
infantry being the first to cross the road. In Rupert's momentary
absence, the surprised Royalist cavalry could make no head against
Cromwell's charge, although the latter was only made piecemeal as each
unit crossed the lane and formed to the front. Rupert soon galloped up
with his fresh second line and drove back Cromwell's men, Cromwell
himself being wounded, but Leslie and the Scots Cavalry, taking ground
to their left, swung in upon Rupert's flank, and after a hard struggle
the hitherto unconquered cavalry of the prince was broken and routed.
Then, being unlike other cavalry of the time, a thoroughly disciplined
force, the Eastern Association cavalry rallied, leaving the pursuit to
the Scots light horse. On the Parliamentary right, Goring had swept away
the Yorkshire horse, and although most of his troopers had followed in
disorderly pursuit, Sir Charles Lucas with some squadrons was attacking
the exposed right of Leven's infantry. At the same time the
Parliamentary infantry had mostly crossed the lane and was fighting at
close quarters and suffering severely, Newcastle's north-country
"White-Coat" brigade driving back and finally penetrating their centre.
Lord Leven gave up the battle as lost and rode away to Tadcaster. But
the Scots on the right of the foot held firm against Lucas's attacks,
and Cromwell and Leslie with their cavalry passed along the rear of the
Royal army, guided by Sir Thomas Fairfax (who though wounded in the rout
of his Yorkshire horse had made his way to the other flank). Then, on
the ground where Goring had routed Fairfax, Cromwell and Leslie won an
easy victory over Goring's scattered and disordered horsemen. The
Eastern Association infantry had followed the horse and was now in rear
of the Royalists. The original Parliamentary centre of foot, a remnant,
but one containing only the bravest and steadiest men, held fast, and
soon the Royalist infantry was broken up into isolated regiments and
surrounded by the victorious horse and foot of the enemy. The
White-Coats retreated into an enclosure and there defended themselves to
the last man. The rest were cut down on the field or scattered in the
pursuit and at nightfall the Royalist army had ceased to exist. Some of
Rupert's foot regiments made their way to York, but the dispirited
garrison only held out for a fortnight. Rupert rallied some six thousand
of the men and escaped over the hills into Lancashire, thence rejoining
King Charles in the south. But the Northern army, the main hope of the
Royalist cause, was destroyed.
MARSUPIALIA (from Lat. _marsupium_, a "pouch," or "bag"), the group of
mammals in which the young are usually carried for some time after birth
in a pouch on the under-surface of the body of the female. The group,
which has also the alternative title of Didelphia, is by some
authorities regarded as a sub-class of the mammalia of equal rank with
the Monotremata, while by others it is brigaded with the placentals, so
that the two together form a sub-class of equal grade with the one
represented by the monotremes. There is much to be urged in favour of
either view; and in adopting the former alternative, it must be borne in
mind that the difference between monotremes and marsupials is vastly
greater than that which separates the latter from placentals. In
elevating the marsupials to the rank of a sub-class the name Metatheria
has been suggested as the title for the higher grade, with Marsupialia
as the designation for the single order by which they are now
represented. It is, however, less liable to cause confusion, and in many
other ways more convenient to employ the better known term Marsupialia
in both senses.
Marsupials may be defined as viviparous (that is non-egg-laying)
mammals, in which the young are born in an imperfect condition, and
almost immediately attached to the teats of the mammary glands; the
latter being generally enclosed in a pouch, and the front edge of the
pelvis being always furnished with epipubic or "marsupial" bones. As a
rule there is no allantoic placenta forming the means of communication
between the blood of the parent and the foetus, and when such a
structure does occur its development is incomplete. In all cases a more
or less full series of teeth is developed, these being differentiated
into incisors, canines, premolars and molars, when all are present; but
only a single pair of teeth in each jaw has deciduous predecessors.
The pouch from which the marsupials take their name is supported by the
two epipubic bones, but does not correspond to the temporary
breeding-pouch of the monotremes. It may open either forward or
backwards; and although present in the great majority of the species,
and enclosing the teats, it may, as in many of the opossums, be
completely absent, when the teats extend in two rows along the whole
length of the under-surface of the body. Whether a pouch is present or
not, the young are born in an exceedingly imperfect state of
development, after a very short period of gestation, and are immediately
transferred by the female parent to the teats, where they remain firmly
attached for a considerable time; the milk being injected into their
mouths at intervals by means of a special muscle which compresses the
glands. In the case of the great grey kangaroo, for instance, the period
of gestation is less than forty days, and the newly-born embryo, which
is blind, naked, and unable to use its bud-like limbs, is little more
than an inch in length.
As additional features of the sub-class may be mentioned the absence
of a corpus callosum connecting the right and left hemispheres of the
brain,[1] and of a fossa in the septum between the two auricles of the
heart. In the skull there are always vacuities, or unossified spaces
in the bones of the palate, while the "angle," or lower hind extremity
of each half of the lower jaw is strongly bent inwards so as to form a
kind of shelf, and the alisphenoid bone takes a share in the formation
of the tympanum, or auditory bladder, or bulla. Didelphia, the
alternative name of the group was given in allusion to the
circumstance that the uterus has two separate openings; while other
features are the inclusion of the openings of the alimentary canal and
the urino-genital sinus in a common sphincter muscle, and the position
of the scrotum in advance of the penis. The bandicoots alone possess a
placenta. Lastly the number of trunk-vertebrae is always nineteen,
while there are generally thirteen pairs of ribs.
As regards the teeth, in all cases except the wombats the number of
upper incisors differs from that of the corresponding lower teeth. As
already stated, there is no vertical displacement and succession of
the functional teeth except in the case of a single tooth on each side
of each jaw, which is the third of the premolar series, and is
preceded by a tooth having more or less of the characters of a molar
(see fig. 1). In some cases (as in rat-kangaroos) this tooth retains
its place and function until the animal has nearly, if not quite,
attained its full stature, and is not shed and replaced by its
successor until after all the other teeth, including the molars, are
in place and use. In others, as the thylacine, it is rudimentary,
being shed or absorbed before any of the other teeth have cut the gum,
and therefore functionless. It may be added that there are some
marsupials, such as the wombat, koala, marsupial ant-eater and the
dasyures, in which no such deciduous tooth, even in a rudimentary
state, has been discovered. In addition to this replacement of a
single pair of functional teeth in each jaw, it has been discovered
that marsupials possess rudimentary tooth-germs which never cut the
gum. According to one theory, these rudimentary teeth, together with
the one pair of functional teeth in each jaw that has vertical
successors, represent the milk-teeth of placental mammals. On the
other hand, there are those who believe that the functional dentition
(other than the replacing premolar and the molars) correspond to the
milk-dentition of placentals, and that the rudimentary tooth-germs
represent a "prelacteal" dentition. The question, however, is of
academic rather than of practical interest, and whichever way it is
answered does not affect our general conception of the nature and
relationships of the group.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Teeth of Upper Jaw of Opossum (_Didelphys
marsupialis_), all of which are unchanged, except the third premolar,
the place of which is occupied in the young animal by a molariform
tooth, represented in the figure below the line of the other teeth.]
Unfortunately the homology of the functional series does not by any
means end the uncertainty connected with the marsupial dentition; as
there is also a difference of opinion with regard to the serial
homology of some of the cheek-teeth. For instance, according to the
older view, the dental formula in the thylacine or Tasmanian wolf is
i. 4/3, c, 1/1 p. 3/3, m. 4/4 = 46. On the other hand, in the opinion
of the present writer, this formula, so far as the cheek-teeth are
concerned, should be altered to p. 4/4, m. 3/3, thus bringing it in
accord, so far as these teeth are concerned, with the placental
formula, and making the single pair of replacing teeth the third
premolars. It may be added that the formula given above shows that the
marsupial dentition may comprise more teeth than the 44 which form the
normal full placental complement.
As regards geographical distribution, existing marsupials, with the
exception of two families, _Didelphyidae_ and _Epanorthidae_, are mainly
limited to the Australian region, forming the chief mammalian fauna of
Australia, New Guinea, and some of the adjacent islands. The
_Didelphyidae_ are almost exclusively Central and South American, only
one or two species ranging into North America. Fossil remains of members
of this family have also been found in Europe in strata of the Oligocene
period.
_History._--The origin and evolution of the Australian marsupials have
been discussed by Mr B. A. Bensley. In broad contrast to the views of Dr
A. R. Wallace, this author is of opinion that marsupials did not effect
an entrance into Australia till about the middle of the Tertiary period,
their ancestors being probably opossums of the American type. They were
then arboreal; but they speedily entered upon a rapid, although
short-lived, course of evolution, during which leaping terrestrial forms
like the kangaroos were developed. The short period of this evolution is
at least one factor in the primitive grade of even the most specialized
members of the group. In the advance of their molar teeth from a
tritubercular to a grinding type, the author traces a curious
parallelism between marsupials and placentals. Taking opossums to have
been the ancestors of the group, the author considers that the present
writer may be right in his view that marsupials entered Australia from
Asia by way of New Guinea. On the other hand there is nothing absolutely
decisive against their origin being southern.
Again, taking as a text Mr L. Dollo's view that marsupials were
originally arboreal, that, on account of their foot-structure, they
could not have been the ancestors of placentals, and that they
themselves are degenerate placentals, Mr Bensley contrasts this with
Huxley's scheme of mammalian evolution. According to the latter, the
early monotremes which became specialized into modern monotremes, gave
rise to the ancestors of the modern marsupials; while the modern
placentals are likewise an offshoot from the ancestral marsupial stock.
This phylogeny, the author thinks, is the most probable of all. It is
urged that the imperfect placenta of the bandicoots instead of being
vestigial, may be an instance of parallelism, and that in marsupials
generally the allantois failed to form a placental connexion. Owing to
the antiquity of both placentals and marsupials, the arboreal character
of the feet of the modern forms of the latter is of little importance.
Further, it is considered that too much weight has been assigned to the
characters distinguishing monotremes from other mammals, foetal
marsupials showing a monotreme type of coracoid, while it is probable
that in the long run it will be found impossible to maintain the
essential dissimilarity between the milk-glands of monotremes and other
mammals.
Another view is to regard both marsupials and placentals as derivates
from implacental ancestors more or less nearly related to the creodont
carnivora, or possibly as independently descended from anomodont
reptiles (see CREODONTA). Finally, there is the hypothesis that
marsupials are the descendants of placentals, in which case, as was
suggested by its discoverer, the placenta of the bandicoots would be a
true vestigial structure.
_Classification._
Existing marsupials may be divided into three main divisions or
sub-orders, of which the first, or Polyprotodontia, is common to America
and Australasia; the second, or Paucituberculata, is exclusively South
American; while the third, or Diprotodonts, is as solely Australasian
inclusive of a few in the eastern Austro-Malayan islands.
1. _Polyprotodonts._--The Polyprotodonts are characterized by their
numerous, small, sub-equal incisors, of which there are either five or
four pairs in the upper and always three in the lower jaw, (fig. 2)
and the generally strong and large canines, as well as by the presence
of from four to five sharp cusps or tubercles on the crown of the
molars. The pouch is often absent, and may open backwards. For the
most part the species are carnivorous or insectivorous.
[Illustration: From Flower, _Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc._
FIG. 2.--Front View of Skull of the Tasmanian Devil (_Sarcophilus
ursinus_) to exhibit polyprotodont type of dentition.]
The first family is that of the true or American
opossums--_Didelphyidae_, in which there are five pairs of upper
incisors, while the feet are of the presumed primitive arboreal type,
the hind foot having the four outer toes sub-equal and separate, with
the first opposable to them all. With the exception of the
water-opossum, forming the genus _Chironectes_, all the living members
of the family may be included in the genus _Didelphys_. The latter
may, however, be split up into several sub-generic groups, such as
_Metachirus_, _Philander_, _Marmosa_ (_Micoureus_ or _Grymaeomys_),
_Peramys_, _Dromiciops_, &c. The small South American forms included
in _Marmosa_, which lack the pouch, and have numerous teats, and molar
teeth of a primitive type, are doubtless the most generalized
representatives of the group (see OPOSSUM; and WATER-OPOSSUM).
Nearly allied is the Australian family _Dasyuridae_, characterized by
the presence of only four pairs of upper incisors, the generally small
and rudimentary condition of the first hind toe, which can but seldom
be opposed to the rest, and the absence of prehensile power in the
tail; the pouch being either present or absent, and the fore feet
always five-toed. The stomach is simple, and there is no caecum to the
intestine, although this is present in the opossums.
The largest representative of the family is the Tasmanian wolf, or
thylacine, alone representing the genus _Thylacinus_, in which the
dentition numbers i. 4/3, c. 1/1, p. 4/4, m. 3/3 = 46; with the
incisors small and vertical, the outer one in the upper jaw being
larger than the others. Summits of the lower incisors, before they are
worn, with a deep transverse groove, dividing it into an anterior and
a posterior cusp. Canines long, strong and conical. Premolars with
compressed crowns, increasing in size from before backwards. Molars in
general characters resembling those of _Sarcophilus_, but of more
simple form, the cusps being less distinct and not so sharply pointed.
Deciduous molar very small, and shed before the animal leaves the
mother's pouch. General form dog-like, with the head elongated, the
muzzle pointed, and the ears moderate, erect and triangular. Fur short
and closely applied to the skin. Tail of moderate length, thick at the
base and tapering towards the apex, clothed with short hair. First
hind toe (including the metacarpal bone) absent. Vertebrae: C. 7, D.
13, L. 6, S. 2, Ca. 23. Marsupial bones unossified. The gradual
passage of the thick root of the tail into the body is a character
common to the Tasmanian wolf and the aard-vark, and may be directly
inherited from reptilian ancestors (see THYLACINE).
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--The Tasmanian Wolf, or Thylacine (_Thylacinus
cynocephalus_).]
The next genus is represented solely by the Tasmanian devil,
_Sarcophilus_ (or _Diabolus_) _ursinus_, a medium-sized animal with a
dental formula similar to that of the dasyures, but with teeth (fig.
2) approximating to those of the thylacine, though markedly different
in details. The first hind toe is absent.
In the "native cats," or dasyures, constituting the genus _Dasyurus_,
the dental formula is i. 4/3, c. 1/1, p. 3/3, m. 3/3: total 42. The
upper incisors are nearly equal and vertical, with the first slightly
longer, narrower, and separated from the rest. Lower incisors sloping
forward and upward. Canines large and sharply pointed. First two
premolars with compressed and sharp-pointed crowns, and slightly
developed anterior and posterior accessory basal cusps. Molars with
numerous sharp-pointed cusps. In the upper jaw the first two with
crowns having a triangular free surface; the last small, simple,
narrow and placed transversely. In the lower jaw the molars more
compressed, with longer cusps; the last not notably smaller than the
others. Ears of moderate size, prominent and obtusely pointed. First
hind toe rudimentary, clawless or absent; its metatarsal bone always
present. Tail generally long and well clothed with hair. Vertebrae: C.
7, D. 13, L. 6, S. 2, Ca. 18-20 (see DASYURE).
The genus _Phascologale_ comprises a number of small marsupials, none
exceeding a rat in size, differing from the dasyures in possessing an
additional premolar--the dentition being i. 4/3, c. 1/1, p. 4/4, m.
3/3: total 46--and in having the teeth generally developed upon an
insectivorous rather than a carnivorous pattern, the upper middle
incisors being larger and inclined forward, the canines relatively
smaller, and the molars with broad crowns, armed with prickly
tubercles. The muzzle is pointed. Ears moderately rounded, and nearly
naked. Fore feet with five sub-equal toes, with compressed, slightly
curved pointed claws. Hind feet with the four outer toes sub-equal,
with claws similar to those in the fore feet; the first toe almost
always distinct and partially opposable, though small and nailless,
sometimes absent.
In some respects intermediate between the preceding and the next genus
is _Dasyuroides byrnei_, of Central Australia, an animal of the size
of a rat, with one lower premolar less than in _Phascologale_, without
the first hind toe, and with a somewhat thickened tail. The pouch is
incomplete, with two lateral folds, and the number of teats six.
_Sminthopsis_ includes several very small species, with the same
dental formula as _Phascologale_, but distinguished from that genus by
the narrowness of the hind foot, in which the first toe is present,
and the granulated or hairy (in place of broad, smooth and naked)
soles. A pouch is present, and there are eight or ten teats. Nearly
allied is the jumping _Antechinomys laniger_, of East Central
Australia, an elegant mouse-like creature, with large oval ears,
elongated limbs, a long and tufted tail and no first hind toe. In
connexion with the large size of the ears is the excessive inflation
of the auditory bulla of the skull.
From all other members of the family the marsupial, or banded,
ant-eater (_Myrmecobius fasciatus_) differs by the presence of more
than seven pairs of cheek-teeth in each jaw, as well as by the
exceedingly long and protrusile tongue. Hence it is made the type of a
distinct sub-family, the _Myrmecobiinae_, as distinct from the
_Dasyurinae_, which includes all the other members of the family. From
the number of its cheek-teeth, the banded ant-eater has been regarded
as related to some of the primitive Jurassic mammals; but this view is
disputed by Mr Bensley, who regards this multiplicity of teeth as a
degenerate feature. On the other hand, it is noteworthy that this
marsupial retains in its lower jaw the so-called mylo-hyoid groove,
which is found in the aforesaid Jurassic mammals. _Myrmecobius_ has a
total of 52 or 54 teeth, which may be classed as i. 4/3, c. 1/1, p. +
m. (8 or 9)/(8 or 9). The teeth are all small and (except the four
posterior inferior molars) separated from each other by an interval.
Head elongated, but broad behind; muzzle long and pointed; ears of
moderate size, ovate and rather pointed. Fore-feet with five toes, all
having strong pointed, compressed claws, the second, third and fourth
nearly equal, the fifth somewhat and the first considerably shorter.
Hind-feet with no trace of first toe externally, but the metatarsal
bone is present. Tail long, clothed with long hairs. Fur rather harsh
and bristly. Female without pouch, the young when attached to the
nipples being concealed by the long hair of the abdomen. Vertebrae: C.
7, D. 13, L. 6, S. 3, Ca. 23. The single species, which is a native of
western and southern Australia, is about the size of an English
squirrel, to which its long bushy tail gives it some resemblance; but
it lives entirely on the ground, especially in sterile sandy
districts, feeding on ants. Its prevailing colour is chestnut-red, but
the hinder part of the back is marked with broad, white, transverse
bands on a dark ground.
[Illustration: From Gould.
FIG. 4.--The Marsupial or Banded Ant-eater (_Myrmecobius fasciatus_).]
With the bandicoots, or _Peramelidae_, we come to a family of
polyprotodonts which resemble the diprotodonts in the peculiarly
specialized structure of their hind limbs; an adaptation which we must
apparently regard as having been independently acquired in the two
groups. The dentition is i. 5/3, c. 1/1, p. 4/4, m. 3/3; total, 48;
the upper incisors being small, with short, broad crowns; the lower
incisors moderate, narrow, proclivous; canines well developed.
Premolars compressed, pointed; and the molars with quadrate
tuberculated crowns. Deciduous premolar preceded by a minute
molariform tooth, which remains in place until the animal is nearly
full grown. Fore feet with two or three of the middle toes of nearly
equal size, and provided with strong, sharp, slightly curved claws,
the other toes rudimentary. Hind feet long and narrow; the first toe
rudimentary or absent; the second and third very slender and united in
a common integument; the fourth very large, with a stout elongated
conical claw; the fifth smaller than the fourth (see fig. 6). The
terminal phalanges of the large toes of both feet cleft at their
extremities. Head elongated, with the muzzle long, narrow and pointed.
Stomach simple. Caecum of moderate size. Pouch complete, generally
opening backwards. Alone among marsupials bandicoots have no
clavicles. More remarkable still is the development of a small
allantoic placenta.
[Illustration: From Gould.
FIG. 5.--Gunn's Bandicoot (_Perameles gunni_).]
In the true bandicoots of the genus _Perameles_ (fig. 5) the fore-feet
have the three middle toes well developed, the third slightly larger
than the second, the fourth somewhat shorter, provided with long,
strong, slightly curved, pointed claws. First and fifth toes very
short and without claws. Hind feet with one or two phalanges, in the
first toe forming a distinct tubercle visible externally; the second
and third toes very slender, of equal length, joined as far as the
terminal phalange, but with distinct claws; the fifth intermediate in
length between these and the largely developed fourth toe. Ears of
moderate or small size, ovate, pointed. Tail rather short, clothed
with short depressed hairs. Fur short and harsh. Pouch opening
backwards. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 13, L. 6, S. 1, Ca. 17. (see
BANDICOOT.)
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Skeleton of Hind Foot of _Choeropus
castanotis_.
c, calcanium; a, astralagus; cb, cuboid; n. navicular; c³,
ectocuneiform; II. and III. the conjoined second and third digits; IV.
the large and only functional digit; V. the rudimentary fifth digit.]
The rabbit-bandicoot, _Peragale_ (or _Thylacomys_) represents a genus
in which the cheek-teeth are curved, with longer crowns and shorter
roots than in the last. Hind extremities proportionally longer with
inner toe represented only by a small metatarsal bone. Muzzle much
elongated and narrow. Fur soft and silky. Ears very large, long and
pointed. Tail long, its apical half-clothed on the dorsal surface with
long hairs. Pouch opening forwards. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 13, L. 6, S.
2, Ca. 23.
The one species, from Western Australia, is the largest member of the
family, being about the size of a rabbit, to which it bears sufficient
superficial resemblance to have acquired the name of "native rabbit"
from the colonists. It burrows in the ground, but in other respects
resembles bandicoots in habits.
In the pig-footed bandicoot (_Choeropus castanotis_) the dentition
generally resembles that of _Perameles_, but the canines are less
developed, and in the upper jaw two-rooted. Limbs very slender;
posterior nearly twice the length of the anterior. Fore feet with the
functional toes reduced to two, the second and third, of equal length,
with closely united metacarpals and short, sharp, slightly curved,
compressed claws. First toe represented by a minute rudiment of a
metacarpal bone; the fourth by a metacarpal and two small phalanges
without a claw, and not reaching the middle of the metacarpal of the
third; fifth entirely absent. Hind foot long and narrow, mainly
composed of the strongly developed fourth toe, terminating in a
conical pointed nail, with a strong pad behind it; the first toe
represented by a rudimentary metatarsal; the remaining toes completely
developed, with claws, but exceedingly slender; the united second and
third reaching a little way beyond the metatarso-phalangeal
articulation of the fourth; the fifth somewhat shorter. Tail not quite
so long as the body, and covered with short hairs. Ears large and
pointed, and folded down when the animal is at rest. Fur soft and
loose. Pouch opening backwards. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 13, L. 6, S. 1,
Ca. 20.
The only species of this genus is about the size of a small rat, found
in the interior of Australia. Its general habits and food appear to
resemble those of other bandicoots. A separate family, _Notoryctidae_,
is represented by the marsupial mole (_Notoryctes typhlops_), of the
deserts of south Central Australia, a silky, golden-haired, burrowing
creature, with a curious leathery muzzle, and a short, naked stumpy
tail. The limbs are five-toed, with the third and fourth toes of the
front pair armed with enormous digging claws; there are no external
ear-conchs; and the dentition includes four pairs of upper, and three
of lower, incisors, and distinctly tritubercular cheek-teeth. The
small pouch, supported by the usual epipubic bones, opens backwards.
In correlation with its burrowing habits, some of the vertebrae of the
neck and of the loins are respectively welded together. The eyes have
degenerated to a greater extent than those of any other burrowing
mammal, the retina being reduced to a mass of simple cells, and the
cornea and sclerotic ("white") to a pear-shaped fibrous capsule
enclosing a ball of pigment. The reason for this extreme degeneration
is probably to be found in the sandy nature of the soil in which the
creature burrows, a substance which would evidently irritate and
inflame any functional remnant of an eye. The portion of the lachrymal
duct communicating with the cavity of the nose has, on the other hand,
been abnormally developed, apparently for the purpose of cleansing
that chamber from particles of sand which may obtain an entrance while
the animal is burrowing. (See MARSUPIAL MOLE.)
[Illustration: From Gould.
FIG. 7.--The Pig-footed Bandicoot (_Choeropus castanotis_).]
[Illustration: After Thomas.
FIG. 8.--Skull of _Caenolestes obscurus_.]
2. _Paucituberculates._--The second sub-order of marsupials, the
Paucituberculata, is exclusively South American, and typically
represented by the family _Epanorthidae_, the majority of the members
of which are extinct, their remains being found in the probably
Miocene Santa Cruz beds of Patagonia, although one existing genus
(_Caenolestes_) survives in Ecuador and Colombia. One of the two
living species was, indeed, described so long ago as the year 1863,
under the preoccupied name of _Hyracodon_, but attracted little or no
attention, as its affinities were not fully recognized. Externally
_Caenolestes_ has a shrew-like appearance. The elongated skull (fig.
8) has four pairs of upper incisors and long upper canines, while in
the lower jaw there is a single pair of procumbent incisors, followed
by several small teeth representing the canine and earlier premolars.
The three pairs of molars in each jaw are, like the last premolar,
quadritubercular oblong teeth. The five-toed feet are of normal
structure, and the rat-like tail is prehensile towards the tip. The
female has a small pouch. The extinct members of the family are
represented by the genera _Epanorthus_, _Acdestis_, _Garzonia_, &c. In
a second family--_Abderitidae_--also from the Patagonian Miocene, the
penultimate premolar is developed into an enormous tooth, with a tall,
secant and grooved crown, somewhat after the fashion of the enlarged
premolar of _Plagiaulax_. From the structure of the skull, it is
thought probable that _Abderites_ had an elongated snout, like that of
many Insectivora. As a sub-order, the Paucituberculata are
characterized by the presence of four pairs of upper and three of
lower incisor teeth; the enlargement and forward inclination of the
first pair of lower incisors, and the presence of four or five sharp
cusps on the cheek-teeth, coupled with the absence of "syndactylism"
in the hind limbs.
[Illustration: From Flower, _Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc._
FIG. 9.--Front view of Skull of the Koala (Phascolarctus cinereus) to
exhibit Diprotodont type of dentition.]
3. _Diprotodonts._--The third and last sub-order of marsupials is the
Diprotodontia, which is exclusively Australasian and includes the
wombats, koala, cuscuses, kangaroos and their relatives. There are
never more than three pairs of upper and one of lower incisors, of
which the middle upper and the single lower pair are large and
chisel-like (fig. 9); the canines are small or absent; the cheek-teeth
have bluntly tuberculate or transversely-ridged crowns in most cases;
and the hind-feet are syndactylous. With one exception, the intestine
has a caecum, and the pouch is large and opens forwards. It should be
added that Professor Elliot Smith has pointed out a certain
peculiarity in its commissures whereby the brain of the diprotodonts
differs markedly from that of the polyprotodonts and approximates to
the placental type. Dr Einar Lönnberg has also recorded certain
adaptive peculiarities in the stomach. Most of the species,
particularly the specialized types, are more or less completely
herbivorous.
The first family, _Phascolomyidae_, is typified by the wombats; but
according to the view adopted by Mr H. Winge, and endorsed by
Professor Max Weber, is also taken to include the koala. In this wider
sense the family may be characterized as follows. The tympanic process
of the alisphenoid bone of the skull is short, not covering the cavity
of the tympanum, nor reaching the paroccipital process. The tail is
rudimentary, the first hind-toe opposable, the first pair of upper
incisors very large, but the second and third either absent or small
and placed partially behind the larger pair; and only five pairs of
cheek-teeth in each jaw. The stomach has a cardiac gland, and the
number of teats is two.
In the wombats (_Phascolomys_) the dentition is i. 1/1, c. 0/0, p. +
m. 5/5, total 24; all the teeth growing from persistent pulps, and the
incisors large and chisel-like, with enamel only on the front surface.
The cheek-teeth strongly curved, forming from the base to the summit
about a quarter of a circle, the concavity being directed outwards in
the upper and inwards in the lower teeth. The first of the series
(which appears to have no predecessor) single-lobed; the other four
composed of two lobes, each subtriangular in section. Limbs equal,
stout and short. Fore-feet with five distinct toes, each furnished
with a long, strong and slightly curved nail, the first and fifth
considerably shorter than the other three. Hind-feet with a very short
nailless first toe, the second, third and fourth toes partially united
by integument, of nearly equal length, the fifth distinct and rather
shorter; all four with long and curved nails. In the skeleton the
second and third toes are distinctly more slender than the fourth,
showing a tendency towards the character so marked in the following
families. Tail rudimentary. Caecum very short and wide, with a
vermiform appendage (see WOMBAT).
In addition to remains referable to the existing genus, the
Pleistocene deposits of Australia have yielded evidence of an extinct
giant wombat constituting the genus _Phascolonus_ (_Sceparnodon_).
The koala, or "native bear" (_Phascolarctus cinereus_), which differs
widely from the wombats in its arboreal habits, is less specialized as
regards its dentition, of which the formula is i. 3/1, c. 1/0, p. + m.
5/5, total 30. Upper incisors crowded together, cylindroidal, the
first much larger than the others, with a bevelled cutting edge (fig.
9). Canine very small; a considerable interval between it and the
first premolar, which is as long from before backwards but not so
broad as the molars, and has a cutting edge, with a smaller parallel
inner ridge. The molar-like teeth slightly diminishing in size from
the first to the fourth, with square crowns, each bearing four
pyramidal cusps. The lower incisors are partially inclined forwards,
compressed and tapering, bevelled at the ends. Cheek-teeth in
continuous series, as in the upper jaw. Fore-feet with the two inner
toes slightly separated from and opposable to the remaining three, all
with strong curved and much compressed claws. Hind-foot (fig. 10) with
the first toe placed far back, large and broad, the second and third
(united) toes considerably smaller than the other two; the fourth the
largest. No external tail. Fur dense and woolly. Ears of moderate
size, thickly clothed with long hair. Caecum very long and dilated,
with numerous folds. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 11, L. 8, S. 2, Ca. 8. Ribs
eleven pairs (see KOALA).
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Skeleton of Right Hind-Foot of Koala
(_Phascolarctus cinereus_), showing stout opposable hallux, followed
by two slender toes, which in the living animal are enclosed as far as
the nails in a common integument.]
Here may be noticed three genera of large extinct marsupials from the
Pleistocene of Australia whose affinities appear to ally them to the
wombat-group on the one hand and to the phalangers on the other. The
longest known is _Diprotodon_, an animal of the size of a rhinoceros,
with a dental formula of i. 3/1, c. 0/0, p. 1/1, m. 4/4, total 28. The
first upper incisor very large and chisel-like, molars with prominent
transverse ridges, as in _Macropus_, but without the longitudinal
connecting ridge. Complete skeletons disinterred by Dr E. C. Stirling
indicate that in the structure of the feet this creature presents
resemblances both to the wombats and the phalangers, but is nearer to
the former than to the latter. On the other hand, the considerably
smaller _Nototherium_, characterized by its sharp and broad skull and
smaller incisors, seems to have been much more wombat-like, and may
perhaps have possessed similar burrowing habits.
[Illustration: From Flower, Quart. _Journ. Geol. Soc._
FIG. 11.--Front view of Skull of _Thylacoleo carnifex_, restored.]
The last of the three is _Thylacoleo carnifex_, so named on account of
its supposed carnivorous habits. In the adult the dentition (fig. 11)
is i. 3/1, c. 1/0, p. + m. 4/3, total 24. The first upper incisor is
much larger than the others; canine and first two premolars
rudimentary. In the lower jaw there are also one or two small and
early deciduous premolars; third premolars of both jaws formed on the
same type as that of the rat-kangaroos, but relatively much larger;
molars rudimentary, tubercular. The functional teeth are reduced to
one pair of large cutting incisors situated close to the middle line,
and one great, cutting, compressed premolar, on each side above and
below. As already mentioned, _Thylacoleo_ was originally regarded as a
carnivorous creature, but this view was subsequently disputed, and its
diet supposed to consist of soft roots, bulbs and fruits, with an
occasional small bird or mammal. Recently, however, the pendulum of
opinion has swung back towards the original view: and Dr R. Broom
believes _Thylacoleo_ to have been "a purely carnivorous animal, and
one which would be quite able to, and probably did, kill animals as
large or larger than itself." The affinities of the creature are
clearly with the phalangers.
By means of the little musk-kangaroo, the cuscuses and phalangers
constituting the family _Phalangeridae_, are so closely connected with
the kangaroos, or _Macropodidae_, that in the opinion of some
naturalists they ought all to be included in a single family, with
three sub-families. Theoretically, no doubt, this is correct, but the
typical members of the two groups are so different from one another
that, as a matter of convenience, the retention of the two families
seems advisable. From the _Phascolomyidae_, the two families, which
may be collectively designated Phalangeroidea, differ by the
circumstance that in the skull the tympanic process of the alisphenoid
covers the tympanic cavity and reaches the paroccipital process. The
tail is long and in some cases prehensile; the first hind-toe may be
either large, small or absent; the dentition usually includes three
pairs of upper and one of lower incisors, and six or seven pairs of
cheek-teeth in each jaw; the stomach is either simple or sacculated,
without a cardiac gland; and there are four teats.
With the exception of the aberrant long-snouted phalanger, the members
of the family _Phalangeridae_ have the normal number of functional
incisors, in addition to which there may be one or two rudimentary
pairs in the lower jaw. The first in the upper jaw is strong, curved
and cutting, the other two generally somewhat smaller; the single
lower functional incisor large, more or less inclined forwards;
canines 1/(1 or 0) upper small or moderate, conical and sharp-pointed;
lower absent or rudimentary; premolars variable; molars 3/3, or 2/2,
with four obtuse tubercles, sometimes forming crescents. Limbs
subequal. Fore-feet with five distinct subequal toes with claws.
Hind-feet short and broad, with five well-developed toes; the first
large, nailless and opposable; the second and third slender and united
by a common integument as far as the claws. Caecum present (except in
_Tarsipes_), and usually large. The lower jaw has no pocket on the
outer side. All are animals of small or moderate size and arboreal
habits, feeding on a vegetable or mixed diet, and inhabiting
Australia, Papua and the Moluccan Islands.
[Illustration: From Gould.
FIG. 12.--The Long-snouted Phalanger (_Tarsipes rostratus_).]
As the first example of the group may be taken the elegant little
long-snouted phalanger (_Tarsipes rostratus_, fig. 12), a west
Australian creature of the size of a mouse, which may be regarded as
representing by itself a sub-family (_Tarsipediinae_), characterized
by the rudimentary teeth, the long and extensile tongue, and absence
of a caecum. The head is elongated, with a slender muzzle and the
mouth-opening small. The two lower incisors are long, very slender,
sharp-pointed and horizontally placed. All the other teeth are simple,
conical, minute and placed at considerable and irregular intervals
apart in the jaws, the number appearing to vary in different
individuals and even on different sides of the jaw of the same
individuals. The formula in one specimen was i.(2 - 2)/(1 - 1), c.(1 -
1)/(0 - 0), p. + m.(3 - 4)/(2 - 3); total 20. The lower jaw is
slender, nearly straight, and without a coronoid process or inflected
angle. Fore-feet with five well-developed toes, carrying small, flat,
scale-like nails, not reaching the extremity of the digits. Hind-feet
rather long and slender, with a well-developed opposable and nailless
first toe; second and third digits united, with sharp, compressed
curved claws; the fourth and fifth free, with small flat nails. Ears
of moderate size and rounded. Tail longer than the body and head,
scantily clothed with short hairs, prehensile. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 13,
L. 5, S. 3. Ca. 24.
As indicated in the accompanying illustration, the long-snouted
phalanger is arboreal in habits, extracting honey and probably small
insects from long-tubed flowers by means of its extensile tongue.
The remaining members of the family may be included in the sub family
_Phalangerinae_, characterized by the normal nature of the dentition
(which shows rudimentary lower canines) and tongue. Cuscuses and
phalangers form a numerous group, all the members of which are
arboreal, and some of which are provided with lateral expansions of
skin enabling them to glide from tree to tree like flying-squirrels.
The typical members of the group are the cuscuses (_Phalanger_),
ranging from the Moluccas and Celebes to New Guinea, in which the
males are often different in colour from the females. The true
phalangers, or opossums of the colonists, constitute the genus
_Trichosurus_, while the ring-tailed species are known as
_Pseudochirus_; the latter ranging to New Guinea. _Dactylopsila_ is
easily recognized by its attenuated fourth finger and parti-coloured
fur; the flying species are classed as _Petauroides_, _Petaurus_,
_Gymnobelideus_ and _Acrobates_, the last no larger than a mouse;
while Dromicia, _Distaechurus_ and _Acrobates_ are allied types
without parachutes (see PHALANGER).
An equally brief notice must suffice of the kangaroo tribe or
_Macropodidae_, since these receive a special notice elsewhere. The
dentition is i.(3/1) c.(0 or 1)/0 p.(3/3) m.(3/3); the incisors being
sharp and cutting, and those of the lower jaw frequently having a
scissor-like action against one another. The broad molars are either
bluntly tuberculated or transversely ridged; the outer side of the
hind part of the lower jaw has a deep pocket; and the hind-limbs are
generally very long, with the structure of the foot similar to that of
the bandicoots. The family is connected with the _Phalangeridae_ by
means of the musk-kangaroo (_Hypsiprymnodon moschatus_); forming the
sub-family _Hypsiprymnodontinae_. Then come the rat-kangaroos, or
kangaroo-rats, constituting the sub-family _Potoroinae_; while the
tree-kangaroos (_Dendrolagus_), rock-wallabies (_Petrogale_), and
wallabies and kangaroos (_Macropus_) form the _Macropodinae_ (see
KANGAROO).
_Extinct Marsupials_
Reference has been made to the Australasian Pleistocene genera
_Phascolonus_, _Diprotodon_, _Nototherium_ and _Thylacoleo_, whose
affinities are with the wombats and phalangers. The same deposits have
also yielded remains of extinct types of kangaroo, some of gigantic
size, constituting the genera _Sthenurus_, _Procoptodon_ and
_Palorchestes_. Numerous types more or less nearly allied to the
phalangers, such as _Burramys_ and _Triclis_ have also been described,
as well as a flying form, _Polaeopetaurus_. It is also interesting to
note that fossil remains indicate the former occurrence of thylacines
and Tasmanian devils on the Australian mainland. Of more interest is
the imperfectly known _Wynyardia_, from older Tertiary beds in
Tasmania, which apparently presents points of affinity both to
phalangers and dasyures. From the Oligocene deposits of France and
southern England have been obtained numerous remains of opossums
referable to the American family _Didelphyidae_. These ancient
opossums have been separated generically from _Didelphys_ (in its
widest sense) on account of certain differences in the relative sizes
of the lower premolars, but as nearly the whole of the species have
been formed on lower jaws, of which some hundreds have been found, it
is impossible to judge how far these differences are correlated with
other dental or osteological characters. In the opinion of Dr H.
Filhol, the fossils themselves represent two genera, _Peratherium_,
containing the greater part of the species, about twenty in number,
and _Amphiperatherium_, with three species only. All are comparatively
small animals, few of them exceeding the size of a rat.
Besides these interesting European fossils, a certain number of
didelphian bones have been found in the caves of Brazil, but these are
either closely allied to or identical with the species now living in
the same region.
The occurrence in the Santa Cruz beds of Patagonia of fossil
marsupials allied to the living _Caenolestes_ has been mentioned
above. The alleged occurrence in the same beds of marsupials allied to
the thylacine is based on remains now more generally regarded as
referable to the creodont carnivores (see CREODONTA).
_Mesozoic Mammals._--Under the heading of MULTITUBERCULATA will be
found a brief account of certain extinct mammals from the Mesozoic
formations of Europe and North America which have been regarded as
more or less nearly related to the monotremes. The same deposits have
yielded remains of small mammals whose dentition approximates more
nearly to that of either polyprotodont marsupials or insectivores; and
these may be conveniently noticed here without prejudice to their true
affinities. Before proceeding further it may be mentioned that the
remains of many of these mammals are very scarce, even in formations
apparently in every way suitable to the preservation of such fossils,
and it hence seems probable that these creatures are stragglers from
a country where primitive small mammals were abundant. Not improbably
this country was either "Gondwana-land," connecting Mesozoic India
with Africa, or perhaps Africa itself. At any rate, there seems little
doubt that it was the region where creodonts and other primitive
mammals were first differentiated from their reptilian ancestors.
[Illustration: From Owen.
FIG. 13.--Lower Jaw of _Triconodon mordax_ (nat. size).]
[Illustration: From Owen.
FIG. 14.--Lower Jaw and Teeth of _Phascolotherium bucklandi_ (nat.
size in outline).]
[Illustration: From Owen.
FIG. 15.--Spalacotherium tricuspidens (twice nat. size), Purbeck
beds.]
Of the Old World forms, the family _Triconodontidae_ is typified by
the genus _Triconodon_, from the English Purbeck, in which the
cheek-teeth carry three cutting cusps arranged longitudinally. There
seems to have been a replacement of some of these teeth; and it has
been suggested that this was of the marsupial type. To the same family
are referred _Phascolotherium_ (fig. 14), of the Lower Jurassic
Stonesfield slate of England, and _Spalacotherium_ (fig. 15), of the
Dorsetshire Purbeck; the latter having the three cusps of the
cheek-teeth rotated so as to assume a tritubercular type. Other genera
are _Menacodon_ and _Priacodon_, the former American, and the latter
common to Europe and North America. By one authority _Amphilestes_
(fig. 16), of the Stonesfield Slate, is included in the same group,
while by a second it is regarded as representing a family by itself.
_Amphitherium_, of the Stonesfield Slate, typifies the family
_Amphitheriidae_, which includes the American _Dryolestes_, and in
which some would class the European Purbeck genus _Amblotherium_,
although Professor H. F. Osborn has made the last the type of a
distinct family. Yet another family, according to the palaeontologist
last named, is typified by the genus _Stylacodon_, of the English
Purbeck. To mention the other forms which have received names will be
unnecessary on this occasion.
[Illustration: From Owen.
FIG. 16.--Lower Jaw and Teeth of _Amphilestes broderipi_ (twice nat.
size).]
It will be observed from the figures of the lower jaws, which are in
most cases the only parts known, that in many instances the number of
cheek-teeth exceeds that found in modern marsupials except
_Myrmecobius_. The latter has indeed been regarded as the direct
descendant of these Mesozoic forms; but as already stated, in the
opinion of Mr B. A. Bensley, this is incorrect. It may be added that
the division of these teeth into premolars and molars in figs. 14 and
16 is based upon the view of Sir R. Owen, and is not altogether
trustworthy, while the restoration of some of the missing teeth is
more or less conjectural. As regards the affinities of the creatures
to which these jaws belonged, Professor Osborn has referred the
_Triconodontidae_ and _Amphitheriidae_, together with the
Curtodontidae (as represented by the English Purbeck _Curtodon_), to a
primitive group of marsupials, while he has assigned the
_Amblotheriidae_ and _Stylacodontidae_ to an ancestral assemblage of
Insectivora. On the other hand, in the opinion of Professor H. Winge,
a large number of these creatures are primitive monotremes. Besides
the above, in the Trias of North America we have _Dromotherium_ and
_Microconodon_, extremely primitive forms, representing the family
_Dromotheriidae_, and apparently showing decided traces of reptilian
affinity. It may be added that a few traces of mammals have been
obtained from the English Wealden, among which an incisor tooth
foreshadows the rodent type.
AUTHORITIES.--The above article is partly based on that by Sir W. H.
Flower in the 9th edition of this work. See also O. Thomas, Catalogue
of Monotremata and Marsupialia in the British Museum (1888); "On
_Caenolestes_, a Survivor of the _Epanorthidae," Proc. Zool. Soc.
London_ (1895); J. D. Ogilby, Catalogue of Australian Mammals (Sydney,
1895); B. A. Bensley, "A Theory of the Origin and Evolution of the
Australian Marsupialia," _American Naturalist_ (1901); "On the
Evolution of the Australian Marsupialia, &c.," _Trans. Linn. Soc._
(vol. ix., 1903); L. Dollo, "Arboreal Ancestry of Marsupials,"
_Miscell. Biologiques_ (Paris, 1899); B. Spencer, "Mammalia of the
Horn Expedition" (1896); "Wynyardia, a Fossil Marsupial from
Tasmania," _Proc. Zool. Soc. London_ (1900); J. P. Hill,
"Contributions to the Morphology of the Female Urino-genital Organs in
Marsupialia," _Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales_, vols. xxiv. and xxv.;
"Contributions to the Embryology of the Marsupialia," _Quart. Journ.
Micr. Science_, vol. xliii.; E. C. Stirling, "On _Notoryctes
typhlops_," _Proc. Zool. Soc. London_ (1891); "Fossil Remains of Lake
Cadibona," Part I. _Diprotodon, Mem. R. Soc. S. Australia_ (vol. i.,
1889); R. Broom, "On the Affinities of _Thylacoleo," Proc. Linn. Soc.
N. S. Wales_ (1898); H. F. Osborn, "Mesozoic Mammalia," _Journ. Acad.
Nat. Sci. Philadelphia_ (vol. ix., 1888); E. S. Goodrich, "On the
Fossil Mammalia from the Stonesfield Slate," _Quart. Journ. Micr.
Science_ (vol. xxxv., 1894). (R. L.*)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The presence or absence of the corpus callosum has been much
disputed; the latest researches, however, indicate its absence.
MARSUPIAL MOLE (_Noloryctes typhlops_), the "Ur-quamata" of the natives,
an aberrant polyprotodont from central South Australia, constituting a
family (_Noloryctidae_). This is a small burrowing animal, of a pale
golden-yellow colour, with long silky hair, a horny shield on the nose,
and a stumpy leathery tail. The feet are five-toed, and the third and
fourth toes of the front pair armed with enormous claws adapted for
digging. Neither ear-conches nor eyes are visible externally. There are
but three pairs of incisor teeth in each jaw, and the upper molars are
tricuspid. This animal spends most of its time burrowing in the sand in
search of insects and their larvae, but occasionally makes its
appearance on the surface.
[Illustration: Marsupial Mole (_Notoryctes typhlops_).]
MARSUS, DOMITIUS, Latin poet, the friend of Virgil and Tibullus, and
contemporary of Horace. He survived Tibullus (d. 19 B.C.), but was no
longer alive when Ovid wrote (c. A.D. 12) the epistle from Pontus (_Ex
Ponto_, iv. 16) containing a list of poets. He was the author of a
collection of epigrams called _Cicuta_ ("hemlock")[1] from their bitter
sarcasm, and of a beautiful epitaph on the death of Tibullus; of elegiac
poems, probably of an erotic character; of an epic poem _Amazonis_; and
of a prose work on wit (_De urbanitate_). Martial often alludes to
Marsus as one of his predecessors, but he is never mentioned by Horace,
although a passage in the _Odes_ (iv. 4, 19) is supposed to be an
indirect allusion to the _Amazonis_ (M. Haupt, _Opuscula_, iii. 332).
See J. A. Weichert, _Poetarum latinorum vitae et reliquiae_ (1830); R.
Unger, _De Dom. Marsi cicuta_ (Friedland, 1861).
FOOTNOTE:
[1] According to others, a reed-pipe made of the stalks of hemlock;
the reading _scutica_ ("whip") has also been proposed.
MARSYAS, in Greek mythology, a Phrygian god or Silenus, son of Hyagnis.
He was originally the god of the small river of the same name near
Celaenae, an old Phrygian town. He represents the art of playing the
flute as opposed to the lyre--the one the accompaniment of the worship
of Cybele, the other that of the worship of Apollo. According to the
legend, Athena, who had invented the flute, threw it away in disgust,
because it distorted the features. Marsyas found it, and having acquired
great skill in playing it, challenged Apollo to a contest with his lyre.
Midas, king of Phrygia, who had been appointed judge, declared in favour
of Marsyas, and Apollo punished Midas by changing his ears into ass's
ears. In another version, the Muses were judges and awarded the victory
to Apollo, who tied Marsyas to a tree and flayed him alive. Marsyas, as
well as Midas and Silenus, are associated in legend with Dionysus and
belong to the cycle of legends of Cybele. A statue of Marsyas was set
up in the Roman forum and colonies as a symbol of liberty. The contest
and punishment of Marsyas were favourite subjects in Greek art, both
painting and sculpture. In Florence there are several statues of Marsyas
hanging on the tree as he is going to be flayed (see GREEK ART, fig. 54,
Pl. II.); Apollo and the executioner complete the group. In the Lateran
museum at Rome there is a statue representing Marsyas in the act of
picking up the flute, a copy of a masterpiece by Myron (Hyginus, _Fab._
167, 191; Apollodorus i. 4, 2; Ovid, _Metam._ vi. 382-400, xi. 145-193),
for which see GREEK ART, fig. 64 (Pl. III.).
MARTABAN, a town in the Thaton district of Lower Burma, on the right
bank of the Salween, opposite Moulmein. It is said to have been founded
in A.D. 573, by the first king of Pegu, and was once the capital of a
powerful Talaing kingdom; but it is now little more than a village.
Martaban is frequently mentioned by European voyagers of the 16th
century; and it has given the name of "Martavans" to a class of large
vessels of glazed pottery, also known in India as "Pegu jars." It was
twice captured by the British, in 1824 and 1852. The Bay of Martaban
receives the rivers Irrawaddy and Salween.
MARTELLO TOWER, a kind of tower formerly used in English coast defence.
The name is a corruption of Mortella. The Martello tower was introduced
in consequence of an incident of the French revolutionary wars. In
September 1793 a British squadron of three ships of the line and two
frigates was ordered to support the Corsican insurgents. It was
determined in the first place to take a tower on Cape Mortella which
commanded the only secure anchorage in the Gulf of San Fiorenzo. This
tower, according to James, was named "after its inventor"; but the real
derivation appears to be the name of a wild myrtle which grew thickly
around. The tower, which mounted one 24-pounder and two 18-pounders on
its top, was bombarded for a short time by the frigates, was then
deserted by its little garrison, and occupied by a landing party. The
tower was afterwards retaken by the French from the Corsicans. So far it
had done nothing to justify its subsequent reputation. In 1794, however,
a fresh attempt was made to support the insurgents. On the 7th of
February 1400 troops were landed, and the tower was attacked by land and
sea on the 8th. The "Fortitude" and "Juno" kept up a cannonade for 2½
hours and then hauled off, the former being on fire and having sixty-two
men killed and wounded. The fire from the batteries on shore produced no
impression until a hot shot set fire to the "bass junk with which, to
the depth of 5 ft., the immensely thick parapet was lined." The garrison
of thirty-three men then surrendered. The armament was found to consist
only of two 18-pounders and one 6-pounder. The strong resistance offered
by these three guns seems to have led to the conclusion that towers of
this description were specially formidable, and Martello towers were
built in large numbers, and at heavy expense, along the shores of
England, especially on the southern and eastern coasts, which in certain
parts are lined with these towers at short intervals. They are
structures of solid masonry, containing vaulted rooms for the garrison,
and providing a platform at the top for two or three guns, which fire
over a low masonry parapet. Access is provided by a ladder,
communicating with a door about 20 ft. above the ground. In some cases a
deep ditch is provided around the base. The chief defect of the tower
was its weakness against vertical fire; its masonry was further liable
to be cut through by breaching batteries. The French _tours modèles_
were somewhat similar to the Martello towers; their chief use was to
serve as keeps to unrevetted works. While the Martello tower owes its
reputation and its widespread adoption in Great Britain to a single
incident of modern warfare, the round masonry structure entered by a
door raised high above the base is to be found in many lands, and is one
of the earliest types of masonry fortification.
MARTEN, HENRY (1602-1680), English regicide, was the elder son of Sir
Henry Marten, and was educated at University College, Oxford. As a
public man he first became prominent in 1639 when he refused to
contribute to a general loan, and in 1640 he entered parliament as one
of the members for Berkshire. In the House of Commons he joined the
popular party, spoke in favour of the proposed bill of attainder against
Strafford, and in 1642 was a member of the committee of safety. Some of
his language about the king was so frank that Charles demanded his
arrest and his trial for high treason. When the Great Rebellion broke
out Marten did not take the field, although he was appointed governor of
Reading, but in parliament he was very active. On one occasion his zeal
in the parliamentary cause led him to open a letter from the earl of
Northumberland to his countess, an impertinence for which, says
Clarendon, he was "cudgelled" by the earl; and in 1643, on account of
some remark about extirpating the royal family, he was expelled from
parliament and was imprisoned for a few days. In the following year,
however, he was made governor of Aylesbury, and about this time took
some small part in the war. Allowed to return to parliament in January
1646, Marten again advocated extreme views. He spoke of his desire to
prepare the king for heaven; he attacked the Presbyterians, and,
supporting the army against the parliament, he signed the agreement of
August 1647. He was closely associated with John Lilburne and the
Levellers, and was one of those who suspected the sincerity of Cromwell,
whose murder he is said personally to have contemplated. However, he
acted with Cromwell in bringing Charles I. to trial; he was one of the
most prominent of the king's judges and signed the death warrant. He was
then energetic in establishing the republic and in destroying the
remaining vestiges of the monarchical system. He was chosen a member of
the council of state in 1649, and as compensation for his losses and
reward for his services during the war, lands valued at £1000 a year
were settled upon him. In parliament he spoke often and with effect, but
he took no part in public life during the Protectorate, passing part of
this time in prison, where he was placed on account of his debts. Having
sat among the restored members of the Long Parliament in 1659, Marten
surrendered himself to the authorities as a regicide in June 1660, and
with some others he was excepted from the act of indemnity, but with a
saving clause. He behaved courageously at his trial, which took place in
October 1660, but he was found guilty of taking part in the king's
death. Through the action, or rather the inaction of the House of Lords,
he was spared the death penalty, but he remained a captive, and was in
prison at Chepstow Castle when he died on the 9th of September 1680.
Although a leading Puritan, Marten was a man of loose morals. He wrote
and published several pamphlets, and in 1662 there appeared _Henry
Marten's Familiar Letters to his Lady of Delight_, which contained
letters to his mistress, Mary Ward.
Marten's father, Sir Henry Marten (c. 1562-1641), was born in London and
was educated at Winchester school and at New College, Oxford, becoming a
fellow of the college in 1582. Having become a barrister, he secured a
large practice and soon came to the front in public life. He was sent
abroad on some royal business, was made chancellor of the diocese of
London, was knighted, and in 1617 became a judge of the admiralty court.
Later he was appointed a member of the court of high commission and dean
of the arches. He became a member of parliament in 1625, and in 1628
represented the university of Oxford, taking part in the debates on the
petition of right.
See J. Forster, _Statesmen of the Commonwealth_ (1840); M. Noble,
_Lives of the English Regicides_ (1798); the article by C. H. Firth in
_Dict. Nat. Biog._ (1893); and S. R. Gardiner, _History of the Great
Civil War_ and _History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate_.
MARTEN,[1] a name originally belonging to the pine-marten (_Mustela
martes_), but now applied to all members of the same genus of
carnivorous mammals (see CARNIVORA). Martens are limited to the northern
hemisphere, ranging throughout the greater part of the northern
temperate regions of both Old and New Worlds, and southwards in America
to 35° N. lat., while in Asia one species is met with in Java.
The species appear to be similar in their habits. They live in woods and
rocky places, and spend most of their time in trees, although descending
to the ground in quest of prey. They climb with great facility, and are
agile and graceful in their movements. Some are said occasionally to
resort to berries and other fruit for food, but as a rule they are
carnivorous, feeding chiefly on birds and their eggs, small mammals, as
squirrels, hares, rabbits and moles, but chiefly mice of various kinds,
and occasionally snakes, lizards and frogs. In proportion to their size
they are among the most bloodthirsty of animals, though less so than the
weasels. The female makes her nest of moss, dried leaves and grass in
the hollow of a tree, but sometimes in a hole among rocks or ruined
buildings, and produces several young at a birth, usually from four to
six. Though wild and untameable to a great degree if captured when fully
grown, if taken young they are docile, and have frequently been made
pets, not having the strong unpleasant odour of the smaller
_Mustelidae_. The pine-marten appears to have been partially
domesticated by the Greeks and Romans, and used to keep houses clear
from rats and mice. In the same way, according to Brian Hodgson, the
yellow-bellied weasel (_Putorius kathia_) "is exceedingly prized by the
Nepalese for its service in ridding houses of rats. It is easily tamed;
and such is the dread of it common to all murine animals that not one
will approach a house where it is domiciled." It is, however, to the
great value attached to the pelts of these animals that their importance
to man is chiefly due. Though all yield fur of serviceable quality, the
commercial value varies immensely, not only according to the species
from which it is obtained, but according to individual variation,
depending upon age, sex, season, and other circumstances. The skins from
northern regions are more full and of a finer colour and gloss than
those from more temperate climates, as are those of animals killed in
winter compared to the same individuals in summer. Fashion has,
moreover, set fictitious values upon slight shades of colour. Enormous
numbers of animals are caught, chiefly in traps, to supply the demand of
the fur trade, Siberia and North America being the principal localities
from which they are obtained.
With the exception of the pekan (_M. pennanti_), the martens are much
alike in size, general colouring and cranial and dental characters.
The following description by Dr Elliott Coues of the American marten
(_M. americana_) will apply almost equally well to most of the others.
"It is almost impossible to describe the colour of the marten, except
in general terms, without going into the details of the endless
diversities occasioned by age, sex, season, or other incidents. The
animal is 'brown,' of a shade from orange or tawny to quite blackish;
the tail and feet are ordinarily the darkest, the head lightest, often
quite whitish; the ears usually have a whitish rim, while on the
throat there is usually a large tawny-yellowish or orange-brown patch,
from the chin to the fore legs; sometimes entire, sometimes broken
into a number of smaller, irregular blotches, sometimes wanting,
sometimes prolonged on the whole under surface, when the animal is
bicolor like a stoat in summer. The general 'brown' has a greyish
cast, as far as the under fur is concerned, and is overlaid with rich
lustrous blackish-brown in places where the long bristly hairs
prevail. The claws are whitish; the naked nose pad and whiskers are
black. The tail occasionally shows interspersed white hairs, or a
white tip."
The following are the best-known species:--
_Mustela foina_: the beech-marten, stone-marten or white-breasted
marten.--Distinguished from the following by the greater breadth of
the skull, and some minute but constant dental characters, by the dull
greyish-brown colour of the fur of the upper parts and the pure white
of the throat and breast. It inhabits the greater part of the
continent of Europe, but is more southern than the next in its
distribution, not being found in Sweden or Norway.
_M. martes_, the pine-marten (see figure).--Fur rich dark brown; under
fur reddish-grey, with clear yellow tips; breast spot usually yellow,
varying from bright orange to pale cream-colour or yellowish-white.
Length of head and body 16 to 18 in., of tail (including the hair) 9
to 12 in. This species is extensively distributed throughout northern
Europe and Asia, and was formerly common in most parts of Great
Britain and Ireland. It is still found in the northern counties of
England and North Wales, but in decreasing numbers. In Scotland it is
rare, but in Ireland may be found in almost every county occasionally.
Though commonly called "pine-marten," it does not appear to have any
special preference for coniferous trees.
[Illustration: The Pine-Marten (_Mustela martes_).]
Next comes _M. zibellina_, the sable (German, _Zobel_ and _Zebel_;
Swedish, _sabel_; Russian, _sobel_, a word probably of Turanian
origin), which closely resembles the last, if indeed it differs except
in the quality of the fur--the most highly valued of that of all the
group. The sable is found chiefly in eastern Siberia.
Very distinct is the brilliantly coloured orange-and-black Indian
marten (_M. flavigula_), found from the Himalaya and Ceylon to Java.
The North American _M. americana_ is closely allied to the pine-marten
and Asiatic sable. The importance of the fur of this animal as an
article of commerce may be judged of from the fact that 15,000 skins
were sold in one year by the Hudson's Bay Company as long ago as 1743.
It is ordinarily caught in wooden traps of simple construction, being
little enclosures of stakes or brush in which the bait is placed upon
a trigger, with a short upright stick supporting a log of wood, which
falls upon its victim on the slightest disturbance. A line of such
traps, several to a mile, often extends many miles. The bait is any
kind of meat, a mouse, squirrel, piece of fish or bird's head. It is
principally trapped during the colder months, from October to April,
when the fur is in good condition, as it is nearly valueless during
the shedding in summer. It maintains its numbers partly in consequence
of its shyness, which keeps it away from the abodes of men, and partly
because it is so prolific, bringing forth six to eight young at a
litter. Its home is sometimes a den under ground or beneath rocks, but
oftener the hollow of a tree, and it is said to take possession of a
squirrel's nest, driving off or devouring the rightful proprietor.
The pekan or Pennant's marten, also called fisher marten, though there
appears to be nothing in its habits to justify the appellation, is the
largest of the group, the head and body measuring from 24 to 30 in.,
and the tail 14 to 18 in. It is also more robust in form than the
others, its general aspect being more that of a fox than a weasel; in
fact its usual name among the American hunters is "black fox." Its
general colour is blackish, lighter by mixture of brown or grey on the
head and upper fore part of the body, with no light patch on the
throat, and unlike other martens generally darker below than above. It
was generally distributed in wooded districts throughout the greater
part of North America, as far north as Great Slave Lake, lat. 63° N.,
and Alaska, and extending south to the parallel of 35°; but at the
present time is almost exterminated in the settled parts of the United
States east of the Mississippi. (W. H. F.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] By all old authors, as Ray, Pennant, Shaw and Fleming, the word
is written "Martin," but this form of spelling is now generally
reserved for the bird (see MARTIN). The word, as applied to the
animal here described, occurs in most Germanic and Romanic languages:
German, _marder_; Dutch, _marter_; Swedish, _mard_; Danish, _maar_;
English, _marteron_, _martern_, _marten_, _martin_ and _martlett_;
French, _marte_ and _martre_; Italian, _martora_ and _martorella_;
Spanish and Portuguese, _marta_. Its earliest known use is in the
form _martes_ (Martial, _Ep._ x. 37), but it can scarcely be an old
Latin word, as it is not found in Pliny or other classical writers,
and Martial often introduced foreign words into his Latin. Its
etymology has been connected with the German "martern," to torment. A
second Romanic name for the same animal is _fuina_, in French
_fouine_. The term "Marten Cat" is also used.
MARTENS, FRÉDÉRIC FROMMHOLD DE (1845-1909), Russian jurist, was born at
Pernau in Livonia. In 1868 he entered the Russian ministry of foreign
affairs, was admitted in 1871 as a _Dozent_ in international law in the
university of St Petersburg, and in 1871 became lecturer and then (1872)
professor of public law in the Imperial School of Law and the Imperial
Alexander Lyceum. In 1874 when Prince Gorchakov, then imperial
chancellor, needed assistance for certain kinds of special work,
Martens was chosen to afford it. His book on _The Right of Private
Property in War_ had appeared in 1869, and had been followed in 1873 by
that upon _The Office of Consul and Consular Jurisdiction in the East_,
which had been translated into German and republished at Berlin. These
were the first of a long series of studies which won for their author a
world-wide reputation, and raised the character of the Russian school of
international jurisprudence in all civilized countries. First amongst
them must be placed the great _Recueil des traités et conventions
conclus par la Russie avec les puissances étrangères_ (13 vols.,
1874-1902). This collection, published in Russian and French in parallel
columns, contains not only the texts of the treaties but valuable
introductions dealing with the diplomatic conditions of which the
treaties were the outcome. These introductions are based largely on
unpublished documents from the Russian archives. Of Martens' original
works his _International Law of Civilized Nations_ is perhaps the best
known; it was written in Russian, a German edition appearing in
1884-1885, and a French edition in 1887-1888. It displays much judgment
and acumen, though some of the doctrines which it defends by no means
command universal assent. More openly "tendencious" in character are
such treatises as _Russia and England in Central Asia_ (1879); _Russia's
Conflict with China_ (1881), _The Egyptian Question_ (1882), and _The
African Conference of Berlin and the Colonial Policy of Modern States_
(1887). In the delicate questions raised in some of these works Martens
stated his case with learning and ability, even when it was obvious that
he was arguing as a special pleader. Martens was repeatedly chosen to
act in international arbitrations. Among the controversies which he
helped to adjust were that between Mexico and the United States--the
first case determined by the permanent tribunal of The Hague--and the
difference between Great Britain and France in regard to Newfoundland in
1891. He played an important part in the negotiations between his own
country and Japan, which led to the peace of Portsmouth (Aug. 1905) and
prepared the way for the Russo-Japanese convention. He was employed in
laying the foundations for The Hague Conferences. He was one of the
Russian plenipotentiaries at the first conference and president of the
fourth committee--that on maritime law--at the second conference. His
visits to the chief capitals of Europe in the early part of 1907 were an
important preliminary in the preparation of the programme. He was judge
of the Russian supreme prize court established to determine cases
arising during the war with Japan. He received honorary degrees from the
universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Yale; he was also awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1902. In April 1907 he addressed a remarkable
letter to _The Times_ on the position of the second Duma, in which he
argued that the best remedy for the ills of Russia would be the
dissolution of that assembly and the election of another on a narrower
franchise. He died suddenly on the 20th of June 1909.
See T. E. Holland, in _Journal of the Society of Comparative
Legislation_ for October 1909, where a list of the writings of Martens
appears.
MARTENS, GEORG FRIEDRICH VON (1756-1821), German jurist and diplomatist,
was born at Hamburg on the 22nd of February 1756. Educated at the
universities of Göttingen, Regensburg and Vienna, he became professor of
jurisprudence at Göttingen in 1783 and was ennobled in 1789. He was made
a counsellor of state by the elector of Hanover in 1808, and in 1810 was
president of the financial section of the council of state of the
kingdom of Westphalia. In 1814 he was appointed privy cabinet-councillor
(_Geheimer Kabinetsrat_) by the king of Hanover, and in 1816 went as
representative of the king to the diet of the new German Confederation
at Frankfort, where he died on the 21st of February 1821.
Of his works the most important is the great collection of treaties
_Recueil des traités, &c._ from 1761 onwards. Of this the first seven
volumes were published at Göttingen (1791-1801), followed by four
supplementary volumes partly edited by his nephew Karl von Martens
(see below). These were followed by _Nouveau recueil_, of treaties
subsequent to 1808, in 16 vols. (Göttingen, 1817-1842), of which G. F.
von Martens edited the first four, the fifth being the work of K. von
Martens, the others (6-9) by F. Saalfeld and (10-16) F. Murhard. A
_Nouveau supplément_, in 3 vols., filling gaps in the previous
collection, was also published by Murhard (Göttingen, 1839-1842). This
was followed by _Nouveau recueil ... continuation du grand recueil de
Martens_, in 20 vols. (Göttingen, 1843-1875), edited in turn by F.
Murhard, C. Murhard, J. Pinhas, C. Samwer and J. Hopf, with a general
index of treaties from 1494 to 1874 (1876). This was followed by
_Nouveau recueil, 2me série_ (Göttingen, 1876-1896; vols. xxii.-xxxv.,
Leipzig, 1897-1908). From vol. xi. on this series was edited by Felix
Stork, professor of public law at Greifswald. In 1909 appeared vol. i.
of a further _Continuation (troisième série)_ under the editorship of
Professor Heinrich Triepel of Kiel University.
Of Martens' other works the most important are the _Précis du droit
des gens modernes de l'Europe_ (1789; 3rd ed., Göttingen, 1821; new
ed., G. S. Pinheiro-Ferreira, 2 vols., 1858, 1864); _Erzählungen
merkwürdiger Fälle des neueren europäischen Völkerrechts_, 2 vols.
(Göttingen, 1800-1802); _Cours diplomatique ou tableau des relations
des puissances de l'Europe_, 3 vols. (Berlin, 1801); _Grundriss einer
diplomatischen Gesch. der europ. Staatshändel u. Friedensschlüsse seit
dem Ende des 15. Jahrhunderts_ (ibid. 1807).
His nephew KARL VON MARTENS (1790-1863), who at his death was minister
resident of the grand-duke of Weimar at Dresden, published a _Manuel
diplomatique_ (Leipzig, 1823), re-issued as _Guide diplomatique_ in
two vols. in 1832 (5th ed. by Geffcken, 1866), a valuable textbook of
the rules and customs of the diplomatic service; _Causes célèbres du
droit des gens_ (2 vols., ibid., 1827) and _Nouvelles causes célèbres_
(2 vols., ibid., 1843), both republished, in 5 vols. (1858-1861);
_Recueil manuel et pratique de traités_ (7 vols., ibid., 1846-1857);
continued by Geffcken in 3 vols., (1885-1888).
MARTENSEN, HANS LASSEN (1808-1884), Danish divine, was born at Flensburg
on the 19th of August 1808. He studied in Copenhagen, and was ordained
in the Danish Church. At Copenhagen he was lektor in theology in 1838,
professor extra-ordinarius in 1840, court preacher also in 1845, and
professor ordinarius in 1850. In 1854 he was made bishop of Seeland. In
his studies he had come under the influence of Schleiermacher, Hegel and
Franz Baader; but he was a man of independent mind, and developed a
peculiar speculative theology which showed a disposition towards
mysticism and theosophy. His contributions to theological literature
included treatises on Christian ethics and dogmatics, on moral
philosophy, on baptism, and a sketch of the life of Jakob Boehme, who
exercised so marked an influence on the mind of the great English
theologian of the 18th century, William Law. Martensen was a
distinguished preacher, and his works were translated into various
languages. The "official" eulogy he pronounced upon Bishop Jakob P.
Mynster (1775-1854) in 1854, brought down upon his head the invectives
of the philosopher Sören Kierkegaard. He died at Copenhagen on the 3rd
of February 1884.
Amongst his works are: _Grundriss des Systems der Moralphilosophie_
(1841; 3rd ed., 1879; German, 1845), _Die christl. Taufe und die
baptistische Frage_ (2nd ed., 1847; German, 2nd ed., 1860), _Den
Christelige Dogmatik_ (4th ed., 1883; Eng. trans., 1866; German by
himself, 4th ed., 1897); _Christliche Ethik_ (1871; Eng. trans., Part
I. 1873, Part II. 1881 seq.); _Hirtenspiegel_ (1870-1872);
_Katholizismus und Protestantismus_ (1874); _Jacob Böhme_ (1882; Eng.
trans., 1885). An autobiography, _Aus meinem Leben_, appeared in 1883,
and after his death the _Briefwechsel zwischen Martensen und Dorner_
(1888).
MARTHA'S VINEYARD, an island including the greater part of Dukes county,
Massachusetts, U.S.A., lying about 3 m. off the southern coast of that
state. Its extreme length (east to west) is about 20 m., and its extreme
width (north to south) about 9½ m. Along its north-west and a portion of
its north-east shore lies Vineyard Sound. Its principal bays are
Vineyard Haven Harbor, a deep indentation at the northernmost angle of
the island; and, on the eastern coast, Edgartown Harbor and Katama Bay,
both formed by the juxtaposition of Chappaquiddick Island. The surface
is mainly flat, excepting a strip about 2 m. broad along the
north-western coast, and the two western townships (Chilmark and Gay
Head), which are hilly, with several eminences of 200 to 300 ft.--the
highest, Prospect Peak, in Chilmark township, 308 ft. Gay Head Light, a
beacon near the western extremity, stands among picturesque cliffs, 145
ft. above the sea. Along the southern coast are many ponds, all shut off
from the ocean by a narrow strip of land, excepting Tisbury Great Pond,
which has a small outlet to the sea. Others are Sengekontacket Pond on
the eastern coast; Lagoon Pond, which is practically an arm of Vineyard
Haven Harbor; and, about a mile east of the Harbor, Chappaquonsett Pond.
Martha's Vineyard is divided into the following townships (from east to
west): Edgartown (in the south-eastern part of the island), pop. (1910),
1191; area, 29.7 sq. m.; Oak Bluffs (north-eastern portion), pop.
(1910), 1084; area, 7.9 sq. m.; Tisbury, pop. (1910), 1196; area, 7.1
sq. m.; West Tisbury, pop. (1910), 437; area, 30.5 sq. m.; Chilmark,
pop. (1910), 282; area, 19.4 sq. m.; and Gay Head, pop. (1910), 162;
area 5.2 sq. m. The population of the county, including the Elizabeth
Ids. (Gosnold town, pop. 152), N. W. of Martha's Vineyard;
Chappaquiddick Island (Edgartown township), and No Man's Land (a small
island south-west of Martha's Vineyard), was 4561 in 1900 (of whom 645
were foreign-born, including 79 Portuguese and 72 English-Canadians, and
154 Indians), and in 1910, 4504. The principal villages are Oak Bluffs
on the north-east coast, facing Vineyard Sound; Vineyard Haven, in
Tisbury township, beautifully situated on the west shore of Vineyard
Haven Harbor, and Edgartown on Edgartown Harbor--all summer resorts. No
Man's Land, included politically in Chilmark township, lies about 6½ m.
south of Gay Head. It is about 1½ m. long (east and west) and about 1 m.
wide, is composed of treeless swamps, and is used mainly for
sheep-grazing; the neighbouring waters are excellent fishing ground.
Martha's Vineyard is served by steamship lines from Wood's Hole and New
Bedford to Vineyard Haven, Oak Bluffs, and Edgartown. The Martha's
Vineyard railway (from Oak Bluffs to the south-east extremity of the
island, by way of Edgartown), opened in 1874, was not a financial
success, and had been practically abandoned in 1909, but an electric
line from Oak Bluffs to Vineyard Haven provides transit facilities for
that part of the island.
For more than a century whale fishing was practically the sole industry
of Martha's Vineyard. It was carried on at first from the shore in small
boats; but by the first decade of the 18th century vessels especially
built for the purpose were being used, and by 1760 shore fishing had been
practically abandoned. The industry, seriously crippled by invasions of
British troops during the War of American Independence--especially by a
force which landed at Holmes's Hole (Vineyard Haven) in September
1778--and again during the War of 1812, revived and was at its height in
1840-1850, only to receive another setback during the Civil War. In the
last part of the 19th century its decline was rapid, not only because of
the increasing scarcity of whales, but because of the introduction of the
mineral oils, and by the end of the century whaling had ceased to be of
any economic importance. Herring fishing, on both the north and the south
shore, occupies a small percentage of the inhabitants, and there is also
some deep-sea fishing. Sheep-raising, especially for wool, is an industry
of considerable importance, and Dukes county is one of the three most
important counties of the state in this industry.
Martha's Vineyard was discovered in 1602 by Captain Bartholomew Gosnold,
who landed (May 21) on the island now called No Man's Land, and named it
Martha's Vineyard,[1] which name was subsequently applied to the larger
island. Captain Gosnold rounded Gay Head, which he named Dover Cliff,
and established on what is now Cuttyhunk Island, which he called
Elizabeth Island, the first (though, as it proved, a temporary) English
settlement in New England. The entire line of sixteen islands, of which
Cuttyhunk is the westernmost of the larger ones, have since been called
the Elizabeth Islands; they form the dividing line between Buzzards Bay
and Vineyard Sound, and in 1864 were incorporated as Gosnold township
(pop. in 1905, 161) of Dukes county.
The territory within the jurisdiction of the Council for New England was
parcelled in 1635 among the patentees in such terms--owing to
insufficient knowledge of the geography of the coast--that both William
Alexander, earl of Stirling, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, proprietor of
Maine, claimed Martha's Vineyard. In 1641 Stirling's agent, Forrett,
sold to Thomas Mayhew (1592-1682),[2] of Watertown, Massachusetts, for
$200, the island of Nantucket, with several smaller neighbouring
islands, and also Martha's Vineyard. It seems probable that Forrett
acted without authority, and his successor, Forrester, was arrested by
the Dutch in New Amsterdam and sent to Holland before he could confirm
the transfer. In 1644 the Commissioners of the United Colonies,
apparently at the request of the inhabitants of Martha's Vineyard,
annexed the island to Massachusetts, but ten years later the islanders
declared their independence of that colony, and apparently for the next
decade managed their own affairs. Meanwhile Mayhew had recognized the
jurisdiction of Maine;[3] and though the officials of that province
showed no disposition to press their claim, it seems that this technical
suzerainty continued until 1664, when the Duke of York received from his
brother, Charles II., the charter for governing New York, New Jersey,
and other territory, including Martha's Vineyard. In 1671 Governor
Francis Lovelace, of New York, appointed Mayhew governor for life of
Martha's Vineyard; in 1683, the island, with Nantucket, the Elizabeth
Islands, No Man's Land, and Chappaquiddick Island were erected into
Dukes county, and in 1695 the county was re-incorporated by
Massachusetts with Nantucket excluded. Under the new charter of
Massachusetts Bay (1691), after some dispute between Massachusetts and
New York, Martha's Vineyard became a part of Massachusetts.
There is a tradition that the first settlement of Martha's Vineyard was
made in 1632, at or near the present site of Edgartown village, by
several English families forming part of a company bound for Virginia,
their ship having put in at this harbour on account of heavy weather. It
is certain, however, that in 1642, the year after Thomas Mayhew bought
the island, his son, also named Thomas Mayhew (c. 1616-1657), and
several other persons established a plantation on the site of what is
now Edgartown village. This settlement was at first called "Great
Harbor," but soon after Mayhew was appointed governor of the island it
was named Edgartown, probably in honour of the only surviving son of the
Duke of York. The younger Mayhew, soon after removing to Martha's
Vineyard, devoted himself to missionary work among the Indians, his work
beginning at about the same time as that of John Eliot; he was lost at
sea in 1657 while on his way to secure financial assistance in England,
and his work was continued successfully by his father.[4] The township
of Edgartown was incorporated in 1671, and is the county-seat of Dukes
county. In 1783 several Edgartown families joined the association made
up of Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Providence and Newport whalers, who
founded Hudson, on the Hudson river, in Columbia county, New York. Oak
Bluffs had its origin as a settlement in the camp meetings, which were
begun here in 1835, and by 1860 had grown to large proportions. As the
village expanded it took the name of Cottage City. In 1880 the township
was incorporated under that name, which it retained until January 1907,
when the name (and that of the village also) was changed to Oak Bluffs.
Tisbury township was bought from the Indians in 1669 and was
incorporated in 1671. Its principal village, Vineyard Haven, was called
"Holmes's Hole" (in honour of one of the early settlers) until 1871,
when the present name was adopted. West Tisbury township was set off
from Tisbury, and incorporated in 1892. Chilmark township was
incorporated in 1694. Gay Head township was set off from Chilmark, and
incorporated in 1870.
See C. Gilbert Hine, _The Story of Martha's Vineyard_ (New York,
1908); Charles E. Banks, "Martha's Vineyard and the Province of Maine"
in _Collections and Proceedings_ of the Maine Historical Society, 2nd
series, vol. ix. p. 123 (Portland, Maine, 1898); and Walter S. Tower,
_A History of the American Whale Fishery_ (Philadelphia, 1907).
(G. G.*)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] In the 17th century both "Martha's Vineyard" and "Martin's
Vineyard" were used, and the latter appears in a book as early as
1638 and in another as late as 1699, and on a map as late as 1670. It
seems probable that the original form was _Martin_ the name of one of
Gosnold's crew; according to some authorities the name Martha's
Vineyard was adopted by Mayhew in honour of his wife or daughter.
[2] Mayhew was born at Tisbury, Wiltshire, was a merchant in
Southampton, emigrated to Massachusetts about 1633, settled at
Watertown, Mass., in 1635; was a member of the Massachusetts General
Court in 1636-1644, and after 1644 or 1645 lived on Martha's
Vineyard.
[3] It appears from a letter from Mayhew to Governor Andros in 1675
that about 1641 Mayhew obtained a conveyance to Martha's Vineyard
from Richard Vines, agent of Gorges. See F. B. Hough, _Papers
Relating to the Island of Nantucket, with Documents Relating to the
Original Settlement of that Island, Martha's Vineyard, &c._ (Albany,
N.Y., 1856).
[4] In 1901, a boulder memorial was erected to the younger Mayhew on
the West Tisbury road, between the village of that name and
Edgartown, marking the spot where the missionary bade farewell to
several hundred Indians. The Martha's Vineyard Indians were subject
to the Wampanoag tribe, on the mainland, were expert watermen, and
were very numerous when the whites first came. Nearly all of them
were converted to Christianity by the Mayhews, and they were friendly
to the settlers during King Philip's war. By 1698 their numbers had
been reduced to about 1000, and by 1764 to about 300. Soon after this
they began to intermarry with negroes, and now only faint traces of
them remain.
MARTÍ, JUAN JOSÉ (1570?-1604), Spanish novelist, was born at Orihuela
(Valencia) about 1570. He graduated as bachelor of canon law at Valencia
in 1591, and in 1598 took his degree as doctor of canon law; in the
latter year he was appointed co-examiner in canon law at Valencia
University, and held the post for six years. He died at Valencia, and
was buried in the cathedral of that city on the 22nd of December 1604.
Martí joined the Valencian _Academia de los nocturnos_, under the name
of "Atrevimiento," but is best known by another pseudonym, Mateo Luján
de Sayavedra, under which he issued an apocryphal continuation (1602) of
Alemán's _Guzmán de Alfarache_ (1599). Marti obtained access to Alemán's
unfinished manuscript, and stole some of his ideas; this dishonesty
lends point to the sarcastic congratulations which Alemán, in the
genuine sequel (1604) pays to his rival's sallies: "I greatly envy them,
and should be proud that they were mine." Martí's book is clever, but
the circumstances in which it was produced account for its cold
reception and afford presumption that the best scenes are not original.
It has been suggested that Martí is identical with Avellaneda, the
writer of a spurious continuation (1614) to _Don Quixote_; but he died
before the first part of _Don Quixote_ was published (1605).
MARTIAL (MARCUS VALERIUS MARTIALIS), Latin epigrammatist, was born, in
one of the years A.D. 38-41, for in book x., of which the poems were
composed in the years 95-98, he is found celebrating his fifty-seventh
birthday (x. 24). Our knowledge of his career is derived almost entirely
from himself. Reference to public events enables us approximately to fix
the date of the publication of the different books of epigrams, and from
these dates to determine those of various important events in his life.
The place of his birth was Bilbilis, officially Augusta Bilbilis, in
Spain. His name seems to imply that he was born a Roman citizen, but he
speaks of himself as "sprung from the Celts and Iberians, and a
countryman of the Tagus;" and, in contrasting his own masculine
appearance with that of an effeminate Greek, he draws especial attention
to "his stiff Spanish hair" (x. 65, 7). His parents, Fronto and
Flaccilla, appear to have died in his youth (v. 34). His home was
evidently one of rude comfort and plenty, sufficiently in the country to
afford him the amusements of hunting and fishing, which he often recalls
with keen pleasure, and sufficiently near the town to afford him the
companionship of many comrades, the few survivors of whom he looks
forward to meeting again after his four-and-thirty years' absence (x.
104). The memories of this old home, and of other spots, the rough names
and local associations which he delights to introduce into his verse,
attest the enjoyment which he had in his early life, and were among the
influences which kept his spirit alive in the routine of social life in
Rome. But his Spanish home could impart, not only the vigorous vitality
which was one condition of his success as a wit and poet, but the
education which made him so accomplished a writer. The literary
distinction obtained by the Senecas, by Lucan, by Quintilian, who
belonged to a somewhat older generation, and by his friends and
contemporaries, Licinianus of Bilbilis, Decianus of Emerita, and Canius
of Gades, proves how eagerly the novel impulse of letters was received
in Spain in the first century of the empire. The success of his
countrymen may have been the motive which induced Martial to remove to
Rome when he had completed his education. This he did in A.D. 64, one
year before the fall of Seneca and Lucan, who were probably his earliest
patrons.
Of the details of his life for the first twenty years or so after he
came to Rome we do not know much. He published some juvenile poems of
which he thought very little in his maturer years, and he laughs at a
foolish bookseller who would not allow them to die a natural death (i.
113). Martial had neither youthful passion nor youthful enthusiasm to
make him precociously a poet. His faculty ripened with experience and
with the knowledge of that social life which was both his theme and his
inspiration; and many of his best epigrams are among those written in
his last years. From many answers which he makes to the remonstrances of
friends--among others to those of Quintilian--it may be inferred that he
was urged to practise at the bar, but that he preferred his own lazy
Bohemian kind of life. He made many influential friends and patrons, and
secured the favour both of Titus and Domitian. From them he obtained
various privileges, among others the _semestris tribunatus_, which
conferred on him equestrian rank. He failed, however, in his application
to the latter for more substantial advantages, although he commemorates
the glory of having been invited to dinner by him, and also the fact
that he procured the privilege of citizenship for many persons in whose
behalf he appealed to him. The earliest of his extant works, that known
by the name of _Liber spectaculorum_, was first published at the opening
of the Colosseum in the reign of Titus, and relates to the theatrical
performances given by him; but the book as it now stands was given to
the world in or about the first year of Domitian, i.e. about A.D. 81.
The favour of the emperor procured him the countenance of some of the
worst creatures at the imperial court--among them of the notorious
Crispinus, and probably of Paris, the supposed author of Juvenal's
exile, for whose monument Martial afterwards wrote a eulogistic epitaph.
The two books, numbered by editors xiii. and xiv., and known by the
names of _Xenia_ and _Apophoreta_--inscriptions in two lines each for
presents,--were published at the Saturnalia of 84. In 86 he gave to the
world the first two of the twelve books on which his reputation rests.
From that time till his return to Spain in A.D. 98 he published a volume
almost every year. The first nine books and the first edition of book x.
appeared in the reign of Domitian; and book xi. at the end of A.D. 96,
shortly after the accession of Nerva. A revised edition of book x., that
which we now possess, appeared in A.D. 98, about the time of the
entrance of Trajan into Rome. The last book was written after three
years' absence in Spain, shortly before his death, which happened about
the year A.D. 102 or 103.
These twelve books bring Martial's ordinary mode of life between the age
of five-and-forty and sixty very fully before us. His regular home for
five-and-thirty years was Rome. He lived at first up three pairs of
stairs, and his "garret" overlooked the laurels in front of the portico
of Agrippa. He had a small villa and unproductive farm near Nomentum, in
the Sabine territory, to which he occasionally retired from the bores
and noises of the city (ii. 38, xii. 57). In his later years he had also
a small house on the Quirinal, near the temple of Quirinus. At the time
when his third book was brought out he had retired for a short time to
Cisalpine Gaul, in weariness, as he tells us, of his unremunerative
attendance on the levées of the great. For a time he seems to have felt
the charm of the new scenes which he visited, and in a later book (iv.
25) he contemplates the prospect of retiring to the neighbourhood of
Aquileia and the Timavus. But the spell exercised over him by Rome and
Roman society was too great; even the epigrams sent from Forum Corneli
and the Aemilian Way ring much more of the Roman forum, and of the
streets, baths, porticos and clubs of Rome, than of the places from
which they are dated. So too his motive for his final departure from
Rome in A.D. 98 was a weariness of the burdens imposed on him by his
social position, and apparently the difficulties of meeting the
ordinary expenses of living in the metropolis (x. 96); and he looks
forward to a return to the scenes familiar to his youth. The well-known
epigram addressed to Juvenal (xii. 18) shows that for a time his ideal
was realized; but the more trustworthy evidence of the prose epistle
prefixed to book xii. proves that his contentment was of short duration,
and that he could not live happily away from the literary and social
pleasures of Rome. The one consolation of his exile was the society of a
lady, Marcella, of whom he writes rather as if she were his
patroness--and it seems to have been a necessity of his being to have
always a patron or patroness--than his wife or mistress.
During his life at Rome, although he never rose to a position of real
independence, and had always a hard struggle with poverty, he seems to
have known everybody, especially every one of any eminence at the bar or
in literature. In addition to Lucan and Quintilian, he numbered among
his friends or more intimate acquaintances Silius Italicus, Juvenal, the
younger Pliny; and there were many others of high position whose society
and patronage he enjoyed. The silence which he and Statius, although
authors writing at the same time, having common friends and treating
often of the same subjects, maintain in regard to one another may be
explained by mutual dislike or want of sympathy. Martial in many places
shows an undisguised contempt for the artificial kind of epic on which
Statius's reputation chiefly rests; and it seems quite natural that the
respectable author of the _Thebaid_ and the _Silvae_ should feel little
admiration for either the life or the works of the Bohemian
epigrammatist.
Martial's faults are of the most glaring kind, and are exhibited without
the least concealment. Living under perhaps the worst of the many bad
emperors who ruled the world in the 1st century, he addresses him and
his favourites with the most servile flattery in his lifetime, censures
him immediately after his death (xii. 6), and offers incense at the
shrine of his successor. He is not ashamed to be dependent on his
wealthy friends and patrons for gifts of money, for his dinner, and even
for his dress. We cannot feel sure that even what seem his sincerest
tributes of regard may not be prompted by the hope of payment. Further,
there are in every book epigrams which cannot be read with any other
feelings than those of extreme distaste.
These faults are so unmistakable and undeniable that many have formed
their whole estimate of Martial from them, and have declined to make any
further acquaintance with him. Even those who greatly admire his genius,
and find the freshest interest in his representation of Roman life and
his sketches of manners and character, do not attempt to palliate his
faults, though they may partially account for them by reference to the
morals of his age and the circumstances of his life. The age was one
when literature had either to be silent or to be servile. Martial was
essentially a man of letters: he was bound either to gain favour by his
writings or to starve. Even Statius, whose writings are in other
respects irreproachable, is nearly as fulsome in his adulation. The
relation of client to patron had been recognized as an honourable one by
the best Roman traditions. No blame had attached to Virgil or Horace on
account of the favours which they received from Augustus and Maecenas,
or of the return which they made for these favours in their verse. That
old honourable relationship had, however, greatly changed between
Augustus and Domitian. Men of good birth and education, and sometimes
even of high official position (Juv. i. 117), accepted the dole
(_sportula_). Martial was merely following a general fashion in paying
his court to "a lord," and he made the best of the custom. In his
earlier career he used to accompany his patrons to their villas at Baiae
or Tibur, and to attend their morning levées. Later on he went to his
own small country house, near Nomentum, and sent a poem, or a small
volume of his poems, as his representative at the early visit. The fault
of grossness Martial shares with nearly all ancient and many modern
writers who treat of life from the baser or more ridiculous side. That
he offends more than perhaps any of them is not, apparently, to be
explained on the ground that he had to amuse a peculiarly corrupt
public. Although there is the most cynical effrontery and want of
self-respect in Martial's use of language, there is not much trace of
the satyr in him--much less, many readers will think, than in Juvenal.
It remains to ask, What were those qualities of nature and intellect
which enable us to read his best work--even the great body of his
work--with the freshest sense of pleasure in the present day? He had the
keenest capacity for enjoyment, the keenest curiosity and power of
observation. He had also a very just discernment. It is rare to find any
one endowed with so quick a perception of the ridiculous who is so
little of a caricaturist. He was himself singularly free from cant,
pedantry or affectation of any kind. Though tolerant of most vices, he
had a hearty scorn of hypocrisy. There are few better satirists of
social and literary pretenders in ancient or modern times. Living in a
very artificial age, he was quite natural, hating pomp and show, and
desiring to secure in life only what really gave him pleasure. To live
one's own life heartily from day to day without looking before or after,
and to be one's self without trying to be that for which nature did not
intend him, is the sum of his philosophy. Further, while tolerant of
much that is bad and base--the characters of Crispinus and Regulus, for
instance--he shows himself genuinely grateful for kindness and
appreciative of excellence. He has no bitterness, malice or envy in his
composition. He professes to avoid personalities in his
satire;--"Ludimus innocui" is the character he claims for it. Pliny, in
the short tribute which he pays to him on hearing of his death, says,
"He had as much good-nature as wit and pungency in his writings" (_Ep._
iii. 21).
Honour and sincerity (_fides_ and _simplicitas_) are the qualities which
he most admires in his friends. Though many of his epigrams indicate a
cynical disbelief in the character of women, yet others prove that he
could respect and almost reverence a refined and courteous lady. His own
life in Rome afforded him no experience of domestic virtue; but his
epigrams show that, even in the age which is known to modern readers
chiefly from the _Satires_ of Juvenal, virtue was recognized as the
purest source of happiness. The tenderest element in Martial's nature
seems, however, to have been his affection for children and for his
dependents.
The permanent literary interest of Martial's epigrams arises not so much
from their verbal brilliancy, though in this they are unsurpassed, as
from the amount of human life and character which they contain. He,
better than any other writer, enables us to revive the outward spectacle
of the imperial Rome. If Juvenal enforces the lesson of that time, and
has penetrated more deeply into the heart of society, Martial has
sketched its external aspect with a much fairer pencil and from a much
more intimate contact with it. Martial was to Rome in the decay of its
ancient virtue and patriotism what Menander was to Athens in its
decline. They were both men of cosmopolitan rather than of a national
type, and had a closer affinity to the life of Paris or London in the
18th century than to that of Rome in the days of the Scipios or of
Athens in the age of Pericles. The form of epigram was fitted to the
critical temper of Rome as the comedy of manners was fitted to the
dramatic genius of Greece. Martial professes to be of the school of
Catullus, Pedo, and Marsus, and admits his inferiority only to the
first. But, though he is a poet of a less pure and genuine inspiration
he is a greater epigrammatist even than his master. Indeed the epigram
bears to this day the form impressed upon it by his unrivalled skill.
AUTHORITIES.--The MSS. of Martial are divided by editors into three
families according to the recension of the text which they offer. Of
these the oldest and best is represented by three MSS. which contain
only selected extracts. The second family is derived from an inferior
source, a MS. which was edited in A.D. 401 by Torquatus Gennadius; it
comprises four MSS. and contains the whole of the text. The third
family, of which the MSS. are very numerous, also contains the whole
of the text in a recension slightly different from that of the other
two; the best representative of this family is the MS. preserved in
the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh.
The best separate edition of the text is that of Lindsay (Oxford,
1902); earlier editions of importance are those of Schneidewin (1842
and 1853), and of Gilbert (Leipzig, 1886). The best commentary is that
of L. Friedländer (Leipzig, 1886) in two volumes with German notes)
and in the same scholar's _Sittengeschichte Roms_ much will be found
that explains and illustrates Martial's epigrams. There is a large
selection from the epigrams with English notes by Paley and Stone
(1875), a smaller selection with notes by Stephenson (1880); see also
Edwin Post, _Selected Epigrams of Martial_ (1908), with introduction
and notes. The translation into English verse by Elphinston (London,
1782) is famous for its absurdity, which drew an epigram from Burns.
(W. Y. S.)
MARTIALIS, QUINTUS GARGILIUS, a Latin writer on horticultural subjects.
He has been identified by some with the military commander of the same
name, mentioned in a Latin inscription of A.D. 260 (_C. I. L._ viii.
9047) as having lost his life in the colony of Auzia (_Aumale_) in
Mauretania Caesariensis. Considerable fragments of his work (probably
called _De hortis_), which treated of the cultivation of trees and
vegetables, and also of their medicinal properties, have survived,
chiefly in the body of and as an appendix to the _Medicina Plinii_ (an
anonymous 4th century handbook of medical recipes based upon Pliny,
_Nat. Hist._ xx.-xxxii.). Extant sections treat of apples, peaches,
quinces, almonds and chestnuts. Gargilius also wrote a treatise on the
tending of cattle (_De curis boum_), and a biography of the emperor
Alexander Severus is attributed by two of the Scriptores historiae
Augustae (Aelius Lampridius and Flavius Vopiscus) to a Gargilius
Martialis, who may be the same person.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--_Gargilii Martialis ... fragmenta_, ed. A. Mai (1846);
_Plinii secundi quae fertur medicina_, ed. V. Rose (1876); _De curis
boum_, ed. E. Lommatzsch (1903) with Vegetius Renatus's
_Mulomedicina_; "Gargilius Martialis und die Maurenkriege," C.
Cichorius in G. Curtius, _Leipziger Studien_, x. (1887), where the
inscription referred to above is fully discussed: see also
Teuffel-Schwabe, _Hist. of Roman Literature_ (Eng. trans.), § 380.
MARTIAL LAW. "Martial law" is an unfortunate term and in a sense a
misnomer. It describes a suspension of ordinary law, rendered necessary
by circumstances of war or rebellion. The confusion arose from the fact
that the marshal's court administered military law before the
introduction of articles of war, which were in their turn merged in the
Army Act. But martial law is not a law in the proper sense of the term.
It is the exercise of the will of the military commander, who takes upon
himself the responsibility of suspending ordinary law in order to ensure
the safety of the state. It is declared, by a proclamation issued by the
executive, that ordinary law is inadequate to cope with the
circumstances, and provides exceptional means of arrest and punishment
of persons who resist the government or aid the enemy. But such a
proclamation, while invariably issued in order to give publicity to the
suspension of ordinary law, does not invest the step with the force of
law. It is simply military authority exercised in accordance with the
laws and usages of war, and is limited by military necessity. Yet in
reality it is part of common law which justifies acts done by necessity
for the defence of the commonwealth when there is war. H. W. Halleck in
his work on International Law (i. 544), says, "Martial law originates
either in the prerogative of the crown, as in Great Britain, or from the
exigency of the occasion, as in other states: it is one of the rights of
sovereignty, and is essential to the existence of a state, as is the
right to declare or to carry on war."
This opinion, however, must be read, as regards the British Empire, with
the passage in the Petition of Right which is reproduced in the preamble
of each annual Army Act, and asserts the illegality of martial law in
time of peace in the following terms:--"No man shall be fore-judged or
subjected in time of peace to any kind of punishment within this realm
by martial law." Therefore, whilst martial law is declared illegal in
time of peace, it is indirectly declared lawful in time of war and
intestinal commotion when the courts are closed, or when there is no
time for their cumbrous action. C. M. Clode, in _Military Forces of the
Crown_, argues that the words of the Petition of Right and of the
Military Act since the reign of Anne are plain in this respect "that ...
the crown possesses the right of issuing commissions in war and
rebellion." But he rightly adds that the military commander may permit
the usual courts to continue their jurisdiction upon such subjects as he
thinks proper. Legislative enactments have also sanctioned this special
jurisdiction at various times, notably in 1798, 1799, 1801, and in 1803.
These enactments lay down that exceptional powers may be exercised
"whether the ordinary courts shall or shall not be open." As an
invariable rule an act of indemnity has been passed on the withdrawal of
martial law, but only to protect any person in charge of the execution
of martial law who has exceeded his powers in good faith.
There has been much discussion as to whether, in districts where martial
law has not been proclaimed, a person can be sent for trial from such
district into a district where martial law was in operation. It is
argued that if the ordinary courts were open and at work in the
non-proclaimed district recourse should be had to them. The Privy
Council in 1902 (_re_ Marais) refused leave to appeal where the Supreme
Court of Cape Colony had declined to issue a writ of Habeas Corpus in
these circumstances. Mr Justice Blackburn in his charge in _R._ v.
_Eyre_ says, "I have come to the conclusion that, looking at what
martial law was, the bringing of a person into the proclaimed district
to be tried might, in a proper case, be justified." The learned judge
admits that there should be a power of summary trial, observing all the
substantials of justice, in order to stamp out an insurrection by speedy
trial.
Whilst martial law is the will of the commanders, and is only limited by
the customs of war and the discretion of those who administer it, still,
as far as practicable, the procedure of military law is followed, and a
military court is held on the same lines as a court-martial. Charges are
simply framed without technicalities. The prisoner is present, the
evidence of prosecution and prisoner is taken on oath, the proceedings
are recorded, and the sentence of the court must be confirmed according
to the rules of the Army Act. Sentences of death and penal servitude
must be referred to headquarters for confirmation. In the South African
War (1899-1902) these limits of procedure were observed, and when
possible will always be.
Different Applications of Martial Law.
Entering more into detail, the term martial law has been employed in
several senses:--(1) As applied to the military forces of the crown,
apart from the military law under the old Mutiny Acts, and the present
annual Army Acts. (2) As applied to the enemy. (3) As applied to rebels.
(4) As applied to civilian subjects who are not in rebellion, but in a
district where the ordinary course of civil life cannot be maintained
owing to war or rebellion.
1. In regard to the military forces of the crown, the superseding of
justice as administered under the Army Act could only occur in a time of
great need; e.g. mutiny of five or six regiments in the field, with no
time to take the opinion of any executive authority. The officer in
command would then be bound to take measures for the purpose of
suppressing such mutiny, even to putting soldiers to death if necessary.
It would be a case where necessity forced immediate action.
2. Martial law as applied to the enemy or the population of the enemy's
country, is in the words of the duke of Wellington, "the will of the
general of the army, though it must be administered in accordance with
the customs of war."
3, 4. But it is as affecting the subjects of the crown in rebellion that
the subject of martial law really obtains its chief importance; and it
is in this sense that the term is generally used; i.e. the suspension of
ordinary law and the temporary government of the country, or parts of
it, or all of it, by military tribunals. It has often been laid down
that martial law in this sense is unknown to the law of England. A. V.
Dicey, for instance, restricts martial law to only another expression
for "the common right of the crown and its servants to repel force by
force, in the case of invasion, insurrection, or riot, or generally of
any violent resistance." But more than this is understood by the term
martial law.
When the proposition was laid down that martial law in this sense is
unknown to the law of England, it is to be remembered that fortunately
in England there never had been a state at all similar to that
prevailing in Cape Colony in 1900-1902, and it may perhaps be questioned
whether the statement would have been made with such certainty if
similar events had been present to the writers' minds.
In the charge delivered by Mr Justice Blackburn in the Jamaica case the
law as affecting the general question of martial law is well set out.
"By the laws of this country," said Mr Justice Blackburn, "beginning
at Magna Carta and getting more and more established, down to the time
of the Revolution, when it was finally and completely established, the
general rule was that a subject was not to be tried or punished except
by due course of law; all crimes are to be determined by juries
subject to the guidance of the judge; that is the general rule, and is
established law. But from the earliest times there was this also which
was the law, and is the law still, that when there was a foreign
invasion or an insurrection, it was the duty of every good subject, in
obedience to the officers and magistrates, to resist the rebels, ...
in such a case as that of insurrection prevailing so far that the
courts of law cannot sit, there must really be anarchy unless there is
some power to keep the people in order, ... before that principle the
crown claimed the prerogative to exercise summary proceedings by
martial law ... in time of war when this disturbance was going on,
over others than the army. And further than that, the crown made this
further claim against the insurgents, that whilst it existed, pending
the insurrection and for a short time afterwards, the crown had ...
the power to proclaim martial law in the sense of using summary
proceedings, to punish the insurgents and to check and stop the spread
of the rebellion by summary proceedings against the insurgents, so as
... to stamp out the rebellion. Now no doubt the extent to which the
crown had power to do that has never been yet decided. Our law has
been declared from time to time and has always been a practical
science, that is, the judges have decided so much as was necessary for
the particular case, and that has become part of the law. But it never
has come to be decided what this precise power is."
So far as the United Kingdom is concerned the need has never arisen. It
has always been found possible to employ the ordinary courts directly
the rebels have been defeated in the field and have been made prisoners
or surrendered. "Fortunately in England only three occasions have arisen
since the Revolution when the authority of the civil power was for a
time, and then only partially, suspended," 1715, 1745 and 1780. Clode,
_Military Forces_, ii. 163, says: "Upon the threat of invasion followed
by rebellion in 1715, the first action of the government was to issue a
proclamation authorizing all officers, civil and military, by force of
arms (if necessary) to suppress the rebellion." This, therefore, would
only seem to fall within the limited sense in which Dicey understands
martial law to be legal, "the right of the crown and its servants to
repel force by force." There was no attempt to bring persons before
courts-martial who ought to be tried by the common law, and all the
extraordinary acts of the crown were sanctioned by parliament. After the
rebellion had been suppressed two statutes were passed, one for
indemnity and the other for pardon. Before the revolution of 1745
similar action was adopted, a proclamation charging civil magistrates to
do their utmost to prevent and suppress all riots, and acts of
parliament suspending Habeas Corpus, providing for speedy trials; and of
indemnity. In the Gordon Riots of 1780 a very similar course was
pursued, and nothing was done which would not fall within Dicey's
limitation. No prisoners were tried by martial law.
In Ireland the ordinary law was suspended in 1798-1801 and in 1803. In
1798 an order in Council was issued to all general officers commanding
H.M. forces to punish all persons acting in, aiding, or in any way
assisting the rebellion, according to _martial law_, either by death or
otherwise, as to them should seem expedient for the suppression and
punishment of all rebels; but the order was communicated to the Irish
houses of parliament, who expressed their approval by addresses to the
viceroy. It was during the operation of this order that Wolfe Tone's
case arose. Tone, a subject of the king, was captured on board a French
man-of-war, and condemned to death by a court-martial. Curran, his
counsel, applied to the king's bench at Dublin for a Habeas Corpus, on
the grounds that only when war was raging could courts-martial be
endured, not while the court of king's bench sat. The court granted his
application; but no ultimate decision was ever given, as Tone died
before it could be arrived at.
In 1799 application was made to parliament for express sanction to
martial law. The preamble of the act declared that "The Rebellion still
continues ... and stopped the ordinary course of justice and of the
common law; and that many persons ... who had been taken by H.M. forces
... have availed themselves of such partial restoration of the ordinary
course of the common law to evade the punishment of their crimes,
whereby it had become necessary for parliament to interfere." The act
declared that martial law should prevail and be put in force whether the
ordinary courts were or were not open, &c. And nothing in the act could
be held to take away, abridge or eliminate the acknowledged prerogative
of war, for the public safety to resort to the exercise of martial law
against open enemies or traitors, &c.
After the suppression of the rebellion an act of indemnity was passed in
1801.
In 1803 a similar act was passed by the parliament of the United Kingdom
as it was after the Act of Union. In introducing it Mr Pitt stated: "The
bill is not one to enable the government in Ireland to declare martial
law in districts where insurrection exists, for that is a power which
His Majesty already possesses--the object will be to enable the
lord-lieutenant, when any persons shall be taken in rebellion, to order
them to be tried immediately by a court-martial."
During the 19th century martial law was proclaimed by the British
government in the following places:--
1. Barbados, 1805-1816.
2. Demerara, 1823.
3. Jamaica, 1831-1832; 1865.
4. Canada, 1837-1838.
5. Ceylon, 1817 and 1848.
6. Cephalonia, 1848.
7. Cape of Good Hope, 1834; 1849-1851.
8. St Vincent, 1863.
9. South Africa, 1899-1901.
The proclamation was always based on the grounds of necessity, and
where any local body of a representative character existed it would
seem that its assent was given, and an act of indemnity obtained after
the suppression of the rebellion. (Jno. S.)
MARTIGNAC, JEAN BAPTISTE SYLVERE GAY, VICOMTE de (1778-1832), French
statesman, was born at Bordeaux on the 20th of June 1778. In 1798 he
acted as secretary to Sieyès; then after serving for a while in the
army, he turned to literature, producing several light plays. Under the
Empire he practised with success as an advocate at Bordeaux, where in
1818 he became advocate-general of the _cour royale_. In 1819 he was
appointed _procureur-général_ at Limoges, and in 1821 was returned for
Marmande to the Chamber of Deputies, where he supported the policy of
Villèle. In 1822 he was appointed councillor of state, in 1823 he
accompanied the due d'Angoulême to Spain as civil commissary; in 1824 he
was created a viscount and appointed director-general of registration.
In contact with practical politics his ultra-royalist views were
gradually modified in the direction of the Doctrinaires, and on the fall
of Villèle he was selected by Charles X. to carry out the new policy of
compromise. On the 4th of January 1828 he was appointed minister of the
interior, and, though not bearing the title of president, became the
virtual head of the cabinet. He succeeded in passing the act abolishing
the press censorship, and in persuading the king to sign the ordinances
of the 16th of June 1828 on the Jesuits and the little seminaries. He
was exposed to attack from both the extreme Left and the extreme Right,
and when in April 1829 a coalition of these groups defeated him in the
chamber, Charles X., who had never believed in the policy he
represented, replaced him by the prince, de Polignac. In March 1830
Martignac voted with the majority for the address protesting against the
famous ordinances; but during the revolution that followed he remained
true to his legitimist principles. His last public appearance was in
defence of Polignac in the Chamber of Peers in December 1830. He died on
the 3rd of April 1832.
Martignac published _Bordeaux au mois de Mars 1815_ (Paris, 1830), and
an _Essai historique sur les révolutions d'Espagne et l'intervention
française de 1823_ (Paris, 1832). See also E. Daudet, _Le Ministère de
M. de Martignac_ (Paris, 1875).
MARTIGUES, a port of south-eastern France in the department of
Bouches-du-Rhône, on the southern shore of the lagoon of Berre, and at
the eastern extremity of that of Caronte, by which the former is
connected with the Mediterranean. Pop. (1906), 4,178. Martigues is 23 m.
W.N.W. of Marseilles by rail. Divided into three quarters by canals, the
place has been called the Venice of Provence. It has a harbour (used by
coasting and fishing vessels), marine workshops, oil and soap
manufactures and cod-drying works. A special industry consists in the
preparation of _boutargue_ from the roes of the grey mullet caught in
the salt lagoons, which rivals Russian caviare.
Built in 1232 by Raymond Bérenger, count of Provence, Martigues was
made a viscountship by Joanna I., queen of Naples. Henry IV. made it a
principality, in favour of a princess of the house of Luxembourg. It
afterwards passed into the hands of the duke of Villars.
MARTIN, ST (c. 316-400), bishop of Tours, was born of heathen parents at
Sabaria (Stein am Agger) in Pannonia, about the year 316. When ten years
old he became a catechumen, and at fifteen he reluctantly entered the
army. While stationed at Amiens he divided his cloak with a beggar, and
on the following night had the vision of Christ making known to his
angels this act of charity to Himself on the part of "Martinus, still a
catechumen." Soon afterwards he received baptism, and two years later,
having left the army, he joined Hilary of Poitiers, who wished to make
him a deacon, but at his own request ordained him to the humbler office
of an exorcist. On a visit home he converted his mother, but his zeal
against the Arians roused persecution against him and for some time he
lived an ascetic life on the desert island of Gallinaria near Genoa.
Between 360 and 370 he was again with Hilary at Poitiers, and founded in
the neighbourhood the monasterium locociagense (Licugé). In 371-372 the
people of Tours chose him for their bishop. He did much to extirpate
idolatry from his diocese and from France, and to extend the monastic
system. To obtain privacy for the maintenance of his personal religion,
he established the monastery of Marmoutier-les-Tours (Martini
monasterium) on the banks of the Loire. At Trèves, in 385, he entreated
that the lives of the Priscillianist heretics should be spared, and he
ever afterwards refused to hold ecclesiastical fellowship with those
bishops who had sanctioned their execution. He died at Candes in the
year 400, and is commemorated by the Roman Church on the 11th of
November (duplex). He left no writings, the so-called _Confessio_ being
spurious. He is the patron saint of France and of the cities of Mainz
and Würzburg. The _Life_ by his disciple Sulpicius Severus is
practically the only source for his biography, but it is full of
legendary matter and chronological errors. Gregory of Tours gives a list
of 206 miracles wrought by him after his death; Sidonius Apollinaris
composed a metrical biography of him. The Feast of St Martin (Martinmas)
took the place of an old pagan festival, and inherited some of its
usages (such as the _Martinsmännchen_, _Martinsfeuer_, _Martinshorn_ and
the like, in various parts of Germany); by this circumstance is probably
to be explained the fact that Martin is regarded as the patron of
drinking and jovial meetings, as well as of reformed drunkards.
See A. Dupuy, _Geschichte des heiligen Martins_ (Schaffhausen, 1855);
J. G. Cazenove in _Dict. chr. biog._ iii. 838.
MARTIN (Martinus), the name of several popes.
MARTIN I. succeeded Theodore I. in June or July 649. He had previously
acted as papal apocrisiarius at Constantinople, and was held in high
repute for learning and virtue. Almost his first official act was to
summon a synod (the first Lateran) for dealing with the Monothelite
heresy. It met in the Lateran church, was attended by one hundred and
five bishops (chiefly from Italy, Sicily and Sardinia, a few being from
Africa and other quarters), held five sessions or "secretarii" from the
5th to the 31st of October 649, and in twenty canons condemned the
Monothelite heresy, its authors, and the writings by which it had been
promulgated. In this condemnation were included, not only the _Ecthesis_
or exposition of faith of the patriarch Sergius for which the emperor
Heraclius had stood sponsor, but also the Typus of Paul, the successor
of Sergius, which had the support of the reigning emperor (Constans
II.). Martin published the decrees of his Lateran synod in an
encyclical, and Constans replied by enjoining his exarch to seize the
pope and send him prisoner to Constantinople. Martin was arrested in the
Lateran (June 15, 653), hurried out of Rome, and conveyed first to Naxos
and subsequently to Constantinople (Sept. 17, 654). He was ultimately
banished to Cherson, where he arrived on the 26th of March 655, and died
on the 16th of September following. His successor was Eugenius I. (L.
D.*)
A full account of the events of his pontificate will be found in
Hefele's _Conciliengeschichte_, vol. iii. (1877).
MARTIN II., the name commonly given in error to Marinus I. (q.v.).
MARTIN III., see Marinus II.
MARTIN IV. (Simon Mompitié de Brion), pope from the 22nd of February
1281 to the 28th of March 1285, should have been named Martin II. He was
born about 1210 in Touraine. He became a priest at Rouen and canon of St
Martin's at Tours, and was made chancellor of France by Louis IX. in
1260 and cardinal-priest of Sta Cecilia by Urban IV. in 1261. As papal
legate in France he held several synods for the reformation of the
clergy and conducted the negotiations for the assumption of the crown of
Sicily by Charles of Anjou. It was through the latter's influence that
he succeeded Nicholas III., after a six-months' struggle between the
French and Italian cardinals. The Romans at first declined to receive
him, and he was consecrated at Orvieto on the 23rd of March 1281.
Peaceful and unassuming, he relied completely on Charles of Anjou, and
showed little ability as pope. His excommunication of the emperor
Michael Palaeologus (Nov. 1281), who stood in the way of the French
projects against Greece, weakened the union with the Eastern Christians,
dating from the Lyons Council of 1274. He unduly favoured his own
countrymen, and for three years after the Sicilian Vespers (Mar. 31,
1282) he employed all the spiritual and material resources at his
command on behalf of his patron against Peter of Aragon. He was driven
from Rome by a popular uprising and died at Perugia. His successor was
Honorius IV. (C. H. Ha.)
His registers have been published in the _Bibliothèque des écoles
françaises d'Athènes et de Rome_ (Paris, 1901).
See A. Potthast, _Regesta pontif. roman._, vol. 2 (Berlin, 1875); K.
J. von Hefele, _Conciliengeschichte_, Bd. 6, 2nd ed.; F. Gregorovius,
_Rome in the Middle Ages_, vol. 5, trans. by Mrs G. W. Hamilton
(London, 1900-1902); H. H. Milman, _Latin Christianity_, vol. 6
(London, 1899); W. Norden, _Das Papsttum u. Byzanz_ (Berlin, 1903); E.
Choullier, "Recherches sur la vie du pape Martin IV.," in _Revue de
Champagne_, vol. 4 (1878); _Processo istorico dell' insurrezione di
Sicilia dell' anno 1282_, ed. by G. di Marzo (Palermo, 1882).
MARTIN V. (Otto Colonna) (1417-1431) was elected at Constance on St
Martin's Day, in a conclave composed of twenty-three cardinals and
thirty delegates from the five different "nations" of the council. Son
of Agapito Colonna, who had himself become a bishop and cardinal, the
new pope belonged to one of the greatest Roman families; to Urban VI.
had been due his entry, as _referendarius_, upon an ecclesiastical
career. Having become a cardinal under Innocent VII., he had seceded
from Gregory XII. in 1408, and together with the other cardinals at
Pisa, had taken part in the election of Alexander V. and afterwards of
John XXIII. At Constance, his rôle had been chiefly that of an arbiter;
he was a good and gentle man, leading a simple life, free from intrigue.
While refraining from making any pronouncement as to the validity of the
decrees of the fourth and fifth sessions, which had seemed to proclaim
the superiority of the council over the pope, Martin V. nevertheless
soon revealed his personal feelings by having a constitution read in
consistory which forbade any appeal from the judgment of the sovereign
pontiff in matters of faith (May 10, 1418). As to the reform, of which
everybody felt the necessity, the fathers in council had not succeeded
in arriving at any agreement. Martin V. himself settled a great number
of points, and then passed a series of special concordats with Germany,
France, Italy, Spain and England. Though this was not the thorough
reform of which need was felt, the council itself gave the pope a
_satisfecit_. When the council was dissolved Martin V. made it his task
to regain Italy. After staying for long periods at Mantua and Florence,
where the deposed pope, Baldassare Cossa (John XXIII.), came and made
submission to him, Martin V. was enabled to enter Rome (Sept. 30, 1420)
and measure the extent of the ruins left there by the Great Schism of
the West. He set to work to restore some of these ruins, to reconstitute
and pacify the Papal State, to put an end to the Schism, which showed
signs of continuing in Aragon and certain parts of southern France; to
enter into negotiations, unfortunately unfruitful, with the Greek Church
also with a view to a return to unity, to organize the struggle against
heresy in Bohemia; to interpose his pacific mediation between France and
England, as well as between the parties which were rending France; and,
finally, to welcome and act as patron to saintly reformers like
Bernardino of Siena and Francesca Romana, foundress of the nursing
sisterhood of the Oblate di Tor de' Specchi (1425).
In accordance with the decree _Frequens_, and the promises which he had
made, Martin V., after an interval of five years, summoned a new
council, which was almost immediately transferred from Pavia to Siena,
in consequence of an epidemic (1423). But the small number of fathers
who attended at the latter town, and above all, the disquieting
tendencies which began to make themselves felt there, induced the pope
to force on a dissolution of the synod. Pending the reunion of the new
council which had been summoned at Basel for the end of a period of
seven years, Martin V. himself endeavoured to effect a reformation in
certain points, but he was carried off by apoplexy (Feb. 20, 1431), just
as he had designated the young and brilliant Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini
to preside in his place over the council of Basel.
See L. Pastor, _Geschichte der Päpste_ (1901), i. 205-279; J. Guiraud,
_L'État pontifical après le Grand Schisme_ (1896); Müntz, _Les Arts à
la cour des papes pendant le xv^e et le xvi^e siècle_ (1878); N.
Valois, _La Crise religieuse du xv^e siècle; le pape et le concile_
(1909), vol. i. p. i.-xxix., 1-93. (N. V.)
MARTIN, BON LOUIS HENRI (1810-1883), French historian, was born on the
20th of February 1810 at St Quentin (Aisne), where his father was a
judge. Trained as a notary, he followed this profession for some time
but having achieved success with an historical romance, _Wolfthurm_
(1830), he applied himself to historical research. Becoming associated
with Paul Lacroix ("le Bibliophile Jacob"), he planned with him a
history of France, to consist of excerpts from the chief chroniclers and
historians, with original matter filling up gaps in the continuity. The
first volume, which appeared in 1833, encouraged the author to make the
work his own, and his _Histoire de France_, in fifteen volumes
(1833-1836), was the result. This _magnum opus_, rewritten and further
elaborated (4th ed., 16 vols. and index, 1861-1865) gained for the
author in 1856 the first prize of the Academy, and in 1869 the grand
biennial prize of 20,000 francs. A popular abridgment in seven volumes
was published in 1867. This, together with the continuation, _Histoire
de France depuis 1789 jusqu'à nos jours_ (6 vols. 1878-1883), gives a
complete history of France, and superseded Sismondi's _Histoire des
Français_.
This work is in parts defective; Martin's descriptions of the Gauls are
based rather on romance than on history, and in this respect he was too
much under the influence of Jean Reynaud and his cosmogonic philosophy.
However he gave a great impetus to Celtic and anthropological studies.
His knowledge of the middle ages is inadequate, and his criticisms are
not discriminating. As a free-thinking republican, his prejudices often
biassed his judgment on the political and religious history of the
_ancien régime_. The last six volumes, devoted to the 17th and 18th
centuries, are superior to the earlier ones. Martin sat in the
_assemblée nationale_ as deputy for Aisne in 1871, and was elected life
senator in 1878, but he left no mark as a politician. He died in Paris
on the 14th of December 1883.
Among his minor works may be mentioned:--_De la France, de son génie
et de ses destinées_ (1847); _Daniel Manin_ (1860), _La Russie et
l'Europe_ (1866); _Études d'archéologie celtique_ (1872); _Les
Napoléon et les frontières de la France_ (1874). See his biography by
Gabriel Hanotaux, _Henri Martin; sa vie, ses oeuvres, son temps_
(1885).
MARTIN, CLAUD (1735-1800), French adventurer and officer in the army of
the English East India Company, was born at Lyons on the 4th of January
1735, the son of a cooper. He went out to India in 1751 to serve under
Dupleix and Lally in the Carnatic wars. When Pondicherry fell in 1761,
he seems, like others of his countrymen, to have accepted service in the
Bengal army of the English, obtaining an ensign's commission in 1763,
and steadily rising to the rank of major-general. He was employed on the
building of the new Fort William at Calcutta, and afterwards on the
survey of Bengal under Rennell. In 1776 he was allowed to accept the
appointment of superintendent of the arsenal of the nawab of Oudh at
Lucknow, retaining his rank but being ultimately placed on half pay. He
acquired a large fortune, and on his death (Sept. 13, 1800) he
bequeathed his residuary estate to found institutions for the education
of European children at Lucknow, Calcutta and Lyons, all known by the
name of "La Martinière." That at Lucknow is the best known. It was
housed in the palace that he had built called Constantia, which, though
damaged during the Mutiny, retains many personal memorials of its
founder.
See S. C. Hill, _The Life of Claud Martin_ (Calcutta, 1901).
MARTIN, FRANÇOIS XAVIER (1762-1846), American jurist and author, was
born in Marseilles, France, on the 17th of March 1762, of Provençal
descent. In 1780 he went to Martinique, and before the close of the
American war of Independence went to North Carolina, where (in New Bern)
he taught French and learnt English, and set up as a printer. He studied
law, and was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1789. He published
various legal books, and edited _Acts of the North Carolina Assembly
from 1715 to 1803_ (2nd ed., 1809). He was a member of the lower house
of the General Assembly in 1806-1807. In 1809 he was commissioned a
judge of the superior court of the territory of Mississippi, and in
March 1810 became judge of the superior court of the territory of
Orleans. Here the law was in a chaotic condition, what with French law
before O'Reilly's rule, then a Spanish code, and in 1808 the Digest of
the Civil Laws, an adaptation by James Brown and Moreau Lislet of the
code of Napoleon, which repealed the Spanish fueros, partidas,
recopilationes and laws of the Indies only as they conflicted with its
provisions. Martin published in 1811 and 1813 reports of cases decided
by the superior court of the territory of Orleans. For two years from
February 1813 Martin was attorney-general of the newly established state
of Louisiana, and then until March 1846 was a judge and (from 1836 to
1846) presiding judge of the supreme court of the state. For the period
until 1830 he published reports of the decisions of the supreme court;
and in 1816 he published two volumes, one French and one English, of _A
General Digest of the Acts of Legislatures of the Late Territory of
Orleans and of the State of Louisiana_. He won the name of the "father
of Louisiana jurisprudence" and his work was of great assistance to
Edward Livingston, Pierre Derbigny and Moreau Lislet in the Louisiana
codification of 1821-1826. Martin's eyesight had begun to fail when he
was seventy, and after 1836 he could no longer write opinions with his
own hand.[1] He died in New Orleans on the 11th of December 1846.
Martin translated Robert J. Pothier _On Obligations_ (1802), and wrote
_The History of Louisiana from the Earliest Period_ (2 vols.
1827-1829) and _The History of North Carolina_ (2 vols., 1829). There
is a memoir by Henry A. Bullard in part ii. of B. F. French's
_Historical Collections of Louisiana_ (Philadelphia, 1850), and one by
W. W. Howe in John F. Condon's edition of Martin's _History of
Louisiana_ (New Orleans, 1882).
FOOTNOTE:
[1] His holographic will in favour of his brother (written in 1844
and devising property worth nearly $400,000) was unsuccessfully
contested by the state of Louisiana on the ground that the will was
void as being a legal and physical impossibility, or as being an
attempted fraud on the state, as under it the state would not receive
a 10% tax if the property went to the heirs of Martin (as intestate)
in France.
MARTIN, HOMER DODGE (1836-1897), American artist, was born at Albany,
New York, on the 28th of October 1836. A pupil for a short time of
William Hart, his earlier work followed the lines of the Hudson River
School. He was elected as associate of the National Academy of Design,
New York, in 1868, and a full academician in 1874. During a trip to
Europe in 1876 he was captivated by the Barbizon school, and from 1882
to 1886 he lived in France spending much of the time in Normandy. At
Villerville he painted his "Harp of the Winds," now at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York. Among his important canvases are "Westchester
Hills," "Adirondack Scenery," "The Cinqueboeuf Church," "Sand Dunes,"
and "A Newport Landscape." Martin is generally spoken of as one of the
great trio of American landscapists, the other two being Inness and
Wyant, and examples of his work are in most of the important American
collections. He died at St. Paul, Minnesota, on the 2nd of February
1897.
MARTIN, JOHN (1789-1854), English painter, was born at Haydon Bridge,
near Hexham, on the 19th of July 1789. He was apprenticed by his father
to a coachbuilder to learn heraldic painting, but owing to a quarrel the
indentures were cancelled, and he was placed under Bonifacio Musso, an
Italian artist, father of the enamel painter Charles Musso. With his
master Martin removed to London in 1806, where he married at the age of
nineteen, and supported himself by giving drawing lessons, and by
painting in water colours, and on china and glass. His leisure was
occupied in the study of perspective and architecture. His first
picture, "Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion," was exhibited in
the Royal Academy of 1812, and sold for fifty guineas. It was followed
by the "Expulsion" (1813), "Paradise" (1813), "Clytie" (1814), and
"Joshua" (1815). In 1821 appeared his "Belshazzar's Feast," which
excited much favourable and hostile comment, and was awarded a prize of
£200 at the British Institution, where the Joshua had previously carried
off a premium of £100. Then came the "Destruction of Herculaneum"
(1822), the "Creation" (1824), the "Eve of the Deluge" (1841), and a
series of other Biblical and imaginative subjects. In 1832-1833 Martin
received £2000 for drawing and engraving a fine series of designs to
Milton, and with Westall he produced a set of Bible illustrations. He
was also occupied with schemes for the improvement of London, and
published various pamphlets and plans dealing with the metropolitan
water supply, sewage, dock and railway systems. During the last four
years of his life he was engaged upon his large subjects of "The
Judgment," the "Day of Wrath," and the "Plains of Heaven." He was
attacked with paralysis while painting, and died in the Isle of Man on
the 17th of February 1854.
MARTIN, LUTHER (1748-1826), American lawyer, was born in New Brunswick,
New Jersey, on the 9th of February 1748. He graduated at the college of
New Jersey (now Princeton University) at the head of a class of
thirty-five in 1766, and immediately afterwards removed to Maryland,
teaching at Queenstown in that colony until 1770, and being admitted to
the bar in 1771. He practised law for a short time in Virginia, then
returned to Maryland, and became recognized as the leader of the
Maryland bar and as one of the ablest lawyers in the United States. From
1778 to 1805 he was attorney-general of Maryland; in 1814-1816 he was
chief judge of the court of Oyer and Terminer for the city of Baltimore;
and in 1818-1822 he was attorney-general of Maryland. He was one of
Maryland's representatives in the Continental Congress in 1784-1785 and
in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 at Philadelphia, but opposed
the constitution and refused to affix his signature. He subsequently
allied himself with the Federalists, and was an opponent of Thomas
Jefferson, who in 1807 spoke of him as the "Federal Bull-Dog." His
ability was shown in his famous defence of Judge Samuel Chase (q.v.) in
the impeachment trial before the United States Senate in 1804-1805, and
in his defence of Aaron Burr (q.v.) against the charge of treason in
1807. He has been described by the historian Henry Adams, writing of the
Chase trial, as at that time the "most formidable of American
advocates." Though he received a large income, he was so improvident
that he was frequently in want, and on the 22nd of February 1822 the
legislature of Maryland passed a remarkable resolution--the only one of
the kind in American history--requiring every lawyer in the state to pay
an annual licence fee of five dollars, to be handed over to trustees
appointed "for the appropriation of the proceeds raised by virtue of
this resolution to the use of Luther Martin." This resolution was
rescinded on the 6th of February 1823. Martin died at the home of Aaron
Burr in New York on the 10th of July 1826. In 1783 he had married a
daughter of the Captain Michael Cresap (1742-1775), who was unjustly
charged by Jefferson, in his _Notes on Virginia_, with the murder of the
family of the Indian chief, John Logan, and whom Martin defended in a
pamphlet long out of print.
See the biographical sketch by Henry P. Goddard, _Luther Martin, the
Federal Bull-Dog_ (Baltimore, 1887), No. 24 of the "Peabody Fund
Publications," of the Maryland Historical Society.
MARTIN, SIR THEODORE (1816-1909), British author and translator, the son
of a solicitor, was born at Edinburgh on the 16th of September 1816, and
educated at the Royal High School and the University, from which he
subsequently received the honorary degree of LL.D. He practised for some
time as a solicitor in Edinburgh, but in 1846 went to London, where he
became senior partner in the firm of Martin & Leslie, parliamentary
agents. He early contributed to _Fraser's Magazine_ and _Tait's
Magazine_, under the signature of "Bon Gaultier," and in 1856, in
conjunction with Professor Aytoun, he published the _Book of Ballads_
under the same pseudonym. This work at once obtained popular favour. In
1858 he published a volume of translations of the _Poems and Ballads of
Goethe_, and this was followed by a rendering of the Danish poet Henrik
Hertz's lyric drama, _King René's Daughter_. The principal character in
this drama, Iolanthe, was sustained by Helena Faucit (q.v.), who in 1851
became the author's wife. Martin's translations of Öhlenschläger's
dramas, _Correggio_ (1854) and _Aladdin, or the Wonderful Lamp_ (1857),
widened the fame of the Danish poet in England. In 1860 appeared
Martin's metrical translation of the _Odes of Horace_; and in 1870 he
wrote a volume on _Horace_ for the series of "Ancient Classics for
English Readers." In 1882 his Horatian labours were concluded by a
translation of the poet's whole works, with a life and notes, in two
volumes. A poetical translation of _Catullus_ was published in 1861,
followed by a privately printed volume of _Poems, Original and
Translated_, in 1863. Then came translations of the _Vita Nuova_ of
Dante, and the first part of Goethe's _Faust_. A metrical translation of
the second part of _Faust_ appeared in 1866. Martin wrote a memoir of
his friend Aytoun in 1867, and while engaged upon this work he was
requested by Queen Victoria, to whom he was introduced by his friend Sir
Arthur Helps, to undertake the _Life of His Royal Highness the Prince
Consort_. The first volume of this well-known work was published in
1874. In 1878 Martin's translation of Heine's _Poems and Ballads_
appeared. Two years later the _Life of the Prince Consort_ was brought
to a successful conclusion by the publication of the fifth volume. A
knighthood was then conferred upon him. In the following November he was
elected lord rector of the university of St Andrews. Martin's _Life of
Lord Lyndhurst_, based upon papers furnished by the family, was
published in 1883. In 1889 appeared _The Song of the Bell, and other
Translations from Schiller, Goethe, Uhland, and Others_; in 1804
_Madonna Pia, a Tragedy, and three Other Dramas_; a translation of
Leopardi's poems in 1905; and in 1901 he published a biography of his
wife. The kindly relations which subsisted between Queen Victoria and
Sir Theodore Martin were continued after the completion of the _Life_ of
the prince consort up to the queen's death. Sir Theodore's account of
these relations was privately printed in 1902, and, with King Edward's
consent, for general publication in 1908. This little book, _Queen
Victoria as I knew her_, throws a good deal of light on the Queen's
character and private life. Sir Theodore Martin died on the 18th of
August 1909.
MARTIN, WILLIAM (1767-1810), English naturalist, the son of a hosier,
was born at Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, in 1767. He studied drawing at
an early age from James Bolton at Halifax, and gained from him a taste
for the study of natural history. In 1805 he was appointed drawing
master in the grammar school at Macclesfield. Meanwhile he cultivated
his taste for natural history, and was in 1796 elected a fellow of the
Linnaean Society. He is best known for his early works on British
fossils, entitled _Petrifacta derbiensia or Figures and Descriptions of
Petrifactions collected in Derbyshire_ (1809); and _Outlines of an
Attempt to establish a Knowledge of Extraneous Fossils on Scientific
Principles_ (1809). He died at Macclesfield on the 31st of May 1810.
MARTIN, SIR WILLIAM FANSHAWE (1801-1895), British admiral, son of
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Thomas Byam Martin, comptroller of the navy,
and grandson, on the mother's side, of Captain Robert Fanshawe, who
commanded the "Namur" 90 in Rodney's victory of the 12th of April 1782,
was born on the 5th of December 1801. Entering the navy at the age of
twelve, his father's interest secured his rapid promotion: he was made a
lieutenant on the 15th of December 1820; on the 8th of February 1823 he
was promoted to be commander of the "Fly" sloop, his good service in
which in support of the interests of British merchants at Callao secured
his promotion as captain on the 5th of June 1824. He afterwards served
in the Mediterranean and on the home station. In 1849-1852 he was
commodore commanding the Channel squadron, and gave evidence of a
remarkable aptitude for command. He was made rear-admiral in May 1853,
and for the next four years was superintendent of Portsmouth dockyard.
He was made vice-admiral in February 1858, and after a year as a lord of
the admiralty, was appointed commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean.
The discipline of the navy was then bad. It was a tradition sprung from
the wholesale shipment of gaol-birds during the old war, that the men
were to be treated without consideration; moreover the ships had been
largely filled up with "bounty men" bought into the service with a £10
note without training. Out of this unpromising material Martin formed
the fleet which was at that time the ideal of excellence. He had no war
service, and, beyond the Italian disturbance of 1860-61, no opportunity
for showing diplomatic ability. But his memory lives as that of the
reformer of discipline and the originator of a comprehensive system of
steam manoeuvres. He became an admiral in November 1863, and on the 4th
of December succeeded to the baronetcy which had been conferred on his
grandfather. His last appointment was the command at Plymouth,
1866-1869, and in 1870 he was put on the retired list. In 1873 the
G.C.B. was conferred on him, and in 1878 he was made rear-admiral. He
died at Upton Grey, near Winchfield, on the 24th of March 1895. He was
twice married, and left, besides daughters, one son, who succeeded to
the baronetcy.
MARTIN OF TROPPAU, or MARTIN THE POLE (d. 1278), chronicler, was born at
Troppau, and entered the order of St Dominic at Prague. Afterwards he
went to Rome and became papal chaplain under Clement IV. and other
popes. In 1278 Pope Nicholas III. appointed him archbishop of Gnesen,
but he died at Bologna whilst proceeding to Poland to take up his new
duties. Martin wrote some sermons and some commentaries on the canon
law; but more important is his _Chronicon pontificum et imperatorum_, a
history of the popes and emperors to 1277. Written at the request of
Clement IV. the _Chronicon_ is jejune and untrustworthy, and was mainly
responsible for the currency of the legend of Pope Joan, and the one
about the institution of seven electors by the pope. Nevertheless it
enjoyed an extraordinary popularity and found many continuators; but its
value to students arises solely from the fact that it was used by
numerous chroniclers during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. In the
15th century it was translated into French, and as part of the
_Chronique martiniane_ was often quoted by controversialists. It has
also been translated into German, Italian and Bohemian.
The Latin text is printed, with introduction by L. Weiland, in Band
XXII. of the _Monumenta Germaniae historica_ (Hanover and Berlin, 1826
seq.). See G. Waitz, H. Brosien and others in the _Neues Archiv der
Geseltschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde_ (Hanover, 1876
seq.); W. Wattenbach, _Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen_, Band II.
(Berlin, 1894); and A. Molinier, _Les Sources de l'histoire de
France_, Tome III. (Paris, 1903).
MARTIN[1] (Fr. _Martinet_), the _Hirundo urbica_ of Linnaeus and
_Chelidon urbica_ of modern ornithologists, a bird well known throughout
Europe, including even Lapland, where it is abundant, retiring in winter
to the south of Africa. It also inhabits the western part of Asia, and
appears from time to time in large flocks in India. The martin (or
house-martin, as it is often called, to distinguish it from the
sand-martin) commonly reaches its summer quarters a few days later than
the Swallow (q.v.), with which it is often confused in spite of the
differences between them, the martin's white rump and lower parts being
conspicuous as it flies or clings to its nest attached to houses. This
nest, made of the same material as the swallow's, is, however, a more
difficult structure to rear, and a week or more is often occupied in
laying its foundations--the builders clinging to the wall while
depositing the mud of which it is composed. The base once fixed, the
superstructure is often quickly added, till the whole takes the shape of
the half or quarter of a hemisphere, and is finished with a lining of
feathers mixed with a few bents or straws. The martin builds soon after
its return, and a nest that has outlasted the winter is almost at once
reoccupied. The bird usually in the course of the summer raises a
second, or rarely a third, brood of offspring--though the latest broods
often die in the nest, apparently through failure of food. What seem to
be adults are observed in England every year so late as November, and
sometimes within a few days of the winter solstice, but these late birds
are almost certainly strangers.
The sand-martin, _Hirundo riparia_ of Linnaeus and _Cotile riparia_ of
modern writers, differs much in appearance and habits from the former.
Its smaller size, mouse-coloured upper surface and jerking flight
distinguish it from the other British _Hirundinidae_; but it is seldom
discriminated, and, being the first of the family to return to its
northern home, the so-called "early swallow" is nearly always of this
species. Instead of the clay-built nest of the house-martin, this bird
bores horizontal galleries in an escarpment. When beginning its
excavation, it clings to the face of the bank, and with its bill loosens
the earth, working from the centre outwards, and often hanging head
downwards. The tunnel may extend to 4, 6, or even 9 ft. The gallery
seems intended to be straight, but inequalities of the ground, and
especially the meeting with stones, often causes it to take a sinuous
course. At the end is formed a nest lined with a few grass-stalks and
feathers. The sand-martin has several broods in the year, and is more
regular than other _Hirundinidae_ in its departure for the south. The
kind of soil needed for its nesting habits makes it somewhat local, but
no species of the order _Passeres_ has a geographical range that can
compare with this. In Europe it is found nearly to the North Cape, and
thence to the Sea of Okhotsk. In winter it visits many parts of India
and South Africa to the Transvaal. In America its range extends (having
due regard to the season) from Melville Island to Caiçara in Brazil, and
from Newfoundland to Alaska.
The purple martin of America, _Progne purpurea_, is a favourite in
Canada and the United States. Naturally breeding in hollow trees, it
readily adapts itself to the nest-boxes which are commonly set up for
it; but its numbers are in some years and places diminished in a manner
unexplained. The limits of its range in winter are not determined,
chiefly owing to the differences of opinion as to the validity of
certain supposed kindred species found in South America; but according
to some authorities it reaches the border of Patagonia, while in summer
it is known to inhabit lands within the Arctic Circle. The male is
almost wholly of a glossy steel-blue, while the female is duller in
colour above, and beneath of a brownish-grey.
Birds that may be called martins occur almost all over the world except
in New Zealand, which is not regularly inhabited by any member of the
family. The ordinary martin of Australia is the _Petrochelidon
nigricans_ of most ornithologists, and another and more beautiful form
is the ariel or fairy-martin of the same country, _Petrochelidon ariel_.
This last builds a bottle-shaped nest of mud, as does also the
rock-martin of Europe, _Cotile rupestris_. The eggs of martins are from
four to seven in number, and generally white, while those of swallows
usually have brown, grey or lilac markings. (A. N.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The older English form, martlet (French, _Martelet_), is, except
in heralds' language, almost obsolete, and when used is now applied
in some places to the Swift (q.v.). The bird called martin by French
colonists in the Old World is a mynah (_Acridotheres_). (See
GRACKLE.)
MARTINEAU, HARRIET (1802-1876), English writer, was born at Norwich,
where her father was a manufacturer, on the 12th of June 1802. The
family was of Huguenot extraction (see MARTINEAU, JAMES) and professed
Unitarian views. The atmosphere of her home was industrious,
intellectual and austere; she herself was clever, but weakly and
unhappy; she had no sense of taste or smell, and moreover early grew
deaf. At the age of fifteen the state of her health and nerves led to a
prolonged visit to her father's sister, Mrs Kentish, who kept a school
at Bristol. Here, in the companionship of amiable and talented people,
her life became happier. Here, also, she fell under the influence of the
Unitarian minister, Dr Lant Carpenter, from whose instructions, she
says, she derived "an abominable spiritual rigidity and a truly
respectable force of conscience strangely mingled together." From 1819
to 1830 she again resided chiefly at Norwich. About her twentieth year
her deafness became confirmed. In 1821 she began to write anonymously
for the _Monthly Repository_, a Unitarian periodical, and in 1823 she
published _Devotional Exercises and Addresses, Prayers and Hymns_.
In 1826 her father died, leaving a bare maintenance to his wife and
daughters. His death had been preceded by that of his eldest son, and
was shortly followed by that of a man to whom Harriet was engaged. Mrs
Martineau and her daughters soon after lost all their means by the
failure of the house where their money was placed. Harriet had to earn
her living, and, being precluded by deafness from teaching, took up
authorship in earnest. Besides reviewing for the _Repository_ she wrote
stories (afterwards collected as _Traditions of Palestine_), gained in
one year (1830) three essay-prizes of the Unitarian Association, and
eked out her income by needlework. In 1831 she was seeking a publisher
for a series of tales designed as _Illustrations of Political Economy_.
After many failures she accepted disadvantageous terms from Charles Fox,
to whom she was introduced by his brother, the editor of the
_Repository_. The sale of the first of the series was immediate and
enormous, the demand increased with each new number, and from that time
her literary success was secured. In 1832 she moved to London, where she
numbered among her acquaintance Hallam, Milman, Malthus, Monckton
Milnes, Sydney Smith, Bulwer, and later Carlyle. Till 1834 she continued
to be occupied with her political economy series and with a supplemental
series of _Illustrations of Taxation_. Four stories dealing with the
poor-law came out about the same time. These tales, direct, lucid,
written without any appearance of effort, and yet practically effective,
display the characteristics of their author's style. In 1834, when the
series was complete, Miss Martineau paid a long visit to America. Here
her open adhesion to the Abolitionist party, then small and very
unpopular, gave great offence, which was deepened by the publication,
soon after her return, of _Society in America_ (1837) and a _Retrospect
of Western Travel_ (1838). An article in the _Westminster Review_, "The
Martyr Age of the United States," introduced English readers to the
struggles of the Abolitionists. The American books were followed by a
novel, _Deerbrook_ (1839)--a story of middle-class country life. To the
same period belong a few little handbooks, forming parts of a _Guide to
Service_. The veracity of her _Maid of All Work_ led to a widespread
belief, which she regarded with some complacency, that she had once been
a maid of all work herself.
In 1839, during a visit to the Continent, Miss Martineau's health broke
down. She retired to solitary lodgings in Tynemouth, and remained an
invalid till 1844. Besides a novel, _The Hour and the Man_ (1840), _Life
in the Sickroom_ (1844), and the _Playfellow_ (1841), she published a
series of tales for children containing some of her most popular work:
_Settlers at Home_, _The Peasant and the Prince_, _Feats on the Fiord_,
&c. During this illness she for a second time declined a pension on the
civil list, fearing to compromise her political independence. Her letter
on the subject was published, and some of her friends raised a small
annuity for her soon after.
In 1844 Miss Martineau underwent a course of mesmerism, and in a few
months was restored to health. She eventually published an account of
her case, which had caused much discussion, in sixteen _Letters on
Mesmerism_. On her recovery she removed to Ambleside, where she built
herself "The Knoll," the house in which the greater part of her after
life was spent. In 1845 she published three volumes of _Forest and Game
Law Tales_. In 1846 she made a tour with some friends in Egypt,
Palestine and Syria, and on her return published _Eastern Life, Present
and Past_ (1848). This work showed that as humanity passed through one
after another of the world's historic religions, the conception of the
Deity and of Divine government became at each step more and more
abstract and indefinite. The ultimate goal Miss Martineau believed to be
philosophic atheism, but this belief she did not expressly declare. She
published about this time _Household Education_, expounding the theory
that freedom and rationality, rather than command and obedience, are the
most effectual instruments of education. Her interest in schemes of
instruction led her to start a series of lectures, addressed at first to
the school children of Ambleside, but afterwards extended, at their own
desire, to their elders. The subjects were sanitary principles and
practice, the histories of England and North America, and the scenes of
her Eastern travels. At the request of Charles Knight she wrote, in
1849, _The History of the Thirty Years' Peace, 1816-1846_--an excellent
popular history written from the point of view of a "philosophical
Radical," completed in twelve months.
In 1851 Miss Martineau edited a volume of _Letters on the Laws of Man's
Nature and Development_. Its form is that of a correspondence between
herself and H. G. Atkinson, and it expounds that doctrine of
philosophical atheism to which Miss Martineau in _Eastern Life_ had
depicted the course of human belief as tending. The existence of a first
cause is not denied, but is declared unknowable, and the authors, while
regarded by others as denying it, certainly considered themselves to be
affirming the doctrine of man's moral obligation. Atkinson was a zealous
exponent of mesmerism, and the prominence given to the topics of
mesmerism and clairvoyance heightened the general disapprobation of the
book, which caused a lasting division between Miss Martineau and some of
her friends.
She published a condensed English version of the _Philosophie Positive_
(1853). To the _Daily News_ she contributed regularly from 1852 to 1866.
Her _Letters from Ireland_, written during a visit to that country in
the summer of 1852, appeared in that paper. She was for many years a
contributor to the _Westminster Review_, and was one of the little band
of supporters whose pecuniary assistance in 1854 prevented its
extinction or forced sale. In the early part of 1855 Miss Martineau
found herself suffering from heart disease. She now began to write her
autobiography, but her life, which she supposed to be so near its close,
was prolonged for twenty years. She died at "The Knoll" on the 27th of
June 1876.
She cultivated a tiny farm at Ambleside with success, and her poorer
neighbours owed much to her. Her busy life bears the consistent impress
of two leading characteristics--industry and sincerity. The verdict
which she records on herself in the autobiographical sketch left to be
published by the _Daily News_ has been endorsed by posterity. She
says--"Her original power was nothing more than was due to earnestness
and intellectual clearness within a certain range. With small
imaginative and suggestive powers, and therefore nothing approaching to
genius, she could see clearly what she did see, and give a clear
expression to what she had to say. In short, she could popularize while
she could neither discover nor invent." Her judgment on large questions
was clear and sound, and was always the judgment of a mind naturally
progressive and Protestant.
See her _Autobiography, with Memorials by Maria Weston Chapman_ (1877)
and Mrs. Fenwick Miller, _Harriet Martineau_ (1884, "Eminent Women
Series").
MARTINEAU, JAMES (1805-1900), English philosopher and divine, was born
at Norwich on the 21st of April 1805, the seventh child of Thomas
Martineau and Elizabeth Rankin, the sixth, his senior by almost three
years, being his sister Harriet (see above). He was descended from
Gaston Martineau, a Huguenot surgeon and refugee, who married in 1693
Marie Pierre, and settled soon afterwards in Norwich. His son and
grandson--respectively the great-grandfather and grandfather of James
Martineau--were surgeons in the same city, while his father was a
manufacturer and merchant. James was educated at Norwich Grammar School
under Edward Valpy, as good a scholar as his better-known brother
Richard. But the boy proving too sensitive for the life of a public day
school, was sent to Bristol to the private academy of Dr Lant Carpenter,
under whom he studied for two years. On leaving he was apprenticed to a
civil engineer at Derby, where he acquired "a store of exclusively
scientific conceptions,"[1] but also experienced the hunger of mind
which forced him to look to religion for satisfaction. Hence came his
"conversion," and the sense of vocation for the ministry which impelled
him in 1822 to enter Manchester College, then lodged at York. Here he
"woke up to the interest of moral and metaphysical speculations." Of his
teachers, one, the Rev. Charles Wellbeloved, was, Martineau said, "a
master of the true Lardner type, candid and catholic, simple and
thorough, humanly fond indeed of the counsels of peace, but piously
serving every bidding of sacred truth." "He never justified a prejudice;
he never misdirected our admiration; he never hurt an innocent feeling
or overbore a serious judgment; and he set up within us a standard of
Christian scholarship to which it must ever exalt us to aspire."[2] The
other, the Rev. John Kenrick, he described as a man so learned as to be
placed by Dean Stanley "in the same line with Blomfield and
Thirlwall,"[3] and as "so far above the level of either vanity or
dogmatism, that cynicism itself could not think of them in his
presence."[4]
On leaving the college in 1827 Martineau returned to Bristol to teach in
the school of Lant Carpenter; but in the following year he was ordained
for a Unitarian church in Dublin, whose senior minister was a relative
of his own. But his career there was in 1832 suddenly cut short by
difficulties growing out of the "regium donum," which had on the death
of the senior minister fallen to him. He conceived it as "a religious
monopoly" to which "the nation at large contributes," while
"Presbyterians alone receive," and which placed him in "a relation to
the state" so "seriously objectionable" as to be "impossible to
hold."[5] The invidious distinction it drew between Presbyterians on the
one hand, and Catholics, Friends, free-thinking Christians, unbelievers
and Jews on the other, who were compelled to support a ministry they
"conscientiously disapproved," offended his always delicate conscience;
while possibly the intellectual and ecclesiastical atmosphere of the
city proved uncongenial to his liberal magnanimity. From Dublin he was
called to Liverpool, and there for a quarter of a century he exercised
extraordinary influence as a preacher, and achieved a high reputation as
a writer in religious philosophy. In 1840 he was appointed professor of
mental and moral philosophy and political economy in Manchester New
College, the seminary in which he had himself been educated, and which
had now removed from York to the city after which it was named. This
position he held for forty-five years. In 1853 the college removed to
London, and four years later he followed it thither. In 1858 he was
called to occupy the pulpit of Little Portland Street chapel in London,
which he did at first for two years in conjunction with the Rev. J. J.
Tayler, who was also his colleague in the college, and then for twelve
years alone. In 1866 the chair of the philosophy of mind and logic in
University College, London, fell vacant, and Martineau became a
candidate. But potent opposition was offered to the appointment of a
minister of religion, and the chair went to George Croom Robertson--then
an untried man--between whom and Martineau a cordial friendship came to
exist. In 1885 he retired, full of years and honours, from the
principalship of the college he had so long served and adorned.
Martineau, who was in his youth denied the benefit of a university
education, yet in his age found famous universities eager to confer upon
him their highest distinctions. He was made LL.D. of Harvard in 1872,
S.T.D. of Leiden in 1874, D.D. of Edinburgh in 1884, D.C.L. of Oxford in
1888 and D.Litt. of Dublin in 1891. He died in London on the 11th of
January 1900.
The life of Martineau was so essentially the life of the thinker, and
was so typical of the century in which he lived and the society within
which he moved, that he can be better understood through his spoken mind
than through his outward history. He was a man happy in his ancestry; he
inherited the dignity, the reserve, the keen and vivid intellect, and
the picturesque imagination of the French Huguenot, though they came to
him chastened and purified by generations of Puritan discipline
exercised under the gravest ecclesiastical disabilities, and of culture
maintained in the face of exclusion from academic privileges. He had the
sweet and patient temper which knew how to live, unrepining and
unsoured, in the midst of the most watchful persecution, public and
private; and it is wonderful how rarely he used his splendid rhetoric
for the purposes of invective against the spirit and policy from which
he must have suffered deeply, while, it may be added, he never hid an
innuendo under a metaphor or a trope. He was fundamentally too much a
man of strong convictions to be correctly described as open-minded, for
if nature ever determined any man's faith, it was his; the root of his
whole intellectual life, which was too deep to be disturbed by any
superficial change in his philosophy, being the feeling for God. He has,
indeed, described in graphic terms the greatest of the more superficial
changes he underwent; how he had "carried into logical and ethical
problems the maxims and postulates of physical knowledge," and had moved
within the narrow lines drawn by the philosophical instructions of the
class-room "interpreting human phenomena by the analogy of external
nature"; how he served in willing captivity "the 'empirical' and
'necessarian' mode of thought," even though "shocked" by the dogmatism
and acrid humours "of certain distinguished representatives";[6] and how
in a period of "second education" at Berlin, "mainly under the admirable
guidance of Professor Trendelenburg," he experienced "a new intellectual
birth" which "was essentially the gift of fresh conceptions, the
unsealing of hidden openings of self-consciousness, with unmeasured
corridors and sacred halls behind; and, once gained, was more or less
available throughout the history of philosophy, and lifted the darkness
from the pages of Kant and even Hegel."[7] But though this momentous
change of view illuminated his old beliefs and helped him to
re-interpret and re-articulate them, yet it made him no more of a theist
than he had been before. And as his theism was, so was his religion and
his philosophy. Certainly it was true of him, in a far higher degree
than of John Henry Newman, that the being of God and himself were to his
mind two absolutely self-luminous truths--though both his God and his
self were almost infinitely remote from Newman's. And as these truths
were self-evident, so the religion he deduced from them was sufficient,
not only for his own moral and intellectual nature, but also for man as
he conceived him, for history as he knew it, and for society as he saw
it.
We may, alternatively, describe Martineau's religion as his applied
philosophy or his philosophy as his explicated religion, and both as
the expression of his singularly fine ethical and reverent nature.
But to understand these in their mutual and explanatory relations it
will be necessary to exhibit the conditions under which his thought
grew into consistency and system. His main function made him in his
early life a preacher even more emphatically than a teacher. In all he
said and all he thought he had the preacher's end in view. He was,
indeed, no mere orator or speaker to multitudes. He addressed a
comparatively small and select circle, a congregation of thoughtful
and devout men, who cultivated reverence and loved religion all the
more that their own beliefs were limited to the simplest and sublimest
truths. He felt the majesty of these truths to be the greater that
they so represented to him not only the most fundamental of human
beliefs, but also all that man could be reasonably expected to
believe, though to believe with his whole reason. Hence the beliefs he
preached were never to him mere speculative ideas, but rather the
ultimate realities of being and thought, the final truths as to the
character and ways of God interpreted into a law for the government of
conscience and the regulation of life. And so he became a positive
religious teacher by virtue of the very ideas that made the words of
the Hebrew prophets so potent and sublime. But he did more than
interpret to his age the significance of man's ultimate theistic
beliefs, he gave them vitality by reading them through the
consciousness of Jesus Christ. His religion was what he conceived the
personal religion of Jesus to have been; and He was to him more a
person to be imitated than an authority to be obeyed, rather an ideal
to be revered than a being to be worshipped.
Martineau's mental qualities fitted him to fulfil these high
interpretative functions. He had the imagination that invested with
personal being and ethical qualities the most abstruse notions. To him
space became a mode of divine activity, alive with the presence and
illuminated by the vision of God; time was an arena where the divine
hand guided and the divine will reigned. And though he did not believe
in the Incarnation, yet he held deity to be in a sense manifest in
humanity; its saints and heroes became, in spite of innumerable
frailties, after a sort divine; man underwent an apotheosis, and all
life was touched with the dignity and the grace which it owed to its
source. The 19th century had no more reverent thinker than Martineau;
the awe of the Eternal was the very atmosphere that he breathed, and
he looked at man with the compassion of one whose thoughts were full
of God.
To his function as a preacher we owe some of his most characteristic
and stimulating works, especially the discourses by which it may be
said he won his way to wide and influential recognition--_Endeavours
after the Christian Life_, 1st series, 1843; 2nd series, 1847; _Hours
of Thought_, 1st series, 1876; 2nd series, 1879; the various
hymn-books he issued at Dublin in 1831, at Liverpool in 1840, in
London in 1873; and the _Home Prayers_ in 1891. But besides the
vocation he had freely selected and assiduously laboured to fulfil,
two more external influences helped to shape Martineau's mind and
define his problem and his work; the awakening of English thought to
the problems which underlie both philosophy and religion, and the new
and higher opportunities offered for their discussion in the
periodical press. The questions which lived in the earlier and more
formative period of his life concerned mainly the idea of the church,
the historical interpretation of the documents which described the
persons who had created the Christian religion, especially the person
and work of its founder; but those most alive in his later and maturer
time chiefly related to the philosophy of religion and ethics. In one
respect Martineau was singularly happy; he just escaped the active
and, on the whole, belittling period of the old Unitarian controversy.
When his ministry began its fires were slowly dying down, though the
embers still glowed. We feel its presence in his earliest notable
work, _The Rationale of Religious Enquiry_, 1836; and may there see
the rigour with which it applied audacious logic to narrow premisses,
the tenacity with which it clung to a limited literal supernaturalism
which it had no philosophy to justify, and so could not believe
without historical and verbal authority. This traditional conservatism
survived in the statement, which, while it caused vehement discussion
when the book appeared, was yet not so much characteristic of the man
as of the school in which he had been trained, that "in no
intelligible sense can any one who denies the supernatural origin of
the religion of Christ be termed a Christian," which term, he
explained, was used not as "a name of praise," but simply as "a
designation of belief."[8] He censured the German rationalists "for
having preferred, by convulsive efforts of interpretation, to compress
the memoirs of Christ and His apostles into the dimensions of ordinary
life, rather than admit the operation of miracle on the one hand, or
proclaim their abandonment of Christianity on the other."[9] The
echoes of the dying controversy are thus distinct and not very distant
in this book, though it also offers in its larger outlook, in the
author's evident uneasiness under the burden of inherited beliefs, and
his inability to reconcile them with his new standpoint and accepted
principles, a curious forecast of his later development, while in its
positive premisses it presents a still more instructive contrast to
the conclusions of his later dialectic. Nor did the sound of the
ancient controversy ever cease to be audible to him. In 1839 he sprang
to the defence of Unitarian doctrine, which had been assailed by
certain Liverpool clergymen, of whom Fielding Ould was the most active
and Hugh McNeill the most famous. As his share in the controversy,
Martineau published five discourses, in which he discussed "the Bible
as the great autobiography of human nature from its infancy to its
perfection," "the Deity of Christ," "Vicarious Redemption," "Evil,"
and "Christianity without Priest and without Ritual."[10] He remained
to the end a keen and vigilant apologist of the school in which he had
been nursed. But the questions proper to the new day came swiftly upon
his quick and susceptible mind--enlarged, deepened and developed it.
Within his own fold new light was breaking. To W. E. Channing (q.v.),
whom Martineau had called "the inspirer of his youth," Theodore Parker
had succeeded, introducing more radical ideas as to religion and a
more drastic criticism of sacred history. Blanco White, "the
rationalist A'Kempis," who had dared to appear as "a religious sceptic
in God's presence," had found a biographer and interpreter in
Martineau's friend and colleague, John Hamilton Thom. Within the
English Church men with whom he had both personal and religious
sympathy rose--Whately, of whom he said, "We know no living writer who
has proved so little and disproved so much";[11] and Thomas Arnold, "a
man who could be a hero without romance";[12] F. D. Maurice, whose
character, marked by "religious realism," sought in the past "the
witness to eternal truths, the manifestation by time-samples of
infinite realities and unchanging relations";[13] and Charles
Kingsley, "a great teacher," though one "certain to go astray the
moment he becomes didactic."[14] Beside these may be placed men like
E. B. Pusey and J. H. Newman, whose mind Martineau said was "critical,
not prophetic, since without immediateness of religious vision," and
whose faith is "an escape from an alternative scepticism, which
receives the _veto_ not of his reason but of his will,"[15] as men for
whose teachings and methods he had a potent and stimulating antipathy.
The philosophic principles and religious deductions of Dean Mansel he
disliked as much as those of Newman, but he respected his arguments
more. Apart from the Churches, men like Carlyle and Matthew
Arnold--with whom he had much in common--influenced him; while Herbert
Spencer in England and Comte in France afforded the antithesis needful
to the dialectical development of his own views. He came to know
German philosophy and criticism, especially the criticism of Baur and
the Tübingen school, which affected profoundly his construction of
Christian history. And these were strengthened by French influences,
notably those of Renan and the Strassburg theologians. The rise of
evolution, and the new scientific way of looking at nature and her
creative methods, compelled him to rethink and reformulate his
theistic principles and conclusions, especially as to the forms under
which the relation of God to the world and His action within it could
be conceived. Under the impulses which came from these various sides
Martineau's mind lived and moved, and as they successively rose he
promptly, by appreciation or criticism, responded to the dialectical
issues which they raised.
In the discussion of these questions the periodical press supplied him
with the opportunity of taking an effective part. At first his
literary activity was limited to sectional publications, and he
addressed his public, now as editor and now as leading contributor, in
the _Monthly Repository_, the _Christian Reformer_, the _Prospective_,
the Westminster and the _National Review_. Later, especially when
scientific speculation had made the theistic problem urgent, he was a
frequent contributor to the literary monthlies. And when in 1890 he
began to gather together the miscellaneous essays and papers written
during a period of sixty years, he expressed the hope that, though
"they could lay no claim to logical consistency," they might yet show
"beneath the varying complexion of their thought some intelligible
moral continuity," "leading in the end to a view of life more coherent
and less defective than was presented at the beginning."[16] And
though it is a proud as well as a modest hope, no one could call it
unjustified. For his essays are fine examples of permanent literature
appearing in an ephemeral medium, and represent work which has solid
worth for later thought as well as for the speculation of their own
time. There is hardly a name or a movement in the religious history of
the century which he did not touch and illuminate. It was in this form
that he criticized the "atheistic mesmerism" to which his sister
Harriet had committed herself, and she never forgave his criticism.
But his course was always singularly independent, and, though one of
the most affectionate and most sensitive of men, yet it was his
fortune to be so fastidious in thought and so conscientious in
judgment as often to give offence or create alarm in those he deeply
respected or tenderly loved.
The theological and philosophical discussions which thus appeared he
later described as "the tentatives which gradually prepared the way
for the more systematic expositions of the _Types of Ethical_
_Theory_ and _The Study of Religion_, and, in some measure, of _The
Seat of Authority in Religion_."[17] These books expressed his mature
thought, and may be said to contain, in what he conceived as a final
form, the speculative achievements of his life. They appeared
respectively in 1885, 1888 and 1890, and were without doubt remarkable
feats to be performed by a man who had passed his eightieth year.
Their literary and speculative qualities are indeed exceptionally
brilliant; they are splendid in diction, elaborate in argument, cogent
yet reverent, keen while fearless in criticism. But they have also
most obvious defects: they are unquestionably the books of an old man
who had thought much as well as spoken and written often on the themes
he discusses, yet who had finally put his material together in haste
at a time when his mind had lost, if not its dialectic vigour, yet its
freshness and its sense of proportion; and who had been so accustomed
to amplify the single stages of his argument that he had forgotten how
much they needed to be reduced to scale and to be built into an
organic whole. In the first of these books his nomenclature is
unfortunate; his division of ethical theories into the
"unpsychological," "idiopsychological," and the
"hetero-psychological," is incapable of historical justification; his
exposition of single ethical systems is, though always interesting and
suggestive, often arbitrary and inadequate, being governed by
dialectical exigencies rather than historical order and perspective.
In the second of the above books his idea of religion is somewhat of
an anachronism; as he himself confessed, he "used the word in the
sense which it invariably bore half a century ago," as denoting
"belief in an ever-living God, a divine mind and will ruling the
universe and holding moral relations with mankind." As thus used, it
was a term which governed the problems of speculative theism rather
than those connected with the historical origin, the evolution and the
organization of religion. And these are the questions which are now to
the front. These criticisms mean that his most elaborate discussions
came forty years too late, for they were concerned with problems which
agitated the middle rather than the end of the 19th century. But if we
pass from this criticism of form to the actual contents of the two
books, we are bound to confess that they constitute a wonderfully
cogent and persuasive theistic argument. That argument may be
described as a criticism of man and his world used as a basis for the
construction of a reasoned idea of nature and being. Man and nature,
thought and being, fitted each other. What was implicit in nature had
become explicit in man; the problem of the individual was one with the
problem of universal experience. The interpretation of man was
therefore the interpretation of his universe. Emphasis was made to
fall on the reason, the conscience and the will of the finite
personality; and just as these were found to be native in him they
were held to be immanent in the cause of his universe. What lived in
time belonged to eternity; the microcosm was the epitome of the
macrocosm; the reason which reigned in man interpreted the law that
was revealed in conscience and the power which governed human destiny,
while the freedom which man realized was the direct negation both of
necessity and of the operation of any fortuitous cause in the cosmos.
It was not possible, however, that the theistic idea could be
discussed in relation to nature only. It was necessary that it should
be applied to history and to the forces and personalities active
within it. And of these the greatest was of course the Person that had
created the Christian religion. What did Jesus signify? What authority
belonged to Him and to the books that contain His history and
interpret His person? This was the problem which Martineau attempted
to deal with in _The Seat of Authority in Religion_. The workmanship
of the book is unequal: historical and literary criticism had never
been Martineau's strongest point, although he had almost continuously
maintained an amount of New Testament study, as his note-books show.
In its speculative parts the book is quite equal to those that had
gone before, but in its literary and historical parts there are
indications of a mind in which a long-practised logic had become a
rooted habit. While a comparison of his expositions of the Pauline and
Johannine Christologies with the earlier Unitarian exegesis in which
he had been trained shows how wide is the interval, the work does not
represent a mind that had throughout its history lived and worked in
the delicate and judicial investigations he here tried to conduct.
Martineau's theory of the religious society or church was that of an
idealist rather than of a statesman or practical politician. He stood
equally remote from the old Voluntary principle, that "the State had
nothing to do with religion," and from the sacerdotal position that the
clergy stood in an apostolic succession, and either constituted the
Church or were the persons into whose hands its guidance had been
committed. He hated two things intensely, a sacrosanct priesthood and an
enforced uniformity. He may be said to have believed in the sanity and
sanctity of the state rather than of the Church. Statesmen he could
trust as he would not trust ecclesiastics. And so he even propounded a
scheme, which fell still-born, that would have repealed uniformity,
taken the church out of the hands of a clerical order, and allowed the
coordination of sects or churches under the state. Not that he would
have allowed the state to touch doctrine, to determine polity or
discipline; but he would have had it to recognize historical
achievement, religious character and capacity, and endow out of its
ample resources those societies which had vindicated their right to be
regarded as making for religion. His ideal may have been academic, but
it was the dream of a mind that thought nobly both of religion and of
the state.
See _Life and Letters_ by J. Drummond and C. B. Upton (2 vols., 1901);
J. E. Carpenter, _James Martineau, Theologian and Teacher_ (1905); J.
Crawford, _Recollections_ of James Martineau (1903); A. W. Jackson,
_James Martineau, a Biography and a Study_ (Boston, 1900); H.
Sidgwick, _Lectures on the Ethics of Green, Spencer and Martineau_
(1902); and J. Hunt, _Religious Thought in England in the 19th
Century_. (A. M. F.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Types of Ethical Theory_, i. 8.
[2] _Essays, Reviews and Addresses_, iv. 54.
[3] Ibid. i. 397.
[4] _Essays, Reviews and Addresses_, i. 419.
[5] Martineau's "Letter to the Dissenting Congregation of Eustace
Street" (Dublin).
[6] _Types of Ethical Theory_, i. pp. vii.-ix.
[7] Ibid. p. xiii.
[8] _Rationale_, 2nd ed., pref., p. vii.
[9] Ibid. p. 133.
[10] They stand as Lectures ii., v., vi., xi., xii. in the volume
_Unitarianism Defended_, 1839.
[11] Essays, _Reviews and Addresses_, ii. 10.
[12] Ibid. i. 46.
[13] Ibid. i. 258, 262.
[14] Ibid. ii. 285.
[15] Ibid. i. 233.
[16] _Essays, Reviews and Addresses_, i., iii.
[17] Ibid, iii., pref., p. vi.
MARTINET, a military term (more generally used in a disparaging than in
a complimentary sense) implying a strict disciplinarian or drill-master.
The term originated in the French army about the middle of Louis XIV.'s
reign, and was derived from Jean Martinet (d. 1672), who as
lieutenant-colonel of the King's regiment of foot and inspector-general
of infantry drilled and trained that arm in the model regular army
created by Louis and Louvois between 1660 and 1670. Martinet seems also
to have introduced the copper pontoons with which Louis bridged the
Rhine in 1672. He was killed, as a _maréchal de camp_, at the siege of
Duisburg in the same year, being accidentally shot by bis own artillery
while leading the infantry assault. His death, and that of the Swiss
captain Soury by the same discharge gave rise to a _bon mot_, typical of
the polite ingratitude of the age, that Duisburg had only cost the king
a martin and a mouse. The "martin" as a matter of fact shares with
Vauban and other professional soldiers of Louis XIV. the glory of having
made the French army the first and best regular army in Europe. Great
nobles, such as Turenne, Condé and Luxemburg, led this army and inspired
it, but their fame has obscured that of the men who made it manageable
and efficient. It was about this time that the soldier of fortune, who
joined a regiment with his own arms and equipment and had learned his
trade by varied experience, began to give place to the soldier regularly
enlisted as a recruit in permanent regiments and trained by his own
officers. The consequence of this was the introduction of a uniform, or
nearly uniform system of drill and training, which in all essentials has
endured to the present day. Thus Martinet was the forerunner of Leopold
of Dessau and Frederick William, just as Jean Jacques de Fourilles, the
organizer of the cavalry, who was forced into an untimely charge at
Seneffe (1674) by a brutal taunt of Condé, and there met his death, was
the forerunner of Zieten and Seydlitz. These men, while differing from
the creators of the Prussian army in that they contributed nothing to
the tactics of their arms, at least made tactics possible by the
thorough drilling and organization they imparted to the formerly
heterogeneous and hardly coherent elements of an army.
MARTÍNEZ DE LA ROSA, FRANCISCO DE PAULA (1789-1862), Spanish statesman
and dramatist, was born on the 10th of March 1789 at Granada, and
educated at the university there. He won popularity with a series of
epigrams on local celebrities published under the title of _El
Cementerio de momo_. During the struggle against Napoleon he took the
patriotic side, was elected deputy, and at Cadiz produced his first
play, _Lo que puede un empleo_, a prose comedy in the manner of the
younger Moratin. _La Viuda de Padilla_ (1814), a tragedy modelled upon
Alfieri, was less acceptable to the Spanish public. Meanwhile the author
became more and more engulfed in politics, and in 1814 was banished to
Africa, where he remained till 1820, when he was suddenly recalled and
appointed prime minister. During the next three years he was the most
unpopular man in Spain; denounced as a revolutionist by the
Conservatives and as a reactionary by the Liberals, he alienated the
sympathies of all parties, and his rhetoric earned for him the
contemptuous nickname of _Rosita la Pastelera_. Exiled in 1823, he took
refuge in Paris, where he issued his _Obras literarias_ (1827),
including his _Arte poética_, in which he exaggerated the literary
theories already promulgated by Luzán. Returning to Spain in 1831, he
became prime minister on the death of Ferdinand VII., but proved
incapable of coping with the insurrectionary movement and resigned in
1834. He was ambassador at Paris in 1839-1840 and at Rome in 1842-1843,
joined the Conservative party, held many important offices, and was
president of congress and director of the Spanish academy at the time of
his death, which took place at Madrid on the 7th of February 1862. As a
statesman, Martínez de la Rosa never rose above mediocrity. It was his
misfortune to be in place without real power, to struggle against a
turbulent pseudo-democratic movement promoted by unscrupulous soldiers,
and to contend with the intrigues of the king, the court camarilla and
the clergy. But circumstances which hampered him in politics favoured
his career in literature. He was not a great natural force; his early
plays and poems are influenced by Moratin or by Meléndez Valdés; his
_Espirítu del siglo_ (1835) is an elegant summary of all the
commonplaces concerning the philosophy of history; his _Doña Isabel de
Solís_ (1837-1846) is a weak imitation of Walter Scott's historical
novels. Still his place in the history of Spanish literature is secure,
if not eminent. Through the happy accident of his exile at Paris he was
thrown into relations with the leaders of the French romantic movement,
and was so far impressed with the innovations of the new school as to
write in French a romantic piece entitled _Aben-Humeya_ (1830), which
was played at the Porte Saint-Martin. The experiment was not
unsuccessful, and on his return to Madrid Martínez de la Rosa produced
_La Conjuratión de Venecia_ (April 23, 1834), which entitles him to be
called the pioneer of the romantic drama in Spain. The play is more
reminiscent of Casimir Delavigne than of Victor Hugo; but it was
unquestionably effective, and smoothed the way for the bolder essays of
Rivas, Garcia Gutiérrez and Hartzenbusch.
MARTINI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1706-1784), Italian musician, was born at
Bologna on the 24th of April 1706. His father, Antonio Maria Martini, a
violinist, taught him the elements of music and the violin; later he
learned singing and harpsichord playing from Padre Pradieri, and
counterpoint from Antonio Riccieri. Having received his education in
classics from the fathers of the oratory of San Filippo Neri, he
afterwards entered upon a noviciate at the Franciscan monastery at Lago,
at the close of which he was received as a Minorite on the 11th of
September 1722. In 1725, though only nineteen years old, he received the
appointment of chapel-master in the Franciscan church at Bologna, where
his compositions attracted attention. At the invitation of amateurs and
professional friends he opened a school of composition at which several
celebrated musicians were trained; as a teacher he consistently declared
his preference for the traditions of the old Roman school of
composition. Padre Martini was a zealous collector of musical
literature, and possessed an extensive musical library. Burney estimated
it at 17,000 volumes; after Martini's death a portion of it passed to
the Imperial library at Vienna, the rest remaining in Bologna, now in
the Liceo Rossini. Most contemporary musicians speak of Martini with
admiration, and Mozart's father consulted him with regard to the talents
of his son. Abt Vogler, however, makes reservations in his praise,
condemning his philosophical principles as too much in sympathy with
those of Fox, which had already been expressed by P. Vallotti. He died
at Bologna on the 4th of August 1784. His _Elogio_ was published by
Pietro della Valle at Bologna in the same year.
The greater number of Martini's sacred compositions remain unprinted.
The Liceo of Bologna possesses the MSS. of two oratorios; and a
requiem, with some other pieces of church music, are now in Vienna.
_Litaniae atque antiphonae finales B. V. Mariae_ were published at
Bologna in 1734, as also twelve _Sonate d'intavolatura_; six _Sonate
per l'organo ed il cembalo_ in 1747; and Duetti da camera in 1763.
Martini's most important works are his _Storia della musica_ (Bologna,
1757-1781) and his _Saggio di contrapunto_ (Bologna, 1774-1775). The
former, of which the three published volumes relate wholly to ancient
music, and thus represent a mere fragment of the author's vast plan,
exhibits immense reading and industry, but is written in a dry and
unattractive style, and is overloaded with matter which cannot be
regarded as historical. At the beginning and end of each chapter
occur puzzle-canons, wherein the primary part or parts alone are
given, and the reader has to discover the canon that fixes the period
and the interval at which the response is to enter. Some of these are
exceedingly difficult, but Cherubini solved the whole of them. The
_Saggio_ is a learned and valuable work, containing an important
collection of examples from the best masters of the old Italian and
Spanish schools, with excellent explanatory notes. It treats chiefly
of the tonalities of the plain chant, and of counterpoints constructed
upon them. Besides being the author of several controversial works,
Martini drew up a _Dictionary of Ancient Musical Terms_, which
appeared in the second volume of G. B. Doni's _Works_; he also
published a treatise on _The Theory of Numbers as applied to Music_.
His celebrated canons, published in London, about 1800, edited by Pio
Cianchettini, show him to have had a strong sense of musical humour.
MARTINI, SIMONE (1283-1344), Sienese painter, called also Simone di
Martino, and more commonly, but not correctly, Simon Memmi,[1] was born
in 1283. He followed the manner of painting proper to his native Siena,
as improved by Duccio, which is essentially different from the style of
Giotto and his school, and the idea that Simone was himself a pupil of
Giotto is therefore wide of the mark. The Sienese style is less natural,
dignified and reserved than the Florentine; it has less unity of
impression, has more tendency to pietism, and is marked by exaggerations
which are partly related to the obsolescent Byzantine manner, and partly
seem to forebode certain peculiarities of the fully developed art which
we find prevalent in Michelangelo. Simone, in especial, tended to an
excessive and rather affected tenderness in his female figures; he was
more successful in single figures and in portraits than in large
compositions of incident. He finished with scrupulous minuteness, and
was elaborate in decorations of patterning, gilding, &c.
The first known fresco of Simone is the vast one which he executed in
the hall of the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena--the "Madonna Enthroned, with
the Infant," and a number of angels and saints; its date is 1315, at
which period he was already an artist of repute throughout Italy. In S.
Lorenzo Maggiore of Naples he painted a life-sized picture of King
Robert crowned by his brother Lewis, bishop of Toulouse; this also is
extant, but much damaged. In 1320 he painted for the high altar of the
church of S. Caterina in Pisa the Virgin and Child between six saints;
above are archangels, apostles and other figures. The compartmented
portions of this work are now dispersed, some of them being in the
academy of Siena. Towards 1321 he executed for the church of S. Domenico
in Orvieto a picture of the bishop of Savona kneeling before the Madonna
attended by saints, now in the Fabriceria of the cathedral. Certain
frescoes in Assisi in the chapel of San Martino, representing the life
of that saint, ascribed by Vasari to Puccio Capanna, are now, upon
internal evidence, assigned to Simone. He painted also, in the south
transept of the lower church of the same edifice, figures of the Virgin
and eight saints. In 1328 he produced for the sala del consilio in Siena
a striking equestrian portrait of the victorious general Guidoriccio
Fogliani de' Ricci.
Simone had married in 1324 Giovanna, the daughter of Memmo (Guglielmo)
di Filippuccio. Her brother, named Lippo Memmi, was also a painter, and
was frequently associated with Simone in his work; and this is the only
reason why Simone has come down to us with the family-name Memmi. They
painted together in 1333 the "Annunciation" which is now in the Uffizi
gallery. Simone kept a bottega (or shop), undertaking any ornamental
work, and his gains were large. In 1339 he settled at the papal court in
Avignon, where he made the acquaintance of Petrarch and Laura; and he
painted for the poet a portrait of his lady, which gave occasion for two
of Petrarch's sonnets, in which Simone is eulogized. He also illuminated
for the poet a copy of the commentary of Servius upon Virgil, now
preserved in the Ambrosian library of Milan. He was largely employed in
the decorations of the papal buildings in Avignon, and several of his
works still remain--in the cathedral, in the hall of the consistory,
and, in the two chapels of the palace, the stories of the Baptist, and
of Stephen and other saints. One of his latest productions (1342) is the
picture of "Christ Found by his Parents in the Temple," now in the
Liverpool Gallery. Simone died in Avignon in July 1344.
Some of the works with which Simone's name and fame have been
generally identified are not now regarded as his. Such are the
compositions, in the Campo Santo of Pisa, from the legend of S.
Ranieri, and the "Assumption of the Virgin"; and the great frescoes in
the Cappellone degli Spagnuoli, in S. Maria Novella, Florence,
representing the Triumph of Religion through the work of the Dominican
order, &c. (W. M. R.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The ordinary account of Simone is that given by Vasari, and since
repeated in a variety of forms. Modern research shows that it is far
from correct, the incidents being erroneous, and the paintings
attributed to Simone in various principal instances not his. We
follow the authority of Crowe and Cavalcaselle.
MARTINIQUE, an island of the West Indies, belonging to the chain of the
Lesser Antilles, and constituting a French colony, between the British
islands of Dominica and St Lucia, 25 m. S. of the one and 20 m. N. of
the other, about 14° 40´ N., 61° W. Its length is 40 m., its greatest
width 21 m.; and the area comprises 380 sq. m. A cluster of volcanic
mountains in the north, a similar group in the south, and a line of
lower heights between them, form the backbone of the island. Its deep
ravines and precipitous escarpments are reduced in appearance to gentle
undulations by the drapery of the forests. The massif of Mont Pelé in
the north is the culminating point of the island (4430 ft.); that of
Carbet is little inferior (3963 ft.), but the mountains in the south are
much lower. Mont Pelé is notorious for an appalling eruption in May
1902.
Of the numerous streams which traverse the few miles of country
between the watershed and the sea (the longest radiating from Mount
Carbet), about seventy-five are of considerable size, and in the rainy
season become deep and often destructive torrents. On the north-west
and north the coast is elevated and bold; and similarly on the south,
where a lateral range, branching from the backbone of the island,
forms a blunt peninsula bounding the low-shored western bay of Fort de
France on the south. Another peninsula, called Caravelle, projects
from the middle part of the east coast, and south of this the coast is
low and fretted, with many islets and cays lying off it. Coral reefs
occur especially in this locality. Plains, most numerous and extensive
in the south, occupy about one-third of the total area of the island.
The mean annual temperature is 80° F. in the coast region, the monthly
mean for June being 83°, and that for January 77°. Of the annual
rainfall of 87 in., August has the heaviest share (11.3 in.), though
the rainy season extends from June to October; March, the driest
month, has 3.7. Martinique enjoys a marked immunity from hurricanes.
The low coastal districts are not very healthy for Europeans in the
hotter months, but there are numerous sanatoria in the forest region
at an elevation of about 1500 ft., where the average temperature is
some 10° F. lower than that already quoted. The north winds which
prevail from November to February are comparatively fresh and dry;
those from the south (July to October) are damp and warm. From March
to June easterly winds are prevalent.
The population increased from 162,861 in 1878 to 175,863 in 1888 and
203,781 in 1901. In 1902 the great eruption of Mont Pelé occurred, and
in 1905 the population was only 182,024. The bulk of the population
consists of Creole negroes and half-castes of various grades, ranging
from the "Saccatra," who has retained hardly any trace of Caucasian
blood, to the so-called "Sangmêlé," with only a suspicion of negro
commixture. The capital of the island is Fort de France, on the
west-coast bay of the same name, with a fine harbour defended by three
forts, and a population of 18,000. The other principal centres of
population are, on the west coast Lamentin, on the same bay as the
capital, and on the east coast Le François and Le Robert. The colony is
administered by a governor and a general council, and returns a senator
and two deputies. There are elective municipal councils. The chief
product is sugar, and some coffee, cocoa, tobacco and cotton are grown.
The island is served by British, French and American steamship lines,
and local communications are carried on by small coasting steamers and
by subsidized mail coaches, as there are excellent roads. In 1905 the
total value of the exports, consisting mainly of sugar, rum and cocoa,
was £725,460, France taking by far the greater part, while imports were
valued at £596,294, of which rather more than one-half by value came
from France, the United States of America being the next principal
importing country. In 1903, the year following the eruption of Mont
Pelé, exports were valued at £604,163.
[Illustration: Map of Martinique.]
Martinique, the name of which may be derived from a native form Madiana
or Mantinino, was probably discovered by Columbus on the 15th of June
1502; although by some authorities its discovery is placed in 1493. It
was at that time inhabited by Caribs who had expelled or incorporated an
older stock. It was not until the 25th of June 1635 that possession was
taken of the island in the name of the French _Compagnie des Îles
d'Amérique_. Actual settlement was carried out in the same year by
Pierre Belain, Sieur d'Esnambuc, captain-general of the island of St
Christopher. In 1637 his nephew Dyel Duparquet (d. 1658) became
captain-general of the colony, now numbering seven hundred men, and
subsequently obtained the seigneurie of the island by purchase from the
company under the authority of the king of France. In 1654 welcome was
given to three hundred Jews expelled from Brazil, and by 1658 there were
at least five thousand people exclusive of the Caribs, who were soon
after exterminated. Purchased by the French government from Duparquet's
children for 120,000 livres, Martinique was assigned to the West India
Company, but in 1674 it became part of the royal domain. The _habitants_
(French landholders) at first devoted themselves to the cultivation of
cotton and tobacco; but in 1650 sugar plantations were begun, and in
1723 the coffee plant was introduced. Slave labour having been
introduced at an early period of the occupation, there were 60,000
blacks in the island by 1736. This slavery was abolished in 1860.
Martinique had a full share of wars. In early days the Caribs were not
brought under subjection without severe struggles. In 1666 and 1667 the
island was attacked by the British without success, and hostilities were
terminated by the treaty of Breda. The Dutch made similar attempts in
1674, and the British again attacked the island in 1693. Captured by
Rodney in 1762, Martinique was next year restored to the French; but
after the conquest by Sir John Jervis and Sir Charles Grey in 1793 it
was retained for eight years; and, seized again in 1809, it was not
surrendered till 1814. The island was the birth-place of the Empress
Josephine.
Martinique has suffered from occasional severe storms, as in 1767, when
1600 persons perished, and M. de la Pagerie, father of the Empress
Josephine, was practically ruined, and in 1839, 1891 and 1903, when much
damage was done to the sugar crop. Earthquakes have also been frequent,
but the most terrible natural disaster was the eruption of Mont Pelé in
1902, by which the town of St Pierre, formerly the chief commercial
centre of the island, was destroyed. During the earlier months of the
year various manifestations of volcanic activity had occurred; on the
25th of April there was a heavy fall of ashes, and on the 2nd and 3rd of
May a heavy eruption destroyed extensive sugar plantations north of St
Pierre, and caused a loss of some 150 lives. A few days later the news
that the Souffrière in St Vincent was in eruption reassured the
inhabitants of St Pierre, as it was supposed that this outbreak might
relieve the volcano of Pelé. But on the 8th of May the final catastrophe
came without warning; a mass of fire, compared to a flaming whirlwind,
swept over St Pierre, destroying the ships in the harbour, among which,
however, one, the "Roddam" of Scrutton, escaped. A fall of molten lava
and ashes followed the flames, accompanied by dense gases which
asphyxiated those who had thus far escaped. The total loss of life was
estimated at 40,000. Consternation was caused not only in the West
Indies, but in France and throughout the world, and at first it was
seriously suggested that the island should be evacuated, but no
countenance was lent to this proposal by the French government. Relief
measures were undertaken and voluntary subscriptions raised. The
material losses were estimated at £4,000,000; but, besides St Pierre,
only one-tenth of the island had been devastated, and although during
July there was further volcanic activity, causing more destruction, the
economic situation recovered more rapidly than was expected.
See _Annuaire de la Martinique_ (Fort de France); H. Mouet, _La
Martinique_ (Paris, 1892); M. J. Guët, _Origines de la Martinique_
(Vannes, 1893); G. Landes, _Notice sur la Martinique_ (with full
bibliography), (Paris, 1900); M. Dumoret, _Au pays du sucre_ (Paris,
1902); and on the eruption of 1902, A. Heilprin, _Mont Pelée and the
Tragedy of Martinique_ (Philadelphia and London, 1903); A. Lacroix,
_La Montagne Pelée et ses éruptions_ (Paris, 1904); and the report of
Drs J. S. Flett and T. Anderson (November 20, 1902), who investigated
the eruptions on behalf of the Royal Society; cf. T. Anderson, "Recent
Volcanic Eruptions in the West Indies," in _Geographical Journal_,
vol. xxi. (1903).
MARTINSBURG, a town and the county-seat of Berkeley county, West
Virginia, U.S.A., about 74 m. W.N.W. of Washington, D.C. Pop. (1890)
7226; (1900) 7564 (678 negroes); (1910) 10,698. It is served by the
Baltimore & Ohio and the Cumberland Valley railways; the former has
repair shops here. It lies in the Lower Shenandoah Valley at the foot of
Little North mountain, in the midst of a fruit-growing region, peaches
and apples being the principal crops. Slate and limestone also abound in
the vicinity. The town has a fine Federal Building and a King's
Daughters' hospital. There are grain elevators, and various
manufactures, including hosiery, woollen goods, dressed lumber, &c.
Martinsburg owns its waterworks, the supply being derived from a
neighbouring spring. A town was laid out here a short time before the
War of Independence and was named Martinstown in honour of Colonel
Thomas Bryan Martin, a nephew of Thomas, Lord Fairfax (1692-1782); in
1778 it was incorporated under its present name. During the Civil War
Martinsburg was occupied by several different Union and Confederate
forces.
MARTINS FERRY, a city of Belmont county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the Ohio
River, nearly opposite Wheeling, West Virginia. Pop. (1890), 6250;
(1900), 7760, including 1033 foreign-born and 252 negroes; (1910), 9133.
It is served by the Pennsylvania (Cleveland & Pittsburg Division), the
Baltimore & Ohio, and the Wheeling & Lake Erie (Wabash System) railways,
and by several steamboat lines. The city is situated on two plateaus;
the lower is occupied chiefly by factories, the upper by dwellings. Coal
mining and manufacturing are the principal industries; among factory
products are iron, steel, tin, stoves, machinery and glassware. The
municipality owns and operates the waterworks and an electric-lighting
plant. A settlement was attempted here in 1785, but was abandoned on
account of trouble with the Indians. In 1795 a town was laid out by
Absalom Martin and was called Jefferson, but this, too, was abandoned,
on account of its not being made the county-seat. The town was laid out
again in 1835 by Ebenezer Martin (son of Absalom Martin) and was called
Martinsville; the present name was substituted a few years later. The
Martins and other pioneers are buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery within
the city limits. Martins Ferry was incorporated as a town in 1865 and
chartered as a city in 1885.
MARTINUZZI, GEORGE [GYÖRGY UTIE[VS]ENOVI['C]] (1482-1551), Hungarian
statesman, who, since he usually signed himself "Frater Georgius," is
known in Hungarian history as FRATER GYÖRGY or simply THE FRATER, was
born at Kamicic in Croatia, the son of Gregory Utiesenovi['c], a
Croatian gentleman. His mother was a Martinuzzi, a Venetian patrician
family. From his eighth to his twentieth year he was attached to the
court of John Corvinus; subsequently, entering the service of the
Zapolya family, he saw something of warfare under John Zapolya but,
tiring of a military life, he entered the Paulician Order in his
twenty-eighth year. His historical career began when his old patron
Zapolya, now king of Hungary, forced to fly before his successful rival
Ferdinand, afterwards the emperor Ferdinand I., sent him on a diplomatic
mission to Hungary. It was due to his tact and ability that John
recovered Buda (1529), and henceforth Frater György became his treasurer
and chief counsellor. In 1534 he became bishop of Grosswardein; in 1538
he concluded with Austria the peace of Grosswardein, whereby the royal
title and the greater part of Hungary were conceded to Zapolya. King
John left the Frater the guardian of his infant son John Sigismund, who
was proclaimed and crowned king of Hungary, the Frater acting as regent.
He frustrated all the attempts of the queen mother, Isabella, to bring
in the Austrians, and when, in 1541, an Austrian army appeared beneath
the walls of Buda, he arrested the queen and applied to the Porte for
help. On the 28th of August 1541, the Frater did homage to the sultan,
but during his absence with the baby king in the Turkish camp, the grand
vizier took Buda by subtlety. Then only the Frater recognized the
necessity of a composition with both Austria and Turkey. He attained it
by the treaty of Gyula (Dec. 29, 1541), whereby western Hungary fell to
Ferdinand, while Transylvania, as an independent principality under
Turkish suzerainty, reverted to John Sigismund. It included, besides
Transylvania proper, many Hungarian counties on both sides of the
Theiss, and the important city of Kassa. It was the Frater's policy to
preserve Transylvania neutral and intact by cultivating amicable
relations with Austria without offending the Porte. It was a difficult
policy, but succeeded brilliantly for a time. In 1545, encouraged by the
growing unpopularity of Ferdinand, owing to his incapacity to defend
Hungary against the Turks, the Frater was tempted to unite Austrian
Hungary to Transylvania and procure the election of John Sigismund as
the national king. But recognizing that this was impossible, he aimed at
an alliance with Ferdinand on terms of relative equality, and to this
system he adhered till his death. Queen Isabella, who hated the Frater
and constantly opposed him, complained of him to the sultan, who
commanded that either the traitor himself or his head should be sent to
Constantinople (1550). A combination was then formed against him of the
queen, the hospodars of Moldavia and Wallachia and the Turks; but the
Frater shut the queen up in Gyula-Fehérvár, drove the hospodars out of
Transylvania, defeated the Turks at Déva, and finally compelled Isabella
to accept a composition with Austria very profitable to her family and
to Transylvania, at the same time soothing the rage of the sultan by
flatteries and gifts. This compact, a masterpiece of statesmanship, was
confirmed by the diet of Kolozsvár in August 1551. The Frater retained
the governorship of Transylvania, and was subsequently consecrated
archbishop of Esztergom and received the red hat. Thus Hungary was once
more reunited, but the inability of Ferdinand to defend it against the
Turks, as promised, forced the Frater, for the common safety, to resume
the payment of tribute to the Porte in December 1551. Unfortunately, the
Turks no longer trusted a diplomatist they could not understand, while
Ferdinand suspected him of an intention to secure Hungary for himself.
When the Turks (in 1551) took Csanád and other places, the Frater and
the imperial generals Castaldo and Pallavicini combined their forces
against the common foe; but when the Frater privately endeavoured to
mediate between the Turks and the Hungarians, Castaldo represented him
to Ferdinand as a traitor, and asked permission to kill him if
necessary. The Frater's secretary Marco Aurelio Ferrari was hired, and
stabbed his master from behind at the castle of Alvinczy while reading a
letter, on the 18th of December 1551; but the cardinal, though in his
sixty-ninth year, fought for his life, and was only despatched with the
aid of Pallavicini and a band of bravos. Ferdinand took the
responsibility of the murder on himself. He sent to Julius III. an
accusation of treason against the Frater in eighty-seven articles, and
after long hesitation, and hearing one hundred and sixteen witnesses,
the pope exonerated Ferdinand of blame.
See A. Bechet, _Histoire du ministère du cardinal Martinusius_ (Paris,
1715); O. M. Utiesenovi['c], _Lebensgeschichte des Cardinals Georg
Utiesenovi['c]_ (Vienna, 1881); _Codex epistolaris Fratris Georgii
1535-1551_, ed. A. Károlyi (Budapest, 1881). But the most vivid
presentation of Frater is to be found in M. Jókai's fine historical
romance, _Brother George_ (Hung.) (Budapest, 1893). (R. N. B.)
MARTIUS, CARL FRIEDRICH PHILIPP VON (1794-1868), German botanist and
traveller, was born on the 17th of April 1794 at Erlangen, where he
graduated M.D. in 1814, publishing as his thesis a critical catalogue of
plants in the botanic garden of the university. He afterwards devoted
himself to botanical study, and in 1817 he and J. B. von Spix were sent
to Brazil by the king of Bavaria. They travelled from Rio de Janeiro
through several of the southern and eastern provinces of Brazil, and
ascended the river Amazon to Tabatinga, as well as some of its larger
affluents. On his return to Europe in 1820 he was appointed conservator
of the botanic garden at Munich, and in 1826 professor of botany in the
university there, and held both offices till 1864. He devoted his chief
attention to the flora of Brazil, and in addition to numerous short
papers he published the _Nova Genera et Species Plantarum Brasiliensium_
(1823-1832, 3 vols.) and _Icones selectae Plantarum Cryptogamicarum
Brasiliensium_ (1827), both works being finely illustrated. An account
of his travels in Brazil appeared in 3 vols. 4to, 1823-1831, with an
atlas of plates, but probably the work by which he is best known is his
_Historia Palmarum_ (1823-1850) in 3 large folio volumes, of which one
describes the palms discovered by himself in Brazil. In 1840 he began
the _Flora Brasiliensis_, with the assistance of the most distinguished
European botanists, who undertook monographs of the various orders. Its
publication was continued after his death under the editorship of A. W.
Eichler (1839-1887) until 1887, and subsequently of Ignaz von Urban. He
also edited several works on the zoological collections made in Brazil
by Spix, after the death of the latter in 1826. On the outbreak of
potato disease in Europe he investigated it and published his
observations in 1842. He also published works and short papers on the
aborigines of Brazil, on their civil and social condition, on their past
and probable future, on their diseases and medicines, and on the
languages of the various tribes, especially the Tupi. He died at Munich
on the 13th of December 1868.
MARTOS, CHRISTINO (1830-1893), Spanish politician, was born at Granada
on the 13th of September 1830. He was educated there and at Madrid
University, where his Radicalism soon got him into trouble, and he
narrowly escaped being expelled for his share in student riots and other
demonstrations against the governments of Queen Isabella. He
distinguished himself as a journalist on _El Tribuno_. He joined
O'Donnell and Espartero in 1854 against a revolutionary cabinet, and
shortly afterwards turned against O'Donnell to assist the Democrats and
Progressists under Prim, Rivero, Castelar, and Sagasta in the
unsuccessful movements of 1866, and was obliged to go abroad. His
political career had not prevented Martos from rising into note at the
bar, where he was successful for forty years. After remaining abroad
three years, he returned to Spain to take his seat in the Cortes of 1869
after the revolution of 1868. Throughout the revolutionary period he
represented in cabinets with Prim, Serrano and Ruiz Zorilla, and lastly
under King Amadeus, the advanced Radical tendencies of the men who
wanted to give Spain a democratic monarchy. After the abdication of
Amadeus of Savoy, Martos played a prominent part in the proclamation of
the federal republic, in the struggle between the executive of that
republic and the permanent committee of the Cortes, backed by the
generals and militia, who nearly put an end to the executive and
republic in April 1873. When the republicans triumphed Martos retired
into exile, and soon afterwards into private life. He reappeared for a
few months after General Pavia's _coup d'état_ in January 1874, to join
a coalition cabinet formed by Marshal Serrano, with Sagasta and Ulloa.
Martos returned to the Bar in May 1874, and quietly looked on when the
restoration took place at the end of that year. He stuck to his
democratic ideals for some years, even going to Biarritz in 1881 to be
present at a republican congress presided over by Ruiz Zorilla. Shortly
afterwards Martos joined the dynastic Left organized by Marshal Serrano,
General Lopez Dominguez, and Moret, Becerra, Balaguer, and other quondam
revolutionaries. He sat in several parliaments of the reign of Alphonso
XII. and of the regency of Queen Christina, joined the dynastic Liberals
under Sagasta, and gave Sagasta not a little trouble when the latter
allowed him to preside over the House of Deputies. Having failed to form
a rival party against Sagasta, Martos subsided into political
insignificance, despite his great talent as an orator and debater, and
died in Madrid on the 16th of January 1893.
MARTOS, a town of southern Spain, in the province of Jaen, 16 m. W.S.W.
of Jaen, by the Jaen-Lucena railway. Pop. (1900), 17,078. Martos is
situated on an outlying western peak of the Jabalcuz mountains, which is
surmounted by a ruined castle and overlooks the plain of Andalusia. In
the neighbourhood are two sulphurous springs with bathing
establishments. The local trade is almost exclusively agricultural.
Martos perhaps stands on or near the site of the _Tucci_ of Ptolemy,
which was fortified and renamed _Colonia Augusta Gemella_ by the
Romans. By Ferdinand III. it was taken from the Moors in 1225, and
given to the knights of Calatrava; it was here that the brothers
Carvajal, commanders of the order, were in 1312 executed by command of
Ferdinand IV. Before their death they summoned Ferdinand to meet them
within thirty days at the judgment-seat of God. Ferdinand died a month
later and thus received the popular name of _el Emplazado_--"the
Summoned."
MARTYN, HENRY (1781-1812), English missionary to India, was born on the
18th of February 1781, at Truro, Cornwall. His father, John Martyn, was a
"captain" or mine-agent at Gwennap. The lad was educated at Truro grammar
school under Dr Cardew, entered St John's College, Cambridge, in the
autumn of 1797, and was senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman in
1801. In 1802 he was chosen a fellow of his college. He had intended to
go to the bar, but in the October term of 1802 he chanced to hear Charles
Simeon speaking of the good done in India by a single missionary, William
Carey, and some time afterwards he read the life of David Brainerd, the
apostle of the Indians of North America. He resolved, accordingly, to
become a Christian missionary. On the 22nd of October, 1803, he was
ordained deacon at Ely, and afterwards priest, and served as Simeon's
curate at the church of Holy Trinity, taking charge of the neighbouring
parish of Lolworth. He was about to offer his services to the Church
Missionary Society, when a disaster in Cornwall deprived him and his
unmarried sister of the provision their father had made for them, and
rendered it necessary that he should obtain a salary that would support
her as well as himself. He accordingly obtained a chaplaincy under the
East India Company and left for India on the 5th of July 1805. For some
months he was stationed at Aldeen, near Serampur; in October 1806 he
proceeded to Dinapur, where he was soon able to conduct worship among the
natives in the vernacular, and established schools. In April 1809 he was
transferred to Cawnpore, where he preached in his own compound, in spite
of interruptions and threats. He occupied himself in linguistic study,
and had already, during his residence at Dinapur, been engaged in
revising the sheets of his Hindostani version of the New Testament. He
now translated the whole of the New Testament into Hindi also, and into
Persian twice. He translated the Psalms into Persian, the Gospels into
Judaeo-Persic, and the Prayer-book into Hindostani, in spite of
ill-health and "the pride, pedantry and fury of his chief munshi Sabat."
Ordered by the doctors to take a sea voyage, he obtained leave to go to
Persia and correct his Persian New Testament, whence he wished to go to
Arabia, and there compose an Arabic version. Accordingly, on the 1st of
October 1810, having seen his work at Cawnpore crowned on the previous
day by the opening of a church, he left for Calcutta, whence he sailed on
the 7th of January 1811, for Bombay, which he reached on his thirtieth
birthday. From Bombay he set out for Bushire, bearing letters from Sir
John Malcolm to men of position there, as also at Shiraz and Isfahan.
After an exhausting journey from the coast he reached Shiraz, and was
soon plunged into discussion with the disputants of all classes, "Sufi,
Mahommedan, Jew, and Jewish-Mahommedan, even Armenian, all anxious to
test their powers of argument with the first English priest who had
visited them." Having made an unsuccessful journey to Tabriz to present
the shah with his translation of the New Testament, he was seized with
fever, and after a temporary recovery, had to seek a change of climate.
On the 12th of September 1812, he started with two Armenian servants,
crossed the Araxes, rode from Tabriz to Erivan, from Erivan to Kars, from
Kars to Erzerum, from Erzerum to Chiflik, urged on from place to place by
a thoughtless Tatar guide, and, though the plague was raging at Tokat
(near Eski-Shehr in Asia Minor), he was compelled by prostration to stop
there. On the 6th of October he died. Macaulay's youthful lines, written
early in 1813, testify to the impression made by his career.
His _Journals and Letters_ were published by Samuel Wilberforce in
1837. See also _Lives_ by John Sargent (1819; new ed. 1885), and G.
Smith (1892); and _The Church Quarterly Review_ (Oct. 1881).
MARTYN, JOHN (1699-1768), English botanist, was born in London on the
12th of September 1699. Originally intended for a business career, he
abandoned it in favour of medical and botanical studies. He was one of
the founders (with J. J. Dillen and others) and the secretary of a
botanical society which met for a few years in the Rainbow Coffee-house,
Watling Street; he also started the _Grub Street Journal_, a weekly
satirical review, which lasted from 1730 to 1737. In 1732 he was
appointed professor of botany in Cambridge University, but, finding
little encouragement and hampered by lack of appliances, he soon
discontinued lecturing. He retained his professorship, however, till
1762, when he resigned in favour of his son Thomas (1735-1825), author
of _Flora rustica_ (1792-1794). Although he had not taken a medical
degree, he long practised as a physician at Chelsea, where he died on
the 29th of January 1768. His reputation chiefly rests upon his
_Historia plantarum rariorum_ (1728-1737), and his translation, with
valuable agricultural and botanical notes, of the _Eclogues_ (1749) and
_Georgics_ (1741) of Virgil. On resigning the botanical chair at
Cambridge he presented the university with a number of his botanical
specimens and books.
See memoir by Thomas Martyn in _Memoirs of John Martyn and Thomas
Martyn_, by G. C. Gorham (1830).
MARTYR (Gr. [Greek: martyr] or [Greek: martys]), a word meaning
literally "witness" and often used in that sense in the New Testament
e.g. Matt, xviii. 16; Mark xiv. 63. During the conflict between Paganism
and Christianity when many Christians "testified" to the truth of their
convictions by sacrificing their lives, the word assumed its modern
technical sense. The beginnings of this use are to be seen in such
passages as Acts xxii. 20; Rev. ii. 13, xiii. 6. During the first three
centuries the fortitude of these "witnesses" won the admiration of their
brethren. Ardent spirits craved the martyr's crown, and to confess
Christ in persecution was to attain a glory inferior only to that won by
those who actually died. Confessors were visited in prison, martyrs'
graves were scenes of pilgrimage, and the day on which they suffered
was celebrated as the birthday of their glory. Martyrology was the most
popular literature in the early Church. While the honour paid to
martyrdom was a great support to early champions of the faith, it was
attended by serious evils. It was thought that martyrdom would atone for
sin, and imprisoned confessors not only issued to the Churches commands
which were regarded almost as inspired utterances, but granted pardons
in rash profusion to those who had been excommunicated by the regular
clergy, a practice which caused Cyprian and his fellow bishops much
difficulty. The zeal of Ignatius (c. 115), who begs the Roman Church to
do nothing to avert from him the martyr's death, was natural enough in a
spiritual knight-errant, but with others in later days, especially in
Phrygia and North Africa, the passion became artificial. Fanatics sought
death by insulting the magistrates or by breaking idols, and in their
enthusiasm for martyrdom became self-centred and forgetful of their
normal duty. None the less it is true that these men and women endured
torments, often unthinkable in their cruelty, and death rather than
abandon their faith. The same phenomena have been witnessed, not only in
the conflicts within the Church that marked the 13th to the 16th
centuries, but in the different mission fields, and particularly in
Madagascar and China.
See A. J. Mason, _The Historic Martyrs of the Primitive Church_
(London, 1905); H. B. Workman, _Persecution in the Early Church_
(London, 1906); Paul Allard, _Ten Lectures on the Martyrs_ (London,
1907); John Foxe, _The Book of Martyrs_; Mary I. Bryson, _Cross and
Crown_ (London, 1904).
MARTYROLOGY, a catalogue or list of _martyrs_, or, more exactly, of
saints, arranged in the order of their anniversaries. This is the now
accepted meaning in the Latin Church. In the Greek Church the nearest
equivalent to the martyrology is the Synaxarium (q.v.). As regards form,
we should distinguish between simple martyrologies, which consist merely
of an enumeration of names, and historical martyrologies, which also
include stories or biographical details. As regards documents, the most
important distinction is between local and general martyrologies. The
former give a list of the festivals of some particular Church; the
latter are the result of a combination of several local martyrologies.
We may add certain compilations of a factitious character, to which the
name of martyrology is given by analogy, e.g. the _Martyrologe
universel_ of Châtelain (1709). As types of local martyrologies we may
quote that of Rome, formed from the _Depositio martyrum_ and the
_Depositio episcoporum_ of the chronograph of 354; the Gothic calendar
of Ulfila's Bible, the calendar of Carthage published by Mabillon, the
calendar of fasts and vigils of the Church of Tours, going back as far
as Bishop Perpetuus (d. 490), and preserved in the _Historia francorum_
(xi. 31) of Gregory of Tours. The Syriac martyrology discovered by
Wright (_Journal of Sacred Literature_, 1866) gives the idea of a
general martyrology. The most important ancient martyrology preserved to
the present day is the compilation falsely attributed to St Jerome,
which in its present form goes back to the end of the 6th century. It is
the result of the combination of a general martyrology of the Eastern
Churches, a local martyrology of the Church of Rome, some general
martyrologies of Italy and Africa, and a series of local martyrologies
of Gaul. The task of critics is to distinguish between its various
constituent elements. Unfortunately, this document has reached us in a
lamentable condition. The proper names are distorted, repeated or
misplaced, and in many places the text is so corrupt that it is
impossible to understand it. With the exception of a few traces of
borrowings from the Passions of the martyrs, the compilation is in the
form of a simple martyrology. Of the best-known historical martyrologies
the oldest are those which go under the name of Bede and of Florus
(_Acta sanctorum Martii_, vol. ii.); of Wandelbert, a monk of Prüm
(842); of Rhabanus Maurus (c. 845); of Ado (d. 875); of Notker (896);
and of Wolfhard (c. 896 v. _Analecta bollandiana_, xvii. 11). The most
famous is that of Usuard (c. 875), on which the Roman martyrology was
based. The first edition of the Roman martyrology appeared at Rome in
1583. The third edition, which appeared in 1584, was approved by
Gregory XIII., who imposed the Roman martyrology upon the whole Church.
In 1586 Baronius published his annotated edition, which in spite of its
omissions and inaccuracies is a mine of valuable information.
The chief works on the martyrologies are those of Rosweyde, who in
1613 published at Antwerp the martyrology of Ado (also edition of
Giorgi, Rome, 1745); of Sollerius, to whom we owe a learned edition of
Usuard (_Acta sanctorum Junii_, vols. vi. and vii.); and of
Fiorentini, who published in 1688 an annotated edition of the
_Martyrology of St Jerome_. The critical edition of the latter by J.
B. de Rossi and Mgr. L. Duchesne, was published in 1894, in vol. ii.
of the _Acta sanctorum Novembris_. The historical martyrologies taken
as a whole have been studied by Dom Quentin (1908). There are also
numerous editions of calendars or martyrologies of less universal
interest, and commentaries upon them. Mention ought to be made of the
famous calendar of Naples, commented on by Mazocchi (Naples, 1744) and
Sabbatini (Naples, 1744).
See C. de Smedt, _Introductio generalis ad historiam ecclesiasticam_
(Gandavi, 1876), pp. 127-156; H. Matagne and V. de Buck in De Backer,
_Bibliothèque des écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus_, 2nd ed., vol.
iii. pp. 369-387; De Rossi-Duchesne, _Les Sources du martyrologe
hiéronymien_ (Rome, 1885); H. Achelis, _Die Martyrologien, ihre
Geschichte und ihr Wert_ (Berlin, 1900); H. Delehaye, "Le Témoignage
des martyrologes," in _Analecta bollandiana_, xxvi. 78-99 (1907); H.
Quentin, _Les Martyrologes historiques du moyen âge_ (Paris, 1908).
(H. De.)
MARULLUS, MICHAEL TARCHANIOTA (d. 1500), Greek scholar, poet, and
soldier, was born at Constantinople. In 1453, when the Turks captured
Constantinople, he was taken to Ancona in Italy, where he became the
friend and pupil of J. J. Pontanus, with whom his name is associated by
Ariosto (_Orl. Fur._ xxxvii. 8). He received his education at Florence,
where he obtained the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici. He was the author
of epigrams and _hymni naturales_, in which he happily imitated
Lucretius. He took no part in the work of translation, then the
favourite exercise of scholars, but he was understood to be planning
some great work when he was drowned, on the 10th of April 1500, in the
river Cecina near Volterra. He was a bitter enemy of Politian, whose
successful rival he had been in the affections of the beautiful and
learned Alessandra Scala. He is remembered chiefly for the brilliant
emendations on Lucretius which he left unpublished; these were used for
the Juntine edition (Munro's _Lucretius_, Introduction).
The hymns, some of the epigrams, and a fragment, _De Principum
institutione_, were reprinted in Paris by C. M. Sathas in _Documents
inédits relatifs à l'histoire de la Grèce au moyen âge_, vol. vii.
(1888).
MARUM, MARTIN VAN (1750-1837), Dutch man of science, was born on the
20th of March 1750 at Groningen, where he graduated in medicine and
philosophy. He began to practise medicine at Haarlem, but devoted
himself mainly to lecturing on physical subjects. He became secretary of
the scientific society of that city, and under his management the
society was advanced to the position of one of the most noted in Europe.
He was also entrusted with the care of the collection left to Haarlem by
P. Teyler van der Hulst (1702-1778). His name is not associated with any
discovery of the first order, but his researches (especially in
connexion with electricity) were remarkable for their number and
variety. He died at Haarlem on the 26th of December 1837.
MARUTS, in Hindu mythology, storm-gods. Their numbers vary in the
different scriptures, usually thrice seven or thrice sixty. In the Vedas
they are called the sons of Rudra. They are the companions of Indra, and
associated with him in the wielding of thunderbolts, sometimes as his
equals, sometimes as his servants. They are armed with golden weapons
and lightnings. They split drought (_Vritra_) and bring rain, and cause
earthquakes. Various myths surround their birth. A derivative word,
Maruti or Maroti, is the popular name throughout the Deccan for Hanuman
(q.v.).
MARVELL, ANDREW (1621-1678), English poet and satirist, son of Andrew
Marvell and his wife Anne Pease, was born at the rectory house,
Winestead, in the Holderness division of Yorkshire, on the 31st of March
1621. In 1624 his father exchanged the living of Winestead for the
mastership of Hull grammar school. He also became lecturer at Holy
Trinity Church and master of the Charterhouse in the same town. Thomas
Fuller (_Worthies of England_, ed. 1811, i. 165) describes him as "a
most excellent preacher." The younger Marvell was educated at Hull
grammar school until his thirteenth year, when he matriculated on the
14th of December 1633 (according to a doubtful statement in Wood's
_Athen. oxon._) at Trinity College, Cambridge. It is related by his
early biographer, Thomas Cooke, that he was induced by some Jesuit
priests to leave the university. After some months he was discovered by
his father in a bookseller's shop in London, and returned to
Cambridge.[1] He contributed two poems to the _Musa cantabrigiensis_ in
1637, and in the following year he received a scholarship at Trinity
College, and took his B.A. degree in 1639. His father was drowned in
1640 while crossing the Humber in company with the daughter of a Mrs
Skinner, almost certainly connected with the Cyriack Skinner to whom two
of Milton's sonnets are addressed. It is said that Mrs Skinner adopted
Marvell and provided for him at her death. The Conclusion Book of
Trinity College, Cambridge, registers the decision (Sept. 24, 1641) that
he with others should be excluded from further advantages from the
college either because they were married, or did not attend their "days"
or "acts." He travelled for four years on the Continent, visiting
Holland, France, Italy and Spain. In Rome he met Richard Flecknoe, whom
he satirized in the amusing verses on "Flecnoe, an English priest at
Rome."
Although Marvell ranks as a great Puritan poet his sympathies were at
first with Charles I., and in the lines on "Tom May's Death" he found no
words too strong to express his scorn for the historian of the Long
Parliament. He himself was no partisan, but had a passion for law and
order. He acquiesced, accordingly, in the strong rule of Cromwell, but
in his famous "Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland"
(1650)[2] he inserts a tribute to the courage and dignity of Charles I.,
which forms the best-known section of the poem. In 1650 he became tutor
to Lord Fairfax's daughter Mary, afterwards duchess of Buckingham, then
in her twelfth year. During his life with the Fairfaxes at Nunappleton,
Yorkshire, he wrote the poems "Upon the Hill and Grove at Billborow" and
"On Appleton House." Doubtless the other poems on country life, and his
exquisite "garden poetry" may be referred to this period. "Clorinda and
Damon" and "The Nymph complaining for the Death of her Faun" are good
examples of the beauty and simplicity of much of this early verse. But
he had affinities with John Donne and the metaphysical poets, and could
be obscure on occasion.
Marvell was acquainted with Milton probably through their common
friends, the Skinners, and in February 1653 Milton sent him with a
letter to the lord president of the council, John Bradshaw, recommending
him as "a man of singular desert for the state to make use of," and
suggesting his appointment as assistant to himself in his duties as
foreign secretary. The appointment was, however, given at the time to
Philip Meadows, and Marvell became tutor to Cromwell's ward, William
Dutton. In 1653 he was established with his pupil at Eton in the house
of John Oxenbridge, then a fellow of the college, but formerly a
minister in the Bermudas. No doubt the well-known verses, "Bermudas,"
were inspired by intercourse with the Oxenbridges. At Eton he enjoyed
the society of John Hales, then living in retirement. He was employed by
Milton in 1654 to convey to Bradshaw a copy of the _Defensio secunda_,
and the letter to Milton in which he describes the reception of the gift
is preserved. When the secretaryship again fell vacant in 1657 Marvell
was appointed, and retained the appointment until the accession of
Charles II. During this period he wrote many political poems, all of
them displaying admiration for Cromwell. His "Poem upon the Death of his
late Highness the Lord Protector" has been unfavourably compared to
Edmund Waller's "Panegyric," but Marvell's poem is inspired with
affection.
Marvell's connexion with Hull had been strengthened by the marriages of
his sisters with persons of local importance, and in January 1659 he was
elected to represent the borough in parliament. He was re-elected in
1660, again in 1661, and continued to represent the town until his
death. According to Milton's nephew, Edward Phillips, the poet owed his
safety at the Restoration largely to the efforts of Marvell, who "made a
considerable party for him" in the House of Commons. From 1663 to 1665
he acted as secretary to Charles Howard, 1st earl of Carlisle, on his
difficult and unsuccessful embassy to Muscovy, Sweden, and Denmark; and
this is the only official post he filled during the reign of Charles.
With the exception of this absence, for which he had leave from his
constituents, and of shorter intervals of travel on private business
which took him to Holland, Marvell was constant in his parliamentary
attendance to the day of his death. He seldom spoke in the House, but
his parliamentary influence is established by other evidence. He was an
excellent man of affairs, and looked after the special interests of the
port of Hull. He was a member of the corporation of Trinity House, both
in London and Hull, and became a younger warden of the London Trinity
House. His correspondence with his constituents, from 1660 to 1678, some
400 letters in all, printed by Dr Grosart (_Complete Works_, vol. ii.),
forms a source of information all the more valuable because by a
resolution passed at the Restoration the publication of the proceedings
of the House without leave was forbidden. He made it a point of duty to
write at each post--that is, every two or three days--both on local
interests and on all matters of public interest. The discreet reserve of
these letters, natural at a time when the post office was a favourite
source of information to the government, contrasts curiously with the
freedom of the few private letters which state opinions as well as
facts. Marvell's constituents, in their turn, were not unmindful of
their member. He makes frequent references to their presents, usually of
Hull ale and of salmon, and he regularly drew from them the wages of a
member, six-and-eightpence a day during session.
The development of Marvell's political opinions may be traced in the
satirical verse he published during the reign of Charles II., and in his
private letters. With all his admiration for Cromwell he had retained
his sympathies with the royal house, and had loyally accepted the
Restoration. In 1667 the Dutch fleet sailed up the Thames, and Marvell
expressed his wrath at the gross mismanagement of public affairs in
"Last Instructions to a Painter," a satire which was published as a
broadside and of course remained anonymous. Edmund Waller had published
in 1665 a gratulatory poem on the duke of York's victory in that year
over the Dutch as "Instructions to a Painter for the drawing up and
posture of his Majesty's forces at sea...." A similar form was adopted
in Sir John Denham's four satirical "Directions to a Painter," and
Marvell writes on the same model. His indignation was well grounded, but
he had no scruples in the choice of the weapons he employed in his
warfare against the corruption of the court, which he paints even
blacker than do contemporary memoir writers; and his satire often
descends to the level of the lampoon. The most inexcusable of his
scandalous verses are perhaps those on the duchess of York. In the same
year he attacked Lord Clarendon, evidently hoping that with the removal
of the "betrayer of England and Flanders" matters would improve. But in
1672 when he wrote his "Poem on the Statue in the Stocks-Market" he had
no illusions left about Charles, whom he describes as too often
"purchased and sold," though he concludes with "Yet we'd rather have him
than his bigoted brother." "An Historical Poem," "Advice to a Painter,"
and "Britannia and Raleigh" urge the same advice in grave language. In
the last-named poem, probably written early in 1674, Raleigh pleads that
"'tis god-like good to save a fallen king," but Britannia has at length
decided that the tyrant cannot be divided from the Stuart, and proposes
to reform the state on the republican model of Venice. These and other
equally bold satires were probably handed round in MS., or secretly
printed, and it was not until after the Revolution that they were
collected with those of other writers in _Poems on Affairs of State_ (3
pts., 1689; 4 pts., 1703-1707). Marvell's controversial prose writings
are wittier than his verse satires, and are free from the scurrility
which defaces the "Last Instructions to a Painter." A short and
brilliant example of his irony is "His Majesty's Most Gracious Speech to
both Houses of Parliament" (printed in _Grosart_, ii. 431 seq.), in
which Charles is made to take the house into the friendliest confidence
on his domestic affairs.
Marvell was among the masters of Jonathan Swift, who, in the "Apology"
prefixed to the _Tale of a Tub_, wrote that his answer to Samuel Parker
could be still read with pleasure, although the pamphlets that provoked
it were long since forgotten. Parker had written a _Discourse of
Ecclesiastical Politye_ (1670) and other polemics against Dissenters, to
which Marvell replied in _The Rehearsal Transposed_ (2 pts., 1672 and
1673). The book contains some passages of dignified eloquence, and some
coarse vituperation, but the prevailing tone is that of grave and
ironical banter of Parker as "Mr Bayes." Parker was attacked, says
Bishop Burnet (_Hist. of His Own Time_, ed. 1823, i. 451), "by the
liveliest droll of the age, who writ in a burlesque strain, but with so
peculiar and entertaining a conduct, that, from the king down to the
tradesman, his books were read with great pleasure." He certainly
humbled Parker, but whether this effect extended, as Burnet asserts, to
the whole party, is doubtful. Parker had intimated that Milton had a
share in the first part of Marvell's reply. This Marvell emphatically
denied (_Grosart_, iii. 498). He points out that Parker had, like
Milton, profited by the royal clemency, and that he had first met him at
Milton's house. He takes the opportunity to praise Milton's "great
learning and sharpness of wit," and to the second edition of _Paradise
Lost_ (1674) he contributed some verses of just and eloquent praise.
His _Mr Smirke, or the Divine in Mode ..._ (1676) was a defence of
Herbert Croft, bishop of Hereford, against the criticisms of Dr Francis
Turner, master of St John's College, Cambridge. A far more important
work was _An Account of the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government in
England, more particularly from the Long Prorogation of Parliament ..._
(1677). This pamphlet was written in the same outspoken tone as the
verse satires, and brought against the court the indictment of nursing
designs to establish absolute monarchy and the Roman Catholic religion
at the same time. A reward was offered for the author, whose identity
was evidently suspected, and it is said that Marvell was in danger of
assassination. He died on the 16th of August 1678 in consequence of an
overdose of an opiate taken during an attack of ague. He was buried in
the church of St Giles-in-the-Fields, London. Joint administration of
his estate was granted to one of his creditors, and to his widow, Mary
Marvell, of whom we have no previous mention.
As a humorist, and as a great "parliament man," no name is of more
interest to a student of the reign of Charles II. than that of Marvell.
He had friends among the republican thinkers of the times. Aubrey says
that he was intimate with James Harrington, the author of _Oceana_, and
he was probably a member of the "Rota" club. In the heyday of political
infamy, he, a needy man, obliged to accept wages from his constituents,
kept his political virtue unspotted, and he stood throughout his career
as the champion of moderate and tolerant measures. There is a story that
his old schoolfellow, Danby, was sent by the king to offer the
incorruptible poet a place at court and a gift of £1000, which Marvell
refused with the words: "I live here to serve my constituents: the
ministry may seek men for their purpose; I am not one." When
self-indulgence was the ordinary habit of town life, Marvell was a
temperate man. His personal appearance is described by John Aubrey: "He
was of a middling stature, pretty strong set, roundish faced, cherry
cheeked, hazel eyed, brown haired. In his conversation he was modest and
of very few words." ("Lives of Eminent Persons," printed in _Letters ...
in the 17th and 18th Centuries_, 1813).
Among Marvell's works is also a _Defence of John Howe on God's
Prescience ..._ (1678), and among the spurious works fathered on him
are: _A Seasonable Argument ... for a new Parliament_ (1677), _A
Seasonable Question and a Useful Answer ..._ (1676), _A Letter from a
Parliament Man ..._ (1675), and a translation of _Suetonius_ (1672).
Marvell's satires were no doubt first printed as broadsides, but very
few are still extant in that form. Such of his poems as were printed
during his lifetime appeared in collections of other men's works. The
earliest edition of his non-political verse is _Miscellaneous Poems_
(1681), edited by his wife, Mary Marvell. The political satires were
printed as _A Collection of Poems on Affairs of State, by A----
M----l, Esq. and other Eminent Wits_ (1689), with second and third
parts in the same year. The works of Andrew Marvell contained in these
two publications were also edited by Thomas Cooke (2 vols., 1726), who
added some letters. Cooke's edition was reprinted by Thomas Davies in
1772. Marvell's next editor was Captain Thompson of Hull, who was
connected with the poet's family, and made further additions from a
commonplace book since lost. Other editions followed, but were
superseded by Dr A. B. Grosart's laborious work, which, in spite of
many defects of style, remains indispensable to the student. _The
Complete Works in Verse and Prose of Andrew Marvell, M.P._ (4 vols.,
1872-1875) forms part of his "Fuller Worthies Library." See also the
admirable edition of the _Poems and Satires of Andrew Marvell ..._ (2
vols., 1892) in the "Muses' Library," where a full bibliography of his
works and of the commentaries on them is provided; also _The Poems and
some Satires of Andrew Marvell_ (ed. Edward Wright, 1904), and _Andrew
Marvell_ (1905), by Augustine Birrell in the "English Men of Letters"
series.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] There is an allusion to this escapade addressed by another
anxious parent to the elder Marvell in the Hull Corporation Records
(No. 498) [see Grosart, i. xxviii.]. The document is without address
or signature, but the identification seems safe.
[2] This poem has been highly praised by Goldwin Smith (T. H. Ward's
_English Poets_, ii. 383 (1880)). It was first printed, so far as we
know, in 1776, and the only external testimony to Marvell's
authorship is the statement of Captain Thompson, who had included
many poems by other writers in his edition of Marvell, that this ode
was in poet's own handwriting. The internal evidence in favour of
Marvell may, however, be accepted as conclusive.
MARX, HEINRICH KARL (1818-1883), German socialist, and head of the
International Working Men's Association, was born on the 5th of May 1818
in Trèves (Rhenish Prussia). His father, a Jewish lawyer, in 1824 went
over to Christianity, and he and his whole family were baptized as
Christian Protestants. The son went to the high grammar school at
Trèves, and from 1835 to the universities of Bonn and Berlin. He studied
first law, then history and philosophy, and in 1841 took the degree of
doctor of philosophy. In Berlin he had close intimacy with the most
prominent representatives of the young Hegelians--the brothers Bruno and
Edgar Bauer and their circle, the so-called "Freien." He at first
intended to settle as a lecturer at Bonn University, but his Radical
views made a university career out of the question, and he accepted work
on a Radical paper, the _Rheinische Zeitung_, which expounded the ideas
of the most advanced section of the Rhenish Radical _bourgeoisie_. In
October 1842 he became one of the editors of this paper, which, however,
after an incessant struggle with press censors, was suppressed in the
beginning of 1843. In the summer of this year Marx married Jenny von
Westphalen, the daughter of a high government official. Through her
mother Jenny von Westphalen was a lineal descendant of the earl of
Argyle, who was beheaded under James II. She was a most faithful
companion to Marx during all the vicissitudes of his career, and died on
the 2nd of December 1881; he outliving her only fifteen months.
Already in the _Rheinische Zeitung_ some socialist voices had been
audible, couched in a somewhat philosophical strain. Marx, though not
accepting these views, refused to criticize them until he had studied
the question thoroughly. For this purpose he went in the autumn of 1843
to Paris, where the socialist movement was then at its intellectual
zenith, and where he, together with Arnold Ruge, the well-known literary
leader of Radical Hegelianism, was to edit a review, the
_Deutsch-französische Jahrbücher_, of which, however, only one number
appeared. It contained two articles by Marx--a criticism of Bruno
Bauer's treatment of the Jewish question, and an introduction to a
criticism of Hegel's philosophy of the law. The first concluded that the
social emancipation of the Jews could only be achieved together with the
emancipation of society from Judaism, i.e. commercialism. The second
declared that in Germany no partial political emancipation was possible;
there was now only one class from which a real and reckless fight
against authority was to be expected--namely, the proletariate. But the
proletariate could not emancipate itself except by breaking all the
chains, by dissolving the whole constituted society, by recreating man
as a member of the human society in the place of established states and
classes. "Then the day of German resurrection will be announced by the
crowing of the Gallican cock." Both articles thus relegated the
solution of the questions then prominent in Germany to the advent of
socialism, and so far resembled in principle other socialist
publications of the time. But the way of reasoning was different, and
the final words of the last quoted sentence pointed to a political
revolution, to begin in France as soon as the industrial evolution had
created a sufficiently strong proletariate. In contradistinction to most
of the socialists of the day, Marx laid stress upon the political
struggle as the lever of social emancipation. In some letters which
formed part of a correspondence between Marx, Ruge, Ludwig Feuerbach,
and Mikhail Bakunin, published as an introduction to the review, this
opposition of Marx to socialistic "dogmatism" was enunciated in a still
more pronounced form: "Nothing prevents us," he said, "from combining
our criticism with the criticism of politics, from participating in
politics, and consequently in real struggles. We will not, then, oppose
the world like doctrinarians with a new principle: here is truth, kneel
down here! We expose new principles to the world out of the principles
of the world itself. We don't tell it: 'Give up your struggles, they are
rubbish, we will show you the true war-cry.' We explain to it only the
real object for which it struggles, and consciousness is a thing it must
acquire even if it objects to it."
In Paris Marx met FRIEDRICH ENGELS (1820-1895), from whom the
_Deutsch-französische Jahrbücher_ had two articles--a powerfully written
outline of a criticism of political economy, and a letter on Carlyle's
_Past and Present_. Engels, the son of a wealthy cotton-spinner, was
born in 1820 at Barmen. Although destined by his father for a commercial
career, he attended a classical school, and during his apprenticeship
and whilst undergoing in Berlin his one year's military service, he had
given up part of his free hours to philosophical studies. In Berlin he
had frequented the society of the "Freien," and had written letters to
the _Rheinische Zeitung_. In 1842 he had gone to England, his father's
firm having a factory near Manchester, and had entered into connexion
with the Owenite and Chartist movements, as well as with German
communists. He contributed to Owen's _New Moral World an_d to the
Chartist _Northern Star_, gave up much of his abstract speculative
reasoning for a more positivist conception of things, and took to
economic studies. Now, in September 1844, on a short stay in Paris, he
visited Marx, and the two found that in regard to all theoretical points
there was perfect agreement between them. From that visit dates the
close friendship and uninterrupted collaboration and exchange of ideas
which lasted during their lives, so that even some of Marx's subsequent
works, which he published under his own name, are more or less also the
work of Engels. The first result of their collaboration was the book
_Die heilige Familie oder Kritik der kritischen Kritik, gegen Bruno
Bauer und Konsorten_, a scathing exposition of the perverseness of the
high-sounding speculative radicalism of Bauer and the other Berlin
"Freie." By aid of an analysis, which, though not free from exaggeration
and a certain diffuseness, bears testimony to the great learning of Marx
and the vigorous discerning faculty of both the authors, it is shown
that the supposed superior criticism--the "critical criticism" of the
Bauer school, based upon the doctrine of a "self-conscious" idea,
represented by or incarnated in the critic--was in fact inferior to the
older Hegelian idealism. The socialist and working-class movements in
Great Britain, France and Germany are defended against the superior
criticism of the "holy" Bauer family.
In Paris, where he had very intimate intercourse with Heinrich Heine,
who always speaks of him with the greatest respect, and some of whose
poems were suggested by Marx, the latter contributed to a Radical
magazine, the _Vorwärts_; but in consequence of a request by the
Prussian government, nearly the whole staff of the magazine soon got
orders to leave France. Marx now went to Brussels, where he shortly
afterwards was joined by Engels. In Brussels he published his second
great work, _La Misère de la philosophie_, a sharp rejoinder to the
_Philosophie de la misère ou contradictions économiques_ of J. P.
Proudhon. In this he deals with Proudhon, whom in the former work he had
defended against the Bauers, not less severely than with the latter. It
is shown that in many points Proudhon is inferior to both the
middle-class economists and the socialists, that his somewhat noisily
proclaimed discoveries in regard to political economy were made long
before by English socialists, and that his main remedies, the
"constitution of the labour-value" and the establishment of exchange
bazaars, were but a repetition of what English socialists had already
worked out much more thoroughly and more consistently. Altogether the
book shows remarkable knowledge of political economy. In justice to
Proudhon, it must be added that it is more often his mode of speaking
than the thought underlying the attacked sentences that is hit by Marx's
criticism. In Brussels Marx and Engels also wrote a number of essays,
wherein they criticized the German literary representatives of that kind
of socialism and philosophic radicalism which was mainly influenced by
the writings of Ludwig Feuerbach, and deduced its theorems or postulates
from speculations on the "nature of man." They mockingly nicknamed this
kind of socialism "German or True Socialism," and ridiculed the idea
that by disregarding historical and class distinctions a conception of
society and socialism superior to that of the English and French workers
and theorists could be obtained. Some of these essays were published at
the time, two or three, curiously enough, by one of the attacked writers
in his own magazine; one, a criticism of Feuerbach himself, was in a
modified form published by Engels in 1885, but others have remained in
manuscript. They were at first intended for publication in two volumes
as a criticism of post-Hegelian German philosophy, but the Revolution of
1848 postponed for a time all interest in theoretical discussions.
In Brussels Marx and Engels came into still closer contact with the
socialist working-class movement. They founded a German workers'
society, acquired a local German weekly, the _Brüsseller deutsche
Zeitung_, and finally joined a communistic society of German workers,
the "League of the Just," a secret society which had its main branches
in London, Paris, Brussels and several Swiss towns. For this league,
which till then had adhered to the rough-and-ready communism of the
gifted German workman Wilhelm Weitling, but which now called itself
"League of the Communists," and gave up its leanings towards conspiracy
and became an educational and propagandistic body, Marx and Engels at
the end of 1847 wrote their famous pamphlet, _Manifest der Kommunisten_.
It was a concise exposition of the history of the working-class movement
in modern society according to their views, to which was added a
critical survey of the existing socialist and communist literature, and
an explanation of the attitude of the Communists towards the advanced
opposition parties in the different countries. Scarcely was the
manifesto printed when, in February 1848, the Revolution broke out in
France, and "the crowing of the Gallican cock" gave the signal for an
upheaval in Germany such as Marx had prophesied. After a short stay in
France, Marx and Engels went to Cologne in May 1848, and there with some
friends they founded the _Neue rheinische Zeitung_, with the sub-title
"An Organ of Democracy," a political daily paper on a large scale, of
which Marx was the chief editor. They took a frankly revolutionary
attitude, and directed their criticism to a great extent against the
middle-class democratic parties, who, by evading all decisive issues,
delayed the achievement of the upheaval. When in November 1848 the king
of Prussia dissolved the National Assembly, Marx and his friends
advocated the non-payment of taxes and the organization of armed
resistance. Then the state of siege was declared in Cologne, the _Neue
rheinische Zeitung_ was suspended, and Marx was put on trial for high
treason. He was unanimously acquitted by a middle-class jury, but in May
1849 he was expelled from Prussian territory. He went to Paris, but was
soon given the option of either leaving France or settling at a small
provincial place. He preferred the former, and went to England. He
settled in London, and remained there for the rest of his life.
At first he tried to reorganize the Communist League; but soon a
conflict broke out in its ranks, and after some of its members had been
tried in Germany and condemned for high treason, Marx, who had done
everything to save the accused, dissolved the Communist League
altogether. Nor was a literary enterprise, a review, also called the
_Neue rheinische Zeitung_, more successful; only six numbers of it were
issued. It contained, however, some very remarkable contributions; and a
series of articles on the career of the French Revolution of 1848, which
first appeared there, was in 1895 published by Engels in book form under
the title of _Die Klassenkämpfe in Frankreich von 1848"_ by Karl Marx."
Carlyle's _Latter Day Pamphlets_, published at that time, met with a
very vehement criticism in the _Neue rheinische Zeitung_. The endeavours
of Ernest Jones and others to revive the Chartist movement were heartily
supported by Marx, who contributed to several of the Chartist journals
of the period, mostly, if not wholly, without getting or asking payment.
He lived at this time in great financial straits, occupied a few small
rooms in Dean Street, Soho, and all his children then born died very
young. At length he was invited to write letters for the _New York
Tribune_, whose staff consisted of advanced democrats and socialists of
the Fourierist school. For these letters he was paid at the rate of a
guinea each. Part of them, dealing with the Eastern Question and the
Crimean War, were republished in 1897 (London, Sonnenschein). Some were
even at the time reprinted in pamphlet form. The co-operation of Marx,
who was determinedly anti-Russian, since Russia was the leading
reactionary power in Europe, was obtained by David Urquhart and his
followers. A number of Marx's articles were issued as pamphlets by the
Urquhartite committees, and Marx wrote a series of articles on the
diplomatic history of the 18th century for the Urquhartite _Free Press_
(Sheffield and London, 1856-1857). When in 1859 the Franco-Austrian War
about Italy broke out, Marx denounced it as a Franco-Russian intrigue,
directed against Germany on the one hand and the revolutionary movement
in France on the other. He opposed those democrats who supported a war
which in their eyes aimed at the independence of the Italian nation and
promised to weaken Austria, whose superiority in Germany was the
hindrance to German unity. Violent derogatory remarks directed against
him by the well-known naturalist Karl Vogt gave occasion to a not less
violent rejoinder, _Herr Vogt_, a book full of interesting material for
the student of modern history. Marx's contention, that Vogt acted as an
agent of the Bonapartist clique, seems to have been well founded, whilst
it must be an open question how far Vogt acted from dishonourable
motives. The discussions raised by the war also resulted in a great
estrangement between Marx and Ferdinand Lassalle. Lassalle had taken a
similar view of the war to that advocated by Vogt, and fought tooth and
nail for it in letters to Marx. In the same year, 1859, Marx published
as a first result of his renewed economic studies the book _Zur Kritik
der politischen Ökonomie_. It was the first part of a much larger work
planned to cover the whole ground of political economy. But Marx found
that the arrangement of his materials did not fully answer his purpose,
and that many details had still to be worked out. He consequently
altered the whole plan and sat down to rewrite the book, of which in
1867 he published the first volume under the title _Das Kapital_.
In the meantime, in 1864, the International Working Men's Association
was founded in London, and Marx became in fact though not in name, the
head of its general council. All its addresses and proclamations were
penned by him and explained in lectures to the members of the council.
The first years of the International went smoothly enough. Marx was then
at his best. He displayed in the International a political sagacity and
toleration which compare most favourably with the spirit of some of the
publications of the Communist League. He was more of its teacher than an
agitator, and his expositions of such subjects as education, trade
unions, the working day, and co-operation were highly instructive. He
did not hurry on extreme resolutions, but put his proposals in such a
form that they could be adopted by even the more backward sections, and
yet contained no concessions to reactionary tendencies. But this
condition of things was not permitted to go on. The anarchist agitation
of Bakunin, the Franco-German War, and the Paris Commune created a state
of things before which the International succumbed. Passions and
prejudices ran so high that it proved impossible to maintain any sort of
centralized federation. At the congress of the Hague, September 1872,
the general council was removed from London to New York. But this was
only a makeshift, and in July 1876 the rest of the old International was
formally dissolved at a conference held in Philadelphia. That its spirit
had not passed away was shown by subsequent international congresses,
and by the growth and character of socialist labour parties in different
countries. They have mostly founded their programmes on the basis of its
principles, but are not always in their details quite in accordance with
Marx's views. Thus the programme which the German socialist party
accepted at its congress in 1875 was very severely criticized by Marx.
This criticism, reprinted in 1891 in the review _Die neue Zeit_, is of
great importance for the analysis of Marx's conception of socialism.
The dissolution of the International gave Marx an opportunity of
returning to his scientific work. He did not, however, succeed in
publishing further volumes of _Das Kapital_. In order to make it--and
especially the part dealing with property in land--as complete as
possible, he took up, as Engels tells us, a number of new studies, but
repeated illness interrupted his researches, and on the 14th of March
1883 he passed quietly away.
From the manuscripts he left Engels compiled a second and a third
volume of _Das Kapital_ by judiciously and elaborately using complete
and incomplete chapters, rough copies and excerpts, which Marx had at
different times written down. Much of the copy used dates back to the
'sixties, i.e. represents the work as at first conceived by Marx, so
that, e.g., the matter published as the third volume was in the main
written much earlier than the matter which was used for compiling the
second volume. The same applies to the fourth volume. Although the
work thus comprises the four volumes promised in the preface to the
book, it can only in a very restricted sense be regarded as complete.
In substance and demonstration it must be regarded as a torso. And it
is perhaps not quite accidental that it should be so. Marx, if he had
lived longer and had enjoyed better health, would have given the world
a much greater amount of scientific work of high value than is now the
case. But it seems doubtful whether he would have brought _Das
Kapital_, his main work, to a satisfactory conclusion.
_Das Kapital_ proposes to show up historically and critically the
whole mechanism of capitalist economy. The first volume deals with the
processes of producing capital, the second with the circulation of
capital, the third with the movements of capital as a whole, whilst
the fourth gives the history of the theories concerning capital.
Capital is, according to Marx, the means of appropriating
_surplus-value_ as distinguished from ground rent (rent on every kind
of terrestrial property, such as land, mines, rivers, &c., based upon
the monopolist nature of such property). Surplus-value is created in
the process of production only, it is this part of the value of the
newly created product which is not given to the workman as a
return--the _wage_--of the labour-force he expended in working. If at
first taken by the employer, it is in the different phases of economic
intercourse split up into the profit of industrial enterprise,
commercial or merchants' profit, interest and ground rent. The value
of every commodity consists in the labour expended on it, and is
measured according to the time occupied by the labour employed on its
production. Labour in itself has no value, being only the measure of
value, but the labour-force of the workman has a value, the value of
the means required to maintain the worker in normal conditions of
social existence. Thus, in distinction to other commodities, in the
determination of the value of labour-force, besides the purely
economical, a _moral_ and _historical_ element enter. If to-day the
worker receives a wage which covers the bare necessaries of life, he
is underpaid--he does not receive the real value of his labour-force.
For the value of any commodity is determined by its socially necessary
costs of production (or in this case, maintenance). "Socially
necessary" means, further, that no more labour is embodied in a
commodity than is required by applying labour-force, tools, &c., of
average or normal efficiency, and that the commodity is produced in
such quantity as is required to meet the effective demand for it. As
this generally cannot be known in advance, the market value of a
commodity only gravitates round its (abstract) value. But in the long
run an equalization takes place, and for his further deductions Marx
assumes that commodities exchange according to their value.
That part of an industrial capital which is employed for
installations, machines, raw and auxiliary materials, is called by
Marx _constant capital_, for the value of it or of its wear and tear
reappears in equal proportions in the value of the new product. It is
otherwise with labour. The new value of the product must by necessity
be always higher than the value of the employed labour-force. Hence
the capital employed in buying labour-force, i.e. in wages, is called
_variable capital_. It is the tendency of capitalist production to
reduce the amount spent in wages and to increase the amount invested
in machines, &c. For with natural and social, legal and other
limitations of the working day, and the opposition to unlimited
reduction of wages, it is not possible otherwise to cheapen production
and beat competition. According to the proportion of constant to
variable capital, Marx distinguishes capitals of _lowest average_ and
_highest composition_, the highest composition being that where
proportionately the least amount of variable (wages) capital is
employed.
The ratio of the wages which workmen receive to the surplus-value
which they produce Marx calls the _rate of surplus-value_; that of the
surplus-value produced to the whole capital employed is the _rate of
profit_. It is evident, then, that at the same time the rate of
surplus-value can increase and the rate of profit decrease, and this
in fact is the case. There is a continuous tendency of the rates of
profit to decrease, and only by some counteracting forces is their
decrease temporarily interrupted, protracted, or even sometimes
reversed. Besides, by competition and movement of capitals the rates
of profit in the different branches of trade are pressed towards an
_equalization_ in the shape of an _average rate of profits_. This
average rate of profits, added to the actual cost price of a given
commodity, constitutes its _price of production_, and it is this price
of production which appears to the empirical mind of the business man
as the value of the commodity. The real law of value, on the contrary,
disappears from the surface in a society where, as to-day, commodities
are bought and sold against money and not exchanged against other
commodities. Nevertheless, according to Marx, it is also to-day this
law of value ("labour-value") which in the last resort rules the
prices and profits.
The tendency to cheapen production by increasing the relative
proportion of constant capital--the fixed capital of the classical
economist plus that portion of the circulating capital which consists
of raw and auxiliary materials, &c.--leads to a continuous increase in
the size of private enterprises, to their growing concentration. It is
the larger enterprise that beats and swallows the smaller. The number
of dependent workmen--"proletarians"--is thus continually growing,
whilst employment only periodically keeps pace with their number.
Capital alternately attracts and repels workmen, and creates a
constant surplus-population of workmen--a _reserve-army_ for its
requirements--which helps to lower wages and to keep the whole class
in economic dependency. A decreasing number of capitalists usurp and
monopolize all the benefits of industrial progress, whilst the mass of
misery, of oppression, of servitude, of depravation, and of
exploitation increases. But at the same time the working class
continuously grows in numbers, and is disciplined, united and
organized by the very mechanism of the capitalist mode of production.
The centralization of the means of production and the socialization of
the mode of production reach a point where they will become
incompatible with their capitalist integument. Then the knell of
capitalist private property will have been rung. Those who used to
expropriate will be expropriated. Individual property will again be
established based upon co-operation and common ownership of the earth
and the means of production produced by labour.
These are the principal outlines of _Das Kapital_. Its purely economic
deductions are dominated throughout by the _theory of surplus-value_.
Its leading sociological principle is the _materialist conception of
history_. This theory is in _Das Kapital_ only laid down by
implication, but it has been more connectedly explained in the preface
of _Zur Kritik_ and several works of Engels. According to it the
material basis of life, the manner in which life and its requirements
are produced, determines in the last instance the social ideas and
institutions of the time or historical epoch, so that fundamental
changes in the former produce in the long run also fundamental changes
in the latter. A set of social institutions answer to a given mode of
production, and periods where the institutions no longer answer to the
mode of production are periods of social revolution, which go on until
sufficient adjustment has taken place. The main _subjective_ forces of
the struggle between the old order and the new are _the classes_ into
which society is divided after the dissolution of the communistic or
semi-communistic tribes and the creation of states. And as long as
society is divided into classes a class war will persist, sometimes in
a more latent or disguised, sometimes in a more open or acute form,
according to circumstances. In advanced capitalist society the classes
between whom the decisive war takes place are the capitalist owners of
the means of production and the non-propertied or wage-earning
workers, the "proletariate." But the proletariate cannot free itself
without freeing all other oppressed classes, and thus its victory
means the end of exploitation and political repression altogether.
Consequently the state as a repressive power will die out, and a free
association will take its place.
Almost from the first _Das Kapital_ and the publications of Marx and
Engels connected with it have been subjected to all kinds of
criticisms. The originality of its leading ideas has been disputed,
the ideas themselves have been declared to be false or only partially
true, and consequently leading to wrong conclusions; and it has been
said of many of Marx's statements that they are incorrect, and that
many of the statistics upon which he bases his deductions do not
prove what he wants them to prove. In regard to the first point, it
must be conceded that the _disjecta membra_ of Marx's value theory and
of his materialist conception of history are already to be found in
the writings of former socialists and sociologists. It may even be
said that just those points of the Marxist doctrine which have become
popular are in a very small degree the produce of Marx's genius, and
that what really belongs to Marx, the methodical conjunction and
elaboration of these points, as well as the finer deductions drawn
from their application, are generally ignored. But this is an
experience repeated over and over again in the history of deductive
sciences, and is quite irrelevant for the question of Marx's place in
the history of socialism and social science.
It must further be admitted that in several places the statistical
evidence upon which Marx bases his deductions is insufficient or
inconclusive. Moreover--and this is one of the most damaging
admissions--it repeatedly happens that he points out all the phenomena
connected with a certain question, but afterwards ignores some of them
and proceeds as if they did not exist. Thus, e.g., he speaks at the
end of the first volume, where he sketches the historical tendency of
capitalist accumulation, of the decreasing number of magnates of
capital as of an established fact. But all statistics show that the
number of capitalists does not decrease, but increase; and in other
places in _Das Kapital_ this fact is indeed fully admitted, and even
accentuated. Marx was, as the third volume shows, also quite aware
that limited liability companies play an important part in the
distribution of wealth. But he leaves this factor, too, quite out of
sight, and confuses the concentration of private enterprises with the
centralization of fortunes and capitals. By these and other omissions,
quite apart from developments he could not well foresee, he announces
a coming evolution which is very unlikely to take place in the way
described.
In this and in other features of his work a _dualism_ reveals itself
which is also often observable in his actions in life--the alternating
predominance of the spirit of the scholar and the spirit of the
radical revolutionary. Marx originally entitled his great social work
_Criticism of Political Economy_, and this is still the sub-title of
_Das Kapital_. But the conception of _critic_ or _criticize_ has with
Marx a very pronounced meaning. He uses them mostly as identical with
fundamentally opposing. Much as he had mocked the "critical criticism"
of the Bauers, he is in this respect yet of their breed and relapses
into their habits. He retained in principle the Hegelian dialectical
method, of which he said that in order to be rationally employed it
must be "turned upside down," i.e. put upon a materialist basis. But
as a matter of fact he has in many respects contravened against this
prescription. Strict materialist dialectics cannot conclude much
beyond actual facts. Dialectical materialism is revolutionary in the
sense that it recognizes no finality, but otherwise it is necessarily
positivist in the general meaning of that term. But Marx's opposition
to modern society was fundamental and revolutionary, answering to that
of the proletarian to the _bourgeois_. And here we come to the main
and fatal contradiction of his work. He wanted to proceed, and to a
very great extent did proceed, scientifically. Nothing was to be
deduced from preconceived ideas; from the observed evolutionary laws
and forces of modern society alone were conclusions to be drawn. And
yet the final conclusion of the work, as already noted, is a
preconceived idea; it is the announcement of a state of society
logically opposed to the given one. Imperceptibly the dialectical
movement of _ideas_ is substituted for the dialectical movement of
facts, and the real movement of facts is only considered so far as is
compatible with the former. Science is violated in the service of
speculation. The picture given at the end of the first volume answers
to a conception arrived at by speculative socialism in the 'forties.
True, Marx calls this chapter "the historical tendency of capitalist
accumulation," and "tendency" does not necessarily mean realization in
every detail. But on the whole the language used there is much too
absolute to allow of the interpretation that Marx only wanted to give
a speculative picture of the goal to which capitalist accumulation
would lead if unhampered by socialist counteraction. The epithet
"historical" indicates rather that the passage in question was meant
to give in the main the true outline of the forthcoming social
revolution. We are led to this conclusion also by the fact that, in
language which is not in the least conditional, it is there said that
the change of capitalist property into social property will mean "only
the expropriation of a few usurpers by the mass of the people." In
short, the principal reason for the undeniable contradictions in _Das
Kapital_ is to be found in the fact that where Marx has to do with
details or subordinate subjects he mostly notices the important
changes which actual evolution had brought about since the time of his
first socialist writings, and thus himself states how far their
presuppositions have been corrected by facts. But when he comes to
general conclusions, he adheres in the main to the original
propositions based upon the old uncorrected presuppositions. Besides,
the complex character of modern society is greatly under-estimated, so
that, e.g., such important features as the influence of the changes of
traffic and aggregation on modern life are scarcely considered at all;
and industrial and political problems are viewed only from the aspect
of class antagonism, and never under their administrative aspect. With
regard to the theory of surplus-value and its foundation, the theory
of labour-value, so much may be safely said that, its premisses
accepted, it is most ingeniously and most consistently worked out. And
since its principal contention is in any case so far true that the
wage-earning workers as a whole produce more than they receive, the
theory has the great merit of demonstrating in an admirably lucid way
the relations between wages and surplus-produce and the growth and
movements of capital. But the theory of labour-value as the
determining factor of the exchange or market value of commodities can
with justification be disputed, and is surely not more true than those
theories of value based on social demand or utility. Marx himself, in
placing in the third volume what he calls the _law of value_ in the
background and setting out the formation of the "price of production"
as the empirical determinator of prices in modern society, justifies
those who look upon the conception of labour-value as an abstract
formula which does not apply to individual exchanges of commodities at
all, but which only serves to show an imagined typical example of what
in reality to-day is only true with regard to the production of the
whole of social wealth. Thus understood, the conception of
labour-value is quite unobjectionable, but it loses much of the
significance attributed to it by most of the disciples of Marx and
occasionally by Marx himself. It is a means of analysing and
exemplifying surplus labour, but quite inconclusive as to the proof of
the surplus value, or as an indication of the degree of the
exploitation of the workers. This becomes the more apparent the more
the reader advances in the second and third volumes of _Das Kapital_,
where commercial capital, money capital and ground rent are dealt
with. Though full of fine observations and deductions, they form, from
a revolutionary standpoint, an anti-climax to the first volume. It is
difficult to see how, after all that is explained there on the
functions of the classes that stand between industrial employers and
workers, Marx could have returned to those sweeping conclusions with
which the first volume ends.
The great scientific achievement of Marx lies, then, not in these
conclusions, but in the _details_ and yet more in the _method_ and
_principles_ of his investigations in his _philosophy of history_.
Here he has, as is now generally admitted, broken new ground and
opened new ways and new outlooks. Nobody before him had so clearly
shown the rôle of the productive agencies in historical evolution;
nobody so masterfully exhibited their great determining influence on
the forms and ideologies of social organisms. The passages and
chapters dealing with this subject form, notwithstanding occasional
exaggerations, the crowning parts of his works. If he has been justly
compared with Darwin, it is in these respects that he ranks with that
great genius, not through his value theory, ingenious though it be.
With the great theorist of biological transformation he had also in
common the indefatigable way in which he made painstaking studies of
the minutest details connected with his researches. In the same year
as Darwin's epoch-making work on the origin of species there appeared
also Marx's work _Zur Kritik der politischen Ökonomie_, where he
explains in concise sentences in the preface that philosophy of
history which has for the theory of the transformation or evolution of
social organisms the same significance that the argument of Darwin had
for the theory of the transformation of biological organisms.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The main writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels are
as follow (we give only the titles of the original works and of their
English translations): (1) Of Karl Marx alone: _La Misère de la
philosophie, réponse à la philosophie de la misère de M. Proudhon_
(Paris, 1847; new ed., 1892; English ed., _The Poverty of Philosophy_,
London, 1900); _Lohnarbeit und Kapital_, pamphlet, written 1848 (new
ed., Berlin, 1891); English ed., _Wage, Labour and Capital_ (London,
1900); _Die Klassenkämpfe in Frankreich, 1848 to 1850_ (Berlin, 1895);
_Der Achtzehnte Brumaire des Louis Bonaparte_ (New York, 1852; 3rd
ed., Hamburg, 1889; Eng. ed., New York, 1889); _Enthüllungen über den
Kölner Kommunistenprozess_ (Basel, 1852; new ed., Zürich-Berlin,
1885); "European Revolutions and Counter-Revolutions" (reprints from
the _New York Tribune_, 1851-1852; London, 1897); "The Eastern
Question" (reprints from the _New York Tribune_, 1853-1856; London,
1898); _Zur Kritik der politischen Ökonomie_ (Berlin, 1859; new ed.,
Stuttgart, 1897); _Herr Vogt_ (London, 1860); _Inaugural Address of
the International Working Men's Association_ (London, 1864); _Value,
Price and Profit_ (written 1865, published London, 1898); _Das
Kapital, Kritik der politischen Ökonomie_ (3 vols., Hamburg, 1867,
1885 and 1895; Eng. ed. of 1st vol., 1886); _The Civil War in France,
1871_ (London, 1871; new ed., 1894); _L'Alliance de la démocratie
socialiste_ (London, 1873); articles printed or reprinted in
_Rheinische Zeitung_ (1842-1843), _Deutsch-französische Jahrbücher_
(Paris, 1844), _Das westphälische Dampfboot_ (Bielefeld und Paderborn,
1845-1848), _Der Gesellschaftsspiegel_ (Elberfeld, 1846), _Deutsche
brüsseler Zeitung_ (Brussels, 1847), _Neue rheinische Zeitung_ (daily,
Cologne, 1848-1849; monthly, Hamburg, 1850), _The People_ (London,
1852-1858), _The New York Tribune_ (New York, 1853-1860), _The Free
Press_ (Sheffield and London, 1856-1857), _Das Volk_ (London, 1859),
_Der Vorbote_ (Geneva, 1866-1875), _Der Volkstaat_ (Leipzig,
1869-1876), _Die Neue Zeit_ (Stuttgart, 1883, sqq.); _Sozialistische
Monatshefte_ (Berlin, 1895, sqq.). (2) Of Friedrich Engels alone: _Die
Lage der arbeitenden Klassen in England_ (Leipzig, 1845; new ed.,
Stuttgart, 1892; Eng. ed., London, 1892); _Zur Wohnungsfrage_
(Leipzig, 1873-1874; new ed., Zürich-Berlin, 1887); _Herrn Eugen
Dührings Umwälzung der Wissenschaft_ (Leipzig, 1877; 3rd ed.,
Stuttgart, 1894). Three chapters of the first-named are published in
English under the title Socialism, _Utopian and Scientific_ (London,
1892). _Der Ursprung des Eigenthums, der Familie und des Staates_
(Zürich and Stuttgart, 1885 and 1892); _Ludwig Feuerbach und der
Ausgang der klassischen deutschen Philosophie_ (Stuttgart, 1886).
Introductions to most of the posthumous works of K. Marx and articles
in the same periodicals as Marx. (3) Of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
together: _Die heilige Familie oder Kritik der kritischen Kritik_
(Frankfurt, 1845); _Manifest der kommunistischen Partei_ (London,
1848; Eng. ed., 1848 and 1888). (4) With regard to Marx generally, his
theory and his school, see J. Stammhammer, _Bibliographie des
Sozialismus und Kommunismus_ (Jena, 1893); and Th. G. Masaryk, _Die
philosophischen und soziologischen Grundlagen des Marxismus_ (Vienna,
1899). Much biographical and bibliographical information on Marx and
Engels is to be found in Dr Franz Mehring, _Geschichte der deutschen
Sozialdemokratie_ (Stuttgart, 1897-1898), and in the collection,
edited also by Dr Fr. Mehring, _Aus dem literarischen Nachlass von
Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels und Ferdinand Lassalle_ (Stuttgart, 1902).
Of the criticisms of Marx's economics, one of the most comprehensive
is E. von Boehm-Bawerk's _Karl Marx and the Close of his System_
(London, 1898). Marx's historic theory is, apart from Masaryk, very
exhaustively analysed by R. Stammler in _Wirthschaft und Recht_
(Leipzig, 1896). (E. Bn.)
MARY[1] ([Greek: Maria, Mariam]), the mother of Jesus. At the time when
the gospel history begins, she had her home in Galilee, at the village
of Nazareth. Of her parentage nothing is recorded in any extant
historical document of the 1st century, for the genealogy in Luke iii.
(cf. i. 27) is manifestly that of Joseph. In early life she became the
wife of Joseph (q.v.) and the mother of Jesus Christ; that she
afterwards had other children is a natural inference from Matt. i. 25,
which the evangelists, who frequently allude to "the brethren of the
Lord," are at no pains to obviate. The few incidents mentioned in
Scripture regarding her show that she followed our Lord to the very
close of His earthly career with unfailing motherliness, but the
"Magnificat" assigned to her in Luke i. is the only passage which would
distinctly imply on her part a high prophetic appreciation of His divine
mission. It is however doubtful whether Luke really intended to assign
this hymn to Mary or to Elizabeth (cf. especially _Niceta of Remesiana_
by A. E. Burn, Cambridge, 1905; Harnack's "Das Magnificat der Elizabeth"
in the _Sitzungsberichte_ of the Berlin Academy for 1900, and Burkitt's
"Who spoke the Magnificat?" in the _Journal of Theological Studies_,
Jan. 1906). The original text of Luke probably mentioned no name in
introducing the Magnificat; scribes supplied the ambiguity by inserting,
some Mary, others Elizabeth. It is doubtful which represents the
intention of the writer: there is perhaps more to be said for the view
that he meant to assign the Magnificat to Elizabeth. Mary was present at
the Crucifixion, where she was commended by Jesus to the care of the
apostle John (John xix. 26, 27), Joseph having apparently died before
this time. Mary is mentioned in Acts i. 14 as having been among those
who continued in prayer along with the apostles at Jerusalem during the
interval between the Ascension and Pentecost. There is no allusion in
the New Testament to the time or place of her death.
The subsequent growth of ecclesiastical tradition and belief regarding
Mary will be traced must conveniently under the separate heads of (1)
her perpetual virginity, (2) her absolute sinlessness, (3) her peculiar
relation to the Godhead, which specially fits her for successful
intercession on behalf of mankind.
_Her Perpetual Virginity._--This doctrine was, to say the least, of no
importance in the eyes of the evangelists, and so far as extant writings
go there is no evidence of its having been anywhere taught within the
pale of the Catholic Church of the first three centuries. On the
contrary, to Tertullian the fact of Mary's marriage after the birth of
Christ is a useful argument for the reality of the Incarnation against
gnostic notions, and Origen relies upon the references to the Lord's
brethren as disproving the Docetism with which he had to contend. The
[Greek: aeiparthenia] though very ancient, is in reality a doctrine of
non-Catholic origin, and first occurs in a work proscribed by the
earliest papal _Index librorum prohibitorum_ (attributed to Gelasius) as
heretical,--the so-called _Protevangelium Jacobi_, written, it is
generally admitted, within the 2nd century. According to this very early
source, which seems to have formed the basis of the later _Liber de
infantia Mariae et Christi salvatoris_ and _Evangelium de nativitate
Mariae_, the name of Mary's father was Joachim (in the _Liber de
infantia_ a shepherd of the tribe of Judah, living in Jerusalem); he had
long been married to Anna her mother, whose continual childlessness had
become a cause of much humiliation and sorrow to them both. The birth of
a daughter was at last angelically predicted to each parent separately.
From her third to her twelfth year "Mary was in the Temple as if she were
a dove that dwelt there, and she received food from the hand of an
angel." When she became of nubile age a guardian was sought for her by
the priests among the widowers of Israel "lest she should defile the
sanctuary of the Lord"; and Joseph, an elderly man with a family, was
indicated for this charge by a miraculous token. Some time afterwards the
annunciation took place; when the Virgin's pregnancy was discovered,
Joseph and she were brought before the high priest, and, though asserting
their innocence in all sincerity, were acquitted only after they had been
tried with "the water of the ordeal of the Lord" (Num. v. 11). Numerous
details regarding the birth at Bethlehem are then given. The perpetual
physical virginity of Mary, naïvely insisted upon in this apocryphon, is
alluded to only with a half belief and a "some say" by Clement of
Alexandria (_Strom._ vii. 16), but became of much importance to the
leaders of the Church in the 4th century, as for example to Ambrose, who
sees in Ezek. xliv. 1-3 a prophetic indication of so great a mystery.[2]
Those who continued to believe that Mary, after the miraculous birth of
Jesus, had become the mother of other children by Joseph came accordingly
to be spoken of as her enemies--Antidicomarianitae (Epiphanius) or
Antidicomaritae (Augustine)--and the first-mentioned author devotes a
whole chapter (ch. 78) of his great work upon heresies to their
confutation. For holding the same view Bonosus of Sardica was condemned
by the synod of Capua in 391. To Jerome the perpetual virginity not only
of Mary but even of Joseph appeared of so much consequence that while a
young man he wrote (387) the long and vehement tract _Against Helvidius_,
in which he was the first to broach the theory (which has since gained
wide currency) that the brethren of our Lord were children neither of
Mary by her husband nor of Joseph by a former marriage, but of another
Mary, sister to the Virgin and wife of Clopas or Alphaeus. At last the
epithet of [Greek: haei parthenos] was authoritatively applied to the
Virgin by the council of Chalcedon in 451, and the doctrine implied has
ever since been an undisputed point of orthodoxy both in the Eastern and
in the Roman Churches, some even seeking to hold the Anglican Church
committed to it on account of the general declaration (in the _Homilies_)
of concurrence in the decisions of the first four general councils.
_Her Absolute Sinlessness._--While much of the apocryphal literature of
the early sects in which she is repeatedly spoken of as "undefiled
before God" would seem to encourage some such doctrine as this, many
passages from the acknowledged fathers of the Church could be cited to
show that it was originally quite unknown to Catholicism. Even Augustine
repeatedly asserts that she was born in original sin (_De gen. ad lit._
x. 18); and the _locus classicus_ regarding her possible immunity from
actual transgression, on which the subsequent doctrine of Lombardus and
his commentators was based, is simply an extremely guarded passage (_De
nat. et grat._ ch. 36), in which, while contradicting the assertion of
Pelagius that many had lived free from sin, he wishes exception to be
made in favour of "the holy Virgin Mary, of whom out of honour to the
Lord I wish no question to be made where sins are treated of--for how do
we know what mode of grace wholly to conquer sin may have been bestowed
upon her who was found meet to conceive and bear Him of whom it is
certain that He had no sin." A writer so late as Anselm (_Cur deus
homo_, ii. 16), declares that "the Virgin herself whence He (Christ) was
assumed was conceived in iniquity, and in sin did her mother conceive
her, and with original sin was she born, because she too sinned in Adam
in whom all sinned," and the same view was expressed by Damiani. For the
growth of the modern Roman doctrine of the immaculate conception from
the time in the 12th century, when the canons of Lyons sought to
institute a festival in honour of her "holy conception," and were
remonstrated with by Bernard, see IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. The epithets
applied to her in the Greek Church are such as [Greek: amolyntos,
panagnos, hagia, panagia]; but in the East generally no clear
distinction is drawn between immunity from actual sin and original
sinlessness.
_Her Peculiar Relation to the Godhead, which specially fits Her for
Successful Intercession on Behalf of Mankind._--It seems probable that
the epithet [Greek: theotokos] ("Mother of God") was first applied to
Mary by theologians of Alexandria towards the close of the 3rd century;
but it does not occur in any genuine extant writing of that period,
unless we are to assign an early date to the apocryphal _Transitus
Mariae_, in which the word is of frequent occurrence. In the 4th century
it is met with frequently, being used by Eusebius, Athanasius, Didymus
and Gregory of Nazianzus,--the latter declaring that the man who
believes not Mary to have been [Greek: theotokos] has no part in God
(_Orat._ li. p. 738).[3] If its use was first recommended by a desire to
bring into prominence the divinity of the Incarnate Word, there can be
no doubt that latterly the expression came to be valued as directly
honourable to Mary herself and as corresponding to the greatly increased
esteem in which she personally was held throughout the Catholic world,
so that when Nestorius and others began to dispute its propriety, in the
following century, their temerity was resented, not as an attack upon
the established orthodox doctrine of the Nicene creed, but as
threatening a more vulnerable and more tender part of the popular faith.
It is sufficient in illustration of the drift of theological opinion to
refer to the first sermon of Proclus, preached on a certain festival of
the Virgin ([Greek: panêgyris parthenikê]) at Constantinople about the
year 430 or to that of Cyril of Alexandria delivered in the church of
the Virgin Mary at the opening of the council of Ephesus in 431. In the
former the orator speaks of "the holy Virgin and Mother of God" as "the
spotless treasure-house of virginity, the spiritual paradise of the
second Adam; the workshop in which two natures were welded together ...
the one bridge between God and men";[4] in the latter she is saluted as
the "mother and virgin," "through whom ([Greek: di' hês]) the Trinity is
glorified and worshipped, the cross of the Saviour exalted and honoured,
through whom heaven triumphs, the angels are made glad, devils driven
forth, the tempter overcome, and the fallen creature raised up even to
heaven." The response which such language found in the popular heart was
sufficiently shown by the shouts of joy with which the Ephesian mob
heard of the deposition of Nestorius, escorting his judges with torches
and incense to their homes, and celebrating the occasion by a general
illumination. The causes which in the preceding century had led to this
exaltation of the Mother of God in the esteem of the Catholic world are
not far to seek. On the one hand the solution of the Arian controversy,
however correct it may have been theoretically, undoubtedly had the
practical effect of relegating the God-man redeemer for ordinary minds
into a far away region of "remote and awful Godhead," so that the need
for a mediator to deal with the very Mediator could not fail to be felt.
On the other hand, the religious instincts of mankind are very ready to
pay worship, in grosser or more refined forms, to the idea of womanhood;
at all events many of those who became professing Christians at the
political fall of Paganism entered the Church with such instincts
(derived from the nature-religions in which they had been brought up)
very fully developed. Probably it ought to be added that the comparative
colourlessness with which the character of Mary is presented, not only
in the canonical gospels but even in the most copious of the apocrypha,
left greater scope for the untrammelled exercise of devout imagination
than was possible in the case of Christ, in the circumstances of whose
humiliation and in whose recorded utterances there were many things
which the religious consciousness found difficulty in understanding or
in adapting to itself. At all events, from the time of the council of
Ephesus, to exhibit figures of the Virgin and Child became the approved
expression of orthodoxy, and the relationship of motherhood in which
Mary had been formally declared to stand to God[5] was instinctively
felt to give the fullest and freest sanction of the Church to that
invocation of her aid which had previously been resorted to only
hesitatingly and occasionally. Previously to the council of Ephesus,
indeed, the practice had obtained complete recognition, so far as we
know, in those circles only in which one or other of the numerous
redactions of the _Transitus Mariae_ passed current.[6] There we read of
Mary's prayer to Christ: "Do Thou bestow Thine aid upon every man
calling upon, or praying to, or naming the name of Thine handmaid"; to
which His answer is, "Every soul that calls upon Thy name shall not be
ashamed, but shall find mercy and support and confidence both in the
world that now is and in that which is to come in the presence of My
Father in the heavens." But Gregory of Nazianzus also, in his panegyric
upon Justina, mentions with incidental approval that in her hour of
peril she "implored Mary the Virgin to come to the aid of a virgin in
her danger."[7] Of the growth of the Marian cultus, alike in the East
and in the West, after the decision at Ephesus it would be impossible to
trace the history, however slightly, within the limits of the present
article. Justinian in one of his laws bespeaks her advocacy for the
empire, and he inscribes the high altar in the new church of St Sophia
with her name. Narses looks to her for directions on the field of
battle. The emperor Heraclius bears her image on his banner. John of
Damascus speaks of her as the sovereign lady to whom the whole creation
has been made subject by her son. Peter Damian recognizes her as the
most exalted of all creatures, and apostrophizes her as deified and
endowed with all power in heaven and in earth, yet not forgetful of our
race.[8] In a word, popular devotion gradually developed the entire
system of doctrine and practice which Protestant controversialists are
accustomed to call by the name of Mariolatry. With reference to this
much-disputed phrase it is always to be kept in mind that the directly
authoritative documents, alike of the Greek and of the Roman Church,
distinguish formally between _latria_ and _dulia_, and declare that the
"worship" to be paid to the mother of God must never exceed that
superlative degree of _dulia_ which is vaguely described as
_hyperdulia_. But the comparative reserve shown by the council of Trent
in its decrees, and even in its catechism,[9] on this subject has not
been observed by individual theologians, and in view of the fact of the
canonization of some of these (such as Liguori)--a fact guaranteeing the
absence of erroneous teaching from their writings--it does not seem
unfair, to hold the Roman Church responsible for the natural
interpretations and just inferences which may be drawn even from
apparently exaggerated expressions in such works as the well-known
_Glories of Mary_ and others frequently quoted in controversial
literature. There is a good _résumé_ of Catholic developments of the
cultus of Mary in Pusey's _Eirenicon_.
The following are the principal feasts of the Virgin in the order in
which they occur in the ecclesiastical year. (1) That of the
Presentation (_Praesentatio B. V. M._, [Greek: ta eisodia tês
theotokou]), to commemorate the beginning of her stay in the Temple,
as recorded in the _Protevangelium Jacobi_. It is believed to have
originated in the East in the 8th century, the earliest allusion to it
being made by George of Nicomedia (9th century); Manuel Comnenus made
it universal for the Eastern Empire, and in the modern Greek Church it
is one of the five great festivals in honour of the Deipara. It was
introduced into the Western Church late in the 14th century, and,
after having been withdrawn from the calendar by Pius V., was restored
by Sixtus V., the day observed in both East and West being the 21st of
November. It is not mentioned in the English calendar. (2) The Feast
of the Conception (_Conceptio B. V. M._, _Conceptio immaculata B. V.
M._, [Greek: sullêpsis tês hagias Hannês]), observed by the Roman
Catholic Church on the 8th of December, and by all the Eastern
Churches on the 9th of December, has already been explained; in the
Greek Church it only ranks as one of the middle festivals of Mary. (3)
The Feast of the Purification (_Occursus_, _Obviatio_, _Praesentatio_,
_Festum SS Simeonis et Annae_, _Purificatio_, _Candelaria_, [Greek:
hupapantê], [Greek: hupantê]) is otherwise known as CANDLEMAS. (4) The
Feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary (_Annunciatio_, [Greek:
Euaggelismos]). It may be mentioned that at the council of Toledo in
656 it was decreed that this festival should be observed on the 18th
of December, in order to keep clear of Lent. (5) The Feast of the
Visitation (_Visitatio B. V. M._) was instituted by Urban VI.,
promulgated in 1389 by Boniface IX., and reappointed by the council of
Basel in 1441 in commemoration of the visit paid by Mary to Elizabeth.
It is observed on the 2nd of July, and has been retained in the
English calendar. (6) The Feast of the Assumption (_Dormitio_,
_Pausatio_, _Transitus_, _Depositio_, _Migratio_, _Assumptio_, [Greek:
kaimêsis], [Greek: metastasis], [Greek: analêpsis]) has reference to
the apocryphal story related in several forms in various documents of
the 4th century condemned by Pope Gelasius. Their general purport is
that as the time drew nigh for "the most blessed Virgin" (who is also
spoken of as "Holy Mary," "the queen of all the saints," "the holy
spotless Mother of God") to leave the world, the apostles were
miraculously assembled round her deathbed at Bethlehem on the Lord's
Day, whereupon Christ descended with a multitude of angels and
received her soul. After "the spotless and precious body" had been
laid in the tomb, "suddenly there shone round them (the apostles) a
miraculous light," and it was taken up into heaven. The first Catholic
writer who relates this story is Gregory of Tours (c. 590); Epiphanius
two centuries earlier had declared that nothing was known as to the
circumstances of Mary's death and burial; and one of the documents of
the council of Ephesus implies a belief that she was buried in that
city. The Sleep of the Theotokos is observed in the Greek Church as a
great festival on the 15th of August; the Armenian Church also
commemorates it, but the Ethiopic Church celebrates her death and
burial on two separate days. The earliest allusion to the existence of
such a festival in the Western Church seems to be that found in the
proceedings of the synod of Salzburg in 800; it is also spoken of in
the thirty-sixth canon of the reforming synod of Mainz, held in 813.
It was not at that time universal, being mentioned as doubtful in the
capitularies of Charlemagne. The doctrine of the bodily assumption of
the Virgin into heaven, although extensively believed, and indeed
flowing as a natural theological consequence from that of her
sinlessness, has never been declared to be "de fide" by the Church of
Rome, and is still merely a "pia sententia." (7) The Nativity of Mary
(_Nativitas_, [Greek: genethlion tês theotokou]) observed on the 8th
of September, is first mentioned in one of the homilies of Andrew of
Crete (c. 750), and with the Feasts of the Purification, the
Annunciation and the Assumption, it was appointed to be observed by
the synod of Salzburg in 800, but seems to have been unknown at that
time in the Gallican Church, and even two centuries later it was by no
means general in Italy. In the Roman Catholic Church a large number of
minor festivals in honour of the Virgin are locally celebrated; and
all the Saturdays of the year as well as the entire month of May are
also regarded as sacred to her.
The chief apocryphal writings concerned with Mary are the following:
(1) The _Portevangelium Jacobi_, with its derivatives the _De
nativitate Mariae_, the _Evangelium Ps.-Matthaei_, the _Historia
Josephi fabri lignarii_ (all edited by Tischendorf, _Evangelia
apocrypha_; cf. Harnack, _Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur_,
p. 20 seq. and _Chronologie_, i. 598 sqq.). (2) _Evangelium Mariae_
(see _Sitzungsberichte der Berlinischen Akademie der Wissenschaften_
1896, pp. 839-847). (3) [Greek: Iôannou tou theologou logos eis tên
koimêsin tês theotokou], which appears in Latin under the title of the
_Transitus Mariae_ (ed. Tischendorf, _Apocalypses apocryphae_ and
_Evangelia apocrypha_, and see Bonnet, _Zeitschr. f. wissensch.
Theol._, 1880, pp. 222-247). (J. S. Bl.; K. L.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The name (Heb. [Hebrew: Miriam]), that of the sister of Moses and
Aaron, is of uncertain etymology; many interpretations have been
suggested, including _Stella maris_ ("star of the sea"), which,
though it has attained considerable currency through Jerome (the
_Onomasticon_), may be at once dismissed. It seems to have been very
common among the Jews in New Testament times: besides the subject of
the present notice there are mentioned (1) "Mary (the wife) of
Clopas," who was perhaps the mother of James "the little" ([Greek: ho
mikros]) and of Joses; (2) Mary Magdalene, i.e. of Magdala; (3) Mary
of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus; (4) Mary, the mother of
Mark; and (5) Mary, an otherwise unknown benefactress of the apostle
Paul (Rom. xvi. 6).
[2] _De Inst. Virg._, "quæ est hæc porta nisi Maria? ... per quam
Christus intravit in hunc mundum, quando virginali fusus est partu et
genitalia virginitatis claustra non solvit."
[3] See Gieseler (_KG._, Bd. i. Abth. 1), who points out instances in
which anti-Arianizing zeal went so far as to call David [Greek:
theopatôr] and James [Greek: adelphotheos].
[4] Labbé, _Conc._ iii. 51. Considerable extracts are given by
Augusti (_Denkw._ iii.); see also Milman (_Lat. Christ._ i. 185), who
characterizes much of it as a "wild labyrinth of untranslatable
metaphor."
[5] The term [Greek: theotokas] does not actually occur in the canons
of Ephesus. It is found, however, in the creed of Chalcedon.
[6] It is true that Irenaeus (_Haer._ v. 19, 1) in the passage in
which he draws his well-known parallel and contrast between the first
and second Eve (cf. Justin, _Dial. c. Tryph._ 100), to the effect
that "as the human race fell into bondage to death by a virgin, so is
it rescued by a virgin," takes occasion to speak of Mary as the
"advocata" of Eve; but it seems certain that this word is a
translation of the Greek [Greek: sunêgoros], and implies hostility
and rebuke rather than advocacy.
[7] It is probable that the commemorations and invocations of the
Virgin which occur in the present texts of the ancient liturgies of
"St James" and "St Mark" are due to interpolation. In this connexion
ought also to be noted the chapter in Epiphanius (_Haer._, 79)
against the "Collyridians," certain women in Thrace, Scythia and
Arabia, who were in the habit of worshipping the Virgin ([Greek: haei
parthenon]) as a goddess, the offering of a cake ([Greek: kallurida
tina]) being one of the features of their worship. He rebukes them
for offering the worship which was due to the Trinity alone; "let
Mary be held in honour, but by no means worshipped." The cultus was
probably a relic of heathenism; cf. Jer. xliv. 19.
[8] "Numquid quia ita deificata, ideo nostrae humanitatis oblita es?
Nequaquam, Domina.... Data est tibi omnis potestas in coelo et in
terra. Nil tibi impossibile." _Serm. de nativ. Mariae_, ap. Gieseler,
_KG._, Bd. ii. Abth. 1.
[9] The points taught in the catechism are--that she is truly the
Mother of God, and the second Eve, by whose means we have received
blessing and life; that she is the Mother of Pity, and very specially
our advocate; that her merits are highly exalted, and that her
dispositions towards us are extremely gracious; that her images are
of the utmost utility. In the _Missal_ her intercessions (though
alluded to in the canon and elsewhere) are seldom directly appealed
to except in the Litany and in some of the later offices, such as
those for the 8th of September and for the Festival of the Seven
Sorrows (decree by Benedict XIII. in 1727). Noteworthy are the
versicles in the office for the 8th of December (The Feast of the
Immaculate Conception), "Tota pulchra es, Maria, et macula originalis
non est in te," and "Gloriosa dicta sunt de te, Maria, quia fecit
tibi magna qui potens est."
MARY, known as MARY MAGDALENE, a woman mentioned in the Gospels, first
in Luke viii. 2, as one of a company who "healed of evil spirits and
infirmities ... ministered unto them (Jesus and the apostles) of their
substance." It is said that seven demons were cast out of her, but this
need not imply simply one occasion. Her name implies that she came from
Magdala (el-Mejdel, 3 m. N.W. from Tiberias: in Matt. XV. 39 the right
reading is not Magdala by Magadan). She went with Jesus on the last
journey to Jerusalem, witnessed the Crucifixion, followed to the burial,
and returned to prepare spices. John XX. gives an account of her finding
the tomb empty and of her interview with the risen Jesus. Mary of
Magdala has been confounded (1) with the unnamed fallen woman who in
Simon's house anointed Christ's feet (Luke vii. 37); (2) with Mary of
Bethany, sister of Lazarus and Martha.
MARY I., queen of England (1516-1558), unpleasantly remembered as "the
Bloody Mary" on account of the religious persecutions which prevailed
during her reign, was the daughter of Henry VIII. and Catherine of
Aragon, born in the earlier years of their married life, when as yet no
cloud had darkened the prospect of Henry's reign. Her birth occurred at
Greenwich, on Monday, the 18th February 1516, and she was baptized on
the following Wednesday, Cardinal Wolsey standing as her godfather. She
seems to have been a singularly precocious child, and is reported in
July 1520, when scarcely four and a half years old, as entertaining some
visitors by a performance on the virginals. When she was little over
nine she was addressed in a complimentary Latin oration by commissioners
sent over from Flanders on commercial matters, and replied to them in
the same language "with as much assurance and facility as if she had
been twelve years old" (Gayangos, iii. pt. 1, 82). Her father was proud
of her achievements. About the same time that she replied to the
commissioners in Latin he was arranging that she should learn Spanish,
Italian and French. A great part, however, of the credit of her early
education was undoubtedly due to her mother, who not only consulted the
Spanish scholar Vives upon the subject, but was herself Mary's first
teacher in Latin. She was also well instructed in music, and among her
principal recreations as she grew up was that of playing on the
virginals and lute.
It was a misfortune that she shared with high-born ladies generally in
those days that her prospects in life were made a matter of sordid
bargaining from the first. Mary was little more than two years old when
she was proposed in marriage to the dauphin, son of Francis I. Three
years afterwards the French alliance was broken off, and in 1522 she was
affianced to her cousin the young emperor Charles V. by the Treaty of
Windsor. No one, perhaps, seriously expected either of these
arrangements to endure; and, though we read in grave state papers of
some curious compliments and love tokens (really the mere counters of
diplomacy) professedly sent by the girl of nine to her powerful cousin,
not many years passed away before Charles released himself from this
engagement and made a more convenient match. In 1526 a rearrangement was
made of the royal household, and it was thought right to give Mary an
establishment of her own along with a council on the borders of Wales,
for the better government of the Marches. For some years she accordingly
kept her court at Ludlow, while new arrangements were made for the
disposal of her hand. She was now proposed as a wife, not for the
dauphin as before, but for his father Francis I., who had just been
redeemed from captivity at Madrid, and who was only too glad of an
alliance with England to mitigate the severe conditions imposed on him
by the emperor. Wolsey, however, on this occasion, only made use of the
princess as a bait to enhance the terms of the compact, and left Francis
free in the end to marry the emperor's sister.
It was during this negotiation, as Henry afterwards pretended, that the
question was first raised whether Henry's own marriage with Catherine
was a lawful one. Grammont, bishop of Tarbes, who was one of the
ambassadors sent over by Francis to ask the princess in marriage, had,
it was said, started an objection that she might possibly be considered
illegitimate on account of her mother having been once the wife of her
father's brother. The statement was a mere pretence to shield the king
when the unpopularity of the divorce became apparent. It is proved to be
untrue by the strongest evidence, for we have pretty full contemporary
records of the whole negotiation. On the contrary, it is quite clear
that Henry, who had already for some time conceived the project of a
divorce, kept the matter a dead secret, and was particularly anxious
that the French ambassadors should not know it, while he used his
daughter's hand as a bait for a new alliance. The alliance itself,
however, was actually concluded by a treaty dated Westminster, the 30th
of April 1527, in which it was provided, as regards the Princess Mary,
that she should be married either to Francis himself or to his second
son Henry duke of Orleans. But the real object was only to lay the
foundation of a perfect mutual understanding between the two kings,
which Wolsey soon after went into France to confirm.
During the next nine years the life of Mary, as well as that of her
mother, was rendered miserable by the conduct of Henry VIII. in seeking
a divorce. During most of that period mother and daughter seem to have
been kept apart. Possibly Queen Catherine had the harder trial; but
Mary's was scarcely less severe. Removed from court and treated as a
bastard, she was, on the birth of Anne Boleyn's daughter, required to
give up the dignity of princess and acknowledge the illegitimacy of her
own birth. On her refusal her household was broken up, and she was sent
to Hatfield to act as lady-in-waiting to her own infant half-sister. Nor
was even this the worst of her trials; her very life was in danger from
the hatred of Anne Boleyn. Her health, moreover, was indifferent, and
even when she was seriously ill, although Henry sent his own physician,
Dr Buttes, to attend her, he declined to let her mother visit her. So
also at her mother's death, in January 1536, she was forbidden to take a
last farewell of her. But in May following another change occurred. Anne
Boleyn, the real cause of all her miseries, fell under the king's
displeasure and was put to death. Mary was then urged to make a humble
submission to her father as the means of recovering his favour, and
after a good deal of correspondence with the king's secretary, Cromwell,
she actually did so. The terms exacted of her were bitter in the
extreme, but there was no chance of making life tolerable otherwise, if
indeed she was permitted to live at all; and the poor friendless girl,
absolutely at the mercy of a father who could brook no contradiction, at
length subscribed an act of submission, acknowledging the king as
"Supreme Head of the Church of England under Christ," repudiating the
pope's authority, and confessing that the marriage between her father
and mother "was by God's law and man's law incestuous and unlawful."
No act, perhaps, in the whole of Henry's reign gives us a more painful
idea of his revolting despotism. Mary was a high-spirited girl, and
undoubtedly popular. All Europe looked upon her at that time as the only
legitimate child of her father, but her father himself compelled her to
disown the title and pass an unjust stigma on her own birth and her
mother's good name. Nevertheless Henry was now reconciled to her, and
gave her a household in some degree suitable to her rank. During the
rest of the reign we hear little about her except in connexion with a
number of new marriage projects taken up and abandoned successively, one
of which, to the count palatine Philip, duke of Bavaria, was specially
repugnant to her in the matter of religion. Her privy purse expenses for
nearly the whole of this period have been published, and show that
Hatfield, Beaulieu or Newhall in Essex, Richmond and Hunsdon were among
her principal places of residence. Although she was still treated as of
illegitimate birth, it was believed that the king, having obtained from
parliament the extraordinary power to dispose of the crown by will,
would restore her to her place in the succession, and three years before
his death she was so restored by statute, but still under conditions to
be regulated by her father's will.
Under the reign of her brother, Edward VI. she was again subjected to
severe trials, which at one time made her seriously meditate taking
flight and escaping abroad. Edward himself indeed seems to have been
personally not unkind to her, but the religious revolution in his reign
assumed proportions such as it had not done before, and Mary, who had
done sufficient violence to her own convictions in submitting to a
despotic father, was not disposed to yield an equally tame obedience to
authority exercised by a factious council in the name of a younger
brother not yet come to years of discretion. Besides, the cause of the
pope was naturally her own. In spite of the forced declaration formerly
wrung from herself, no one really regarded her as a bastard, and the
full recognition of her rights depended on the recognition of the pope
as head of the Church. Hence, when Edward's parliament passed an Act of
Uniformity enjoining services in English and communion in both kinds,
the law appeared to her totally void of authority, and she insisted on
having Mass in her own private chapel under the old form. When ordered
to desist, she appealed for protection to the emperor Charles V., who,
being her cousin, intervened for some time not ineffectually,
threatening war with England if her religious liberty was interfered
with. But Edward's court was composed of factions of which the most
violent eventually carried the day. Lord Seymour, the admiral, was
attainted of treason and beheaded in 1549. His brother, the Protector
Somerset, met with the same fate in 1552. Dudley, duke of
Northumberland, then became paramount in the privy council, and easily
obtained the sanction of the young king to those schemes for altering
the succession which led immediately after his death to the usurpation
of Lady Jane Grey. Dudley had, in fact, overawed all the rest of the
privy council, and when the event occurred he took such energetic
measures to give effect to the scheme that Lady Jane was actually
recognized as queen for some days, and Mary had even to fly from Hunsdon
into Norfolk. But the country was really devoted to her cause, as indeed
her right in law was unquestionable, and before many days she was
royally received in London, and took up her abode within the Tower.
Her first acts at the beginning of her reign displayed a character very
different from that which she still holds in popular estimation. Her
clemency towards those who had taken up arms against her was altogether
remarkable. She released from prison Lady Jane's father, Suffolk, and
had difficulty even in signing the warrant for the execution of
Northumberland. Lady Jane herself she fully meant to spare, and did
spare till after Wyatt's formidable insurrection. Her conduct, indeed,
was in every respect conciliatory and pacific, and so far as they
depended on her personal character the prospects of the new reign might
have appeared altogether favourable. But unfortunately her position was
one of peculiar difficulty, and the policy on which she determined was
far from judicious. Inexperienced in the art of governing, she had no
trusty councillor but Gardiner; every other member of the council had
been more or less implicated in the conspiracy against her. And though
she valued Gardiner's advice she was naturally led to rely even more on
that of her cousin, the emperor, who had been her mother's friend in
adversity, and had done such material service to herself in the
preceding reign. Following the emperor's guidance she determined almost
from the first to make his son Philip her husband, though she was eleven
years his senior. She was also strongly desirous of restoring the old
religion and wiping out the stigma of illegitimacy upon her birth, so
that she might not seem to reign by virtue of a mere parliamentary
settlement.
Each of these different objects was attended by difficulties or
objections peculiar to itself; but the marriage was the most unpopular
of all. A restoration of the old religion threatened to deprive the new
owners of abbey lands of their easy and comfortable acquisitions; and it
was only with an express reservation of their interests that the thing
was actually accomplished. A declaration of her own legitimacy
necessarily cast a slur on that of her sister Elizabeth, and cut her off
from the succession. But the marriage promised to throw England into the
arms of Spain and place the resources of the kingdom at the command of
the emperor's son. The Commons sent her a deputation to entreat that she
would not marry a foreigner, and when her resolution was known
insurrections broke out in different parts of the country. Suffolk,
whose first rebellion had been pardoned, proclaimed Lady Jane Grey again
in Leicestershire, while young Wyatt raised the county of Kent and,
though denied access by London Bridge, led his men round by Kingston to
the very gates of London before he was repulsed. In the midst of the
danger Mary showed great intrepidity, and the rebellion was presently
quelled; after which, unhappily, she got leave to pursue her own course
unchecked. She married Philip, restored the old religion, and got
Cardinal Pole to come over and absolve the kingdom from its past
disobedience to the Holy See.
It was a more than questionable policy thus to ally England with
Spain--a power then actually at war with France. By the treaty, indeed,
England was to remain neutral; but the force of events, in the end,
compelled her, as might have been expected, to take part in the quarrel.
Meanwhile the country was full of faction, and seditious pamphlets of
Protestant origin inflamed the people with hatred against the Spaniards.
Philip's Spanish followers met with positive ill-usage everywhere, and
violent outbreaks occurred. A year after his marriage Philip went over
to Brussels to receive from his father the government of the Low
Countries and afterwards the kingdom of Spain. Much to Mary's distress,
his absence was prolonged for a year and a half, and when he returned in
March 1557 it was only to commit England completely to the war; after
which he went back to Brussels in July, to return no more to England.
Hostilities with France were inevitable, because France had encouraged
disaffection among Mary's subjects, even during the brief truce of
Vaucelles. Conspiracies had been hatched by English refugees in Paris,
and an attempt to seize Scarborough had been made with the aid of
vessels from the Seine. But perhaps the strangest thing about the
situation was that the pope took part with France against Spain; and so
the very marriage which Mary had contracted to bring England back to the
Holy See made her the wife of the pope's enemy. It was, moreover, this
war with France that occasioned the final calamity of the loss of
Calais, which sank so deeply into Mary's heart some time before she
died.
The cruel persecution of the Protestants, which has cast so much infamy
upon her reign, was not due, as commonly supposed, to inhumanity on her
part. When the kingdom was reconciled to Rome and absolved by Cardinal
Pole, it followed, almost as a matter of necessity, that the old heresy
laws should be revived, as they were then by Act of Parliament. They had
been abolished by the Protector Somerset for the express purpose of
promoting changes of doctrine which did violence to what was still the
prevailing religious sentiment; and now the old religion required to be
protected from insult and fanatical outrages. Doubts were felt as to the
result even from the first; but the law having been once passed could
not be relaxed merely because the victims were so numerous; for that
would only have encouraged the irreverence which it was intended to
check. No doubt there were milder men among the heretics, but as a class
their stern fanaticism and ill-will to the old religion made them
dangerous, even to the public peace. Rogers, the first of the martyrs,
was burnt on the 4th of February 1555. Hooper, bishop of Gloucester, had
been condemned six days before, and suffered the same fate upon the 9th.
From this time the persecution went on uninterrupted for three years and
three quarters, numbering among its victims Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer.
It came to an end at last on the death of Mary. It seems to have been
more severe in the eastern and southern parts of England, and the
largest number of sufferers was naturally in the diocese of Bonner,
bishop of London. From first to last nearly three hundred victims are
known to have perished at the stake; and their fate certainly created a
revulsion against Rome that nothing else was likely to have effected.
Mary was of weak constitution and subject to frequent illnesses, both
before and after her accession. One special infirmity caused her to
believe a few months after her marriage that she was with child, and
thanksgiving services were ordered throughout the diocese of London in
November 1554. The same delusion recurred in March 1558, when though she
did not make her expectation public, she drew up a will in anticipation
of the dangers of childbirth, constituting her husband regent during the
minority of her prospective heir. To this she added a codicil on the
28th of October following, when the illness that was to be her last had
set in, showing that she had ceased to have much expectation of
maternity, and earnestly entreating her "next heir and successor by the
laws" (whom she did not name) to allow execution of the instrument. She
died on the 17th of November.
Her name deserved better treatment than it has generally met with; for
she was far from cruel. Her kindness to poor people is undoubted, and
the severe execution of her laws seemed only a necessity. Even in this
matter, moreover, she was alive to the injustice with which the law was
usually strained in behalf of the prerogative; and in appointing Sir
Richard Morgan chief justice of the Common Pleas she charged him "not to
sit in judgment otherwise for her highness than for her subjects," and
to avoid the old error of refusing to admit witnesses against the Crown
(Holinshed III. 1112). Her conduct as queen was certainly governed by
the best possible intentions; and it is evident that her very zeal for
goodness caused most of the trouble she brought upon herself. Her
subjects were entirely released, even by papal authority, from any
obligation to restore the confiscated lands of the Church. But she
herself made it an object, at her own expense, to restore several of the
monasteries; and courtiers who did not like to follow her example,
encouraged the fanatics to spread an alarm that it would even yet be
made compulsory. So the worldly minded joined hands with the godly
heretics in stirring up enmity against her. (J. Ga.)
MARY II. (1662-1694), queen of England and wife of king William III.,
elder daughter of James, duke of York, afterwards King James II., by his
first wife, Anne, daughter of Edward Hyde, 1st earl of Clarendon, was
born in London on the 30th of April 1662. She was educated as a
Protestant, and as it was probable that she would succeed to the English
throne after the deaths of her uncle, Charles II., and her father, the
choice of a husband for her was a political event of high importance.
About 1672 the name of William, prince of Orange, was mentioned in this
connexion; and after some hesitation on both sides caused by the
condition of European politics, the betrothal of William and Mary took
place in October 1677, and was quickly followed by their marriage in
London on the 4th of November. Mary's married life in Holland does not
appear to have been a happy one. Although she soon became popular among
the Dutch, she remained childless, while William treated her with
neglect and even with insult; and her troubles were not diminished after
her father became king of England in 1685. James had treated his
daughter very shabbily in money matters; and it was increasingly
difficult for her to remain loyal to both father and husband when they
were so divergent in character and policy. Although Mary never entirely
lost her affection for her father the wife prevailed over the daughter;
and after the birth of her half-brother, the prince of Wales, in 1688,
she regarded the dethronement of James as inevitable. It cannot be said,
however, that William merited this confidence. Possibly he was jealous
of his wife as the heiress of the English throne, contrasting her future
position with his own; but according to Burnet, who was then staying at
the Hague, this cause of difference was removed by the tactful
interference of Burnet himself. The latter asserts that having divined
the reason of the prince's jealousy he mentioned the matter to the
princess, who in her ignorance of statecraft had never considered the
relative positions of herself and her husband with regard to the English
throne; and that Mary, by telling the prince "she would be no more but
his wife, and that she would do all that lay in her power to make him
king for life" (Burnet, _Supplement_, ed. Foxcroft, p. 309), probably
mollified her husband's jealousy. On the other hand Macaulay's statement
that henceforward there was "entire friendship and confidence" between
them must be taken with some reserve. Mary shared heartily in the events
which immediately preceded William's expedition to England in 1688.
After the success of the undertaking she arrived in London in February
1689; and by her faithful adherence to her promise made a satisfactory
settlement of the English crown possible. William and Mary were together
proclaimed king and queen of England, and afterwards of Scotland, and
were crowned on the 11th of April 1689. During the king's absence from
England the queen, assisted by a committee of the privy council, was
entrusted with the duties of government, duties which she performed
faithfully, but which she gladly laid down on William's return. In these
times of danger, however, she acted when necessary with courage and
promptitude, as when in 1690 she directed the arrest of her uncle Henry
Hyde, 2nd earl of Clarendon; but she was constantly anxious for
William's safety, and unable to trust many of her advisers. She was
further distressed by a quarrel with her sister Anne in 1692 following
the dismissal of Marlborough, and this event somewhat diminished her
popularity, which had hitherto been one of the mainstays of the throne.
Weak in body and troubled in mind, the queen died at Kensington Palace
from small-pox on the 28th of December 1694, and was buried in
Westminster Abbey. Mary was a woman of a remarkably modest and retiring
disposition, whose outstanding virtue was perhaps her unswerving loyalty
to William. Burnet has passed a remarkable panegyric upon her character.
She was extremely pious and charitable; her blameless private life was
in marked contrast with her surroundings, both in England and Holland;
without bigotry she was greatly attached to the Protestant faith and to
the Church of England; and she was always eager to improve the tone of
public morals, and to secure a better observance of Sunday. Greenwich
Hospital for Seamen was founded in her honour.
For the political events of Mary's life see WILLIAM III. For her
private life see Sir John Dalrymple, _Memoirs of Great Britain and
Ireland_ (London, 1790); Countess Bentinck, _Lettres et mémoires de
Marie, reine d'Angleterre_ (The Hague, 1880); _Memoires and Letters of
Mary Queen of England_ (ed. by R. Doebner, Leipzig, 1886); F. J. L.
Krämer, Maria II. Stuart (Utrecht, 1890); Agnes Strickland, _Lives of
the Queens of England_, vols. x. and xi. (London, 1847); G. Burnet,
_History of my own Time_ (Oxford, 1833); and O. Klopp, _Der Fall des
Hauses Stuart_ (Vienna, 1875-1888).
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS[1] (1542-1587), daughter of King James V. and his
wife Mary of Lorraine, was born in December 1542, a few days before the
death of her father, heart-broken by the disgrace of his arms at Solway
Moss, where the disaffected nobles had declined to encounter an enemy of
inferior force in the cause of a king whose systematic policy had been
directed against the privileges of their order, and whose representative
on the occasion was an unpopular favourite appointed general in defiance
of their ill-will. On the 9th of September following the ceremony of
coronation was duly performed upon the infant. A scheme for her
betrothal to Edward, prince of Wales, was defeated by the grasping greed
of his father, whose obvious ambition to annex the crown of Scotland at
once to that of England aroused instantly the general suspicion and
indignation of Scottish patriotism. In 1548 the queen of six years old
was betrothed to the dauphin Francis, and set sail for France, where she
arrived on the 15th of August. The society in which the child was
thenceforward reared is known to readers of Brantôme as well as that of
imperial Rome at its worst is known to readers of Suetonius or Petronius
as well as that of papal Rome at its worst is known to readers of the
diary kept by the domestic chaplain of Pope Alexander VI. Only in their
pages can a parallel be found to the gay and easy record which reveals
without sign of shame or suspicion of offence the daily life of a court
compared to which the court of King Charles II. is as the court of Queen
Victoria to the society described by Grammont. Debauchery of all kinds,
and murder in all forms, were the daily matter of excitement or of jest
to the brilliant circle which revolved around Queen Catherine de'
Medici. After ten years' training under the tutelage of the woman whose
main instrument of policy was the corruption of her own children, the
queen of Scots, aged fifteen years and five months, was married to the
eldest and feeblest of the brood on the 24th of April 1558. On the 17th
of November Elizabeth became queen of England, and the princes of
Lorraine--Francis the great duke of Guise, and his brother the
cardinal--induced their niece and her husband to assume, in addition to
the arms of France and Scotland, the arms of a country over which they
asserted the right of Mary Stuart to reign as legitimate heiress of Mary
Tudor. Civil strife broke out in Scotland between John Knox and the
queen-dowager--between the self-styled "congregation of the Lord" and
the adherents of the regent, whose French troops repelled the combined
forces of the Scotch and their English allies from the beleaguered walls
of Leith, little more than a month before the death of their mistress in
the castle of Edinburgh, on the 10th of June 1560. On the 25th of August
Protestantism was proclaimed and Catholicism suppressed in Scotland by a
convention of states assembled without the assent of the absent queen.
On the 5th of December Francis II. died; in August 1561 his widow left
France for Scotland, having been refused a safe-conduct by Elizabeth on
the ground of her own previous refusal to ratify the treaty made with
England by her commissioners in the same month of the preceding year.
She arrived nevertheless in safety at Leith, escorted by three of her
uncles of the house of Lorraine, and bringing in her train her future
biographer, Brantôme, and Chastelard, the first of all her voluntary
victims. On the 21st of August she first met the only man able to
withstand her; and their first passage of arms left, as he has recorded,
upon the mind of John Knox an ineffaceable impression of her "proud
mind, crafty wit and indurate heart against God and His truth." And yet
her acts of concession and conciliation were such as no fanatic on the
opposite side could have approved. She assented, not only to the
undisturbed maintenance of the new creed, but even to a scheme for the
endowment of the Protestant ministry out of the confiscated lands of the
Church. Her half-brother, Lord James Stuart, shared the duties of her
chief counsellor with William Maitland of Lethington, the keenest and
most liberal thinker in the country. By the influence of Lord James, in
spite of the earnest opposition of Knox, permission was obtained for her
to hear Mass celebrated in her private chapel--a licence to which, said
the Reformer, he would have preferred the invasion of ten thousand
Frenchmen. Through all the first troubles of her reign the young queen
steered her skilful and dauntless way with the tact of a woman and the
courage of a man. An insurrection in the north, headed by the earl of
Huntly under pretext of rescuing from justice the life which his son had
forfeited by his share in a homicidal brawl, was crushed at a blow by
the Lord James against whose life, as well as against his sister's
liberty, the conspiracy of the Gordons had been aimed, and on whom,
after the father had fallen in fight and the son had expiated his double
offence on the scaffold, the leading rebel's earldom of Murray was
conferred by the gratitude of the queen. Exactly four months after the
battle of Corrichie, and the subsequent execution of a criminal whom she
is said to have "loved entirely," had put an end to the first
insurrection raised against her, Pierre de Boscosel de Chastelard, who
had returned to France with the other companions of her arrival, and in
November 1562 had revisited Scotland, expiated with his head the offence
or the misfortune of a second detection at night in her bedchamber. In
the same month, twenty-five years afterwards, the execution of his
mistress, according to the verdict of her contemporaries in France,
avenged the blood of a lover who had died without uttering a word to
realize the apprehension which (according to Knox) had before his trial
impelled her to desire her brother "that, as he loved her, he would slay
Chastelard, and let him never speak word." And in the same month, two
years from the date of Chastelard's execution, her first step was
unconsciously taken on the road to Fotheringhay, when she gave her heart
at first sight to her kinsman Henry, Lord Darnley, son of Matthew
Stuart, earl of Lennox, who had suffered an exile of twenty years in
expiation of his intrigues with England, and had married the niece of
King Henry VIII., daughter of his sister Margaret, the widow of James
IV., by her second husband, the earl of Angus. Queen Elizabeth, with the
almost incredible want of tact or instinctive delicacy which
distinguished and disfigured her vigorous intelligence, had recently
proposed as a suitor to the queen of Scots her own low-born favourite,
Lord Robert Dudley, the widower if not the murderer of Amy Robsart; and
she now protested against the project of marriage between Mary and
Darnley. Mary who had already married her kinsman in secret at Stirling
Castle with Catholic rites celebrated in the apartment of David Rizzio,
her secretary for correspondence with France, assured the English
ambassador, in reply to the protest of his mistress, that the marriage
would not take place for three months, when a dispensation from the pope
would allow the cousins to be publicly united without offence to the
Church. On the 29th of July 1565 they were accordingly remarried at
Holyrood. The hapless and worthless bridegroom had already incurred the
hatred of two powerful enemies, the earls of Morton and Glencairn; but
the former of these took part with the queen against the forces raised
by Murray, Glencairn and others, under the nominal leadership of
Hamilton, duke of Châtelherault, on the double plea of danger to the new
religion of the country, and of the illegal proceeding by which Darnley
had been proclaimed king of Scots without the needful constitutional
assent of the estates of the realm. Murray was cited to attend the
"raid" or array levied by the king and queen, and was duly denounced by
public blast of trumpet for his non-appearance. He entered Edinburgh
with his forces, but failed to hold the town against the guns of the
castle, and fell back upon Dumfries before the advance of the royal
army, which was now joined by James Hepburn, earl of Bothwell, on his
return from a three years' outlawed exile in France. He had been
accused in 1562 of a plot to seize the queen and put her into the
keeping of the earl of Arran, whose pretensions to her hand ended only
when his insanity could no longer be concealed. Another new adherent was
the son of the late earl of Huntly, to whom the forfeited honours of his
house were restored a few months before the marriage of his sister to
Bothwell. The queen now appealed to France for aid; but Castelnau, the
French ambassador, replied to her passionate pleading by sober and
earnest advice to make peace with the malcontents. This counsel was
rejected, and in October 1565 the queen marched an army of 18,000 men
against them from Edinburgh; their forces dispersed in face of superior
numbers, and Murray, on seeking shelter in England, was received with
contumely by Elizabeth, whose half-hearted help had failed to support
his enterprise, and whose intercession for his return found at first no
favour with the queen of Scots. But the conduct of the besotted boy on
whom at their marriage she had bestowed the title of king began at once
to justify the enterprise and to play into the hands of all his enemies
alike. His father set him on to demand the crown matrimonial, which
would at least have assured to him the rank and station of independent
royalty for life. Rizzio, hitherto his friend and advocate, induced the
queen to reply by a reasonable refusal to this hazardous and audacious
request. Darnley at once threw himself into the arms of the party
opposed to the policy of the queen and her secretary--a policy which at
that moment was doubly and trebly calculated to exasperate the fears of
the religious and the pride of the patriotic. Mary was invited if not
induced by the king of Spain to join his league for the suppression of
Protestantism; while the actual or prospective endowment of Rizzio with
Morton's office of chancellor, and the projected attainder of Murray and
his allies, combined to inflame at once the anger and the apprehension
of the Protestant nobles. According to one account, Darnley privately
assured his uncle George Douglas of his wife's infidelity; he had
himself, if he might be believed, discovered the secretary in the
queen's apartment at midnight, under circumstances yet more
unequivocally compromising than those which had brought Chastelard to
the scaffold. Another version of the pitiful history represents Douglas
as infusing suspicion of Rizzio into the empty mind of his nephew, and
thus winning his consent to a deed already designed by others. A bond
was drawn in which Darnley pledged himself to support the confederates
who undertook to punish "certain privy persons" offensive to the state,
"especially a strange Italian, called Davie"; another was subscribed by
Darnley and the banished lords, then biding their time in Newcastle,
which engaged him to procure their pardon and restoration, while
pledging them to insure to him the enjoyment of the title he coveted,
with the consequent security of an undisputed succession to the crown,
despite the counter claims of the house of Hamilton, in case his wife
should die without issue--a result which, intentionally or not, he and
his fellow-conspirators did all that brutality could have suggested to
accelerate and secure. On the 9th of March the palace of Holyrood was
invested by a troop under the command of Morton, while Rizzio was
dragged by force out of the queen's presence and slain without trial in
the heat of the moment. The parliament was discharged by proclamation
issued in the name of Darnley as king; and in the evening of the next
day the banished lords, whom it was to have condemned to outlawry,
returned to Edinburgh. On the day following they were graciously
received by the queen, who undertook to sign a bond for their security,
but delayed the subscription till next morning under plea of sickness.
During the night she escaped with Darnley, whom she had already seduced
from the party of his accomplices, and arrived at Dunbar on the third
morning after the slaughter of her favourite. From thence they returned
to Edinburgh on the 28th of March, guarded by two thousand horsemen
under the command of Bothwell, who had escaped from Holyrood on the
night of the murder, to raise a force on the queen's behalf with his
usual soldierly promptitude. The slayers of Rizzio fled to England, and
were outlawed; Darnley was permitted to protest his innocence and
denounce his accomplices; after which he became the scorn of all
parties alike, and few men dared or cared to be seen in his company. On
the 19th of June a son was born to his wife, and in the face of his
previous protestations he was induced to acknowledge himself the father.
But, as Murray and his partisans returned to favour and influence no
longer incompatible with that of Bothwell and Huntly, he grew desperate
enough with terror to dream of escape to France. This design was at once
frustrated by the queen's resolution. She summoned him to declare his
reasons for it in presence of the French ambassador and an assembly of
the nobles; she besought him for God's sake to speak out, and not spare
her; and at last he left her presence with an avowal that he had nothing
to allege. The favour shown to Bothwell had not yet given occasion for
scandal, though his character as an adventurous libertine was as notable
as his reputation for military hardihood; but as the summer advanced his
insolence increased with his influence at court and the general aversion
of his rivals. He was richly endowed by Mary from the greater and lesser
spoils of the Church; and the three wardenships of the border, united
for the first time in his person, gave the lord high admiral of Scotland
a position of unequalled power. In the gallant discharge of its duties
he was dangerously wounded by a leading outlaw, whom he slew in single
combat; and while yet confined to Hermitage Castle he received a visit
of two hours from the queen, who rode thither from Jedburgh and back
through 20 miles of the wild borderland where her person was in
perpetual danger from the freebooters whom her father's policy had
striven and had failed to extirpate. The result of this daring ride was
a ten days' fever, after which she removed by short stages to
Craigmillar, where a proposal for her divorce from Darnley was laid
before her by Bothwell, Murray, Huntly, Argyle and Lethington, who was
chosen spokesman for the rest. She assented on condition that the
divorce could be lawfully effected without impeachment of her son's
legitimacy; whereupon Lethington undertook in the name of all present
that she should be rid of her husband without any prejudice to the
child--at whose baptism a few days afterwards Bothwell took the place of
the putative father, though Darnley was actually residing under the same
roof, and it was not till after the ceremony that he was suddenly struck
down by a sickness so violent as to excite suspicions of poison. He was
removed to Glasgow, and left for the time in charge of his father; but
on the news of his progress towards recovery a bond was drawn up for
execution of the sentence of death which had secretly been pronounced
against the twice-turned traitor who had earned his doom at all hands
alike. On the 22nd of the next month (Jan. 1567) the queen visited her
husband at Glasgow and proposed to remove him to Craigmillar Castle,
where he would have the benefit of medicinal baths; but instead of this
resort he was conveyed on the last day of the month to the lonely and
squalid shelter of the residence which was soon to be made memorable by
his murder. Between the ruins of two sacred buildings, with the
town-wall to the south and a suburban hamlet known to ill fame as the
Thieves' Row to the north of it, a lodging was prepared for the titular
king of Scotland, and fitted up with tapestries taken from the Gordons
after the battle of Corrichie. On the evening of Sunday, the 9th of
February, Mary took her last leave of the miserable boy who had so often
and so mortally outraged her as consort and as queen. That night the
whole city was shaken out of sleep by an explosion of gunpowder which
shattered to fragments the building in which he should have slept and
perished; and the next morning the bodies of Darnley and a page were
found strangled in a garden adjoining it, whither they had apparently
escaped over a wall, to be despatched by the hands of Bothwell s
attendant confederates.
Upon a view which may be taken of Mary's conduct during the next three
months depends the whole debateable question of her character. According
to the professed champions of that character, this conduct was a tissue
of such dastardly imbecility, such heartless irresolution and such
brainless inconsistency as for ever to dispose of her time-honoured
claim to the credit of intelligence and courage. It is certain that just
three months and six days after the murder of her husband she became
the wife of her husband's murderer. On the 11th of February she wrote to
the bishop of Glasgow, her ambassador in France, a brief letter of
simple eloquence, announcing her providential escape from a design upon
her own as well as her husband's life. A reward of two thousand pounds
was offered by proclamation for discovery of the murderer. Bothwell and
others, his satellites or the queen's, were instantly placarded by name
as the criminals. Voices were heard by night in the streets of Edinburgh
calling down judgment on the assassins. Four days after the discovery of
the bodies, Darnley was buried in the chapel of Holyrood with secrecy as
remarkable as the solemnity with which Rizzio had been interred there
less than a year before. On the Sunday following, Mary left Edinburgh
for Seton Palace, 12 miles from the capital, where scandal asserted that
she passed the time merrily in shooting-matches with Bothwell for her
partner against Lords Seton and Huntly; other accounts represent Huntly
and Bothwell as left at Holyrood in charge of the infant prince.
Gracefully and respectfully, with statesmanlike yet feminine dexterity,
the demands of Darnley's father for justice on the murderers of his son
were accepted and eluded by his daughter-in-law. Bothwell, with a troop
of fifty men, rode through Edinburgh defiantly denouncing vengeance on
his concealed accusers. As weeks elapsed without action on the part of
the royal widow, while the cry of blood was up throughout the country,
raising echoes from England and abroad, the murmur of accusation began
to rise against her also. Murray, with his sister's ready permission,
withdrew to France. Already the report was abroad that the queen was
bent on marriage with Bothwell, whose last year's marriage with the
sister of Huntly would be dissolved, and the assent of his wife's
brother purchased by the restitution of his forfeited estates. According
to the _Memoirs_ of Sir James Melville, both Lord Herries and himself
resolved to appeal to the queen in terms of bold and earnest
remonstrance against so desperate and scandalous a design; Herries,
having been met with assurances of its unreality and professions of
astonishment at the suggestion, instantly fled from court; Melville,
evading the danger of a merely personal protest without backers to
support him, laid before Mary a letter from a loyal Scot long resident
in England, which urged upon her consideration and her conscience the
danger and disgrace of such a project yet more freely than Herries had
ventured to do by word of mouth; but the sole result was that it needed
all the queen's courage and resolution to rescue him from the violence
of the man for whom, she was reported to have said, she cared not if she
lost France, England and her own country, and would go with him to the
world's end in a white petticoat before she would leave him. On the 28th
of March the privy council, in which Bothwell himself sat, appointed the
12th of April as the day of his trial, Lennox, instead of the crown,
being named as the accuser, and cited by royal letters to appear at "the
humble request and petition of the said Earl Bothwell," who, on the day
of the trial, had 4000 armed men behind him in the streets, while the
castle was also at his command. Under these arrangements it was not
thought wonderful that Lennox discreetly declined the danger of
attendance, even with 3000 men ready to follow him, at the risk of
desperate street fighting. He pleaded sickness, asked for more time, and
demanded that the accused, instead of enjoying special favour, should
share the treatment of other suspected criminals. But, as no particle of
evidence on his side was advanced, the protest of his representative was
rejected, and Bothwell, acquitted in default of witnesses against him,
was free to challenge any persistent accuser to the ancient ordeal of
battle. His wealth and power were enlarged by gift of the parliament
which met on the 14th and rose on the 19th of April--a date made notable
by the subsequent supper at Ainslie's tavern, where Bothwell obtained
the signatures of its leading members to a document affirming his
innocence, and pledging the subscribers to maintain it against all
challengers, to stand by him in all his quarrels and finally to promote
by all means in their power the marriage by which they recommended the
queen to reward his services and benefit the country. On the second day
following Mary went to visit her child at Stirling, where his guardian,
the earl of Mar, refused to admit more than two women in her train. It
was well known in Edinburgh that Bothwell had a body of men ready to
intercept her on the way back, and carry her to Dunbar--not, as was
naturally inferred, without good assurance of her consent. On the 24th
of April, as she approached Edinburgh, Bothwell accordingly met her at
the head of 800 spearmen, assured her (as she afterwards averred) that
she was in the utmost peril, and escorted her, together with Huntly,
Lethington and Melville, who were then in attendance, to Dunbar Castle.
On the 3rd of May Lady Jane Gordon, who had become countess of Bothwell
on the 22nd of February of the year preceding, obtained, on the ground
of her husband's infidelities, a separation which, however, would not
under the old laws of Catholic Scotland have left him free to marry
again; on the 7th, accordingly, the necessary divorce was pronounced,
after two days' session, by a clerical tribunal which ten days before
had received from the queen a special commission to give judgment on a
plea of somewhat apocryphal consanguinity alleged by Bothwell as the
ground of an action for divorce against his wife. The fact was
studiously evaded or concealed that a dispensation had been granted by
the archbishop of St Andrews for this irregularity, which could only
have arisen through some illicit connexion of the husband with a
relative of the wife between whom and himself no affinity by blood or
marriage could be proved. On the day when the first or Protestant
divorce was pronounced, Mary and Bothwell returned to Edinburgh with
every prepared appearance of a peaceful triumph. Lest her captivity
should have been held to invalidate the late legal proceedings in her
name, proclamation was made of forgiveness accorded by the queen to her
captor in consideration of his past and future services, and her
intention was announced to reward them by further promotion; and on the
same day (May 12), he was duly created duke of Orkney and Shetland. The
duke, as a conscientious Protestant, refused to marry his mistress
according to the rites of her Church, and she, the chosen champion of
its cause, agreed to be married to him, not merely by a Protestant but
by one who before his conversion had been a Catholic bishop, and should
therefore have been more hateful and contemptible in her eyes than any
ordinary heretic, had not religion as well as policy, faith as well as
reason, been absorbed or superseded by some more mastering passion or
emotion. This passion or emotion, according to those who deny her
attachment to Bothwell, was simply terror--the blind and irrational
prostration of an abject spirit before the cruel force of circumstances
and the crafty wickedness of men. Hitherto, according to all evidence,
she had shown herself on all occasions, as on all subsequent occasions
she indisputably showed herself, the most fearless, the most
keen-sighted, the most ready-witted, the most high-gifted and
high-spirited of women; gallant and generous, skilful and practical,
never to be cowed by fortune, never to be cajoled by craft; neither more
unselfish in her ends nor more unscrupulous in her practice than might
have been expected from her training and her creed. But at the crowning
moment of trial there are those who assert their belief that the woman
who on her way to the field of Corrichie had uttered her wish to be a
man, that she might know all the hardship and all the enjoyment of a
soldier's life, riding forth "in jack and knapscull"--the woman who long
afterwards was to hold her own for two days together without help of
counsel against all the array of English law and English statesmanship,
armed with irrefragable evidence and supported by the resentment of a
nation--showed herself equally devoid of moral and of physical
resolution; too senseless to realize the significance and too heartless
to face the danger of a situation from which the simplest exercise of
reason, principle or courage must have rescued the most unsuspicious and
inexperienced of honest women who was not helplessly deficient in
self-reliance and self-respect. The famous correspondence produced next
year in evidence against her at the conference of York may have been, as
her partisans affirm, so craftily garbled and falsified by
interpolation, suppression, perversion, or absolute forgery as to be
all but historically worthless. Its acceptance or its rejection does not
in any degree whatever affect, for better or for worse, the rational
estimate of her character. The problem presented by the simple existence
of the facts just summed up remains in either case absolutely the same.
That the coarse and imperious nature of the hardy and able ruffian who
had now become openly her master should no less openly have shown itself
even in the first moments of their inauspicious union is what any
bystander of common insight must inevitably have foreseen. Tears,
dejection and passionate expressions of a despair "wishing only for
death," bore fitful and variable witness to her first sense of a heavier
yoke than yet had galled her spirit and her pride. At other times her
affectionate gaiety would give evidence as trustworthy of a fearless and
improvident satisfaction. They rode out in state together, and if he
kept cap in hand as a subject she would snatch it from him and clap it
on his head again; while in graver things she took all due or possible
care to gratify his ambition, by the insertion of a clause in their
contract of marriage which made their joint signature necessary to all
documents of state issued under the sign-manual. She despatched to
France a special envoy, the bishop of Dumblane, with instructions
setting forth at length the unparalleled and hitherto ill-requited
services and merits of Bothwell, and the necessity of compliance at once
with his passion and with the unanimous counsel of the nation--a people
who would endure the rule of no foreign consort, and whom none of their
own countrymen were so competent to control, alike by wisdom and by
valour, as the incomparable subject of her choice. These personal merits
and this political necessity were the only pleas advanced in a letter to
her ambassador in England. But that neither plea would avail her for a
moment in Scotland she had ominous evidence on the thirteenth day after
her marriage, when no response was made to the usual form of
proclamation for a raid or levy of forces under pretext of a campaign
against the rievers of the border. On the 6th or 7th of June Mary and
Bothwell took refuge in Borthwick Castle, twelve miles from the capital,
where the fortress was in the keeping of an adherent whom the diplomacy
of Sir James Melville had succeeded in detaching from his allegiance to
Bothwell. The fugitives were pursued and beleaguered by the earl of
Morton and Lord Hume, who declared their purpose to rescue the queen
from the thraldom of her husband. He escaped, leaving her free to follow
him or to join the party of her professed deliverers. But whatever cause
she might have found since marriage to complain of his rigorous custody
and domineering brutality was insufficient to break the ties by which he
held her. Alone, in the disguise of a page, she slipped out of the
castle at midnight, and rode off to meet him at a tower two miles
distant, whence they fled together to Dunbar. The confederate lords on
entering Edinburgh were welcomed by the citizens, and after three hours'
persuasion Lethington, who had now joined them, prevailed on the captain
of the castle to deliver it also into their hands. Proclamations were
issued in which the crime of Bothwell was denounced, and the disgrace of
the country, the thraldom of the queen and the mortal peril of her
infant son, were set forth as reasons for summoning all the lieges of
the chief cities of Scotland to rise in arms on three hours' notice and
join the forces assembled against the one common enemy. News of his
approach reached them on the night of June 14, and they marched before
dawn with 2200 men to meet him near Musselburgh. Mary meanwhile had
passed from Dunbar to Haddington, and thence to Seton, where 1600 men
rallied to her side. On the 15th of June, one month from their marriage
day, the queen and Bothwell, at the head of a force of fairly equal
numbers but visibly inferior discipline, met the army of the
confederates at Carberry Hill, some six miles from Edinburgh. Du Croc,
the French ambassador, obtained permission through the influence of
Maitland to convey to the queen the terms proposed by their
leaders--that she and Bothwell should part, or that he should meet in
single combat a champion chosen from among their number. Bothwell
offered to meet any man of sufficient quality; Mary would not assent. As
the afternoon wore on their force began to melt away by desertion and
to break up for lack of discipline. Again the trial by single combat was
proposed, and thrice the proposal fell through, owing to objections on
this side or on that. At last it was agreed that the queen should yield
herself prisoner, and Bothwell be allowed to retire in safety to Dunbar
with the few followers who remained to him. Mary took leave of her first
and last master with passionate anguish and many parting kisses; but in
face of his enemies, and in hearing of the cries which burst from the
ranks, demanding her death by fire as a murderess and harlot, the whole
heroic and passionate spirit of the woman, represented by her admirers
as a spiritless imbecile, flamed out in responsive threats to have all
the men hanged and crucified, in whose power she now stood helpless and
alone. She grasped the hand of Lord Lindsay as he rode beside her, and
swore "by this hand" she would "have his head for this." In Edinburgh
she was received by a yelling mob, which flaunted before her at each
turn a banner representing the corpse of Darnley with her child beside
it invoking on his knees the retribution of divine justice. From the
violence of a multitude in which women of the worst class were more
furious than the men she was sheltered in the house of the provost,
where she repeatedly showed herself at the window, appealing aloud with
dishevelled hair and dress to the mercy which no man could look upon her
and refuse. At nine in the evening she was removed to Holyrood, and
thence to the port of Leith, where she embarked under guard, with her
attendants, for the island castle of Lochleven. On the 20th a silver
casket containing letters and French verses, miscalled sonnets, in the
handwriting of the queen, was taken from the person of a servant who had
been sent by Bothwell to bring it from Edinburgh to Dunbar. Even in the
existing versions of the letters, translated from the lost originals and
retranslated from this translation of a text which was probably
destroyed in 1603 by order of King James on his accession to the English
throne--even in these possibly disfigured versions, the fiery pathos of
passion, the fierce and piteous fluctuations of spirit between love and
hate, hope and rage and jealousy, have an eloquence apparently beyond
the imitation or invention of art (see CASKET LETTERS[2]). Three days
after this discovery Lord Lindsay, Lord Ruthven and Sir Robert Melville
were despatched to Lochleven, there to obtain the queen's signature to
an act of abdication in favour of her son, and another appointing Murray
regent during his minority. She submitted, and a commission of regency
was established till the return from France of Murray, who, on the 15th
of August, arrived at Lochleven with Morton and Athole. According to his
own account, the expostulations as to her past conduct which preceded
his admonitions for the future were received with tears, confessions and
attempts at extenuation or excuse; but when they parted next day on good
terms she had regained her usual spirits. Nor from that day forward had
they reason to sink again, in spite of the close keeping in which she
was held, with the daughters of the house for bedfellows. Their mother
and the regent's, her father's former mistress, was herself not
impervious to her prisoner's lifelong power of seduction and
subjugation. Her son George Douglas fell inevitably under the charm. A
rumour transmitted to England went so far as to assert that she had
proposed him to their common half-brother Murray as a fourth husband for
herself; a later tradition represented her as the mother of a child by
him. A third report, at least as improbable as either, asserted that a
daughter of Mary and Bothwell, born about this time, lived to be a nun
in France. It is certain that the necessary removal of George Douglas
from Lochleven enabled him to devise a method of escape for the prisoner
on the 25th of March, 1568, which was frustrated by detection of her
white hands under the disguise of a laundress. But a younger member of
the household, Willie Douglas, aged eighteen, whose devotion was
afterwards remembered and his safety cared for by Mary at a time of
utmost risk and perplexity to herself, succeeded on the 2nd of May in
assisting her to escape by a postern gate to the lake-side, and thence
in a boat to the mainland, where George Douglas, Lord Seton and others
were awaiting her. Thence they rode to Seton's castle of Niddry, and
next day to Hamilton palace, round which an army of 6000 men was soon
assembled, and whither the new French ambassador to Scotland hastened to
pay his duty. The queen's abdication was revoked, messengers were
despatched to the English and French courts, and word was sent to Murray
at Glasgow that he must resign the regency, and should be pardoned in
common with all offenders against the queen. But on the day when Mary
arrived at Hamilton Murray had summoned to Glasgow the feudatories of
the Crown to take arms against the insurgent enemies of the infant king.
Elizabeth sent conditional offers of help to her kinswoman, provided she
would accept of English intervention and abstain from seeking foreign
assistance; but the messenger came too late. Mary's followers had failed
to retake Dunbar Castle from the regent, and made for Dumbarton instead,
marching two miles south of Glasgow, by the village of Langside. Here
Murray, with 4500 men, under leaders of high distinction, met the 6000
of the queen's army, whose ablest man, Herries, was as much distrusted
by Mary as by every one else, while the Hamiltons could only be trusted
to think of their own interests, and were suspected of treasonable
designs on all who stood between their house and the monarchy. On the
13th of May the battle or skirmish of Langside determined the result of
the campaign in three-quarters of an hour. Kirkaldy of Grange, who
commanded the regent's cavalry, seized and kept the place of vantage
from the beginning, and at the first sign of wavering on the other side
shattered at a single charge the forces of the queen with a loss of one
man to three hundred. Mary fled 60 miles from the field of her last
battle before she halted at Sanquhar, and for three days of flight,
according to her own account, had to sleep on the hard ground, live on
oatmeal and sour milk, and fare at night like the owls, in hunger, cold
and fear. On the third day from the rout of Langside she crossed the
Solway and landed at Workington in Cumberland, May 16, 1568. On the 20th
Lord Scrope and Sir Francis Knollys were sent from court to carry
messages and letters of comfort from Elizabeth to Mary at Carlisle. On
the 11th of June Knollys wrote to Cecil at once the best description and
the noblest panegyric extant of the queen of Scots--enlarging, with a
brave man's sympathy, on her indifference to form and ceremony, her
daring grace and openness of manner, her frank display of a great desire
to be avenged of her enemies, her readiness to expose herself to all
perils in hope of victory, her delight to hear of hardihood and courage,
commending by name all her enemies of approved valour, sparing no
cowardice in her friends, but above all things athirst for victory by
any means at any price, so that for its sake pain and peril seemed
pleasant to her, and wealth and all things, if compared with it,
contemptible and vile. What was to be done with such a princess, whether
she were to be nourished in one's bosom, above all whether it could be
advisable or safe to try any diplomatic tricks upon such a lady, Knollys
left for the minister to judge. It is remarkable that he should not have
discovered in her the qualities so obvious to modern champions of her
character--easiness, gullibility, incurable innocence and invincible
ignorance of evil, incapacity to suspect or resent anything, readiness
to believe and forgive all things. On the 15th of July, after various
delays interposed by her reluctance to leave the neighbourhood of the
border, where on her arrival she had received the welcome and the homage
of the leading Catholic houses of Northumberland and Cumberland, she was
removed to Bolton Castle in North Yorkshire. During her residence here a
conference was held at York between her own and Elizabeth's
commissioners and those appointed to represent her son as a king of
Scots. These latter, of whom Murray himself was the chief, privately
laid before the English commissioners the contents of the famous casket.
On the 24th of October the place of the conference was shifted from York
to London, where the inquiry was to be held before Queen Elizabeth in
council. Mary was already aware that the chief of the English
commissioners, the duke of Norfolk, was secretly an aspirant to the
peril of her hand; and on the 21st of October she gave the first sign of
assent to the suggestion of a divorce from Bothwell. On the 26th of
October the charge of complicity in the murder of Darnley was distinctly
brought forward against her in spite of Norfolk's reluctance and
Murray's previous hesitation. Elizabeth, by the mouth of her chief
justice, formally rebuked the audacity of the subjects who durst bring
such a charge against their sovereign, and challenged them to advance
their proofs. They complied by the production of an indictment under
five heads, supported by the necessary evidence of documents. The number
of English commissioners was increased, and they were bound to preserve
secrecy as to the matters revealed. Further evidence was supplied by
Thomas Crawford, a retainer of the house of Lennox, tallying so exactly
with the text of the casket letters as to have been cited in proof that
the latter must needs be a forgery. Elizabeth, on the close of the
evidence, invited Mary to reply to the proofs alleged before she could
be admitted to her presence; but Mary simply desired her commissioners
to withdraw from the conference. She declined with scorn the proposal
made by Elizabeth through Knollys, that she should sign a second
abdication in favour of her son. On the 10th of January, 1569, the
judgment given at the conference acquitted Murray and his adherents of
rebellion, while affirming that nothing had been proved against Mary--a
verdict accepted by Murray as equivalent to a practical recognition of
his office as regent for the infant king. This position he was not long
to hold; and the fierce exultation of Mary at the news of his murder
gave to those who believed in her complicity with the murderer, on whom
a pension was bestowed by her unblushing gratitude, fresh reason to
fear, if her liberty of correspondence and intrigue were not restrained,
the likelihood of a similar fate for Elizabeth. On the 26th of January
1569 she had been removed from Bolton Castle to Tutbury in
Staffordshire, where proposals were conveyed to her, at the instigation
of Leicester, for a marriage with the duke of Norfolk, to which she gave
a graciously conditional assent; but the discovery of these proposals
consigned Norfolk to the Tower, and on the outbreak of an insurrection
in the north Mary, by Lord Hunsdon's advice, was again removed to
Coventry, when a body of her intending deliverers was within a day's
ride of Tutbury. On the 23rd of January following Murray was
assassinated; and a second northern insurrection was crushed in a single
sharp fight by Lord Hunsdon. In October Cecil had an interview with Mary
at Chatsworth, when the conditions of her possible restoration to the
throne in compliance with French demands were debated at length. The
queen of Scots, with dauntless dignity, refused to yield the castles of
Edinburgh and Dumbarton into English keeping, or to deliver up her
fugitive English partisans then in Scotland; upon other points they came
to terms, and the articles were signed the 16th of October. On the same
day Mary wrote to Elizabeth, requesting with graceful earnestness the
favour of an interview which might reassure her against the suggestion
that this treaty was a mere pretence. On the 28th of November she was
removed to Sheffield Castle, where she remained for the next fourteen
years in charge of the earl of Shrewsbury. The detection of a plot, in
which Norfolk was implicated, for the invasion of England by Spain on
behalf of Mary, who was then to take him as the fourth and most
contemptible of her husbands, made necessary the reduction of her
household and the stricter confinement of her person. On the 28th of May
1572 a demand from both houses of parliament for her execution as well
as Norfolk's was generously rejected by Elizabeth; but after the
punishment of the traitorous pretender to her hand, on whom she had
lavished many eloquent letters of affectionate protestation, she fell
into "a passion of sickness" which convinced her honest keeper of her
genuine grief for the ducal caitiff. A treaty projected on the news of
the massacre of St Bartholomew, by which Mary should be sent back to
Scotland for immediate execution, was broken off by the death of the
earl of Mar, who had succeeded Lennox as regent; nor was it found
possible to come to acceptable terms on a like understanding with his
successor Morton, who in 1577 sent a proposal to Mary for her
restoration, which she declined, in suspicion of a plot laid to entrap
her by the policy of Sir Francis Walsingham, the most unscrupulously
patriotic of her English enemies, who four years afterwards sent word to
Scotland that the execution of Morton, so long the ally of England,
would be answered by the execution of Mary. But on that occasion
Elizabeth again refused her assent either to the trial of Mary or to her
transference from Sheffield to the Tower. In 1581 Mary accepted the
advice of Catherine de' Medici and Henry III. that she should allow her
son's title to reign as king of Scotland conjointly with herself when
released and restored to a share of the throne. This plan was but part
of a scheme including the invasion of England by her kinsman the duke of
Guise, who was to land in the north and raise a Scottish army to place
the released prisoner of Sheffield beside her son on the throne of
Elizabeth. After the overthrow of the Scottish accomplices in this
notable project, Mary poured forth upon Elizabeth a torrent of pathetic
and eloquent reproach for the many wrongs she had suffered at the hands
of her hostess, and pledged her honour to the assurance that she now
aspired to no kingdom but that of heaven. In the spring of 1583 she
retained enough of this saintly resignation to ask for nothing but
liberty, without a share in the government of Scotland; but Lord
Burghley not unreasonably preferred, if feasible, to reconcile the
alliance of her son with the detention of his mother. In 1584 the
long-suffering earl of Shrewsbury was relieved of his fourteen years'
charge through the involuntary good offices of his wife, whose daughter
by her first husband had married a brother of Darnley; and their orphan
child Arabella, born in England, of royal descent on the father's side,
was now, in the hopeful view of her grandmother, a more plausible
claimant than the king or queen of Scots to the inheritance of the
English throne. In December 1583 Mary had laid before the French
ambassador her first complaint of the slanders spread by Lady Shrewsbury
and her sons, who were ultimately compelled to confess the falsehood of
their imputations on the queen of Scots and her keeper. It was probably
at the time when a desire for revenge on her calumniatress made her
think the opportunity good and safe for discharge of such a two-edged
dart at the countess and the queen that Mary wrote, but abstained from
despatching, the famous and terrible letter in which, with many gracious
excuses and professions of regret and attachment, she transmits to
Elizabeth a full and vivid report of the hideous gossip retailed by Bess
of Hardwick regarding her character and person at a time when the
reporter of these abominations was on friendly terms with her husband's
royal charge. In the autumn of 1584 she was removed to Wingfield Manor
under charge of Sir Ralph Sadler and John Somers, who accompanied her
also on her next removal to Tutbury in January 1585. A letter received
by her in that cold, dark and unhealthy castle, of which fifteen years
before she had made painful and malodorous experience, assured her that
her son would acknowledge her only as queen-mother, and provoked at once
the threat of a parent's curse and an application to Elizabeth for
sympathy. In April 1585 Sir Amyas Paulet was appointed to the office of
which Sadler, accused of careless indulgence, had requested to be
relieved; and on Christmas Eve she was removed from the hateful shelter
of Tutbury to the castle of Chartley in the same county. Her
correspondence in cipher from thence with her English agents abroad,
intercepted by Walsingham and deciphered by his secretary, gave eager
encouragement to the design for a Spanish invasion of England under the
prince of Parma,--an enterprise in which she would do her utmost to make
her son take part, and in case of his refusal would induce the Catholic
nobles of Scotland to betray him into the hands of Philip, from whose
tutelage he should be released only on her demand, or if after her death
he should wish to return, nor then unless he had become a Catholic. But
even these patriotic and maternal schemes to consign her child and
re-consign the kingdom to the keeping of the Inquisition, incarnate in
the widower of Mary Tudor, were superseded by the attraction of a
conspiracy against the throne and life of Elizabeth. Anthony Babington,
in his boyhood a ward of Shrewsbury, resident in the household at
Sheffield Castle, and thus subjected to the charm before which so many
victims had already fallen, was now induced to undertake the deliverance
of the queen of Scots by the murder of the queen of England. It is
maintained by those admirers of Mary who assume her to have been an
almost absolute imbecile, gifted with the power of imposing herself on
the world as a woman of unsurpassed ability, that, while cognisant of
the plot for her deliverance by English rebels and an invading army of
foreign auxiliaries, she might have been innocently unconscious that
this conspiracy involved the simultaneous assassination of Elizabeth. In
the conduct and detection of her correspondence with Babington, traitor
was played off against traitor, and spies were utilized against
assassins, with as little scruple as could be required or expected in
the diplomacy of the time. As in the case of the casket letters, it is
alleged that forgery was employed to interpolate sufficient evidence of
Mary's complicity in a design of which it is thought credible that she
was kept in ignorance by the traitors and murderers who had enrolled
themselves in her service,--that one who pensioned the actual murderer
of Murray and a would-be murderer of Elizabeth was incapable of
approving what her keen and practised intelligence was too blunt and
torpid to anticipate as inevitable and inseparable from the general
design. In August the conspirators were netted, and Mary was arrested at
the gate of Tixall Park, whither Paulet had taken her under pretence of
a hunting party. At Tixall she was detained till her papers at Chartley
had undergone thorough research. That she was at length taken in her own
toils even such a dullard as her admirers depict her could not have
failed to understand; that she was no such dastard as to desire or
deserve such defenders the whole brief course of her remaining life bore
consistent and irrefragable witness. Her first thought on her return to
Chartley was one of loyal gratitude and womanly sympathy. She cheered
the wife of her English secretary, now under arrest, with promises to
answer for her husband to all accusations brought against him, took her
new-born child from the mother's arms, and in default of clergy baptized
it, to Paulet's Puritanic horror, with her own hands by her own name.
The next or the twin-born impulse of her indomitable nature was, as
usual in all times of danger, one of passionate and high-spirited
defiance on discovering the seizure of her papers. A fortnight
afterwards her keys and her money were confiscated, while she, bedridden
and unable to move her hand, could only ply the terrible weapon of her
bitter and fiery tongue. Her secretaries were examined in London, and
one of them gave evidence that she had first heard of the conspiracy by
letter from Babington, of whose design against the life of Elizabeth she
thought it best to take no notice in her reply, though she did not hold
herself bound to reveal it. On the 25th of September she was removed to
the strong castle of Fotheringay in Northamptonshire. On the 6th of
October she was desired by letter from Elizabeth to answer the charges
brought against her before certain of the chief English nobles appointed
to sit in commission on the cause. In spite of her first refusal to
submit, she was induced by the arguments of the vice-chamberlain, Sir
Christopher Hatton, to appear before this tribunal on condition that her
protest should be registered against the legality of its jurisdiction
over a sovereign, the next heir of the English crown.
On the 14th and 15th of October 1586 the trial was held in the hall of
Fotheringay Castle. Alone, "without one counsellor on her side among so
many," Mary conducted the whole of her own defence with courage
incomparable and unsurpassable ability. Pathos and indignation, subtlety
and simplicity, personal appeal and political reasoning, were the
alternate weapons with which she fought against all odds of evidence or
inference, and disputed step by step every inch of debatable ground. She
repeatedly insisted on the production of proof in her own handwriting as
to her complicity with the project of the assassins who had expiated
their crime on the 20th and 21st of the month preceding. When the charge
was shifted to the question of her intrigues with Spain, she took her
stand resolutely on her own right to convey whatever right she
possessed, though now no kingdom was left her for disposal, to
whomsoever she might choose. One single slip she made in the whole
course of her defence; but none could have been more unluckily
characteristic and significant. When Burghley brought against her the
unanswerable charge of having at that moment in her service, and in
receipt of an annual pension, the instigator of a previous attempt on
the life of Elizabeth, she had the unwary audacity to cite in her
justification the pensions allowed by Elizabeth to her adversaries in
Scotland, and especially to her son. It is remarkable that just two
months later, in a conversation with her keepers, she again made use of
the same extraordinary argument in reply to the same inevitable
imputation, and would not be brought to admit that the two cases were
other than parallel. But except for this single instance of oversight or
perversity her defence was throughout a masterpiece of indomitable
ingenuity, of delicate and steadfast courage, of womanly dignity and
genius. Finally she demanded, as she had demanded before, a trial either
before the estates of the realm lawfully assembled or else before the
queen in council. So closed the second day of the trial; and before the
next day's work could begin a note of two or three lines hastily written
at midnight informed the commissioners that Elizabeth had suddenly
determined to adjourn the expected judgment and transfer the place of it
to the star-chamber. Here, on the 25th of October, the commissioners
again met; and one of them alone, Lord Zouch, dissented from the verdict
by which Mary was found guilty of having, since the 1st of June
preceding, compassed and imagined divers matters tending to the
destruction of Elizabeth. This verdict was conveyed to her, about three
weeks later, by Lord Buckhurst and Robert Beale, clerk of the privy
council. At the intimation that her life was an impediment to the
security of the received religion, "she seemed with a certain unwonted
alacrity to triumph, giving God thanks, and rejoicing in her heart that
she was held to be an instrument" for the restoration of her own faith.
This note of exultation as in martyrdom was maintained with unflinching
courage to the last. She wrote to Elizabeth and the duke of Guise two
letters of almost matchless eloquence and pathos, admirable especially
for their loyal and grateful remembrance of all her faithful servants.
Between the date of these letters and the day of her execution wellnigh
three months of suspense elapsed. Elizabeth, fearless almost to a fault
in face of physical danger, constant in her confidence even after
discovery of her narrow escape from the poisoned bullets of household
conspirators, was cowardly even to a crime in face of subtler and more
complicated peril. She rejected with resolute dignity the intercession
of French envoys for the life of the queen-dowager of France; she
allowed the sentence of death to be proclaimed and welcomed with
bonfires and bell-ringing throughout the length of England; she yielded
a respite of twelve days to the pleading of the French ambassador, and
had a charge trumped up against him of participation in a conspiracy
against her life; at length, on the 1st of February 1587, she signed the
death-warrant, and then made her secretaries write word to Paulet of her
displeasure that in all this time he should not of himself have found
out some way to shorten the life of his prisoner, as in duty bound by
his oath, and thus relieve her singularly tender conscience from the
guilt of bloodshed. Paulet, with loyal and regretful indignation,
declined the disgrace proposed to him in a suggestion "to shed blood
without law or warrant"; and on the 7th of February the earls of
Shrewsbury and Kent arrived at Fotheringay with the commission of the
council for execution of the sentence given against his prisoner. Mary
received the announcement with majestic tranquillity, expressing in
dignified terms her readiness to die, her consciousness that she was a
martyr for her religion, and her total ignorance of any conspiracy
against the life of Elizabeth. At night she took a graceful and
affectionate leave of her attendants, distributed among them her money
and jewels, wrote out in full the various legacies to be conveyed by her
will, and charged her apothecary Gorion with her last messages for the
king of Spain. In these messages the whole nature of the woman was
revealed. Not a single friend, not a single enemy, was forgotten; the
slightest service, the slightest wrong, had its place assigned in her
faithful and implacable memory for retribution or reward. Forgiveness
of injuries was as alien from her fierce and loyal spirit as
forgetfulness of benefits; the destruction of England and its liberties
by Spanish invasion and conquest was the strongest aspiration of her
parting soul. At eight next morning she entered the hall of execution,
having taken leave of the weeping envoy from Scotland, to whom she gave
a brief message for her son; took her seat on the scaffold, listened
with an air of even cheerful unconcern to the reading of her sentence,
solemnly declared her innocence of the charge conveyed in it and her
consolation in the prospect of ultimate justice, rejected the
professional services of Richard Fletcher, dean of Peterborough, lifted
up her voice in Latin against his in English prayer, and when he and his
fellow-worshippers had fallen duly silent prayed aloud for the
prosperity of her own church, for Elizabeth, for her son, and for all
the enemies whom she had commended overnight to the notice of the
Spanish invader; then, with no less courage than had marked every hour
and every action of her life, received the stroke of death from the
wavering hand of the headsman.
Mary Stuart was in many respects the creature of her age, of her creed,
and of her station; but the noblest and most noteworthy qualities of her
nature were independent of rank, opinion or time. Even the detractors
who defend her conduct on the plea that she was a dastard and a dupe are
compelled in the same breath to retract this implied reproach, and to
admit, with illogical acclamation and incongruous applause, that the
world never saw more splendid courage at the service of more brilliant
intelligence, that a braver if not "a rarer spirit never did steer
humanity." A kinder or more faithful friend, a deadlier or more
dangerous enemy, it would be impossible to dread or to desire. Passion
alone could shake the double fortress of her impregnable heart and
ever-active brain. The passion of love, after very sufficient
experience, she apparently and naturally outlived; the passion of hatred
and revenge was as inextinguishable in her inmost nature as the emotion
of loyalty and gratitude. Of repentance it would seem that she knew as
little as of fear, having been trained from her infancy in a religion
where the Decalogue was supplanted by the Creed. Adept as she was in the
most exquisite delicacy of dissimulation, the most salient note of her
original disposition was daring rather than subtlety. Beside or behind
the voluptuous or intellectual attractions of beauty and culture, she
had about her the fresher charm of a fearless and frank simplicity, a
genuine and enduring pleasure in small and harmless things no less than
in such as were neither. In 1562 she amused herself for some days by
living "with her little troop" in the house of a burgess of St Andrews
"like a burgess's wife," assuring the English ambassador that he should
not find the queen there,--"nor I know not myself where she is become."
From Sheffield Lodge, twelve years later, she applied to the archbishop
of Glasgow and the cardinal of Guise for some pretty little dogs, to be
sent her in baskets very warmly packed,--"for besides reading and
working, I take pleasure only in all the little animals that I can get."
No lapse of reconciling time, no extent of comparative indulgence, could
break her in to resignation, submission, or toleration of even partial
restraint. Three months after the massacre of St Bartholomew had caused
some additional restrictions to be placed upon her freedom of action,
Shrewsbury writes to Burghley that "rather than continue this
imprisonment she sticks not to say she will give her body, her son, and
country for liberty"; nor did she ever show any excess of regard for any
of the three. For her own freedom of will and of way, of passion and of
action, she cared much; for her creed she cared something; for her
country she cared less than nothing. She would have flung Scotland with
England into the hell fire of Spanish Catholicism rather than forgo the
faintest chance of personal revenge. Her profession of a desire to be
instructed in the doctrines of Anglican Protestantism was so
transparently a pious fraud as rather to afford confirmation than to
arouse suspicion of her fidelity to the teaching of her church.
Elizabeth, so shamefully her inferior in personal loyalty, fidelity and
gratitude, was as clearly her superior on the one all-important point of
patriotism. The saving salt of Elizabeth's character, with all its
wellnigh incredible mixture of heroism and egotism, meanness and
magnificence, was simply this, that, overmuch as she loved herself, she
did yet love England better. Her best though not her only fine qualities
were national and political, the high public virtues of a good public
servant; in the private and personal qualities which attract and attach
a friend to his friend and a follower to his leader, no man or woman was
ever more constant and more eminent than Mary Queen of Scots.
(A. C. S.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The biography of Mary Stuart being virtually the
history of Scotland during the period covered by her life, with which
the history of England at the same period is also largely concerned,
the chief events in which she figured are related in all the general
_Histories_ of both countries. The most important original authorities
are the voluminous _State Papers_ of the period, with other MS.
documents preserved at the British Museum, the Cambridge University
Library, Hatfield and elsewhere. See especially the _Reports_ of the
Hist. MSS. Commission; _Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland
and Mary Queen of Scots_ (Scottish Record Publ. 1898); _Calendar of
Letters and State Papers relating to English Affairs, principally in
the Archives at Simancas_ (vols. i.-iv., 1892-1899); and the
_Calendars of State Papers: Domestic Series, Edw. VI.-James I.;
Foreign Series, Elizabeth; Venice Series_.
The most important unofficial contemporary works are the _Histories_
of John Knox, Bishop John Lesley, George Buchanan, and Robert Lindsay
of Pitscottie; the _Diurnal of Remarkable Occurrents from the death of
James IV. till 1575_ (Bannatyne Club, 1833); Robert Birrell's "Diary"
in Sir J. G. Dalzell's _Fragments of Scottish History_ (Edinburgh,
1798); _History of Mary Stuart_, by her secretary Claude Nau, ed. by
J. Stevenson (Edinburgh, 1883); Sir James Melville's _Memoirs of his
own Life_ (Bannatyne Club, 1827); Richard Bannatyne, _Memoriales of
Transactions in Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1836); William Camden's
_Annales_ (Eng. trans., London, 1635); Michel de Castelnau's
_Mémoires_ (Brussels, 1731); the _Mémoires_ of Brantôme (ed. by L.
Lalanne, 12 vols., Paris, 1864-1896); _Relations politiques de la
France et de l'Espagne avec l'Écosse au 16th siècle_ (ed. by J. B. A.
Teulet, 5 vols., Paris, 1862), containing important original letters
and documents; Thomas Wright's _Queen Elizabeth and her Times_ (2
vols., London, 1838), consists of private letters of Elizabethan
statesmen many of which refer to Mary Stuart, and others are to be
found in Sir Henry Ellis's _Original Letters illustrative of English
History_ (London, 1825-1846); much of Mary's own correspondence will
be found in Prince A. Labanoff's _Lettres inédites, 1558-1587_ (Paris,
1839), and _Lettres, instructions, et mémoires de Marie Stuart_ (7
vols., London, 1844), selections from which have been translated into
English by W. Turnbull in _Letters of Mary Queen of Scots_ (London,
1845), and by Agnes Strickland in _Letters of Mary Queen of Scots and
Documents connected with her Personal History_ (3 vols., London,
1842).
Among authorities not actually contemporary but written within a
century of Mary's death are David Calderwood's _Hist. of the Kirk of
Scotland_ (8 vols., Edinburgh, 1842-1849); Archbishop Spottiswoode's
_Hist. of the Church of Scotland_ (ed. by M. Russell, 3 vols.,
Edinburgh, 1847-1851), and Robert Keith's _Hist. of Affairs of Church
and State in Scotland_ (Spottiswoode Society ed., 1844); to which
should be added the modern classic, George Grub's _Ecclesiastical
History of Scotland_ (4 vols., Edinburgh, 1861).
Of modern general histories those of chief importance on the subject
are the Histories of England by Hume, Lingard and Froude; and the
_Histories of Scotland_ by Robertson, P. F. Tytler, John Hill Burton,
Malcolm Laing and Andrew Lang. Numerous biographies of Mary Stuart
have been published, as well as essays and treatises dealing with
particular episodes in her life, of which the most worthy of mention
are: George Chalmers, _Life of Mary Queen of Scots_, (2 vols., London,
1818); Henry Glassford Bell, _Life of Mary Queen of Scots_ (2 vols.,
Edinburgh, 1828-1831); the "Life" in Agnes Strickland's _Lives of the
Queens of Scotland_ (8 vols., Edinburgh, 1850); J. D. Leader, _Mary
Queen of Scots in Captivity_ (Sheffield, 1880); Colin Lindsay, _Mary
Queen of Scots and her Marriage with Bothwell_ (London, 1883); Mrs
Maxwell-Scott, _The Tragedy of Fotheringay_ (London, 1895); F. A. M.
Mignet, _Histoire de Marie Stuart_ (2 vols., Brussels, 1851); Martin
Philippson, _Histoire du règne de Marie Stuart_ ( 3 vols., Paris,
1891); Sir John Skelton, _Mary Stuart_ (London, 1893), _Maitland of
Lethington and the Scotland of Mary Stuart_ (2 vols., Edinburgh,
1887), _The Impeachment of Mary Stuart_ (Edinburgh, 1878), and _Essays
in History and Biography, including the Defence of Mary Stuart_
(Edinburgh, 1883); Joseph Stevenson, _Mary Stuart: The First Eighteen
Years of her Life_ (Edinburgh, 1886); D. Hay Fleming, _Mary Stuart_
(2nd ed. 1898); Jane Stoddart, _Girlhood of Mary Queen of Scots_.
With special reference to the controversy concerning the Casket
Letters, in addition to the article CASKET LETTERS and the
above-mentioned works by Sir John Skelton, the following should be
consulted: Walter Goodall, _Examination of the Letters said to be
written by Mary Queen of Scots to Bothwell_ (2 vols., Edinburgh,
1754), which contains the letters themselves; William Tytler, _Inquiry
into the Evidence against Mary Queen of Scots_ (2 vols., London,
1790); John Whitaker, _Mary Queen of Scots Vindicated_ (3 vols.,
London, 1788); F. de Peyster, _Mary Stuart, Bothwell and the Casket
Letters_ (London, 1890); T. F. Henderson, _The Casket Letters and Mary
Queen of Scots_ (Edinburgh, 1889); Andrew Lang, _The Mystery of Mary
Stuart_ (London, 1900).
In 1690 Giovanni Francesco Savaro published a play _La Maria Stuarda_,
and since then the story of the Queen of Scots has been the subject of
numerous poems and dramas, of which the most celebrated are Schiller's
_Maria Stuart_, and three tragedies by A. C. Swinburne--_Chastelard_
(1865), _Bothwell_ (1874), and _Mary Stuart_ (1881).
FOOTNOTES:
[1] In a letter dated the 4th of April 1882, referring to the
publication of his drama _Mary Stuart_, Swinburne wrote to Edmund
Clarence Stedman: "_Mary Stuart_ has procured me two satisfactions
which I prefer infinitely to six columns of adulation in The Times
and any profit thence resulting. (1) A letter from Sir Henry Taylor
... (2) An application from the editor of the _Encyclopaedia
Britannica_--who might, I suppose, as in Macaulay's time, almost
command the services of the most eminent scholars and historians of
the country--to me, a mere poet, proposing that I should contribute
to that great repository of erudition the biography of Mary Queen of
Scots. I doubt if the like compliment was ever paid before to one of
our 'idle trade.'" The present article is the biography contributed
by the poet to the 9th ed. in response to the invitation referred to
in this letter.
[2] It is to be observed that the above conclusion as to the
authenticity of the Casket Letters is the same as that arrived at
upon different grounds by the most recent research on the
subject.--ED. E. B.
MARY (1457-1482), duchess of Burgundy, only child of Charles the Bold,
duke of Burgundy, and his wife Isabella of Bourbon, was born on the 13th
of February 1457. As heiress of the rich Burgundian domains her hand was
eagerly sought by a number of princes. When her father fell upon the
field of Nancy, on the 5th of January 1477, Mary was not yet twenty
years of age. Louis XI. of France seized the opportunity afforded by his
rival's defeat and death to take possession of the duchy of Burgundy as
a fief lapsed to the French crown, and also of Franche Comté, Picardy
and Artois. He was anxious that Mary should marry the Dauphin Charles
and thus secure the inheritance of the Netherlands for his descendants.
Mary, however, distrusted Louis; declined the French alliance, and
turned to her Netherland subjects for help. She obtained the help only
at the price of great concessions. On the 11th of February 1477 she was
compelled to sign a charter of rights, known as "the Great Privilege,"
by which the provinces and towns of the Netherlands recovered all the
local and communal rights which had been abolished by the arbitrary
decrees of the dukes of Burgundy in their efforts to create in the Low
Countries a centralized state. Mary had to undertake not to declare war,
make peace, or raise taxes without the consent of the States, and not to
employ any but natives in official posts. Such was the hatred of the
people to the old regime that two influential councillors of Charles the
Bold, the Chancellor Hugonet and the Sire d'Humbercourt, having been
discovered in correspondence with the French king, were executed at
Ghent despite the tears and entreaties of the youthful duchess. Mary now
made her choice among the many suitors for her hand, and selected the
archduke Maximilian of Austria, afterwards the emperor Maximilian I.,
and the marriage took place at Ghent on the 18th of August 1477. Affairs
now went more smoothly in the Netherlands, the French aggression was
checked, and internal peace was in a large measure restored, when the
duchess met her death by a fall from her horse on the 27th of March
1482. Three children had been the issue of her marriage, and her elder
son, Philip, succeeded to her dominions under the guardianship of his
father.
See E. Münch, _Maria von Burgund, nebst d. Leben v. Margaretha v.
York_ (2 vols., Leipzig, 1832), and the _Cambridge Mod. Hist._ (vol.
i., c. xii., bibliography, 1903).
MARY (1496-1533), queen of France, was the daughter of Henry VII. of
England and Elizabeth of York. At first it was intended to marry her to
Charles of Austria, the future emperor Charles V., and by the treaty of
Calais (Dec. 21, 1507) it was agreed that the marriage should take place
when Charles should have attained the age of fourteen, the contract
being secured by bonds taken from various princes and cities in the Low
Countries. On the 17th of December 1508 the Sieur de Bergues, who had
come over as Charles's representative at the head of a magnificent
embassy, married the princess by proxy. The contract, originally made by
Henry VII., was renewed on the 17th of October 1513 by Henry VIII. at a
meeting with Margaret of Savoy at Lille, the wedding being fixed for the
following year. But the emperor Maximilian I., to whom Louis XII. had
proposed his daughter Renée as wife for Charles, with Brittany for
dowry, postponed the match with the English princess in a way that left
no doubt of his intention to withdraw from the contract altogether. He
was forestalled by the diplomacy of Wolsey, at whose instance peace was
signed with France on the 7th of August 1514, and on the same date a
treaty was concluded for the marriage of Mary Tudor with Louis XII., who
had recently lost his wife Anne of Brittany. The marriage was celebrated
at Abbeville on the 9th of October. The bridegroom was a broken man of
fifty-two; the bride a beautiful, well-educated and charming girl of
eighteen, whose heart was already engaged to Charles Brandon, duke of
Suffolk, her future husband. The political marriage was, however, no
long one. Mary was crowned queen of France on the 5th of November 1514;
on the 1st of January following King Louis died. Mary had only been
induced to consent to the marriage with Louis by the promise that, on
his death, she should be allowed to marry the man of her choice. But
there was danger that the agreement would not be kept. In France the
dukes of Lorraine and Savoy were mentioned as possible suitors, and
meanwhile the new king, Francis I., was making advances to her, and only
desisted when she confessed to him her previous attachment to Suffolk.
The duke himself was at the head of the embassy which came from England
to congratulate the new king, and to the detriment of his political
mission he used the opportunity to win the hand of the queen. Francis
good-naturedly promised to use his influence in his favour; Henry VIII.
himself was not averse to the match, but Mary feared the opposition of
the lords of the council, and, in spite of Suffolk's promise to the king
not to take any steps in the matter until after his return, she
persuaded him to marry her secretly before he left Paris. On their
return to England in April, Suffolk was for a while in serious danger
from the king's indignation, but was ultimately pardoned through
Wolsey's intercession, on payment of a heavy fine and the surrender of
all the queen's jewels and plate. The marriage was publicly solemnized
at Greenwich on the 13th of May 1515. Suffolk had been already twice
married, and his first wife was still alive. He thought it necessary
later on (1528) to obtain a bull from Pope Clement VII. declaring his
marriage with his first wife invalid and his union with Mary therefore
canonical. Mary's life after this was comparatively uneventful. She
lived mainly in the retirement of the country, but shared from time to
time in the festivities of the court, and was present at the Field of
the Cloth of Gold. She died on the 24th of June 1533. By the duke of
Suffolk she had three children: Henry, born on the 11th of March 1516,
created earl of Lincoln (1525), who died young; Frances, born on the
16th of July 1517, the wife of Henry Grey, marquess of Northampton, and
mother of Lady Jane Grey (q.v.); and Eleanor.
See _Lettres de Louis XII. et du cardinal Géorges d'Amboise_
(Brussels, 1712); _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII._ (Cal. State
Pap.); M. A. E. Green, _Lives of the Princesses of England_ (vol. v.,
1849-1855); Life by James Gairdner in _Dict. Nat. Biog._
MARY OF LORRAINE (1515-1560), generally known as MARY OF GUISE, queen of
James V. and afterwards regent of Scotland, was born at Bar on the 22nd
of November 1515. She was the eldest child of Claude of Guise and
Antoinette of Bourbon, and married in 1534 Louis II. of Orleans, duke of
Longueville, to whom in 1535 she bore a son, Francis (d. 1551). The duke
died in June 1537, and Mary was sought in marriage by James V., whose
wife Magdalene died in July, and by Henry VIII. after the death of Jane
Seymour. Henry persisted in his offers after the announcement of her
betrothal to James V. Mary, who was made by adoption a daughter of
France, received a papal dispensation for her marriage with James, which
was celebrated by proxy in Paris (May 1538) and at St Andrews on her
arrival in Scotland. Her two sons, James (b. May 1540) and Robert or
Arthur (b. April 1541), died within a few days of one another in April
1541, and her husband died in December 1542, within a week of the birth
of his daughter and heiress, Mary, Queen of Scots. Cardinal David Beton,
the head of the French and Catholic party and therefore Mary of
Lorraine's friend and ally, produced a will of the late king in which
the primacy in the regency was assigned to himself. John Knox accused
the queen of undue intimacy with Beton, and a popular report of a
similar nature, probably unfounded, was revived in 1543 by Sir Ralph
Sadler, the English envoy. Beton was arrested and the regency fell to
the heir presumptive James, earl of Arran, whose inclinations were
towards England and the Protestant party, and who hoped to secure the
hand of the infant princess for his own son. Mary of Lorraine was
approached by the English commissioner, Sir Ralph Sadler, to induce her
to further her daughter's marriage contract with Edward VI. She informed
Sadler that Arran had asked her whether Henry had made propositions of
marriage to herself, and that she had stated that "if Henry should mind
or offer her such an honour she must account herself much bounden."
Sadler further learnt that she was "singularly well affected to Henry's
desires." The marriage treaty between Mary, not then one year old, and
Edward VI. was signed on the 1st of July at Greenwich, and guaranteed
that Mary should be placed in Henry's keeping when she was ten years
old. The queen dowager and her daughter were carefully watched at
Linlithgow, but on the 23rd of July 1543 they escaped, with the help of
Cardinal Beton, to the safer walls of Stirling castle. After the queen's
coronation in September Mary of Lorraine was made principal member of
the council appointed to direct the affairs of the kingdom. She was
constantly in communication with her kinsmen in France, and was already
planning to secure for her daughter a French alliance, which was opposed
on different grounds by all her advisers. She made fresh alliances with
the earl of Angus and Sir George Douglas, and in 1544 she made a
premature attempt to seize the regency; but a reconciliation with Arran
was brought about by Cardinal Beton. The assassination of Beton left her
the cleverest politician in Scotland. The English invasions of 1547,
undertaken with a view to enforcing the English marriage, gave Mary the
desired pretext for a French alliance. In June 1548 a French fleet, with
provisions and 5000 soldiers on board, under the command of André de
Montalembert, seigneur d'Essé, landed at Leith to reinforce the Scots
army, and laid siege to Haddington, then in the hands of the English.
The Scottish parliament agreed to the marriage of the young queen with
the dauphin of France, and, on the plea of securing her safety from
English designs, she set sail from Dumbarton in August 1548 to complete
her education at the French court.
Mary of Lorraine now gave her energies to the expulsion of the English
and to the difficult task of keeping the peace between the Scots and
their French auxiliaries. In September 1550 she visited France and
obtained from Henry II. the confirmation of the dukedom and revenues of
Châtelherault for the earl of Arran, in the hope of inducing him to
resign the regency. On her way back to Scotland she was driven by storms
to Portsmouth harbour and paid a friendly visit to Edward VI. Arran
refused, however, to relinquish the regency until April 1554, when he
resigned after receiving an assurance of his rights to the succession.
The new regent had to deal with an empty exchequer and with a strong
opposition to her daughter's marriage with the dauphin. The gift of high
offices of state to Frenchmen lent to the Protestant opposition the
aspect of a national resistance to foreign domination. The hostility of
Arran and his brother Archbishop Hamilton forced Mary into friendly
relations with the lords who favoured the Protestant party. Soon after
her marriage miners had been brought from Lorraine to dig for gold at
Crawford Moor, and she now carried on successful mining enterprises for
coal and lead, which enabled her to meet the expenses of her government.
In 1554 she took into her service William Maitland of Lethington, who as
secretary of state gained very great influence over her. She also
provoked a dangerous enemy in John Knox by her expressed contempt for a
letter which he had written to her, but the first revolt against her
authority arose from an attempt to establish a standing army. When she
provoked a war with England in 1557 the nobles refused to cross the
border. In matters of religion she at first tried to hold the balance
between the Catholic and Protestant factions and allowed the
Presbyterian preachers the practice of their religion so long as they
refrained from public preachings in Edinburgh and Leith. The marriage of
Francis II. and her daughter Mary in 1558 strengthened her position, and
in 1559 she relinquished her conciliatory tactics to submit to the
dictation of her relatives, the Guises, by falling more into line with
their religious policy. She was reconciled with Archbishop Hamilton, and
took up arms against the Protestants of Perth, who, incited by Knox,
had destroyed the Charterhouse, where many of the Scottish kings were
buried. The reformers submitted on condition that no foreign garrison
was to be imposed on Perth and that the religious questions in dispute
should be brought before the Scottish parliament. Mary of Lorraine broke
the spirit of this agreement by garrisoning Perth with Scottish troops
in the pay of France. The lords of the Congregation soon assembled in
considerable force on Cupar Muir. Mary retreated to Edinburgh and thence
to Dunbar, while Edinburgh opened its gates to the reformers, who issued
a proclamation (Oct. 21, 1559) claiming that the regent was deposed. The
lords of the Congregation sought help from Elizabeth, while the regent
had recourse to France, where an expedition under her brother, René of
Lorraine, marquis of Elbeuf, was already in preparation. Mary, with the
assistance of a French contingent, began to fortify Leith. The strength
of her opponents was increased by the defection of Châtelherault and his
son Arran; and an even more serious danger was the treachery of her
secretary Maitland, who betrayed her plans to the lords of the
Congregation. In October 1559 they made an unsuccessful attack on Leith
and the seizure of an English convoy on the way to their army by James
Hepburn, earl of Bothwell, increased their difficulties. Mary entered
Edinburgh and conducted a campaign in Fife. Meanwhile Maitland of
Lethington had been at the English court, and an English fleet under
William Winter was sent to the Forth in January 1560 to waylay Elbeuf's
fleet, which was, however, driven back by a storm to Calais. Elbeuf had
been commissioned by Francis I. and Mary to take over Mary's regency on
account of her failing health. An English army under Lord Grey entered
Scotland on the 29th of March 1560, and the regent received an asylum in
Edinburgh castle, which was held strictly neutral by John Erskine. When
she knew that she was dying Mary sent for the lords of the Congregation,
with whom she pleaded for the maintenance of the French alliance. She
even consented to listen to the exhortations of the preacher John
Willock. She died on the 11th of June 1560. Her body was taken to Reims
and buried in the church of the nunnery of St Peter, of which her sister
was abbess.
The chief sources for her history are the Calendar of State Papers for
the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. in the Rolls Series; A.
Teulet, _Papiers d état ... relatifs à l'histoire de l'Écosse au XVI^e
siècle_ (Paris, 3 vols., 1851), for the Bannatyne Club; _Hamilton
Papers_, ed. J. Bain (Edinburgh, 2 vols., 1890-1899); _Calendar of
State Papers relating to Scotland and Mary Queen of Scots, 1547-1603_
(Edinburgh, 2 vols., 1898-1900), &c. There is a Life in Miss
Strickland's _Queens of Scotland_ (vols. i.-ii.) based on original
documents.
MARY OF MODENA [MARIA BEATRICE ANNE MARGARET ISABEL D'ESTE] (1658-1718),
queen of the English king James II., was the daughter of Alphonso IV.,
duke of Modena, and the Duchess Laura, of the Roman family Martinozzi.
She was born at Modena on the 5th of October 1658. Her education was
strict, and her own wish was to be a nun in a convent of the order of
the Visitation founded by her mother. As a princess she was not free to
choose for herself, and was selected, mainly by the king of France,
Louis XIV., as the wife of James, duke of York, heir-presumptive to the
English throne. The duke had become a Roman Catholic, and it was a point
of policy with the French king to provide him with a Roman Catholic
wife. Mary Beatrice of Este was chosen partly on the ground of her known
religious zeal, but also because of her beauty. The marriage was
celebrated by proxy on the 30th of September 1673. She reached England
in November. In later life she confessed that her first feelings towards
her husband could only be expressed by tears. In England the duchess,
who was commonly spoken of as Madam East, was supposed to be an agent of
the pope, who had indeed exerted himself to secure her consent. Her
beauty and her fine manners secured her the respect of her
brother-in-law, Charles II., and she lived on good terms with her
husband's daughters by his first marriage, but she was always disliked
by the nation. The birth of her first son (who died in infancy) on the
16th of January 1675 was regretted. During the Popish Plot, to which
her secretary Coleman was a victim, she went abroad with her husband.
After her husband's accession she suffered much domestic misery through
his infidelity. Her influence on him was unfortunate, for she was a
strong supporter of the Jesuit party which was in favour of extreme
measures. Her second son, James Francis Edward, was born on the 10th of
June (o.s.) 1688. The public refused to believe that the baby was Mary's
child, and declared that a fraud had been perpetrated to secure a Roman
Catholic heir. When the revolution had broken out she made the
disastrous mistake of consenting to escape to France (Dec. 10, 1688)
with her son. She urged her husband to follow her to France when it was
his manifest interest to stay in England, and when he went to Ireland
she pressed incessantly for his return. Her daughter, Louisa Maria, was
born at St Germain on the 28th of June 1692. When her husband died on
the 6th of September 1701, she succeeded in inducing King Louis to
recognize her son as king of England, an act which precipitated the war
of the Spanish Succession. Queen Mary survived her husband for seventeen
years and her daughter for two. She received a pension of 100,000
crowns, which was largely spent in supporting Jacobite exiles. At the
close of her life she had some success in obtaining payment of her
jointure. She lived at St Germain or at Chaillot, a religious house of
the Visitation. Her death occurred on the 7th of May 1718, and is said
by Saint-Simon to have been that of a saint.
See Miss Strickland, _Queens of England_ (vols. 9 and 10, London,
1846); Campana di Cavelli, _Les Derniers Stuarts à Saint-Germain
en-Laye_ (London, 1871); and Martin Haile, _Mary of Modena_ (London,
1905).
MARY OF ORANGE (1631-1660), eldest daughter of the English king Charles
I., was born in London on the 4th of November 1631. Her father wished
her to marry a son of Philip IV., king of Spain, while her cousin, the
elector palatine, Charles Louis, was also a suitor for her hand, but
both proposals fell through and she became the wife of a Dutch prince,
William, son of Frederick Henry, prince of Orange. The marriage took
place in London on the 2nd of May 1641, but owing to the tender years of
the bride it was not consummated for several years. However in 1642 Mary
crossed over to Holland with her mother, Queen Henrietta Maria, and in
1644, as the daughter-in-law of the stadtholder, she began to take her
place in public life. In 1647 her husband, William II., succeeded his
father as stadtholder, but three years later, just after his attempt to
capture Amsterdam, he died; a son, afterwards the English king William
III., being born to him a few days later (Nov. 14, 1650). Mary was
obliged to share the guardianship of her infant son with his grandmother
Amelia, the widow of Frederick Henry, and with Frederick William,
elector of Brandenburg; moreover, she was unpopular with the Dutch owing
to her sympathies with her kinsfolk, the Stuarts, and at length public
opinion having been further angered by the hospitality which she showed
to her brothers, Charles II. and James, duke of York, she was forbidden
to receive her relatives. From 1654 to 1657 the princess passed most of
her time away from Holland. In 1657 she was appointed regent on behalf
of her son for the principality of Orange, but the difficulties of her
position led her to implore the assistance of Louis XIV., and the French
king answered by seizing Orange himself. The position both of Mary and
of her son in Holland was greatly bettered through the restoration of
Charles II. in Great Britain. In September 1660 Mary journeyed to
England. She was taken ill of small-pox, and died in London on the 24th
of December 1660, her death, says Bishop Burnet, being "not much
lamented."
MARYBOROUGH, a market town and the county town of Queen's County,
Ireland. Pop. (1901), 2957. It lies in the broad lowland east of the
Slieve Bloom mountains, on the river Triogue, an affluent of the Barrow,
and on the main line of the Great Southern & Western railway, by which
it is 51 m. W.S.W. of Dublin. The town was chosen as county town in the
reign of Mary (1556), in whose honour both town and county received
their names. Its charter was granted in 1570, but its present
appearance, save a bastion of the ancient castle, is wholly modern.
There are flour-mills and a considerable general trade. Maryborough
returned two members to the Irish parliament from 1585 until the union
in 1800. The singular lofty rock of Dunamase or Dunmall, about 3 m. from
the town, bears on its summit extensive ruins of a castle, originally
belonging to the kings of Leinster, but probably built in the main by
William Bruce (c. 1200) and dismantled in 1650 by Cromwell's troops.
MARYBOROUGH, a town of March county, Queensland, Australia, on the left
bank and 25 m. from the mouth of the Mary river, 180 m. by rail N. of
Brisbane. Pop. (1901), 10,159. Besides a handsome court-house and town
hall, the principal buildings are the hospital, a technical college, a
library, the Anglican Church of St Paul with a fine tower and peal of
bells, and the grammar schools. There is a large shipbuilding yard, and
breweries, distilleries, a tannery, boot factories, soap works,
saw-mills, flour-mills, carriage works and iron foundries, besides
extensive sugar factories in the neighbourhood. The largest smelting
works in Australia are 5 m. distant, in which ore from all the states is
treated. Maryborough is the port of shipment for a wide agricultural
district yielding maize and sugar, and also for the Gympie gold-fields.
Timber abounds in the neighbourhood and is exported. Maryborough is also
the second coaling port in Queensland, the government railway wharf
being in direct communication with the Burrum coal-fields.
MARYBOROUGH, a municipal town of Talbot county, Victoria, Australia, 112
m. by rail N.W. of Melbourne. Pop. (1901), 5633. It has fine government
buildings, a town hall, a botanical garden, and numerous park lands. It
is an important railway centre, and has extensive railway workshops, as
well as coach factories, breweries and foundries. The gold mining of the
district is deep alluvial. Wheat, oats and wine are the chief
agricultural products of the neighbourhood.
MARYLAND, a South Atlantic state of the United States, and one of the
original thirteen, situated between latitudes 37° 53´ and 39° 44´ N. and
longitudes 75° 4´ and 79° 33´ W. (the precise western boundary has not
been determined). It is bounded N. by Pennsylvania and Delaware; E. by
Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean; S. and W. by the Potomac river and its
north branch, which separate it, except on the extreme W. border, from
Virginia and West Virginia; W., also, by West Virginia. It is one of the
small states of the Union--only seven are smaller--its total area being
12,327 sq. m. of which 2386 sq. m. are water surface.
_Physical Features._--Maryland is crossed from north to south by each
of the leading topographical regions of the east section of the United
States--the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont Plateau, the Appalachian
Mountains, and the Appalachian Plateau--hence its great diversity of
surface. The portion within the Coastal Plain embraces nearly the
whole of the south-east half of the state and is commonly known as
tide-water Maryland. It is marked off from the Piedmont Plateau by a
"Fall Line" extending from Washington (D.C.) north-east through
Baltimore to a point a little south of the north-east corner of the
state, and is divided by the Chesapeake Bay into two parts known as
the East Shore and the West Shore. The East Shore is a low level
plain, the least elevated section of the state. Along its entire
Atlantic border extends the narrow sandy Sinepuxent Beach, which
encloses a shallow lagoon or bay also called Sinepuxent at the north,
where, except in the extreme north, it is very narrow, and
Chincoteague at the south, where its width is in most places from 4 to
5 m. Between this and the Chesapeake to the west and north-west there
is a slight general rise, a height of about 100 ft. being reached in
the extreme north. A water-parting extending from north-east to
south-west and close to the Atlantic border separates the East Shore
into two drainage systems, though that next to the Atlantic is
insignificant. That on the Chesapeake side is drained chiefly by the
Pocomoke, Nanticoke, Choptank and Chester rivers, together with their
numerous branches, the general direction of all of which is
south-west. The branches as well as the upper parts of the main
streams flow through broad and shallow valleys; the middle courses of
the main streams wind their way through reed-covered marshes, the
water ebbing and flowing with the tide; in their lower courses they
become estuarine and the water flows between low banks. The West Shore
is somewhat more undulating than the East and also more elevated. Its
general slope is from north-west to south-east; along the west border
are points 300 ft. or more in height. The principal rivers crossing
this section are the Patuxent, Patapsco and Gunpowder, with which may
be grouped the Potomac, forming the state's southern boundary. These
rivers, lined in most instances with terraces 30 to 40 ft. high on one
or both sides, flow south-east into the Chesapeake Bay through valleys
bounded by low hills. The Fall Line, which forms the boundary between
the Coastal Plain and the Piedmont Plateau, is a zone in which a
descent of about 100 ft. or more is made in many places within a few
miles and in consequence is marked by waterfalls, cascades and rapids.
The part of Maryland within the Piedmont Plateau extends west from the
Fall Line to the base of Catoctin Mountain, or the west border of
Frederick county, and has an area of about 2500 sq. m. In general it
has a broad rolling surface. It is divided into two sections by an
elevated strip known as Parr's Ridge, which extends from north-east to
south-west a short distance west of the middle. The east section rises
from about 450 ft. along the Fall Line to from 850 to 900 ft. along
the summit of Parr's Ridge. Its principal streams are those that cross
the West Shore of the Coastal Plain and here wind their way from
Parr's Ridge rapidly toward the south-east in narrow steep-sided
gorges through broad limestone valleys. To the west of Parr's Ridge
the surface for the most part slopes gently down to the east bank of
the Monocacy river (which flows nearly at a right angle with the
streams east of the Ridge), and then from the opposite bank rises
rapidly toward the Catoctin Mountain; but just above the mouth of the
Monocacy on the east side of the valley is Sugar Loaf Mountain, which
makes a steep ascent of 1250 ft.
The portion of the state lying within the Appalachian Region is
commonly known as Western Maryland. To the eastward it abounds in
mountains and valleys; to the westward it is a rolling plateau. West
of Catoctin Mountain (1800 ft.) is Middletown Valley, with Catoctin
Creek running through it from north to south, and the Blue Ridge
Mountains (2400 ft.), near the Pennsylvania border, forming its west
slope. Farther west the serrated crests of the Blue Ridge overlook the
Greater Appalachian Valley, here 73 m. in width, the broad
gently-rolling slopes of the Great Cumberland or Hagerstown Valley
occupying its eastern and the Appalachian Ridges its western portion.
Through the eastern portion Antietam Creek to the east and
Conococheague Creek to the west flow rapidly in meandering trenches
that in places exceed 75 ft. in depth. The Appalachian Ridges of the
western portion begin with North Mountain on the east and end with
Wills Mountain on the west. They are long, narrow, uniformly-sloping
and level-crested mountains, extending along parallel lines from
north-east to south-west, and reaching a maximum height in Martin's
Ridge of more than 2000 ft. Overlooking them from the west are the
higher ranges of the Alleghenies, among which the Savage, Backbone and
Negro Mountains reach elevations of 3000 ft. or more. In the extreme
west part of the state these mountains merge, as it were, into a
rolling plateau, the Appalachian Plateau, having an average elevation
of 2500 ft. All rivers of Western Maryland flow south into the Potomac
except in the extreme west, where the waters of the Youghiogheny and
its tributaries flow north into the Monongahela.
_Fauna and Flora._--In primitive times deer, ducks, turkeys, fish and
oysters were especially numerous, and wolves, squirrels and crows were
a source of annoyance to the early settlers. Deer, black bears and
wild cats (lynx) are still found in some uncultivated sections. Much
more numerous are squirrels, rabbits, "groundhogs" (woodchucks),
opossums, skunks, weasels and minks. Many species of ducks are also
still found; and the reed-bird (bobolink), "partridge" (elsewhere
called quail or "Bob White"), ruffed grouse (elsewhere called
partridge), woodcock, snipe, plover and Carolina rail still abound.
The waters of the Chesapeake Bay are especially rich in oysters and
crabs, and there, also, shad, alewives, "striped" (commonly called
"rock") bass, menhaden, white perch and weak-fish ("sea-trout") occur
in large numbers. Among the more common trees are several species of
oak, pine, hickory, gums and maple, and the chestnut, the poplar, the
beech, the cypress and the red cedar; the merchantable pine has been
cut, but the chestnut and other hard woods of West Maryland are still
a product of considerable value. Among wild fruit-trees are the
persimmon and Chickasaw plum; grape-vines and a large variety of
berry-bushes grow wild and in abundance.
_Climate._--The climate of Maryland in the south-east is influenced by
ocean and bay--perhaps also by the sandy soil--while in the west it is
influenced by the mountains. The prevailing winds are westerly; but
generally north-west in winter in the west section and south-west in
summer in the south section. In the south the normal winter is mild,
the normal summer rather hot; in the west the normal winter is cold,
the normal summer cool. The normal average annual temperature for the
entire state is between 53° and 54° F., ranging from 48° at
Grantsville in the north-west to 53° at Darlington in the north-east,
and to 57° at Princess Anne in the south-east. The normal temperature
for the state during July (the warmest month) is 75.2° F., and during
January (the coldest month) 32.14° F. Although the west section is
generally much the cooler in summer, yet both of the greatest extremes
recorded since 1891 were at points not far apart in Western Maryland:
109° F. at Boettcherville and -26° F. at Sunnyside. The normal annual
precipitation for the state is about 43 in. It is greatest, about 53
in., on the east slope of Catoctin Mountain, owing to the elevations
which obstruct the moisture-bearing winds, and is above the average
along the middle of the shores of the Chesapeake. It is least, from 25
to 35 in., in the Greater Appalachian Valley, in the south on the West
Shore, and along the Atlantic border. During spring and summer the
precipitation throughout the state is about 2 in. more than during
autumn and winter.
_Soils and Agriculture._--The great variety of soils is one of the
more marked features of Maryland. On the East Shore to the north is a
marly loam overlying a yellowish-red clay sub-soil, to the south is a
soil quite stiff with light coloured clay, while here and there,
especially in the middle and south, are considerable areas both of
light sandy soils and tidal marsh loams. On the West Shore the soils
range from a light sandy loam in the lower levels south from Baltimore
to rather heavy loams overlying a yellowish clay on the rolling
uplands and on the terraces along the Potomac and Patuxent. Crossing
the state along the lower edge of the Fall Line is a belt heavy with
clay, but so impervious to water as to be of little value for
agricultural purposes. The soils of the Piedmont Plateau east of
Parr's Ridge are, like the underlying rocks, exceptionally variable in
composition, texture and colour. For the most part they are
considerably heavier with clay than are those of the Coastal Plain,
and better adapted to general agricultural purposes. Light loams,
however, are found both in the north-east and south-east. A soil of
very close texture, the gabbro, is found, most largely in the
north-east. Alluvial loams occupy the narrow river valleys; but the
most common soil of the section is that formed from gneiss with a
large per cent. of clay in the subsoil. West of Parr's Ridge in the
Piedmont, the principal soils are those the character of which is
determined either by decomposed red sandstone or by decomposed
limestone. In the east portion of the mountainous region the soil so
well adapted to peach culture contains much clay, together with
particles of Cambrian sandstone. In Hagerstown Valley are rich red or
yellow limestone-clay soils. The Allegheny ridges have only a thin
stony soil; but good limestone, sandstone, shale and alluvial soils,
occur in the valleys and in some of the plateaus of the extreme west.
Of the total land surface of the state 82% was in 1900 included in
farms and 68% of the farmland was improved. There were 46,012 farms,
of which 15,833 contained less than 50 acres, 3940 contained 260 acres
or more, and 79 contained 1,000 acres or more--the average size being
112.4 acres. In 1890, 69% of the farms were worked by the owners or
their managers, in 1900 only 66.4%; but share tenants outnumber cash
tenants by almost three to one. Of the total number of farms about
seven times as many are operated by white as by negro farmers, though
the number of farms operated by white share tenants outnumber those
operated by negro share tenants by only about five to one. Of all the
inhabitants of the state, at least ten years old, who in 1900 were
engaged in gainful occupations, 20.8% were farmers. The leading
agricultural pursuits are the growing of Indian corn and wheat and the
raising of livestock, yet it is in the production of fruits,
vegetables and tobacco, that Maryland ranks highest as an agricultural
state, and in no other state except South Carolina is so large a per
cent. of the value of the crop expended for fertilizers. In 1907,
according to the _Year Book_ of the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
the Indian corn crop was 22,196,000 bushels, valued at $11,986,000;
the wheat crop was 14,763,000 bushels, valued at $14,172,000; the oat
crop was 825,000 bushels, valued at $404,000; and the crop of rye was
315,000 bushels, valued at $236,000. Of the livestock, hogs were the
most numerous in 1900, cattle next, sheep third, and horses fourth.
The hay and forage crop of 1899 (exclusive of corn-stalks) grew on
374,848 acres. Until after the middle of the 18th century tobacco was
the staple crop of Maryland, and the total yield did not reach its
maximum until 1860 when the crop amounted to 51,000 hhds.; from this
it decreased to 14,000 hhds., or 12,356,838 lb. in 1889; in 1899 it
rose again to 24,589,480 lb., in 1907 the crop was only 16,962,000
lb., less than that of nine other states. In market-garden products,
including small fruits, Maryland ranked in 1899 sixth among the states
of the Union, the crop being valued at $4,766,760, an increase of
350.9% over that of 1889. In the yield both of strawberries and of
tomatoes it ranked first; the yield of raspberries and blackberries is
also large. In its crop of green-peas Maryland was exceeded (1899) by
New York only; in sweet Indian corn it ranked fifth; in kale, second;
in spinach, third; in cabbages, ninth. The number of peach-trees,
especially in the west part of the state, where the quality is of the
best, is rapidly increasing, and in the yield of peaches and
nectarines the state ranked thirteenth in 1899; in the yield of pears
it ranked fifth; in apples seventeenth.
The Indian-corn, wheat and livestock sections of the state, are in the
Piedmont Plateau, the Hagerstown Valley and the central portion of the
East Shore. Garrett county in the extreme north-west, however, raises
the largest number of sheep. Most of the tobacco is grown in the south
counties of the West Shore. The great centre for vegetables and small
fruits is in the counties bordering on the north-west shore of the
Chesapeake, and in Howard, Frederick and Washington counties, directly
west, Anne Arundel county producing the second largest quantity of
strawberries of all the counties in the Union in 1899. Peaches and
pears grow in large quantities in Kent and neighbouring counties on
the East Shore and in Washington and Frederick counties; apples grow
in abundance in all parts of the Piedmont Plateau.
The woodland area of the state in 1900 was 4400 sq. m., about 44%
(estimated in 1907 to be 3450 sq. m., about 35%) of the total land
area, but with the exception of considerable oak and chestnut, some
maple and other hard woods in west Maryland, about all of the
merchantable timber has been cut. The lumber industry, nevertheless,
has steadily increased in importance, the value of the product in 1860
amounting to only $605,864, that in 1890 to $1,600,472, and that in
1900 to $2,650,082, of which sum $2,495,169 was the value of products
under the factory system; in 1905 the value of the factory product was
$2,750,339.
_Fisheries._--In 1897 the value of the fishery product of Maryland was
exceeded only by that of Massachusetts, but by 1901, although it had
increased somewhat during the four years, it was exceeded by the
product of New Jersey, of Virginia and of New York. Oysters constitute
more than 80% of the total value, the product in 1901 amounting to
5,685,561 bushels, and being valued at $3,031,518. The supply on
natural beds has been diminishing, but the planting of private beds
promises a large increase. Crabs are next in value and are caught
chiefly along the East Shore and in Anne Arundel and Calvert counties
on the West Shore. Shad, to the number of 3,111,181 and valued at
$120,602, were caught during 1901. In Somerset and Worcester counties
clams are a source of considerable value. The terrapin catch decreased
in value from $22,333 in 1891 to $1,139 in 1901. The total value of
the fish product of 1901 was $3,767,461. The state laws for the
protection of fish and shell-fish were long carelessly enforced
because of the fishermen's strong feeling against them, but this
sentiment has slowly changed and enforcement has become more vigorous.
_Minerals and Manufactures._--The coal deposits, which form a part of
the well-known Cumberland field, furnish by far the most important
mineral product of the state; more than 98% of this, in 1901, was
mined in Allegany county from a bed about 20 m. long and 5 m. wide and
the remainder in Garrett county, whose deposits, though undeveloped,
are of great value. The coal is of two varieties: bituminous and
semi-bituminous. The bituminous is of excellent quality for the
manufacture of coke and gas, but up to 1902 had been mined only in
small quantities. Most of the product has been of the semi-bituminous
variety and of the best quality in the country for the generation of
steam. Nearly all the high grade blacksmithing coal mined in the
United States comes from Maryland. The deposits were discovered early
in the 19th century (probably first in 1804 near the present
Frostburg), but were not exploited until railway transport became
available in 1842, and the output was not large until after the close
of the Civil War; in 1865 it was 1,025,208 short tons, from which it
steadily increased to 5,532,628 short tons in 1907. From 1722 until
the War of Independence the iron-ore product of North and West
Maryland was greater than that of any of the other colonies, but since
then ores of superior quality have been discovered in other states and
the output in Maryland, taken chiefly from the west border of the
Coastal Plain in Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties, has become
comparatively of little importance--24,367 long tons in 1902 and only
8269 tons in 1905. Gold, silver and copper ores, have been found in
the state, and attempts have been made to mine them, without much
success. The Maryland building stone, of which there is an abundance
of good quality, consists chiefly of granites, limestones, slate,
marble and sandstones, the greater part of which is quarried in the
east section of the Piedmont Plateau especially in Cecil county,
though some limestones, including those from which hydraulic cement is
manufactured, and some sandstones are obtained from the western part
of the Piedmont Plateau and the east section of the Appalachian
region; the value of stone quarried in the state in 1907 was
$1,439,355, of which $1,183,753 was the value of granite, $142,825
that of limestone, $98,918 that of marble, and $13,859 that of
sandstone. Brick, potter's and tile clays are obtained most largely
along the west border of the Coastal Plain, and fire-clay from the
coal region of West Maryland; in 1907 the value of clay products was
$1,886,362. Materials for porcelain, including flint, feldspar and
kaolin, abound in the east portion of the Piedmont, the kaolin chiefly
in Cecil county, and material for mineral paint in Anne Arundel and
Prince George's counties, as well as farther north-west.
[Illustration: Map of Maryland and Delaware.]
Between 1850 and 1900, while the population increased 103.8%, the
average number of wage-earners employed in manufacturing
establishments increased 258.5%, constituting 5.2% of the total
population in 1850 and 9.1% in 1900. In 1900 the total value of
manufactured goods was $242,552,990, an increase of 41.1% over that of
1890. Of the total given for 1900, $211,076,143 was the value of
products under the factory system; and in 1905 the value of factory
products was $243,375,996, being 15.3% more than in 1900. The products
of greatest value in 1905 were: custom-made men's clothing; fruits and
vegetables and oysters, canned and preserved; iron and steel; foundry
and machine-shop products, including stoves and furnaces; flour and
grist mill products; tinware, coppersmithing and sheet iron working;
fertilizers; slaughtering and meat-packing; cars and repairs by
steam railways; shirts; cotton goods; malt liquors; and cigars and
cigarettes. In the value of fertilizers manufactured, and in that of
oysters canned and preserved, Maryland was first among the states in
1900 and second in 1905; in 1900 and in 1905 it was fourth among the
states in the value of men's clothing. Baltimore is still the great
manufacturing centre, but of the state's total product the percentage
in value of that manufactured there decreased from 82.5 in 1890 to
66.5 in 1900, and to 62.3 (of the factory product) in 1905. The
largest secondary centres are Cumberland, Hagerstown and Frederick the
total value of whose factory products in 1905 was less than
$10,000,000.
_Communications._--Tide-water Maryland is afforded rather unusual
facilities of water transportation by the Chesapeake Bay, with its
deep channel, numerous deep inlets and navigable tributaries, together
with the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, which crosses the state of
Delaware and connects its waters with those of the Delaware river and
bay. As early as 1783 steps were taken to extend these facilities to
the navigable waters of the Ohio, chiefly by improving the navigation
of the Potomac above Georgetown. By 1820 this project was merged into
a movement for a Chesapeake and Ohio canal along the same line. Ground
was broken in 1828 and in 1850 the canal was opened to navigation from
Georgetown to Cumberland, a distance of 186 m. In 1878 and again in
1889 it was wrecked by a freshet, and since then has been of little
service.[1] However, on the same day that ground was broken for this
canal, ground was also broken for the Baltimore & Ohio railway, of
which 15 m. was built in 1828-1830 and which was one of the first
steam railway lines in operation in the United States. Since then
railway building has progressed steadily. In Maryland (and including
the District of Columbia) there were 259 m. of railway in 1850, 386 m.
in 1860, 671 m. in 1870, and 1040 m. in 1880; in 1890, in Maryland
alone, the mileage was 1270.04 m., and in 1909 it was 1394.19 m. The
more important railway lines are the Baltimore & Ohio, the
Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington (controlled by the Pennsylvania
and a consolidation of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore, and
the Baltimore & Potomac), the Western Maryland, the West Virginia
Central & Pittsburg (leased by the Western Maryland), the Northern
Central, the Maryland electric railways (including what was formerly
the Baltimore & Annapolis Short Line), and the Washington, Baltimore &
Annapolis electric railway. Baltimore is the chief railway centre and
its harbour is one of the most important in the country.
_Inhabitants._--The population of Maryland in 1880 was 934,943; in 1890,
1,042,390, an increase of 11.5%; in 1900, 1,188,044 (14%); in 1910,
1,295,346 (increase 9%).[2] Of the total population in 1900 there were
952,424 whites, 235,064 negroes, 544 Chinese, 9 Japanese and 3 Indians,
the increase in the white population from 1890 to 1900 being 15.2%,
while that of the negroes was only 9%. In 1900 there were 1,094,110
native born to 93,934 foreign-born, and of the foreign-born 44,990 were
natives of Germany and 68,600 were residents of the city of Baltimore.
The urban population, i.e. total population of cities of 4000 or more
inhabitants, in 1900, was 572,795, or 48.2% of the total and an increase
of 16.6% over that of 1890; while the rural population, i.e. population
outside of incorporated places, was 539,685, an increase of about 8%
over that of 1890. There are about 59 religious sects, of which the
members of the Roman Catholic Church, which was prominent in the early
history of Maryland, are far the most numerous, having in 1906 166,941
members out of 473,257 communicants of all denominations; in the same
year there were 137,156 Methodists, 34,965 Protestant Episcopalians,
32,246 Lutherans, 30,928 Baptists, 17,895 Presbyterians and 13,442
members of the Reformed Church in the United States. The chief cities
are Baltimore, pop. (1910) 558,485, Cumberland 21,839, Hagerstown
16,507, Frederick 10,411 and Annapolis 8609.
_Government._--The state constitution of 1867, the one now in force, has
been frequently amended, all that is required for its amendment being a
three-fifths vote of all of the members elected to each of the two
houses of the General Assembly, followed by a majority vote of the state
electorate, and it is further provided that once in twenty years,
beginning with 1887, the wish of the people in regard to calling a
convention for altering the constitution shall be ascertained by a poll.
Any constitution or constitutional amendment proposed by such
constitutional convention comes into effect only if approved by a
majority of the votes cast in a popular election. Since 1870 suffrage
has been the right of all male citizens (including negroes) twenty-one
years of age or over who shall have lived within the state for one year
and within the county or the legislative district of the city of
Baltimore in which they may offer to vote for six months immediately
preceding an election; persons convicted of larceny or other infamous
crime and not since pardoned by the governor, as well as lunatics or
those who have been convicted of bribery at a previous election are
excepted. In 1908 the General Assembly passed a law providing for annual
direct primary elections (outside of Baltimore; and making the Baltimore
special primary law applicable to state as well as city officials), but,
as regards state officers, making only a slight improvement upon
previous conditions inasmuch as the county or district is the unit and
the vote of county or district merely "instructs" delegates to the
party's state nominating convention, representation in which is not
strictly in proportion to population, the rural counties having an
advantage over Baltimore; no nomination petition is required. In the
same year a separate law was passed providing for primary elections for
the choice of United States senators; but here also the method is not
that of nomination by a plurality throughout the state, but by the vote
of counties and legislative districts, so that this measure, like the
other primary law, is not sufficiently direct to give Baltimore a vote
proportional to its population.
The chief executive authority is vested in a governor elected by
popular vote for a term of four years. Since becoming a state Maryland
has had no lieutenant-governor except under the constitution of 1864;
and the office of governor is to be filled in case of a vacancy by
such person as the General Assembly may elect.[3] Any citizen of
Maryland may be elected to the office who is thirty years of age or
over, who has been for ten years a citizen of the state, who has lived
in the state for five years immediately preceding election, and who is
at the time of his election a qualified voter therein. Until 1838 the
governor had a rather large appointing power, but since that date most
of the more important offices have been filled by popular election.
He, however, still appoints, subject to the confirmation of the
senate, the secretary of state, the superintendent of public
education, the commissioner of the land office, the adjutant-general,
justices of the peace, notaries public, the members of numerous
administrative boards, and other administrative officers. He is
himself one of the board of education, of the board of public works,
and of the board for the management of the house of correction. No
veto power whatever was given to the governor until 1867, when, in the
present constitution, it was provided that no bill vetoed by him
should become a law unless passed over his veto by a three-fifths vote
of the members elected to each house, and an amendment of 1890
(ratified by the people in 1891) further provides that any item of a
money bill may likewise be separately vetoed. The governor's salary is
fixed by the constitution at $4500 a year. Other executive officers
are a treasurer, elected by joint ballot of the General Assembly for a
term of two years, a comptroller elected by popular vote for a similar
term, and an attorney-general elected by popular vote for four years.
The legislature, or General Assembly, meets biennially in
even-numbered years, at Annapolis, and consists of a Senate and a
House of Delegates. Senators are elected, one from each of the
twenty-three counties and one from each of the four legislative
districts of the city of Baltimore, for a term of four years, the
terms of one-half expiring every two years. Delegates are elected for
a term of two years, from each county and from each legislative
district of Baltimore, according to population, as follows: for a
population of 18,000 or less, two delegates; 18,000 to 28,000, three;
28,000 to 40,000, four; 40,000 to 55,000, five; 55,000 and upwards,
six. Each legislative district of Baltimore is entitled to the number
of delegates to which the largest county shall or may be entitled
under the foregoing apportionment, and the General Assembly may from
time to time alter the boundaries of Baltimore city districts in order
to equalize their population. This system of apportionment gives to
the rural counties a considerable political advantage over the city of
Baltimore, which, with 42.8% of the total population according to the
census of 1900, has only 4 out of 27 members of the Senate and only 24
out of 101 members of the House of Delegates. Since far back in the
colonial era, no minister, preacher, or priest has been eligible to a
seat in either house. A senator must be twenty-five years of age or
over, and both senators and delegates must have lived within the state
at least three years and in their county or legislative district at
least one year immediately preceding their election.
The constitution provides that no bill or joint resolution shall pass
either house except by an affirmative vote of a majority of all the
members elected to that house and requires that on the final vote the
yeas and nays be recorded.
_Justice, &c._--The administration of justice is entrusted to a court
of appeals, circuit courts, special courts for the city of Baltimore,
orphans' courts, and justices of the peace. Exclusive of the city of
Baltimore, the state is divided into seven judicial circuits, in each
of which are elected for a term of fifteen years one chief judge and
two associate judges, who at the time of their election must be
members of the Maryland bar, between the ages of thirty and seventy,
and must have been residents of the state for at least five years. The
seven chief judges so elected, together with one elected from the city
of Baltimore, constitute the court of appeals, the governor with the
advice and consent of the senate designating one of the eight as chief
judge of that court. The court has appellate jurisdiction only. The
three judges elected in each circuit constitute the circuit court of
each of the several counties in such circuit. The courts have both
original and appellate jurisdiction and are required to hold at least
two sessions to which jurors shall be summoned every year in each
county of its circuit, and if only two such terms are held, there must
be two other and intermediate terms to which jurors shall not be
summoned. Three other judges are elected for four-year terms, in each
county and in the city of Baltimore to constitute an orphans' court.
The number of justices of the peace for each county is fixed by local
law; they are appointed by the governor, subject to the confirmation
of the Senate, for a term of two years.
In the colonial era Maryland had an interesting list of governmental
subdivisions--the manor, the hundred, the parish, the county, and the
city--but the two last are about all that remain and even these are in
considerable measure subject to the special local acts of the General
Assembly. In general, each county has from three to seven
commissioners--the number is fixed by county laws--elected on a
general ticket of each county for a term of from two to six years,
entrusted with the charge and control of property owned by the county,
empowered to appoint constables, judges of elections, collectors of
taxes, trustees of the poor, and road supervisors, to levy taxes, to
revise taxable valuations of real property, and open or close public
roads.
In Maryland a wife holds her property as if single except that she can
convey real estate only by a joint deed with her husband (this
requirement being for the purpose of effecting a release of the
husband's "dower interest"), neither husband nor wife is liable for
the separate debts of the other, and on the death of either the rights
of the survivor in the estate of the other are about equal.
Wife-beating is made punishable by whipping in gaol, not exceeding
forty lashes. Prior to 1841 a divorce was granted by the legislature
only, from then until 1851 it could be granted by either the
legislature or the equity courts, since 1851 by the courts only. The
grounds for a divorce _a mensa et thoro_, which may be granted for
ever or for a limited time only, are cruelty, excessively vicious
conduct, or desertion; for a divorce _a vinculo matrimonii_ the chief
grounds are impotence at the time of marriage, adultery or deliberate
abandonment for three years. There is no homestead exemption law and
exemptions from levy for the satisfaction of debts extend only to $100
worth of property, besides wearing apparel and books and tools used by
the debtor in his profession or trade, and to all money payable in the
nature of insurance. Employers of workmen in a clay or coal mine,
stone quarry, or on a steam or street railway are liable for damage in
case of an injury to any of their workmen where such injury is caused
by the negligence of the employer or of any servant or employee of the
employer. The chief of the bureau of labour statistics is directed in
case of danger of a strike or lockout to seek to mediate between the
parties and if unsuccessful in that, then to endeavour to secure their
consent to the formation of a board of arbitration.
The state penal and charitable institutions include a penitentiary at
Baltimore; a house of correction at Jessups, two houses of refuge at
Baltimore; a house of reformation in Prince George's county; St Mary's
industrial school for boys at Baltimore; an industrial home for negro
girls at Melvale; an asylum and training school for the feeble-minded
at Owings Mills; an infirmary at Cumberland; the Maryland hospital for
the insane at Catonsville; the Springfield state hospital for the
insane; the Maryland school for the deaf and dumb at Frederick city;
and the Maryland school for the blind at Baltimore. Each of these is
under the management of a board appointed by the governor subject to
the confirmation of the senate. Besides these there are a large number
of state-aided charitable institutions. In 1900 there was created a
board of state aid and charities, composed of seven members appointed
by the governor for a term of two years, not more than four to be
reappointed. There is also a state lunacy commission of four members,
who are appointed for terms of four years, one annually, by the
governor.
_Education._--The basis of the present common school system was laid
in 1865, after which a marked development was accompanied by some
important changes in the system and its administration, and the
percentage of total illiteracy (i.e. inability to write among those
ten years old and over) decreased from 19.3 in 1800 to 11.1 in 1900,
while illiteracy among the native whites decreased during the same
period from 7.8 to 4.1 and among negroes from 59.6 to 35.2. At the
head of the system is a state board and a state superintendent, and
under these in each county is a county board which appoints a
superintendent for the county and a board of trustees for each school
district none of which is to be more than four miles square. The state
board is composed of the governor as its president, the state
superintendent as its secretary, six other members appointed by the
governor for a term of six years, and, as _ex-officio_ members without
the right to vote, the principals of the state and other normal
schools. Prior to 1900 the principal of the state normal was
_ex-officio_ state superintendent, but since then the superintendent
has been appointed by the governor for a term of four years. Each
county board is also appointed by the governor for a term of six
years. In both the state and the county boards at least one-third of
the members appointed by the governor are not to be of the dominant
political party and only one-third of the members are to be appointed
every two years. The state board enacts by-laws for the administration
of the system; its decision of controversies arising under the school
law is final; it may suspend or remove a county superintendent for
inefficiency or incompetency; it issues life state certificates, but
applicants must have had seven years of experience in teaching, five
in Maryland, and must hold a first-class certificate or a college or
normal school diploma; and it pensions teachers who have taught
successfully for twenty-five years in any of the public or normal
schools of the state, who have reached the age of sixty, and who have
become physically or mentally incapable of teaching longer, the
pension amounting to $200 a year. The legislature of 1908 passed a law
under which the minimum pay for a teacher holding a first-class
certificate should be $350 a year after three years' teaching, $400
after five years' teaching and $450 after eight years' teaching. By a
law of 1904 all teachers who taught an average of 15 pupils were to
receive at least $300. School books are purchased out of the proceeds
of the school tax, but parents may purchase if they prefer. In 1908
the average school year was nine and seven-tenths months--ten in the
cities and nine and four-tenths in the counties; the aim is ten months
throughout, and a law of 1904 provides that if a school is taught less
than nine months a portion of the funds set apart for it shall be
withheld. A compulsory education law of 1902--to operate, however,
only in the city of Baltimore and in Allegany county--requires the
attendance for the whole school year of children between the ages of
eight and twelve and also of those between the ages of twelve and
sixteen who are not employed at home or elsewhere. A separate school
for negro children is to be maintained in every election district in
which the population warrants it. The system is maintained by a state
tax of 16 cents on each $100 of taxable property.
The higher state educational institutions are two normal schools and
one agricultural college. One of the normal schools was opened in
Baltimore in 1866, the other at Frostburg in 1904. Both are under the
management of the state Board of Education, which appoints the
principals and teachers and prescribes the course of study. There is
besides, in Washington College at Chestertown, a normal department
supported by the state and under the supervision of the state Board of
Education. The Maryland Agricultural College, to which an experiment
station has been added, was opened in 1859; it is at College Park in
Prince George's county, and is largely under state management.
Maryland supports no state university, but Johns Hopkins University,
one of the leading institutions of its kind in the country, receives
$25,000 a year from the state; the medical department of the
university of Maryland receives an annual appropriation of about
$2500, and St John's College, the academic department of the
university of Maryland, receives from the state $13,000 annually and
gives for each county in the state one free scholarship and one
scholarship covering all expenses. Among the principal institutions in
the state are the university of Maryland, an outgrowth of the medical
college of Maryland (1807) in Baltimore, with a law school
(reorganized in 1869), a dental school (1882), a school of pharmacy
(1904), and, since 1907, a department of arts and science in St John's
College (non-sect., opened in 1789) at Annapolis; Washington College,
with a normal department (non-sect., opened in 1782) at Chestertown;
Mount St Mary's College (Roman Catholic, 1808) at Emmitsburg; New
Windsor College (Presbyterian, 1843) at New Windsor; St Charles
College (Roman Catholic, opened in 1848) and Rock Hill College (Roman
Catholic, 1857) near Ellicott City; Loyola College (Roman Catholic,
1852) at Baltimore; Western Maryland College (Methodist Protestant,
1867) at Westminster; Johns Hopkins University (non-sect., 1876) at
Baltimore; Morgan College (coloured, Methodist, 1876) at Baltimore;
Goucher College (Methodist, founded 1884, opened 1888) at Baltimore;
several professional schools mostly in Baltimore (q.v.); the Peabody
Institute at Baltimore; and the United States Naval Academy at
Annapolis.
_Revenue._--The state's revenue is derived from a general direct
property tax, a licence tax, corporation taxes, a collateral
inheritance tax, fines, forfeitures and fees; and the penitentiary
yields an annual net revenue of about $40,000. There is no provision
for a general periodic assessment, but a state tax commissioner
appointed by the governor, treasurer and comptroller assesses the
corporations, and the county commissioners (in the counties) and the
appeal tax court (in the city of Baltimore) revise valuations of real
property every two years. From 1820 to 1836 Maryland, in its
enthusiasm over internal improvements, incurred an indebtedness of
more than $16,000,000. To meet the interest, such heavy taxes were
levied that anti-tax associations were formed to resist the
collection, and in 1842 the state failed to pay what was due; but the
accumulated interest had been funded by 1848 and was paid soon
afterwards, the expenses of the government were curtailed by the
constitution of 1851, and after the Civil War the amount of
indebtedness steadily decreased until in 1902 the funded debt was
$6,909,326 and the net debt only $2,797,269.13, while on the 1st of
October 1908 the net debt was $366,643.91. As a result of incurring
the large debt, a clause in the constitution prohibits the legislature
from contracting a debt without providing by the imposition of taxes
for the payment of the interest annually and the principal within
fifteen years, except to meet a temporary deficiency not exceeding
$50,000. The first bank of the state was established in 1790, and by
1817 there was one in each of twelve counties and several in
Baltimore; in 1818-1820 and in 1837-1839 there were several serious
bank failures, but there have been no serious failures since. A
constitutional provision makes each stockholder in a state bank liable
to the amount of his share or shares for all the bank's debts and
liabilities. A savings bank is taxed on its deposits, and a state bank
is taxed on its capital-stock.
_History._--The history of Maryland begins in 1632 with the procedure of
Charles I. to grant a charter conveying almost unlimited territorial and
governmental rights therein to George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore
(1580?-1632), and styling him its absolute lord and proprietor. George
Calvert died before the charter had passed the great seal, but about two
months later in the same year it was issued to his eldest son, Cecilius.
In November 1633 two vessels, the "Ark" and the "Dove," carrying at
least two hundred colonists under Leonard Calvert (c. 1582-1647), a
brother of the proprietor, as governor, sailed from Gravesend and
arrived in Maryland late in March of the following year. Friendly
relations were at the outset established with the Indians, and the
province never had much trouble with that race; but with William
Claiborne (1589?-1676?), the arch-enemy of the province as long as he
lived, it was otherwise. He had opposed the grant of the Maryland
charter, had established a trading post on Kent Island in Chesapeake Bay
in 1631, and when commanded to submit to the new government he and his
followers offered armed resistance. A little later, during his temporary
absence in England, his followers on the island were reduced to
submission; but in 1644, while the Civil War in England was in progress,
he was back in the province assisting Richard Ingle, a pirate who
claimed to be acting in the interest of parliament, in raising an
insurrection which deprived Governor Calvert of his office for about a
year and a half. Finally, the lord proprietor was deprived of his
government from 1654 to 1658 in obedience to instructions from
parliament which were originally intended to affect only Virginia, but
were so modified, through the influence of Claiborne and some Puritan
exiles from Virginia who had settled in Maryland, as to apply also to
"the plantations within Chesapeake Bay." Then the long continued unrest
both in the mother country and in the province seems to have encouraged
Josias Fendall, the proprietor's own appointee as governor, to strike a
blow against the proprietary government and attempt to set up a
commonwealth in its place; but this revolt was easily suppressed and
order was generally preserved in the province from the English
Restoration of 1660 to the English Revolution of 1688.
Meanwhile an interesting internal development had been in progress. The
proprietor was a Roman Catholic and probably it was his intention that
Maryland should be an asylum for persecuted Roman Catholics, but it is
even more clear that he was desirous of having Protestant colonists
also. To this end he promised religious toleration from the beginning
and directed his officers accordingly; this led to the famous toleration
act passed by the assembly in 1649, which, however, extended its
protection only to sects of Trinitarian Christianity. Again, although
the charter reserved to the proprietor the right of calling an assembly
of the freemen or their delegates at such times and in such form and
manner as he should choose, he surrendered in 1638 his claim to the sole
right of initiating legislation. By 1650 the assembly had been divided
into two houses, in one of which sat only the representatives of the
freemen without whose consent no bill could become a law, and annual
sessions as well as triennial elections were coming to be the usual
order. When suffrage had thus come to be a thing really worth
possessing, the proprietor, in 1670, sought to check the opposition by
disfranchising all freemen who did not have a freehold of fifty acres or
a visible estate of forty pounds sterling. But this step was followed by
more and more impassioned complaints against him, such as: that he was
interfering with elections, that he was summoning only a part of the
delegates elected, that he was seeking to overawe those summoned, that
he was abusing his veto power, and that he was keeping the government in
the hands of Roman Catholics, who were mostly members of his own family.
About this time also the north and east boundaries of the province were
beginning to suffer from the aggressions of William Penn. The territory
now forming the state of Delaware was within the boundaries defined by
the Maryland charter, but in 1682 it was transferred by the duke of York
to William Penn and in 1685 Lord Baltimore's claim to it was denied by
an order in council, on the ground that it had been inhabited by
Christians before the Maryland charter was granted. In the next place,
although it was clear from the words of the charter that the parallel of
40° N. was intended for its north boundary, and although Penn's charter
prescribed that Pennsylvania should extend on the south to the
"beginning of the fortieth degree of Northern Latitude," a controversy
arose with regard to the boundary between the two provinces, and there
was a long period of litigation; in 1763-1767 Charles Mason and Jeremiah
Dixon, two English mathematicians, established the line named from them
(see MASON AND DIXON LINE), which runs along the parallel 39° 43´ 26´´.3
N. and later became famous as the dividing line between the free states
and the slave states. While the proprietor was absent defending his
claims against Penn the English Revolution of 1688 was started. Owing to
the death of a messenger there was long delay in proclaiming the new
monarchs in Maryland; this delay, together with a rumor of a Popish plot
to slaughter the Protestants, enabled the opposition to overthrow the
proprietary government, and then the crown, in the interest of its trade
policy, set up a royal government in its place, in 1692, without,
however, divesting the proprietor of his territorial rights. Under the
royal government the Church of England was established, the people
acquired a strong control of their branch of the legislature and they
were governed more by statute law and less by executive ordinance. The
proprietor having become a Protestant, the proprietary government was
restored in 1715. Roman Catholics were disfranchised immediately
afterward. In 1730 Germans began to settle in considerable numbers in
the west-central part of the colony, where they greatly promoted its
industrial development but at the same time added much strength to the
opposition. The first great dispute between proprietor and people after
the restoration of 1715 was with regard to the extension of the English
statutes to Maryland, the popular branch of the legislature vigorously
contending that all such statutes except those expressly excluded
extended to the province, and the lord proprietor contending that only
those in which the dominions were expressly mentioned were in force
there. Many other disputes speedily followed and when the final struggle
between the English and French for possession in America came, although
appropriations were made at its beginning to protect her own west
frontier from the attacks of the enemy, a dead-lock between the two
branches of the assembly prevented Maryland from responding to repeated
appeals from the mother country for aid in the latter part of that
struggle. This failure was used as an argument in favour of imposing the
famous Stamp Act. Nevertheless, popular clamour against parliament on
account of that measure was even greater than it had been against the
proprietor. The stamp distributor was driven out, and the arguments of
Daniel Dulany (1721-1797), the ablest lawyer in the province, against
the act were quoted by speakers in parliament for its repeal.
In the years immediately preceding the Declaration of Independence
Maryland pursued much the same course as did other leading colonies in
the struggle--a vessel with tea on board was even burned to the water's
edge--and yet when it came to the decisive act of declaring independence
there was hesitation. As the contest against the proprietor had been
nearly won, the majority of the best citizens desired the continuance of
the old government and it was not until the Maryland delegates in the
Continental Congress were found almost alone in holding back that their
instructions not to vote for independence were rescinded. The new
constitution drawn and adopted in 1776 to take the place of the charter
was of an aristocratic rather than a democratic nature. Under it the
property qualification for suffrage was a freehold of 50 acres or £30
current money, the property qualifications for delegates £500, for
senators £1000, and for governor £5000. Four delegates were chosen from
each county and two each from Baltimore and Annapolis, the same as under
the proprietary government, population not being taken into account.
Senators were chosen by a college of fifteen electors elected in the
same manner as the delegates, and the governor by a joint ballot of the
two houses of assembly. In 1802 negroes were disfranchised, and in 1810
property qualifications for suffrage and office were abolished. The
system of representation that, with the rapid growth of population in
the north-east sections, especially in the city of Baltimore, placed the
government in the hands of a decreasing minority also began to be
attacked about this time; but the fear of that minority which
represented the tobacco-raising and slave-holding counties of south
Maryland, with respect to the attitude of the majority toward slavery
prevented any changes until 1837, when the opposition awakened by the
enthusiasm over internal improvements effected the adoption of
amendments which provided for the election of the governor and senators
by a direct vote of the people, a slight increase in the representation
of the city of Baltimore and the larger counties, and a slight decrease
in that of the smaller counties. Scarcely had these amendments been
carried when the serious financial straits brought on by debt incurred
through the state's promotion of internal improvements gave rise to the
demand for a reduction of governmental expenses and a limitation of the
power of the General Assembly to contract debts. The result was the new
constitution of 1851, which fully established representation in the
counties on the basis of population and further increased that of
Baltimore. The constitution of 1851 was however chiefly a patchwork of
compromises. So, when during the Civil War Maryland was largely under
Federal control and the demand arose for the abolition of slavery by the
state, another constitutional convention was called, in 1864, which
framed a constitution providing that those who had given aid to the
Rebellion should be disfranchised and that only those qualified for
suffrage in accordance with the new document could vote on its adoption.
This was too revolutionary to stand long and in 1867 it was superseded
by the present constitution. In national affairs Maryland early took a
stand of perhaps far-reaching consequences in refusing to sign the
Articles of Confederation (which required the assent of all the states
before coming into effect), after all the other states had done so (in
1779), until those states claiming territory between the Alleghany
Mountains and the Mississippi and north of the Ohio--Virginia, New York,
Massachusetts and Connecticut--should have surrendered such claims. As
those states finally yielded, the Union was strengthened by reason of a
greater equality and consequently less jealousy among the original
states, and the United States came into possession of the first
territory in which all the states had a common interest and out of which
new states were to be created. In the War of 1812 Frederick, Havre de
Grace, and Frenchtown were burned by the British; but particularly
noteworthy were the unsuccessful movements of the enemy by land and by
sea against Baltimore, in which General Robert Ross (c. 1766-1814), the
British commander of the land force, was killed before anything had been
accomplished and the failure of the fleet to take Fort McHenry after a
siege of a day and a night inspired the song _The Star-spangled Banner_,
composed by Francis Scott Key who had gone under a flag of truce to
secure from General Ross the release of a friend held as a prisoner by
the British and during the attack was detained on his vessel within the
British lines. In 1861 Maryland as a whole was opposed to secession but
also opposed to coercing the seceded states. During the war that
followed the west section was generally loyal to the north while the
south section favoured the Confederacy and furnished many soldiers for
its army; but most of the state was kept under Federal control, the writ
of habeas corpus being suspended. The only battle of much importance
fought on Maryland soil during the war was that of Sharpsburg or
Antietam on the 16th and 17th of September 1862. As between political
parties the state has usually been quite equally divided. From 1820 to
1860, however, the Whigs were in general a trifle the stronger; and from
1866 to 1895 the Democrats were triumphant; in 1895 a Republican
governor was elected; in 1896 Maryland gave McKinley 32,232 votes more
than it gave Bryan; and in 1904 seven Democratic electors and one
Republican were chosen; and in 1908 five Democratic and three
Republican.
The proprietors of Maryland were: Cecilius Calvert, second Lord
Baltimore (1605[?]-1675) from 1632 to 1675; Charles Calvert, third
Lord Baltimore (1629-1715) from 1675 to 1715; Benedict Leonard
Calvert, fourth Lord Baltimore (1684?-1715) 1715; Charles Calvert,
fifth Lord Baltimore (1699-1751) from 1715 to 1751; Frederick Calvert,
sixth and last Lord Baltimore (1731-1771) from 1751 to 1771; Henry
Harford, from 1771 to 1776.
_Governors of Maryland._
_Proprietary._
Leonard Calvert 1633-1645
Richard Ingle (usurper) 1645
Edward Hill (chosen by the council) 1646
Leonard Calvert 1646-1647
Thomas Greene 1647-1649
William Stone \ 1649-1652
Richard Bennett > (commissioners of \
Edmund Curtis | parliament) > 1652
William Claiborne / /
William Stone 1652-1654
William Fuller and others (appointed by the
commissioners of parliament) 1654-1658
Josias Fendall 1658-1660
Philip Calvert 1660-1661
Charles Calvert 1661-1675
Charles Calvert, third Lord Baltimore 1675-1676
Cecilius Calvert (titular) and Jesse Wharton (real) 1676
Thomas Notley 1676-1679
Charles Calvert, third Lord Baltimore 1679-1684
Benedict Leonard Calvert (titular) and council (real) 1684-1688
William Joseph (president of the council) 1688-1689
Protestant Associators under John Coode 1689-1692
_Royal._
Sir Lionel Copley 1692-1693
Sir Edmund Andros 1693-1694
Francis Nicholson 1694-1699
Nathaniel Blackistone 1699-1702
Thomas Tench (president of the council) 1702-1704
John Seymour 1704-1709
Edward Lloyd (president of the council) 1709-1714
John Hart 1714-1715
John Hart 1715-1720
Charles Calvert 1720-1727
Benedict Leonard Calvert 1727-1731
Samuel Ogle 1731-1732
Charles Calvert, fifth Lord Baltimore 1732-1733
Samuel Ogle 1733-1742
Thomas Bladen 1742-1747
Samuel Ogle 1747-1752
Benjamin Tasker (president of the council) 1752-1753
Horatio Sharpe 1752-1769
Robert Eden 1769-1774
Robert Eden (nominal) and Convention and Council
of Safety (real) 1774-1776
STATE
Thomas Johnson 1777-1779
Thomas Sim Lee 1779-1782
William Paca 1782-1785
William Smallwood 1785-1788
John Eager Howard 1788-1791
George Plater[4] 1791-1792
James Brice (acting) 1792
Thomas Sim Lee 1792-1794
John H. Stone 1794-1797
John Henry Democratic Republican 1797-1798
Benjamin Ogle Federalist 1798-1801
John Francis Mercer Democratic Republican 1801-1803
Robert Bowie " " 1803-1806
Robert Wright[5] " " 1806-1808
James Butcher (acting) " " 1808-1809
Edward Lloyd Whig 1809-1811
Robert Bowie Democratic Republican 1811-1812
Levin Winder Federalist 1812-1815
Charles Ridgely " 1815-1818
Charles Goldsborough " 1818-1819
Samuel Sprigg Democratic Republican 1819-1822
Samuel Stevens, jun. " " 1822-1825
Joseph Kent " " 1825-1828
Daniel Martin Anti-Jackson 1828-1829
Thomas King Carroll Jackson Democrat 1829-1830
Daniel Martin Anti-Jackson 1830-1831
George Howard (acting) Whig 1831-1832
George Howard " 1832-1833
James Thomas " 1833-1835
Thomas W. Veazey " 1835-1838
William Grason Democrat 1838-1841
Francis Thomas " 1841-1844
Thomas G. Pratt Whig 1844-1847
Philip Francis Thomas Democrat 1847-1850
Enoch Louis Lowe " 1850-1853
Thomas Watkins Ligon " 1853-1857
Thomas Holliday Hicks American or
Know Nothing 1857-1861
Augustus W. Bradford Unionist 1861-1865
Thomas Swann " 1865-1868
Oden Bowie Democrat 1868-1872
William Pinkney Whyte[6] " 1872-1874
James Black Groome " 1874-1876
John Lee Carroll " 1876-1880
William T. Hamilton " 1880-1884
Robert M. McLane " 1884-1885
Henry Lloyd " 1885-1888
Elihu E. Jackson " 1888-1892
Frank Brown " 1892-1896
Lloyd Lowndes Republican 1896-1900
John Walter Smith Democrat 1900-1904
Edwin Warfield " 1904-1908
Austin L. Crothers " 1908-
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--_Publications of the Maryland Geological Survey_
(Baltimore, 1897); _Maryland Weather Service Climatology and Physical
Features_, biennial reports (Baltimore, 1892- ); _United States
Census_; _Reports_ of the U.S. Fish Commissioner and Bureau of
Fisheries (Washington, 1871); State Department, _Maryland Manual, a
Compendium of Legal, Historical and Statistical Information_
(Baltimore, 1900- ); B.C. Steiner, _Citizenship and Suffrage in
Maryland_ (Baltimore, 1895), an historical review of the subject; J.
W. Harry, _The Maryland Constitution of 1851_, Johns Hopkins
University Studies in Historical and Political Science (Baltimore,
1902), contains an account of the agitation from 1835 to 1850 for
constitutional reform; B. C. Steiner, _History of Education in
Maryland_, Circulars of Information of the United States Bureau of
Education (Washington, 1894), a general historical survey of the
common schools, public and private, and a particular account of each
college, university and professional school; A. D. Mayo, _The Final
Establishment of the American School System in West Virginia,
Maryland, Virginia and Delaware_, Report of the Commissioner of
Education (Washington, 1905) contains an interesting account of the
development of the public school system of the state from 1864 to
1900; F. S. Adams, _Taxation in Maryland_, Johns Hopkins University
Studies (Baltimore, 1900), an historical account of the sources of the
state's revenue and administration of its taxing system; A. V. Bryan,
_History of State Banking in Maryland_, Johns Hopkins University
Studies (Baltimore, 1899), a careful study of the state's experience
with banks from 1790 to 1864; J. L. Bozman, _History of Maryland from
1633 to 1660_ (Baltimore, 1837), a compilation of much of the more
important material relating to the early history of the province; J.
V. L. McMahon, _An Historical View of the Government of Maryland from
its Colonization to the Present Day_ (Baltimore, 1833), an able
treatment of the subject by a learned jurist; J. T. Scharf, _History
of Maryland_ (Baltimore, 1879), the most extensive general history of
the state, but it contains numerous errors and the arrangement is
poor; W. H. Browne, _Maryland: the History of a Palatinate_ (Boston,
1884 and 1895), an excellent outline of the colonial history; N. D.
Mereness, _Maryland as a Proprietary Province_ (New York, 1901), a
constitutional history of the province in the light of its industrial
and social development, contains a bibliography; and Bernard C.
Steiner, _Maryland during the English Civil War_ (2 vols., Baltimore,
1906-1907), one of the Johns Hopkins University Studies. (N. D. M.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Maryland and Delaware together began the construction of the
Chesapeake and Delaware canal (13½ m. long) across the north part of
the state of Delaware, between the Delaware river and Chesapeake Bay;
this canal received Federal aid in 1828, was completed in 1829, and
in 1907 was chosen as the most practicable route for a proposed ship
waterway between the Chesapeake and the Delaware.
[2] The population at previous censuses was as follows: 319,728 in
1790; 341,548 in 1800; 380,546 in 1810; 407,350 in 1820; 447,040 in
1830; 470,019 in 1840; 583,034 in 1850; 687,049 in 1860; and 780,894
in 1870.
[3] The General Assembly regularly elected the governor during the
period 1776-1838.
[4] Died in office.
[5] Resigned on the 6th of May 1808.
[6] Resigned in 1874 to become (March 4, 1875) U.S. senator from
Maryland.
MARYPORT, a market town and seaport in the Cockermouth parliamentary
division of Cumberland, England, 25 m. W.S.W. of Carlisle, on the
Maryport & Carlisle railway. Pop. of urban district (1901), 11,897. It
is irregularly built on the shore of the Irish Sea and on the cliffs
above, at the mouth of the river Ellen. Until 1750 there were only a few
huts here, the spot being called Ellenfoot, but at this time the harbour
was built by Humphrey Senhouse. In 1892 Maryport became an independent
port with Workington, Whitehaven and Millom subordinate to it. Coal and
pig-iron are exported from the mining district inland, and shipbuilding
is carried on. There are also rope and sail works, iron-foundries,
saw-mills, breweries and tanneries. On the hill north of the town there
is a Roman fort which guarded the coast, and many remains of this period
have been discovered. The fort was called Uxellodunum.
MARZABOTTO, a village of Emilia, Italy, in the province of Bologna, 17
m. S.S.W. of Bologna by rail. Pop. (1901), 617 (village); 5272
(commune). It lies in the valley of the Reno, 443 ft. above sea-level.
In and below the grounds of the Villa Aria, close to it, are the remains
of an Etruscan town of the 5th century B.C., protected on the west by
the mountains, on the east and south by the river, which by a change of
course has destroyed about half of it. The acropolis was just below the
villa: here remains of temples were found. The town lay below the modern
high-road and was laid out on a rectangular plan divided by main streets
into eight quarters, and these in turn into blocks or _insulae_.
Cemeteries were found on the east and north of the site. The name of the
place is unknown: it was partially inhabited later by the Gauls, but was
not occupied by the Romans.
The discoveries of 1888-1889 (with references to previous works) are
described by E. Brizio in _Monumenti dei Lincei_ (1891), i. 249 sqq.
(T. As.)
MASACCIO (1402-1429), Italian painter. Tommaso Guidi, son of a notary,
Ser Giovanni di Simone Guidi, of the family of the Scheggia, who had
property in Castel S. Giovanni di Val d'Arno, was born in 1402
(according to Milanesi, on the 21st of December 1401), and acquired the
nickname of Masaccio, which may be translated "Lubberly Tom," in
consequence of his slovenly dressing and deportment. From childhood he
showed a great inclination for the arts of design, and he is said to
have studied under his contemporary Masolino da Panicale. In 1421, or
perhaps 1423, he was enrolled in the gild of the speziali (druggists) in
Florence, in 1424 in the gild of painters. His first attempts in
painting were made in Florence, and then in Pisa. Next he went to Rome,
still no doubt very young; although the statement that he returned from
Rome to Florence, in 1420, when only eighteen or nineteen, seems
incredible, considering the works he undertook in the papal city. These
included a series of frescoes still extant in a chapel of the church of
S. Clemente, a Crucifixion, and scenes from the life of St Catherine and
of St Clement, or perhaps some other saint. Though much inferior to his
later productions, these paintings are, for naturalism and propriety of
representation, in advance of their time. Some critics, however,
consider that the design only, if even that, was furnished by Masaccio,
and the execution left to an inferior hand; this appears highly
improbable, as Masaccio, at his early age, can scarcely have held the
position of a master laying out work for subordinates; indeed Vasari
says that Lubberly Tom was held in small esteem at all times of his
brief life. In the Crucifixion subject the group of the Marys is
remarkable; the picture most generally admired is that of Catherine, in
the presence of Maxentius, arguing against and converting eight learned
doctors. After returning to Florence, Masaccio was chiefly occupied in
painting in the church of the Carmine, and especially in that "Brancacci
Chapel" which he has rendered famous almost beyond rivalry in the annals
of painting.
The chapel, had been built early in the 15th century by Felice Michele
di Piuvichese Brancacci, a noble Florentine. Masaccio's work in it
began probably in 1423, and continued at intervals until he finally
quitted Florence in 1428. There is a whole library-shelf of discussion
as to what particular things were done by Masaccio and what by
Masolino, and long afterwards by Filippino Lippi, in the Brancacci
Chapel, and also as to certain other paintings by Masaccio in the
Carmine. He began with a trial piece, a majestic figure of St Paul,
not in the chapel; this has perished. A monochrome of the Procession
for the Consecration of the Chapel, regarded as a wonderful example,
for that early period, of perspective and of grouping, has also
disappeared; it contains portraits of Brunelleschi, Donatello and many
others. In the cloister of the Carmine was discovered in recent years
a portion of a fresco by Masaccio representing a procession; but this,
being in colours and not in monochrome, does not appear to be the
Brancacci procession. As regards the works in the Brancacci chapel
itself, the prevalent opinion now is that Masolino, who used to be
credited with a considerable portion of them, did either nothing, or
at most the solitary compartment which represents St Peter restoring
Tabitha to life, and the same saint healing a cripple. The share which
Filippino Lippi bore in the work admits of little doubt; to him are
due various items on which the fame of Masaccio used principally to be
based--as for instance the figure of St Paul addressing Peter in
prison, which Raphael partly appropriated; and hence it may be
observed that an eloquent and often-quoted outpouring of Sir Joshua
Reynolds in praise of Masaccio ought in great part to be transferred
to Filippino. What Masaccio really painted in the chapel appears with
tolerable certainty to be as follows, and is ample enough to sustain
the high reputation he has always enjoyed:--(1) The "Temptation of
Adam and Eve"; (2) "Peter and the Tribute-Money"; (3) The "Expulsion
from Eden"; (4) "Peter Preaching"; (5) "Peter Baptizing"; (6) "Peter
Almsgiving"; (7) "Peter and John curing the Sick"; (8) "Peter
restoring to Life the Son of King Theophilus of Antioch" was begun by
Masaccio, including the separate incident of "Peter Enthroned," but a
large proportion is by Filippino; (9) the double subject already
allotted to Masolino may perhaps be by Masaccio, and in that case it
must have been one of the first in order of execution. A few words may
be given to these pictures individually. (1) The "Temptation" shows a
degree of appreciation of nude form, corresponding to the feeling of
the antique, such as was at that date unexampled in painting. (2) The
"Tribute-Money," a full, harmonious and expressive composition,
contains a head reputed to be the portrait of Masaccio himself--one of
the apostles, with full locks, a solid resolute countenance and a
pointed beard. (3) The "Expulsion" was so much admired by Raphael
that, with comparatively slight modifications, he adopted it as his
own in one of the subjects of the Logge of the Vatican. (5) "Peter
Baptizing" contains some nude figures of strong naturalistic design;
that of the young man, prepared for the baptismal ceremony, who stands
half-shivering in the raw air, has always been a popular favourite and
an object of artistic study. (8) The restoration of the young man to
life has been open to much discussion as to what precise subject was
in view, but the most probable opinion is that the legend of King
Theophilus was intended.
In 1427 Masaccio was living in Florence with his mother, then for the
second time a widow, and with his younger brother Giovanni, a painter of
no distinction; he possessed nothing but debts. In 1428 he was working,
as we have seen, in the Brancacci chapel. Before the end of that year he
disappeared from Florence, going, as it would appear, to Rome, to evade
the importunities of creditors. Immediately afterwards, in 1429, when
his age was twenty-seven or twenty-eight, he was reported dead.
Poisoning by jealous rivals in art was rumoured, but of this nothing is
known. The statement that several years afterwards, in 1443, he was
buried in the Florentine Church of the Carmine, without any monument,
seems to be improbable, and to depend upon a confused account of the
dates, which have now, after long causing much bewilderment, been
satisfactorily cleared up from extant documents.
It has been said that Masaccio introduced into painting the plastic
boldness of Donatello, and carried out the linear perspective of Paolo
Uccello and Brunelleschi (who had given him practical instruction), and
he was also the first painter who made some considerable advance in
atmospheric perspective. He was the first to make the architectural
framework of his pictures correspond in a reasonable way to the
proportions of the figures. In the Brancacci chapel he painted with
extraordinary swiftness. The contours of the feet and articulations in
his pictures are imperfect; and his most prominent device for giving
roundness to the figures (a point in which he made a great advance upon
his predecessors) was a somewhat mannered way of putting the high lights
upon the edges. His draperies were broad and easy, and his landscape
details natural, and superior to his age. In fact, he led the way in
representing the objects of nature correctly, with action, liveliness
and relief. Soon after his death, his work was recognized at its right
value, and led to notable advances; and all the greatest artists of
Italy, through studying the Brancacci chapel, became his champions and
disciples.
Of the works attributed to Masaccio in public or private galleries
hardly any are authentic. The one in the Florentine Academy, the
"Virgin and Child in the Lap of St Anna," is an exception. The
so-called portrait of Masaccio in the Uffizi Gallery is more probably
Filippino Lippi; and Filippino, or Botticelli, may be the real author
of the head, at first termed a Masaccio, in the National Gallery,
London.
An early work on Masaccio was that of T. Patch, _Life with Engravings_
(Florence, 1770-1772). See Layard, _The Brancacci Chapel_, &c. (1868);
H. Eckstein, _Life of Masaccio, Giotto_, &c. (1882); Charles Yriarte,
_Tommaso dei Guidi_ (1894). (W. M. R.)
MASAI, an Eastern Equatorial African people of Negro-Hamitic stock,
speaking a Nilotic language. The Hamitic element, which is not great,
has probably been derived from the Galla. The Masai were probably
isolated in the high mountains or plateaus which lie between the Nile
and the Karamojo country. There they originally had their home, and
there to-day the Latuka, who show affinities with them, still live.
Famine or inter-tribal wars drove the Masai in the direction of Mount
Elgon and Lake Rudolf. After a long settlement there they split into two
groups, the Masai proper and the Wa-Kuafi or agricultural Masai, and
this at no very remote date, as the two tribes speak practically the
same language. The more powerful Masai were purely nomadic and pastoral,
their wealth consisting in enormous herds. The Wa-Kuafi, losing their
cattle to their stronger kinsmen, split up again into the Burkeneji, the
Gwas Ngishu, and the Nyarusi (Enjamusi) and settled as agriculturists.
Meantime the Masai became masters of the greater part of inner East
Africa from Ugogo and the Unyamwezi countries on the south and west to
Mount Kenya and Galla-land on the north, and eastward to the
hundred-mile strip of more or less settled Bantu country on the coast of
the Indian Ocean.
The Masai physical type is slender, but among the finest in Africa. A
tall, well-made people, the men are often well over six feet, with slim
wiry figures, chocolate-coloured, with eyes often slightly oblique like
the Mongolians, but the nose especially being often almost Caucasian in
type, with well formed bridge and finely cut nostrils. Almost all the
men and women knock out the two lower incisor teeth. For this custom
they give the curious explanation that lockjaw was once very common in
Masai-land, and that it was found to be easy to feed the sufferer
through the gap thus made. All the hair on the body of both sexes is
pulled out with iron tweezers; a Masai with a moustache or beard is
unknown. The hair of the head is shaved in women and married men; but
the hair of a youth at puberty is allowed to grow till it is long enough
to have thin strips of leather plaited into it. In this way the hair,
after a coating of red clay and mutton fat, is made into pigtails, the
largest of which hangs down the back, another over the forehead, and one
on each side. The warriors smear their whole bodies with the clay and
fat, mixed in equal proportion.
No tattooing or scarring is performed on the men, but Sir Harry
Johnston noticed women with parallel lines burnt into the skin round
the eyes. In both sexes the lobes of the ears are distended into great
loops, through holes in which large disks of wood are thrust. Bead
necklaces, bead and wood armlets are worn by men, and before marriage
the Masai girl has thick iron wire wound round her legs so tightly as
to check the calf development. The women wear dressed hides or calico;
the old men wear a skin or cloth cape. The warriors wind red calico
round their waists, a circle of ostrich feathers round their face (or
a cap of lion or colobus skin) and fringes of long white fur round the
knee. Masai houses are of two kinds. The agricultural tribes build
round huts with walls of reeds or sticks, and conical, grass-thatched
roofs. The true Masai nomads, however, have houses unlike those of any
other neighbouring negro tribe. Long, low (not more than 6 ft. high),
flat-roofed, they are built on a framework of sticks with strong
partitions dividing the structure into separate compartments, each a
dwelling, with low, oblong door. Mud and cow-dung are plastered on to
the brushwood used in the roofing. Beds are made of brushwood neatly
stacked and covered with hides. The fireplace is a circle of stones.
The only furniture, besides cooking-pots, consists of long gourds used
as milkcans, half-gourds as cups, and small three-legged stools cut
out of a single block of wood and used by the elder men to sit on.
The Masai are not hunters of big game except lions, but they eat the
eland and kudu. The domestic animals are cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys
and dogs. Only women and the married men smoke. The dead are
ordinarily not buried, but the bodies are carried a short distance
from the village and left on the ground to be devoured by hyenas,
jackals and vultures. Important chiefs are buried, however, and a year
later the eldest son or successor recovers the skull, which is
treasured as a charm. The medicine men of Masai are often the chiefs,
and the supreme chief is almost always a medicine man.
The Masai believe in a nature-god as a supreme being--Ngai
("sky")--and his aid is invoked in cases of drought by a ceremonial
chant of the children, standing in a circle after sunset, each with a
bunch of grass in its hand. They have creation-myths involving four
gods, the black, white, grey and red deities. They believe there is no
future for women or common people, but that such distinction is
reserved for chiefs. Pythons and a species of snake are revered as the
reincarnated forms of their more celebrated ancestors. A kind of
worship is paid to the hyena in some districts: the whole tribe going
into mourning if the beast crosses their path. The Masai also have a
vague tree-worship, and grass is a sacred symbol. When making peace a
tuft is held in the right hand, and when the warriors start out on a
raid their sweethearts throw grass after them or lay it in the forks
of trees. But the oddest of their superstitious customs is the
importance attached to spitting. To spit upon a person or thing is
regarded as a sign of reverence and goodwill, as among other Nilotic
tribes. Newly born children are spat on by every one who sees them.
Johnston states that every Masai before extending his hand to him spat
on it first. They spit when they meet and when they part, and bargains
are sealed in this way. Joseph Thomson writes, "being regarded as a
wizard of the first water, the Masai flocked to me ... and the more
copiously I spat on them the greater was their delight." The Masai has
no love for work, and practises no industries. The women attend to his
personal needs; and trades such as smelting and forging are left to
enslaved tribes such as the Dorobo (Wandorobo). These manufacture
spears with long blades and butts and the peculiar swords or _simés_
like long slender leaves, very narrow towards the hilt and broad at
the point. Most of the Masai live in the British East Africa
Protectorate.
See A. C. Hollis, _The Masai, their Language and Folklore_ (1905); M.
Merker, _Die Nasai_ (1904); Sir H. H. Johnston, _Kilimanjaro
Expedition_ (1886) and _Uganda Protectorate_ (1902); Joseph Thomson,
_Through Masai-land_ (1885); O. Baumann, _Durch Massai-land zur
Nilquelle_ (1894); F. Kallenberg, _Auf dem Kriegspfad gegen die
Massai_ (1892).
MASANIELLO, an abbreviation of TOMMASO ANIELLO (1622-1647), an Amalfi
fisherman, who became leader of the revolt against Spanish rule in
Naples in 1647. Misgovernment and fiscal oppression having aroused much
discontent throughout the two Sicilies, a revolt broke out at Palermo in
May 1647, and the people of Naples followed the example of the
Sicilians. The immediate occasion of the latter rising was a new tax on
fruit, the ordinary food of the poor, and the chief instigator of the
movement was Masaniello, who took command of the malcontents. The
outbreak began on the 7th of July 1647 with a riot at the city gates
between the fruit-vendors of the environs and the customs officers; the
latter were forced to flee, and the customs office was burnt. The
rioters then poured into Naples and forced their way into the palace of
the viceroy, the hated Count d'Arcos, who had to take refuge first in a
neighbouring convent, then in Castel Sant' Elmo, and finally in
Castelnuovo. Masaniello attempted to discipline the mob and restrain its
vandalic instincts, and to some extent he succeeded; attired in his
fisherman's garb, he gave audiences and administered justice from a
wooden scaffolding outside his house. Several rioters, including the
duke of Maddaloni, an opponent of the viceroy, and his brother Giuseppe
Caraffa, who had come to Naples to make trouble, were condemned to death
by him and executed. The mob, which every day obtained more arms and was
becoming more intractable, terrorized the city, drove off the troops
summoned from outside, and elected Masaniello "captain-general"; the
revolt was even spreading to the provinces. Finally, the viceroy, whose
negotiations with Masaniello had been frequently interrupted by fresh
tumults, ended by granting all the concessions demanded of him. On the
13th of July, through the mediation of Cardinal Filomarino, archbishop
of Naples, a convention was signed between D'Arcos and Masaniello as
"leader of the most faithful people of Naples," by which the rebels were
pardoned, the more oppressive taxes removed, and the citizens granted
certain rights, including that of remaining in arms until the treaty
should have been ratified by the king of Spain. The astute D'Arcos then
invited Masaniello to the palace, confirmed his title of
"captain-general of the Neapolitan people," gave him a gold chain of
office, and offered him a pension. Masaniello refused the pension and
laid down his dignities, saying that he wished to return to his old life
as a fisherman; but he was entertained by the viceroy and, partly owing
to the strain and excitement of the past days, partly because he was
made dizzy by his astonishing change of fortune, or perhaps, as it was
believed, because he was poisoned, he lost his head and behaved like a
frenzied maniac. The people continued to obey him for some days, until,
abandoned by his best friends, who went over to the Spanish party, he
was murdered while haranguing a mob on the market-place on the 16th of
July 1647; his head was cut off and brought by a band of roughs to the
viceroy and the body buried outside the city. But the next day the
populace, angered by the alteration of the measures for weighing bread,
repented of its insane fury; the body of Masaniello was dug up and given
a splendid funeral, at which the viceroy himself was represented.
Masaniello's insurrection appealed to the imagination of poets and
composers, and formed the subject of several operas, of which the most
famous is Auber's La Muelle de Portici (1828).
See Saavedra, _Insurreccion de Napoli en 1647_ (2 vols., Madrid,
1849); A. von Reumont, _Die Caraffa von Maddaloni_ (2 vols., Berlin,
1849); Capasso, _La Casa e famiglia di Masaniello_ (Naples, 1893); V.
Spinazzola, _Masaniello e la sua famiglia, secondo un codice bolognese
del sec. xvi_. (in the review Flegrea, 1900); A. G. Meissner,
_Masaniello_ (in German); E. Bourg, _Masaniello_ (in French); F.
Palermo, _Documenti diversi sulle novità accadute in Napoli l'anno
1647_ (in the _Archivio storico italiano_, 1st series, vol. ix.). See
also NAPLES.
MASAYA, the capital of the department of Masaya, Nicaragua, 13 m. W.N.W.
of Lake Nicaragua and the city of Granada, on the eastern shore of Lake
Masaya, and on the Granada-Managua railway. Pop. (1905), about 20,000.
The city is built in the midst of a very fertile lowland region, which
yields large quantities of tobacco. The majority of the inhabitants are
Indians or half-castes. Lake Masaya occupies an extinct crater; the
isolated volcano of Masaya (3000 ft.) on the opposite side of the lake
was active at the time of the conquest of Nicaragua in 1522, and the
conquerors, thinking the lava they saw was gold, had themselves lowered
into the crater at the risk of their lives. The volcano was in eruption
in 1670, 1782, 1857 and 1902.
MASCAGNI, PIETRO (1863- ), Italian operatic composer, was born at
Leghorn, the son of a baker, and educated for the law; but he neglected
his legal studies for music, taking secret lessons at the Instituto
Luigi Cherubini. There a symphony by him was performed in 1879, and
various other compositions attracted attention, so that money was
provided by a wealthy amateur for him to study at the Milan
Conservatoire. But Mascagni chafed at the teaching, and soon left Milan
to become conductor to a touring operatic company. After a somewhat
chequered period he suddenly leapt into fame by the production at Rome
in 1890 of his one-act opera _Cavalleria Rusticana_, containing a
tuneful "intermezzo," which became wildly popular. Mascagni was the
musical hero of the hour, and _Cavalleria Rusticana_ was performed
everywhere. But his later work failed to repeat this success. _L'Amico
Fritz_ (1891), _I Rantzau_ (1892), _Guglielmo Ratcliff_ (1895),
_Silvano_ (1895), _Zanetto_ (1896), _Iris_ (1898), _Le Maschere_ (1901),
and _Amica_ (1905), were coldly or adversely received; and though
_Cavalleria Rusticana_, with its catchy melodies, still held the stage,
this succession of failures involved a steady decline in the composer's
reputation. From 1895 to 1903 Mascagni was director of the Pesaro
Conservatoire, but in the latter year, having left his post in order to
tour through the United States, he was dismissed from the appointment.
MASCARA, chief town of an arrondissement in the department of Oran,
Algeria, 60 m. S.E. of Oran. It lies 1800 ft. above the sea, on the
southern slope of a range forming part of the Little Atlas Mountains,
and occupies two small hills separated by the Wad Tudman, which is
crossed by three stone bridges. The walls, upwards of two miles in
circuit, and strengthened by bastions and towers, give the place a
somewhat imposing appearance. Mascara is a town of the French colonial
type, few vestiges of the Moorish period remaining. Among the public
buildings are two mosques, in one of which Abd-el-Kader preached the
_jihad_. The town also contains the usual establishments attaching to
the seat of a sub-prefect and the centre of a military subdivision. The
principal industry is the making of wine, the white wines of Mascara
being held in high repute. There is also a considerable trade in grains
and oil. A branch railway eight miles long connects Mascara with the
line from the seaport of Arzeu to Ain Sefra. Access is also gained by
this line to Oran, Algiers, &c. Pop. (1906) of the town, 18,989; of the
commune, which includes several villages, 22,934; of the arrondissement,
comprising eleven communes, 190,154.
Mascara (i.e. "mother of soldiers") was the capital of a Turkish
beylik during the Spanish occupation of Oran from the 16th to the
close of the 18th century; but for the most of that period it occupied
a site about two miles distant from the present position. On the
removal of the bey to Oran its importance rapidly declined; and it was
an insignificant place when in 1832 Abd-el-Kader, who was born in the
neighbourhood, chose it as the seat of his power. It was laid in ruins
by the French under Marshal Clausel and the duke of Orleans in 1835,
the amir retreating south. Being reoccupied by Abd-el-Kader in 1838,
Mascara was again captured in 1841 by Marshal Bugeaud and General
Lamoricière.
MASCARENE ISLANDS (occasionally MASCARENHAS), the collective title of a
group in the Indian Ocean cast of Madagascar, viz. Mauritius, Réunion
and Rodriguez (q.v.). The collective title is derived from the
Portuguese navigator Mascarenhas, by whom Réunion, at first called
Mascarenhas, was discovered.
MASCARON, JULES (1634-1703), French preacher, was the son of a barrister
at Aix. Born at Marseilles in 1634, he early entered the French Oratory,
and obtained great reputation as a preacher. Paris confirmed the
judgment of the provinces; in 1666 he was asked to preach before the
court, and became a great favourite with Louis XIV., who said that his
eloquence was one of the few things that never grew old. In 1671 he was
appointed bishop of Tulle; eight years later he was transferred to the
larger diocese of Agen. He still continued, however, to preach regularly
at court, being especially in request for funeral orations. A panegyric
on Turenne, delivered in 1675, is considered his masterpiece. His style
is strongly tinged with _préciosité_; and his chief surviving interest
is as a glaring example of the evils from which Bossuet delivered the
French pulpit. During his later years he devoted himself entirely to his
pastoral duties at Agen, where he died in 1703.
Six of his most famous sermons were edited, with a biographical sketch
of their author, by the Oratorian Borde in 1704.
MASCHERONI, LORENZO (1750-1800), Italian geometer, was professor of
mathematics at the university of Pavia, and published a variety of
mathematical works, the best known of which is his _Geometria del
compasso_ (Pavia, 1797), a collection of geometrical constructions in
which the use of the circle alone is postulated. Many of the solutions
are most ingenious, and some of the constructions of considerable
practical importance.
There is a French translation by A. M. Carette (Paris, 1798), who also
wrote a biography of Mascheroni. See Poggendorff, _Biog. Lit.
Handwörterbuch_.
MASCOT (Fr. slang: perhaps from Port. _mascotto_, "witchcraft"), the
term for any person, animal, or thing supposed to bring luck. The word
was first popularized by Edmond Audran through his comic opera _La
Mascotte_ (1880), but it had been common in France long before among
gamblers. It has been traced back to a dialectic use in Provence and
Gascony, where it meant something which brought luck to a household. The
suggestion that it is from _masqué_ (masked or concealed), the
provincial French for a child born with a caul, in allusion to the lucky
destiny of such children, is improbable.
MASDEU, JUAN FRANCISCO (1744-1817), Spanish historian, was born at
Palermo on the 4th of October 1744. He joined the Company of Jesus on
the 19th of December 1759, and became professor in the Jesuit seminaries
at Ferrara and Ascoli. He visited Spain in 1799, was exiled, and
returned in 1815, dying at Valencia on the 11th of April 1817. His
_Storia critica di Spagna e della cultura spagnuola in ogni genere_ (2
vols., 1781-1784) was finally expanded into the _Historia critica de
España y de la cultura española_ (1783-1805), which, though it consists
of twenty volumes, was left unfinished; had it been continued on the
same scale, the work would have consisted of fifty volumes. Masdeu wrote
in a critical spirit and with a regard for accuracy rare in his time;
but he is more concerned with small details than with the philosophy of
history. Still, his narrative is lucid, and later researches have not
yet rendered his work obsolete.
MASERU, the capital of Basutoland, British South Africa. It is
pleasantly situated on the left bank of the Caledon river, 90 m. by rail
E. by S. of Bloemfontein, and 40 m. N.E. of Wepener. It is in the centre
of a fertile grain-growing district. Pop. (1904), 862, of whom 99 were
Europeans. The principal buildings are Government House, the church of
the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society, the hospital, and the railway
station. (See BASUTOLAND.)
MASHAM, ABIGAIL, LADY (d. 1734), favourite of Anne, queen of England,
was the daughter of Francis Hill, a London merchant, her mother being an
aunt of Sarah Jennings, duchess of Marlborough. The family being reduced
to poor circumstances through Hill's speculations, Lady Churchill (as
she then was), lady of the bedchamber to the Princess Anne, befriended
her cousin Abigail, whom she took into her own household at St Albans,
and for whom after the accession of the princess to the throne she
procured an appointment in the queen's household about the year 1704. It
was not long before Abigail Hill began to supplant her powerful and
imperious kinswoman in the favour of Queen Anne. Whether she was guilty
of the deliberate ingratitude charged against her by the duchess of
Marlborough is uncertain. It is not unlikely that, in the first instance
at all events, Abigail's influence over the queen was not so much due to
subtle scheming on her part as to the pleasing contrast between her
gentle and genial character and the dictatorial temper of the duchess,
which after many years of undisputed sway had at last become intolerable
to Anne. The first intimation of her protégé's growing favour with the
queen came to the duchess in the summer of 1707, when she learned that
Abigail Hill had been privately married to a gentleman of the queen's
household named Samuel Masham, and that the queen herself had been
present at the marriage. Inquiry then elicited the information that
Abigail had for some time enjoyed considerable intimacy with her royal
mistress, no hint of which had previously reached the duchess. Abigail
was said to be a cousin of Robert Harley, earl of Oxford, and after the
latter's dismissal from office in February 1708 she assisted him in
maintaining confidential relations with the queen. The completeness of
her ascendancy was seen in 1710 when the queen compelled Marlborough,
much against his will, to give an important command to Colonel John
Hill, Abigail's brother; and when Sunderland, Godolphin, and the other
Whig ministers were dismissed from office, largely owing to her
influence, to make way for Oxford and Bolingbroke. In the following year
the duchess of Marlborough was also dismissed from her appointment at
court, Mrs Masham taking her place as keeper of the privy purse. In 1711
the ministers, intent on bringing about the disgrace of Marlborough and
arranging the Peace of Utrecht, found it necessary to secure their
position in the House of Lords by creating twelve new peers; one of
these was Samuel Masham, the favourite's husband, though Anne showed
some reluctance to raise her bedchamber woman to a position in which she
might show herself less ready to give her personal services to the
queen. Lady Masham soon quarrelled with Oxford, and set herself to
foster by all the means in her power the queen's growing personal
distaste for her minister. Oxford's vacillation between the Jacobites
and the adherents of the Hanoverian succession to the Crown probably
strengthened the opposition of Lady Masham, who now warmly favoured the
Jacobite party led by Bolingbroke and Atterbury. Altercations took place
in the queen's presence between Lady Masham and the minister; and
finally, on the 27th of July 1714, Anne dismissed Oxford from his office
of lord high treasurer, and three days later gave the staff to the duke
of Shrewsbury. Anne died on the 1st of August, and Lady Masham then
retired into private life. She died on the 6th of December 1734.
Lady Masham was by no means the vulgar, ill-educated person she was
represented to have been by her defeated rival, the duchess of
Marlborough; her extant letters, showing not a little refinement of
literary style, prove the reverse. Swift, with whom both she and her
husband were intimate, describes Lady Masham as "a person of a plain
sound understanding, of great truth and sincerity, without the least
mixture of falsehood or disguise." The barony of Masham became extinct
when Lady Masham's son, Samuel, the 2nd baron, died in June 1776.
AUTHORITIES.--Gilbert Burnet, _History of My Own Time_, vol. vi. (2nd
ed., 6 vols., Oxford, 1833); F. W. Wyon, _History of Great Britain
during the Reign of Queen Anne_ (2 vols., London, 1876); Earl
Stanhope, _History of England, comprising the Reign of Queen Anne
until the Peace of Utrecht_ (London, 1870), and _History of England
from the Peace of Utrecht_, vol. i. (7 vols., London, 1836-1854);
Justin McCarthy, _The Reign of Queen Anne_ (2 vols., London, 1902);
_An Account of the Conduct of the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough from
first coming to Court to 1710_, edited by Nathaniel Hooke, with an
anonymous reply entitled _A Review of a Late Treatise_ (London, 1842);
_Private Correspondence of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough_ (2 vols.,
London, 1838); _Letters of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough_ (London,
1875); Mrs Arthur Colville, _Duchess Sarah_ (London, 1904). Numerous
references to Lady Masham will also be found scattered through Swift's
_Works_ (2nd ed., 19 vols., Edinburgh, 1824). (R. J. M.)
MASHAM, SAMUEL CUNLIFFE LISTER, 1ST BARON (1815-1906), English inventor,
born at Calverley Hall, near Bradford, on the 1st of January 1815, was
the fourth son of Ellis Cunliffe (1774-1853), who successively took the
names of Lister and Lister-Kay, and was the first member of parliament
elected for Bradford after the Reform Act of 1832. It was at first
proposed that he should take orders, but he preferred a business career
and became a clerk at Liverpool. In 1838 he and his elder brother John
started as worsted spinners and manufacturers in a new mill which their
father built for them at Manningham, and about five years later he
turned his attention to the problem of mechanical wool-combing, which,
in spite of the efforts of E. Cartwright and numerous other inventors,
still awaited a satisfactory solution. Two years of hard work spent in
modifying and improving existing devices enabled him to produce a
machine which worked well, and subsequently he consolidated his position
by buying up rival patents, as well as by taking out additional ones of
his own. His combing machines came into such demand that though they
were made for only £200 apiece he was able to sell them for £1200, and
the saving they effected in the cost of production not only brought
about a reduction in the price of clothing, but in consequence of the
increase in the sales created the necessity for new supplies of wool,
and thus contributed to the development of Australian sheep-farming. In
1855 he was sent a sample of silk waste (the refuse left in reeling silk
from the cocoons) and asked whether he could find a way of utilizing the
fibre it contained. The task occupied his time for many years and
brought him to the verge of bankruptcy, but at last he succeeded in
perfecting silk-combing appliances which enabled him to make yarn that
in one year sold for 23s. a pound, though produced from raw material
costing only 6d. or 1s. a pound. Another important and lucrative
invention in connexion with silk manufacture was his velvet loom for
piled fabrics; and this, with the silk comb worked at his Manningham
mill, yielded him an annual income of £200,000 for many years. But the
business was seriously affected by the prohibitory duties imposed by
America, and this was one reason why he was an early and determined
critic of the British policy of free imports. In 1891 he was made a
peer; he took his title from the little Yorkshire town of Masham, close
to which is Swinton Park, purchased by him in 1888. In 1886 an Albert
medal was awarded him for his inventions, which were mostly related to
the textile industries, though he occasionally diverged to other
subjects, such as an air-brake for railways. He was fond of outdoor
sports, especially coursing and shooting, and was a keen patron of the
fine arts. He died at Swinton Park on the 2nd of February 1906, and was
succeeded in the title by his son.
MASHONA, a Bantu-negro people, inhabitants of Mashonaland, Southern
Rhodesia. The name Mashona has been derived from the contemptuous term
_Amashuina_ applied by the Matabele to the aborigines owing to the habit
of the latter of taking refuge in the rocky hills with which the country
abounds. Before the Matabele invasion about 1840 most of Southern
Rhodesia was occupied by the Makalanga, the Makorikori and the Banyai,
all closely related. Most of them became subject to the Matabele, but
although they suffered severely from their attacks, the Mashona
preserved a certain national unity. In 1890 the Mashona came under
British protection (see RHODESIA). They are in general a peaceful,
mild-mannered people, industrious and successful farmers, skilful
potters, and weavers of bark cloth.
The crafts, however, in which they excel are the smelting and forging of
iron and wood-carving. They are also great hunters; and they are very
fond of music, the most usual instrument being the "piano" with iron
keys. Bows and arrows, assegais and axes are the native weapons, but all
who can get them now use guns. Up to their conquest by the Matabele the
Mashona worked the gold diggings which are scattered over their country;
indeed as late as 1870 certain Mashona were still extracting gold from
quartz (_Geog. Jour._ April 1906).
For the possible connexion of these people with the builders of the
ruins at Zimbabwe and elsewhere, see RHODESIA: _Archaeology_; and
ZIMBABWE.
MASK (Fr. _masque_, apparently from med. Lat. _mascus, masca_, spectre,
through Ital. _maschera_, Span. _mascara_), a covering for the face,
taking various forms, used either as a protective screen or as a
disguise. In the latter sense masks are mostly associated with the
artificial faces worn by actors in dramatic representations, or assumed
for exciting terror (e.g. in savage rites). The spelling "masque,"
representing the same word, is now in English used more specially for
certain varieties of drama in which masks were originally worn (see
DRAMA); so also "masquerade," particularly in the sense of a masked ball
or an entertainment where the personages arc disguised. Both "mask" and
"masquerade" have naturally passed into figurative and technical
meanings, the former especially for various senses of face and head
(head of a fox, grotesque faces in sculpture), or as equivalent to
"cloak" or "screen" (as in fortification or other military uses,
fencing, &c.). And in the case of "death-masks" the term is employed for
the portrait-casts, generally of plaster or metallic foil, taken from
the face of a dead person (also similarly from the living), an ancient
practice of considerable interest in art. An interesting collection made
by Laurence Hutton (see his _Portraits in Plaster_, 1894), is at
Princeton University in the United States. (For the historical mystery
of the "man in the iron mask," see IRON MASK.)
The ancient Greek and Roman masks worn by their actors--hollow figures
of heads--had the double object of identifying the performers with the
characters assumed, and of increasing the power of the voice by means of
metallic mouthpieces. They were derived like the drama from the rural
religious festivities, the wearing of mock faces or beards being a
primitive custom, connected no doubt with many early types of folk-lore
and religion. The use of the dramatic mask was evolved in the later
theatre through the mimes and the Italian popular comedy into pantomime;
and the masquerade similarly came from Italy, where the _domino_ was
introduced from Venice. The _domino_ (originally apparently an
ecclesiastical garment) was a loose cloak with a small half-mask worn at
masquerades and costume-balls by persons not otherwise dressed in
character; and the word is applied also to the person wearing it.
See generally Altmann, _Die Masken der Schauspieler_ (1875; new ed.,
1896); and Dale, _Masks, Labrets and Certain Aboriginal Customs_
(1885); also DRAMA.
MASKELYNE, NEVIL (1732-1811), English astronomer-royal, was born in
London on the 6th of October 1732. The solar eclipse of 1748 made a
deep impression upon him; and having graduated as seventh wrangler from
Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1754, he determined to devote himself
wholly to astronomy. He became intimate with James Bradley in 1755, and
in 1761 was deputed by the Royal Society to make observations of the
transit of Venus at St Helena. During the voyage he experimented upon
the determination of longitude by lunar distances, and ultimately
effected the introduction of the method into navigation (q.v.). In 1765
he succeeded Nathaniel Bliss as astronomer-royal. Having energetically
discharged the duties of his office during forty-six years, he died on
the 9th of February 1811.
Maskelyne's first contribution to astronomical literature was "A
Proposal for Discovering the Annual Parallax of Sirius," published in
1760 (_Phil. Trans._ li. 889). Subsequent volumes of the same series
contained his observations of the transits of Venus (1761 and 1769),
on the tides at St Helena (1762), and on various astronomical
phenomena at St Helena (1764) and at Barbados (1764). In 1763 he
published the _British Mariner's Guide_, which includes the suggestion
that in order to facilitate the finding of longitude at sea lunar
distances should be calculated beforehand for each year and published
in a form accessible to navigators. This important proposal, the germ
of the _Nautical Almanac_, was approved of by the government, and
under the care of Maskelyne the _Nautical Almanac_ for 1767 was
published in 1766. He continued during the remainder of his life the
superintendence of this invaluable annual. He further induced the
government to print his observations annually, thereby securing the
prompt dissemination of a large mass of data inestimable from their
continuity and accuracy. Maskelyne had but one assistant, yet the work
of the observatory was perfectly organized and methodically executed.
He introduced several practical improvements, such as the measurement
of time to tenths of a second; and he prevailed upon the government to
replace Bird's mural quadrant by a repeating circle 6 ft. in diameter.
The new instrument was constructed by E. Troughton; but Maskelyne did
not live to see it completed. In 1772 he suggested to the Royal
Society the famous Schehallion experiment for the determination of the
earth's density and carried out his plan in 1774 (_Phil. Trans._ 1.
495), the apparent difference of latitude between two stations on
opposite sides of the mountain being compared with the real difference
of latitude obtained by triangulation. From Maskelyne's observations
Charles Hutton deduced a density for the earth 4.5 times that of water
(ib. lxviii. 782). Maskelyne also took a great interest in various
geodetical operations, notably the measurement of the length of a
degree of latitude in Maryland and Pennsylvania (ibid. lviii. 323),
executed by Mason and Dixon in 1766-1768, and later the determination
of the relative longitude of Greenwich and Paris (ib. lxxvii. 151). On
the French side the work was conducted by Count Cassini, Legendre, and
Méchain; on the English side by General Roy. This triangulation was
the beginning of the great trigonometrical survey which has since been
extended all over the country. His observations appeared in four large
folio volumes (1776-1811). Some of them were reprinted in S. Vince's
_Astronomy_ (vol. iii.). (A. M. C.)
MASOLINO DA PANICALE (1383-c. 1445), Florentine painter, was said to
have been born at Panicale di Valdelsa, near Florence. It is more
probable, however, that he was born in Florence itself, his father,
Cristoforo Fini, who was an "imbiancatore," or whitewasher, having been
domiciled in the Florentine quarter of S. Croce. There is reason to
believe that Tommaso, nicknamed Masolino, was a pupil of the painter
Starnina, and was principally influenced in style by Antonio Veneziano;
he may probably enough have become in the sequel the master of Masaccio.
He was born in 1383; he died later than 1429, perhaps as late as 1440 or
even 1447. Towards 1423 he entered the service of Filippo Scolari, the
Florentine-born _obergespann_ of Temeswar in Hungary, and stayed some
time in that country, returning towards 1427 to Italy. The only works
which can with certainty be assigned to him are a series of wall
paintings executed towards 1428, commissioned by Cardinal Branda
Castiglione, in the church of Castiglione d'Olona, not far from Milan,
and another series in the adjoining baptistery. The first set is signed
as painted by "Masolinus de Florentia." It was recovered in 1843 from a
coating of whitewash, considerably damaged; its subject matter is taken
from the lives of the Virgin and of SS Lawrence and Stephen. The series
in the baptistery relates to the life and death of John the Baptist. The
reputation of Masolino had previously rested almost entirely upon the
considerable share which he was supposed to have had in the celebrated
frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel, in the Church of the Carmine in
Florence; he was regarded as the precursor of Masaccio, and by many
years the predecessor of Filippino Lippi, in the execution of a large
proportion of these works. But from a comparison of the Castiglione with
the Brancacci frescoes, and from other data, it is very doubtful whether
Masolino had any hand at all in the latter series. Possibly he painted
in the Brancacci Chapel certain specified subjects which are now either
destroyed or worked over. Several paintings assigned to Masolino on the
authority of Vasari are now ascribed to Masaccio. (W. M. R.)
MASON, FRANCIS (1799-1874), American missionary, was born in York,
England, on the 2nd of April 1799. His grandfather, Francis Mason, was
the founder of the Baptist Society in York, and his father, a shoemaker
by trade, was a Baptist lay preacher there. After working with his
father as a shoemaker for several years, he emigrated in 1818 to the
United States, and in Massachusetts was licensed to preach as a Baptist
in 1827. In 1830 he was sent by the American Baptist Missionary
Convention to labour among the Karens in Burma. Besides conducting a
training college for native preachers and teachers at Tavoy, he
translated the Bible into the two principal dialects of the Karens, the
Sgaw and the Pwo (his translation being published in 1853), and Matthew,
Genesis, and the Psalms into the Bghai dialect. He also published _A
Pali Grammar on the Basis of Kachchayano, with Chrestomathy and
Vocabulary_ (1868). In 1852 he published a book of great value on the
fauna and flora of British Burma, of which an improved edition appeared
in 1860 under the title _Burmah, its People and Natural Productions_,
and a third edition (2 vols.) revised and enlarged by W. Theobald in
1882-1883. He died at Rangoon on the 3rd of March 1874.
See his autobiography, _The Story of a Working Man's Life, with
Sketches of Travel in Europe, Asia, Africa and America_ (New York,
1870).
MASON, GEORGE (1725-1792), American statesman, was born in Stafford
county (the part which is now Fairfax county), Virginia, in 1725. His
family was of Royalist descent and emigrated to America after the
execution of Charles I. His colonial ancestors held official positions
in the civil and military service of Virginia. Mason was a near
neighbour and a lifelong friend of George Washington, though in later
years they disagreed in politics. His large estates and high social
standing, together with his personal ability, gave Mason great influence
among the Virginia planters, and he became identified with many
enterprises, such as the organization of the Ohio Company and the
founding of Alexandria (1749). He was a member of the Virginia House of
Burgesses in 1759-1760. In 1769 he drew up for Washington a series of
non-importation resolutions, which were adopted by the Virginia
legislature. In July 1774 he wrote for a convention in Fairfax county a
series of resolutions known as the Fairfax Resolves, in which he
advocated a congress of the colonies and suggested non-intercourse with
Great Britain, a policy subsequently adopted by Virginia and later by
the Continental Congress. He was a member of the Virginia Committee of
Safety from August to December 1775, and of the Virginia Convention in
1775 and 1776; and in 1776 he drew up the Virginia Constitution and the
famous Bill of Rights, a radically democratic document which had great
influence on American political institutions. In 1780 he outlined the
plan which was subsequently adopted by Virginia for ceding to the
Federal government her claim to the "back lands," i.e. to territory
north and north-west of the Ohio river. From 1776 to 1788 he represented
Fairfax county in the Virginia Assembly. He was a member of the Virginia
House of Delegates in 1776-1780 and again in 1787-1788, and in 1787 was
a member of the convention that framed the Federal Constitution, and as
one of its ablest debaters took an active part in the work. Particularly
notable was his opposition to the compromises in regard to slavery and
the slave-trade. Indeed, like most of the prominent Virginians of the
time, Mason was strongly in favour of the gradual abolition of slavery.
He objected to the large and indefinite powers given by the completed
Constitution to Congress, so he joined with Patrick Henry in opposing
its ratification in the Virginia Convention (1788). Failing in this he
suggested amendments, the substance of several of which was afterwards
embodied in the present Bill of Rights. Declining an appointment as a
United States Senator from Virginia, he retired to his home, Gunston
Hall (built by him about 1758 and named after the family home in
Staffordshire, England), where he died on the 7th of October 1792. With
James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, Mason carried through the Virginia
legislature measures disestablishing the Episcopal Church and protecting
all forms of worship. In politics he was a radical republican, who
believed that local government should be kept strong and central
government weak; his democratic theories had much influence in Virginia
and other southern and western states.
See Kate Mason Rowland, _Life and Writings of George Mason_ (2 vols.,
New York, 1892).
MASON, GEORGE HEMMING (1818-1872), English painter, was born at Wetley
Abbey, the eldest son of a Staffordshire county gentleman. He was
educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, and studied for the
medical profession for five years under Dr Watt of that city. But all
his thoughts being given to art, he abandoned medicine in 1844 and
travelled for a time on the Continent, finally settling in Rome, where
he remained for some years and sought to make a living as an artist.
During this period he underwent many privations which permanently
affected his health; but he continued to labour assiduously, making
studies of the picturesque scenery that surrounded him, and with hardly
any instruction except that received from Nature and from the Italian
pictures he gradually acquired the painter's skill. At least two
important works are referable to this period: "Ploughing in the
Campagna," shown in the Royal Academy of 1857, and "In the Salt Marshes,
Campagna," exhibited in the following year. After Mason's return from
the continent, in 1858, when he settled at Wetley Abbey, he continued
for a while to paint Italian subjects from studies made during his stay
abroad, and then his art began to touch in a wonderfully tender and
poetic way the peasant life of England, especially of his native
Staffordshire, and the homely landscape in the midst of which that life
was set. The first picture of this class was "Wind on the Wold," and it
was followed--along with much else of admirable quality--by the
painter's three greatest works: The "Evening Hymn" (1868), a band of
Staffordshire mill-girls returning from their work; "Girls dancing by
the Sea" (1869); and the "Harvest Moon" (1872). He left Staffordshire in
1865 and went to live at Hammersmith; and he was elected an associate of
the Royal Academy in 1869. By that time he had fully established his
position as an artist of unusual power and individuality. Mason died on
the 22nd of October 1872. In his work he laboured under the double
disadvantage of feeble and uncertain health, and a want of thorough
art-training, so that his pictures were never produced easily, or
without strenuous and long-continued effort. His art is great in virtue
of the solemn pathos which pervades it, of the dignity and beauty in
rustic life which it reveals, of its keen perception of noble form and
graceful motion, and of rich effects of colour and subdued light. In
_motif_ and treatment it has something in common with the art of Millet
and Jules Breton, as with that of Frederick Walker among Englishmen;
though he had neither the occasional uncouth robustness of Millet nor
the firm actuality of Jules Breton. His pictures "Wind on the Wold" and
"The Cast Shoe" are in the National Gallery of British Art.
MASON, JAMES MURRAY (1798-1871), American political leader, was born in
Fairfax county, Virginia, on the 3rd of November 1798, the grandson of
George Mason (1723-1792). Educated at the university of Pennsylvania and
the college of William and Mary, he was admitted to the bar in 1820. He
was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1826-1827 and
1828-1831, of the state Constitutional Convention of 1829, of the
National House of Representatives (1837-1839), of the United States
Senate from 1847 until July 1861 (when, with other Southern senators he
was formally expelled--he had previously withdrawn), and of the Virginia
Secession Convention in April 1861. Entering politics as a Jacksonian
Democrat, Mason was throughout his career a consistent strict
constructionist, opposing protective tariffs, internal improvements by
the national government, and all attempts to restrict or control the
spread of slavery, which he sincerely believed to be essential to the
social and political welfare of the South. He was the author of the
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and in 1860 was chairman of the Senate
committee which investigated the John Brown raid. After Lincoln's
election as President he was one of the strongest advocates of secession
in Virginia. He was appointed in August 1861 commissioner of the
Confederate States to Great Britain. The British ship "Trent," upon
which he and John Slidell, the commissioner to France, sailed, was
intercepted (Nov. 8, 1861) by a United States ship-of-war (the "San
Jacinto," Captain Charles Wilkes), and the two commissioners were seized
and carried as prisoners to Boston. Great Britain immediately demanded
their release, and war for a time seemed imminent; but owing mainly to
the tactful diplomacy of the prince consort, Lincoln acknowledged that
the seizure of Mason and Slidell was a violation of the rights of Great
Britain as a neutral, and on the 1st of January 1862 released the
commissioners. The incident has become known in history as the "Trent
Affair." Mason at once proceeded to London, where, however, he was
unable to secure official recognition, and his commission to Great
Britain was withdrawn late in 1863. He remained in Europe, spending most
of his time at Paris and holding blank commissions which he was
authorized to fill in at his discretion in case the presence of a
Confederate commissioner should seem desirable at any particular
European court. These commissions, however, he did not use. After the
war he lived for several years in Canada, but returned in 1869 to
Virginia, and on the 28th of April 1871 died at Alexandria.
See _The Public Life and Diplomatic Correspondence of James M. Mason,
with some Personal History_ (Roanoke, Va., 1903), by his daughter,
Virginia Mason; Sir Theodore Martin, _Life of the Prince Consort_.
MASON, SIR JOHN (1503-1566), English diplomatist, was born of humble
parentage at Abingdon in 1503, and was educated at Oxford, where he
became Fellow of All Souls in 1521. He was ordained before 1531. Most of
his early years were spent on the Continent, where he witnessed the
meeting between Henry VIII. and Francis I. at Calais in 1532, and where
he was employed in collecting information for the English government,
gaining in this work the reputation of a capable diplomatist. By his
never-failing caution, moderation and pliancy, Mason succeeded in
keeping himself in favour with four successive sovereigns of the Tudor
monarchy. In 1537 he became secretary to the English ambassador at
Madrid, Sir Thomas Wyat; but when the latter was put on his trial for
treason in 1541 Mason was unmolested, and soon afterwards was appointed
clerk of the privy council, and procured for himself sundry other posts
and privileges. Mason was knighted and made dean of Winchester by Edward
VI. He was one of the commissioners to negotiate the treaty by which
Boulogne was restored to France in 1550, and in the same year he became
English ambassador in Paris, where he helped to arrange the bethrothal
of Edward VI. to the princess Elizabeth of France. He returned to
England at the end of 1551, became clerk of parliament, received
extensive grants of land, and in 1552 was made chancellor of Oxford
University. He was elected member of parliament in the same year. On the
death of Edward VI., he at first joined the party of Northumberland and
the Lady Jane Grey; but quickly perceiving his mistake he took an active
part in procuring the proclamation of Mary as queen. Mason now received
fresh tokens of royal favour, being confirmed in all his secular, though
not in his ecclesiastical, offices; and in 1553 he was appointed English
ambassador at the court of the emperor Charles V., of whose abdication
at Brussels in October 1555 he wrote a vivid account. He took a
prominent share in the administrative business of the government in the
first years of Elizabeth's reign, and largely influenced her foreign
policy until his death, which occurred on the 20th of April 1566. Sir
John Mason married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Isley of Sundridge,
Kent, and widow of Richard Hill. He had no children, and his heir was
Anthony Wyckes, whom he had adopted, and who assumed the name of Mason
and left a large family.
See J. A. Froude, _History of England_ (12 vols., London, 1856-1870);
Charles Wriothesley, _Chronicle of England during the Reigns of the
Tudors_, edited by W. D. Hamilton (Camden Soc., 2 vols., London,
1875); P. F. Tytler, _England under the Reigns of Edward VI. and Mary_
(2 vols., London, 1839); John Strype, _Ecclesiastical Memorials_ (3
vols., Oxford, 1824) and _Memorials of Thomas Cranmer_ (3 vols.,
Oxford, 1848); _Acts of the Privy Council of England_ (new series),
edited by J. R. Dasent, vols. i.-vii.
MASON, JOHN (1586-1635), founder of New Hampshire, U.S.A., was born in
King's Lynn, Norfolk, England. In 1610 he commanded a small naval force
sent by James I. to assist in subduing the Hebrides Islands. From 1615
to 1621 he was governor of the English colony on the north side of
Conception Bay in Newfoundland; he explored the island, made the first
English map of it (published in 1625), and wrote a descriptive tract
entitled _A Briefe Discourse of the Newfoundland_ (Edinburgh, 1620) to
promote the colonization of the island by Scotsmen. Here he was brought
into official relations with Sir Ferdinando Gorges, then a commissioner
to regulate the Newfoundland fisheries. In March 1622 Mason obtained
from the Council for New England, of which Gorges was the most
influential member, a grant of the territory (which he named Mariana)
between the Naumkeag or Salem river and the Merrimac, and in the
following August he and Gorges together received a grant of the region
between the Merrimac and Kennebec rivers, and extending 60 m. inland.
From 1625 to 1629 Mason was engaged as treasurer and paymaster of the
English army in the wars which England was waging against Spain and
France. Towards the close of 1629 Mason and Gorges agreed upon a
division of the territory held jointly by them, and on the 7th of
November 1629 Mason received from the Council a separate grant of the
tract between the Merrimac and the Piscataqua, which he now named New
Hampshire. Thinking that the Piscataqua river had its source in Lake
Champlain, Mason with Gorges and a few other associates secured, on the
17th of November 1629, a grant of a region which was named Laconia
(apparently from the number of lakes it was supposed to contain), and
was described as bordering on Lake Champlain, extending 10 m. east and
south from it and far to the west and north-west, together with 1000
acres to be located along some convenient harbour, presumably near the
mouth of the Piscataqua. In November 1631 Mason and his associates
obtained, under the name of the Pescataway Grant, a tract on both sides
of the Piscataqua river, extending 30 m. inland and including also the
Isles of Shoals. Mason became a member of the Council for New England in
June 1632, and its vice-president in the following November; and in
1635, when the members decided to divide their territory among
themselves and surrender their charter, he was allotted as his share all
the region between the Naumkeag and Piscataqua rivers extending 60 m.
inland, the southern half of the Isles of Shoals, and a ten-thousand
acre tract, called Masonia, on the west side of the Kennebec river. In
October 1635 he was appointed vice-admiral of New England, but he died
early in December, before crossing the Atlantic. He was buried in
Westminster Abbey. Forty-four years after his death New Hampshire was
made a royal province.
See _Captain John Mason, the Founder of New Hampshire_ (Boston, 1887;
published by the Prince Society), which contains a memoir by C. W.
Tuttle and historical papers relating to Mason's career, edited by J.
W. Dean.
MASON, JOHN YOUNG (1799-1859), American political leader and
diplomatist, was born in Greenesville county, Virginia, on the 18th of
April 1799. Graduating at the university of North Carolina in 1816, he
studied law in the famous Litchfield (Connecticut) law school, and in
1819 was admitted to practice in Southampton county, Virginia. He served
in the Virginia house of delegates in 1823-1827, in the state
constitutional convention of 1829-1830, and from 1831 to 1837 in the
National House of Representatives, being chairman of the committee on
foreign affairs in 1835-1836. He was secretary of the navy in President
Tyler's cabinet (1844-1845), and was attorney-general (1845-1846) and
secretary of the navy (1846-1849), succeeding George Bancroft, under
President Polk. He was president of the Virginia constitutional
convention of 1851, and from 1853 until his death at Paris on the 3rd of
October 1859, was United States minister to France. In this capacity he
attracted attention by wearing at the court of Napoleon III. a simple
diplomatic uniform (for this he was rebuked by Secretary of State W. L.
Marcy, who had ordered American ministers to wear a plain civilian
costume), and by joining with James Buchanan and Pierre Soulé, ministers
to Great Britain and Spain respectively, in drawing up (Oct. 1854) the
famous Ostend Manifesto. Hawthorne called him a "fat-brained,
good-hearted, sensible old man"; and in politics he was a typical
Virginian of the old school, a state's rights Democrat, upholding
slavery and hating abolitionism.
MASON, SIR JOSIAH (1795-1881), English pen-manufacturer, was born in
Kidderminster on the 23rd of February 1795, the son of a carpet-weaver.
He began life as a street hawker of cakes, fruits and vegetables. After
trying his hand in his native town at shoemaking, baking, carpentering,
blacksmithing, house-painting and carpet-weaving, he moved in 1814 to
Birmingham. Here he found employment in the gilt-toy trade. In 1824 he
set up on his own account as a manufacturer of split-rings by machinery,
to which he subsequently added the making of steel pens. Owing to the
circumstance of his pens being supplied through James Perry, the London
stationer whose name they bore, he was less well known than Joseph
Gillott and other makers, although he was really the largest producer in
England. In 1874 the business was converted into a limited liability
company. Besides his steel-pen trade Mason carried on for many years the
business of electro-plating, copper-smelting, and india-rubber ring
making, in conjunction with George R. Elkington. Mason was almost
entirely self-educated, having taught himself to write when a
shoemaker's apprentice, and in later life he felt his deficiencies
keenly. It was this which led him in 1860 to establish his great
orphanage at Erdington, near Birmingham. Upon it he expended about
£300,000, and for this munificent endowment he was knighted in 1872. He
had previously given a dispensary to his native town and an almshouse to
Erdington. In 1880 Mason College, since incorporated in the university
of Birmingham, was opened, the total value of the endowment being about
£250,000. Mason died on the 16th of June 1881.
See J. T. Bunce, _Josiah Mason_ (1882).
MASON, LOWELL (1792-1872), American musician, was born at Medfield,
Massachusetts. For some years he led a business life, but was always
studying music; and in 1827, as the result of his work in forming the
collection of church music published in 1821 at Boston by the Handel and
Haydn Society, he moved to Boston and there first became president of
the society and then founder of the Boston Academy of Music (1832). He
published some successful educational books, and was a pioneer of
musical instruction in the public schools, adopted in 1838. He received
the degree of doctor of music from New York University in 1855. He died
at Orange, New Jersey, on the 11th of August 1872.
His son William Mason (1829-1908), an accomplished pianist and
composer, published an interesting volume of reminiscences, _Memoirs
of a Musical Life_, in 1901.
MASON, WILLIAM (1725-1797), English poet, son of William Mason, vicar of
Holy Trinity, Hull, was born on the 12th of February 1725, was educated
at St John's College, Cambridge, and took holy orders. In 1744 he wrote
_Musaeus_, a lament for Pope in imitation of _Lycidas_, and in 1749
through the influence of Thomas Gray he was elected a fellow of
Pembroke College. He became a devoted friend and admirer of Gray, who
addressed him as "Skroddles," and corrected the worst solecisms in his
verses. In 1748 he published _Isis_, a poem directed against the
supposed Jacobitism of the university of Oxford, which provoked Thomas
Warton's _Triumph of Isis_. Mason conceived the ambition of reconciling
modern drama with ancient forms by strict observance of the unities and
the restoration of the chorus. These ideas were exemplified in _Elfrida_
(1752) and _Caractacus_ (1759), two frigid performances no doubt
intended to be read rather than acted, but produced with some
alterations at Covent Garden in 1772 and 1776 respectively. Horace
Walpole described _Caractacus_ as "laboured, uninteresting, and no more
resembling the manners of Britons than of Japanese"; while Gray declared
he had read the manuscript "not with pleasure only, but with emotion."
In 1754 Mason was presented to the rectory of Aston, near Rotherham,
Yorkshire, and in 1757 through the influence of the duke of Devonshire
he became one of the king's chaplains. He also received the prebend of
Holme in York Minster (1756), was made canon residentiary in 1762, and
in 1763 became precentor and prebendary of Driffield. He married in 1764
Mary Sherman, who died three years later. When Gray died in 1771 he made
Mason his literary executor. In the preparation of the _Life and Letters
of Gray_, which appeared in 1774, he had much help from Horace Walpole,
with whom he corresponded regularly until 1784 when Mason opposed Fox's
India Bill, and offended Walpole by thrusting on him political advice
unasked. Twelve years of silence followed, but in the year before his
death the correspondence was renewed on friendly terms. Mason died at
Aston on the 7th of April 1797.
His correspondence with Gray and Walpole shows him to have been a man
of cultivated tastes. He was something of an antiquarian, a good
musician, and an amateur of painting. He is said to have invented an
instrument called the celestina, a modified pianoforte. Gray rewarded
his faithful admiration with good-humoured kindness. He warned him
against confounding Mona with the Isle of Man, or the Goths with the
Celts, corrected his grammar, pointed out his plagiarisms, and laughed
gently at his superficial learning. His powers show to better
advantage in the unacknowledged satirical poems which he produced
under the pseudonym of Malcolm Macgregor. In editing Gray's letters he
took considerable liberties with his originals, and did not print all
that related to himself.
Mason's other works included _Odes_ (1756); _The English Garden_, a
didactic poem in blank verse, the four books of which appeared in
1772, 1777, 1779 and 1782; _An Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers_
(1774); an _Ode to Mr Pinchbeck_ (1776) and an _Epistle to Dr
Shebbeare_ (1777)--all these by "Malcolm Macgregor"; _Essay,
Historical and Critical, of Church Music_ (1795), and a lyrical drama,
_Sappho_ (1797).
His poems were collected in 1764 and 1774, and an edition of his
_Works_ appeared in 1811. His poems with a _Life_ are included in
Alexander Chalmers's _English Poets_. His correspondence with Walpole
was edited by J. Mitford in 1851; and his correspondence with Gray by
the same editor in 1853. See also the standard editions of the letters
of Gray and of Walpole. There is a very pleasant picture of Mason's
character in Southey's _Doctor_ (ch. cxxvi.).
MASON AND DIXON LINE, in America, the boundary line (lat. 39° 43´ 26.3´´
N.) between Maryland and Pennsylvania, U.S.A.; popularly the line
separating "free" states and "slave" states before the Civil War. The
line derives its name from Charles Mason (1730-1787) and Jeremiah Dixon,
two English astronomers, whose survey of it to a point about 244 m. west
of the Delaware between 1763 and 1767[1] marked the close of the
protracted boundary dispute (arising upon the grant of Pennsylvania to
William Penn in 1681) between the Baltimores and Penns, proprietors
respectively of Maryland and Pennsylvania. The dispute arose from the
designation, in the grant to Penn, of the southern boundary of
Pennsylvania mainly as the parallel marking the "beginning of the
fortieth degree of Northerne Latitude," after the northern boundary of
Maryland had been defined as a line "which lieth under the fortieth
degree of north latitude from the equinoctial." The eastern part of the
line as far as Sideling Hill in the western part of the present
Washington county, was originally marked with milestones brought from
England, every fifth of which bore on one side the arms of Baltimore and
on the opposite side those of Penn; but the difficulties in transporting
them to the westward were so great that many of them were not set up.
Owing to the removal of the stone marking the north-east corner of
Maryland, this point was again determined and marked in 1849-1850 by
Lieut.-Colonel J. D. Graham of the U.S. topographical engineers; and as
the western part of the boundary was not marked by stones, and local
disputes arose, the line was again surveyed between 1901 and 1903 under
the direction of a commission appointed by Pennsylvania and Maryland.
The use of the term "Mason and Dixon Line" to designate the boundary
between the free and the slave states (and in general between the
North and the South) dates from the debates in Congress over the
Missouri Compromise in 1819-1820. As so used it may be defined as not
only the Mason and Dixon Line proper, but also the line formed by the
Ohio River from its intersection with the Pennsylvania boundary to its
mouth, thence the eastern, northern and western boundaries of
Missouri, and thence westward the parallel 36° 30´--the line
established by the Missouri Compromise to separate free and slave
territory in the "Louisiana Purchase," except as regards Missouri. It
is to be noted, however, that the Missouri Compromise did not affect
the territory later acquired from Mexico.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] These surveyors also surveyed and marked the boundary between
Maryland and Delaware.
MASON CITY, a city and the county-seat of Cerro Gordo county, Iowa,
U.S.A., on Lime Creek, in the northern part of the state. Pop. (1905,
state census), 8357 (929 foreign-born); (1910) 11,230. It is served by
the Chicago Milwaukee & St Paul, the Chicago & North-Western, the
Chicago Great Western, the Iowa Central and the St Paul & Des Moines
railways, and also by the Mason City & Clear Lake (electric) railway,
which connects Mason City with Clear Lake, a pleasure resort, 10 m. west
of the city. At Mason City is Memorial University (co-educational;
founded in 1900 by the National Encampment of the Sons of Veterans, and
opened in 1902), dedicated to the Grand Army of the Republic, the
special aim of which is to teach American history. The city is situated
in a good agricultural region, and there are valuable stone quarries in
the vicinity. The manufactures include lime, Portland cement, brick and
tile. Mason City was settled in 1853, laid out in 1855, incorporated as
a town in 1870 and chartered as a city in 1881.
MASONRY,[1] the art of building in stone. The earliest remains (apart
from the primitive work in rude stone--see STONE MONUMENTS; ARCHAEOLOGY,
&c.) are those of the ancient temples of India and Egypt. Many of these
early works were constructed of stones of huge size, and it still
remains a mystery how the ancients were able to quarry and raise to a
considerable height above the ground blocks seven or eight hundred tons
in weight. Many of the early buildings of the middle ages were entirely
constructed of masses of concrete, often faced with a species of rough
cast. The early masonry seems to have been for the most part worked with
the axe and not with the chisel. A very excellent example of the
contrast between the earlier and later Norman masonry may be seen in the
choir of Canterbury Cathedral. In those times the groining was
frequently filled in with a light tufa stone, said by some to have been
brought from Italy, but more probably from the Rhine. The Normans
imported a great quantity of stone from Caen, it being easily worked,
and particularly fit for carving. The freestones of England were also
much used; and in the first Pointed period, Purbeck and Bethersden
marbles were employed for column shafts, &c. The methods of working and
setting stone were much the same as at present, except that owing to
difficulties of conveyance the stones were used in much smaller sizes.
As time went on the art of masonry advanced till in England, in point of
execution, it at length rivalled that of any country.
_Tools._--The mason's tools may be grouped under five heads--hammers
and mallets, saws, chisels, setting-out and setting tools, and
hoisting appliances.
Hammers and Mallets.
There are several different kinds of iron hammers used by the stone
worker; the mash hammer has a short handle and heavy head for use with
chisels; the iron hammer, used in carving, in shape resembles a
carpenter's mallet but is smaller; the waller's hammer is used for
roughly shaping stones in rubble work; the spalling hammer for roughly
dressing stones in the quarry; the scabbling-hammer, for the same
purpose, has one end pointed for use on hard stone; the pick has a
long head pointed at both ends, weighs from 14 to 20 lb., and is used
for rough dressing and splitting; the axe has a double wedge-shaped
head and is used to bring stones to a fairly level face preparatory to
their being worked smooth; the patent axe, or patent hammer, is formed
with a number of plates with sharpened edges bolted together to form a
head; the mallet of hard wood is used for the finishing chisel work
and carving; and the dummy is of similar shape but smaller.
Saws.
A hand saw similar to that used by the carpenter is used for cutting
small soft stones. Larger blocks are cut with the two-handed saw
worked by two men. For the largest blocks the frame saw is used, and
is slung by a rope and pulleys fitted with balance weights to relieve
the operator of its weight. The blade is of plain steel, the cutting
action being supplied by sand with water as a lubricant constantly
applied.
Chisels.
There are perhaps even more varieties of chisels than of hammers. The
point and the punch have very small cutting edges, a quarter of an
inch or less in width. The former is used on the harder and the latter
on the softer varieties of stone after the rough hammer dressing. The
pitching tool has a wide thick edge and is used in rough dressing.
Jumpers are shafts of steel having a widened edge, and are used for
boring holes in hard stone. Chisels are made with edges from a
quarter-inch to one and a half inches wide; those that exceed this
width are termed boasters. The claw chisel has a number of teeth from
one-eighth to three-eighths wide, and is used on the surface of hard
stones after the point has been used. The drag is a semi-circular
steel plate, the straight edge having teeth cut on it. It is used to
level down the surfaces of soft stones. Cockscombs are used for the
same purpose on mouldings and are shaped to various curves. Wedges of
various sizes are used in splitting stones and are inserted either in
holes made with the jumper or in chases cut with the stone-pick.
Setting-out and Setting Tools.
The implements for setting out the work are similar to those used, by
the bricklayer and other tradesmen, comprising the rule, square, set
square, the bevel capable of being set to any required angle,
compasses, spirit level, plumb-rule and bob and mortar trowels. Gauges
and moulds are required in sinking moulds to the proper section.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--(½ in. = 1 ft.) FIG. 2.--(1 in. = 1 ft.)]
Hoisting Appliances.
The _nippers_ (fig. 1), or _scissors_, as they are sometimes termed,
have two hooked arms fitting into notches in the opposite sides of the
block to be lifted. These arms are riveted together in the same way as
a pair of scissors, the upper ends having rings attached for the
insertion of a rope or chain which when pulled tight in the operation
of lifting causes the hooked ends to grip the stone. _Lewises_ (fig.
2.) are wedge-shaped pieces of steel which are fitted into a
dovetailed mortise in the stone to be hoisted. They are also used for
setting blocks too large to be set by hand, and are made in several
forms. These are the usual methods of securing the stone to the
hoisting rope or chain, the hoisting being effected by a pulley and
fall, by a crane, or by other means.
_Scaffolding._--For rubble walls single scaffolds, resting partly on
the walls, similar to those used for brickwork (q.v.), are employed;
for ashlar and other gauged stonework (see below) self-supporting
scaffolds are used with a second set of standards and ledgers erected
close to the wall, the whole standing entirely independent. The reason
for the use of this double scaffold is that otherwise holes for the
putlogs to rest in would have to be left in the wall, and obviously in
an ashlar stone wall it would be impossible properly to make these
good on the removal of the scaffold (see further SCAFFOLD).
_Seasoning Stone._--Stone freshly quarried is full of sap, and thus
admits of being easily worked. On being exposed to the air the sap
dries out, and the stone becomes much harder in consequence. For this
reason, and because carriage charges are lessened by the smaller bulk
of the worked stone as compared with the rough block, the stone for a
building is often specified to be quarry-worked. Vitruvius recommended
that stone should be quarried in summer when driest, and that it
should be seasoned by being allowed to lie two years before being
used, so as to allow the natural sap to evaporate. In the erection of
St Paul's Cathedral, Sir Christopher Wren required that the stone
after being quarried should be exposed for three years on the
sea-beach before its introduction into the building.
The regular and determined form of bricks makes it to a large extent a
matter of practice to enable a man to become a good bricklayer, but
beyond these a continual exercise of judgment is required of the
workman in stone, who has for the most part to deal with masses of all
forms and of all sizes.
_Setting Stones._--All beds and joints should be truly worked and
perfectly level. If the surface be convex it will give rise to wide
unsightly joints; if concave the weight thrown on the stone will rest
on the edges and probably cause them to "flush" or break off and
disfigure the work. Large stones are placed in position with the aid
of hoisting appliances and should be tried in position before being
finally set. Great care should be taken to avoid fracturing or
chipping the stone in the process of handling, as it is impossible to
make good such damage. All stratified stones--and this includes by far
the largest proportion of building stones--when set in a level
position should be laid on their natural bed, i.e. with their laminae
horizontal. The greatest strength of a stone is obtained when the
laminae lie at right angles to the pressure placed upon it. In the
case of arches these layers should be parallel with the centre line of
the voussoirs and at right angles to the face of the arch. For
cornices (except the corner-stones) and work of a like nature, the
stone is set with the laminae on edge and perpendicular to the face of
the work. With many stones it is easy to determine the bed by
moistening with water, when the laminae will become apparent. Some
stones, however, it is impossible to read in this way, and it is
therefore advisable to have them marked in the quarry. A horizontal
line in a quarry does not in all cases give the proper bed of the
stone, for since the deposits were made ages ago natural upheavals
have possibly occurred to alter the "lie" of the material.
For the shafts of columns especially it is necessary to have the
layers horizontally placed, and a stone should be selected from a
quarry with a bed of the required depth. An example of the omission of
this precaution is visible in the arcading of the Royal Courts of
Justice, London, where the small shafts of the front arcade in red
sandstone have been turned with the laminae in a vertical position,
with the result that nearly every shaft is flaking away or is cracked.
_Use of Mortar._--See BRICKWORK. Of whatever quality the stone may be
of which a wall is built, it should consist as much of stone and as
little of mortar as possible. Only fine mortar is admissible if we are
to obtain as thin joints as possible. The joints should be well raked
out and pointed in Portland cement mortar. This applies only to some
sandstones, as marbles and many limestones are stained by the use of
Portland cement. For these a special cement must be employed, composed
of plaster of Paris, lime, and marble or stone-dust.
_Bonding._--Bond (see BRICKWORK) is of not less importance in stone
walling than in brickwork. In ashlar-work the work is bonded
uniformly, the joints being kept perpendicularly one over the other;
but in rubble-work, instead of making the joints recur one over the
other in alternate courses they should be carefully made to lock, so
as to give the strength of two or three courses or layers between a
joint in one course and the joint that next occurs vertically above it
in another course. In the through or transverse bonding of a wall a
good proportion of header stones running about two-thirds of the
distance through the width of the wall should be provided to bind the
whole structure together. The use of through stones, i.e. stones
running through the whole thickness of the wall from front to back, is
not to be recommended. Such stones are liable to fracture and convey
damp to the internal face.
_Slip Joints._--As with brickwork so in masonry great care must be
exercised to prevent the different parts of a building settling
unequally. When two portions of a building differing considerably in
height come together, it is usual to employ a slip or housed joint
instead of bonding the walls into each other. This arrangement allows
the heavier work to settle to a greater extent than the low portion
without causing any defect in the stones.
_Footings._--The footings of stone walls should consist of large
stones of even thickness proportionate to their length; if possible
they should be the full breadth in one piece. Each course should be
well bedded and levelled.
_Walling._--There are broadly speaking two classes of stone walling:
rubble and ashlar. Rubble walls are built of stones more or less
irregular in shape and size and coarsely jointed. Ashlar walls are
constructed of carefully worked blocks of regular dimensions and set
with fine joints.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--(¼ in. = 1 ft.)]
_Random Rubble_ (fig. 3) is the roughest form of stonework. It is
built with irregular pieces of stone usually less than 9 in. thick,
loosely packed without much regard to courses, the interstices between
the large stones being occupied by small ones, the remaining crevices
filled up with mortar. Bond stones or headers should be used
frequently in every course. This form of walling is much used in stone
districts for boundary walls and is often set dry without mortar. For
this work the mason uses no tool but the trowel to lay on the mortar,
the scabbling hammer to break off the most repulsive irregularities
from the stone, and the plumb-rule to keep his work perpendicular.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--(¼ in. = 1 ft.)]
_Coursed Rubble_ (fig. 4) is levelled up in courses 12 or 18 in. deep,
the depth varying in different courses according to the sizes of the
stones. The stones are dressed by the workman before he begins
building, to obtain a fairly level bed and perpendicular face.
_Irregularly Coursed Squared Rubble_ is a development of uncoursed
random rubble, the stones in this case being squared with the hammer
and roughly faced up with the axe. The courses jump abruptly from one
level to another as the sizes of the blocks demand; the interstices
are filled in with small pieces of stone called "snecks."
For _Coursed Squared Rubble_ the stone is faced in a similar manner
and set in courses, the depth of each course being made up of one or
more stones.
In _Regular Coursed Rubble_ all the stones in one course are of the
same height.
_Block-in-course_ is the name applied to a form of stone walling that
has some of the characteristics of ashlar but the execution of which
is much rougher. The courses are usually less than 12 in. high. It is
much used by engineers for waterside and railway work where a good
appearance is desired.
The _Angles_ or _Quoins_ of rubble-work are always carefully and
precisely worked and serve as a gauge for the rest of the walling.
Frequently the quoins and jambs are executed in ashlar, which gives a
neat and finished appearance and adds strength to the work.
The name _Ashlar_ is given, without regard to the finish of the face
of the stone, to walling composed of stones carefully dressed, from 12
to 18 in. deep, the mortar joints being about an eighth of an inch or
less in thickness. No stone except the hardest should exceed in length
three times its depth when required to resist a heavy load and its
breadth should be from one and a half to three times its depth. The
hardest stone may have a length equal to four or perhaps five times
its depth and a width three times its depth. The face of ashlar-work
may be plain and level, or have rebated, chamfered, or moulded joints.
Backing to Stonework.
The great cost of this form of stonework renders the employment of a
backing of an inferior nature very general. This backing varies
according to the district in which the building operations are being
carried on, being rubble stonework in stone districts and brick or
concrete elsewhere, the whole being thoroughly tied together both
transversely and longitudinally with bondstones. In England a stone
much used for backing ashlar and Kentish rag rubble-work is a soft
sandstone called "hassock." In the districts where it is quarried it
is much cheaper than brickwork. (For brickbacking see BRICKWORK.)
Ashlar facing usually varies from 4 to 9 in. in thickness. The work
must not be all of one thickness, but should vary in order that
effective bond with the backing may be obtained. If the work is in
courses of uneven depth the narrow courses are made of the greater
thickness and the deep courses are narrow. It is sometimes necessary
to secure the stone facing back with iron ties, but this should be
avoided wherever possible, as they are liable to rust and split the
stonework. When it is necessary to use them they should be covered
with some protective coating. The use of a backing to a stone wall,
besides lessening the cost, gives a more equable temperature inside
the building and prevents the transmission of wet by capillary
attraction to the interior, which would take place if single stones
were used for the entire thickness.
All work of this description must be executed in Portland cement,
mortar of good strength, to avoid as much as possible the unequal
settlement of the deep courses of stone facing and the narrower
courses of the brick or rough stone backing. If the backing is of
brick it should never be less than 9 in. thick, and whether of stone
or brick it should be levelled up in courses of the same thickness as
the ashlar.
Walling.
There are many different sorts of walling, or modes of structure,
arising from the nature of the materials available in various
localities. That is perhaps of most frequent occurrence in which
either squared, broken, or round flints are used. This, when executed
with care, has a distinctly decorative appearance. To give stability
to the structure, lacing courses of tiles, bricks or dressed stones
are introduced, and brick or stone piers are built at intervals, thus
forming a flint panelled wall. The quoins, too, in this type of wall
are formed in dressed stone or brick work.
Uncoursed rubble built with irregular blocks of ragstone, an
unstratified rock quarried in Kent, is in great favour for facing the
external walls of churches and similar works (fig. 5).
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--(¼ in. = 1 ft.)]
_Pointing._--As with brickwork this is generally done when the work is
completed and before the scaffolding is removed. Suitable weather
should be chosen, for if the weather be either frosty or too hot the
pointing will suffer. The joints are raked out to a depth of half an
inch or more, well wetted, and then refilled with a fine mortar
composed specially to resist the action of the weather. This is
finished flat or compressed with a special tool to a shaped joint, the
usual forms of which are shown in fig. 6.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--(¾ full size).]
_Stonewash._--To give a uniform appearance to the stonework and
preserve the finished face until a hardened skin has formed, it is
usual to coat the surface of exposed masonry with a protective
compound of ordinary limewhite with a little size mixed in it, or a
special mixture of stone-dust, lime, salt, whiting and size with a
little ochre to tone it down. After six months or more the work is
cleaned down with water and stiff bristle or wire brushes. Sometimes
muriatic acid much diluted with water is used.
_Technical Terms._--Of the following technical terms, many will be
found embodied in the drawing of a gable wall (fig. 7), which shows
the manner and position in which many different members are used.
_Apex Stone._--The topmost stone of a gable forming a finial for the
two sloping sides; it is sometimes termed a "saddle" (fig. 7).
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--(Scale--approximately ½ in. = 1 ft.)]
_Blocking Course,_ a heavy course of stone above a cornice to form a
parapet and weigh down the back of the cornice (fig. 8).
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--(½ in. = 1 ft.)]
_Bed._--The _bed_ surface upon which a stone is set or bedded should
be worked truly level in every part. Many workmen to form a neat thin
joint with a minimum amount of labour hollow the bed and thus when the
stone is set all weight is thrown upon the edges with the frequent
result that these are crushed.
_Coping._--The _coping_ or _capping_ stones are placed on the top of
walls not covered by a roof, spanning their entire width and throwing
off the rain and snow, thus keeping the interior of the wall dry. The
fewer the number of joints the better the security, and for this
reason it is well to form copings with as long stones as possible. To
throw water off clear, and prevent it from running down the face of
the wall, the coping should project an inch or two on each side and
have a throat worked on the under-side of the projections (fig. 7).
_Cornice,_ a projecting course of moulded stone crowning a structure,
forming a cap or finish and serving to throw any wet clear of the
walls. A deep drip should always be worked in the upper members of a
cornice to prevent the rain trickling down and disfiguring the face of
the moulding and the wall below (fig. 8).
_Corbel,_ a stone built into a wall and projecting to form a
cantilever, supporting a load beyond the face of the wall. It is
frequently richly ornamented by carving (fig. 7).
_Skew Corbel,_ a stone placed at the base of the sloping side of a
gable wall to resist any sliding tendency of the sloping coping.
Stones placed for a similar purpose at intervals along the sloping
side, tailing into the wall, are termed "kneelers" and have the
section of the coping worked upon them (fig. 7).
_Corbel Table,_ a lino of small corbels placed at short distances
apart supporting a parapet or arcade. This forms an ornamental feature
which was much employed in early Gothic times. It probably originates
from the machicolations of ancient fortresses.
_Dressings,_ the finished stones of window and door jambs and quoins.
For example, a "brick building with stone dressings" would have brick
walls with stone door and window jambs, heads and sills, and perhaps
also stone quoins (fig. 7).
_Diaper,_ a square pattern formed on the face of the stonework by
means of stones of different colours and varieties or by patterns
carved on the surface (fig. 7).
_Finial,_ a finishing ornament applied usually to a gable end (fig.
7).
_Gablet,_ small gable-shaped carved panels frequently used in Gothic
stonework for apex stones, and in spires, &c.
_Gargoyle,_ a detail, not often met with in modern work, which
consists of a waterspout projecting so as to throw the rain-water from
the gutters clear of the walls. In early work it was often carved into
grotesque shapes of animal and other forms.
_Galleting._--The joints of rubble are sometimes enriched by having
small pebbles or chips of flint pressed into the mortar whilst green.
The joints are then said to be "galleted."
_Jamb._--Window and door jambs should always be of dressed stone, both
on account of the extra strength thus gained and in order to give a
finish to the work. The stones are laid alternately as stretchers and
headers; the former are called outbands, the latter inbands (fig. 7).
_Label Moulding,_ a projecting course of stone running round an arch.
When not very large it is sometimes cut on the voussoirs, but is
usually made a separate course of stone. Often, and especially in the
case of door openings, a small sinking is worked on the top surface of
the moulding to form a gutter which leads to the sides any water that
trickles down the face of the wall.
_Lacing Stone._--This is placed as a voussoir in brick arches of wide
span, and serves to bond or lace several courses together (see
BRICKWORK).
_Lacing Course,_ a course of dressed stone, bricks or tiles, run at
intervals in a wall of rubble or flint masonry to impart strength and
tie the whole together (fig. 7).
_Long and Short Work,_ a typical Saxon method of arranging quoin
stones, flat slabs and long narrow vertical stones being placed
alternately. Earls Barton church in Northamptonshire is an example of
their use in old work. In modern work long and short work, sometimes
termed "block and start," is little used (fig. 7).
_Parapet,_ a fence wall at the top of a wall at the eaves of the roof.
The gutter lies behind, and waterways are formed through the parapet
wall for the escape of the rain-water.
_Plinth,_ a projecting base to a wall serving to give an appearance of
stability to the work.
_Quoin,_ the angle at the junction of two walls. Quoins are often
executed in dressed stone (fig. 7).
_Rag-bolt,_ the end of an iron bolt when required to be let into stone
is roughed or ragged. A dovetailed mortise is prepared in the stone
and the ragged end of the bolt placed in this, and the mortise filled
in with molten lead or sand and sulphur (fig. 9).
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--(1 in. = 1 ft.)]
_Sill,_ the stone which forms a finish to the wall at the bottom of an
opening. Sills should always be weathered, slightly in the case of
door sills, more sharply for windows, and throated on the under side
to throw off the wet. The weathering is not carried through the whole
length of the sill, but a stool is left on at each end to form a
square end for building in (fig. 7).
_String Courses,_ horizontal bands of stone, either projecting beyond
or flush with the face of the wall and often moulded or carved. They
are frequently continuations of the sills or head lines of windows
(figs. 5 and 7).
_Scontion._--In a thick wall the dressed stones forming the inside
angles of the jamb of a window or door opening are termed scontions.
_Spalls,_ small pieces chipped off whilst working a stone.
_Templates,_ slabs of hard stone set in a wall to take the ends of a
beam or girder so as to distribute the load over a larger area of the
wall.
_Tympanum,_ the triangular filling of masonry in a pediment between
the cornices, or between the horizontal head of a window or door and
the under-side of the relieving arch above it. It is often panelled or
enriched with carved ornament (fig. 7).
_Throat,_ a groove worked on the under-side of projecting external
members to intercept rain-water and cause it to drop off the member
clear of the work beneath (fig. 8).
_Weathering._--The surface of an exposed stone is weathered when it is
worked to a slope so as to throw off the water. Cornices, copings,
sills and string courses should all be so weathered.
_Voussoirs,_ the wedge-shaped blocks of which an arch is built up.
_Methods of finishing Face of Stones._--The _self face_ or _quarry
face_ is the natural surface formed when the stone is detached from
the mass in the quarry or when a stone is split.
_Saw-face,_ the surface formed by sawing.
_Hammer-dressed, Rock-faced, or Pitch-faced._--This face is used for
ashlar-work, usually with a chisel-draughted margin around each block.
It gives a very massive and solid appearance to the lower storeys of
masonry buildings, and is formed with little labour, and is therefore
the cheapest face to adopt for ashlar-work (fig. 7).
_Broached and Pointed Work._--This face is also generally used with a
chisel-draughted margin. The stone as left from the scabbling hammer
at the quarry has its rocky face worked down to an approximate level
by the point. In broached work the grooves made by the tool are
continuous, often running obliquely across the face of the block. In
pointed work the lines are not continuous; the surface is rough or
fine pointed according as the point is used over every inch or
half-inch of the stone. The point is used more upon hard stones than
soft ones (fig. 7).
_Tooth-chiselled Work._--The cheapest method of dressing soft stones
is by the toothed chisel which gives a surface very much like the
pointed work of hard stones.
_Droved Work._--This surface is obtained with a chisel about two and a
half inches wide, no attempt being made to keep the cuts in continuous
lines.
_Tooled Work_ is somewhat similar to droved work and is done with a
flat chisel, the edge of which is about four inches wide, care being
taken to make the cuts in continuous lines across the width of the
stone.
_Combed or Dragged Work._--For soft stones the steel comb or drag is
often employed to remove all irregularities from the face and thus
form a fine surface. These tools are specially useful for moulded
work, as they are formed to fit a variety of curves.
_Rubbed Work._--For this finish the surface of the stone is previously
brought with the chisel to a level and approximately smooth face, and
then the surface is rubbed until it is quite smooth with a piece of
grit stone aided by fine sand and water as a lubricant. Marbles are
polished by being rubbed with gritstone, then with pumice, and lastly
with emery powder.
Besides these, the most usual methods of finishing the faces of
stonework, there are several kinds of surface formed with hammers or
axes of various descriptions. These types of hammers are more used on
the continent of Europe and in America perhaps than in England, but
they deserve notice here.
The _toothed axe_ has its edges divided into teeth, fine or coarse
according to the work to be done. It is used to reduce the face of
limestones and sandstones to a condition ready for the chisel. The
_bush hammer_ has a heavy square-shaped double-faced head, upon which
are cut projecting pyramidal points. It is used to form a surface full
of little holes, and with it the face of sand and limestones may be
brought to a somewhat ornamental finish. The _patent hammer_ is used
on granite and other hard rocks, which have been first dressed to a
medium surface with the point. The fineness of the result is
determined by the number of blades in the hammer, and the work is said
to be "six," "eight" or "ten-cut" work according to the number of
blades inserted or bolted in the hammer head. The _crandall_ has an
iron handle slotted at one end with a hole 3/8 in. wide and 3 in.
long. In this slot are fixed by a key ten or eleven double-headed
points of ¼ in. square steel about 9 in. long. It is used for
finishing sandstone and soft stones after the surface has been
levelled down with the axe or chisel. It gives a fine pebbly sparkling
appearance.
There are several methods of finishing stone which involve a great
deal of labour and are therefore expensive to work, but which result
in imparting a very stiff and unnatural appearance to the masonry.
_Vermiculated Work._--This is formed by carving a number of curling
worm-like lines over the face of the block, sinking in between the
worms to a depth of a fourth of an inch. The surface of the strings is
worked smooth, and the sinkings are pock-marked with a pointed tool
(fig. 7).
_Furrowed Work._--In this face the stone is cut with a chisel into a
number of small parallel grooves or furrows (fig. 7).
_Reticulated Face_ is a finish somewhat similar to vermiculated work,
but the divisions are more nearly squares.
_Face Joints of Ashlar._--The face joints of ashlar stonework are
often sunk or rebated to form what are termed rusticated joints;
sometimes the angles of each block are moulded or chamfered to give
relief to the surface or to show a massive effect (fig. 7).
_Joints in Stonework._--The joints between one block of stone and
another are formed in many ways by cramps, dowels and joggles of
various descriptions.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--(1 in. = 1 ft.)]
Cramps.
The stones of copings, cornices and works of a similar nature, are
often tied together with metal cramps to check any tendency for the
stones to separate under the force of the wind (figs. 10 and 11).
Cramps are made of iron (plain or galvanized), copper or gun-metal, of
varying sections and lengths to suit the work. A typical cramp would
be about 9 in. long, 1 or 1½ in. wide, and from ¼ to ½ in. thick, and
turned down about 1½ in. at each end. A dovetailed mortise is formed
at a suitable point in each of the stones to be joined and connected
by a chase. The cramp is placed in this channel with its turned-down
ends in the mortises, and it is then fixed with molten lead, sulphur
and sand, or Portland cement. Lead shrinks on cooling, and if used at
all should be well caulked when cold. Double dovetailed slate cramps
bedded in Portland cement are occasionally used (fig. 11).
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--(¾ in. = 1 ft.)]
Dowels.
Dowels are used for connecting stones where the use of cramps would be
impracticable, as in the joints of window mullions, the shafts of
small columns, and in similar works (figs. 7, 8 and 20). Dowels for
bed and side joints may be used. They are of slate, metal, or
sometimes of hard wood.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--(½ in. = 1 ft.)]
Joggles.
There are many ways of making a joggle joint. The joggle may be worked
on one of the stones so as to fit into a groove in the adjoining
stone, or grooves may be cut in both the stones and an independent
joggle of slate, pebbles, or Portland cement fitted, the joggle being
really a kind of dowel. The pebble joggle joint is formed with the aid
of pebbles as small dowels fitted into mortises in the jointing faces
of two stones and set with Portland cement; but joggles of slate have
generally taken the place of pebbles. Portland cement joggles are
formed by pouring cement grout into a vertical or oblique mortise
formed by cutting a groove in each of the joining surfaces of the
stones. What is known as a he-and-she joggle, worked on the edges of
the stones themselves, is shown in fig. 13.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--(½ in. = 1 ft.)]
Plugs or dowels of lead are formed by pouring molten lead through a
channel into dovetailed mortises in each stone (figs. 14 and 15). When
cold the metal is caulked to compress it tightly into the holes.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--(¾ in. = 1 ft.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--(1 in. = 1 ft.)]
The saddle joint is used for cornices, and is formed when a portion of
the stone next the joint is left raised so as to guide rain-water away
from the joint (fig. 8).
Two forms of rebated joints for stone copings and roofs are common. In
one form (shown in fig. 7) the stones forming the coping are thicker
at their lower and rebated edge than at the top plain edge, giving a
stepped surface. The other form has a level surface and the stone is
of the same thickness throughout and worked to a rebate on top and
bottom edges. In laying stone roofs the joints are usually lapped over
with an upper slab of stone.
_Joints in Spires._--Four forms of jointing for the battering
stonework of spires are shown in fig. 16. A is a plain horizontal
joint. B is a similar joint formed at right angles to the face of the
work. This is the most economical form of joint, the stone being cut
with its sides square with each other; but if the mortar in the joint
decay moisture is allowed to penetrate. With these forms dowelling is
frequently necessary for greater stability. The joints C and D are
more elaborate and much more expensive on account of the extra labour
involved in working and fitting.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--(½ in. = 1 ft.)]
Where a concentrated weight is carried by piers or columns the bed
joints are in many cases formed without the use of mortar, a thin
sheet of milled lead being placed between the blocks of stone to fill
up any slight inequalities.
_Moulded Work._--The working of mouldings in stone is an important
part of the mason's craft, and forms a costly item in the erection of
a stone structure. Much skill and care is required to retain the
arrises sharp and the curved members of accurate and proportionate
outline. As in the case of wood mouldings, machinery now plays an
important part in the preparation of stone moulded work. The process
of working a stone by hand labour is as follows: The profile of the
moulding is marked on to a zinc template on opposite ends of the stone
to be worked; a short portion, an inch or two in length termed a
"draught," is at each end worked to the required section. The
remaining portion is then proceeded with, the craftsman continually
checking the accuracy of his work with a straight-edge and zinc
templates. A stone to be moulded by machinery is fixed to a moving
table placed under a shaped tool which is fixed in an immovable
portion of the machine, and is so adjusted as to cut or chip off a
small layer of stone. Each time the stone passes under the cutter it
is automatically moved a trifle nearer, and thus it gradually reduces
the stone until the required shape is attained.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--(1 in. = 1 ft.)]
_Iron in Stonework._--The use of iron dowels or cramps in stonework,
unless entirely and permanently protected from oxidation is attended
by the gravest risks; for upon the expansion of the iron by rusting
the stone may split, and perhaps bring about a more or less serious
failure in that portion of the building. A case in point is that of
the church of St Mary-le-Strand, London, where the ashlar facing was
secured to the backing with iron cramps; these were inefficiently
protected from damp, with the result that many of the blocks have been
split in consequence of rusting. John Smeaton in his Eddystone
Lighthouse used dowels of Purbeck marble.
[Illustration: FIG. 18.--(½ in. = 1 ft.)]
_Stone Arches._--Stone arches are very frequently used both in stone
and brick buildings. (For general definitions and terms see
BRICKWORK.) They may be built in a great variety of styles, either
flat, segmental, circular, elliptical or pointed. Each block or
voussoir should be cut to fit exactly in its appointed place, the
joints being made as fine as possible. The joints should radiate from
the centre from which the soffit or intrados is struck, or in the case
of an elliptical arch they should be at right angles to a tangent
drawn to the intrados at that point. The extrados or back of the arch
is usually concentric with the intrados, but is sometimes made thicker
in one portion than in another; thus the arch may be deeper at the
crown than at the sides, or at the sides than in the centre. In some
cases two or more voussoirs are of one stone, having a false joint cut
in the centre; this is economical, and in some cases adds to the
stability of the arch. Generally the arch is divided into an uneven
number of voussoirs so as to give a keystone, the voussoirs being laid
from each side of the keystone and fitting exactly in the centre of
the arch. The keystone is not a necessity, arches being frequently
formed with an even number of voussoirs; some architects hold that the
danger of the voussoirs cracking is thereby lessened. Where lintels
are used in a stone wall over openings of small span it is usual to
build a relieving arch above to take the superincumbent weight of
masonry; or the same purpose may be effected in walls of ashlar by a
flat relieving or "save" arch, formed in the next course of three
stones above the lintel, the tapering keystone resting between the two
side stones which are tailed well into the wall.
In very many cases it is desired to form square heads to openings of
greater span than it is convenient to obtain lintels for in one piece,
and some form of flat arch must therefore be adopted. The voussoirs
are connected by joggles worked on their joints, as in fig. 17. The
weight of the superimposed wall is taken by a lintel with relieving
arch above at the back of the arch.
Arches built to an elliptical form when used for large spans (if of
flat curve they should bridge over 8 ft. or 10 ft.) are liable if
heavily loaded to fail by the voussoirs at the centre being forced
down, or else to burst up at the haunches. With arches of this
description there is a large amount of outward thrust, and abutments
of ample strength must be placed to receive the springers.
_Stone Tracery._--The designs of Gothic and other tracery stonework
are almost infinite, and there are many methods, ingenious and
otherwise, of setting out such work. Nearly all diagrams of
construction are planned on the principle of geometrical
intersections. In the example illustrated in fig. 18 the method of
setting out and finishing the design is very clearly shown, together
with the best positions for the joints of the various parts. The
jointing is a matter which must be carefully considered in order to
avoid any waste of stone and labour. It will be observed that the
right-hand side of the elevation shows the method of setting out the
tracery by the centre lines of the various intersecting branches, the
other half giving the completed design with the cusping drawn in and
the positions of joints. All the upper construction of windows and
doors and of aisle arches should be protected from superincumbent
pressure by strong relieving arches above the labels, as shown in the
figure, which should be worked with the ordinary masonry, and so set
that the weight above should avoid pressure on the fair work, which
would be liable to flush or otherwise destroy the joints of the
tracery.
_Carving._--Stone carving is a craft quite apart from the work of the
ordinary stonemason, and like carving in wood needs an artistic
feeling and special training. Carving-stone should be of fine grain
and sufficiently soft to admit of easy working. The Bath stones in
England and the Caen stone of France are largely used for internal
work, but if for the exterior they should be treated with some
chemical preservative. Carving is frequently done after the stone is
built into position, the face being left rough--"boasted"--and
projecting sufficiently for the intended design.
See E. Viollet-le-Duc, _Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture
française_; W. R. Purchase, _Practical Masonry_; J. O. Baker, _A
Treatise on Masonry Construction_; C. F. Mitchell, _Brickwork and
Masonry_; W. Diack, _The Art of Masonry in Britain_. (J. Bt.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The English word "mason" is from the French, which appears in the
two forms, _machun_ and _masson_ (from the last comes the modern Fr.
form _maçon_, which means indifferently a bricklayer or mason). In O.
H. Ger. the word is _mezzo_, which survives in the German for a
stone-mason, _Steinmetz_. The med. Lat. form, _machio_, was connected
with _machina_--obviously a guess. The Low Lat., _macheria_ or
_maceria_ (see Du Cange, _Glossarium_, s.v. _macio_), a wall, has
been suggested as showing some connexion. Some popular Lat. form as
_macio_ or _mattio_ is probably the origin. No Teut. word, according
to the _New English Dictionary_, except that which appears in
"mattock," seems to have any bearing on the ultimate origin.
MASPERO, GASTON CAMILLE CHARLES (1846- ), French Egyptologist, was
born in Paris on the 23rd of June 1846, his parents being of Lombard
origin. While at school he showed a special taste for history, and when
fourteen years old was already interested in hieroglyphic writing. It
was not until his second year at the École Normale in 1867 that Maspero
met with an Egyptologist in the person of Mariette, who was then in
Paris as commissioner for the Egyptian section of the exhibition.
Mariette gave him two newly discovered hieroglyphic texts of
considerable difficulty to study, and, self-taught, the young scholar
produced translations of them in less than a fortnight, a great feat in
those days when Egyptology was still almost in its infancy. The
publication of these in the same year established his reputation. A
short time was spent in assisting a gentleman in Peru, who was seeking
to prove an Aryan affinity for the dialects spoken by the Indians of
that country, to publish his researches; but in 1868 Maspero was back in
France at more profitable work. In 1869 he became a teacher
(_répétiteur_) of Egyptian language and archaeology at the École des
Hautes Études; in 1874 he was appointed to the chair of Champollion at
the Collège de France.
In November 1880 Professor Maspero went to Egypt as head of an
archaeological mission despatched thither by the French government,
which ultimately developed into the well-equipped Institut Français de
l'Archéologie Oriental. This was but a few months before the death of
Mariette, whom Maspero then succeeded as director-general of excavations
and of the antiquities of Egypt. He held this post till June 1886; in
these five years he had organized the mission, and his labours for the
Bulak museum and for archaeology had been early rewarded by the
discovery of the great cache of royal mummies at Deir el-Bahri in July
1881. Maspero now resumed his professorial duties in Paris until 1899,
when he returned to Egypt in his old capacity as director-general of the
department of antiquities. He found the collections in the Cairo Museum
enormously increased, and he superintended their removal from Gizeh to
the new quarters at Kasr en-Nil in 1902. The vast catalogue of the
collections made rapid progress under Maspero's direction. Twenty-four
volumes or sections were already published in 1909. The repairs and
clearances at the temple of Karnak, begun in his previous tenure of
office, led to the most remarkable discoveries in later years (see
KARNAK), during which a vast amount of excavation and exploration has
been carried on also by unofficial but authorized explorers of many
nationalities.
Among his best-known publications are the large _Histoire ancienne des
peuples de l'Orient classique_ (3 vols., Paris, 1895-1897, translated
into English by Mrs McClure for the S.P.C.K.), displaying the history
of the whole of the nearer East from the beginnings to the conquest by
Alexander; a smaller _Histoire des peuples de l'Orient_, 1 vol., of
the same scope, which has passed through six editions from 1875 to
1904; _Études de mythologie et d'archéologie égyptiennes_ (Paris,
1893, &c.), a collection of reviews and essays originally published in
various journals, and especially important as contributions to the
study of Egyptian religion; _L'Archéologie égyptienne_ (latest ed.,
1907), of which several editions have been published in English. He
also established the journal _Recueil de travaux relatifs à la
philologie et à l'archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes_; the
_Bibliothèque égyptologique_, in which the scattered essays of the
French Egyptologists are collected, with biographies, &c.; and the
_Annales du service des antiquités de l'Égypte_, a repository for
reports on official excavations, &c.
Maspero also wrote: _Les Inscriptions des pyramides de Saqqaroh_
(Paris, 1894); _Les Momies royales de Deir el-Baharî_ (Paris, 1889);
_Les Contes populaires de l'Égypte ancienne_ (3rd ed., Paris, 1906);
_Causeries d'Égypte_ (1907), translated by Elizabeth Lee as _New Light
on Ancient Egypt_ (1908).
MASS (O.E. _maesse_; Fr. _messe_; Ger. _Messe_; Ital. _messa_; from
eccl. Lat. _missa_), a name for the Christian eucharistic service,
practically confined since the Reformation to that of the Roman Catholic
Church. The various orders for the celebration of Mass are dealt with
under LITURGY; a detailed account of the Roman order is given under
MISSAL; and the general development of the eucharistic service,
including the Mass, is described in the article EUCHARIST. The present
article is confined (1) to the consideration of certain special meanings
which have become attached to the word Mass and are the subject of
somewhat acute controversy, (2) to the Mass in music.
The origin of the word _missa_, as applied to the Eucharist, is obscure.
The first to discuss the matter is Isidore of Seville (_Etym._ vi. 19),
who mentions an "evening office" (_officium vespertinum_), a "morning
office" (_officium matutinum_), and an office called _missa_. Of the
latter he says: "Missa tempore sacrificii est, quando catechumeni foras
mittuntur, clamante levita 'si quis catechumenus remansit, exeat foras.'
Et inde 'missa,' quia sacramentis altaris interesse non possunt, qui
nondum regenerati sunt" ("The _missa_ is at the time of the sacrifice,
when the catechumens are sent out, the deacon crying, 'If any catechumen
remain, let him go forth.'" Hence _missa_, because those who are as yet
unregenerate--i.e. unbaptized--may not be present at the sacraments of
the altar). This derivation of the word Mass, which would connect it
with the special formula of dismissal still preserved in the Roman
liturgy--_Ite, missa est_--once generally accepted, is now disputed. It
is pointed out that the word _missa_ long continued to be applied to any
church service, and more particularly to the lections (see Du Cange for
numerous examples), and it is held that such services received their
name of _missal_ from the solemn form of dismissal with which it was
customary to conclude them; thus, in the 4th century _Pilgrimage of
Etheria_ (_Silvia_) the word _missa_ is used indiscriminately of the
Eucharist, other services, and the ceremony of dismissal. F. Kattenbusch
(Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklop. s._ "Messe") ingeniously, but with little
evidence, suggests that the word may have had a double origin and
meaning: (1) in the sense of _dimissio_, "dismissal"; (2) in that of
_commissio_, "commission," "official duty," i.e. the exact Latin
equivalent of the Greek [Greek: leitourgia] (see LITURGY), and hence the
conflicting use of the term. It is, however, far more probable that it
was a general term that gradually became crystallized as applying to
that service in which the dismissal represented a more solemn function.
In the narrower sense of "Mass" it is first found in St Ambrose (_Ep._
20, 4, ed. Ballerini): "Missam facere coepi. Dum offero ..." which
evidently identifies the _missa_ with the sacrifice. It continued,
however, to be used loosely, though its tendency to become proper only
to the principal Christian service is clear from a passage in the 12th
homily of Caesarius, bishop of Arles (d. 542): "If you will diligently
attend, you will recognize that _missae_ are not celebrated when the
divine readings are recited in the church, but when gifts are offered
and the Body and Blood of the Lord are consecrated." The complete
service (_missa ad integrum_), the bishop goes on to say, cannot be had
at home by reading and prayer, but only in the house of God, where,
besides the Eucharist, "the divine word is preached and the blessing is
given to the people."
Whatever its origin, the word Mass had by the time of the Reformation
been long applied only to the Eucharist; and, though in itself a
perfectly colourless term, and used as such during the earlier stages of
the 16th century controversies concerning the Eucharist, it soon became
identified with that sacrificial aspect of the sacrament of the altar
which it was the chief object of the Reformers to overthrow. In England,
so late as the first Prayer-book of Edward VI., it remained one of the
official designations of the Eucharist, which is there described as "The
Supper of the Lorde and holy Communion, commonly called the Masse."
This, however, like the service itself, represented a compromise which
the more extreme reformers would not tolerate, and in the second
Prayer-book, together with such language in the canon as might imply the
doctrine of transubstantiation and of the sacrifice, the word Mass also
disappears. That this abolition of the word Mass, as implying the
offering of Christ's Body and Blood by the priest for the living and the
dead was deliberate is clear from the language of those who were chiefly
responsible for the change. Bishops Ridley and Latimer, the two most
conspicuous champions of "the new religion," denounced "the Mass" with
unmeasured violence; Latimer said of "Mistress Missa" that "the devil
hath brought her in again"; Ridley said: "I do not take the Mass as it
is at this day for the communion of the Church, but for a popish
device," &c. (_Works_, ed. Parker Soc., pp. 121, 120), and again: "In
the stead of the Lord's holy table they give the people, with much
solemn disguising, a thing which they call their mass; but in deed and
in truth it is a very masking and mockery of the true Supper of the
Lord, or rather I may call it a crafty juggling, whereby these false
thieves and jugglers have bewitched the minds of the simple people ...
unto pernicious idolatory" (ib. p. 409). This language is reflected in
the 31st of the Articles of Religion of the Church of England:
"Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses, in which it was commonly said that
the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have
remission of pain and guilt, were blasphemous fables and dangerous
deceits." Clearly the word Mass had ceased to be a colourless term
generally applicable to the eucharistic service; it was, in fact, not
only proscribed officially, but in the common language of English people
it passed entirely out of use except in the sense in which it is defined
in Johnson's Dictionary, i.e. that of the "Service of the Romish Church
at the celebration of the Eucharist." In connexion with the Catholic
reaction in the Church of England, which had its origin in the "Oxford
Movement" of the 19th century, efforts have been made by some of the
clergy to reintroduce the term "Mass" for the Holy Communion in the
English Church.
See Du Cange, _Glossarium_, s.v. "Missa"; F. Kattenbusch in
Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopädie_ (ed. 1903), s.v. "Messe,
dogmengeschichtlich"; for the facts as to the use of the word "Mass"
at the time of the Reformation see the article by J. H. Round in the
_Nineteenth Century_ for May 1897. (W. A. P.)
MASS, IN MUSIC: 1. _Polyphonic Masses._--The composition of musical
settings of the Mass plays a part in the history of music which is of
special importance up to and including the 16th century. As an art-form
the musical Mass is governed to a peculiar degree by the structure of
its text. It so happens that the supremely important parts of the Mass
are those which have the smallest number of words, namely the _Kyrie_,
important as being the opening prayer; the _Sanctus_ and _Benedictus_,
embodying the central acts and ideas of the service; and the _Agnus
Dei_, the prayer with which it concludes. The 16th-century methods were
specially fitted for highly developed music when words were few and
embodied ideas of such important emotional significance or finality that
they could be constantly repeated without losing force. Now the texts of
the _Gloria_ and _Credo_ were more voluminous than any others which
16th-century composers attempted to handle in a continuous scheme. The
practical limits of the church service made it impossible to break them
up by setting each clause to a separate movement, a method by which
16th-century music composers contrived to set psalms and other long
texts to compositions lasting an hour or longer. Accordingly, Palestrina
and his great contemporaries and predecessors treated the _Gloria_ and
_Credo_ in a style midway in polyphonic organization and rhythmic
breadth between that of the elaborate motet (adopted in the _Sanctus_)
and the homophonic reciting style of the Litany. The various ways in
which this special style could be modified by the scale of the work, and
contrasted with the broader and more elaborate parts, gave the Mass
(even in its merely technical aspects) a range which made it to the
16th-century composer what the symphony is to the great instrumental
classics. Moreover, as being inseparably associated with the highest act
of worship, it inspired composers in direct proportion to their piety
and depth of mind. Of course there were many false methods of attacking
the art-problem, and many other relationships, true and false, between
the complexity of the settings of the various parts of the Mass and of
motets. The story of the action of the council of Trent on the subject
of corruption of church music is told elsewhere (see MUSIC and
PALESTRINA); and it has been recently paralleled by a decree of Pope
Pius X., which has restored the 16th-century polyphonic Mass to a
permanent place in the Roman Catholic Church music.
2. _Instrumental Masses in the Neapolitan Form._--The next definite
stage in the musical history of the Mass was attained by the Neapolitan
composers who were first to reach musical coherence after the monodic
revolution at the beginning of the 17th century. The fruit of their
efforts came to maturity in the Masses of Mozart and Haydn. By this time
the resources of music were such that the long and varied text of the
_Gloria_ and _Credo_ inevitably either overbalanced the scheme or met
with an obviously perfunctory treatment. It is almost impossible,
without asceticism of a radically inartistic kind, to treat with the
resources of instrumental music and free harmony such passages as that
from the _Crucifixus_ to the _Resurrexit_, without an emotional contrast
which inevitably throws any natural treatment of the _Sanctus_ into the
background, and makes the _Agnus Dei_ an inadequate conclusion to the
musical scheme. So unfavourable were the conditions of 18th-century
music for the formation of a good ecclesiastical style that only a very
small proportion of Mozart's and Haydn's Mass music may be said to
represent their ideas of religious music at all. The best features of
their Masses are those that combine faithfulness to the Neapolitan forms
with a contrapuntal richness such as no Neapolitan composer ever
achieved. Thus Mozart's most perfect as well as most ecclesiastical
example is his extremely terse Mass in F, written at the age of
seventeen, which is scored simply for four-part chorus and solo voices
accompanied by the organ with a largely independent bass and by two
violins mostly in independent real parts. This scheme, with the addition
of a pair of trumpets and drums and, occasionally, oboes, forms the
normal orchestra of 18th-century Masses developed or degenerated from
this model. Trombones often played with the three lower voices, a
practice of high antiquity surviving from a time when there were soprano
trombones or _cornetti_ (_Zincken_, a sort of treble _serpent_) to play
with the sopranos.
3. _Symphonic Masses._--The enormous dramatic development in the
symphonic music of Beethoven made the problem of the Mass with
orchestral accompaniment almost insoluble. This makes it all the more
remarkable that Beethoven's second and only important Mass (in D, _Op._
123) is not only the most dramatic ever penned but is, perhaps, the last
classical Mass that is thoughtfully based upon the liturgy, and is not a
mere musical setting of what happens to be a liturgic text. It was
intended for the installation of Beethoven's friend, the archduke
Rudolph, as archbishop of Olmütz; and, though not ready until two years
after that occasion, it shows the most careful consideration of the
meaning of a church service, no doubt of altogether exceptional length
and pomp, but by no means impossible for its unique occasion. Immense as
was Beethoven's dramatic force, it was equalled by his power of sublime
repose; and he was accordingly able once more to put the supreme moment
of the music where the service requires it to be, viz. in the _Sanctus_
and _Benedictus_. In the _Agnus Dei_ the circumstances of the time gave
him something special to say which has never so imperatively demanded
utterance since. Europe had been shattered by the Napoleonic wars.
Beethoven read the final prayer of the Mass as a "prayer for inward and
outward peace," and, giving it that title, organized it on the basis of
a contrast between terrible martial sounds and the triumph of peaceful
themes, in a scheme none the less spiritual and sublime because those
who first heard it had derived their notions of the horror of war from
living in Vienna during its bombardment. Critics who have lived in
London during the relief of Mafeking have blamed Beethoven for his
realism.
Schubert's Masses show rather the influence of Beethoven's not very
impressive first Mass, which they easily surpass in interest, though
they rather pathetically show an ignorance of the meaning of the Latin
words. The last two Masses are later than Beethoven's Mass in D and
contain many remarkable passages. It is evident from them that a
dramatic treatment of the _Agnus Dei_ was "in the air"; all the more so,
since Schubert does not imitate Beethoven's realism.
4. _Lutheran Masses._--Music with Latin words is not excluded from the
Lutheran Church, and the _Kyrie_ and _Gloria_ are frequently sung in
succession and entitled a Mass. Thus the _Four Short Masses_ of Bach are
called short, not because they are on a small scale, which is far from
being the case, but because they consist only of the _Kyrie_ and
_Gloria_. Bach's method is to treat each clause of his text as a
separate movement, alternating choruses with groups of arias; a method
which was independently adopted by Mozart in those larger masses in
which he transcends the Neapolitan type, such as the great unfinished
Mass in C minor. This method, in the case of an entire Mass, results in
a length far too great for a Roman Catholic service; and Bach's B minor
Mass, which is such a setting of the entire test, must be regarded as a
kind of oratorio. It thus has obviously nothing to do with the Roman
liturgy; but as an independent setting of the text it is one of the most
sublime and profoundly religious works in all art; and its singular
perfection as a design is nowhere more evident than in its numerous
adaptations of earlier works.
The most interesting of all these adaptations is the setting of the
words: "Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum et vitam venturi
saeculi.--AMEN." Obviously the greatest difficulty in any elaborate
instrumental setting of the _Credo_ is the inevitable anti-climax after
the _Resurrexit_. Bach contrives to give this anti-climax a definite
artistic value; all the more from the fact that his _Crucifixus_ and
_Resurrexit_, and the contrast between them, are among the most sublime
and directly impressive things in all music. To the end of his
_Resurrexit_ chorus he appends an orchestral _ritornello_, summing up
the material of the chorus in the most formal possible way, and thereby
utterly destroying all sense of finality as a member of a large group,
while at the same time not in the least impairing the force and contrast
of the whole--that contrast having ineffaceably asserted itself at the
moment when it occurred. After this the aria "Et in spiritum sanctum,"
in which the next dogmatic clauses are enshrined like relics in a
casket, furnishes a beautiful decorative design on which the listener
can repose his mind; and then comes the voluminous ecclesiastical fugue,
_Confiteor unum baptisma_, leading, as through the door and world-wide
spaces of the Catholic Church, to that veil which is not all darkness to
the eye of faith. At the words "Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum" the
music plunges suddenly into a slow series of some of the most sublime
and mysterious modulations ever written, until it breaks out as suddenly
into a _vivace e allegro_ of broad but terse design, which comes to its
climax very rapidly and ends as abruptly as possible, the last chord
being carefully written as a short note without a pause. This gives the
utmost possible effect of finality to the whole _Credo_, and contrasts
admirably with the coldly formal instrumental end of the _Resurrexit_
three movements further back. Now, such subtleties seem as if they must
be unconscious on the part of the composer; yet here Bach is so far
aware of his reasons that his _vivace e allegro_ is an arrangement of
the second chorus of a church cantata, _Gott man lobet dich in der
Stille_; and in the cantata the chorus has introductory and final
symphonies and a middle section with a _da capo!_
5. _The Requiem._--The _Missa pro defunctis_ or _Requiem Mass_ has a far
less definite musical history than the ordinary Mass; and such special
musical forms as it has produced have little in common with each other.
The text of the _Dies Irae_ so imperatively demands either a very
dramatic elaboration or none at all, that even in the 16th century it
could not possibly be set to continuous music on the lines of the
_Gloria_ and _Credo_. Fortunately, however, the Gregorian _canto fermo_
associated with it is of exceptional beauty and symmetry; and the great
16th century masters either, like Palestrina, left it to be sung as
plain-chant, or obviated all occasion for dramatic expression by setting
it in versicles (like their settings of the _Magnificat_ and other
canticles) for two groups of voices alternatively, or for the choir in
alternation with the plain chant of the priests.
With modern orchestral conditions the text seems positively to demand an
unecclesiastical, not to say sensational, style, and probably the only
instrumental Requiem Masses which can be said to be great church music
are the sublime unfinished work of Mozart (the antecedents of which
would be a very interesting subject) and the two beautiful works by
Cherubini. These latter, however, tend to be funereal rather than
uplifting. The only other artistic solution of the problem is to follow
Berlioz, Verdi and Dvorák in the complete renunciation of all
ecclesiastical style.
Brahms's _Deutsches requiem_ has nothing to do with the Mass for the
dead, being simply a large choral work on a text compiled from the Bible
by the composer. (D. F. T.)
MASSA, a town of Tuscany, Italy, the joint capital with Carrara of the
province of Massa and Carrara, and sharing with it the episcopal see, 20
m. S.E. of Spezia by rail, 246 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901), 10,559
(town); 26,118 (commune). The Palazzo Ducale (now the prefecture) was
erected in 1701, and was a summer residence of Napoleon's sister, Elisa
Baciocchi, princess of Lucca, who caused the ancient cathedral opposite
to be destroyed. The hills round the town yield marble, and there is a
narrow-gauge railway to the Marina d'Avenza, where the marble is
shipped.
MASSACHUSETTS (an Indian name, originally applied to a tribe of
Indians), one of the original thirteen states of the American Union,
bounded on the N. by Vermont and New Hampshire, on the E. by the
Atlantic, on the S. by Rhode Island and Connecticut, and on the W. by
New York. It lies approximately between 41° 15´ and 42° 50´ N. lat. and
69° 55´ and 73° 30´ W. long. The bulk of its area--which is about 8266
sq. m. (of which 227 are water)--forms a parallelogram of 130 m. E. and
W., 46 m. N. and S., the additional area lying in a projection at the
S.E. and a lesser one at the N.E., which give the mainland a breadth of
90 m. where it borders upon the ocean, while the general irregularity of
the coast-line gives a sea frontage of about 250 m.
_Physical Features._--The east and south-east portions are in general
undulating or level, the central hilly and broken, and the west rugged
and mountainous. (For geological details see UNITED STATES: _Geology,
ad fin._) The Hoosac Hills (1200-1600 ft. high), separating the
valleys of the Housatonic and Connecticut, are a range of the
Berkshires, a part of the Appalachian system, and a continuation of
the Green Mountains of Vermont, and with the Taconic range on the west
side of the Housatonic Valley--of which the highest peaks are
Greylock, or "Saddleback" (3535 ft.), and Mt Williams (3040 ft.)--in
the extreme north-west corner of the state, form the only considerable
elevated land.[1] Bordering on the lowlands of the Connecticut, Mt Tom
(1214 ft.) and a few other hills (Mt Holyoke, 954 ft.; Mt Toby, 1275)
form conspicuous landmarks. East of this valley the country continues
more or less hilly and rocky, but the elevations eastward become
increasingly slight and of little consequence. Mt Lincoln (1246 ft.)
and especially Mt Wachusett (2108 ft.), to the east in a level
country, are very exceptional. The Blue Hills in Milton are the
nearest elevations to the coast, and are conspicuous to navigators
approaching Boston. The south-east corner of the state is a sandy
lowland, generally level with a slightly elevated ridge (Manomet)
south of Plymouth, and well watered by ponds.
With the exception of this corner, Massachusetts is a part of the
slanting upland that includes all of southern New England. This upland
is an uplifted peneplain of subaerial denudation,[2] now so far
advanced in a "second" cycle of weathering and so thoroughly dissected
that to an untrained eye it appears to be only a country of hills
confusedly arranged. The general contour of the upland, marked by a
remarkably even sky-line, is evident at almost every locality in the
state. In the nature and position of the upland rocks--mainly
crystalline schists and gneisses, excessively complicated and
disordered in mass, and also internally deformed--there is found
abundant proof that the peneplain is a degraded mountain region. The
upland is interrupted by the rivers, and on the coast by great
lowlands, and is everywhere marked by hills somewhat surmounting the
generally even skyline. Monadnock (in New Hampshire, near N.E.
Massachusetts), the Blue Hills near Boston, Greylock, in the
north-west, and Wachusett in the centre, are the most commanding
remnant-summits (known generically as "Monadnocks") of the original
mountain system. But in the derivant valley peneplains developed in
the present cycle of denudation, and there are residual summits also;
in the Connecticut Valley trap ridges, of which Mt Tom and Mt Holyoke
are the best examples; at Mt Holyoke, lava necks; occasionally in the
lowlands, ridges of resistant sandstone, like Deerfield Mountain near
Northampton; in the Berkshire Valley, summits of resistant schists,
like Greylock, the highest summit in the state. The larger streams
have cut their channels to very moderate gradients, but the smaller
ones are steeper. The Housatonic and Millers (and the Connecticut
also, but not in its course within Massachusetts alone) afford
beautiful examples of the dependence of valley breadth upon the strike
of soft or harder rocks across the stream. The Connecticut lowland is
cut from 5 to 18 m. wide in soft sandstones and shales. The glacial
era has left abundant evidences in the topography of the state. The
ice covered even the Monadnocks. Till drumlins, notably abundant on
the lowland about Boston and the highland near Spencer; morainic
hills, extending, e.g. all along Cape Cod; eskers, kames and river
terraces afford the plainest evidences of the extent of the glacial
sheet. The Berkshire country--Berkshire, Hampden, Hampshire and
Franklin counties--is among the most beautiful regions of the United
States. It is a rolling highland dominated by long, wooded
hill-ridges, remarkably even-topped in general elevation, intersected
and broken by deep valleys. Scores of charming lakes lie in the
hollows. The district is often called the Lake Region of America,
partly from the comparableness of its scenic beauties with the English
Lake Country (Matthew Arnold, however, wrote: "The country is pleasing
but not to be compared with Westmoreland. It is wider and opener, and
neither hills nor lakes are so effective."), and partly from the
parallelism of literary associations. It has become since 1850, and
especially in much more recent years, a favoured resort of summer
residents. Owing to topography, and also to the manner in which
Massachusetts was settled, the western counties were long connected
commercially more closely with New York than with Massachusetts, and
this territory was long in dispute between these two states.
The Connecticut is the most considerable stream, and is navigable by
small craft. Its valley, much the richest portion of the state
agriculturally, is celebrated for the quiet variety and beauty of its
scenery. The Housatonic, in portions placid, in others wild and rapid,
winding along the deflecting barrier of the Hoosac Hills, is the most
beautiful river of the state, despite the mercantile use of its
water-power. The Merrimac, the second stream of the state in volume,
runs in a charming valley through the extreme north-east corner, and
affords immensely valuable water-power at Lowell, Lawrence and
Haverhill.
South of Cohasset the shore is sandy, with a few isolated rocky ledges
and boulders. About Boston, and to the north of it, the shore is rocky
and picturesque. Cape Cod, like a human arm doubled at the elbow, 40
m. from shoulder to elbow and 30 from elbow to hand, is nowhere more
than a few miles broad. It is a sandy ridge, dotted with summer
resorts and cottages. Cape Ann has a rugged interior and a ragged,
rocky coast. It, too, is a summer recreation ground, with much
beautiful scenery. Boston Harbor (originally known as Massachusetts
Bay, a name which now has a much broader signification) is the finest
roadstead on the coast. The extreme hook of the Cape Cod Peninsula
forms Provincetown Harbor, which is an excellent and capacious port of
refuge for vessels approaching Boston. Salem Harbor is the most
considerable other haven on Massachusetts Bay; on Buzzard's Bay New
Bedford has a good harbour, and on the Atlantic coast are the
excellent harbours of Gloucester and Marblehead, both frequented by
summer residents. Gloucester has the largest fishery interests of any
place in the country, and is one of the chief fishing ports of the
world. Buzzard's Bay is also a popular yachting ground, and all about
its shores are towns of summer residence. Wood's Hole is a station of
the United States Bureau of Fisheries, and a marine biological
laboratory is there.
The principal islands lie off the south coast. The largest is Martha's
Vineyard, about 20 m. long, with an extreme breadth of about 9½ m. It
has in Vineyard Haven (Holmes's Hole) a spacious harbour, much
frequented by wind-bound vessels seeking a passage round Cape Cod. The
island is covered with stunted trees. Its population was formerly
dependent wholly upon the sea, but its climate has made it a popular
summer resort, Oak Bluffs being one of the chief resorts of the
Atlantic coast. Farther east, Nantucket, a smaller island of
triangular shape, is likewise the home of a seafaring folk who still
retain in some degree primitive habits, though summer visitors are
more and more affecting its life.
_Flora and Fauna._--Massachusetts lies entirely in the humid area of
the Transition life-zone, with the exception of the extreme
north-western corner of the state, which lies in the Boreal zone. Thus
the original native trees and plants were those common to New England
and northern New York. The presence of a dense population has driven
out some, and brought in others, including some noxious weeds. The
larger wild animals have disappeared, excepting an occasional black
bear or deer. Of the smaller fur-bearing animals, the beaver was long
ago exterminated, the otter is seen very rarely, and the mink only in
the most isolated districts; but foxes, skunks, weasels, musk-rats,
rabbits, and grey and red squirrels are not uncommon. Copperhead
snakes and rattlesnakes arc occasionally seen, and there are several
species of harmless serpents. Of game birds the most characteristic is
the partridge (ruffed grouse), exclusively a woodland bird; the
Wilson's snipe and the woodcock are not uncommon in favourable
localities, and several species of ducks are found especially in the
bays and marshes near the coast during the seasons of migration. A
stray eagle is sometimes seen. Very interesting to ornithologists are
the few heath hens, the eastern representative of the prairie hen
(pinnated grouse), which are found on the island of Martha's Vineyard,
and are the sole survivors in the eastern states of one of the finest
of American game birds, now practically exterminated even on the
western plains. There are many insectivorous birds; among the song
birds are the hermit thrush, the wood thrush, the Wilson's thrush, the
brown thrasher, the bobolink, the catbird, the oven bird, the house
wren, the song sparrow, the fox sparrow, the vesper sparrow, the
white-throated sparrow (Peabody bird), the gold-finch and the robin.
Brook trout are found, especially in the streams in the western part
of the state, and bass, pickerel, perch and smaller fish occur in the
rivers and other inland waters. Fish are so abundant on the coast that
the cod is sometimes used as an emblem of the state; thus a figure of
one hangs in the representatives' chamber at the State House. The
artificial propagation and preservation of salmon and other edible
fresh-water fish have been carried on successfully under the
supervision of a state commission. The commonwealth has expended large
sums since 1890 in a vain attempt to exterminate the gipsy moth
(_Ocneria_, or more exactly _Porthetria, dispar_), accidentally
allowed to escape in 1869 by a French naturalist.
_Climate._--The climate is trying, showing great extremes of
temperature (20° F. below zero to 100° above) and marked local
variations. The south-eastern coast and islands are mildest. The mean
average temperature of Boston is 48° F. In the interior it is slightly
lower. The mean summer temperature generally over the state is about
70° F. Changes are often sudden, and the passage from winter to summer
is through a rapid spring. The ocean tempers the climate considerably
on the seaboard. Boston Harbor has been frozen over in the past, but
steamtugs plying constantly now prevent the occurrence of such
obstruction. In the elevated region in the west the winters are
decidedly severe, and the springs and summers often late and cold.
Williamstown has a winter mean of about 23° F. The yearly
precipitation is about 39 to 45 in., decreasing inland, and is evenly
distributed throughout the year. Fogs are common on the coast, and
east wind drizzles; the north-east winds being the weather bane of
spring and late autumn. In the summer and the autumn the weather is
commonly fine, and often most beautiful; and especially in the
Berkshires a cool, pure and elastic atmosphere prevails, relatively
dry, and altogether delightful.
_Agriculture._--The soil, except in some of the valleys, is not
naturally fertile; and sandy wastes are common in the south-east
parts. High cultivation, however, has produced valuable market-gardens
about Boston and the larger towns; and industry has made tillage
remunerative in most other parts. The gross value of agricultural
products is not great compared with that of other industries, but they
are of great importance in the economy of the state. The total value
of farm property in 1900 was $182,646,704, including livestock valued
at $15,798,464. Of the increase in the total value of farm property
between 1850 and 1900 more than half was in the decade 1890-1900; this
increase being due partly to the rising value of suburban realty, but
also to a development of intensive farming that has been very marked
since 1880. The total value of farm products in 1899 was $42,298,274
(expenditure for fertilizers $1,320,600); crops representing 54.7 and
animal products 45.3% of this total. The leading crops and their
percentages of the total crop value were hay and forage (39.1%),
vegetables (23.9%), fruits and nuts (11.7%), forest products (8.4%),
and flowers and plants (7.1%). Of the animal products 67.3% were dairy
products, and 20.8% poultry and eggs. Cereals[3] have been for many
years declining, although Indian corn is a valuable subsidiary to the
dairy interest, which is the most thriving farm industry. The value of
farms on which dairying was the chief source of income in 1900 was 46%
of the total farm value of the state; the corresponding percentages
for livestock, vegetables, hay and grain, flowers and plants, fruit
and tobacco, being respectively 14.6, 10.2, 8.0, 4.2, 3.2, and 1.8%.
The shrinkage of cereal crops has been mainly responsible for the idea
that Massachusetts is agriculturally decadent. Parallel to this
shrinkage was the decrease in ranging sheep (82.0% from 1850-1900;
34.2% from 1890-1900), and cattle, once numerous in the hill counties
of the west, and in the Connecticut Valley; Boston, then ranking after
London as the second wool market of the world, and being at one time
the chief packing centre of the country. Dairy cows increased,
however, from 1850 to 1900 by 41.9% (1890-1900, 7.3%). The amount of
improved farmland decreased in the same period 39.4%, decreasing even
more since 1880 than earlier, and amounting in 1900 to no more than
25.1% of the area of the state; but this decrease has been compensated
by increased value of products, especially since the beginning of
intensive agriculture. An unusual density of urban settlement,
furnishing excellent home markets and transportation facilities, are
the main props of this new interest. Worcester and Middlesex counties
are agriculturally foremost. Tobacco, which has been cultivated since
colonial times, especially since the Civil War, is grown exclusively
in the Connecticut Valley or on its borders. In the swamps and bogs of
the south-east coast cranberry culture is practised, this district
producing in 1900 three-fifths of the entire yield of the United
States. "Abandoned farms" (aggregating, in 1890, 3.4% of the total
farm area, and 6.85% in Hampshire county) are common, especially in
the west and south-east.
_Mines and Mining._--Granite is the chief mineral, and granite
quarrying is the principal mineral industry of the state. In 1900 the
value of manufactures based primarily upon the products of mines and
quarries was $196,930,979, or 19% of the state's total manufactured
product. In 1906 Massachusetts led all states in the value of its
granite output, but in 1907 and 1908 it was second to Vermont. The
value of the product (including a small output of igneous rocks) was
in 1903, $2,351,027; 1904, $2,554,748; 1905, $2,251,319; 1906,
$3,327,416; 1907, $2,328,777; 1908, $2,027,463.
Granite boulders were used for construction in Massachusetts as early
as 1650. Systematic quarrying of siliceous crystalline rocks in New
England began at Quincy in about 1820. The Gloucester quarries, opened
in 1824, were probably the next to be worked regularly. The principal
granite quarries are in Milford, (Worcester county), Quincy and Milton
(Norfolk county), Rockport (Essex county) and Becket (Berkshire
county). Of the fourteen quarries of "Milford granite," twelve are in
the township of that name, and two in Hopkinton township, Middlesex
county. B. K. Emerson and J. H. Perry classify this granite as
post-Cambrian. They describe it[4] as "a compact, massive rock,
somewhat above medium grain, and of light colour. The light flesh
colour of the feldspar, and the blue of the quartz give it in some
places a slight pinkish tint, and it is now much used as a
building-stone under the name of 'pink granite.'"
The Quincy granite district lies around the north-east end of the Blue
Hill region, about 11 m. south of Boston. For monumental purposes this
granite is classified as "medium," "dark," and "extra dark." Quincy
granite takes a very high polish, owing to the absence of mica and to
the coarser cleavage of its hornblende and augite. The lightest of the
monumental stone quarried at Quincy is called gold-leaf; it is
bluish-green gray, speckled with black and light yellow brown. Another
variety has small, rather widely separated cherry-red dots.
The Rockport granite is found along or near the seashore, between
Rockport and Bay View, and within about three-quarters of a mile of
Cape Ann. The granite is of two kinds, known commercially as "grey
granite" and "green granite." Both varieties are hard and take a very
high polish.
The Becker granite (known as "Chester dark" and "Chester light") is a
muscovite-biotite granite varying from medium grey to medium bluish
grey colour, and fine in texture. It is used principally for
monuments.
In 1907 Massachusetts ranked sixth among the states in the value of
its trap rock product ($432,604), and eighth in sandstone ($243,328).
The value of the marble produced in the same year was $212,438, the
state ranking fifth in the value of the total product and fourth in
building-marble. Other minerals are emery, limestone and quartz. The
state ranked fifth in 1906 in the total value of stone quarried
($4,333,616), and eighth in 1908 ($2,955,195). The output of lime in
1908 was 107,813 tons, valued at $566,022. Second in value to the
various stones were the clay products of the state, which were valued
in 1906 at $2,172,733 (of which $1,415,864 was the value of common
brick) and in 1908 at $1,647,362 (of which $950,921 was the value of
common brick). There are many mineral springs in the state, more than
half being in Essex and Middlesex counties. The total amount of
mineral waters sold in 1908 was valued at $227,907. In that year the
total value of the minerals and mining products of the state was
$5,925,949. Gold has been found in small quantities in Middlesex,
Norfolk and Plymouth counties.
_Manufactures._--Though only four states of the Union are smaller,
only three exceeded Massachusetts in 1905 in the value of manufactured
products (six exceeding it in population); and this despite very scant
native resources of raw materials and a very limited home market.
Historical priority of development, exceptionally extensive and well
utilized water-power, and good transportation facilities are largely
responsible for the exceptional rank of Massachusetts as a
manufacturing state. Vast water-power is developed on the Merrimac at
Lawrence and Lowell, and on the Connecticut at South Hadley, and to a
less extent at scores of other cities on many streams and artificial
ponds; many of the machines that have revolutionized industrial
conditions since the beginning of the factory system have been
invented by Massachusetts men; and the state contains various
technical schools of great importance. In 1900 the value of
manufactures was $1,035,198,989, an increase from 1890 of 16.6%; that
from 1880 to 1890 having been 40.7%. In textiles--cottons, worsteds,
woollens and carpets--in boots and shoes, in rubber foot-wear, in fine
writing paper, and in other minor products, it is the leading state of
the country. The textile industries (the making of carpets and rugs,
cotton goods, cotton smallwares, dyeing and finishing textiles, felt
goods, felt hats, hosiery and knit goods, shoddy, silk and silk goods,
woollen goods, and worsted goods), employed 32.5% of all manufacturing
wage earners in 1905, and their product ($271,369,816) was 24.1% of
the total, and of this nearly one-half ($129,171,449) was in cotton
goods, being 28.9% of the total output of the country, as compared
with 11% for South Carolina, the nearest competitor of Massachusetts.
There is a steadily increasing product of fine grade fabrics. The
output of worsted goods in 1905 ($51,973,944) was more than
three-tenths that of the entire country, Rhode Island being second
with $44,477,596; in Massachusetts the increase in the value of this
product was 28.2% between 1900 and 1905. The value of woollen goods in
1905 ($44,653,940) was more than three-tenths of the entire product
for the country; and it was 44.6% more than that of 1900. The value of
boots and shoes and cut stock in 1905 was $173,612,660, being 23%
greater than in 1900; the value of boots and shoes in 1905
($144,291,426) was 45.1% of the country's output, that of New York,
the second state, being only 10.7%. In this industry, as in the
manufacture of cotton goods, Massachusetts has long been without
serious rivalry; Brockton, Lynn, Haverhill, Marlboro and Boston, in
the order named, being the principal centres. The third industry in
1905 was that of foundry and machine-shop products ($58,508,793), of
which Boston and Worcester are the principal centres. Lesser
interests, in the order of importance, with the product value of each
in 1905, were: rubber goods ($53,133,020), tanned, curried and
finished leather ($33,352,999), in the manufacture of which
Massachusetts ranked second among the states; paper and wood pulp[5]
($32,012,247), in the production of which the state ranked second
among the states of the Union; slaughtering and meat packing
($30,253,838); printing and publishing ($33,900,748, of which
$21,020,237 was the value of newspapers and periodicals); clothing
($21,724,056); electrical machinery, apparatus and supplies
($15,882,216); lumber ($12,636,329); iron and steel, steel works and
rolling-mills products ($11,947,731; less than in 1900); cordage and
twine ($11,173,521), in the manufacture of which Massachusetts was
second only to New York; furniture ($11,092,581); malt liquors
($11,080,944); jewelry ($10,073,595), Massachusetts ranking second to
Rhode Island; confectionery ($9,317,996), in which Massachusetts was
third among the states.
[Illustration: Map of Massachusetts.]
Many of these industries have a history going back far into colonial
times, some even dating from the first half of the 17th century.
Textile products were really varied and of considerable importance
before 1700. The policy of the British government towards such
industries in the colonial period was in general repressive. The
non-importation sentiment preceding the War of Independence fostered
home manufactures considerably, and the Embargo and Non-Intercourse
Acts before the war of 1812, as well as that war itself (despite the
subsequent glut of British goods) had a much greater effect; for they
mark the introduction of the factory system, which by 1830 was firmly
established in the textile industry and was rapidly transforming other
industries. Improvements were introduced much more slowly than in
England, the cost of cotton machinery as late as 1826 being 50-60%
greater in America. The first successful power loom in America was set
up at Waltham in 1814. Carding, roving and spinning machines were
constructed at Bridgewater in 1786. The first cotton mill had been
established in Beverly in 1788, and the first real woollen factory at
Byfield in 1794. Woolcard machinery destined to revolutionize the
industry was devised by Amos Whittemore (1759-1828) in 1797; spinning
jennies were in operation under water-power before 1815.
Carpet-weaving was begun at Worcester in 1804. "Not a yard of fancy
wool fabric had ever been woven by the power-loom in any country till
done by William Crompton at the Middlesex Mills, Lowell, in 1840"
(Samuel Lawrence).[6] The introduction of the remarkably complete
machinery of the shoe industry was practically complete by 1865, this
being the last of the great industries to come under the full
dominance of machinery. At Pittsfield and at Dalton is centred the
manufacture of fine writing papers, including that of paper used by
the national government for bonds and paper money. Four-fifths of all
loft-dried paper produced in the country from 1860-1897 was made
within 15 m. of Springfield; Holyoke and South Hadley being the
greatest producers. Vulcanized rubber is a Massachusetts invention.
Most of the imitation jewelry of the United States is produced at
Attleboro and North Attleboro, and in Providence, Rhode Island. In
1905 Boston produced 16.4% of all the manufactures of the state, and
Lynn, the second city, which had been fifth in 1900, 4.9%. Some
industries which have since become dead or of relatively slight
magnitude were once of much greater significance, economically or
socially: such as the rum-distilling connected with the colonial slave
trade, and various interests concerned with shipbuilding and
navigation. The packing of pork and beef formerly centred in Boston;
but, while the volume of this business has not diminished, it has been
greatly exceeded in the west. For many years Massachusetts controlled
a vast lumber trade, drawing upon the forests of Maine, but the growth
of the west changed the old channels of trade, and Boston carpenters
came to make use of western timber. It was between 1840 and 1850 that
the cotton manufactures of Massachusetts began to assume large
proportions; and about the same time the manufacture of boots and
shoes centred there. Medford ships began to be famous shortly after
the beginning of the 19th century, and by 1845 that town employed one
quarter of all the shipwrights in the state.
Fishing is an important industry. Drift whales were utilized in the
earliest years of the colony, and shore boating for the baleen (or
"right") whale--rich in bone and in blubber yielding common oil--was
an industry already regulated by various towns before 1650; but the
pursuit of the sperm whale did not begin until about 1713. The former
industry had died out before the War of Independence; the latter is
not yet quite extinct. Nantucket and New Bedford were the centres of
the whaling trade, which, for the energy and skill required and the
length (three to five years when sailing vessels were employed) of the
ever-widening voyages which finally took the fishermen into every
quarter of the globe, contributes the most romantic chapters in the
history of American commerce. At one time it gave occupation to a
thousand ships, but the introduction of petroleum gradually diminished
this resource of the lesser ports. The Newfoundland Bank fisheries
were of greater economic importance and are still very important.
Gloucester is the chief centre of the trade. The value of fishery
products in 1895 was $5,703,143, and in 1905 $7,025,249; and 15,694
persons were engaged in the fisheries. Though cod is much the most
important fish (in 1905 fresh cod were valued at $991,679, and salted
cod at $696,928), haddock (fresh, $1,051,910; salted, $17,194),
mackerel (value in 1905, including horse mackerel, $970,876), herring
(fresh, $266,699; salted, $114,997), pollock ($267,927), hake
($258,438), halibut ($218,232), and many other varieties are taken in
great quantities. The shell fisheries are less important than those of
Maine.
_Commerce._--Already by 1660 New England products were an "important
element in the commerce and industries of the mother country"
(Weeden). Codfish was perhaps the truest basis of her commerce, which
soon came to include the West Indies, Africa and southern Europe. Of
fundamental importance was the trade with the French West Indies,
licit and illicit, particularly after the Peace of Utrecht (1713).
Provisions taken to Newfoundland, poor fish to the West Indies,
molasses to New England, rum to Africa and good cod to France and
Spain, were the commonest ventures of foreign trade. The English
Navigation Acts were generally evaded, and were economically of little
effect; politically they were of great importance in Massachusetts as
a force that worked for independence. Privateering, piracy and
slave-trading--which though of less extent than in Rhode Island became
early of importance, and declined but little before the American War
of Independence--give colour to the history of colonial trade.
Trade with China and India from Salem was begun in 1785 (first voyage
from New York, 1784), and was first controlled there, and afterwards
in Boston till the trade was lost to New York. The Boston trade to the
Canadian north-west coast was begun in 1788. The first regular
steamship line from Boston to other American Atlantic ports was
established in 1824. In commercial relations the chief port of
Massachusetts attained its greatest importance about 1840, when it was
selected as the American terminus of the first steamship line (Cunard)
connecting Great Britain with the United States; but Boston lost the
commercial prestige then won by the failure of the state to promote
railway communication with the west, so as to equal the development
effected by other cities. The decline of commerce, however, had
already begun, manufacturing supplanting it in importance; and this
decline was rapid by 1850. From 1840 to 1860 Massachusetts-built ships
competed successfully in the carrying trade of the world. Before 1840
a ship of 500 tons was a large ship, but after the discovery of gold
in California the size of vessels increased rapidly and their lines
were more and more adapted to speed. The limit of size was reached in
an immense clipper of 4555 tons, and the greatest speed was attained
in a passage from San Francisco to Boston in seventy-five days, and
from San Francisco to Cork in ninety-three days. The development of
steam navigation for the carrying of large cargoes has driven this
fleet from the sea. Only a small part of the exports and imports of
Massachusetts is now carried in American bottoms.[7] The first grain
elevator built in Boston, and one of the first in the world, was
erected in 1843, when Massachusetts sent Indian corn to Ireland. When
the Civil War and steam navigation put an end to the supremacy of
Massachusetts wooden sailing ships, much of the capital which had been
employed in navigation was turned into developing railway facilities
and coasting steamship lines. In 1872 the great fire in Boston made
large drains upon the capital of the state, and several years of
depression followed. But in 1907 Boston was the second port of the
United States in the magnitude of its foreign commerce. In that year
the value of imports at the Boston-Charlestown customs district was
$123,411,168, and the value of exports was $104,610,908; for 1909 the
corresponding figures were $127,025,654 and $72,936,869. Other ports
of entry in the state in 1909 were Newburyport, Gloucester, Salem,
Marblehead, Plymouth, Barnstable, Nantucket, Edgartown, New Bedford
and Fall River. A protective tariff was imposed in early colonial
times and protection was generally approved in the state until toward
the close of the 19th century, when a strong demand became apparent
for reciprocity with Canada and for tariff reductions on the raw
materials (notably hides) of Massachusetts manufactures.
At the end of 1908 the length of railway lines within the state was
2,109.33 miles. The Hoosac Tunnel, 5¾ m. long, pierces the Hoosac
Mountain in the north-west corner of the state, affording a
communication with western lines. It cost about $20,000,000, the state
lending its credit, and was built between 1855 and 1874. The
inter-urban electric railways are of very great importance in the
state; in 1908 the total mileage of street and inter-urban electric
railways was 2841.59 m. (2233.85 m. being first main track). The Cape
Cod canal, 12 m. long, from Sandwich on Barnstable Bay to Buzzard's
Bay, was begun in June 1909, with a view to shortening the distance by
water from Boston to New York and eliminating the danger of the voyage
round Cape Cod.
_Population._--The population of the state in 1910 was 3,366,416, the
increases in successive decades after 1790 being respectively 11.6,
11.6, 11.9, 16.6, 20.9, 34.8, 23.8, 18.4, 22.4, 25.6, 25.3 and 20%.[8]
With the exception of Rhode Island, it is the most densely populated
state in the Union, the average number to the square mile in 1900 being
349 (in 1910, 418.8), and the urban population, i.e. the population of
places having above 8000 or more inhabitants, being 69.9% in 1890 and in
1900 76.0% of the total population (in places above 2500, 91.5%; in
places above 25,000, 58.3%). The female population is greater (and has
been since 1765, at least) than the male, the percentage being in 1900
greater than in any other state of the Union (51.3%; District of
Columbia, owing to clerks in government service 52.6%). In 1900 less
than 1.3% of the population was coloured; 30.2% were foreign-born (this
element having almost continuously risen from 16.49% in 1855), and 62.3%
of all inhabitants and 46.5% of those native-born had one or both
parents of foreign birth. Ireland contributed the largest proportion of
the foreign-born (29.5%), although since 1875 the proportion of Irish in
the total population has considerably fallen. After the Irish the
leading foreign elements are Canadian English (18.7%), Canadian French
(15.8%) and English (9.7%), these four constituting three-fourths of the
foreign population. Since 1885 the natives of southern Italy have
greatly increased in number. Of the increase in total population from
1856-1895 only a third could be attributed to the excess of births over
deaths; two-thirds being due to immigration from other states or from
abroad. Boston is the second immigrant port of the country. A large part
of the transatlantic immigrants pass speedily to permanent homes in the
west, but by far the greater part of the Canadian influx remains.
According to the census of 1910 there were 32 incorporated cities[9]
in Massachusetts, of which 6 had between 12,000 and 20,000
inhabitants; 3 between 20,000 and 25,000 (Gloucester, Medford and
North Adams); 11 between 25,000 and 50,000 (Maiden, Haverhill, Salem,
Newton, Fitchburg, Taunton, Everett, Quincy, Pittsfield, Waltham,
Chicopee); 7 between 50,000 and 100,000 (New Bedford, Lynn,
Springfield, Lawrence, Somerville, Holyoke, Brockton); and 5 more than
100,000 (Boston, 670,585; Worcester, 145,986; Fall River, 119,295;
Lowell, 106,294; Cambridge, 104,839).
Taking quinquennial periods from 1856-1905 the birth-rates were 29.5,
25.3, 26.0, 27.6, 24.2, 25.0, 25.8, 27.6, 27.0 and 24.2 per 1,000; and
the death-rates 17.7, 20.7, 18.2, 20.8, 18.8, 19.8, 19.4, 19.8, 18.0
and 16.4.[10] Pneumonia and consumption, approximately of equal
fatality (15 to 18 per 10,000 each), exceed more than twofold the
diseases of next lower fatality, cancer and cholera infantum.
Of males (1,097,581) engaged in 1900 in gainful occupations 47.1% were
engaged in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits (77.9 in every 100 in
1870 and 73 in 1900), 27.1 in trade and transportation, 14.2 in
domestic and personal service, 7.4 in agricultural pursuits and 4.2 in
professional service. The corresponding percentages for females
(1,169,467) were 46.4 in manufacturing (in 1890, 52%), 32.3 in
domestic and personal service, 13.6 in trade and transportation, 7.1
in professional service and 0.6 in agriculture. Formerly farmers'
daughters of native stock were much employed in factories; but since
operatives of foreign birth or parentage have in great part taken
their places, they have sought other occupations, largely in the
manufacture of small wares in the cities, and particularly in
departments of trade where skilled labour is essential. Household
service is seldom now done, as it formerly was, by women of native
stock. The federal census of 1900 showed that of every 100 persons
employed for gain only 37.5% were of native descent (that is, had a
native-born father). Natives heavily predominated in agriculture and
the professions, slightly in trade, and held barely more than half of
all governmental positions; but in transportation, personal service,
manufactures, labour and domestic service, the predominance of the
foreign element warranted the assertion of the state Bureau of
Statistics of Labour that "the strong industrial condition of
Massachusetts has been secured and is held not by the labour of what
is called the 'native stock,' but by that of the immigrants." After
the original and exclusively English immigration from 1620 to 1640
there was nothing like regular foreign immigration until the 19th
century; and it was a favourite assertion of Dr Palfrey that the blood
of the fishing folk on Cape Cod was more purely English through two
centuries than that of the inhabitants of any English county.
With foreign immigration the strength of the Roman Catholic Church has
greatly increased: in 1906 of every 1000 of estimated population 355
were members of the Roman Catholic Church (a proportion exceeded only
in New Mexico and in Rhode Island; 310 was the number per 1000 in
Louisiana), and only 148 were communicants of Protestant bodies; in
1906 there were 1,080,706 Roman Catholics (out of a total of 1,562,621
communicants of all denominations), 119,196 Congregationalists, 80,894
Baptists, 65,498 Methodists and 51,636 Protestant Episcopalians.
Reference has been made to "abandoned farms" in Massachusetts. The
desertion of farms was an inevitable result of the opening of the
great cereal regions of the west, but it is by no means characteristic
of Massachusetts alone. The Berkshire district affords an excellent
example of the interrelations of topography, soil and population. Many
hill towns once thriving have long since become abandoned, desolate
and comparatively inaccessible; though with the development of the
summer resident's interests many will probably eventually regain
prosperity. Almost half of the highland towns reached their maximum
population before the opening of the 19th century, although Berkshire
was scarcely settled till after 1760, and three-fourths of them before
1850. On the other hand three-fourths of the lowland towns reached
their maximum since that date, and half of them since 1880. The
lowland population increased six and a half times in the century, the
upland diminished by an eighth. Socially and educationally the upland
has furnished an interesting example of decadence. Since 1865 (at
least) various parts of Cape Cod have shrunk greatly in population,
agriculture and manufactures, and even in fishing interests; this
reconstruction of industrial and social interests being, apparently,
simply part of the general urban movement--a movement toward better
opportunities. What prosperity or stability remains in various Cape
Cod communities is largely due to foreign immigrants--especially
British-Americans and Portuguese from the Azores; although the
population remains, to a degree exceptional in northern states, of
native stock.
_Government._--Representative government goes back to 1634, and the
bicameral legislature to 1644. The constitution of 1780, which still
endures (the only remaining state constitution of the 18th century), was
framed in the main by Samuel Adams, and as an embodiment of colonial
experience and revolutionary principles, and as a model of
constitution-making in the early years of independence, is of very great
historical interest. It has been amended with considerable freedom (37
amendments up to 1907), but with more conservatism than has often
prevailed in the constitutional reform of other states; so that the
constitution of Massachusetts is not so completely in harmony with
modern democratic sentiment as are the public opinion and statute law of
the state. The commonwealth, for example, is still denominated
"sovereign," and education is not declared a constitutional duty of the
commonwealth. One unique feature is the duty of the supreme court to
give legal advice, on request, to the governor and council. Another
almost equally exceptional feature is the persistence of the colonial
executive council, consisting of members chosen to represent divisions
of the state, who assist the governor in his executive functions.
Massachusetts is also one of the few states in which the legislature
meets in annual session.[11] Townships were represented as such in this
body (called the General Court) until 1856. Religious qualifications for
suffrage and office-holding were somewhat relaxed, except in the case of
Roman Catholics, after 1691.[12] Real toleration in public opinion grew
slowly through the 18th century, removing the religious tests of voters;
and a constitutional amendment in 1821 explicitly forbade such tests in
the case of office-holders. Property qualifications for the suffrage and
for office-holding--universal through colonial times--were abolished in
the main in 1780. From 1821 to 1891 the payment of at least a poll-tax
was a condition precedent to the exercise of the suffrage. An
educational test (dating from 1857) is exacted for the privilege of
voting, every voter being required to be able to read the constitution
of the commonwealth in the English language, and to write his name. The
property qualification of the governor was not abolished until 1892. In
the presidential election of 1896, when an unprecedentedly large vote
was cast, the number of voters registered was nearly 20% of the
population, and of these nearly 82% actually voted. Massachusetts is one
of the only two states in the Union in which elections for state
officers are held annually. In 1888 an act was passed providing for the
use in state elections of a blanket ballot, on which the names of all
candidates for each office are arranged alphabetically under the heading
of that office, and there is no arrangement in party columns. This was
the first state law of the kind in the country. The same method of
voting has been adopted in about two-thirds of the townships of the
state. A limited suffrage was conferred upon women in 1879. Every female
citizen having the qualifications of a male voter may vote in the city
and town elections for members of the school committee.
A householder with a family may, by recording the proper declaration
in a registry of deeds, hold exempt from attachment, levy on
execution, and sale for the payment of debts thereafter contracted an
estate of homestead, not exceeding $800 in value, in a farm or lot
with buildings thereon which he lawfully possesses by lease or
otherwise and occupies as his residence. The exemption does not
extend, however, to the prohibition of sale for taxes, and in case the
householder's buildings are on land which he has leased those
buildings are not exempt from sale or levy for the ground rent. If the
householder has a wife he can mortgage or convey his estate of
homestead only with her consent, and if he dies leaving a widow or
minor children the homestead exemption survives until the youngest
child is twenty-one years of age, or until the death or marriage of
the widow, provided the widow or a child continues to occupy it.
The scope of state activity has become somewhat remarkable. In
addition to the usual state boards of education (1837), agriculture
(1852), railroad commissioners (1869), health (1869), statistics of
labour, fisheries and game, charity (1879), the dairy bureau (1891),
of insanity (1898), prison, highways, insurance and banking
commissions, there are also commissions on ballot-law, voting
machines, civil service (1884), uniformity of legislation, gas and
electric lighting corporations, conciliation and arbitration in labour
disputes (1886), &c. There are efficient state boards of registration
in pharmacy, dentistry and medicine. Foods and drugs have been
inspected since 1882. In general it may be said that the excellence of
administrative results is noteworthy. The work of the Bureau of
Statistics of Labor, of the Bureau of Health, of the Board of Railroad
Commissioners, and of the Board of Conciliation and Arbitration, and
the progress of civil service, have been remarkable for value and
efficiency. Almost all state employees are under civil service rules;
the same is true of the city of Boston; and of the clerical,
stenographic, prison, police, civil engineering, fire, labour-foreman,
inspection and bridge tender services of all cities; and under a law
(1894) by which cities and towns may on petition enlarge the
application of their civil service rules. Various other public
services, including even common labourers of the larger towns, are
rapidly passing under civil service regulation. Veterans of the Civil
War have privileges in the administration of the state service. In the
settlement of labour disputes conciliatory methods were successful in
the formative period, when the parties to disputes adopted customary
attitudes of hostility and fought to the end unless they were
reconciled by the Board to a final agreement or to an agreement to
arbitrate.[13] In this earlier period (before 1900), thanks to the
efforts of the board there was an increase in the frequency of appeal
to arbitration, and settlements by compromise were often made.
Afterwards the number of arbitrations by the board increased in
number: from 1900 to 1908 (inclusive), of 568 controversies submitted
to the board, 525 were settled by an award and 43 by an induced
agreement. In the same period the mediation of the Board settled
disputes affecting 5560 establishments; and in the latter half of this
period labour disputes involving hostilities and of the magnitude
contemplated by the statute governing the Board of Conciliation and
Arbitration had almost disappeared. The laws relating to labour are
full, but, as compared with those of other states, present few
features calling for comment.[14] In 1899 eight hours were made to
constitute a day's work for all labourers employed by or for any city
or town adopting the act at an annual election. Acts have been passed
extending the common-law liability of employers, prohibiting the
manufacture and sale of sweat-shop clothing, and authorizing cities
and towns to provide free lectures and to maintain public baths,
gymnasia and playgrounds. Boston has been a leader in the
establishment of municipal baths. The state controls and largely
maintains two beaches magnificently equipped near the city. The
Massachusetts railroad commission, though preceded in point of time by
that of New Hampshire of 1844, was the real beginning of modern state
commissions. Its powers do not extend to direct and mandatory
regulation, being supervisory and advisory only, but it can make
recommendations at its discretion, appealing if necessary to the
General Court; and it has had great influence and excellent results.
The Torrens system of land registration was adopted in 1898, and a
court created for its administration. In the case of all quasi-public
corporations rigid laws exist prohibiting the issue of stock or bonds
unless the par value is first paid in; prohibiting the declaration of
any stock or scrip dividend, and requiring that new stock shall be
offered to stockholders at not less than its market value, to be
determined by the proper state officials, any shares not so subscribed
for to be sold by public auction. These laws are to prevent fictitious
capitalization and "stock-watering." In the twenty years preceding
1880 60% of all sentences for crime were found traceable to liquor. In
1881 a local option law was passed, by which the granting of licences
for the sale of liquor was confined to cities and towns voting at the
annual election to authorize their issue. In 1888 the number of
licences to be granted in municipalities voting in favour of their
issue was limited to one for each 1000 inhabitants, except in Boston,
where one licence may be issued for every 500 inhabitants. The vote
varies from year to year, and it is not unusual for a certain number
of municipalities to change from "licence" to "no licence," and vice
versa. The general result has been that centres of population,
especially where the foreign element is large, usually vote for
licence, while those in which native population predominates, as well
as the smaller towns, usually vote for prohibition. Through a growing
acquiescence in the operation of the local option law, the relative
importance of the vote of the Prohibition Party has diminished. Since
1895 indeterminate sentences have been imposed on all convicts
sentenced to the state prison otherwise than for life or as habitual
criminals; i.e. maximum and minimum terms are established by law and
on the expiration of the latter a revocable permit of liberty may be
issued. Execution by electricity has been the death penalty since
1898. Stringent legislation controls prison labour.
The extension of state activity presents some surprising features in
view of the strength of local self-sufficiency nurtured by the old
system of township government. But this form of pure democracy was in
various cases long since inevitably abandoned: by Boston reluctantly
in 1822, and subsequently by many other townships or cities, as
growing population made action in town meeting unbearably cumbersome.
In modern times state activity has encroached on the cities.
Especially has the commonwealth undertaken certain noteworthy
enterprises as the agent of the several municipalities in the
immediate vicinity of Boston, constituting what is known as the
Metropolitan District; as, for example, in bringing water thither from
the Nashua River at Clinton, 40 m. from Boston, and in the development
of a magnificent park system of woods, fells, river-banks and
seashore, unrivalled elsewhere in the country. The commonwealth joined
the city of Boston in the construction of a subway beneath the most
congested portion of the city for the passage of electric cars. For
the better accommodation of the increasing commerce of the port of
Boston, the commonwealth bought a considerable frontage upon the
harbour lines and constructed a dock capable of receiving the largest
vessels, and has supplemented the work of the United States government
in deepening the approaches to the wharves. It has secured as public
reservations the summit and sides of Greylock (3535 ft.) in the
north-west corner of the state, and of Wachusett (2108 ft.) near the
centre. Since 1885 a large expenditure has been incurred in the
abolition of grade crossings of railways and highways,[15] and in 1894
the commonwealth began the construction and maintenance of state
highways.[16]
Since 1885, in Boston, and since 1894, in Fall River, the
administration of the city police departments, including the granting
of liquor licences, has been in the hands of state commissioners (one
commissioner in Boston, a board in Fall River) appointed by the
governor. But though in each case the result has been an improved
administration, it has been generally conceded that only most
exceptional circumstances can justify such interference with local
self-government, and later attempts to extend the practice have
failed. The referendum has been sparingly used in matters of local
concern. Beginning in 1892 various townships and cities, numbering 18
in 1903, adopted municipal ownership and operation of lighting works.
The gasworks have been notably more successful than the electric
plants.
In Massachusetts, as in New England generally, the word "town" is
used, officially and colloquially, to designate a township, and during
the colonial era the New England town-meeting was a notable school for
education in self-government. The members of the first group of
settlers in these colonies were mostly small farmers, belonged to the
same church, and dwelt in a village for protection from the Indians.
They adapted to these conditions some of the methods for managing
local affairs with which they had been familiar in England, and called
the resultant institution a town. The territorial extent of each town
was determined by its grant or grants from the general court, which
the towns served as agents in the management of land. A settlement or
"plantation" was sometimes incorporated first as a "district" and
later as a town, the difference being that the latter had the right of
corporate representation in the general court, while the former had no
such right. The towns elected (until 1856) the deputies to the general
court, and were the administrative units for the assessment and
collection of taxes, maintaining churches and schools, organizing and
training the militia, preserving the peace, caring for the poor,
building and repairing roads and bridges, and recording deeds, births,
deaths and marriages; and to discuss questions relating to these
matters as well as other matters of peculiarly local concern, to
determine the amount of taxes for town purposes, and to elect
officers. All the citizens were expected to attend the annual
town-meeting, and such male inhabitants as were not citizens were
privileged to attend and to propose and discuss measures, although
they had no right to vote. Generally several villages have grown up in
the same "town," and some of the more populous "towns," usually those
in which manufacturing has become more important than farming, have
been incorporated as "cities"; thus either a town or a city may now
include a farming country and various small villages. Although the
tendency in Massachusetts is towards chartering as cities "towns"
which have a population of 12,000 or more, the democratic institution
of the town-meeting persists in many large municipalities which are
still technically towns.[17] Most "towns" hold their annual meeting in
March, but some hold them in February and others in April. In the
larger "towns" the officers elected at this meeting may consist of
five, seven or nine selectmen, a clerk, a treasurer, three or more
assessors, three or more overseers of the poor, one or more collectors
of taxes, one or more auditors, one or more surveyors of highways, a
road commissioner, a sewer commissioner, a board of health, one or
more constables, two or more field drivers, two or more fence viewers,
and a tree warden; but in the smaller "towns" the number of selectmen
may be limited to three, the selectmen may assess the taxes, be
overseers of the poor, and act as a board of health, and the treasurer
or constable may collect the taxes. The term of all these officers may
be limited to one year, or the selectmen, clerk, assessors and
overseers of the poor may be elected for a term of three years, in
which case a part only of the selectmen, assessors and overseers of
the poor are elected each year. The selectmen have the general
management of a "town's" affairs during the interval between
town-meetings. They may call special town-meetings; they appoint
election officers and may appoint additional constables or public
officers, and such minor officials as inspectors of milk, inspectors
of buildings, gauger of measures, cullers of staves and hoops, fish
warden and forester. A school committee consisting of any number of
members divisible by three is chosen, one-third each year, at the
annual town-meeting or at a special meeting which is held in the same
month. Any "town" having a village or district within its limits that
contains 1000 inhabitants or more may authorize that village or
district to establish a separate organization for lighting its
streets, building and maintaining sidewalks, and employing a watchman
or policeman, the officers of such organization to include at least a
prudential committee and a clerk. All laws relative to "towns" are
applied to "cities" in so far as they are not inconsistent with
general or special laws relative to the latter, and the powers of the
selectmen are vested in the mayor and aldermen.
_Education._--For cities of above 8000 inhabitants (for which alone
comparative statistics are annually available), in 1902-1903 the ratio
of average attendance to school enrolment, the average number of days'
attendance of each pupil enrolled, and the value of school property per
capita of pupils in average attendance were higher than in any other
state; the average length of the school term was slightly exceeded in
eight states; and the total cost of the schools per capita of pupils in
average attendance ($39.05) was exceeded in six other states. In
1905-1906 the percentage of average attendance in the public schools to
the number of children (between 5 and 15 years) in the state was 80; in
Barnstable county it was 95, and in Plymouth 92; and the lowest rate of
any county was 68, that of Bristol. In the same year the amount of the
various school taxes and other contributions was $30.53 for each child
in the average membership of the public schools, and the highest amount
for each child in any county was $35.77 in Suffolk county, and in any
township or city $68.01--in Lincoln. The school system is not one of
marked state centralization--as contrasted, e.g. with New York. A state
board of education has general control, its secretary acting as
superintendent of the state system in conjunction with local
superintendents and committees. Women are eligible for these positions,
and among the teachers in the schools they are greatly in excess over
men (more than 10 to 1), especially in lower grades. No recognition
exists in the schools of race, colour or religion. The proportion of the
child population that attends schools is equalled in but two or three
states east of the Mississippi river. The services of Horace Mann (q.v.)
as secretary of the state board (1837-1848) were productive of almost
revolutionary benefits not only to Massachusetts but to the entire
country. His reforms, which reached every part of the school system,
were fortunately introduced just at the beginning of railway and city
growth. Since 1850 truant and compulsory attendance laws (the first
compulsory education law was passed in 1642) have been enforced in
conjunction with laws against child labour. In 1900 the average period
of schooling per inhabitant for the United States was 4.3 years, for
Massachusetts 7 years. (The same year the ratio of wealth productivity
was as 66 to 37.) Massachusetts stands "foremost in the Union in the
universality of its provision for secondary education."[18] The laws
practically offer such education free to every child of the
commonwealth. Illiterate persons not less than ten years of age
constituted in 1900 5.9% of the population; and 0.8, 14.6, 10.7%
respectively of native whites, foreign-born whites and negroes. More
patents are issued, relatively, to citizens of Massachusetts than to
those of any other state except Connecticut. Post office statistics
indicate a similarly high average of intelligence.
The public school system includes common, high and normal schools, and
various evening, industrial and truant schools. Many townships and
cities maintain free evening schools. In 1894 manual training was made
a part of the curriculum in all municipalities having 20,000
inhabitants. There are also many private business colleges, academic
schools and college-preparatory schools. The high schools enjoy an
exceptional reputation. An unusual proportion of teachers in the
public schools are graduates of the state normal schools, of which the
first were founded in 1839 at Lexington and Barre, the former being
the first normal school of the United States.[19] These two schools
were removed subsequently to Framingham (1853) and Westfield (1844),
where they are still active; while others flourish at Bridgewater
(1840), Salem (1854), Worcester (1874), Fitchburg (1895), North Adams
(1897), Hyannis (1897) and Lowell (1897), that at Framingham being
open to women only. There is also a state normal art school at Boston
(1873) for both sexes.
The commonwealth contributes to the support of textile schools in
cities in which 450,000 spindles are in operation. Such schools exist
(1909) in Lowell, Fall River and New Bedford. The commonwealth also
maintains aboard a national ship a nautical training school (1891) for
instruction in the science and practice of navigation. During the
Spanish-American War of 1898 more than half of the graduates and
cadets of the school enlisted in the United States service.
There are several hundred private schools, whose pupils constituted in
1905-1906 15.7% of the total school-enrolment of the state. Of higher
academies and college-preparatory schools there are scores. Among
those for boys Phillips Academy, at Andover, the Groton school, and
the Mount Hermon school are well-known examples. For girls the largest
school is the Northfield Seminary at East Northfield. In Boston and in
the towns in its environs are various famous schools, among them the
boys' classical school in Boston, founded in 1635, one of the oldest
secondary schools in the country. The leading educational institution
of the state, as it is the oldest and most famous of the country, is
Harvard University (founded 1636) at Cambridge. In the extreme
north-west of the state, at Williamstown, is Williams College (1793),
and in the Connecticut Valley is Amherst College (1821), both of these
unsectarian. Boston University (Methodist Episcopal, 1867); Tufts
College (1852), a few miles from Boston in Medford, originally a
Universalist school; Clark University (1889, devoted wholly to
graduate instruction until 1902, when Clark College was added), at
Worcester, are important institutions. Two Roman Catholic schools are
maintained--Boston College (1863) and the College of the Holy Cross
(1843), at Worcester. Of various institutions for the education of
women, Mount Holyoke (1837) at South Hadley, Smith College (1875) at
Northampton, Wellesley College (1875) at Wellesley near Boston,
Radcliffe College (1879) in connexion with Harvard at Cambridge and
Simmons College (1899) at Boston, are of national repute. The last
emphasizes scientific instruction in domestic economy.
For agricultural students the state supports a school at Amherst
(1867), and Harvard University the Bussey Institution. In
technological science special instruction is given--in addition to the
scientific departments of the schools already mentioned--in the
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (1865), and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (opened in 1865). There are schools of
theology at Cambridge (Protestant Episcopal), Newton (Baptist) and
Waltham (New Church), as well as in connexion with Boston University
(Methodist), Tufts College (Universalist) and Harvard (non-sectarian,
and the affiliated Congregational Andover Theological Seminary at
Cambridge). Law and medical schools are maintained in Boston and
Harvard universities.
_Public Institutions._--Massachusetts was in 1903, in proportion to the
population, more richly provided with public collections of books than
any other state: in that year she had nearly a seventh of all books in
public, society and school libraries in the country, and a much larger
supply of books per capita (2.56) than any other state. The rate for New
York, the only state having a larger number of books in such libraries,
being only 1.19. The Boston public library, exceeded in size in the
United States by the library of Congress at Washington--and probably
first, because of the large number of duplicates in the library of
Congress--and the largest free municipal library in the world; the
library of Harvard, extremely well chosen and valuable for research; the
collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society (1791); the Boston
Athenaeum (1807); the State Library (1826); the New England Historic
Genealogical Society (1845); the Congregational Library; the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences (1780); and the Boston Society of Natural
History (1830), all in Boston, leave it easily unrivalled, unless by
Washington, as the best research centre of the country. The collections
of the American Antiquarian Society (1812) at Worcester are also
notable. Massachusetts led, about 1850, in the founding of town and city
libraries supported by public taxes, and by 1880 had established more of
such institutions than existed in all other states combined. In 1900 out
of 353 towns and cities only five, representing less than half of 1%,
were without free library facilities, and three of these five had
association libraries charging only a small fee.
The state is very well supplied with charitable and reformatory
institutions, in which noteworthy methods have been employed with
success. The state institutions, each governed by a board of trustees,
and all under the supervision of the state board of charity, include a
state hospital at Tewksbury, for paupers (1866); a state farm at
Bridgewater (1887) for paupers and petty criminals; the Lyman school
for boys at Westboro, a reformatory for male criminals under fifteen
years of age sentenced to imprisonment for terms less than life in
connexion with which a very successful farm is maintained for the
younger boys at Berlin; an industrial school for girls at Lancaster,
also a reformatory school--a third reformatory school for boys was
planned in 1909; a state sanatorium at Rutland for tuberculous
patients (the first public hospital for such in the United States) and
a hospital school at Canton for the care and instruction of crippled
and deformed children. Three more hospitals for consumptives were
planned in 1909. Under the supervision of the state board of insanity,
and each under the government of a board of seven trustees (of whom
two are women) are state hospitals for the insane at Worcester (1833),
Taunton, Northampton, Danvers, Westboro and Medford, a state colony
for the insane at Gardner, a state hospital for epileptics at Palmer,
a state school for the feeble-minded at Waltham (governed by six
trustees), a state school at Wrentham, state "hospital cottages for
children" (1882) at Baldwinville (governed by five trustees), and the
Foxboro state hospital for dipsomaniacs and insane. There are also
semi-state institutions for the insane at Waverley, Barre, Wrentham
and Baldwinville, and nineteen small private institutions, all under
the supervision of the state board of insanity. Under the supervision
of a board of prison commissioners, which appoints the superintendent
and warden of each, are a reformatory prison for women at Sherborn
(1877), a state reformatory for men at Concord (1884), a state prison
at Boston (Charlestown), and a prison camp and hospital at Rutland
(1905). There is a prison department at the state farm which receives
misdemeanants. Other institutions receiving state aid, each governed
by trustees appointed by the governor, are the Massachusetts general
hospital at Boston, the Massachusetts charitable eye and ear infirmary
at Boston, the Massachusetts homoeopathic hospital at Boston, the
Perkins Institution and Massachusetts school for the blind at South
Boston and the soldiers' home in Massachusetts at Boston. The Horace
Mann school in Boston, a public day school for the deaf, the New
England industrial school for deaf mutes at Beverly and the Clarke
school for the deaf at Northampton are maintained in part by the
state. Finally, many private charitable corporations (about 500 in
1905) report to the state board of charity, and town and city
almshouses (205 in 1904) are subject to visitation. The Perkins
Institution is memorable for its association with the fame of S. G.
Howe (g.v.), whose reforms in charity methods were felt through all
the charitable interests of the state. The net yearly cost of support
and relief from 1884 to 1904 averaged $2,136,653, exclusive of
vagrancy cases (average $31,714). The whole number of paupers, besides
vagrants, in 1908 was 23.02 per 1000 of state population, and the cost
of relief ($5,104,255) was $1.699 for each inhabitant of the state.
The number of sane paupers declined steadily and markedly from 1863 to
1904.
_Finance._--Massachusetts is a very rich state, and Boston a very
wealthy city. The debt of the state (especially the contingent debt,
secured by sinking funds) has been steadily rising since 1888, and
especially since 1896, chiefly owing to the erection of important public
buildings, the construction of state highways and metropolitan park
roadways, the improvement of Boston harbour, the abolition of grade
crossings on railways, and the expenses incurred for the
Spanish-American War of 1898.
The net direct funded debt (also secured by accumulating sinking
funds) in December 1908 was $17,669,372 (3.61 millions in 1893). The
average interest on this and the contingent debt ($60,428,223 in
December 1908) combined was only 3.35%. The net debts of towns and
cities rose in the years 1885-1908 from $63,306,213 to $163,558,325.
The county debts in 1908 aggregated $6,076,867. The assessed valuation
of realty in the state in 1908 was $2,799,062,707 and of personalty
$1,775,073,438. No other state has given so vigorous a test of the
ordinary American general-property tax, and the results have been as
discouraging as elsewhere. The "dooming" process (i.e. estimation by
assessors, without relief for overvaluation except for excess more
than 50% above the proper valuation) was introduced in 1868 as a
method of securing returns of personalty. But the most rigorous
application of the doomage law has only proved its complete futility
as an effort to reach unascertained corporate and personal
property.[20] Various special methods are used for the taxation of
banks, insurance companies, railways, tramways, trust companies and
corporations, some of them noteworthy. In the case of corporations
realty and machinery are taxed generally by the local authorities, and
stock values by the commonwealth. The Boston stock exchange is the
second of the country in the extent of the securities in which it
deals. The proportion of holders of U.S. bonds among the total
population is higher than that in any other state.
_History._--It is possible that the coasts of Massachusetts were visited
by the Northmen, and by the earliest navigators who followed Cabot, but
this is only conjecture. In 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold landed at and named
Cape Cod and coasted as far south as the present No-Man's Land, which he
named Martin's or Martha's Vineyard, a name later transferred to a
neighbouring larger island. Pring and Champlain at a later date coasted
along what is now Massachusetts, but the map of Champlain is hardly
recognizable. The first sufficient explorations for cartographical
record were made by John Smith in 1614, and his map was long the
basis--particularly in its nomenclature--of later maps. Permanency of
occupation, however, dates from the voyage of the "Mayflower," which
brought about a hundred men, women and children who had mostly belonged
to an English sect of Separatists, originating in Yorkshire, but who had
passed a period of exile for religion's sake in Holland. In the early
winter of 1620 they made the coast of Cape Cod; they had intended to
make their landing farther south, within the jurisdiction of the
Virginia Company, which had granted them a patent; but stress of weather
prevented their doing so. Finding themselves without warrant in a region
beyond their patent, and threatened with the desertion of disaffected
members of their company (probably all servants or men of the "lesser"
sort) unless concessions were made to these, they drew up and signed
before landing a democratic compact of government which is accounted the
earliest written constitution in history.[21] After some exploration of
the coast they made a permanent landing on the 21st of December 1620
(N.S.) at Plymouth, a harbour which had already been so named by John
Smith in his maps of 1614 and 1616. During the first winter nearly
one-half their number died from exposure, and the relations of the
survivors with their partners of the London Company, who had insisted
that for seven years the plantation should be managed as a joint stock
company, were unsatisfactory. However, about thirty-five new colonists
arrived in 1622 and ninety-six more in 1623. The abandonment of the
communal system was begun in the latter year, and with the dissolution
of the partnership with the adventurers of the London Company in 1627
Plymouth became a corporate colony with its chief authority vested in
the whole body of freemen convened in the General Court. Upon the death
of the first governor, John Carver, in the spring of 1621, the General
Court chose William Bradford as his successor, and with him was chosen
one assistant. The subsequent elections were annual, and within a few
years the number of assistants was increased to seven. The General Court
was the legislature and the electorate; the governor and assistants were
the executive and the judiciary. The whole body of freemen composed the
General Court until other towns than Plymouth had been organized, the
first of which were Scituate in 1636 and Duxbury in 1637, and then the
representative form of government was adopted and there was a gradual
differentiation between Plymouth the town and Plymouth the colony. When
it had become known that the colony was within the territory of the New
England Council, John Pierce, in 1621, procured from that body a grant
which made the colonists its tenants. A year later Pierce surrendered
this and procured another, which in effect made him proprietor of the
colony, but he was twice shipwrecked and was forced to assign to the
adventurers his second patent. In 1629 Governor Bradford procured from
the same council a definite grant of the tract which corresponds to the
south-eastern portion of the present state. But all attempts to procure
a royal charter for Plymouth Colony were unsuccessful, and in 1691 it
was annexed to the Colony of Massachusetts Bay under what is termed the
Provincial Charter.
King James having by patent in 1620 created a Council for New England to
whom he made a large grant of territory, the council in 1628 made a
sub-grant, confirmed by a royal charter that passed the seals on the 4th
of March 1629, to the "Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in
Newe England." There had been various minor expeditions during the few
years since Smith was on the coast before this company, in the Puritan
interests, had sent over John Endecott with a party in 1628 to what is
now Salem. In 1630 the government of the company, with questionable
right (for the charter seems evidently to have contemplated the
residence of the company in England), transferred itself to their
territory, and under the leadership of John Winthrop laid the
foundations anew of the Massachusetts colony, when they first settled
Boston in the autumn of that year. Winthrop served repeatedly, though
not continuously, as governor of the colony till his death in 1649, his
rejection in 1636 being due to a party of theological revolt which chose
Henry Vane (afterwards Sir Henry) to the office. This was an incident in
a famous episode, important rather as a symptom than in itself, namely,
the Antinomian controversy, "New England's earliest protest against
formulas," in which Vane and Ann Hutchinson took the lead in criticizing
the official orthodoxy of the colony.
The magistrates successfully asserted themselves to the discomfiture of
their critics (Ann Hutchinson being banished), and this was
characteristic of the colony's early history. The charter gave the
company control over the admission of "freemen" (co-partners in the
enterprise, and voters), "full and absolute power and authority to
correct, punish and rule" subjects settling in the territory comprised
in their grant, and power to "resist ... by all fitting ways and means
whatever" all persons attempting the "destruction, invasion, detriment
or annoyance" of the plantation. Some writers deny the company's right
under this instrument to rule as they proceeded to do; but at any rate
what they did was to make the suffrage dependent on stringent religious
tests, and to repress with determined zeal all theological "vagaries"
and "whimsies." Criticism of church or magistrates was not tolerated.
Laws were modelled closely on the Bible. The clergy were a ruling class.
The government was frankly theocratic. Said Winthrop (1637): "We see not
that any should have authority to set up any other exercises besides
what authority hath already set up"; and a synod at Cambridge in 1637
catalogued eighty-two "opinions, some blasphemous, others erroneous and
all unsafe," besides nine "unwholesome expressions," all of which were
consigned "to the devil of hell from whence they came." Another synod at
Cambridge in 1647 more formally established the principle of state
control. The legislation against Baptists (about 1644-1678) and the
persecution of the Quakers (especially 1656-1662) partook of the
brutality of the time, including scourging, boring of tongues, cutting
of ears and in rare cases capital punishment. It cannot be denied that
men like Roger Williams and some of the persecuted Quakers, though
undeniably contentious and aggressive in their conscientious dissent,
showed a spirit which to-day seems sweeter in tolerance and humanity
than that of the Puritans. And it seems necessary to emphasize these
facts because until about 1870 it was almost unchallenged tradition to
regard the men of Massachusetts Bay as seekers and champions of
"religious liberty." They left England, indeed, for liberty to discard
the "poperies" of the English Church, and once in Massachusetts they
even discarded far more than those "poperies." But religious liberty in
our modern sense they did not seek for themselves, nor accord to others;
they abhorred it, they trampled on it, and their own lives they
subjected to all the rigid restrictions to which they subjected others.
They were narrow but strong; no better example can be imagined of what
the French call "the defects of one's qualities." Their failures were
small compared with those of their contemporaries in England and
elsewhere in Europe, and public opinion did not long sustain violent
persecution of opinion. More than once mobs freed Quaker prisoners. Also
it is to be said that with the single exception of religious toleration
the record of the state in devotion to human rights has been from the
first a splendid one, whether in human principles of criminal law, or in
the defence of the civil rights commonly declared in American
constitutions. It was once generally assumed that the repression
practised attained its end of securing harmony of opinion. The fact
seems to be that intellectual speculation was as strong in America as in
Puritan England; the assumption that the inhibition of its expression
was good seems wholly gratuitous, and contrary to general convictions
underlying modern freedom of speech. A safer opinion is probably that
"the spiritual growth of Massachusetts withered under the shadow of
dominant orthodoxy; the colony was only saved from mental atrophy by its
vigorous political life" (J. A. Doyle). In literature the second half of
the 17th century is a sterile waste of forbidding theology; and its
life, judged by the present day, singularly sombre.
In addition to the few persons banished to Rhode Island, theological and
political differences led many to emigrate thither. Others, discontented
with Massachusetts autocracy and wishing, too, "to secure more room,"
went to Connecticut (q.v.) where they established a bulwark against the
Dutch of New York.
A witchcraft scare (at its worst in 1691-1697, though the earliest
Connecticut case was in 1646-1647 and the earliest in Boston in 1648)
led to another tragedy of ignorance. In all thirty-two persons were
executed (according to W. F. Poole, about a thousandth part of those
executed for witchcraft in the British Isles in the 16th and 17th
centuries). Salem was the scene of the greatest excitement in 1691-1692.
Exceptionally honourable to the early colonists was their devotion to
education (see HARVARD UNIVERSITY and BOSTON). Massachusetts Bay had a
large learned element; it is supposed that about 1640 there was an
Oxford or Cambridge graduate to every 250 persons in the colony. The
earliest printing in the British-American colonies was done at Cambridge
in 1639; it was not until 1674 that the authorities of the colony
permitted printing, except at Cambridge. Boston and Cambridge remain
leading publishing centres to-day. The first regular newspaper of
Boston, the _Boston Newsletter_, was the pioneer of the American
newspaper press.
The early history was rendered unquiet at times by wars with the
Indians, the chief of which were the Pequot War in 1637, and King
Philip's War in 1675-76; and for better combining against these enemies,
Massachusetts, with Connecticut, New Haven and New Plymouth, formed a
confederacy in 1643, considered the prototype of the larger union of the
colonies which conducted the War of American Independence (1775-83). The
struggle with the Crown, which ended in independence, began at the
foundation of the colony, with assumptions of power under the charter
which the colonial government was always trying to maintain, and the
crown was as assiduously endeavouring to counteract. After more than
half a century of struggle, the crown finally annulled the charter of
the colony in 1684, though not until 1686 was the old government
actually supplanted on the arrival of Joseph Dudley, a native of the
colony, as president of a provisional council; later, Sir Edmund Andros
was sent over with a commission to unite New York and New England under
his rule. The colonists had been for many years almost independent; they
made their own laws, the Crown appointed natives as officials, and the
colonial interpretation of the old charter had in general been allowed
to stand. Massachusetts had excluded the English Book of Common Prayer,
she had restricted the franchise, laid the death penalty on religious
opinions, and passed various other laws repugnant to the Crown, notably
to Charles II. and James II.; she had caused laws and writs to run in
her own name, she had neglected to exact the oath of allegiance to the
sovereign, though carefully exacting an oath of fidelity to her own
government, she had protected the regicides, she had coined money with
her own seal, she had blocked legal appeals to the English courts, she
had not compelled the observance of the navigation acts. The revocation
of the charter aroused the strongest fears of the colonists Andros
speedily met determined opposition by measures undertaken relative to
taxation and land titles, by efforts to secure a church for Episcopal
service, and an attempt to curb the town meetings. His government was
supported by a small party (largely an Anglican Church party), but was
intensely unpopular with the bulk of the people; and--it is a disputed
question, whether before or after news arrived of the landing in England
of William of Orange--in April 1689 the citizens of Boston rose in
revolution, deposed Andros, imprisoned him and re-established their old
colonial form of government. Then came a struggle, carried on in England
by Increase Mather as agent (1688-1692) of the colony, to secure such a
form of government under a new charter as would preserve as many as
possible of their old liberties. Plymouth Colony, acting through its
agent in London, endeavoured to secure a separate existence by royal
charter, but accepted finally union with Massachusetts when association
with New York became the probable alternative. The province of Maine was
also united in the new provincial charter of 1691, and Sir William Phips
came over with it, commissioned as the first royal governor. As has been
mentioned already, the new charter softened religious tests for office
and the suffrage, and accorded "liberty of conscience" except to Roman
Catholics. The old religious exclusiveness had already been greatly
lessened: the clergy were less powerful, heresy had thrived under
repression, Anglican churchmen had come to the colony and were borne
with perforce, devotion to trade and commerce had weakened theological
tests in favour of ideals of mere good order and prosperity, and a
spirit of toleration had grown.
Throughout the continuance of the government under the provincial
charter, there was a constant struggle between a prerogative party,
headed by the royal governor, and a popular party who cherished
recollections of their practical independence under the colonial
charter, and who were nursing the sentiments which finally took the form
of resistance in 1775. The inter-charter period, 1686-1691, is of great
importance in this connexion. The popular majority kept up the feeling
of hostility to the royal authority in recurrent combats in the
legislative assembly over the salary to be voted to the governor; though
these antagonisms were from time to time forgotten in the wars with the
French and Indians. During the earl of Bellomont's administration, New
York was again united with Massachusetts under the same executive
(1697-1701). The scenes of the recurrent wars were mostly distant from
Massachusetts proper, either in Maine or on Canadian or Acadian
territory, although some savage inroads of the Indians were now and then
made on the exposed frontier towns, as, for instance, upon Deerfield in
1704 and upon Haverhill in 1708. Phips, who had succeeded in an attack
on Port Royal, had ignominiously failed when he led the Massachusetts
fleet against Quebec in 1690; and the later expedition of 1711 was no
less a failure. The most noteworthy administration was that of William
Shirley (1741-1749 and 1753-1756), who at one time was the commanding
officer of the British forces in North America. He made a brilliant
success of the expedition against Louisburg in 1745, William Pepperell,
a Maine officer, being in immediate command. Shirley with Massachusetts
troops also took part in the Oswego expedition of 1755; and
Massachusetts proposed, and lent the chief assistance in the expedition
of Nova Scotia in 1755 which ended in the removal of the Acadians. Her
officers and troops also played an important part in the Crown Point and
second Louisburg expedition (1758).
The first decided protests against the exercise of sovereign power by
the crown, the first general moral and political revolt that marked the
approach of the American War of Independence, took place in
Massachusetts; so that the most striking events in the general history
of the colonies as a whole from 1760 to 1775 are an intimate part of her
annals. The beginning of the active opposition to the crown may be
placed in the resistance, led by James Otis, to the issuing of writs
(after 1752, Otis's famous argument against them being made in
1760-1761) to compel citizens to assist the revenue officers; followed
later by the outburst of feeling at the imposition of the Stamp Act
(1765), when Massachusetts took the lead in confronting the royal power.
The governors put in office at this time by the crown were not of
conciliatory temperaments, and the measures instituted in parliament
(see UNITED STATES) served to increase bitterness of feeling. Royal
troops sent to Boston (several regiments, 1768) irritated the populace,
who were highly excited at the time, until in an outbreak on the 5th of
March 1770 a file of garrison troops shot down in self-defence a few
citizens in a crowd which assailed them. This is known as the "Boston
Massacre." The merchants combined to prevent the importation of goods
which by law would yield the crown a revenue; and the patriots--as the
anti-prerogative party called themselves--under the lead of Samuel
Adams, instituted regular communication between the different towns, and
afterwards, following the initiative of Virginia, with the other
colonies, through "committees of correspondence"; a method of the utmost
advantage thereafter in forcing on the revolution by intensifying and
unifying the resistance of the colony, and by inducing the co-operation
of other colonies. In 1773 (Dec. 16) a party of citizens, disguised as
Indians and instigated by popular meetings, boarded some tea-ships in
the harbour of Boston, and to prevent the landing of their taxable
cargoes threw them into the sea; this incident is known in history as
the "Boston tea-party." Parliament in retaliation closed the port of
Boston (1774), a proceeding which only aroused more bitter feeling in
the country towns and enlisted the sympathy of the other colonies. The
governorship was now given to General Thomas Gage, who commanded the
troops which had been sent to Boston. Everything foreboded an outbreak.
Most of the families of the highest social position were averse to
extreme measures; a large number were not won over and became
expatriated loyalists. The popular agitators, headed by Samuel
Adams--with whom John Hancock, an opulent merchant and one of the few of
the richer people who deserted the crown, leagued himself--forced on the
movement, which became war in April 1775, when Gage sent an expedition
to Concord and Lexington to destroy military stores accumulated by the
patriots and to capture Adams and Hancock, temporarily staying at
Lexington. This detachment, commanded by Lord Percy, was assaulted, and
returned with heavy loss. The country towns now poured their militia
into Cambridge, opposite Boston; troops came from neighbouring colonies,
and Artemas Ward, a Massachusetts general, was placed in command of the
irregular force, which with superior numbers at once shut the royal army
up in Boston. An attempt of the provincials to seize and hold a
commanding hill in Charlestown brought on the battle of Bunker Hill
(June 17, 1775), in which the provincials were driven from the ground,
although they lost much less heavily than the royal troops. Washington,
chosen by the Continental Congress to command the army, arrived in
Cambridge in July 1775, and stretching his lines around Boston, forced
its evacuation in March 1776. The state was not again the scene of any
conflict during the war. Generals Henry Knox and Benjamin Lincoln were
the most distinguished officers contributed by the state to the
revolutionary army. Out of an assessment at one time upon the states of
$5,000,000 for the expenses of the war, Massachusetts was charged with
$820,000, the next highest being $800,000 for Virginia. Of the 231,791
troops sent by all the colonies into the field, reckoning by annual
terms, Massachusetts sent 67,907, the next highest being 31,939 from
Connecticut, Virginia furnishing only 26,678; and her proportion of
sailors was very much greater still. In every campaign in every colony
save in 1770-80 her soldiery were in absolute, and still more in
relative, number greater than those of any other colony.
After the outbreak of the war a somewhat indefinite, heterogeneous
provisional government was in power till a constitution was adopted in
1780, when John Hancock became the first governor. Governor James
Bowdoin in 1786-1787 put down with clemency an almost bloodless
insurrection in the western counties (there was strong disaffection,
however, as far east as Middlesex), known as the Shays Rebellion,
significant of the rife ideas of popular power, the economic distress,
and the unsettled political conditions of the years of the
Confederation. Daniel Shays (1747-1825), the leader, was a brave
Revolutionary captain of no special personal importance. The state debt
was large, taxation was heavy, and industry was unsettled; worthless
paper money was in circulation, yet some men demanded more; debtors were
made desperate by prosecution; the state government seemed weak, the
Federal government contemptibly so; the local courts would not, or from
intimidation feared to, punish the turbulent, and demagogues encouraged
ideas of popular power. A convention of delegates representing the
malcontents of numerous towns in Worcester county met at Worcester on
the 15th of August 1786 to consider grievances, and a week later a
similar convention assembled at Hatfield, Hampshire county. Encouraged
by these and other conventions in order to obstruct the collection of
debts and taxes, a mob prevented a session of the Court of Common Pleas
and General Sessions of the Peace at Northampton on the 29th of August,
and in September other mobs prevented the same court from sitting in
Worcester, Middlesex and Berkshire counties. About 1000 insurgents under
Shays assembled at Springfield on the 26th of September to prevent the
sitting there of the Supreme Court, from which they feared indictments.
To protect the court and the national arsenal at Springfield, for which
the Federal government was powerless to provide a guard, Major-General
William Shepard (1737-1817) ordered out the militia, called for
volunteers, and supplied them with arms from the arsenal, and the court
sat for three days. The Federal government now attempted to enlist
recruits, ostensibly to protect the western frontier from the Indians,
but actually for the suppression of the insurrection; but the plan
failed from lack of funds, and the insurgents continued to interrupt the
procedure of the courts. In January 1787, however, Governor Bowdoin
raised an army of 4400 men and placed it under the command of
Major-General Benjamin Lincoln (1733-1810). While Lincoln was at
Worcester Shays planned to capture the arsenal at Springfield, but on
the 25th of January Shepard's men fired upon Shays's followers, killing
four and putting the rest to flight. Lincoln pursued them to Petersham,
Worcester county, where on the 4th of February he routed them and took
150 prisoners. Subsequently the insurgents gathered in small bands in
Berkshire county; but here, a league having been formed to assist the
government, 84 insurgents were captured at West Stockbridge, and the
insurrection practically terminated in an action at Sheffield on the
27th of February, in which the insurgents lost 2 killed and 30 wounded
and the militia 2 killed and 1 wounded. Two of the insurgent leaders,
Daniel Shays and Eli Parsons, escaped to Vermont soon after the rout at
Petersham. Fourteen other insurgents who were tried by the Supreme Court
in the spring of 1787 were found guilty of treason and sentenced to
death. They were, however, held rather as hostages for the good
behaviour of worse offenders who had escaped, and were pardoned in
September. In February 1788 Shays and Parsons petitioned for pardon, and
this was granted by the legislature in the following June. The outcome
of the uprising was an encouraging test of loyalty to the commonwealth;
and the insurrection is regarded as having been very potent in preparing
public opinion throughout the country for the adoption of a stronger
national government. The Federal Constitution was ratified by
Massachusetts by only a small majority on the 6th of February 1788,
after its rejection had been at one time imminent; but Massachusetts
became a strong Federalist state. Indeed, the general interest of her
history in the quarter-century after the adoption of the Constitution
lies mainly in her connexion with the fortunes of that great political
party. Her leading politicians were out of sympathy with the conduct of
national affairs (in the conduct of foreign relations, the distribution
of political patronage, naval policy, the question of public debt) from
1804--when Jefferson's party showed its complete supremacy--onward; and
particularly after the passage of the Embargo Act of 1807, which caused
great losses to Massachusetts commerce, and, so far from being accepted
by her leaders as a proper diplomatic weapon, seemed to them designed in
the interests of the Democratic party. The Federalist preference for
England over France was strong in Massachusetts, and her sentiment was
against the war with England of 1812-15. New England's discontent
culminated in the Hartford Convention (Dec. 1814), in which
Massachusetts men predominated. The state, however, bore her full part
in the war, and much of its naval success was due to her sailors.
During the interval till the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861,
Massachusetts held a distinguished place in national life and politics.
As a state she may justly be said to have been foremost in the struggle
against slavery.[22] She opposed the policy that led to the Mexican War
in 1846, although a regiment was raised in Massachusetts by the personal
exertions of Caleb Cushing. The leaders of the ultra non-political
abolitionists (who opposed the formation of the Liberty party) were
mainly Massachusetts men, notably W. L. Garrison and Wendell Phillips.
The Federalist domination had been succeeded by Whig rule in the state;
but after the death of the great Whig, Daniel Webster, in 1852, all
parties disintegrated, re-aligning themselves gradually in an aggressive
anti-slavery party and the temporizing Democratic party. First, for many
years the Free-Soilers gained strength; then in 1855 in an extraordinary
party upheaval the Know-Nothings quite broke up Democratic, Free-Soil
and Whig organizations; the Free-Soilers however captured the
Know-Nothing organization and directed it to their own ends; and by
their junction with the anti-slavery Whigs there was formed the
Republican party. To this the original Free-Soilers contributed as
leaders Charles Sumner and C. F. Adams; the Know-Nothings, Henry Wilson
and N. P. Banks; and later, the War Democrats, B. F. Butler--all men of
mark in the history of the state. Charles Sumner, the most eminent
exponent of the new party, was the state's senator in Congress
(1851-1874). The feelings which grew up, and the movements that were
fostered till they rendered the Civil War inevitable, received something
of the same impulse from Massachusetts which she had given a century
before to the feelings and movements forerunning the War of American
Independence. When the war broke out it was her troops who first
received hostile fire in Baltimore, and turning their mechanical
training to account opened the obstructed railroad to Washington. In the
war thus begun she built, equipped and manned many vessels for the
Federal navy, and furnished from 1861 to 1865 26,163 (or, including
final credits, probably more than 30,000) men for the navy. During the
war all but twelve small townships raised troops in excess of every
call, the excess throughout the state amounting in all to more than
15,000 men; while the total recruits to the Federal army (including
re-enlistments) numbered, according to the adjutant-general of the
state, 159,165 men, of which less than 7000 were raised by draft.[23]
The state, as such, and the townships spent $42,605,517.19 in the war;
and private contributions of citizens are reckoned in addition at about
$9,000,000, exclusive of the aid to families of soldiers, paid then and
later by the state.
Since the close of the war Massachusetts has remained generally
steadfast in adherence to the principles of the Republican party, and
has continued to develop its resources. Navigation, which was formerly
the distinctive feature of its business prosperity, has under the
pressure of laws and circumstances given place to manufactures, and the
development of carrying facilities on the land rather than on the sea.
In the Spanish-American War of 1898 Massachusetts furnished 11,780
soldiers and sailors, though her quota was but 7388; supplementing from
her own treasury the pay accorded them by the national government.
No statement of the influence which Massachusetts has exerted upon the
American people, through intellectual activity, and even through vagary,
is complete without an enumeration of the names which, to Americans at
least, are the signs of this influence and activity. In science the
state can boast of John Winthrop, the most eminent of colonial
scientists; Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford); Nathaniel Bowditch, the
translator of Laplace; Benjamin Peirce and Morse the electrician; not to
include an adopted citizen in Louis Agassiz. In history, Winthrop and
Bradford laid the foundations of her story in the very beginning; but
the best example of the colonial period is Thomas Hutchinson, and in
later days Bancroft, Sparks, Palfrey, Prescott, Motley and Parkman. In
poetry, a pioneer of the modern spirit in American verse was Richard
Henry Dana; and later came Bryant, Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell and
Holmes. In philosophy and the science of living, Jonathan Edwards,
Franklin, Channing, Emerson and Theodore Parker. In education, Horace
Mann; in philanthropy, S. G. Howe. In oratory, James Otis, Fisher Ames,
Josiah Quincy, junr., Webster, Choate, Everett, Sumner, Winthrop and
Wendell Phillips; and, in addition, in statesmanship, Samuel Adams, John
Adams and John Quincy Adams. In fiction, Hawthorne and Mrs Stowe. In
law, Story, Parsons and Shaw. In scholarship, Ticknor, William M. Hunt,
Horatio Greenough, W. W. Story and Thomas Ball. The "transcendental
movement," which sprang out of German affiliations and produced as one
of its results the well-known community of Brook Farm (1841-1847), under
the leadership of Dr George Ripley, was a Massachusetts growth, and in
passing away it left, instead of traces of an organization, a sentiment
and an aspiration for higher thinking which gave Emerson his following.
When Massachusetts was called upon to select for Statuary Hall in the
capitol at Washington two figures from the long line of her worthies,
she chose as her fittest representatives John Winthrop, the type of
Puritanism and state-builder, and Samuel Adams (though here the choice
was difficult between Samuel Adams and John Adams) as her greatest
leader in the heroic period of the War of Independence.
Governors of Plymouth Colony
(Chosen annually by the people).
John Carver 1620-1621
William Bradford 1621-1633
Edward Winslow 1633-1634
Thomas Prence (or Prince) 1634-1635
William Bradford 1635-1636
Edward Winslow 1636-1637
William Bradford 1637-1638
Thomas Prence (or Prince) 1638-1639
William Bradford 1639-1644
Edward Winslow 1644-1645
William Bradford 1645-1657
Thomas Prence (or Prince) 1657-1673
Josiah Winslow 1673-1680
Thomas Hinckley 1680-1686
Sir Edmund Andros 1686-1689
Thomas Hinckley 1689-1692
Governors of Massachusetts
(Under the First Charter--chosen annually)
John Endecott[24] 1629-1630
John Winthrop 1630-1634
Thomas Dudley 1634-1635
John Haynes 1635-1636
Henry Vane 1636-1637
John Winthrop 1637-1640
Thomas Dudley 1640-1641
Richard Bellingham 1641-1642
John Winthrop 1642-1644
John Endecott 1644-1645
Thomas Dudley 1645-1646
John Winthrop 1646-1649
John Endecott 1649-1650
Thomas Dudley 1650-1651
John Endecott 1651-1654
Richard Bellingham 1654-1655
John Endecott 1655-1665
Richard Bellingham 1665-1672
John Leverett (acting, 1672-1673) 1672-1679
Simon Bradstreet 1679-1686
------
Sir Edmund Andros 1686-1689
Simon Bradstreet 1689-1692
Under Second Charter--appointed by the Crown[25]
Sir William Phips 1692-1694
William Stoughton (acting) 1694-1699
Richard Coote, earl of Bellomont 1699-1700
William Stoughton (acting) 1700-1701
Joseph Dudley 1702-1715
William Tailer (acting) 1715-1716
Samuel Shute 1716-1722
William Dummer (acting) 1722-1728
William Burnet 1728-1729
William Dummer (acting) 1729-1730
William Tailer (acting) 1730
Jonathan Belcher 1730-1741
William Shirley 1741-1749
Spencer Phips (acting) 1749-1753
William Shirley 1753-1756
Spencer Phips (acting) 1756-1757
Thomas Pownal 1757-1760
Thomas Hutchinson (acting) 1760
Sir Francis Bernard, Bart 1760-1769
Thomas Hutchinson (acting) 1769-1771
Thomas Hutchinson 1771-1774
Thomas Gage[26] 1774-1775
Under the Constitution
John Hancock 1780-1785
James Bowdoin 1785-1787
John Hancock 1787-1793
Samuel Adams (acting) 1793-1794
Samuel Adams 1794-1797
Increase Sumner Federalist 1797-1799
Moses Gill (lieut-
governor; acting) " 1799-1800
Caleb Strong " 1800-1807
Jas Sullivan Democratic-Republican 1807-1808
Levi Lincoln (acting) " 1808-1809
Christopher Gore Federalist 1809-1810
Elbridge Gerry Democratic-Republican 1810-1812
Caleb Strong Federalist 1812-1816
John Brooks " 1816-1823
William Eustis Democratic-Republican 1823-1825
Levi Lincoln " 1825-1834
John Davis Whig 1834-1835
Edward Everett " 1836-1840
Marcus Morton Democrat 1840-1841
John Davis Whig 1841-1843
Marcus Morton Democrat 1843-1844
George N Briggs Whig 1844-1851
George S Boutwell Free-Soil Democrat 1851-1853
John H Clifford Whig 1853-1854
Emory Washburn " 1854-1855
Henry J Gardner Know-Nothing 1855-1858
Nathaniel P Banks Republican 1858-1861
Marcus Morton Democrat 1840-1841
John A. Andrew Republican 1861-1866
Alexander H. Bullock " 1866-1869
William Claflin " 1869-1872
William B. Washburn " 1872-1874
Thomas Talbot (acting) " 1874-1875
William Gaston Democrat 1875-1876
Alexander H. Rice Republican 1876-1879
Thomas Talbot " 1879-1880
John Davis Long " 1880-1883
Benjamin F. Butler Democrat 1883-1884
George D. Robinson Republican 1884-1887
Oliver Ames " 1887-1890
John Q. A. Brackett " 1890-1891
William E. Russell Democrat 1891-1894
Frederic T. Greenhalge Republican 1894-1896
Roger Wolcott " 1896-1897
Roger Wolcott " 1897-1900
W. Murray Crane " 1900-1903
John L. Bates " 1903-1905
William L. Douglas Democrat 1905-1906
Curtis L. Guild Republican 1906-1909
Eben S. Draper " 1909-1911
Eugene N. Foss Democrat 1911-
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--For Topography: W. M. Davis, _Physical Geography of
Southern New England_ (New York, 1895), and for the western counties,
R. D. Mallary, _Lenox and the Berkshire Highlands_ (New York-London,
1902); also _Inland Massachusetts, Illustrated ..._ (Springfield,
1890); C. F. Warner, _Picturesque Berkshire_ (also Franklin, Hampden,
Hampshire, Northampton, 1890-1893); U.S. Geological Survey, _Bulletin
116_, H. Gannett, "Geographic Dictionary of Massachusetts." On
Minerals: _U.S. Census_, 1900, and _U.S. Geological Survey_, annual
volume on _Mineral Resources_. On Agriculture: _U.S. Census_ and
reports of Mass. Census (alternating with Federal census), and reports
and bulletins of the Board of Agriculture (1852) and the Agricultural
College (1867), and Experiment Station (1883) at Amherst. On
Manufactures, &c.: See _Reports_ of state and Federal censuses; also
_Annual Reports_ (1869) of the state Bureau of Statistics of Labor,
which contain a wealth of valuable material (e.g. 1903, "Race in
Industry"; 1902, "Sex in Industry"; 1885, "Wages and Prices,
1752-1863," &c.); W. R. Bagnall, _The Textile Industries of the United
States_ (vol. i., 1639-1810, Cambridge, 1893); J. L. Hayes, "American
Textile Machinery: its Early History, &c." (Cambridge, 1870;
_Bulletin_ of National Association of Wool Manufacturers), and
literature therein referred to. On Commerce and Communications: _U.S.
Census_, 1902 (vol. on "Electric Railways"); U.S. Interstate Commerce
Commission, annual _Statistics of Railways_; publications of the State
Board of Trade; W. Hill on "First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the
United States" in _American Economic Association Publications_, vol.
viii., no. 6 (1893). On Population: Census reports, state and Federal,
publications of Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Board of Health (1869-;
the Annual Report of 1896 contains an exhaustive analysis of vital
statistics, 1856-1895); Board of Charity (1878- ), &c. On
Administration: G. H. Haynes, _Representation and Suffrage in
Massachusetts_, 1620-1691, in Johns Hopkins University, Studies in
History, xii.; _Manual for the General Court_ (Annual); R. H. Whitten,
_Public Administration in Massachusetts_, in Columbia University,
Studies in History, vol. viii. (1898); H. R. Spencer, _Constitutional
Conflict in Provincial Massachusetts_ (Columbus, O., 1905); and the
annual _Public Documents of Massachusetts_, embracing the reports of
all state officers and institutions. On Taxation: See especially the
official "Report of the Commission Appointed to Inquire into the
Expediency of Revising and Amending the Laws ... Relating to Taxation"
(1897), and vol. xi. of the _Report of the United States Industrial
Commission_ (Wash., 1901); H. G. Friedman, _The Taxation of
Corporations in Massachusetts_ (New York, 1907); and C. J. Bullock,
_Historical Sketch of the Finances and Financial Policy of
Massachusetts_ (1907). On Education: See _Annual Reports_ of the
United States Commissioner of Education; G. G. Bush, _History of
Higher Education in Massachusetts_ (Washington, U.S. Bureau of
Education, 1891); article on HARVARD UNIVERSITY. On History: Elaborate
bibliography is given in J. Winsor's _Narrative and Critical History
of America_ and in his _Memorial History of Boston_. The colonial
historical classics are William Bradford, _History of Plimoth
Plantation_ (pub. by the commonwealth, 1898; also edited by Charles
Deane, in _Collections_ of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1856,
series 4, vol. iii.); J. Winthrop, _History of New England 1630-1649_,
edited by J. Savage (Boston, 2 vols. 1825-1826, new ed., 1853); S. E.
Sewall, _Diary, 1674-1729_ (3 vols., _Collections_ of the
Massachusetts Historical Society, series 5, vols. v.-vii., 1878-1882),
a fascinating and microscopic picture of colonial life; T. Hutchinson,
_History of ... Massachusetts_ (3 vols., respectively Boston, 1764,
1767, London, 1828); also the very valuable _Hutchinson Papers_ (2
vols., Prince Society, Boston, 1865). For the period 1662-1666, when
Massachusetts was investigated by royal commissioners, see
_Collections_ of the Massachusetts Historical Society, series 2, vol.
viii., 1819; on the Andros period, 1689-1691, see the _Andros Tracts_
(3 vols., Prince Society Publications, v.-vii., Boston, 1868-1874),
ed. by J. H. Whitmore. The one-time-standard general history was that
of J. G. Palfrey, _History of New England_ (5 vols., Boston,
1858-1890), to the War of Independence. It is generally accurate in
facts but written in an unsatisfactorily eulogistic vein. Of
importance in more modern views is a volume of _Lectures Delivered ...
before the Lowell Institute ... by Members of the Massachusetts
Historical Society on Subjects Relating to the Early History of
Massachusetts_ (Boston, 1869), perhaps especially the lectures of G.
E. Ellis, later expanded, and in the process somewhat weakened, into
his _Puritan Age and Rule in the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay,
1629-1685_ (Boston, 1888; 3rd ed., 1891). See C. F. Adams,
_Massachusetts: its Historians and its History_ (Boston, 1893), for a
critique of the "filiopietistic" traditions of Massachusetts writers;
also his _Three Episodes of Massachusetts History_,--namely,
Settlement of the Colony, Antinomianism, and church and town
government in Quincy from 1634-1888 (2 vols., Boston, 1892). On town
government see further E. Channing in Johns Hopkins University,
_Studies in History_ vol. ii. (1884); P. E. Aldrich in American
Antiquarian Society, _Proceedings_, new series, vol. 3, pp. 111-124;
and C. F. Adams and others in Massachusetts Historical Society,
_Proceedings_, 2nd series, vol. vii (1892). On the Pilgrims and
Puritans: See article PLYMOUTH; also E. H. Byington, _The Puritan in
England and America_ (Boston, 1896) and _The Puritan as Colonist and
Reformer_ (Boston, 1899). On the Quaker Persecution: R. P. Hallowell,
_The Quaker Invasion of Massachusetts_ (Boston, 1883; rev. ed., 1887).
On Witchcraft: See C. W. Upham, _Witchcraft in Salem_ (2 vols.,
Boston, 1867); S. G. Drake, _Annals of Witchcraft_ (Boston, 1869) and
_The Witchcraft Delusion in New England_ (3 vols., Roxbury, 1866),
this last a reprint of accounts of the time by Cotton Mather and R.
Calef; W. F. Poole, "Cotton Mather and Salem Witchcraft" (_North
American Review_, April 1869); and controversy of A. C. Goodell and G.
H. Moore in Massachusetts Historical Society, _Proceedings_. On
Slavery: G. H. Moore, _Notes on the History of Slavery_ (New York,
1866); E. Washburn in _Collections_, Massachusetts Historical Society,
series 4, iv., 333-346; C. Deane in same, pp. 375-442, and in
_Proceedings_, American Antiquarian Society, new series, iv., 191-222.
In the essays of J. R. Lowell are two on "New England two Centuries
Ago" and "Witchcraft." For economic history, W. B. Weeden, _Economic
and Social History of New England, 1620-1789_ (2 vols., Boston, 1890);
C. H. J. Douglas, _The Financial History of Massachusetts ... to the
American Revolution_ (in Columbia University Studies, vol i., 1892).
On the revolutionary epoch, Mellen Chamberlain, _John Adams... with
other Essays and Addresses_ (Boston, 1898); T. Hutchinson, _Diary and
Letters_ (2 vols., Boston, 1884-1886); H. A. Cushing, _Transition from
Provincial to Commonwealth Government in Massachusetts_ (Columbia
University Studies in History, vol. iii., 1896); S. B. Harding,
_Contest over the Ratification of the Federal Constitution in
Massachusetts_ (Harvard University Studies, New York, 1896); and on
the Shays Rebellion compare J. P. Warren in _American Historical
Review_ (Oct., 1905). On New England discontent preceding 1812, Henry
Adams, _Documents Relating to New England Federalism, 1780-1815_
(Boston, 1877); T. W. Higginson, _Massachusetts in the Army and Navy
during the War of 1861-65_ (Official, Boston, 2 vols., 1896). For a
list of the historical societies of the state consult A. M. Davis in
_Publications_ of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, vol. i.; the
most important are the Massachusetts Historical Society, established
1791, publishing _Collections and Proceedings_ (Boston) and the
American Antiquarian Society, established 1812, publishing
_Proceedings_ (Worcester). In many cases the most valuable material on
various periods is indicated under the biographies (or autobiographies
in some cases) of the public men named in the above article, to which
add Timothy Pickering, George Cabot, Joseph Warren, Elbridge Gerry,
Benjamin F. Butler, G. S. Boutwell and George F. Hoar. Many townships
have published their local records, and many township and county
histories contain valuable matter of general interest (e.g. as showing
in detail township action before the War of Independence), though
generally weighted heavily with genealogy and matters of merely local
interest. In American works of fiction, particularly of New England
authors, the reader will find a wealth of description of Massachusetts
and New England life, past and present, as in the writings of William
D. Howells, Sarah O. Jewett, Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman, Harriet B. Stowe
and others.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] At least seventy hills in the state, mainly in this quarter, have
an elevation of 1500 ft. (twenty-four above 2000 ft.).
[2] In some localities it is not easy to establish irrefutably and in
detail the inter-arrangement of drainage and rock structure that
proves it to be a subaerial peneplain instead of an uplifted
submarine platform; but the general proof is very clear.
[3] The yield of cereals and of such other crops in 1907 as are
recorded in the _Yearbook_ of the United States Department of
Agriculture was as follows: Indian corn, 1,584,000 bushels; oats,
245,000 bushels; barley, 64,000 bushels; buckwheat, 42,000 bushels;
potatoes, 3,600,000 bushels; hay, 760,000 tons; tobacco, 7,167,500
lb. In the same year, according to the same authority, there were in
the state 196,000 milch cows, 92,000 other neat cattle, 45,000 sheep
and 70,000 swine.
[4] _The Green Schists and Associated Granites and Porphyries of
Rhode Island_, Bulletin, U.S. Geological Survey, No. 311, 1907.
[5] In 1905 Massachusetts produced 60.7% of the writing paper
manufactured in the country. Besides writing paper, book paper and
building paper are made in the state, but very little newspaper.
[6] It must be noted, however, that the first successful construction
of cards, drawing and roving, and of spindles, on the Arkwright
principle was by S. Slater at Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1790.
[7] The tax valuation on ships engaged in foreign trade was lowered
between 1884 and 1900 from $2,801,405 to $147,768.
[8] The population of the state was 378,787 in 1790; 422,845 in 1800;
472,040 in 1810; 523,287 in 1820; 610,408 in 1830; 737,699 in 1840;
994,514 in 1850; 1,231,066 in 1860; 1,457,351 in 1870; 1,783,085 in
1880; 2,238,943 in 1890; and 2,805,346 in 1900. In 1905, according to
the state census, the population was 3,003,680, or about 7.7% more
than in 1900.
[9] In 1910 the following townships each had populations of more than
15,000: Revere, Leominster, Westfield, Attleborough, Peabody, Hyde
Park.
[10] The birth-rates every fifth (census) year up to 1895 varied for
natives from 14.48 to 19.49; for foreigners from 45.87 to 66.68. The
marriage rates in quinquennial periods up to 1905 were 19.6, 18.6,
21.0, 19.8, 15.6, 18.6, 18.6, 18.6, 17.4 and 17.4; the ratio of
marriages to the marriageable population was for males (above 16
years) 61.5, for females (above 14) 46.0; the fecundity of marriages
seemed to have increased, being about twice as high for foreigners as
for natives. See _Annual Report_ of the Board of Health (1896), by S.
W. Abbott; and _Sixty-fourth Report of Births, Marriages and Deaths
in Massachusetts_ (1906).
[11] The number of representatives from 1832 to 1908 varied from 240
to 635, and the length of session from 58 to 206 days (since 1867
none of under 100 days), with an almost continual increase in both
respects.
[12] However, every office-holder was, and every subject might be,
required to take (though this was not a condition of the franchise)
the oaths enjoined by parliament in the first year of the reign of
William and Mary as a substitute for the oaths of Allegiance and
Supremacy; and the same still applies to the signing of the
Declaration.
[13] From 1887-1900, out of 290 cases settled, only 107 were formal
arbitrations, 124 agreements were effected by the mediation of the
Board, 100 were effected otherwise while proceedings were pending,
and in 59 cases the Board interposed when the parties preferred
hostilities.
[14] For a summary statement of state labour laws in the United
States in 1903 see _Bulletin 54_ of the United States Bureau of
Labor, September 1904; and for a summary of labour laws in force at
the end of 1907 see 22nd _Annual Report_ (for 1907) of the U.S.
Commissioner of Labor (Washington, 1908).
[15] The usual allotment of the cost of this work is as follows: 65%
is paid by the railway company, 25% by the commonwealth and 10% by
the municipality in which the crossing is located.
[16] The cost was apportioned between the commonwealth and the local
government in the proportion of 3 to 1.
[17] Boston remained a township, governed by town-meetings, until
1822, when it had a population of some 47,000. The government of
Brookline (pop. in 1905, 23,436) is an interesting example of the
adaptation of the township system to urban conditions. The town is
frequently referred to as a model residential suburb; its budgets are
very large, its schools are excellent, and, among other things, it
has established a township gymnasium. The town hall is not large
enough for an assemblage of all the voters, but actually the
attendance is usually limited to about 200, and since 1901 there has
been in force a kind of referendum, under which any measure passed by
a town-meeting attended by 700 or more voters may be referred, upon
petition of 100 legal voters, to a regular vote at the polls. Much of
the work of the town-meetings is done through special committees.
[18] E. G. Brown, in _Monographs on Education in the United States_
prepared for the Paris Exposition of 1900 and edited by N. M. Butler.
[19] This is an especially honourable distinction, for William T.
Harris has said that "The history of education since the time of
Horace Mann is very largely an account of the successive
modifications introduced into elementary schools through the direct
or indirect influence of the normal school."
[20] In 1869 the personalty valuation was 60% that of realty; but it
steadily fell thereafter, amounting in 1893 to 32%. From 1874-1882
the assessment of realty increased nearly twelve times as much as
personalty. In the intervening period the assessed valuation of
realty in Boston increased more than 100%, while that of personalty
slightly diminished (the corresponding figures for the entire United
States from 1860 to 1890 being 172% and 12%), yet the most competent
business and expert opinions regarded the true value of personalty as
at least equal to and most likely twice as great as that of realty.
[21] In this document, whose democracy is characteristic of
differences between the Plymouth Colony and that of Massachusetts
Bay, the signatories "solemnly and mutually ... covenant and combine
ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering
and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue
hereof to enact, constitute and frame--[laws]--unto which we promise
all due submission and obedience." This was signed 11/21 of November
1620 by 41 persons.
[22] Slavery had existed as a social fact from the earliest years,
and legally after 1641; but it was never profitable, and was
virtually abolished long before the War of American Independence;
still it was never abolished explicitly by Massachusetts, though the
slave trade was prohibited in 1788, and though a number of negroes
were declared free after the adoption of the constitution of 1780 on
the strength of the sweeping declaration of human rights in that
instrument.
[23] According to the final report of the U.S. Adjutant-General in
1885, the enlistments were 146,730 men, of whom 13,942 died in war.
These figures are probably less accurate than those of the state.
[24] Endecott, by commission dated the 30th of April 1629, was made
"governor of London's plantation in the Massachusetts Bay." Matthew
Cradock, first governor of the Company, from the 4th of March 1629 to
the 20th of October 1629, was succeeded on the latter date by John
Winthrop, who, on reaching Salem on the 12th of June 1630 with the
charter, superseded Endecott.
[25] During three periods, 1701-1702, in February 1715, and from
April to August 1757 the affairs of the colony were administered by
the Executive Council.
[26] General Gage was military governor, Hutchinson remaining
nominally civil governor.
MASSACRE, a wholesale indiscriminate killing of persons, and also, in a
transferred sense, of animals. The word is adopted from the French; but
its origin is obscure. The meaning and the old form _macecle_ seem to
point to it being a corruption of the Lat. _macellum_, butcher's shop or
shambles, hence meat market; this is probably from the root _mac_-, seen
in [Greek: machesthai], to fight, [Greek: machaira], sword, and Lat.
_mactare_, to sacrifice. Another derivation connects with the Old Low
Ger. _matsken_, to cut in pieces; cf. mod. Ger. _metzeln_, to massacre.
MASSAGE. The word _massage_ has of late years come into general use to
signify the method of treating disease or other physical conditions by
manipulating the muscles and joints. According to Littré the word is
derived from the Arabic _mass_, and has the specific meaning of
"pressing the muscular parts of the body with the hands, and exercising
traction on the joints in order to give suppleness and stimulate
vitality." It was probably adopted from the Arabian physicians by the
French, who have played a leading part in reviving this method of
treatment, which has been practised from time immemorial, and by the
most primitive people, but has from time to time fallen into disuse
among Western nations. In the _Odyssey_ the women are described as
rubbing and kneading the heroes on their return from battle. In India,
under the name "shampoo" (_tshampua_), the same process has formed part
of the native system of medicine from the most remote times;
professional massers were employed there by Alexander the Great in 327
B.C. In China the method is also of great antiquity, and practised by a
professional class; the Swedish gymnastic system instituted by Pehr
Henrik Ling is derived from the book of Cong-Fou, the bonze of Tao-Sse.
Hippocrates describes and enjoins the use of manipulation, especially in
cases of stiff joints, and he was followed by other Greek physicians.
Oribasius gives an account of the application of friction with the bare
hands, which exactly corresponds with the modern practice of massage. It
is worthy of note that the treatment, after being held in high esteem by
the leading Greek physicians, fell into disrepute with the profession,
apparently on account of its association with vicious abuses. The same
drawback has made itself felt in the present day, and can only be met by
the most scrupulous care in the choice of agents and the manner of their
employment. Among the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and later the Turks,
massage came to be part of the ordinary procedure of the bath without
any special therapeutic intention, and the usage has survived until
to-day; but that mode of application was no doubt a refinement of
civilized life. Medical rubbing is older and more elementary than
bathing, as we see from its employment by savages. Probably it was
evolved independently among different races from the natural
instinct--shared by the lower animals--which teaches to rub, press or
lick any part of the body in which uneasiness is felt, and is therefore
the oldest of all therapeutic means.
According to Weiss, the therapeutic use of massage was revived in Europe
by Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente (1537-1619), who applied it to
stiff joints and similar conditions. Paracelsus in his _De medicina
Aegyptiorum_ (1591), gives a description of methodical massage as
practised by the Egyptians quite on modern lines. Thereafter it appears
to have been adopted here and there by individual practitioners, and
various references are made to it, especially by French writers. The
word "massage" occurs in an essay written by Pierre Adolphe Piorry
(1794-1879) for a large encyclopaedia which appeared in 1818, but it was
probably used before. The practice was gradually advocated by an
increasing number of medical men. In Great Britain it was called
"medical rubbing," and at Edinburgh Beveridge had a staff of eight
trained male rubbers. A book published by Estradère in 1863 attracted
much attention, but the man who contributed most to the modern
popularity of massage was Metzger of Amsterdam, who began to use it
tentatively in 1853, and then proceeded to study and apply it
methodically. He published an essay on the subject in 1868. The modern
refinements of the treatment are chiefly due to him. At the same time,
its application by Dr Silas Weir Mitchell to hysterical and other
nervous conditions, in conjunction with the "rest cure," has done much
to make it known.
Massage, as now practised, includes several processes, some of which are
passive and others active. The former are carried out by an operator,
and consist of rubbing and kneading the skin and deeper tissues with the
hands, and exercising the joints by bending the patient's limbs. The
active movements consist of a special form of gymnastics, designed to
exercise particular muscles or groups of muscles. In what is called
"Swedish massage" the operator moves the limbs while the patient
resists, thus bringing the opposing muscles into play. Some writers
insist on confining the word "massage" to the rubbing processes, and use
the general term "manipulation" to cover all the movements mentioned;
but this is a verbal subtlety of no importance. It is evident that alike
among the Greeks, the Orientals, and savage races, the two processes
have always been applied as part of the same treatment, and the
definition quoted above from Littré goes to show that the word "massage"
is properly applied to both.
Rubbing has been subdivided into several processes, namely (1)
stroking, (2) kneading, (3) rubbing, and (4) tapping, and some
practitioners attach great importance to the application of a
particular process in a particular way. As a rule, oils and other
lubricants are not used. But, however it may be applied, the treatment
acts essentially by increasing circulation and improving nutrition. It
has been shown by Lauder Brunton that more blood actually flows
through the tissues during and after rubbing. The number of red
corpuscles, and, to some extent, their haemoglobin value, are also
said to be increased (Mitchell). At the same time the movement of the
lymph stream is accelerated. In order to assist the flow of blood and
lymph, stroking is applied centripetally, that is to say, upwards
along the limbs and the lower part of the body, downwards from the
head. The effects of the increased physiological activity set up are
numerous. Functional ability is restored to exhausted muscles by the
removal of fatigue products and the induction of a fresh blood supply;
congestion is relieved; collections of serous fluid are dispersed;
secretion and excretion are stimulated; local and general nutrition
are improved. These effects indicate the conditions in which massage
may be usefully applied. Such are various forms of paralysis and
muscular wasting, chronic and subacute affections of the joints,
muscular rheumatism, sciatica and other neuralgias, local congestions,
sprains, contractions, insomnia and some forms of headache, in which
downward stroking from the head relieves cerebral congestion. It has
also been used in anaemia, hysteria and "neurasthenia," disorders of
the female organs, melancholia and other forms of insanity,
morphinism, obesity, constipation, inflammatory and other affections
of the eye, including even cataract. General massage is sometimes
applied, as a form of passive exercise, to indolent persons whose
tissues are overloaded with the products of incomplete metabolism.
As with other methods of treatment, there has been a tendency on the
part of some practitioners to exalt it into a cure-all, and of others
to ignore it altogether. Of its therapeutic value, when judiciously
used, there is no doubt, but it is for the physician or surgeon to say
when and how it should be applied. Affections to which it is not
applicable are fevers, pregnancy, collections of pus, acute
inflammation of the joints, inflamed veins, fragile arteries, wounds
of the skin and, generally speaking, those conditions in which it is
not desirable to increase the circulation, or in which the patient
cannot bear handling. In such conditions it may have a very injurious
and even dangerous effect, and therefore should not be used in a
haphazard manner without competent advice.
The revival of massage in Europe and America has called into existence
a considerable number of professional operators, both male and female,
who may be regarded as forming a branch of the nursing profession.
Some of these are trained in hospitals or other institutions, some by
private practitioners and some not at all. Similarly some are attached
to organized societies or institutions while others pursue their
calling independently. Several things are required for a good
operator. One is physical strength. Deep massage is very laborious
work, and cannot be carried on for an hour, or even half an hour,
without unusual muscular power. Feeble persons cannot practise it
effectively at all. The duration of a sitting may vary from five or
ten minutes to an hour. For general massage at least half an hour is
required. A masser should have strength enough to do the work without
too obvious exhaustion, which gives the patient an unpleasant
impression. A second requirement is tactile and muscular sensibility.
A person not endowed with a fine sense of touch and resistance is
liable to exert too great or too little pressure; the one hurts the
patient, the other is ineffective. Then skill and knowledge, which can
only be acquired by a course of instruction, are necessary. Finally,
some guarantee of cleanliness and character is almost indispensable.
Independent massers may possess all these qualifications in a higher
degree than those connected with an institution, but they may also be
totally devoid of them, whereas connexion with a recognized hospital
or society is a guarantee for a certain standard of efficiency. In
London there are several such institutions, which train and send out
both male and female massers. The fee is 5s. an hour, or from two to
four guineas a week. On the European continent, where trained massers
are much employed by some practitioners, the fee is considerably
lower; in the United States it is higher. For reasons mentioned above,
it is most desirable that patients should be attended by operators of
their own sex. If this is not insisted upon, a valuable therapeutic
means will be in danger of falling into disrepute both with the
medical profession and the general public. (A. Sl.)
MASSAGETAE, an ancient warlike people described by Herodotus (i.
203-216; iv. 22, 172) as dwelling beyond the Araxes (i.e. the Oxus) in
what is now Balkh and Bokhara. It was against their queen Tomyris that
Cyrus undertook the expedition in which according to one story he met
his end. In their usages some tribes were nomads like the people of
Scythia (q.v.), others with their community of wives and habit of
killing and eating their parents recalled the Issedones (q.v.); while
the dwellers in the islands of the river were fish-eating savages.
Probably the name denoted no ethnic unity, but included all the
barbarous north-eastern neighbours of the Persians. Herodotus says they
only used gold and copper (or bronze), not silver or iron. Their lavish
use of gold has caused certain massive ornaments from southern Siberia,
now in the Hermitage at St Petersburg, to be referred to the Massagetae.
(E. H. M.)
MASSA MARITTIMA, a town and episcopal see of the province of Grosseto,
Tuscany, Italy, 24 m. N.N.W. of Grosseto direct and 16 m. by rail N.E.
of Follonica (which is 28 m. N.W. of Grosseto on the main coast
railway), 1444 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901), (town) 9219; (commune)
17,519. It has a cathedral of the 13th century containing a Romanesque
font (1267 with a cover of 1447) and a Gothic reliquary (1324) of the
saint Cerbone, to whom the cathedral is dedicated. The battlemented
municipal palace of the 13th century is picturesque. There are mineral
springs, mines of iron, mercury, lignite and copper, with foundries,
ironworks and olive-oil mills. At Follonica on the coast, but in this
commune, are the furnaces in which are smelted the iron ore of Elba.
MASSAWA, or MASSOWAH, a fortified town on the African coast of the Red
Sea, chief port of the Italian colony of Eritrea, in 15° 36´ N. and 39°
28´ E. Pop. about 10,000. The town stands at the north end of the bay of
Massawa and is built partly on a coral island of the same name--where
was the original settlement--and partly on the islets of Tautlub and
Sheik Said, and the neighbouring mainland. Massawa Island is from 20 to
25 ft. above the sea, its length does not exceed ½ m. and its breadth is
about ¼ m. The harbour is formed by the channel between the island and
the mainland. It affords good anchorage in from 5 to 9 fathoms. The town
possesses several good public buildings, chiefly built of coral, as are
the houses of the principal European and Arab merchants. Landward the
town is guarded by forts erected by the Italians since 1885. Water was
formerly scarce; but in 1872 an ancient aqueduct from Mokullu (5 m.
distant westward) was restored and continued by an embankment to the
town. A railway connects Massawa with Asmara, the capital of the colony.
Besides the Abyssinians, who speak a Tigré dialect corrupted with
Arabic, the inhabitants comprise Italian officials and traders, Greeks,
Indians, Arabs from Yemen and Hadramut, Gallas and Somalis. Massawa is
the natural port for northern Abyssinia but commerce is undeveloped
owing to the lack of rapid means of communication. The trade done
consists mainly in exporting hides, butter, Abyssinian coffee and civet,
and importing European and Indian cotton goods and silks. It increased
in value from about £65,000 per annum in 1865 (the last year of Turkish
control) to from £240,000 to £280,000 between 1879 and 1881, when under
the administration of Egypt. Under the Italians trade greatly developed.
The returns for the five years 1901-1905 showed an average annual value
of £1,800,000, about two-thirds being imports.
The island of Massawa has probably been inhabited from a very early
date. It appears to have formed part of the Abyssinian dominions for
many centuries. It was at Massawa (Matzua, as it is called by the
Portuguese chroniclers) that Christopher da Gama and his comrades landed
in July 1541 on their way to aid the Abyssinians against the Moslem
invaders. Captured by the Turks in 1557, the island remained a Turkish
possession over two hundred years. A military colony of Bosnians settled
at Arkiko (a port on the bay 4 m. south of Massawa Island) was appointed
not only to defend it in case of attack from the mainland, but to keep
it supplied with water in return for $1400 per month from the town's
customs. For some time at the close of the 18th century Massawa was held
by the sherif of Mecca, and it afterwards passed to Mehemet Ali of
Egypt. The Turks were reinstated about 1850, but in 1865 they handed the
island back to Egypt for an annual tribute of 2½ million piastres. In
February 1885 Massawa was occupied by an Italian force, the Egyptian
garrison stationed there being withdrawn in the November following (see
EGYPT; ITALY; ABYSSINIA). The port was the capital of the Italian colony
until 1900 when the seat of administration was removed to Asmara (see
ERITREA).
For a description of the town in 1769 see the _Travels_ of James
Bruce. At that time the governor, though appointed by the Turks, paid
one half of the customs receipts to the negus of Abyssinia in return
for the protection of that monarch.
MASSÉNA, ANDRÉ, or _Andrea_, duke of Rivoli, prince of Essling
(1756-1817), the greatest of Napoleon's marshals, son of a small wine
merchant, it is said of Jewish origin, was born at Nice on the 6th of
May 1756. His parents were very poor, and he began life as a cabin boy,
but he did not care much for the sea, and in 1775 he enlisted in the
Royal-Italien regiment. He quickly rose to be under-officer-adjutant;
but, finding his birth would prevent his ever getting a commission, he
left the army in 1789, retired to his native city, and married. At the
sound of war, however, and the word republic, his desire to see service
increased, and he once more left Italy, and joined the 3rd battalion of
the volunteers of the Var in 1791. In those days when men elected their
officers, and many of the old commissioned officers had emigrated,
promotion to a man with a knowledge of his drill was rapid, and by
February 1792 Masséna was a lieutenant-colonel. His regiment was one of
those in the army which occupied Nice, and in the advance to the
Apennines which followed, his knowledge of the country, of the language,
and of the people was so useful that in December 1793 he was already a
general of division. In command of the advanced guard he won the battle
of Saorgio in August 1794, capturing ninety guns, and after many
successes he at last, on the 23rd of November 1795, with the right wing
of the army of Italy, had the greatest share in the victory of Loano,
won by Schérer over the Austrians and Sardinians. In Bonaparte's great
campaign of 1796-97 Masséna was his most trusted general of division; in
each battle he won fresh laurels, up to the crowning victory of Rivoli,
from which he afterwards took his title. It was during this campaign
that Bonaparte gave him the title of _enfant gâté de la victoire_, which
he was to justify till he met the English in 1810. In 1798 he commanded
the army of Rome for a short time, but was displaced by the intrigues of
his subordinate Berthier. Masséna's next important service was in
command of the army in Switzerland, which united the army in Germany
under Moreau, and that in Italy under Joubert. There he proved himself a
great captain, as he had already proved himself a great lieutenant; the
archduke Charles and Suvarov had each been successful in Germany and in
Italy, and now turned upon Masséna in Switzerland. That general held his
ground well against the archduke, and then suddenly, leaving Soult to
face the Austrians, he transported his army to Zürich, where, on the
26th of September 1799, he entirely defeated Korsakov, taking 200 guns
and 5000 prisoners. This campaign and battle placed his reputation on a
level with that of his compatriot Bonaparte, and he might have made the
revolution of Brumaire, but he was sincerely attached to the republic,
and had no ambition beyond a desire to live well and to have plenty of
money to spend. Bonaparte, now First Consul, sent him to Genoa to
command the débris of the army of Italy, and he nobly defended Genoa
from February to June to the very last extremity, giving time for
Bonaparte to strike his great blow at Marengo. He now went to Paris,
where he sat in the Corps Législatif in 1803, and actually defended
Moreau without drawing upon himself the ill-will of Napoleon, who well
knew his honesty and lack of ambition.
In 1804 he was made one of the first marshals of France of the new
régime, and in 1805 was decorated with the Grand Eagle of the Legion of
Honour. In that year Napoleon needed an able general to keep in check
the archduke Charles in Italy, while he advanced through Germany with
the grand army. Masséna was chosen; he kept the archduke occupied till
he received news of the surrender of Ulm, and then on the 30th of
October defeated him in the battle of Caldiero. After the peace of
Pressburg had been signed, Masséna was ordered to take possession of the
kingdom of Naples, and to place Joseph Bonaparte on the throne. This
task done, Napoleon summoned Masséna to Poland, where he as usual
distinguished himself, and where he for the time gave up his republican
principles. In 1808 he was made duke of Rivoli. In 1808 he was
accidentally wounded by his old enemy Berthier when both were in
attendance on the emperor at a shooting party, and he lost the sight of
one eye. In the campaign in 1809 he covered himself with glory at
Landshut and at Eckmühl, and finally at the battle of Aspern-Essling his
magnificent leadership made what would without him have been an
appalling disaster into a mere reverse of which the enemy could make no
use. On the field of Wagram Masséna, though too ill to ride, directed
from his carriage the movements of the right wing. For his great
services he was created prince of Essling, and given the princely castle
of Thouars. He was then ordered to Spain to "drive the English into the
sea." (For the campaigns of 1810 and 1811, the advance to and the
retreat from Torres Vedras see PENINSULAR WAR.) Masséna himself, with
some justice, ascribed his failure to the frequent disobedience of his
subordinates Ney, Reynier and Junot, and public opinion attributed this
disobedience to the presence with the army of Masséna's mistress, and to
the resentment thereat felt by the wives of the three generals. Still,
unsuccessful as he was, Masséna displayed the determination of the
defence of Genoa and the fertility in expedients of the campaign of
Zürich, and kept his army for five weary months close up to Wellington's
impregnable position before retiring. His retreat through a devastated
country was terrible, but his force of character kept his men together,
and Ney having shown the worst side of his character now showed the best
in the frequent and brilliant rearguard actions, until a new act of
insubordination at last made the old marshal dismiss Ney from his
command. Soon Masséna was once again ready to try his fortune, and he
nearly defeated Wellington at Fuentes d'Oñoro, though much hampered by
Bessières. But his recall soon followed this and he returned home to
find his prestige gone. The old marshal felt he had a right to complain
of Ney and of Napoleon himself, and, it is said, opened communications
with Fouché and the remnant of the republican party. Whether this be
true or not, Napoleon gave his greatest marshal no more employment in
the field, but made him merely a territorial commandant at Marseilles.
This command he still held at the restoration, when Louis XVIII.
confirmed him in it, and with true Bourbon stupidity gave him letters of
naturalization, as if the great leader of the French armies had not
ceased to be an Italian. When Napoleon returned from Elba, Masséna,
probably by the advice of Fouché, kept Marseilles quiet to await events,
the greatest service he could do the royalists, but afterwards imputed
to him as a fault. After the second restoration Masséna was summoned to
sit on the court-martial which tried Marshal Ney, but, though he had
been on bad terms with that general, and attributed his own disgrace to
him, the old soldier would not be his comrade's judge. This refusal was
used by the royalists to attack the marshal, against whom they raked up
every offence they could think of. This annoyance shortened his life,
and on the 4th of April 1817 the old hero died. He was buried in
Père-la-Chaise, with only the word "Masséna" upon his tombstone.
In private life indolent, greedy, rapacious, ill-educated and morose, in
war Masséna was, like Napoleon, the incarnation of battle. Only his
indolence and his consequent lack of far-ranging imagination prevented
him being as great in strategy as in tactics. His genius needed the
presence of the enemy to stimulate it, but once it sprang to life
Masséna became an ideal leader, absolutely brave, resourceful,
unrelenting and indefatigable. He was as great a master of the strategy
of forces in immediate contact--of gathering up as it were the threads
of the fugue into a "stretto." For the planning of a whole perfect
campaign he had neither knowledge nor inclination, and he falls short
therefore of the highest rank amongst great generals; but his place
amongst the greatest of soldiers is beyond challenge.
See Thiébault's _Éloge funèbre_, and Koch's _Mémoires de Masséna_ (4
vols., 1849), a valuable work, carefully compiled. In more modern
times E. Gachot has produced several important works dealing with
Masséna's campaigns.
MASSENBACH, CHRISTIAN KARL AUGUST LUDWIG VON (1758-1827), Prussian
soldier, was born at Schmalkalden on the 16th of April 1758, and
educated at Heilbronn and Stuttgart, devoting himself chiefly to
mathematics. He became an officer of the Württemberg army in 1778, and
left this for the service of Frederick the Great in 1782. The pay of his
rank was small, and his appointment on the quartermaster-general's staff
made it necessary to keep two horses, so that he had to write
mathematical school-books in his spare time to eke out his resources. He
was far however from neglecting the science and art of war, for thus
early he had begun to make his name as a theorist as well as a
mathematician. After serving as instructor in mathematics to the young
prince Louis, he took part with credit in the expedition into Holland,
and was given the order _Pour le mérite_. On returning to Prussia he
became mathematical instructor at the school of military engineering,
leaving this post in 1792 to take part as a general staff officer in the
war against France. He was awarded a prebend at Minden for his services
as a topographical engineer on the day of Valmy, and after serving
through the campaigns of 1793 and 1794 he published a number of memoirs
on the military history of these years. He was chiefly occupied however
with framing schemes for the reorganization of the then neglected
general staff of the Prussian army, and many of his proposals were
accepted. Bronsart von Schellendorf in his _Duties of the General Staff_
says of Massenbach's work in this connexion, "the organization which he
proposed and in the main carried out survived even the catastrophes of
1806-1807, and exists even at the present moment in its original
outline." This must be accounted as high praise when it is remembered
how much of the responsibility for these very disasters must be laid to
Massenbach's account. The permanent gain to the service due to his
exertions was far more than formal, for it is to him that the general
staff owes its tradition of thorough and patient individual effort. But
the actual doctrine taught by Massenbach, who was now a colonel, may be
summarized as the doctrine of positions carried to a ludicrous excess;
the claims put forward for the general staff, that it was to prepare
cut-and-dried plans of operations in peace which were to be imposed on
the troop leaders in war, were derided by the responsible generals; and
the memoirs on proposed plans of campaign to suit certain political
combinations were worked out in quite unnecessary detail. It was
noteworthy that none of the proposed plans of campaign considered France
as an enemy.
In 1805 came threats of the war with Napoleon which Massenbach had
strongly opposed. He was made quartermaster-general (chief of staff) to
Prince Hohenlohe, over whom he soon obtained a fatal ascendancy. War was
averted for a moment by the result of the battle of Austerlitz, but it
broke out in earnest in October 1806. Massenbach's influence clouded all
the Prussian operations. The battles of Jena and Auerstädt were lost,
and the capitulation of Prince Hohenlohe's army was negotiated. Even
suggestions of disloyalty were not wanting; an attempt to try him by
court-martial was only frustrated by Prince Hohenlohe's action in taking
upon himself, as commander-in-chief, the whole responsibility for
Massenbach's actions. He then retired to his estate in the Posen
province, and occupied himself in writing pamphlets, memoirs, &c. When
his estates passed into the grand duchy of Warsaw, he chose to remain a
Prussian subject, and on the outbreak of the war of liberation he asked
in vain for a post on the Prussian staff. After the fall of Napoleon he
took part in Württemberg politics, was expelled from Stuttgart and
Heidelberg, and soon afterwards arrested at Frankfurt, delivered over to
the Prussian authorities and condemned to fourteen years' fortress
imprisonment for his alleged publication of state secrets in his
memoirs. He was kept in prison till 1826, when Frederick William III.,
having recovered from an accident, pardoned those whom he considered to
have wronged him most deeply. He died on the 21st of November 1827, at
his estate of Bialokoscz, Posen.
The obituary in _Neuer Nekrolog der Deutschen_, pt. ii. (Ilmenau,
1827) is founded on a memoir (_Der Oberst C. v. Massenbach_) which was
published at the beginning of his imprisonment.
MASSENET, JULES ÉMILE FRÉDÉRIC (1842- ), French composer, was born at
Montaud, on the 12th of May 1842. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire,
where he obtained the Grand Prix de Rome in 1863 with the cantata _David
Rizzio_. Massenet became one of the most prolific composers of his time.
His operas include the following: _La Grande tante_, one act, opéra
comique (1867); _Don César de Bazan_, three acts, opéra comique (1872);
_Le Roi de Lahore_, five acts, opera (1877); _Hérodiade_, five acts
(Brussels, 1881); _Manon_, five acts, opéra comique (1884); _Le Cid_,
four acts, opera (1885); _Esclarmonde_, four acts, opéra comique (1889);
_Le Mage_, five acts, opera (1891); _Werther_, four acts (Vienna, 1892);
_Thaïs_, three acts, opera (1894); _Le Portrait de Manon_, one act,
opéra comique (1894); _La Navarraise_, two acts (Covent Garden, 1894);
_Sapho_, opéra comique (1897); _Cendrillon_, opéra comique (1900);
_Grisélidis_, opéra comique (1901); _Le Jongleur de Notre Dame_
(Mentone, 1902). Of these the most popular is Manon. Massenet's other
works include _Marie Madeleine_, sacred drama (1873); _Eve_, a mystery
(1875); _La Vierge_, sacred legend (1880); six orchestral suites
entitled _Scènes hongroises_, _Scènes pittoresques_, _Scènes
dramatiques_, _Scènes napolitaines_, _Scènes de féerie_, _Scènes
alsaciennes_; music to the tragedy _Les Erynnies_, to _Théodora_, _Le
Crocodile_, _L'Hetman_; a requiem, _Narcisse_; an idyll, _Biblis_; a
_Scène antique_; several sets of songs, entitled _Poème d'avril_, _Poème
d'amour_, _Poème d'hiver_, _Poème d'octobre_, _Poème pastoral_, _Poème
du souvenir_; also a large number of detached songs. He was professor of
composition at the Conservatoire from 1878 to 1896, among his pupils
being Hillemacher, Marty, Bruneau, Vidal, Pierné, Leroux and
Charpentier. Massenet undoubtedly possesses a style of his own. He is at
his best in music descriptive of the tender passion, and many of the
love scenes in his operas are very beautiful.
MASSEREENE, JOHN CLOTWORTHY, 1ST VISCOUNT (d. 1665), Anglo-Irish
politician, was a son of Sir Hugh Clotworthy, sheriff of county Antrim.
He was elected to the Irish parliament as member for county Antrim in
1634, and was a member both of the Short and of the Long Parliament in
England. Clotworthy was a vehement opponent of the earl of Stafford, in
whose impeachment he took an active share. He also took part in the
prosecution of Archbishop Laud. Having unsuccessfully negotiated with
Ormond for the surrender of Dublin to the Parliamentary forces in 1646,
he was accused in the following year of having betrayed his cause, and
also of embezzlement; in consequence of these charges he fled to the
Continent, but returned to parliament in June 1648. On the 12th of
December in that year he was arrested, and remained in prison for nearly
three years. Having taken an active part in forwarding the Restoration,
he was employed in Ireland in arranging the affairs of the soldiers and
other adventurers who had settled in Ireland Clotworthy in no way abated
his old animosity against "papists" and high Anglicans, and he
championed the cause of the Irish Presbyterians; but being personally
agreeable to Charles II., his ecclesiastical views were overlooked, and
on the 21st of November 1660 he was created Baron Loughneagh and
Viscount Massereene in the Irish peerage, with remainder in default of
male heirs to his son-in-law, Sir John Skeffington. Massereene died
without male issue in September 1665, and the title devolved on
Skeffington, whose great-grandson, the fifth viscount, was created earl
of Massereene in 1756. The earldom became extinct on the death of the
fourth earl without male issue in 1816, the viscounty and barony of
Loughneagh descending to his daughter Harriet, whose husband, Thomas
Foster, took the name of Skeffington, and inherited from his mother in
1824 the titles of Viscount Ferrard and Baron Oriel of Collon in the
Irish peerage, and from his father in 1828 that of Baron Oriel of
Ferrard in the peerage of the United Kingdom.
MASSEY, SIR EDWARD (c. 1619-c. 1674), English soldier in the Great
Rebellion, was the son of John Massey of Coddington, Cheshire. Little is
known of his early life, but it is said that he served in the Dutch army
against the Spaniards. In 1639 he appears as a captain of pioneers in
the army raised by Charles I. to fight against the Scots. At the
outbreak of the Great Rebellion he was with the king at York, but he
soon joined the Parliamentary army. As lieutenant-colonel under the earl
of Stamford he became deputy governor of Gloucester, where he remained
till towards the end of the first Civil War, becoming governor early in
1643. He conducted minor operations against numerous small bodies of
Royalists, and conducted the defence of Gloucester against the king's
main army in August 1643, with great steadiness and ability, receiving
the thanks of parliament and a grant of £1000 for his services. In 1644
Massey continued to keep the field and to disperse the local Royalists,
and on several occasions he measured swords with Prince Rupert. In May
1644 he was made general of the forces of the Western Association. In
1645 he took the offensive against Lord Goring and the western
Royalists, advanced to the relief of Taunton, and in the autumn
co-operated effectively with Sir Thomas Fairfax and the New Model army
in the Langport campaign. After taking part in the desultory operations
which closed the first war, he took his seat in the House of Commons as
member for Gloucester. He then began to take an active part in politics
on the Presbyterian side, and was one of the generals who was impeached
by the army on the ground that they were attempting to revive the Civil
War in the Presbyterian interests. Massey fled from England in June
1647, and though he resumed his seat in the house in 1648 he was again
excluded by Pride's Purge, and after a short imprisonment escaped to
Holland. Thence, taking the side of the king openly and definitely like
many other Presbyterians, he accompanied Charles II. to Scotland. He
fought against Cromwell at the bridge of Stirling and Inverkeithing, and
commanded the advanced guard of the Royalist army in the invasion of
England in 1651. It was hoped that Massey's influence would win over the
towns of the Severn valley to the cause of the king, and the march of
the army on Worcester was partly inspired by this expectation. However,
he effected little, and after riding with the king for some distance
from the field of Worcester, fell into the hands of his former comrades
and was lodged in the Tower. He again managed to escape to Holland.
While negotiating with the English Presbyterians for the restoration of
Charles, he visited England twice, in 1654 and 1656. In 1660 he was
active in preparing for Charles's return, and was rewarded by a
knighthood and a grant of £3000. The rest of his life was spent in
political, and occasionally in military and administrative business, and
he is said to have died in Ireland in 1674 or 1675.
MASSEY, GERALD (1828-1907), English poet, was born near Tring,
Hertfordshire, on the 29th of May 1828. His parents were in humble
circumstances, and Massey was little more than a child when he was set
to hard work in a silk factory, which he afterwards deserted for the
equally laborious occupation of straw-plaiting. These early years were
rendered gloomy by much distress and deprivation, against which the
young man strove with increasing spirit and virility, educating himself
in his spare time, and gradually cultivating his innate taste for
literary work. He was attracted by the movement known as Christian
Socialism, into which he threw himself with whole-hearted vigour, and so
became associated with Maurice and Kingsley. His first public appearance
as a writer was in connexion with a journal called the _Spirit of
Freedom_, of which he became editor, and he was only twenty-two when he
published his first volume of poems, _Voices of Freedom and Lyrics of
Love_. These he followed in rapid succession by _The Ballad of Babe
Christabel_ (1854), _War Waits_ (1855), _Havelock's March_ (1860), and
_A Tale of Eternity_ (1869). Many years afterwards in 1889, he collected
the best of the contents of these volumes, with additions, into a
two-volume edition of his poems called _My Lyrical Life_. He also
published works dealing with spiritualism, the study of Shakespeare's
sonnets (1872 and 1890), and theological speculation. It is generally
understood that he was the original of George Eliot's _Felix Holt_.
Massey's poetry has a certain rough and vigorous element of sincerity
and strength which easily accounts for its popularity at the time of its
production. He treated the theme of Sir Richard Grenville before
Tennyson thought of using it, with much force and vitality. Indeed,
Tennyson's own praise of Massey's work is still its best eulogy, for the
Laureate found in him "a poet of fine lyrical impulse, and of a rich
half-Oriental imagination." The inspiration of his poetry is essentially
British; he was a patriot to the core. It is, however, as an
Egyptologist that Gerald Massey is best known in the world of letters.
He first published _The Book of the Beginnings_, followed by _The
Natural Genesis_; but by far his most important work is _Ancient Egypt:
The Light of the World_, published shortly before his death. He died on
the 29th of October 1907.
See an article by J. Churton Collins in the _Contemporary Review_ (May
1904).
MASSICUS, MONS, a mountain ridge of ancient Italy, in the territory of the
Aurunci, and on the border of Campania and Latium adjectum--attributed by
most authors to the latter. It projects south-west from the volcanic
system of Rocca Monfina (see SUESSA AURUNCA) as far as the sea, and
separates the lower course of the Liris from the plain of Campania. It
consists of limestone, with a superstratum of pliocenic and volcanic
masses, and was once an island; its highest point is 2661 ft. above
sea-level.
It was very famous for its wine in ancient times. There was just room
along the coast for the road to pass through; the pass was guarded by
the Auruncan town of Vescia (probably on the mountain side), which
ceased to exist in 314 B.C. after the defeat of the Ausones, but left
its name to the spot. Its successor, Sinuessa, on the coast, a station
on the Via Appia, was constructed in 312 B.C., and a colony was
founded there in 295 B.C. It is not infrequently mentioned by
classical writers as a place in which travellers halted. Here Virgil
joined Horace on the famous journey to Brundusium. Domitian
considerably increased its importance by the construction of the Via
Domitiana, which left the Via Appia here and ran to Cumae and Puteoli,
and it was he, no doubt, who raised it to the position of _colonia
Flavia_. The town was destroyed by the Saracens, but some ruins of it
are still visible two miles north-west of the modern village of
Mondragone. The mineral springs which still rise here were frequented
in antiquity.
MASSIF, a French term, adopted in geology and physical geography for a
mountainous mass or group of connected heights, whether isolated or
forming part of a larger mountain system. A "massif" is more or less
clearly marked off by valleys.
MASSILLON, JEAN BAPTISTE (1663-1742), French bishop and preacher, was
born at Hyères on the 24th of June 1663, his father being a royal notary
of that town. At the age of eighteen he joined the Congregation of the
Oratory and taught for a time in the colleges of his order at Pézenas,
and Montbrison and at the Seminary of Vienne. On the death of Henri de
Villars, archbishop of Vienne, in 1693, he was commissioned to deliver a
funeral oration, and this was the beginning of his fame. In obedience to
Cardinal de Noailles, archbishop of Paris, he left the Cistercian abbey
of Sept-Fonds, to which he had retired, and settled in Paris, where he
was placed at the head of the famous seminary of Saint Magloire. He soon
gained a wide reputation as a preacher and was selected to be the Advent
preacher at the court of Versailles in 1699. He was made bishop of
Clermont in 1717, and two years later was elected a member of the French
Academy. The last years of his life were spent in the faithful discharge
of his episcopal duties; his death took place at Clermont on the 18th of
September 1742. Massillon enjoyed in the 18th century a reputation equal
to that of Bossuet and of Bourdaloue, and has been much praised by
Voltaire, D'Alembert and kindred spirits among the _Encyclopaedists_.
His popularity was probably due to the fact that in his sermons he lays
little stress on dogmatic questions, but treats generally of moral
subjects, in which the secrets of the human heart and the processes of
man's reason are described with poetical feeling. He has usually been
contrasted with his predecessor Bourdaloue, the latter having the credit
of vigorous denunciation, Massillon that of gentle persuasiveness.
Besides the _Petit Carême_, a sermon which he delivered before the young
king Louis XV. in 1718, his sermons on the Prodigal Son, on the small
number of the elect, on death, for Christmas Day, and for the Fourth
Sunday in Advent, may be perhaps cited as his masterpieces. His funeral
oration on Louis XIV. is only noted now for the opening sentence: "Dieu
seul est grand." But in truth Massillon is singularly free from
inequality. His great literary power, his reputation for benevolence,
and his known toleration and dislike of doctrinal disputes caused him to
be much more favourably regarded than most churchmen by the
_philosophes_ of the 18th century.
The first edition of Massillon's complete works was published by his
nephew, also an Oratorian (Paris, 1745-1748), and upon this, in the
absence of MSS., succeeding reprints were based. The best modern
edition is that of the Abbé Blampignon (Paris, 1865-1868, 4 vols.; new
ed. 1886).
See Abbé Blampignon, _Massillon, d'après des documents inédits_
(Paris, 1879); and _L'Épiscopat de Massitlon d'après des documents
inédits, suivi de sa correspondance_ (Paris, 1884); F. Brunetière
"L'Éloquence de Massillon" in _Études critiques_ (Paris, 1882); Père
Ingold, _L'Oratoire et le jansénisme au temps de Massitlon_ (Paris,
1880); and Louis Petit de Julleville's _Histoire de la langue et de la
littérature française_, v. 372-385 (Paris, 1898).
MASSILLON, a city of Stark county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the Tuscarawas river
and the Ohio canal, 8 m. W. of Canton, and about 50 m. S. by E. of
Cleveland. Pop. (1900), 11,944 (1693 foreign-born); (1910), 13,879. It
is served by the Pennsylvania (Pittsburg, Ft Wayne & Chicago Division),
the Baltimore & Ohio and the Wheeling & Lake Erie railways. Massillon is
built among hills in a part of the state noted for its large production
of coal and wheat and abounding in white sandstone, iron ore and
potter's clay. The city has various manufactures, including iron,
engines, furnaces, reapers, threshers and bottles. The total value of
the factory products in 1905 was $3,707,013, an increase of 34.8% over
that of 1900. The first settlement was made in 1825; in 1826 the town
was laid out and named in honour of Jean Baptiste Massillon; it was
incorporated a village in 1853, and became a city in 1868.
MASSIMO, or MASSIMI, a Roman princely family of great antiquity, said to
be descended from the ancient Maximi of republican Rome. The name is
first mentioned in 1012 in the person of Leo de Maximis, and the family
played a considerable part in the history of the city in the middle
ages. The brothers Pietro and Francesco Massimi acquired fame by
protecting and encouraging the German printer Ulrich Hahn, who came to
Rome in 1467. In the 16th century the Massimi were the richest of the
Roman nobles. A marquisate was conferred on them in 1544, and the
lordship of Arsoli in 1574. To-day there are two branches of the
Massimi, viz. the Principi Massimo, descended from Camillo Massimiliano
(1770-1840), and the dukes of Rignano, descended from Francesco Massimo
(1773-1844). One of the sons of the present Prince Camillo Carlo
Alberto, Don Fabrizio, married Princess Beatrice, daughter of Don Carlos
of Bourbon (duke of Madrid), the pretender to the Spanish throne. The
Palazzo Massimo in Rome was built by Baldassare Peruzzi by order of
Pietro Massimo, on the ruins of an earlier palace destroyed in the sack
of Rome in 1527.
See F. Gregorovius, _Geschichte der Stadt Rom_ (Stuttgart, 1880); A.
von Reumont, _Geschichte der Stadt Rom_ (Berlin, 1868); _Almanach de
Gotha_; J. H. Douglas, _The Principal Noble Families of Rome_ (Rome,
1905).
MASSINGER, PHILIP (1583-1640), English dramatist, son of Arthur
Massinger or Messanger, was baptized at St Thomas's, Salisbury, on the
24th of November 1583. He apparently belonged to an old Salisbury
family, for the name occurs in the city records as early as 1415. He is
described in his matriculation entry at St Alban Hall, Oxford (1602), as
the son of a gentleman. His father, who had also been educated at St
Alban Hall, was a member of parliament, and was attached to the
household of Henry Herbert, 2nd earl of Pembroke, who recommended him in
1587 for the office of examiner in the court of the marches. The 3rd
earl of Pembroke, the William Herbert whose name has been connected with
Shakespeare's sonnets, succeeded to the title in 1601. It has been
suggested that he supported the poet at Oxford, but the significant
omission of any reference to him in any of Massinger's prefaces points
to the contrary. Massinger left Oxford without a degree in 1606. His
father had died in 1603, and he was perhaps dependent on his own
exertions. The lack of a degree and the want of patronage from Lord
Pembroke may both be explained on the supposition that he had become a
Roman Catholic. On leaving the university he went to London to make his
living as a dramatist, but his name cannot be definitely affixed to any
play until fifteen years later, when _The Virgin Martyr_ (ent. at
Stationers' Hall, Dec. 7, 1621) appeared as the work of Massinger and
Dekker. During these years he worked in collaboration with other
dramatists. A joint letter, from Nathaniel Field, Robert Daborne and
Philip Massinger, to Philip Henslowe, begs for an immediate loan of five
pounds to release them from their "unfortunate extremitie," the money to
be taken from the balance due for the "play of Mr Fletcher's and ours."
A second document shows that Massinger and Daborne owed Henslowe £3 on
the 4th of July 1615. The earlier note probably dates from 1613, and
from this time Massinger apparently worked regularly with John Fletcher,
although in editions of Beaumont and Fletcher's works his co-operation
is usually unrecognized. Sir Aston Cokayne, Massinger's constant friend
and patron, refers in explicit terms to this collaboration in a sonnet
addressed to Humphrey Moseley on the publication of his folio edition of
Beaumont and Fletcher (_Small Poems of Divers Sorts_, 1658), and in an
epitaph on the two poets he says:--
"Plays they did write together, were great friends,
And now one grave includes them in their ends."
After Philip Henslowe's death in 1616 Massinger and Fletcher began to
write for the King's Men. Between 1623 and 1626 Massinger produced
unaided for the Lady Elizabeth's Men then playing at the Cockpit three
pieces, _The Parliament of Love_, _The Bondman_ and _The Renegado_. With
the exception of these plays and _The Great Duke of Florence_, produced
in 1627 by the Queen's servants, Massinger continued to write regularly
for the King's Men until his death. The tone of the dedications of his
later plays affords evidence of his continued poverty. Thus in the
preface to _The Maid of Honour_ (1632) he wrote, addressing Sir Francis
Foljambe and Sir Thomas Bland: "I had not to this time subsisted, but
that I was supported by your frequent courtesies and favours." The
prologue to _The Guardian_ (licensed 1633) refers to two unsuccessful
plays and two years of silence, when the author feared he had lost the
popular favour. S. R. Gardiner, in an essay on "The Political Element in
Massinger" (_Contemp. Review_, Aug. 1876), maintained that Massinger's
dramas are before all else political, that the events of his day were as
openly criticized in his plays as current politics are in the cartoons
of _Punch_. It is probable that this break in his production was owing
to his free handling of public matters. In 1631 Sir Henry Herbert, the
master of the revels, refused to license an unnamed play by Massinger
because of "dangerous matter as the deposing of Sebastian, King of
Portugal," calculated presumably to endanger good relations between
England and Spain. There is little doubt that this was the same piece as
_Believe as You List_, in which time and place are changed, Antiochus
being substituted for Sebastian, and Rome for Spain. In the prologue
Massinger ironically apologizes for his ignorance of history, and
professes that his accuracy is at fault if his picture comes near "a
late and sad example." The obvious "late and sad example" of a wandering
prince could be no other than Charles I.'s brother-in-law, the elector
palatine. An allusion to the same subject may be traced in _The Maid of
Honour_. In another play by Massinger, not extant, Charles I. is
reported to have himself struck out a passage put into the mouth of Don
Pedro, king of Spain, as "too insolent." The poet seems to have adhered
closely to the politics of his patron, Philip Herbert, earl of
Montgomery, and afterwards 4th earl of Pembroke, who had leanings to
democracy and was a personal enemy of the duke of Buckingham. In _The
Bondman_, dealing with the history of Timoleon, Buckingham is satirized
as Gisco. The servility towards the Crown displayed in Beaumont and
Fletcher's plays reflected the temper of the court of James I. The
attitude of Massinger's heroes and heroines towards kings is very
different. Camiola's remarks on the limitations of the royal prerogative
(_Maid of Honour_, act iv. sc. v.) could hardly be acceptable at court.
Massinger died suddenly at his house near the Globe theatre, and was
buried in the churchyard of St Saviour's, Southwark, on the 18th of
March 1640. In the entry in the parish register he is described as a
"stranger," which, however, implies nothing more than that he belonged
to another parish.
The supposition that Massinger was a Roman Catholic rests upon three of
his plays, _The Virgin Martyr_ (licensed 1620), _The Renegado_ (licensed
1624) and _The Maid of Honour_ (c. 1621). The religious sentiment is
certainly such as would obviously best appeal to an audience sympathetic
to Roman Catholic doctrine. _The Virgin Martyr_, in which Dekker
probably had a large share, is really a miracle play, dealing with the
martyrdom of Dorothea in the time of Diocletian, and the supernatural
element is freely used. Little stress can be laid on this performance as
elucidating Massinger's views. It is not entirely his work, and the
story is early Christian, not Roman Catholic. In _The Renegado_,
however, the action is dominated by the beneficent influence of a Jesuit
priest, Francisco, and the doctrine of baptismal regeneration is
enforced. In _The Maid of Honour_ a complicated situation is solved by
the decision of the heroine, Camiola, to take the veil. For this she is
held up "to all posterity a fair example for noble maids to imitate."
Among all Massinger's heroines Camiola is distinguished by genuine
purity and heroism.
His plays have generally an obvious moral intention. He sets himself to
work out a series of ethical problems through a succession of ingenious
and effective plots. In the art of construction he has, indeed, few
rivals. But the virtue of his heroes and heroines is rather morbid than
natural, and often singularly divorced from common-sense. His _dramatis
personae_ are in general types rather than living persons, and their
actions do not appear to spring inevitably from their characters, but
rather from the exigencies of the plot. The heroes are too good, and the
villains too wicked to be quite convincing. Moreover their respective
goodness and villainy are too often represented as extraneous to
themselves. This defect of characterization shows that English drama had
already begun to decline.
It seems doubtful whether Massinger was ever a popular playwright, for
the best qualities of his plays would appeal rather to politicians and
moralists than to the ordinary playgoer. He contributed, however, at
least one great and popular character to the English stage. Sir Giles
Overreach, in _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_, is a sort of commercial
Richard III., a compound of the lion and the fox, and the part provides
many opportunities for a great actor. He made another considerable
contribution to the comedy of manners in _The City Madam_. In
Massinger's own judgment _The Roman Actor_ was "the most perfect birth
of his Minerva." It is a study of the tyrant Domitian, and of the
results of despotic rule on the despot himself and his court. Other
favourable examples of his grave and restrained art are _The Duke of
Milan_, _The Bondman_ and _The Great Duke of Florence_.
Massinger was a student and follower of Shakespeare. The form of his
verse, especially in the number of run-on lines, approximates in some
respects to Shakespeare's later manner. He is rhetorical and
picturesque, but rarely rises to extraordinary felicity. His verse is
never mean, but it sometimes comes perilously near to prose, and in
dealing with passionate situations it lacks fire and directness.
The plays attributed to Massinger alone are: _The Duke of Milan, a
Tragedy_ (c. 1618, pr. 1623 and 1638); _The Unnatural Combat, a
Tragedy_ (c. 1619, pr. 1639); _The Bondman, an Antient Storie_
(licensed 1623, pr. 1624); _The Renegado, a Tragaecomedie_ (lic. 1624,
pr. 1630); _The Parliament of Love_ (lic. 1624; ascribed, no doubt
erroneously, in the Stationers' Register, 1660, to W. Rowley; first
printed by Gifford from an imperfect MS. in 1805); _A New Way to Pay
Old Debts, a Comoedie_ (c. 1625, pr. 1632); _The Roman Actor. A
Tragaedie_ (lic. 1626, pr. 1629); _The Maid of Honour_ (dating perhaps
from 1621, pr. 1632); _The Picture, a Tragecomedie_ (lic. 1629, pr.
1630); _The Great Duke of Florence, a Comicall Historie_ (lic. 1627,
pr. 1635); _The Emperor of the East, a Tragaecomoedie_ (lic. and pr.
1631), founded on the story of Theodosius the Younger; _Believe as You
List_ (rejected by the censor in January, but licensed in May, 1631;
pr. 1848-1849 for the Percy Society); _The City Madam, a Comedie_
(lic. 1632, pr. 1658), which Mr Fleay (_Biog. Chron. of the Eng.
Drama_, i. 226), however, considers to be a _rifaciamento_ of an older
play, probably by Jonson; _The Guardian_ (lic. 1633, pr. 1655); and
_The Bashful Lover_ (lic. 1636, pr. 1655). _A Very Woman, or The
Prince of Tarent_, licensed in 1634 as the work of Massinger alone, is
generally referred to his collaboration with Fletcher. The "exquisite
temperance and justice" of this piece are, according to Swinburne,
foreign to Fletcher's genius, and afford a striking example of
Massinger's artistic skill and moderation.
Twelve plays of Massinger are said to be lost, but the titles of some
of these may be duplicates of those of existing plays. Five of these
lost plays were MSS. used by John Warburton's cook for pie-covers. The
numerous plays in which Massinger's co-operation with John Fletcher is
generally assumed are dealt with under BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. But it
may be here noted that Mr R. Boyle has constructed an ingenious case
for the joint authorship by Fletcher and Massinger of the two
"Shakespearian" plays, _Henry VIII._ and _Two Noble Kinsmen_ (see the
New Shakspere Society's _Transactions_, 1884 and 1882). Mr Boyle sees
the touch of Massinger in the first two acts of the _Second Maiden's
Tragedy_ (Lansdowne MS., lic. 1611), a play with which the names of
Fletcher and Tourneur are also associated by different critics. _The
Fatall Dowry, a Tragedy_ (c. 1619, pr. 1632), which was adapted
without acknowledgment by Nicholas Rowe in his _Fair Penitent_, was
written in conjunction with Nathaniel Field; and _The Virgin Martir, a
Tragedie_ (lic. 1620, pr. 1621), with Thomas Dekker.
Massinger's independent works were collected by Coxeter (4 vols.,
1759, revised edition with introduction by Thomas Davies, 1779), by J.
Monck Mason (4 vols., 1779), by William Gifford (4 vols., 1805, 1813),
by Hartley Coleridge (1840), by Lieut.-Colonel Cunningham (1867), and
selections by Mr Arthur Symons in the _Mermaid Series_ (1887-1889).
Gifford's remains the standard edition, and formed the basis of
Cunningham's text. It contains "An Essay on the Dramatic Writings of
Massinger" by Dr John Ferriar.
Massinger has been the object of a good deal of criticism. A metrical
examination of the plays in which Massinger was concerned is given in
_Englische Studien_ (Halle, v. 74, vii. 66, viii. 39, ix. 209 and x.
383), by Mr R. Boyle, who also contributed the life of the poet in the
_Dictionary of National Biography_. The sources of his plays are dealt
with by E. Koeppel in _Quellen Studien zu den Dramen Chapman's,
Massinger's und Ford's_ (Strassburg, 1897). For detailed criticism,
beside the introductions to the editions quoted, see A. W. Ward,
_Hist. of Eng. Dram. Lit._ (1899), iii. 1-47, and F. G. Fleay, _Biog.
Chron. of the Eng. Drama_ (1891), under _Fletcher_; a general estimate
of Massinger, dealing especially with his moral standpoint, is given
in Sir Leslie Stephen's _Hours in a Library_ (3rd series, 1879);
Swinburne, in the _Fortnightly Review_ (July 1889), while
acknowledging the justice of Sir L. Stephen's main strictures, found
much to say in praise of the poet.
MASSINISSA (c. 238-149 B.C.), king of Massylian or eastern Numidia. He
was educated, like many of the Numidian chiefs, at Carthage, learnt
Latin and Greek, and was an accomplished as well as a naturally clever
man. Although his kingdom was nominally independent of Carthage, it
really stood to it in a relation of vassalage; it was directly under
Carthaginian influences, and was imbued to a very considerable extent
with Carthaginian civilization. It was to this that Massinissa owed his
fame and success; he was a barbarian at heart, but he had a varnish of
culture, and to this he added the craft and cunning in which
Carthaginian statesmen were supposed to excel. While yet a young man
(212) he forced his neighbour Syphax, prince of western Numidia, who had
recently entered into an alliance with Rome, to fly to the Moors in the
extreme west of Africa. Soon afterwards he appeared in Spain, fighting
for Carthage with a large force of Numidian cavalry against the Romans
under the two Scipios. The defeat of the Carthaginian army in 206 led
him to cast in his lot with Rome. Scipio Africanus is said to have
cultivated his friendship. Massinissa now quitted Spain for a while for
Africa, and was again engaged in a war with Syphax in which he was
decidedly worsted. Scipio's arrival in Africa in 204 gave him another
chance, and no sooner had he joined the Roman general than he crushed
his old enemy Syphax, and captured his capital Cirta (Constantine). Here
occurs the romantic story of Sophonisba, daughter of the Carthaginian
Hasdrubal, who had been promised in marriage to Massinissa, but had
subsequently become the wife of Syphax. Massinissa, according to the
story, married Sophonisba immediately after his victory, but was
required by Scipio to dismiss her as a Carthaginian, and consequently an
enemy to Rome. To save her from such humiliation he sent her poison,
with which she destroyed herself. Massinissa was now accepted as a loyal
ally of Rome, and was confirmed by Scipio in the possession of his
kingdom. In the battle of Zama (202) (see PUNIC WARS), he commanded the
cavalry on Scipio's right wing, and materially assisted the Roman
victory. For his services he received the kingdom of Syphax, and thus
under Roman protection he became master of the whole of Numidia, and his
dominions completely enclosed the Carthaginian territories, now
straitened and reduced at the close of the Second Punic War. It would
seem that he had thoughts of annexing Carthage itself with the
connivance of Rome. In a war which soon followed he was successful; the
remonstrances of Carthage with Rome on the behaviour of her ally were
answered by the appointment of Scipio as arbitrator; but, as though
intentionally on the part of Rome, no definite settlement was arrived
at, and thus the relations between Massinissa and the Carthaginians
continued strained. Rome, it is certain, deliberately favoured her
ally's unjust claims with the view of keeping Carthage weak, and
Massinissa on his part was cunning enough to retain the friendship of
the Roman people by helping them with liberal supplies in their wars
against Perseus of Macedon and Antiochus. As soon as Carthage seemed to
be recovering herself, and some of Massinissa's partisans were driven
from the city into exile, his policy was to excite the fears of Rome,
till at last in 149 war was declared--the Third Punic War, which ended
in the final overthrow of Carthage. The king took some part in the
negotiations which preceded the war, but died soon after its
commencement in the ninetieth year of his age and the sixtieth of his
reign.
Massinissa was an able ruler and a decided benefactor to Numidia. He
converted a plundering tribe into a settled and civilized population,
and out of robbers and marauders made efficient and disciplined
soldiers. To his sons he bequeathed a well-stored treasury, a formidable
army, and even a fleet. Cirta (q.v.), his capital, became a famous
centre of Phoenician civilization. In fact Massinissa changed for the
better the whole aspect of a great part of northern Africa. He had much
of the Arab nature, was singularly temperate, and equal to any amount of
fatigue. His fidelity to Rome was merely that of temporary expediency.
He espoused now one side, and now the other, but on the whole supported
Rome, so that orators and historians could speak of him as "a most
faithful ally of the Roman people."
See Livy xxiv. 49, xxviii. 11, 35, 42, xxix. 27, xxx. 3, 12, 28, 37,
xlii. 23, 29, xliii. 3; Polybius iii. 5, ix. 42, xiv. 1, xxxii. 2,
xxxvii. 3; Appian, _Hisp._ 37, _Punica_, 11, 27, 105; Justin xxxiii.
1; A. H. J. Greenidge, _Hist. of Rome_ (London, 1904).
MASSON, DAVID (1822-1907), Scottish man of letters, was born at Aberdeen
on the 2nd of December 1822, and educated at the grammar school there
and at Marischal College. Intending to enter the Church, he proceeded to
Edinburgh University, where he studied theology under Dr Chalmers, whose
friendship he enjoyed until the divine's death in 1847. However,
abandoning his project of the ministry, he returned to his native city
to undertake the editorship of the _Banner_, a weekly paper devoted to
the advocacy of Free Kirk principles. After two years he resigned this
post and went back to the capital, bent upon pursuing a purely literary
career. There he wrote a great deal, contributing to _Fraser's
Magazine_, _Dublin University Magazine_ (in which appeared his essays on
Chatterton) and other periodicals. In 1847 he went to London, where he
found wider scope for his energy and knowledge. He was secretary
(1851-1852) of the "Society of the Friends of Italy." In a famous
interview with Mrs Browning at Florence he contested her admiration for
Napoleon III. He had known De Quincey, whose biography he contributed in
1878 to the "English Men of Letters" series, and he was an enthusiastic
friend and admirer of Carlyle. In 1852 he was appointed professor of
English literature at University College, London, in succession to A. H.
Clough, and from 1858 to 1865 he edited the newly established
_Macmillan's Magazine_. In 1865 he was selected for the chair of
rhetoric and English literature at Edinburgh, and during the early years
of his professorship actively promoted the movement for the university
education of women. In 1879 he became editor of the Register of the
Scottish Privy Council, and in 1893 was appointed Historiographer Royal
for Scotland. Two years later he resigned his professorship. His _magnum
opus_ in his _Life of Milton in Connexion with the History of His Own
Time_ in six volumes, the first of which appeared in 1858 and the last
in 1880. He also edited the library edition of Milton's _Poetical Works_
(3 vols., 1874), and De Quincey's _Collected Works_ (14 vols.,
1889-1890). Among his other publications are _Essays, Biographical and
Critical_ (1856, reprinted with additions, 3 vols., 1874), _British
Novelists and their Styles_ (1859), _Drummond of Hawthornden_ (1873),
_Chatterton_ (1873) and _Edinburgh Sketches_ (1892). He died on the 6th
of October 1907. A bust of Masson was presented to the senate of the
university of Edinburgh in 1897. Professor Masson had married Rosaline
Orme. His son Orme Masson became professor of chemistry in the
university of Melbourne, and his daughter Rosaline is known as a writer
and novelist.
MASSON, LOUIS CLAUDE FRÉDÉRIC (1847- ), French historian, was born at
Paris on the 8th of March 1847. His father, Francis Masson, a solicitor,
was killed on the 23rd of June 1848, when major in the _garde
nationale_. Young Masson was educated at the college of Sainte Barbe,
and at the lycée Louis-le-Grand, and then travelled in Germany and in
England; from 1869 to 1880 he was librarian at the Foreign Office. At
first he devoted himself to the history of diplomacy, and published
between 1877 and 1884 several volumes connected with that subject. Later
he published a number of more or less curious memoirs illustrating the
history of the Revolution and of the empire. But he is best known for
his books connected with Napoleon. In _Napoléon inconnu_ (1895), Masson,
together with M. Guido Biagi, brought out the unpublished writings
(1786-1793) of the future emperor. These were notes, extracts from
historical, philosophical and literary books, and personal reflections
in which one can watch the growth of the ideas later carried out by the
emperor with modifications necessitated by the force of circumstances
and his own genius. But this was only one in a remarkable series:
_Joséphine de Beauharnais, 1763-1796_ (1898); _Joséphine, impératrice et
reine_ (1899); _Joséphine répudiée 1809-1814_ (1901); _L'Impératrice
Marie Louise_ (1902); _Napoléon et les femmes_ (1894); _Napoléon et sa
famille_ (9 vols., 1897-1907); _Napoléon et son fils_ (1904); and
_Autour de l'Île d'Elbe_ (1908). These works abound in details and
amusing anecdotes, which throw much light on the events and men of the
time, laying stress on the personal, romantic and dramatic aspects of
history. The author was made a member of the Académie française in 1903.
From 1886 to 1889 he edited the review _Arts and Letters_, published in
London and New York.
A bibliography of his works, including anonymous ones and those under
an assumed name, has been published by G. Vicaire (_Manuel de
l'amateur des livres du XIX^e siècle_, tome v., 1904). _Napoléon et
les femmes_ has been translated into English as _Napoleon and the Fair
Sex_ (1894).
MAST (1) (O. Eng. _maest_; a common Teutonic word, cognate with Lat.
_malus_; from the medieval latinized form _mastus_ comes Fr. _mât_), in
nautical language, the name of the spar, or straight piece of timber, or
combination of spars, on which are hung the yards and sails of a vessel
of any size. It has been ingeniously supposed that man himself was the
first mast. He discovered by standing up in his prehistoric "dugout," or
canoe, that the wind blowing on him would carry his craft along. But the
origin of the mast, like that of the ship, is lost in times anterior to
all record. The earliest form of mast which prevailed till the close of
the middle ages, and is still in use for small vessels, was and is a
single spar made of some tough and elastic wood; the conifers supply the
best timber for the purpose. In sketching the history of the development
of the mast, we must distinguish between the increase in the number
erected, and the improvements made in the mast itself. The earliest
ships had only one, carrying a single sail. So little is known of the
rigging of classical ships that nothing can be affirmed of them with
absolute confidence. The Norse vessels carried one mast placed in the
middle. The number gradually increased till it reached four or five. All
were at first upright, but the mast which stood nearest the bow was by
degrees lowered forward till it became the bow-sprit of modern times,
and lost the name of mast. The next from the bows became the
foremast--called in Mediterranean sea language _mizzana_, in French
_misaine_. Then came the main-mast--in French _grand mât_; and then the
mizen--in French, which follows the Mediterranean usage, the _artimon_,
i.e. "next the rudder," _timon_. A small mast was sometimes erected in
the very end of the ship, and called in English a "bonaventure mizen."
It had a close resemblance to the jigger of yawl-rigged yachts. By the
close of the 16th century it had become the established rule that a ship
proper had three masts--fore, main and mizen. The third takes its name
not as the other two do, from its place, but from the lateen sail
originally hoisted on it (see RIGGING), which was placed fore and aft in
the middle (Italian, _mizzo_) of the ship, and did not lie across like
the courses and topsails. With the development of very large sailing
clippers in the middle of the 19th century a return was made to the
practice of carrying more than three masts. Ships and barques are built
with four or five. Some of the large schooners employed in the American
coast trade have six or seven, and some steamers have had as many.
The mast was for long made out of a single spar. Thence the
Mediterranean name of "palo" (spar) and the Spanish "arbol" (tree).
The typical Mediterranean mast of "lateen" (Latin) vessels is short
and bends forward. In other classes it is upright, or bends slightly
backwards with what is called a "rake." The mast is grounded, or in
technical language "stepped," on the kelson (or keelson), the solid
timber or metal beam lying parallel with, and above the keel. As the
15th century advanced the growth of the ship made it difficult, or
even impossible, to find spars large enough to make a mast. The
practice of dividing it into lower, and upper or topmast, was
introduced. At first the two were fastened firmly, and the topmast
could not be lowered. In the 16th century the topmast became movable.
No date can be given for the change, which was gradual, and was not
simultaneously adopted. When the masting of sailing ships was fully
developed, the division was into lower or standing mast, topmast,
topgallant mast, and topgallant royal. The topgallant royal is a small
spar which is often a continuation of the topgallant mast, and is
fixed. Increase of size also made it impossible to construct each of
these subdivisions out of single timbers. A distinction was made
between "whole" or single-spar masts and "armed" and "made masts." The
first were used for the lighter spars, for small vessels and the
Mediterranean craft called "polacras." Armed masts were composed of
two single timbers. Made masts were built of many pieces, bolted and
"coaked," i.e. dovetailed and fitted together, fastened round by iron
hoops, and between them by twelve or thirteen close turns of rope,
firmly secured. "Made masts" are stronger than those made of a single
tree and less liable to be sprung. The general principle of
construction is that it is built round a central shaft, called in
English the "spindle" or "upper tree," and in French the _mèche_ or
wick. The other pieces--"side trees," "keel pieces," "side fishes,"
"cant pieces" and "fillings" are "coaked," i.e. dovetailed and bolted
on to and around the "spindle," which itself is made of two pieces,
coaked and bolted. The whole is bound by iron bands, and between the
bands, by rope firmly "woulded" or turned round, and nailed tight. The
art of constructing made masts, like that of building wooden ships, is
in process of dying out. In sailing men-of-war the mizen-mast often
did not reach to the kelson, but was stepped on the orlop deck. Hollow
metal cylinders are now used as masts. In the case of a masted screw
steamer the masts abaft the engines could not be stepped on the kelson
because they would interfere with the shaft of the screw. It is
therefore necessary to step them on the lower deck, where they are
supported by stanchions, or on a horseshoe covering the screw shaft.
The size of masts naturally varies very much. In a 110-gun ship of
2164 tons the proportions of the mainmast were: for the lower mast,
length 117 ft., diameter 3 ft. 3 in.; topmast, 70 ft., and 20¾ in.;
topgallant mast, 35 ft., and 11(5/8) in., 222 ft. in all. At the other
end of the scale, a cutter of 200 tons had a lower mast of 88 ft., of
22 in. diameter, and a topgallant mast (there was no topmast between
them) of 44 ft., of 9¾ in. in diameter, 132 ft. in all; topgallant
mast of 44 ft., and 9¾ in. in diameter. The masts of a warship were
more lofty than those of a merchant ship of the same tonnage. At
present masts are only used by warships for signalling and military
purposes. In sailing merchant ships, the masts are more lofty than
they were about a century ago. A merchant ship of 1300 tons, in 1830,
had a mainmast 179 ft. in height; a vessel of the same size would have
a mast of 198 ft. to-day.
A "jury mast" is a temporary mast put up by the crew when the spars
nave been carried away in a storm or in action, or have been cut away
to relieve pressure in a storm. The word has been supposed without any
foundation to be short for "injury" mast; it may be a mere fanciful
sailor adaptation of "jury" in some connexion now lost. Skeat suggests
that it is short for O. Fr. _ajourie_, Lat. _adjutare_, to aid. There
is no reason to connect with _jour_, day.
See L. Jal, _Glossaire Nautique_ (Paris, 1848); Sir Henry Manwayring,
_The Seaman's Dictionary_ (London, 1644); N. Hutchinson, _Treatise on
Naval Architecture and Practical Seamanship_ (Liverpool, 1777); David
Steel, _Elements and Practice of Rigging, Seamanship and Naval
Tactics_ (London, 1800); William Burney's _Falconer's Dictionary_
(London, 1830); Sir Gervais Nares's _Seamanship_ (Portsmouth, 1882);
and John Fincham, _On Masting Ships and Mast Making_ (London, 1829).
(D. H.)
MAST (2) (Anglo-Saxon _maest_, food, common to some Teutonic languages,
and ultimately connected with "meat"), the fruit of the beech, oak, and
other forest trees, used as food for swine.
MASTABA (Arab. for "bench"), in Egyptian architecture, the term given to
the rectangular tombs in stone with raking sides and a flat roof. There
were three chambers inside. In one the walls were sometimes richly
decorated with paintings and had a low bench of stone in them on which
incense was burnt. The second chamber was either closed, with holes
pierced in the wall separating it from the first chamber, or entered
through a narrow passage through which the fumes of the incense passed;
this chamber contained the _serdab_ or figure of the deceased. A
vertical well-hole cut in the rock descended to a third chamber in which
the mummy was laid.
MASTER (Lat. _magister_, related to _magis_, more, as the corresponding
_minister_ is to _minus_, less; the English form is due partly to the O.
Eng. _maegister_, and partly to O. Fr. _maistre_, mod. _maître_; cf. Du.
_meester_, Ger. _Meister_, Ital. _maestro_), one holding a position of
authority, disposition or control over persons or things. The various
applications of the word fall roughly into the following main divisions;
as the title of the holder of a position of command or authority; as
that of the holder of certain public or private offices, and hence a
title of address; and as implying the relationship of a teacher to his
pupils or of an employer to the persons he employs. As a title of the
holder of an office, the use of the Lat. _magister_ is very ancient.
_Magister equitum_, master of the horse, goes back to the early history
of the Roman Republic (see DICTATOR; and for the British office, MASTER
OF THE HORSE). In medieval times the title was of great frequency. In Du
Cange (_Glossarium_) the article _magister_ contains over 120
sub-headings. In the British royal household most of the offices bearing
this title are now obsolete. Of the greater offices, that of master of
the buckhounds was abolished by the Civil List Act 1901. The master of
the household, master of the ceremonies, master of the king's music
still survive. Since 1870 the office of master of the mint has been held
by the chancellor of the exchequer, all the administrative and other
duties being exercised by the deputy master.
At sea, a "master" is more properly styled "master mariner." In the
merchant service he is the commander of a ship, and is by courtesy known
as the captain. In the British navy he was the officer entrusted with
the navigation under the captain. He had no royal commission, but a
warrant from the Navy Board. Very often he had been a merchant captain.
His duties are now performed by the staff commander or navigating
lieutenant. The master-at-arms is the head of the internal police of a
ship; the same title is borne by a senior gymnastic instructor in the
army. In the United States navy, the master is a commissioned officer
below the rank of lieutenant.
"Master" appears as the title of many legal functionaries (for the
masters of the supreme court see CHANCERY; and KING'S BENCH, COURT OF;
for masters in lunacy see INSANITY: § _Law_, see also MASTER OF THE
ROLLS, below). The "master of the faculties" is the chief officer of the
archbishop of Canterbury in his court of faculties. His duties are
concerned with the appointment of notaries and the granting of special
licences of marriage. The duties are performed _ex officio_ by the judge
of the provincial courts of Canterbury and York, who is also dean of
Arches, in accordance with § 7 of the Public Worship Regulation Act
1874. The "master of the Temple" is the title of the priest-in-charge of
the Temple Church in London. It was formerly the title of the grand
master of the Knights Templars. The priest-in-charge of the Templars'
Church was properly styled the _custos_, and this was preserved by the
Knights Hospitallers when they were granted the property of the Templars
at the dissolution of that order. The act of 1540 (32 Henry VIII.),
which dissolved the order of the Hospitallers, wrongly styled the
_custos_ master of the Temple, and the mistake has been continued. The
proper title of a bencher of the Inns of Court is "master of the Bench"
(see INNS OF COURT). The title of "Master-General of the Ordnance" was
revived in 1904 for the head of the Ordnance Department in the British
military administration.
"Master" is the ordinary word for a teacher, very generally used in the
compound "schoolmaster." The word also is used in a sense transferred
from this to express the relation between the founder of a school of
religion, philosophy, science, art, &c., and his disciples. It is partly
in this sense and partly in that of one whose work serves as a model or
type of superlative excellence that such terms as "old masters" are
used. In medieval universities _magister_ was particularly applied to
one who had been granted a degree carrying with it the _licentia
docendi_, the licence to teach. In English usage this survives in the
faculty of arts. The degree is that of _artium magister_, master of
arts, abbreviated M.A. In the other faculties the corresponding degree
is doctor. Some British universities give a master's degree in surgery,
_magister chirurgiae_, C.M. or M.Ch., and also in science, _magister
scientiae_, M.Sc. The academic use of "master" as the title of the head
of certain colleges at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge is to be
referred to the frequent application of the term to the holder of a
presiding office in an institution.
Master was the usual prefix of address to a man's name, though
originally confined to people of some social standing. Probably under
the influence of "mistress," it was corrupted in sound to "mister," and
was abbreviated to "Mr." In the case of the puisne judges of the High
Court "Mr Justice" is still used as the proper official form of written
address. The Speaker of the House of Commons is also formally addressed
as "Mr Speaker." In some Scottish peerages below the rank of earl,
"master" is used in the courtesy title of the heir, e.g. the "Master of
Ruthven."
MASTER AND SERVANT. These are scarcely to be considered as technical
terms in English law. The relationship which they imply is created when
one man hires the labour of another for a term. Thus it is not
constituted by merely contracting with another for the performance of a
definite work, or by sending an article to an artificer to be repaired,
or engaging a builder to construct a house. Nor would the employment of
a man for one definite act of personal service--e.g. the engagement of a
messenger for a single occasion--generally make the one master and the
other servant. It was held, however, in relation to the offence of
embezzlement, that a drover employed on one occasion to drive cattle
home from market was a servant within the statute. On the other hand,
there are many decisions limiting the meaning of "servants" under wills
giving legacies to the class of servants generally. Thus "a person who
was not obliged to give his whole time to the master, but was yet in
some sense a servant," was held not entitled to share in a legacy to the
servants. These cases are, however, interpretations of wills where the
intention obviously is to benefit domestic servants only. And so in
other connexions questions may arise as to the exact nature of the
relations between the parties--whether they are master and servant, or
principal and agent, or landlord and tenant, or partners, &c.
The terms of the contract of service are for the most part such as the
parties choose to make them, but in the absence of express stipulations
terms will be implied by the law. Thus, "where no time is limited either
expressly or by implication for the duration of a contract of hiring and
service, the hiring is considered as a general hiring, and in point of
law a hiring for a year." But "in the case of domestic and menial
servants there is a well-known rule, founded solely on custom, that
their contract of service may be determined at any time by giving a
month's warning or paying a month's wages, but a domestic or other
yearly servant, _wrongfully_ quitting his master's service, forfeits all
claim to wages for that part of the current year during which he has
served, and cannot claim the sum to which his wages would have amounted
had he kept his contract, merely deducting therefrom one month's wages.
Domestic servants have a right by custom to leave their situations at
any time on payment of a calendar month's wages in advance, just as a
master may discharge them in a similar manner" (Manley Smith's _Law of
Master and Servant_, chs. ii. and iii.). The following are sufficient
grounds for discharging a servant: (1) wilful disobedience of any lawful
order; (2) gross moral misconduct; (3) habitual negligence; (4)
incompetence or permanent disability caused by illness. A master has a
right of action against any person who deprives him of the services of
his servant, by enticing him away, harbouring or detaining him after
notice, confining or disabling him, or by seducing his female servant.
Indeed, the ordinary and only available action for seduction in English
law is in form of a claim by a parent for the loss of his daughter's
services. The death of either master or servant in general puts an end
to the contract. A servant wrongfully discharged may either treat the
contract as rescinded and sue for services actually rendered, or he may
bring a special action for damages for the breach. The common law
liabilities of a master towards his servants have been further regulated
by the Workmen's Compensation Acts (see EMPLOYER'S LIABILITY). A master
is bound to provide food for a servant living under his roof, and wilful
breach of duty in that respect is a misdemeanour under the Offences
against the Person Act 1861.
A servant has no right to demand "a character" from an employer, and if
a character be given it will be deemed a privileged communication, so
that the master will not be liable thereon to the servant unless it be
false and malicious. A master by knowingly giving a false character of a
servant to an intending employer may render himself liable--should the
servant for example rob or injure his new master.
Reference may be made to the articles on LABOUR LEGISLATION for the
cases in which special terms have been introduced into contracts of
service by statute (e.g. Truck Acts).
MASTER OF THE HORSE, in England, an important official of the
sovereign's household. The master of the horse is the third dignitary of
the court, and is always a member of the ministry (before 1782 the
office was of cabinet rank), a peer and a privy councillor. All matters
connected with the horses and hounds of the sovereign, as well as the
stables and coach-houses, the stud, mews and kennels, are within his
jurisdiction. The practical management of the royal stables and stud
devolves on the chief or crown equerry, formerly called the gentleman of
the horse, who is never in personal attendance on the sovereign and
whose appointment is permanent. The clerk marshal has the supervision of
the accounts of the department before they are submitted to the Board of
Green Cloth, and is in waiting on the sovereign on state occasions only.
Exclusive of the crown equerry there are seven regular equerries,
besides extra and honorary equerries, one of whom is always in
attendance on the sovereign and rides at the side of the royal carriage.
They are always officers of the army, and each of them is "on duty" for
about the same time as the lords and grooms in waiting. There are also
several pages of honour in the master of the horse's department, who
must not be confounded with the pages of various kinds who are in the
department of the lord chamberlain. They are youths aged from twelve to
sixteen, selected by the sovereign in person, to attend on him at state
ceremonies, when two of them, arrayed in an antique costume, assist the
groom of the stole in carrying the royal train.
In France the master of the horse ("Grand Écuyer," or more usually
"Monsieur le grand") was one of the seven great officers of the crown
from 1617. As well as the superintendence of the royal stables, he had
that of the retinue of the sovereign, also the charge of the funds set
aside for the religious functions of the court, coronations, &c. On
the death of a sovereign he had the right to all the horses and their
equipment in the royal stables. Distinct from this officer and
independent of him, was the first equerry ("Premier Écuyer"), who had
charge of the horses which the sovereign used personally ("la petite
écurie"), and who attended on him when he rode out. The office of
master of the horse existed down to the reign of Louis XVI. Under
Louis XVIII. and Charles X. the duties were discharged by the first
equerry, but under Napoléon I. and Napoléon III. the office was
revived with much of its old importance.
In Germany the master of the horse (Oberststallmeister) is a high
court dignitary; but his office is merely titular, the superintendence
of the king's stables being carried out by the Oberstallmeister, an
official corresponding to the crown equerry in England.
MASTER OF THE ROLLS, the third member of the Supreme Court of Judicature
in England, the lord chancellor, president of the chancery division,
being the first, and the lord chief justice, president of the king's
bench division, being the second. At first he was the principal clerk of
the chancery, and as such had charge of the records of the court,
especially of the register of original writs and of all patents and
grants under the Great Seal. Until the end of the 15th century he was
called either the clerk or the keeper of the rolls, and he is still
formally designated as the master or keeper of the rolls. The earliest
mention of him as master of the rolls is in an act of 1495; and in
another act of the same year he is again described as clerk of the
rolls, showing that his official designation still remained unsettled.
About the same period, however, the chief clerks of the chancery came to
be called masters in chancery, and the clerk, master or keeper of the
rolls was always the first among them, whichever name they bore. In
course of time, from causes which are not very easy to trace, his
original functions as keeper of the records passed away from him and he
gradually assumed a jurisdiction in the court of chancery second only to
that of the lord chancellor himself. In the beginning he only heard
causes in conjunction with the other masters in chancery, and his
decrees were invalid until they had been approved and signed by the lord
chancellor. Sitting in the Rolls chapel or in the court in Rolls yard,
he heard causes without assistance, and his decrees held good until they
were reversed on petition either to the lord chancellor or afterwards to
the lords justices of appeal. Before any judge with the formal title of
vice-chancellor was appointed the master of the rolls was often spoken
of as vice-chancellor, and in theory acted as such, sitting only when
the lord chancellor was not sitting and holding his court in the evening
from six o'clock to ten. Only since 1827 has the master of the rolls sat
in the morning hours. By the Public Record Office Act 1838 the custody
of the records was restored to him, and he is chairman of the State
Papers and Historical Manuscripts Commissions. Under the Judicature Act
1875, and the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876, he now always sits with
the lords justices in the court of appeal (which usually sits in two
divisions of three judges, the master of the rolls presiding over one
division), whose decisions can be questioned only in the House of Lords.
The master of the rolls was formerly eligible to a seat in the House of
Commons--a privilege enjoyed by no other member of the judicial
bench;[1] but he was deprived of it by the Supreme Court of Judicature
Act 1873, which provides that all judges of the High Court of Justice
and the court of appeal shall be incapable of being elected to or
sitting in the House of Commons. The master of the rolls is always sworn
of the privy council. His salary is £6000 a year.
See Lord Hardwicke, _Office of the Master of the Rolls_.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Sir John Romilly, M.P. for Devonport, 1847 to 1852, was the last
master of the rolls to sit in Parliament. He was appointed master of
the rolls in 1851.
MASTIC, or MASTICH (Gr. [Greek: mastichê], probably connected with
[Greek: masasthai], to chew, since mastic is used in the East as a
chewing gum), a resinous exudation obtained from the lentisk, _Pistacia
lentiscus_, an evergreen shrub of the natural order Anacardiaceae. The
lentisk or mastic plant is indigenous to the Mediterranean coast region
from Syria to Spain, but grows also in Portugal, Morocco and the
Canaries. Although experiments have proved that excellent mastic might
be obtained in other islands in the archipelago, the production of the
substance has been, since the time of Dioscorides, almost exclusively
confined to the island of Chios. The mastic districts of that island are
for the most part flat and stony, with little hills and few streams. The
shrubs are about 6 ft. high. The resin is contained in the bark and not
in the wood, and in order to obtain it numerous vertical incisions are
made, during June, July and August, in the stem and chief branches. The
resin speedily exudes and hardens into roundish or oval tears, which are
collected, after about fifteen days, by women and children, in little
baskets lined with white paper or cotton wool. The ground around the
trees is kept hard and clean, and flat pieces of stone are often laid
beneath them to prevent any droppings of resin from becoming
contaminated with dirt. The collection is repeated three or four times
between June and September, a fine tree being found to yield about 8 or
10 lb. of mastic during the season. Besides that obtained from the
incisions, mastic of very fine quality spontaneously exudes from the
small branches. The harvest is affected by showers of rain during the
period of collection, and the trees are much injured by frost, which is,
however, of rare occurrence in the districts where they grow. Mastic
occurs in commerce in the form of roundish tears about the size of peas.
They are transparent, with a glassy fracture, of a pale yellow or faint
greenish tinge, which darkens slowly by age. During the 15th, 16th and
17th centuries mastic enjoyed a high reputation as a medicine, and
formed an ingredient in a large number of medical compounds; but its use
in medicine is now obsolete, and it is chiefly employed for making
varnish.
_Pistacia Khinjuk_ and _P. cabulica_, trees growing throughout Sindh,
Baluchistan and Cabul, yield a kind of mastic which is met with in the
Indian bazaars under the name of _Mustagirumi_, i.e. Roman mastic.
This when occurring in the European market is known as East Indian or
Bombay mastic. In Algeria _P. Atlantica_ yields a solid resin, which
is collected and used by the Arabs as a masticatory. Cape mastic is
the produce of _Euryops multifidus_, the resin bush, or _harpuis
bosch_ of the Boers--a plant of the composite order growing abundantly
in the Clanwilliam district. Dammar resin is sometimes sold under the
name of mastic. The West Indian mastic tree is the _Bursera gummifera_
and the Peruvian mastic is _Schinus molle_; but neither of these
furnishes commercial resins. The name mastic tree is also applied to a
timber tree, _Sider oxylon mastichodendron_, nat. ord. Sapotaceae,
which grows in the West Indies and on the coast of Florida.
MASTIGOPHORA, a group of Protozoa, moving and ingesting food by long
flagella (Gr. [Greek: mastix], whip), usually few in number, and
multiplying by fission, usually longitudinal, in the active condition.
They were separated off from the rest of the old "Infusoria" by K.
Düsing, and subdivided by O. Bütschli and E. R. Lankester into (1)
Flagellata (q.v.), including Haemoflagellata (q.v.), (2) Dinoflagellata
(q.v.) and Rhyncho = Cystoflagellata E. Haeckel (q.v.) =
Rhynchoflagellata E. R. Lankester. The Mastigophora are frequently
termed Flagellata or Flagellates.
MASTODON (Gr. [Greek: mastos], breast, [Greek: odous], tooth), a name
given by Cuvier to the Pliocene and Miocene forerunners of the
elephants, on account of the nipple-like prominences on the molar teeth
of some of the species (fig. 2), which are of a much simpler type than
those of true elephants. Mastodons, like elephants, always have a pair
of upper tusks, while the earlier ones likewise have a short pair in the
lower jaw, which is prolonged into a snout-like symphysis for their
support. These long-chinned mastodons are now regarded as forming a
genus by themselves (_Tetrabelodon_), well-known examples of this group
being _Tetrabelodon angustidens_ from the Miocene and _T. longirostris_
(fig. 1 C.) from the Lower Pliocene of the Continent. In the former the
upper tusks are bent down so as to cross the tips of the short and
chisel-like lower pair. These long-chinned mastodons must have had an
extremely elongated muzzle, formed by the upper lip and nose above and
the lower lip below, with which they were able to reach the ground, the
neck being probably rather longer than in elephants. On the other hand,
in the short-chinned mastodons, as represented by the Pleistocene North
American _Mastodon americanus_ and the Pliocene European _M. turicensis_
(fig. 1), the chin had shrunk to the dimensions characteristic of
elephants, with the loss of the lower incisors (or with temporary
retention of rudimentary ones), while at the same time a true
elephant-like trunk must have been developed by the shortening of the
lower lip and the prolongation of the combined upper lip and nose.
Mastodons are found in almost all parts of the world. In Asia they gave
rise to the elephants, while they themselves originated in Africa from
ungulates of more normal type. (See PROBOSCIDEA.)
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--_Mastodon turicensis_ (Pliocene). A, B, Skull
and Lower Jaw of _Mastodon americanus_. C, Lower Jaw of _Tetrabelodon
longirostris_.]
The upper tusks of the early mastodons differ from those of elephants
in retaining longitudinal bands of enamel. The molar teeth are six in
number on each side, increasing in size from before backwards, and, as
in the elephants, with a horizontal succession, the anterior teeth
being lost before the full development of the posterior ones, which
gradually move forward, taking the place of those that are destroyed
by wear. This process is, however, less fully developed than in
elephants, and as many as three teeth may be in place in each jaw at
one time. There is, moreover, in many species a vertical succession,
affecting either the third, or the third and second, or (in one
American species, _Tetrabelodon productus_) the first, second and
third of the six molar teeth. These three are therefore reckoned as
milk-molars, and their successors as premolars, while the last three
correspond to the true molars of other mammals. The mode of succession
of the teeth in the mastodons exhibits so many stages of the process
by which the dentition of elephants has been derived from that of more
ordinary mammals. It also shows that the anterior molars of elephants
do not correspond to the premolars of other ungulates, but to the
milk-molars, the early loss of which in consequence of the peculiar
process of horizontal forward-moving succession does not require their
replacement by premolars. Specialized species like _Mastodon
americanus_ have completely lost the rudimentary premolars.
[Illustration: (From Owen.)
FIG. 2.--Upper Molar of _Mastodon arvernensis_, viewed from below.]
Mastodons have fewer ridges on their molar teeth than elephants; the
ridges are also less elevated, wider apart, with a thicker enamel
covering, and scarcely any cement filling the space between them.
Sometimes (as in _M. americanus_) the ridges are simple transverse
wedge-shaped elevations, with straight or concave edges. In other
species the summits of the ridges are divided into conical cusps, and
may have accessory cusps clustering around them (as in _M.
arvernensis_, fig. 2). When the summits of these are worn by
mastication their surfaces present circles of dentine surrounded by a
border of enamel, and as attrition proceeds different patterns are
produced by the union of the bases of the cusps, a trefoil form being
characteristic of some species.
Certain of the molar teeth of the middle of the series in both
elephants and mastodons have the same number of principal ridges;
those in front having fewer, and those behind a greater number. These
teeth are distinguished as "intermediate" molars. In elephants there
are only two, the last milk-molar and the first true molar (or the
third and fourth of the whole series), which are alike in the number
of ridges; whereas in mastodons there are three such teeth, the last
milk-molar and the first and second molars (or the third, fourth and
fifth of the whole series). In elephants the number of ridges on the
intermediate molars always exceeds five, but in mastodons it is nearly
always three or four, and the tooth in front has usually one fewer and
that behind one more, so that the ridge-formula (i.e. a formula
expressing the number of ridges on each of the six molar teeth) of
most mastodons can be reduced either to 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, or 2, 3, 4,
4, 4, 5. Three-ridged and four-ridged types occur both in _Mastodon_
and _Tetrabelodon_. (R. L.*)
MAS'UDI (ABU-L HASAN 'ALI IBN HUSAIN IBN 'ALI UL-MAS'UDI) (d. c. 956),
Arabian historian, was born at Bagdad towards the close of the 9th
century. Much of his life was spent in travel. After he had been in
Persia and Kerman, he visited Istakhr in 915, and went in the following
year to Multan and Mansura, thence to Cambay, Saimur and Ceylon, to
Madagascar and back to Oman. He seems about this time to have been as
far as China. After a visit to the shores of the Caspian Sea he visited
Tiberias in Palestine, examined the Christian church there, and
described its relics. In 943 he was in Antioch, studying the ruins, and
two years later in Damascus. The last ten years of his life he spent in
Syria and Egypt. His great object in life had been to study with his own
eyes the peculiarities of every land and to collect whatever was of
interest for archaeology, history and manners. Himself a Mo'tazilite
(see MAHOMMEDAN RELIGION: _Sects_), he was singularly free from bigotry,
and took his information, when necessary, from Persians, Jews, Indians,
and even the chronicle of a Christian bishop.
His most extensive work was the _Kitab akhbar uz-Zaman_ or _Annals_,
in 30 volumes with a supplement, _the Kitab ul-Ausat_, a chronological
sketch of general history. Of these the first part only of the former
is extant in MS. in Vienna, while the latter seems to be in the
Bodleian Library, also in MS. The substance of the two was united by
him in the work by which he is now best known, the _Muruj udh-Dhahab
wa Ma'adin ul-Jawahir_ ("Meadows of Gold and Mines of Precious
Stones"), an historical work which he completed in 947. In 956 he
finished a second edition of this and made it double its former size,
but no copy of this seems to be extant. The original edition has been
published at Bulaq and Cairo, and with French translation by C.
Barbier de Meynard and Pavet de Courteille (9 vols., Paris,
1861-1877). Another work of Mas'udi, written in the last year of his
life, is the _Kitab ut-Tanbih wal Ishraf_ (the "Book of Indication and
Revision"), in which he summarizes the work of his life and corrects
and completes his former writings. It has been edited by M. J. de
Goeje (Leiden, 1894), and a French translation has been made by Carra
de Vaux (Paris, 1896); cf. also the memoir of S. de Sacy published in
Meynard's edition of the _Muruj_.
An account of Mas'udi's works is to be found in de Sacy's memoir and
in Goeje's preface to his edition of the _Tanbih_, and of the works
extant in C. Brockelmann's _Gesch. der Arabischen Litteratur_, i.
144-145 (Weimar, 1898). C. Field's _Tales of the Caliphs_ (1909) is
based on Mas'udi. (G. W. T.)
MASULIPATAM, or BANDAR, a seaport of British India, administrative
headquarters of the Kistna district of Madras, on one of the mouths of
the river Kistna, 215 m. N. of Madras city. Pop. (1901), 39,507.
Masulipatam was the earliest English settlement on the Coromandel coast,
its importance being due to the fact that it was the _bandar_ or port of
Golconda. An agency was established there in 1611. During the wars of
the Carnatic, the English were temporarily expelled from the town, which
was held by the French for some years. In 1759 the town and fort were
carried by storm by Colonel Forde, an achievement followed by the
acquisition of the Northern Circars (q.v.). In 1864 a great storm-wave
swept over the entire town and is said to have destroyed 30,000 lives.
Weavers form a large portion of the inhabitants, though their trade has
greatly declined since the beginning of the 19th century. Their
operations, besides weaving, include printing, bleaching, washing and
dressing. In former days the chintzes of Masulipatam had a great
reputation abroad for the freshness and permanency of their dyes.
Masulipatam is a station of the Church Missionary Society. The port is
only a roadstead, where vessels anchor 5 m. out. A branch line from
Bezwada on the Southern Mahratta railway was opened in 1908. The chief
educational institution is the Noble College of the C.M.S.
MAT (O. Eng. _meatt_, from late Lat. _matta_, whence Ital. _matta_, Ger.
and Dan. _matte_, Du. _mat_, &c.), an article of various sizes and
shapes, according to the purpose for which it is intended, and made of
plaited or woven materials, such as coir, hemp, coco-nut fibre, straw,
rushes, &c., or of rope or coarse twine. The finer fabrics are known as
"matting" (q.v.). Mats are mainly used for covering floors, or in
horticulture as a protection against cold or exposure for plants and
trees. When used near the entrance to a house for people to wipe their
boots on "door mats" are usually made of coarse coco-nut fibre, or
india-rubber, cork, or of thickly coiled wire. Bags, rolls or sacks made
of matting are used to hold coffee, flax, rice and other produce, and
the term is often used with reference to the specific quantities of such
produce, e.g. so many "mats" of coffee, rice, &c.
To be distinguished from the above is the term "mat" in glass-painting
or gilding, meaning dull, unpolished or unburnished. This is the same
as Ger. _matt_, dead, dull, cf. _matt-blau_, Med. Lat. _mattus_,
adapted from Persian _mat_, dazed, astonished, at a loss, helpless,
and seen in "mate" in chess, from Pers. _shah mat_ the king is dead.
MATABELE ("vanishing" or "hidden" people, so called from their
appearance in battle, hidden behind enormous oxhide shields), a people
of Zulu origin who began national life under the chief Mosilikatze.
Driven out of the Transvaal by the Boers in 1837, Mosilikatze crossed
the Limpopo with a military host which had been recruited from every
tribe conquered by him during his ten years' predominance in the
Transvaal. In their new territories the Matabele absorbed into their
ranks many members of the conquered Mashona tribes and established a
military despotism. Their sole occupation was war, for which their laws
and organization were designed to fit them. This system of constant
warfare is, since the conquest of Matabeleland by the British in 1893, a
thing of the past. The Matabele are now herdsmen and agriculturists.
(See RHODESIA.)
MATACHINES (Span. _matachin_, clown, or masked dancer), bands of mummers
or itinerant players in Mexico, especially popular around the Rio
Grande, who wander from village to village during Lent, playing in
rough-and-ready style a set drama based on the history of Montezuma.
Dressed in fantastic Indian costumes and carrying rattles as their
orchestra, the chief characters are _El Monarca_ "the monarch"
(Montezuma); _Malinche_, or _Malintzin_, the Indian mistress of Hernando
Cortes; _El Toro_, "the bull," the malevolent "comic man" of the play,
dressed in buffalo skin with the animal's horns on his head; _Aguelo_,
the "grandfather," and _Aguela_, "grandmother." With the help of a
chorus of dancers they portray the desertion of his people by Montezuma,
the luring of him back by the wiles and smiles of Malinche, the final
reunion of king and people, and the killing of El Toro, who is supposed
to have made all the mischief.
MATADOR, a Spanish word meaning literally "killer," from _matar_, Lat.
_mactare_, especially applied to the principal performer in a
bull-fight, whose function it is to slay the bull (see BULL-FIGHTING).
The word is also used of certain important cards in such games as
quadrille, ombre, &c., and more particularly of a special form of the
game of dominoes.
MATAMOROS, a town and port of the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, on the S.
bank of the Rio Grande, 28 m. from its mouth, opposite Brownsville,
Texas. Pop. (1900), 8347. Matamoros stands in an open plain, the
commercial centre for a large district, but its import trade is
prejudiced by the bar at the mouth of the Rio Grande, which permits the
entrance of small vessels only. The exports include hides, wool and live
stock. The importance of the town in the foreign trade of northern
Mexico, however, has been largely diminished by the great railways.
Formerly it was the centre of a large contraband trade with Brownsville,
Texas. Matamoros was founded early in the 19th century, and was named in
honour of the Mexican patriot Mariano Matamoros (c. 1770-1814). In the
war between the United States and Mexico, Matamoros was easily taken by
the Americans on the 18th of May 1846, following General Zachary
Taylor's victories at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. Matamoros was
occupied by the Mexican imperialists under Mejia in 1864, and by the
French in 1866.
MATANZAS, an important city of Cuba, capital of Matanzas Province,
situated on a large deep bay on the N. coast, about 54 m. (by rail) E.
of Havana. Pop. (1907), 36,009. There are railway outlets W., S. and E.,
and Matanzas is served by steamships to New York and by the coast
steamers of the Herrera Line. The bay, unlike all the other better
harbours of the island, has a broad mouth, 2 m. across, but there is
good shelter against all winds except from the N.E. A coral reef lies
across the entrance. Three rivers emptying into the bay--the San Juan,
Canimar and Yumuri--have deposited much silt, necessitating the use of
lighters in loading and unloading large ships. The city is finely placed
at the head of the bay, on a low, sloping plain backed by wooded hills,
over some of which the city itself has spread. The conical Pan de
Matanzas (1277 ft.) is a striking land-mark for sailors. The San Juan
and Yumuri rivers divide Matanzas into three districts. The Teatro
Esteban, Casino Español and Government House are noteworthy among the
buildings. The broad Paseo de Marti (Alameda de Versalles, Paseo de
Santa Cristina) extends along the edge of the harbour, and is perhaps
the handsomest parkway and boulevard in Cuba. At one end is a statue of
Ferdinand VII., at the other a monument to 63 Cubans executed by the
Spanish Government as traitors for bearing arms in the cause of
independence. A splendid military road continues the Paseo to the
Castillo de San Serverino (built in 1694-1695, reconstructed in 1773 and
following years). There are two smaller forts, established in the 18th
century. Near Matanzas are two of the most noted natural resorts of
Cuba: the valley of the Yumuri, and the caves of Bellamar. Commanding
the Yumuri Valley is the hill called Cumbre, on which is the Hermitage
of Monteserrate (1870), with a famous shrine. Matanzas is the second
port of the island in commerce. Sugar and molasses are the chief
exports. The city is the chief outlet for the sugar product of the
province, which, with the province of Santa Clara, produces two-thirds
of the crop of the island. There are many large warehouses, rum
distilleries, sugar-mills and railway machine-shops. Matanzas is
frequently mentioned in the annals of the 16th and 17th centuries, when
its bay was frequented by buccaneers; but the city was not laid out
until 1693. In the next year it received an _ayuntamiento_ (council).
Its prosperity rapidly increased after the establishment of free
commerce early in the 19th century. In 1815 it was made a department
capital. The mulatto poet, Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés, known as
Plácido (1809-1844), was born in Matanzas, and was executed there for
participation in the supposed conspiracy of negroes in 1844, which is
one of the most famous episodes in Cuban history. The hurricanes of 1844
and 1846 are the only other prominent local events. American commercial
influence has always been particularly strong.
MATARÓ (anc. _Iluro_), a seaport of north-eastern Spain, in the province
of Barcelona, on the Mediterranean Sea and the Barcelona-Perpignan
railway. Pop. (1900), 19,704. The streets of the new town, lying next
the sea, are wide and regularly built; those of the old town, farther up
the hill, still preserve much of their ancient character. The parish
church of Santa Maria has some good pictures and wood carvings. The wine
of the neighbourhood, which resembles port, is shipped in large
quantities from Barcelona; and the district furnishes fine roses and
strawberries for the Barcelona market. The leading industries are
manufactures of linen and cotton goods, especially canvas and tarpaulin,
and of soap, paper, chemicals, starch, glass, leather, spirits and
flour. The railway to Barcelona, opened in October 1848, was the first
to be constructed in Spain. Outside the town is the much-frequented
carbonated mineral spring of Argentona.
MATCH: 1. O. Eng. _gemaecca_, a cognate form of "make," meaning
originally "fit" or "suitable"; a pair, or one of a pair of objects,
persons or animals. As particularly applied to a husband and wife, and
hence to a marriage, the word is especially used of two persons or
things which correspond exactly to each other. The verb "to match" has
also the meaning to "pit one against each other," and so is applied in
sport to an arranged contest between individuals or sides.
2. O. Fr. _mesche_; apparently from a latinized form of Gr. [Greek:
myxa], mucus from the nose, applied to the nozzle of a lamp; primarily
the wick which conveys oil or molten wax to the flame of a lamp or
candle (this use is now obsolete), the word being then applied to
various objects having the property of carrying fire. With early
firearms a match, consisting of a cord of hemp or similar material
treated with nitre and other substances so that it continued to smoulder
after it had been ignited, was used for firing the charge, being either
held in the gunner's hand or attached to the cock of the musket or
arquebus and brought down by the action of the trigger on the powder
priming ("matchlock"); and more or less similar preparations, made to
burn more or less rapidly as required ("quick-match" and "slow-match"),
are employed as fuses in blasting and demolition work in military
operations. The word "match" was further used of a splint of wood,
tipped with sulphur so that it would readily ignite, but it now most
commonly means a slip of wood or other combustible material, having its
end covered with a composition which takes fire when rubbed either on
any rough surface or on another specially prepared composition.
The first attempt to make matches in the modern sense may probably be
ascribed to Godfrey Haukwitz, who, in 1680, acting under the direction
of Robert Boyle, who at that time had just discovered how to prepare
phosphorus, employed small pieces of that element, ignited by friction,
to light splints of wood dipped in sulphur. This device, however, did
not come into extensive use owing to its danger and inconvenience and to
the cost of the phosphorus, and till the beginning of the 19th century
flint and steel with tinder-box and sulphur-tipped splints of
wood--"spunks" or matches--were the common means of obtaining fire for
domestic and other purposes. The sparks struck off by the percussion of
flint and steel were made to fall among the tinder, which consisted of
carbonized fragments of cotton and linen; the entire mass of the tinder
was set into a glow, developing sufficient heat to ignite the sulphur
with which the matches were tipped, and thereby the splints themselves
were set on fire. In 1805 one Chancel, assistant to Professor L. J.
Thénard of Paris, introduced an apparatus consisting of a small bottle
containing asbestos, saturated with strong sulphuric acid, with splints
or matches coated with sulphur, and tipped with a mixture of chlorate of
potash and sugar. The matches so prepared, when brought into contact
with the sulphuric acid in the bottle, ignited, and thus, by chemical
action, fire was produced. In 1823 a decided impetus was given to the
artificial production of fire by the introduction of the Döbereiner
lamp, so called after its inventor, J. W. Döbereiner of Jena. The first
really practical friction matches were made in England in 1827, by John
Walker, a druggist of Stockton-on-Tees. These were known as "Congreves"
after Sir William Congreve, the inventor of the Congreve rocket, and
consisted of wooden splints or sticks of cardboard coated with sulphur
and tipped with a mixture of sulphide of antimony, chlorate of potash
and gum. With each box which was retailed at a shilling, there was
supplied a folded piece of glass paper, the folds of which were to be
tightly pressed together, while the match was drawn through between
them. The same idea occurred to Sir Isaac Holden independently two and a
half years later. The so-called "Prometheans," patented by S. Jones of
London in 1830, consisted of a short roll of paper with a small quantity
of a mixture of chlorate of potash and sugar at one end, a thin glass
globule of strong sulphuric acid being attached at the same point. When
the sulphuric acid was liberated by pinching the glass globule, it acted
on the mixed chlorate and sugar, producing fire. The phosphorus
friction-match of the present day was first introduced on a commercial
scale in 1833. It appears to have been made almost simultaneously in
several distinct centres. The name most prominently connected with the
early stages of the invention is that of J. Preschel of Vienna, who in
1833 had a factory in operation for making phosphorus matches, fusees,
and amadou slips tipped with igniting composition. At the same time also
matches were being made by F. Moldenhauer in Darmstadt; and for a long
series of years Austria and the South-German states were the principal
centres of the new industry.
But the use of ordinary white or yellow phosphorus as a principal
ingredient in the igniting mixture of matches was found to be
accompanied with very serious disadvantages. It is a deadly poison, and
its free dissemination has led to many accidental deaths, and to
numerous cases of wilful murder and suicide. Workers also who are
exposed to phosphoric vapours are subject to a peculiarly distressing
disease which attacks the jaw, and ultimately produces necrosis of the
jaw-bone ("phossy jaw"), though with scrupulous attention to ventilation
and cleanliness much of the risk of the disease may be avoided. The most
serious objections to the use of phosphorus, however, were overcome by
the discovery of the modified form of that body known as red or
amorphous phosphorus. That substance was utilized for the manufacture of
the well-known "safety matches" by J. E. Lundström, of Jönköping,
Sweden, in 1852; its employment for this purpose had been patented eight
years previously by another Swede, G. E. Pasch, who, however, regarded
it as an oxide of phosphorus. Red phosphorus is in itself a perfectly
innocuous substance, and no evil effects arise from freely working the
compositions of which it forms an ingredient. The fact again that safety
matches ignite only in exceptional circumstances on any other than the
prepared surfaces which accompany the box--which surfaces and not the
matches themselves contain the phosphorus required for ignition--makes
them much less liable to cause accidental fires than other kinds.
The processes carried out in a match factory include preparing the
splints, dipping them first in molten paraffin wax and then in the
igniting composition, and filling the matches into boxes. All these
operations are performed by complicated automatic machinery, in the
development of which the Diamond Match Company of America has taken a
leading part, with the minimum of manual intervention.
The chief element in the igniting mixture of ordinary or "strike
anywhere" matches used to be common yellow phosphorus, combined with
one or more other bodies which readily part with oxygen under the
influence of heat. Chief among these latter substances is chlorate of
potash, others being red lead, nitrate of lead, bichromate of potash
and peroxide of manganese. But at the beginning of the 20th century
many countries took steps to stop the use of yellow phosphorus owing
to the danger to health attending its manipulation. In Sweden, matches
made with it have been prohibited for home consumption, but not for
export, since 1901. In 1905 and 1906 two conferences, attended by
representatives of most of the governments of Europe, were held at
Berne to consider the question of prohibiting yellow phosphorus, but
no general agreement was reached owing to the objections entertained
by Sweden, Norway, Spain and Portugal, and also Japan. Germany,
France, Italy, Denmark, Holland, Switzerland and Luxemburg, however,
agreed to a convention whereby yellow phosphorus was prohibited as
from 1912, and to this Great Britain expressed her adherence after the
passing of the White Matches Prohibition Act 1908, which forbade the
manufacture and importation of such matches from the 1st of January
1910; though to avoid hardship to retailers and others holding large
stocks it permitted their sale for a year longer. Phosphorous sulphide
(sesquisulphide of phosphorus) is one of the substances widely
employed as a substitute for yellow phosphorus in matches which will
strike anywhere without the need of a specially prepared surface.
Safety matches contain no phosphorus in the heads; according to one
formula that has been published the mixture with which they are tipped
consists of chlorate of potash, 32 parts; bichromate of potash, 12;
red lead, 32; sulphide of antimony, 24; while the ingredients of a
suitable rubbing surface are eight parts of amorphous phosphorus to
nine of sulphide of antimony. There is no doubt, however, that there
is considerable diversity in the composition of the mixtures actually
employed.
"Vestas" are matches in which short pieces of thin "wax taper" are
used in place of wooden splints. Fusees or vesuvians consist of large
oval heads fixed on a round splint. These heads consist of a porous
mixture of charcoal, saltpetre, cascarilla or other scented bark,
glass and gum, tipped with common igniting composition. When lighted
they form a glowing mass, without flame.
It is calculated that in the principal European countries from six to
ten matches are used for each inhabitant daily, and the world's annual
output must reach a total which requires twelve or thirteen figures
for its expression. In the United States the manufacture is under the
control of the Diamond Match Company, formed in 1881; which company
also has an important share in the industry in Great Britain, where it
has established large works. Similarly the manufacture of safety
matches in Sweden is largely controlled by one big combination. In
France matches are a government monopoly, and are both dear in price
and inferior in quality, as compared with other countries where the
industry is left to private enterprise. The French government formerly
leased the manufacture to a company (_Société générale des allumettes
chimiques_), but since 1890 it has been undertaken directly by the
state.
MATE (a corruption of _make_, from O. Eng. _gemaca_, a "comrade"), a
companion. In the language of the sea, the mate is the companion or
assistant of the master, or of any officer at the head of a division of
the crew. In the merchant service the mates are the officers who serve
under the master, commonly called the captain, navigate the vessel under
his direction, and replace him if he dies, or is disabled. In a war-ship
mates serve under the gunner, boatswain, carpenter, &c. They are
officers told off to attend to a particular part of the ship, as for
example mate of the upper deck, whose duty is to see that it is kept
clean, or mate of the hold, who is employed to serve out the water and
other stores, and to keep the weights adjusted so as to preserve the
trim--or balance--of the ship. (For "mate" in chess, see CHESS.)
MATÉ, or PARAGUAY TEA, the dried leaves of _Ilex paraguariensis_,[1] an
evergreen shrub or small tree belonging to the same genus as the common
holly, a plant to which it bears some resemblance in size and habit. The
leaves are from 6 to 8 in. long, shortly stalked, with a somewhat acute
tip and finely toothed at the margin. The small white flowers grow in
forked clusters in the axils of the leaves; the sepals, petals and
stamens are four in number, or occasionally five; and the berry is
4-seeded. The plant grows abundantly in Paraguay, and the south of
Brazil, forming woods called _yerbales_. One of the principal centres of
the maté industry is the Villa Real, a small town above Asuncion on the
Paraguay river; another is the Villa de San Xavier, in the district
between the rivers Uruguay and Parana.
Although maté appears to have been used from time immemorial by the
Indians, the Jesuits were the first to attempt its cultivation. This
was begun at their branch missions in Paraguay and the province of Rio
Grande de San Pedro, where some plantations still exist, and yield the
best tea that is made. From this circumstance the names Jesuits' tea,
tea of the Missions, St Bartholomew's tea, &c., are sometimes applied
to maté. Under cultivation the quality of the tea improves, but the
plant remains a small shrub with numerous stems, instead of forming,
as in the wild state, a tree with a rounded head. From cultivated
plants the leaves are gathered every two or three years, that interval
being necessary for restoration to vigorous growth. The collection of
maté is, however, chiefly effected by Indians employed for that
purpose by merchants, who pay a money consideration to government for
the privilege.
When a yerbal or maté wood is found, the Indians, who usually travel
in companies of about twenty-five in number, build wigwams and settle
down to the work for about six months. Their first operation is to
prepare an open space, called a _tatacua_, about 6 ft. square, in
which the surface of the soil is beaten hard and smooth with mallets.
The leafy branches of the maté are then cut down and placed on the
tatacua, where they undergo a preliminary roasting from a fire kindled
around it. An arch of poles, or of hurdles, is then erected above it,
on which the maté is placed, a fire being lighted underneath. This
part of the process demands some care, since by it the leaves have to
be rendered brittle enough to be easily pulverized, and the aroma has
to be developed, the necessary amount of heat being only learned by
experience. After drying, the leaves are reduced to coarse powder in
mortars formed of pits in the earth well rammed. Maté so prepared is
called _caa gazu_ or _yerva do polos_, and is chiefly used in Brazil.
In Paraguay and the vicinity of Parana in the Argentine Republic, the
leaves are deprived of the midrib before roasting; this is called
_caa-míri_. A very superior quality, or _caa-cuys_, is also prepared
in Paraguay from the scarcely expanded buds. Another method of drying
maté has been adopted, the leaves being heated in large cast-iron pans
set in brickwork, in the same way that tea is dried in China; it is
afterwards powdered by machinery.
[Illustration: Maté (_Ilex paraguariensis_).
Portion of plant, half natural size. Flower, drupe and nuts, twice
natural size. Part of under-side of leaf showing minute glands,
natural size.]
The different methods of preparation influence to a certain extent the
value of the product, the maté prepared in Paraguay being considered
the best, that of Oran and Paranagua very inferior. The leaves when
dried are packed tightly in serons or oblong packages made of raw
hides, which are then carefully sewed up. These shrink by exposure to
the sun, and in a couple of days form compact parcels each containing
about 200 lb. of tea; in this form it keeps well. The tea is generally
prepared for use in a small silver-mounted calabash, made of the fruit
of _Crescentia cujete_ (Cuca) or of _Lagenaria_ (Cabaço), usually
about the size of a large orange, the tapering end of the latter
serving for a handle. In the top of the calabash, or _maté_,[2] a
circular hole about the size of a florin is made, and through this
opening the tea is sucked by means of a bombilla. This instrument
consists of a small tube 6 or 7 in. long, formed either of metal or a
reed, which has at one end a bulb made either of extremely fine
basket-work or of metal perforated with minute holes, so as to prevent
the particles of the tea-leaves from being drawn up into the mouth.
Some sugar and a little hot water are first placed in the gourd, the
yerva is then added, and finally the vessel is filled to the brim with
boiling water, or milk previously heated by a spirit lamp. A little
burnt sugar or lemon juice is sometimes added instead of milk. The
beverage is then handed round to the company, each person being
furnished with a bombilla. The leaves will bear steeping about three
times. The infusion, if not drunk soon after it is made, rapidly turns
black. Persons who are fond of maté drink it before every meal, and
consume about 1 oz. of the leaves per day. In the neighbourhood of
Parana it is prepared and drunk like Chinese tea. Maté is generally
considered disagreeable by those unaccustomed to it, having a somewhat
bitter taste; moreover, it is the custom to drink it so hot as to be
unpleasant. But in the south-eastern republics it is a much-prized
article of luxury, and is the first thing offered to visitors. The
_gaucho_ of the plains will travel on horseback for weeks asking no
better fare than dried beef washed down with copious draughts of maté,
and for it he will forego any other luxury, such as sugar, rice or
biscuit. Maté acts as a restorative after great fatigue in the same
manner as tea. Since it does not lose its flavour so quickly as tea by
exposure to the air and damp it is more valuable to travellers.
Since the beginning of the 17th century maté has been drunk by all
classes in Paraguay, and it is now used throughout Brazil and the
neighbouring countries.
The virtues of this substance are due to the occurrence in it of
caffeine, of which a given quantity of maté, as prepared for drinking,
contains definitely less than a similar quantity of tea or coffee. It
is less astringent than either of these, and thus is, on all scores,
less open to objection.
See Scully, _Brazil_ (London, 1866); Mansfield, _Brazil_ (London,
1856); Christy, _New Commercial Plants_, No. 3 (London, 1880); _Kew
Bulletin_ (1892), p. 132.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _I. gigantea_, _I. ovalifolia_, _I. Humboldtiana_, and _I.
nigropunctata_, besides several varieties of these species, are also
used for preparing maté.
[2] The word _caa_ signified the plant in the native Indian language.
The Spaniards gave it a similar name, _yerba_. _Maté_ comes from the
language of the Incas, and originally means a calabash. The Paraguay
tea was called at first _yerva do maté_, and then, the _yerva_ being
dropped, the name _maté_ came to signify the same thing.
MATERA, a city of Basilicata, Italy, in the province of Potenza, from
which it is 68 m. E. by road (13 m. S. of the station of Altamura), 1312
ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901), 17,801. Part of it is built on a level
plateau and part in deep valleys adjoining, the tops of the campaniles
of the lower portions being on a level with the streets of the upper.
The principal building is the cathedral of the archbishopric of Acerenza
and Matera, formed in 1203 by the union of the two bishoprics, dating
respectively from 300 and 398. The western façade of the cathedral is
plain, while the utmost richness of decoration is lavished on the south
front which faces the piazza. Almost in the centre of this south façade
is an exquisitely sculptured window, from which letters from the Greek
patriarch at Constantinople used to be read. The campanile is 175 ft.
high. In the vicinity are the troglodyte caverns of Monte Scaglioso,
still inhabited by some of the lower classes, and other caves with
13th-century frescoes.
Neolithic pottery has been found here, but the origin of the town is
uncertain. Under the Normans Matera was a countship for William Bras
de Fer and his successors. It was the chief town of the Basilicata
from 1664 till 1811, when the French transferred the administration to
Potenza.
MATERIALISM (from Lat. _materia_, matter), in philosophy, the theory
which regards all the facts of the universe as explainable in terms of
matter and motion, and in particular explains all psychical processes by
physical and chemical changes in the nervous system. It is thus opposed
both to natural realism and to idealism. For the natural realist stands
upon the common-sense position that minds and material objects have
equally effective existence; while the idealist explains matter by mind
and denies that mind can be explained by matter. The various forms into
which materialism may be classified correspond to the various causes
which induce men to take up materialistic views. _Naïve materialism_ is
due to a cause which still, perhaps, has no small power, the natural
difficulty which persons who have had no philosophic training experience
in observing and appreciating the importance of the immaterial facts of
consciousness. The pre-Socratics may be classed as naïve materialists in
this sense; though, as at that early period the contrast between matter
and spirit had not been fully realized and matter was credited with
properties that belong to life, it is usual to apply the term hylozoism
(q.v.) to the earliest stage of Greek metaphysical theory. It is not
difficult to discern the influence of naïve materialism in contemporary
thinking. We see it in Huxley, and still more in Haeckel, whose
materialism (which he chooses to term "monism") is evidently conditioned
by ignorance of the history and present position of speculation.
_Cosmological materialism_ is that form of the doctrine in which the
dominant motive is the formation of a comprehensive world-scheme: the
Stoics and Epicureans were cosmological materialists. In _anti-religious
materialism_ the motive is hostility to established dogmas which are
connected, in the Christian system especially, with certain forms of
spiritual doctrine. Such a motive weighed much with Hobbes and with the
French materialists of the 18th century, such as La Mettrie and
d'Holbach. The cause of _medical materialism_ is the natural bias of
physicians towards explaining the health and disease of mind by the
health and disease of body. It has received its greatest support from
the study of insanity, which is now fully recognized as conditioned by
disease of the brain. To this school belong Drs Maudsley and Mercier.
The highest form of the doctrine is _scientific materialism_, by which
term is meant the doctrine so commonly adopted by the physicist,
zoologist and biologist.
It may perhaps be fairly said that materialism is at present a necessary
methodological postulate of natural-scientific inquiry. The business of
the scientist is to explain everything by the physical causes which are
comparatively well understood and to exclude the interference of
spiritual causes. It was the great work of Descartes to exclude
rigorously from science all explanations which were not scientifically
verifiable; and the prevalence of materialism at certain epochs, as in
the enlightenment of the 18th century and in the German philosophy of
the middle 19th, were occasioned by special need to vindicate the
scientific position, in the former case against the Church, in the
latter case against the pseudo-science of the Hegelian dialectic. The
chief definite periods of materialism are the pre-Socratic and the
post-Aristotelian in Greece, the 18th century in France, and in Germany
the 19th century from about 1850 to 1880. In England materialism has
been endemic, so to speak, from Hobbes to the present time, and English
materialism is more important perhaps than that of any other country.
But, from the national distrust of system, it has not been elaborated
into a consistent metaphysic, but is rather traceable as a tendency
harmonizing with the spirit of natural science. Hobbes, Locke, Hume,
Mill and Herbert Spencer are not systematic materialists, but show
tendencies towards materialism.
See METAPHYSICS; and Lange's _History of Materialism_.
MATER MATUTA (connected with Lat. _mane_, _matutinus_, "morning"), an
old Italian goddess of dawn. The idea of light being closely connected
with childbirth, whereby the infant is brought into the light of the
world, she came to be regarded as a double of Juno, and was identified
by the Greeks with Eilithyia. Matuta had a temple in Rome in the Forum
Boarium, where the festival of Matralia was celebrated on the 11th of
June. Only married women were admitted, and none who had been married
more than once were allowed to crown her image with garlands. Under
hellenizing influences, she became a goddess of sea and harbours, the
Ino-Leucothea of the Greeks. In this connexion it is noticeable that, as
Ino tended her nephew Dionysus, so at the Matralia the participants
prayed for the welfare of their nephews and nieces before that of their
own children. The transformation was complete in 174 B.C., when Tiberius
Sempronius Gracchus, after the conquest of Sardinia, placed in the
temple of Matuta a map commemorative of the campaign, containing a plan
of the island and the various engagements. The progress of navigation
and the association of divinities of the sky with maritime affairs
probably also assisted to bring about the change, although the memory of
her earlier function as a goddess of childbirth survived till imperial
times.
Ovid, _Fasti_, vi. 475; Livy xli. 28; Plutarch, _Quaestiones romanae_,
16, 17.
MATHEMATICS (Gr. [Greek: mathêmatkê], sc. [Greek: technê] or [Greek:
epistêmê]; from [Greek: mathêma], "learning" or "science"), the general
term for the various applications of mathematical thought, the
traditional field of which is number and quantity. It has been usual to
define mathematics as "the science of discrete and continuous
magnitude." Even Leibnitz,[1] who initiated a more modern point of view,
follows the tradition in thus confining the scope of mathematics
properly so called, while apparently conceiving it as a department of a
yet wider science of reasoning. A short consideration of some leading
topics of the science will exemplify both the plausibility and
inadequacy of the above definition. Arithmetic, algebra, and the
infinitesimal calculus, are sciences directly concerned with integral
numbers, rational (or fractional) numbers, and real numbers generally,
which include incommensurable numbers. It would seem that "the general
theory of discrete and continuous quantity" is the exact description of
the topics of these sciences. Furthermore, can we not complete the
circle of the mathematical sciences by adding geometry? Now geometry
deals with points, lines, planes and cubic contents. Of these all except
points are quantities: lines involve lengths, planes involve areas, and
cubic contents involve volumes. Also, as the Cartesian geometry shows,
all the relations between points are expressible in terms of geometric
quantities. Accordingly, at first sight it seems reasonable to define
geometry in some such way as "the science of dimensional quantity." Thus
every subdivision of mathematical science would appear to deal with
quantity, and the definition of mathematics as "the science of quantity"
would appear to be justified. We have now to consider the reasons for
rejecting this definition as inadequate.
_Types of Critical Questions._--What are numbers? We can talk of five
apples and ten pears. But what are "five" and "ten" apart from the
apples and pears? Also in addition to the cardinal numbers there are the
ordinal numbers: the fifth apple and the tenth pear claim thought. What
is the relation of "the fifth" and "the tenth" to "five" and "ten"? "The
first rose of summer" and "the last rose of summer" are parallel
phrases, yet one explicitly introduces an ordinal number and the other
does not. Again, "half a foot" and "half a pound" are easily defined.
But in what sense is there "a half," which is the same for "half a foot"
as "half a pound"? Furthermore, incommensurable numbers are defined as
the limits arrived at as the result of certain procedures with rational
numbers. But how do we know that there is anything to reach? We must
know that [root]2 exists before we can prove that any procedure will
reach it. An expedition to the North Pole has nothing to reach unless
the earth rotates.
Also in geometry, what is a point? The straightness of a straight line
and the planeness of a plane require consideration. Furthermore,
"congruence" is a difficulty. For when a triangle "moves," the points do
not move with it. So what is it that keeps unaltered in the moving
triangle? Thus the whole method of measurement in geometry as described
in the elementary textbooks and the older treatises is obscure to the
last degree. Lastly, what are "dimensions"? All these topics require
thorough discussion before we can rest content with the definition of
mathematics as the general science of magnitude; and by the time they
are discussed the definition has evaporated. An outline of the modern
answers to questions such as the above will now be given. A critical
defence of them would require a volume.[2]
_Cardinal Numbers._--A one-one relation between the members of two
classes [alpha] and [beta] is any method of correlating all the
members of [alpha] to all the members of [beta], so that any member of
[alpha] has one and only one correlate in [beta], and any member of
[beta] has one and only one correlate in [alpha]. Two classes between
which a one-one relation exists have the same cardinal number and are
called cardinally similar; and the cardinal number of the class
[alpha] is a certain class whose members are themselves
classes--namely, it is the class composed of all those classes for
which a one-one correlation with [alpha] exists. Thus the cardinal
number of [alpha] is itself a class, and furthermore [alpha] is a
member of it. For a one-one relation can be established between the
members of [alpha] and [alpha] by the simple process of correlating
each member of [alpha] with itself. Thus the cardinal number one is
the class of unit classes, the cardinal number two is the class of
doublets, and so on. Also a unit class is any class with the property
that it possesses a member _x_ such that, if _y_ is any member of the
class, then _x_ and _y_ are identical. A doublet is any class which
possesses a member _x_ such that the modified class formed by all the
other members except _x_ is a unit class. And so on for all the finite
cardinals, which are thus defined successively. The cardinal number
zero is the class of classes with no members; but there is only one
such class, namely--the null class. Thus this cardinal number has only
one member. The operations of addition and multiplication of two given
cardinal numbers can be defined by taking two classes [alpha] and
[beta], satisfying the conditions (1) that their cardinal numbers are
respectively the given numbers, and (2) that they contain no member in
common, and then by defining by reference to [alpha] and [beta] two
other suitable classes whose cardinal numbers are defined to be
respectively the required sum and product of the cardinal numbers in
question. We need not here consider the details of this process.
With these definitions it is now possible to _prove_ the following six
premisses applying to finite cardinal numbers, from which Peano[3] has
shown that all arithmetic can be deduced:--
i. Cardinal numbers form a class.
ii. Zero is a cardinal number.
iii. If a is a cardinal number, a + 1 is a cardinal number.
iv. If s is any class and zero is a member of it, also if when x is a
cardinal number and a member of s, also x+1 is a member of s, then the
whole class of cardinal numbers is contained in s.
v. If a and b are cardinal numbers, and a + 1 = b + 1, then a = b.
vi. If a is a cardinal number, then a + 1 [/=] 0.
It may be noticed that (iv) is the familar principle of mathematical
induction. Peano in an historical note refers its first explicit
employment, although without a general enunciation, to Maurolycus in
his work, _Arithmeticorum libri duo_ (Venice, 1575).
But now the difficulty of confining mathematics to being the science
of number and quantity is immediately apparent. For there is no
self-contained science of cardinal numbers. The proof of the six
premisses requires an elaborate investigation into the general
properties of classes and relations which can be deduced by the
strictest reasoning from our ultimate logical principles. Also it is
purely arbitrary to erect the consequences of these six principles
into a separate science. They are excellent principles of the highest
value, but they are in no sense the necessary premisses which must be
proved before any other propositions of cardinal numbers can be
established. On the contrary, the premisses of arithmetic can be put
in other forms, and, furthermore, an indefinite number of propositions
of arithmetic can be proved directly from logical principles without
mentioning them. Thus, while arithmetic may be defined as that branch
of deductive reasoning concerning classes and relations which is
concerned with the establishment of propositions concerning cardinal
numbers, it must be added that the introduction of cardinal numbers
makes no great break in this general science. It is no more than an
interesting subdivision in a general theory.
_Ordinal Numbers._--We must first understand what is meant by "order,"
that is, by "serial arrangement." An order of a set of things is to be
sought in that relation holding between members of the set which
constitutes that order. The set viewed as a class has many orders.
Thus the telegraph posts along a certain road have a space-order very
obvious to our senses; but they have also a time-order according to
dates of erection, perhaps more important to the postal authorities
who replace them after fixed intervals. A set of cardinal numbers have
an order of magnitude, often called _the_ order of the set because of
its insistent obviousness to us; but, if they are the numbers drawn in
a lottery, their time-order of occurrence in that drawing also ranges
them in an order of some importance. Thus the order is defined by the
"serial" relation. A relation (R) is serial[4] when (1) it implies
diversity, so that, if x has the relation R to y, x is diverse from y;
(2) it is transitive, so that if x has the relation R to y, and y to
z, then x has the relation R to z; (3) it has the property of
connexity, so that if x and y are things to which any things bear the
relation R, or which bear the relation R to any things, then _either_
x is identical with y, _or_ x has the relation R to y, _or_ y has the
relation R to x. These conditions are necessary and sufficient to
secure that our ordinary ideas of "preceding" and "succeeding" hold in
respect to the relation R. The "field" of the relation R is the class
of things ranged in order by it. Two relations R and R´ are said to be
ordinally similar, if a one-one relation holds between the members of
the two fields of R and R´, such that if x and y are any two members
of the field of R, such that x has the relation R to y, and if x´ and
y´ are the correlates in the field of R´ of x and y, then in all such
cases x´ has the relation R´ to y´, and conversely, interchanging the
dashes on the letters, i.e. R and R´, x and x´, &c. It is evident that
the ordinal similarity of two relations implies the cardinal
similarity of their fields, but not conversely. Also, two relations
need not be serial in order to be ordinally similar; but if one is
serial, so is the other. The relation-number of a relation is the
class whose members are all those relations which are ordinally
similar to it. This class will include the original relation itself.
The relation-number of a relation should be compared with the cardinal
number of a class. When a relation is serial its relation-number is
often called its serial type. The addition and multiplication of two
relation-numbers is defined by taking two relations R and S, such that
(1) their fields have no terms in common; (2) their relation-numbers
are the two relation-numbers in question, and then by defining by
reference to R and S two other suitable relations whose
relation-numbers are defined to be respectively the sum and product of
the relation-numbers in question. We need not consider the details of
this process. Now if n be any finite cardinal number, it can be proved
that the class of those serial relations, which have a field whose
cardinal number is n, is a relation-number. This relation-number is
the ordinal number corresponding to n; let it be symbolized by n.
Thus, corresponding to the cardinal numbers 2, 3, 4 ... there are the
ordinal numbers 2, 3, 4.... The definition of the ordinal number 1
requires some little ingenuity owing to the fact that no serial
relation can have a field whose cardinal number is 1; but we must omit
here the explanation of the process. The ordinal number 0 is the class
whose sole member is the null relation--that is, the relation which
never holds between any pair of entities. The definitions of the
finite ordinals can be expressed without use of the corresponding
cardinals, so there is no essential priority of cardinals to ordinals.
Here also it can be seen that the science of the finite ordinals is a
particular subdivision of the general theory of classes and relations.
Thus the illusory nature of the traditional definition of mathematics
is again illustrated.
_Cantor's Infinite Numbers._--Owing to the correspondence between the
finite cardinals and the finite ordinals, the propositions of cardinal
arithmetic and ordinal arithmetic correspond point by point. But the
definition of the cardinal number of a class applies when the class is
not finite, and it can be proved that there are different infinite
cardinal numbers, and that there is a least infinite cardinal, now
usually denoted by [aleph]0, where [aleph] is the Hebrew letter aleph.
Similarly, a class of serial relations, called _well-ordered_ serial
relations, can be defined, such that their corresponding
relation-numbers include the ordinary finite ordinals, but also
include relation-numbers which have many properties like those of the
finite ordinals, though the fields of the relations belonging to them
are not finite. These relation-numbers are the infinite ordinal
numbers. The arithmetic of the infinite cardinals does not correspond
to that of the infinite ordinals. The theory of these extensions of
the ideas of number is dealt with in the article NUMBER. It will
suffice to mention here that Peano's fourth premiss of arithmetic does
not hold for infinite cardinals or for infinite ordinals. Contrasting
the above definitions of number, cardinal and ordinals, with the
alternative theory that number is an ultimate idea incapable of
definition, we notice that our procedure exacts a greater attention,
combined with a smaller credulity; for every idea, assumed as
ultimate, demands a separate act of faith.
_The Data of Analysts._--Rational numbers and real numbers in general
can now be defined according to the same general method, If m and n
are finite cardinal numbers, the rational number m/n is the relation
which any finite cardinal number x bears to any finite cardinal number
y when n × x = m × y. Thus the rational number one, which we will
denote by 1_r, is not the cardinal number 1; for 1_r is the relation
1/1 as defined above, and is thus a relation holding between certain
pairs of cardinals. Similarly, the other rational integers must be
distinguished from the corresponding cardinals. The arithmetic of
rational numbers is now established by means of appropriate
definitions, which indicate the entities meant by the operations of
addition and multiplication. But the desire to obtain general
enunciations of theorems without exceptional cases has led
mathematicians to employ entities of ever-ascending types of
elaboration. These entities are not created by mathematicians, they
are employed by them, and their definitions should point out the
construction of the new entities in terms of those already on hand.
The real numbers, which include irrational numbers, have now to be
defined. Consider the serial arrangement of the rationals in their
order of magnitude. A real number is a class ([alpha], say) of
rational numbers which satisfies the condition that it is the same as
the class of those rationals each of which precedes at least one
member of [alpha]. Thus, consider the class of rationals less than
2_r; any member of this class precedes some other members of the
class--thus 1/2 precedes 4/3, 3/2 and so on; also the class of
predecessors of predecessors of 2_r is itself the class of
predecessors of 2_r. Accordingly this class is a real number; it will
be called the real number 2_R. Note that the class of rationals less
than or equal to 2_r is not a real number. For 2_r is not a
predecessor of some member of the class. In the above example 2_R is
an integral real number, which is distinct from a rational integer,
and from a cardinal number. Similarly, any rational real number is
distinct from the corresponding rational number. But now the
irrational real numbers have all made their appearance. For example,
the class of rationals whose squares are less than 2_r satisfies the
definition of a real number; it is the real number [root]2. The
arithmetic of real numbers follows from appropriate definitions of the
operations of addition and multiplication. Except for the immediate
purposes of an explanation, such as the above, it is unnecessary for
mathematicians to have separate symbols, such as 2, 2_r and 2_R, or
2/3 and (2/3)_R. Real numbers with signs (+ or -) are now defined. If
a is a real number, +a is defined to be the relation which any real
number of the form x + a bears to the real number x, and -a is the
relation which any real number x bears to the real number x + a. The
addition and multiplication of these "signed" real numbers is suitably
defined, and it is proved that the usual arithmetic of such numbers
follows. Finally, we reach a complex number of the nth order. Such a
number is a "one-many" relation which relates n signed real numbers
(or n algebraic complex numbers when they are already defined by this
procedure) to the n cardinal numbers 1, 2 ... n respectively. If such
a complex number is written (as usual) in the form x1e1 + x2e2 + ... +
x_n e_n, then this particular complex number relates x1 to 1, x2 to 2,
... x_n to n. Also the "unit" e1 (or e2) considered as a number of the
system is merely a shortened form for the complex number (+1) e1 + 0e2
+ ... + 0e_n. This last number exemplifies the fact that one signed
real number, such as 0, may be correlated to many of the n cardinals,
such as 2 ... n in the example, but that each cardinal is only
correlated with one signed number. Hence the relation has been called
above "one-many." The sum of two complex numbers x1e1 + x2e2 + ... +
x_n e_n and y1e1 + y2e2 + ... + y_n e_n is always defined to be the
complex number (x1 + y1)e1 + (x2 + y2)e2 + ... + (x_n + y_n)e_n. But
an indefinite number of definitions of the product of two complex
numbers yield interesting results. Each definition gives rise to a
corresponding algebra of higher complex numbers. We will confine
ourselves here to algebraic complex numbers--that is, to complex
numbers of the second order taken in connexion with that definition of
multiplication which leads to ordinary algebra. The product of two
complex numbers of the second order--namely, x1e1 + x2e2 and y1e1 +
y2e2, is in this case defined to mean the complex (x1y1 - x2y2)e1 +
(x1y2 + x2y1)e2. Thus e1 × e1 = e, e2 × e2 = -e1, e1 × e2 = e2 × e1 =
e2. With this definition it is usual to omit the first symbol e1, and
to write i or [root]-1 instead of e2. Accordingly, the typical form
for such a complex number is x + yi, and then with this notation the
above-mentioned definition of multiplication is invariably adopted.
The importance of this algebra arises from the fact that in terms of
such complex numbers with this definition of multiplication the utmost
generality of expression, to the exclusion of exceptional cases, can
be obtained for theorems which occur in analogous forms, but
complicated with exceptional cases, in the algebras of real numbers
and of signed real numbers. This is exactly the same reason as that
which has led mathematicians to work with signed real numbers in
preference to real numbers, and with real numbers in preference to
rational numbers. The evolution of mathematical thought in the
invention of the data of analysis has thus been completely traced in
outline.
_Definition of Mathematics._--It has now become apparent that the
traditional field of mathematics in the province of discrete and
continuous number can only be separated from the general abstract theory
of classes and relations by a wavering and indeterminate line. Of course
a discussion as to the mere application of a word easily degenerates
into the most fruitless logomachy. It is open to any one to use any word
in any sense. But on the assumption that "mathematics" is to denote a
science well marked out by its subject matter and its methods from other
topics of thought, and that at least it is to include all topics
habitually assigned to it, there is now no option but to employ
"mathematics" in the general sense[5] of the "science concerned with the
logical deduction of consequences from the general premisses of all
reasoning."
_Geometry._--The typical mathematical proposition is: "If x, y, z ...
satisfy such and such conditions, then such and such other conditions
hold with respect to them." By taking fixed conditions for the
hypothesis of such a proposition a definite department of mathematics is
marked out. For example, geometry is such a department. The "axioms" of
geometry are the fixed conditions which occur in the hypotheses of the
geometrical propositions. The special nature of the "axioms" which
constitute geometry is considered in the article GEOMETRY (_Axioms_). It
is sufficient to observe here that they are concerned with special types
of classes of classes and of classes of relations, and that the
connexion of geometry with number and magnitude is in no way an
essential part of the foundation of the science. In fact, the whole
theory of measurement in geometry arises at a comparatively late stage
as the result of a variety of complicated considerations.
_Classes and Relations._--The foregoing account of the nature of
mathematics necessitates a strict deduction of the general properties
of classes and relations from the ultimate logical premisses. In the
course of this process, undertaken for the first time with the rigour
of mathematicians, some contradictions have become apparent. That
first discovered is known as Burali-Forti's contradiction,[6] and
consists in the proof that there both is and is not a greatest
infinite ordinal number. But these contradictions do not depend upon
any theory of number, for Russell's contradiction[7] does not involve
number in any form. This contradiction arises from considering the
class possessing as members all classes which are not members of
themselves. Call this class w; then to say that x is a w is equivalent
to saying that x is not an x. Accordingly, to say that w is a w is
equivalent to saying that w is not a w. An analogous contradiction can
be found for relations. It follows that a careful scrutiny of the very
idea of classes and relations is required. Note that classes are here
required in extension, so that the class of human beings and the class
of rational featherless bipeds are identical; similarly for relations,
which are to be determined by the entities related. Now a class in
respect to its components is many. In what sense then can it be one?
This problem of "the one and the many" has been discussed continuously
by the philosophers.[8] All the contradictions can be avoided, and yet
the use of classes and relations can be preserved as required by
mathematics, and indeed by common sense, by a theory which denies to a
class--or relation--existence or being in any sense in which the
entities composing it--or related by it--exist. Thus, to say that a
pen is an entity and the class of pens is an entity is merely a play
upon the word "entity"; the second sense of "entity" (if any) is
indeed derived from the first, but has a more complex signification.
Consider an incomplete proposition, incomplete in the sense that some
entity which ought to be involved in it is represented by an
undetermined x, which may stand for any entity. Call it a
propositional function; and, if [phi]x be a propositional function,
the undetermined variable x is the argument. Two propositional
functions [phi]x and [psi]x are "extensionally identical" if any
determination of x in [phi]x which converts [phi]x into a true
proposition also converts [psi]x into a true proposition, and
conversely for [psi] and [phi]. Now consider a propositional function
F_[chi] in which the variable argument [chi] is itself a propositional
function. If F_[chi] is true when, and only when, [chi] is determined
to be either [phi] or some other propositional function extensionally
equivalent to [phi], then the proposition F_[phi] is of the form which
is ordinarily recognized as being about the class determined by [phi]x
taken in extension--that is, the class of entities for which [phi]x is
a true proposition when x is determined to be any one of them. A
similar theory holds for relations which arise from the consideration
of propositional functions with two or more variable arguments. It is
then possible to define by a parallel elaboration what is meant by
classes of classes, classes of relations, relations between classes,
and so on. Accordingly, the number of a class of relations can be
defined, or of a class of classes, and so on. This theory[9] is in
effect a theory of the _use_ of classes and relations, and does not
decide the philosophic question as to the sense (if any) in which a
class in extension is one entity. It does indeed deny that it is an
entity in the sense in which one of its members is an entity.
Accordingly, it is a fallacy for any determination of x to consider "x
is an x" or "x is not an x" as having the meaning of propositions.
Note that for any determination of x, "x is an x" and "x is not an x,"
are neither of them fallacies but are both meaningless, according to
this theory. Thus Russell's contradiction vanishes, and an examination
of the other contradictions shows that they vanish also.
_Applied Mathematics._--The selection of the topics of mathematical
inquiry among the infinite variety open to it has been guided by the
useful applications, and indeed the abstract theory has only recently
been disentangled from the empirical elements connected with these
applications. For example, the application of the theory of cardinal
numbers to classes of physical entities involves in practice some
process of counting. It is only recently that the _succession_ of
processes which is involved in any act of counting has been seen to be
irrelevant to the idea of number. Indeed, it is only by experience that
we can know that any definite process of counting will give the true
cardinal number of some class of entities. It is perfectly possible to
imagine a universe in which any act of counting by a being in it
annihilated some members of the class counted during the time and only
during the time of its continuance. A legend of the Council of Nicea[10]
illustrates this point: "When the Bishops took their places on their
thrones, they were 318; when they rose up to be called over, it appeared
that they were 319; so that they never could make the number come right,
and whenever they approached the last of the series, he immediately
turned into the likeness of his next neighbour." Whatever be the
historical worth of this story, it may safely be said that it cannot be
disproved by deductive reasoning from the premisses of abstract logic.
The most we can do is to assert that a universe in which such things are
liable to happen on a large scale is unfitted for the practical
application of the theory of cardinal numbers. The application of the
theory of real numbers to physical quantities involves analogous
considerations. In the first place, some physical process of addition is
presupposed, involving some inductively inferred law of permanence
during that process. Thus in the theory of masses we must know that two
pounds of lead when put together will counterbalance in the scales two
pounds of sugar, or a pound of lead and a pound of sugar. Furthermore,
the sort of continuity of the series (in order of magnitude) of rational
numbers is known to be different from that of the series of real
numbers. Indeed, mathematicians now reserve "continuity" as the term for
the latter kind of continuity; the mere property of having an infinite
number of terms between any two terms is called "compactness." The
compactness of the series of rational numbers is consistent with
quasi-gaps in it--that is, with the possible absence of limits to
classes in it. Thus the class of rational numbers whose squares are less
than 2 has no upper limit among the rational numbers. But among the real
numbers all classes have limits. Now, owing to the necessary inexactness
of measurement, it is impossible to discriminate directly whether any
kind of continuous physical quantity possesses the compactness of the
series of rationals or the continuity of the series of real numbers. In
calculations the latter hypothesis is made because of its mathematical
simplicity. But, the assumption has certainly no a priori grounds in its
favour, and it is not very easy to see how to base it upon experience.
For example, if it should turn out that the mass of a body is to be
estimated by counting the number of corpuscles (whatever they may be)
which go to form it, then a body with an irrational measure of mass is
intrinsically impossible. Similarly, the continuity of space apparently
rests upon sheer assumption unsupported by any a priori or experimental
grounds. Thus the current applications of mathematics to the analysis of
phenomena can be justified by no a priori necessity.
In one sense there is no science of applied mathematics. When once the
fixed conditions which any hypothetical group of entities are to satisfy
have been precisely formulated, the deduction of the further
propositions, which also will hold respecting them, can proceed in
complete independence of the question as to whether or no any such group
of entities can be found in the world of phenomena. Thus rational
mechanics, based on the Newtonian Laws, viewed as mathematics is
independent of its supposed application, and hydrodynamics remains a
coherent and respected science though it is extremely improbable that
any perfect fluid exists in the physical world. But this unbendingly
logical point of view cannot be the last word upon the matter. For no
one can doubt the essential difference between characteristic treatises
upon "pure" and "applied" mathematics. The difference is a difference in
method. In pure mathematics the hypotheses which a set of entities are
to satisfy are given, and a group of interesting deductions are sought.
In "applied mathematics" the "deductions" are given in the shape of the
experimental evidence of natural science, and the hypotheses from which
the "deductions" can be deduced are sought. Accordingly, every treatise
on applied mathematics, properly so-called, is directed to the criticism
of the "laws" from which the reasoning starts, or to a suggestion of
results which experiment may hope to find. Thus if it calculates the
result of some experiment, it is not the experimentalist's well-attested
results which are on their trial, but the basis of the calculation.
Newton's _Hypotheses non fingo_ was a proud boast, but it rests upon an
entire misconception of the capacities of the mind of man in dealing
with external nature.
_Synopsis of Existing Developments of Pure Mathematics._--A complete
classification of mathematical sciences, as they at present exist, is
to be found in the _International Catalogue of Scientific Literature_
promoted by the Royal Society. The classification in question was
drawn up by an international committee of eminent mathematicians, and
thus has the highest authority. It would be unfair to criticize it
from an exacting philosophical point of view. The practical object of
the enterprise required that the proportionate quantity of yearly
output in the various branches, and that the liability of various
topics as a matter of fact to occur in connexion with each other,
should modify the classification.
Section A deals with pure mathematics. Under the general heading
"_Fundamental Notions_" occur the subheadings "_Foundations of
Arithmetic_," with the topics rational, irrational and transcendental
numbers, and aggregates; "_Universal Algebra_," with the topics
complex numbers, quaternions, ausdehnungslehre, vector analysis,
matrices, and algebra of logic; and "_Theory of Groups_," with the
topics finite and continuous groups. For the subjects of this general
heading see the articles ALGEBRA, UNIVERSAL; GROUPS, THEORY OF;
INFINITESIMAL CALCULUS; NUMBER; QUATERNIONS; VECTOR ANALYSIS. Under
the general heading "_Algebra and Theory of Numbers_" occur the
subheadings "_Elements of Algebra_," with the topics rational
polynomials, permutations, &c., partitions, probabilities; "_Linear
Substitutions_," with the topics determinants, &c., linear
substitutions, general theory of quantics; "_Theory of Algebraic
Equations_," with the topics existence of roots, separation of and
approximation to, theory of Galois, &c.; "_Theory of Numbers_," with
the topics congruences, quadratic residues, prime numbers, particular
irrational and transcendental numbers. For the subjects of this
general heading see the articles ALGEBRA; ALGEBRAIC FORMS; ARITHMETIC;
COMBINATORIAL ANALYSIS; DETERMINANTS; EQUATION; FRACTION, CONTINUED;
INTERPOLATION; LOGARITHMS; MAGIC SQUARE; PROBABILITY. Under the
general heading "_Analysis_" occur the subheadings "_Foundations of
Analysis_," with the topics theory of functions of real variables,
series and other infinite processes, principles and elements of the
differential and of the integral calculus, definite integrals, and
calculus of variations; "_Theory of Functions of Complex Variables_,"
with the topics functions of one variable and of several variables;
"_Algebraic Functions and their Integrals_," with the topics algebraic
functions of one and of several variables, elliptic functions and
single theta functions, Abelian integrals; "_Other Special
Functions_," with the topics Euler's, Legendre's, Bessel's and
automorphic functions; "_Differential Equations_," with the topics
existence theorems, methods of solution, general theory;
"_Differential Forms and Differential Invariants_," with the topics
differential forms, including Pfaffians, transformation of
differential forms, including tangential (or contact) transformations,
differential invariants; "_Analytical Methods connected with Physical
Subjects_," with the topics harmonic analysis, Fourier's series, the
differential equations of applied mathematics, Dirichlet's problem;
"_Difference Equations and Functional Equations_," with the topics
recurring series, solution of equations of finite differences and
functional equations. For the subjects of this heading see the
articles DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS; FOURIER'S SERIES; CONTINUED
FRACTIONS; FUNCTION; FUNCTION OF REAL VARIABLES; FUNCTION COMPLEX;
GROUPS, THEORY OF; INFINITESIMAL CALCULUS; MAXIMA AND MINIMA; SERIES;
SPHERICAL HARMONICS; TRIGONOMETRY; VARIATIONS, CALCULUS OF. Under the
general heading "_Geometry_" occur the subheadings "_Foundations_,"
with the topics principles of geometry, non-Euclidean geometries,
hyperspace, methods of analytical geometry; "_Elementary Geometry_,"
with the topics planimetry, stereometry, trigonometry, descriptive
geometry; "_Geometry of Conics and Quadrics_," with the implied
topics; "_Algebraic Curves and Surfaces of Degree higher than the
Second_," with the implied topics; "_Transformations and General
Methods for Algebraic Configurations_," with the topics collineation,
duality, transformations, correspondence, groups of points on
algebraic curves and surfaces, genus of curves and surfaces,
enumerative geometry, connexes, complexes, congruences, higher
elements in space, algebraic configurations in hyperspace;
"_Infinitesimal Geometry: applications of Differential and Integral
Calculus to Geometry_," with the topics kinematic geometry, curvature,
rectification and quadrature, special transcendental curves and
surfaces; "_Differential Geometry: applications of Differential
Equations to Geometry_," with the topics curves on surfaces, minimal
surfaces, surfaces determined by differential properties, conformal
and other representation of surfaces on others, deformation of
surfaces, orthogonal and isothermic surfaces. For the subjects under
this heading see the articles CONIC SECTIONS; CIRCLE; CURVE;
GEOMETRICAL CONTINUITY; GEOMETRY, _AXIOMS OF_; GEOMETRY, _EUCLIDEAN_;
GEOMETRY, _PROJECTIVE_; GEOMETRY, _ANALYTICAL_; GEOMETRY, _LINE_;
KNOTS, MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF; MENSURATION; MODELS; PROJECTION;
SURFACE; TRIGONOMETRY.
This survey of the existing developments of pure mathematics confirms
the conclusions arrived at from the previous survey of the theoretical
principles of the subject. Functions, operations, transformations,
substitutions, correspondences, are but names for various types of
relations. A group is a class of relations possessing a special
property. Thus the modern ideas, which have so powerfully extended and
unified the subject, have loosened its connexion with "number" and
"quantity," while bringing ideas of form and structure into increasing
prominence. Number must indeed ever remain the great topic of
mathematical interest, because it is in reality the great topic of
applied mathematics. All the world, including savages who cannot count
beyond five, daily "apply" theorems of number. But the complexity of
the idea of number is practically illustrated by the fact that it is
best studied as a department of a science wider than itself.
_Synopsis of Existing Developments of Applied Mathematics._--Section B
of the _International Catalogue_ deals with mechanics. The heading
"_Measurement of Dynamical Quantities_" includes the topics units,
measurements, and the constant of gravitation. The topics of the other
headings do not require express mention. These headings are:
"_Geometry and Kinematics of Particles and Solid Bodies_";
"_Principles of Rational Mechanics_"; "_Statics of Particles, Rigid
Bodies, &c._"; "_Kinetics of Particles, Rigid Bodies, &c._"; "_General
Analytical Mechanics_"; "_Statics and Dynamics of Fluids_";
"_Hydraulics and Fluid Resistances_"; "_Elasticity_." For the subjects
of this general heading see the articles MECHANICS; DYNAMICS,
ANALYTICAL; GYROSCOPE; HARMONIC ANALYSIS; WAVE; HYDROMECHANICS;
ELASTICITY; MOTION, LAWS OF; ENERGY; ENERGETICS; ASTRONOMY (_Celestial
Mechanics_); TIDE. Mechanics (including dynamical astronomy) is that
subject among those traditionally classed as "applied" which has been
most completely transfused by mathematics--that is to say, which is
studied with the deductive spirit of the pure mathematician, and not
with the covert inductive intention overlaid with the superficial
forms of deduction, characteristic of the applied mathematician.
Every branch of physics gives rise to an application of mathematics. A
prophecy may be hazarded that in the future these applications will
unify themselves into a mathematical theory of a hypothetical
substructure of the universe, uniform under all the diverse phenomena.
This reflection is suggested by the following articles: AETHER;
MOLECULE; CAPILLARY ACTION; DIFFUSION; RADIATION, THEORY OF; and
others.
The applications of mathematics to statistics (see STATISTICS and
PROBABILITY) should not be lost sight of; the leading fields for these
applications are insurance, sociology, variation in zoology and
economics.
_The History of Mathematics._--The history of mathematics is in the main
the history of its various branches. A short account of the history of
each branch will be found in connexion with the article which deals with
it. Viewing the subject as a whole, and apart from remote developments
which have not in fact seriously influenced the great structure of the
mathematics of the European races, it may be said to have had its origin
with the Greeks, working on pre-existing fragmentary lines of thought
derived from the Egyptians and Phoenicians. The Greeks created the
sciences of geometry and of number as applied to the measurement of
continuous quantities. The great abstract ideas (considered directly and
not merely in tacit use) which have dominated the science were due to
them--namely, ratio, irrationality, continuity, the point, the straight
line, the plane. This period lasted[11] from the time of Thales, c. 600
B.C., to the capture of Alexandria by the Mahommedans, A.D. 641. The
medieval Arabians invented our system of numeration and developed
algebra. The next period of advance stretches from the Renaissance to
Newton and Leibnitz at the end of the 17th century. During this period
logarithms were invented, trigonometry and algebra developed, analytical
geometry invented, dynamics put upon a sound basis, and the period
closed with the magnificent invention of (or at least the perfecting of)
the differential calculus by Newton and Leibnitz and the discovery of
gravitation. The 18th century witnessed a rapid development of analysis,
and the period culminated with the genius of Lagrange and Laplace. This
period may be conceived as continuing throughout the first quarter of
the 19th century. It was remarkable both for the brilliance of its
achievements and for the large number of French mathematicians of the
first rank who flourished during it. The next period was inaugurated in
analysis by K. F. Gauss, N. H. Abel and A. L. Cauchy. Between them the
general theory of the complex variable, and of the various "infinite"
processes of mathematical analysis, was established, while other
mathematicians, such as Poncelet, Steiner, Lobatschewsky and von Staudt,
were founding modern geometry, and Gauss inaugurated the differential
geometry of surfaces. The applied mathematical sciences of light,
electricity and electromagnetism, and of heat, were now largely
developed. This school of mathematical thought lasted beyond the middle
of the century, after which a change and further development can be
traced. In the next and last period the progress of pure mathematics has
been dominated by the critical spirit introduced by the German
mathematicians under the guidance of Weierstrass, though foreshadowed by
earlier analysts, such as Abel. Also such ideas as those of invariants,
groups and of form, have modified the entire science. But the progress
in all directions has been too rapid to admit of any one adequate
characterization. During the same period a brilliant group of
mathematical physicists, notably Lord Kelvin (W. Thomson), H. V.
Helmholtz, J. C. Maxwell, H. Hertz, have transformed applied mathematics
by systematically basing their deductions upon the Law of the
conservation of energy, and the hypothesis of an ether pervading space.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--References to the works containing expositions of the
various branches of mathematics are given in the appropriate articles.
It must suffice here to refer to sources in which the subject is
considered as one whole. Most philosophers refer in their works to
mathematics more or less cursorily, either in the treatment of the
ideas of number and magnitude, or in their consideration of the
alleged a priori and necessary truths. A bibliography of such
references would be in effect a bibliography of metaphysics, or rather
of epistemology. The founder of the modern point of view, explained in
this article, was Leibnitz, who, however, was so far in advance of
contemporary thought that his ideas remained neglected and undeveloped
until recently; cf. _Opuscules et fragments inédits de Leibnitz.
Extraits des manuscrits de la bibliothèque royale de Hanovre_, by
Louis Couturat (Paris, 1903), especially pp. 356-399, "Generales
inquisitiones de analysi notionum et veritatum" (written in 1686);
also cf. _La Logique de Leibnitz_, already referred to. For the modern
authors who nave rediscovered and improved upon the position of
Leibnitz, cf. _Grundgesetze der Arithmetik, begriffsschriftlich
abgeleitet von Dr G. Frege, a.o. Professor an der Univ. Jena_ (Bd. i.,
1893; Bd. ii., 1903, Jena); also cf. Frege's earlier works,
_Begriffsschrift, eine der arithmetischen nachgebildete Formelsprache
des reinen Denkens_ (Halle, 1879), and _Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik_
(Breslau, 1884); also cf. Bertrand Russell, _The Principles of
Mathematics_ (Cambridge, 1903), and his article on "Mathematical
Logic" in _Amer. Quart. Journ. of Math._ (vol. xxx., 1908). Also the
following works are of importance, though not all expressly expounding
the Leibnitzian point of view: cf. G. Cantor, "Grundlagen einer
allgemeinen Mannigfaltigkeitslehre," _Math. Annal._, vol. xxi. (1883)
and subsequent articles in vols. xlvi. and xlix.; also R. Dedekind,
_Stetigkeit und irrationales Zahlen_ (1st ed., 1872), and _Was sind
und was sollen die Zahlen?_ (1st ed., 1887), both tracts translated
into English under the title _Essays on the Theory of Numbers_
(Chicago, 1901). These works of G. Cantor and Dedekind were of the
greatest importance in the progress of the subject. Also cf. G. Peano
(with various collaborators of the Italian school), _Formulaire de
mathématiques_ (Turin, various editions, 1894-1908; the earlier
editions are the more interesting philosophically); Felix Klein,
_Lectures on Mathematics_ (New York, 1894); W. K. Clifford, _The
Common Sense of the exact Sciences_ (London, 1885); H. Poincaré, _La
Science el l'hypothèse_ (Paris, 1st ed., 1902), English translation
under the title, _Science and Hypothesis_ (London, 1905); L. Couturat,
_Les Principes des mathématiques_ (Paris, 1905); E. Mach, _Die
Mechanik in ihrer Entwickelung_ (Prague, 1883), English translation
under the title, _The Science of Mechanics_ (London, 1893); K.
Pearson, _The Grammar of Science_ (London, 1st ed., 1892; 2nd ed.,
1900, enlarged); A. Cayley, _Presidential Address_ (Brit. Assoc.,
1883); B. Russell and A. N. Whitehead, _Principia Mathematica_
(Cambridge, 1911). For the history of mathematics the one modern and
complete source of information is M. Cantor's _Vorlesungen über
Geschichte der Mathematik_ (Leipzig, 1st Bd., 1880; 2nd Bd., 1892; 3rd
Bd., 1898; 4th Bd., 1908; 1st Bd., _von den ältesten Zeiten bis zum
Jahre 1200, n. Chr._; 2nd Bd., _von 1200-1668_; 3rd Bd., _von
1668-1758_; 4th Bd., _von 1795 bis 1790_); W. W. R. Ball, _A Short
History of Mathematics_ (London 1st ed., 1888, three subsequent
editions, enlarged and revised, and translations into French and
Italian). (A. N. W.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Cf. _La Logique de Leibnitz_, ch. vii., by L. Couturat (Paris,
1901).
[2] Cf. _The Principles of Mathematics_, by Bertrand Russell
(Cambridge, 1903).
[3] Cf. _Formulaire mathématique_ (Turin, ed. of 1903); earlier
formulations of the bases of arithmetic are given by him in the
editions of 1898 and of 1901. The variations are only trivial.
[4] Cf. Russell, _loc. cit._, pp. 199-256.
[5] The first unqualified explicit statement of _part_ of this
definition seems to be by B. Peirce, "Mathematics is the science
which draws necessary conclusions" (_Linear Associative Algebra_, §
i. (1870), republished in the _Amer. Journ. of Math._, vol. iv.
(1881)). But it will be noticed that the second half of the
definition in the text--"from the general premisses of all
reasoning"--is left unexpressed. The full expression of the idea and
its development into a philosophy of mathematics is due to Russell,
_loc. cit._
[6] "Una questione sui numeri transfiniti," _Rend. del circolo mat.
di Palermo_, vol. xi. (1897); and Russell, _loc. cit._, ch. xxxviii.
[7] Cf. Russell, _loc. cit._, ch. x.
[8] Cf. _Pragmatism: a New Name for some Old Ways of Thinking_
(1907).
[9] Due to Bertrand Russell, cf. "Mathematical Logic as based on the
Theory of Types," _Amer. Journ. of Math._ vol. xxx. (1908). It is
more fully explained by him, with later simplifications, in
_Principia mathematica_ (Cambridge).
[10] Cf. Stanley's _Eastern Church_, Lecture v.
[11] Cf. _A Short History of Mathematics_, by W. W. R. Ball.
MATHER, COTTON (1663-1728), American Congregational clergyman and
author, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on the 12th of February 1663.
He was the grandson of Richard Mather, and the eldest child of Increase
Mather (q.v.), and Maria, daughter of John Cotton. After studying under
the famous Ezekiel Cheever (1614-1708), he entered Harvard College at
twelve, and graduated in 1678. While teaching (1678-1685), he began the
study of theology, but soon, on account of an impediment in his speech,
discontinued it and took up medicine. Later, however, he conquered the
difficulty and finished his preparation for the ministry. He was elected
assistant pastor in his father's church, the North, or Second, Church of
Boston, in 1681 and was ordained as his father's colleague in 1685. In
1688, when his father went to England as agent for the colony, he was
left at twenty-five in charge of the largest congregation in New
England, and he ministered to it for the rest of his life. He soon
became one of the most influential men in the colonies. He had much to
do with the witchcraft persecution of his day; in 1692 when the
magistrates appealed to the Boston clergy for advice in regard to the
witchcraft cases in Salem he drafted their reply, upon which the
prosecutions were based; in 1689 he had written _Memorable Providences
Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions_, and even his earlier diaries
have many entries showing his belief in diabolical possession and his
fear and hatred of it. Thinking as he did that the New World had been
the undisturbed realm of Satan before the settlements were made in
Massachusetts, he considered it natural that the Devil should make a
peculiar effort to bring moral destruction on these godly invaders. He
used prayer and fasting to deliver himself from evil enchantment; and
when he saw ecstatic and mystical visions promising him the Lord's help
and great usefulness in the Lord's work, he feared that these
revelations might be of diabolic origin. He used his great influence to
bring the suspected persons to trial and punishment. He attended the
trials, investigated many of the cases himself, and wrote sermons on
witchcraft, the _Memorable Providences_ and _The Wonders of the
Invisible World_ (1693), which increased the excitement of the people.
Accordingly, when the persecutions ceased and the reaction set in, much
of the blame was laid upon him; the influence of Judge Samuel Sewall,
after he had come to think his part in the Salem delusion a great
mistake, was turned against the Mathers; and the liberal leaders of
Congregationalism in Boston, notably the Brattles, found this a
vulnerable point in Cotton Mather's armour and used their knowledge to
much effect, notably by assisting Robert Calef (d. c. 1723) in the
preparation of _More Wonders of the Invisible World_ (1700) a powerful
criticism of Cotton Mather's part in the delusion at Salem.
Mather took some part as adviser in the Revolution of 1689 in
Massachusetts. In 1690 he became a member o£ the Corporation (probably
the youngest ever chosen as Fellow) of Harvard College, and in 1707 he
was greatly disappointed at his failure to be chosen president of that
institution. He received the degree of D.D. from the University of
Glasgow in 1710, and in 1713 was made a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Like his father he was deeply grieved by the liberal theology and Church
polity of the new Brattle Street Congregation, and conscientiously
opposed its pastor Benjamin Colman, who had been irregularly ordained in
England and by a Presbyterian body; but with his father he took part in
1700 in services in Colman's church. Harvard College was now controlled
by the Liberals of the Brattle Street Church, and as it grew farther and
farther away from Calvinism, Mather looked with increasing favour upon
the college in Connecticut; before September 1701 he had drawn up a
"scheme for a college," the oldest document now in the Yale archives;
and finally (Jan. 1718) he wrote to a London merchant, Elihu Yale, and
persuaded him to make a liberal gift to the college, which was named in
his honour. During the small-pox epidemic of 1721 he attempted in vain
to have treatment by inoculation employed, for the first time in
America; and for this he was bitterly attacked on all sides, and his
life was at one time in danger; but, nevertheless, he used the treatment
on his son, who recovered, and he wrote _An Account of the Method and
further Success of Inoculating for the Small Pox in London_ (1721). In
addition he advocated temperance, missions, Bible societies, and the
education of the negro; favoured the establishing of libraries for
working men and of religious organizations for young people, and
organized societies for other branches of philanthropic work. His later
years were clouded with many sorrows and disappointments; his relations
with Governor Joseph Dudley were unfriendly; he lost much of his former
prestige in the Church--his own congregation dwindled--and in the
college; his uncle John Cotton was expelled from his charge in the
Plymouth Church; his son Increase turned out a ne'er-do-well; four of
his children and his second wife died in November 1713; his wife's
brothers and the husbands of his sisters were ungodly and violent men;
his favourite daughter Katherine, who "understood Latin and read Hebrew
fluently," died in 1716; his third wife went mad in 1719; his personal
enemies circulated incredible scandals about him; and in 1724-1725 he
saw a Liberal once more preferred to him as a new president of Harvard.
He died in Boston on the 13th of February 1728 and is buried in the
Copps Hill burial-ground, Boston. He was thrice married--to Abigail
Phillips (d. 1702) in 1686, to Mrs Elizabeth Hubbard (d. 1713) in 1703,
and in 1715 to Mrs Lydia George (d. 1734). Of his fifteen children only
two survived him.
Though self-conscious and vain, Cotton Mather had on the whole a noble
character. He believed strongly in the power of prayer and repeatedly
had assurances that his prayers were heard; and when he was disappointed
by non-fulfilment his grief and depression were terrible. His spiritual
nature was high-strung and delicate; and this condition was aggravated
by his constant study, his long fasts and his frequent vigils--in one
year, according to his diary, he kept sixty fasts and twenty vigils. In
his later years his diaries have less and less of personal detail, and
repeated entries prefaced by the letters "G.D." meaning Good Device,
embodying precepts of kindliness and practical Christianity. He was
remarkable for his godliness, his enthusiasm for knowledge, and his
prodigious memory. He became a skilled linguist, a widely read
scholar--though much of his learning was more curious than useful--a
powerful preacher, a valued citizen, and a voluminous writer, and did a
vast deal for the intellectual and spiritual quickening of New England.
He worked with might and main for the continuation of the old theocracy,
but before he died it had given way before an increasing
Liberalism--even Yale was infected with the Episcopalianism that he
hated.
Among his four hundred or more published works, many of which are
sermons, tracts and letters, the most notable is his _Magnalia Christi
Americana: or the Ecclesiastical History of New England, from Its
First Planting in the Year 1620 unto the Year of Our Lord, 1698_.
Begun in 1693 and finished in 1697, this work was published in London,
in 1702, in one volume, and was republished in Hartford in 1820 and in
1853-1855, in two volumes. It is in seven books and concerns itself
mainly with the settlement and religious history of New England. It is
often inaccurate, and it abounds in far-fetched conceits and odd and
pedantic features. Its style, though in the main rather unnatural and
declamatory, is at its best spontaneous, dignified and rhythmical; the
book is valuable for occasional facts and for its picture of the
times, and it did much to make Mather the most eminent American writer
of his day. His other writings include _A Poem Dedicated to the Memory
of the Reverend and Excellent Mr Urian Oakes_ (1682); _The Present
State of New England_ (1690); _The Life of the Renowned John Eliot_
(1691), later included in Book III. of the _Magnalia; The Short
History of New England_ (1694); _Bonifacius_, usually known as _Essays
To Do Good_ (Boston, 1710; Glasgow, 1825; Boston, 1845), one of his
principal books and one which had a shaping influence on the life of
Benjamin Franklin; _Psalterium Americanum_ (1718), a blank verse
translation of the Psalms from the original Hebrew; _The Christian
Philosopher: A Collection of the Best Discoveries in Nature, with
Religious Improvements_ (1721); _Parentator_ (1724), a memoir of his
father; _Ratio Disciplinae_ (1726), an account of the discipline in
New England churches; _Manuductio ad Ministerium: Directions for a
Candidate of the Ministry_ (1726), one of the most readable of his
books. He also left a number of works in manuscript, including
diaries, a medical treatise and a huge commentary on the Bible,
entitled "Biblia Americana."
See _The Life of Cotton Mather_ (Boston, 1729), by his son, Samuel
Mather; William B. O. Peabody, _The Life of Cotton Mather_ (1836) (in
Jared Sparks's "Library of American Biography," vol. vi.); Enoch Pond,
_The Mather Family_ (Boston, 1844); John L. Sibley, _Biographical
Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University_, vol. iii. (Cambridge,
1885); Barrett Wendell, _Cotton Mather, the Puritan Priest_ (New York,
1891), a remarkably sympathetic study and particularly valuable for
its insight into (and its defence of) Mather's attitude toward
witchcraft; Abijah P. Marvin, _The Life and Times of Cotton Mather_
(Boston, 1892); M. C. Tyler, _A History of American Literature during
the Colonial Period_, vol. ii. (New York, 1878); and Barrett Wendell,
_A Literary History of America_ (New York, 1900).
Cotton Mather's son, SAMUEL MATHER (1706-1785), also a clergyman,
graduated at Harvard in 1723, was pastor of the North Church, Boston,
from 1732 to 1742, when, owing to a dispute among his congregation over
revivals, he resigned to take charge of a church established for him in
North Bennett Street.
Among his works are _The Life of Cotton Mather_ (1729); _An Apology
for the Liberties of the Churches in New England_ (1738), and _America
Known to the Ancients_ (1773). (W. L. C.*)
MATHER, INCREASE (1639-1723), American Congregational minister, was born
in Dorchester, Massachusetts, on the 21st of June 1639, the youngest son
of Richard Mather.[1] He entered Harvard in 1651, and graduated in 1656.
In 1657, on his eighteenth birthday, he preached his first sermon; in
the same year he went to visit his eldest brother in Dublin, and studied
there at Trinity College, where he graduated M.A. in 1658. He was
chaplain to the English garrison at Guernsey in April-December 1659 and
again in 1661; and in the latter year, refusing valuable livings in
England offered on condition of conformity, he returned to America. In
the winter of 1661-1662 he began to preach to the Second (or North)
Church of Boston, and was ordained there on the 27th of May 1664. As a
delegate from Dorchester, his father's church, to the Synod of 1662, he
opposed the Half-Way Covenant adopted by the Synod and defended by
Richard Mather and by Jonathan Mitchell (1624-1668) of Cambridge; but
soon afterwards he "surrendered a glad captive" to "the truth so
victoriously cleared by Mr Mitchell," and like his father and his son
became one of the chief exponents of the Half-Way Covenant. He was
bitterly opposed, however, to the liberal practices that followed the
Half-Way Covenant and (after 1677) in particular to "Stoddardeanism,"
the doctrine of Solomon Stoddard (1643-1729) that all "such Persons as
have a good Conversation and a Competent Knowledge may come to the
Lord's Supper," only those of openly immoral life being excluded. In May
1679 Mather was a petitioner to the General Court for the call of a
Synod to consider the reformation in New England of "the Evils that have
Provoked the Lord to bring his Judgments,"[2] and when the "Reforming
Synod" met in September it appointed him one of a committee to draft a
creed; this committee reported in May 1680, at the Synod's second
session, of which Mather was moderator, the Savoy Declaration (slightly
modified, notably in ch. xxiv., "Of the Civil Magistrate"), which was
approved but was not made mandatory on the churches by the General
Court, and in 1708 was reaffirmed at Saybrook, Connecticut. With the
Cambridge Platform of 1646, drafted by his father, the Confession of
1680, for which Increase Mather was largely responsible, was printed as
a book of doctrine and government for the churches of Massachusetts.
After the threat of a _Quo Warranto_ writ in 1683 for the surrender of
the Massachusetts charter, Mather used all his tremendous influence to
persuade the colonists not to give up the charter; and the Boston
freemen unanimously voted against submission. The royal agents
immediately afterwards sent to London a treasonable letter, falsely
attributed to Mather; but its spuriousness seems to have been suspected
in England and Mather was not "fetch'd over and made a Sacrifice." He
became a leader in the opposition to Sir Edmund Andros, to his secretary
Edward Randolph, and to Governor Joseph Dudley. He was chosen by the
General Court to represent the colony's interests in England, eluded
officers sent to arrest him,[3] and in disguise boarded a ship on which
he reached Weymouth on the 6th of May 1688. In London he acted with Sir
Henry Ashurst, the resident agent, and had two or three fruitless
audiences with James II. His first audience with William III. was on the
9th of January 1689; he was active in influencing the Commons to vote
(1689) that the New England charters should be restored; and he
published _A Narrative of the Miseries of New-England, By Reason of an
Arbitrary Government Erected there Under Sir Edmund Andros_ (1688), _A
Brief Relation for the Confirmation of Charter Privileges_ (1691), and
other pamphlets. In 1690 he was joined by Elisha Cooke (1638-1715) and
Thomas Oakes (1644-1719), additional agents, who were uncompromisingly
for the renewal of the old charter. Mather, however, was instrumental in
securing a new charter (signed on Oct. 7, 1691), and prevented the
annexation of the Plymouth Colony to New York. The nomination of
officers left to the Crown was reserved to the agents. Mather had
expressed strong dissatisfaction with the clause giving the governor the
right of veto, and regretted the less theocratic tone of the charter
which made all freemen (and not merely church members) electors. With
Sir William Phips, the new governor, a member of Mather's church, he
arrived in Boston on the 14th of May 1692. The value of his services to
the colony at this time is not easily over-estimated. In England he won
the friendship of divines like Baxter, Tillotson and Burnet, and
effectively promoted the union in 1691 of English Presbyterians and
Congregationalists. He was at heavy expense throughout his stay, and
even greater than his financial loss was his loss of authority and
control in the church and in Harvard College because of his absence.
Mather had been acting president of Harvard College in 1681-1682, and in
June 1685 he again became acting president (or rector), but still
preached every Sunday in Boston and would not comply with an order of
the General Court that he should reside in Cambridge. In 1701 after a
short residence there he returned to Boston and wrote to the General
Court to "think of another President for the Colledge." The opposition
to him had been increasing in strength, his resignation was accepted,
and Samuel Willard took charge of the college as vice-president,
although he also refused to reside in Cambridge. That Mather's
administration of the college was excellent is admitted even by his
harsh critic, Josiah Quincy, in his _History of Harvard University_.[4]
The Liberal party, which now came into control in the college repeatedly
disappointed the hopes of Cotton Mather (q.v.) that he might be chosen
president, and by its ecclesiastical laxness and its broader views of
Church polity forced the Mathers to turn from Harvard to Yale as a truer
school of the prophets.
The Liberal leaders, John Leverett (1662-1724), William Brattle
(1662-1713)--who graduated with Leverett in 1680, and with him as tutor
controlled the college during Increase Mather's absence in
England--William Brattle's eldest brother, Thomas Brattle (1658-1713),
and Ebenezer Pemberton (1671-1717), pastor of the Old South Church,
desired an "enrichment of the service," and greater liberality in the
matter of baptism. In 1697 the Second Boston Church, in which Cotton
Mather had been his father's colleague since 1685, upbraided the
Charlestown Church "for betraying the liberties of the churches in their
late putting into the hands of the whole inhabitants the choice of a
minister." In 1699 Increase Mather published _The Order of the Gospel_,
which severely (although indirectly), criticized the methods of the
"Liberals" in establishing the Brattle Street Church and especially the
ordination of their minister Benjamin Colman by a Presbyterian body in
London; the Liberals replied with _The Gospel Order Revived_, which was
printed in New York to lend colour to the (partly true) charge of its
authors that the printers of Massachusetts would print nothing hostile
to Increase Mather.[5] The autocracy of the Mathers in church, college,
colony and press, had slipped from them. The later years of Mather's
life were spent almost entirely in the work of the ministry, now
beginning to be a less varied career than when he entered on it. He died
on the 23rd of August 1723. He married in 1662 Maria, daughter of Sarah
and John Cotton. His first wife died in 1714; and in 1715 he married Ann
Lake, widow of John Cotton, of Hampton, N.H., a grandson of John Cotton
of Boston.
Increase Mather was a great preacher with a simple style and a splendid
voice, which had a "Tonitruous Cogency," to quote his son's phrase. His
style was much simpler and more vernacular than his son's. He was an
assiduous student, commonly spending sixteen hours a day among his
books; but his learning (to quote Justin Winsor's contrast between
Increase and Cotton Mather) "usually left his natural ability and his
education free from entanglements." He was not so much self-seeking and
personally ambitious as eager to advance the cause of the church in
which he so implicitly believed. That it is a mistake to consider him a
narrow churchman is shown by his assisting in 1718 at the ordination of
Elisha Callender in the First Baptist Church of Boston. Like the most
learned men of his time he was superstitious and a firm believer in
"praesagious impressions"; his _Essay for the Recording of Illustrious
Providences: Wherein an Account is Given of many Remarkable and very
Memorable Events which have Hapned in this Last Age, Especially in New
England_ (1684) shows that he believed only less thoroughly than his son
in witchcraft, though in his _Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil
Spirits_ (1693) he considered some current proofs of witchcraft
inadequate. The revulsion of feeling after the witchcraft delusion
undermined his authority greatly, and Robert's Calef's _More Wonders of
the Spiritual World_ (1700) was a personal blow to him as well as to his
son. With Jonathan Edwards, than whom he was much more of a man of
affairs, and with Benjamin Franklin, whose mission in England somewhat
resembled Mather's, he may be ranked among the greatest Americans of the
period before the War of Independence.
The first authority for the life of Increase Mather is the work of his
son Cotton Mather, _Parentator: Memoirs of Remarkables in the Life and
Death of the Ever Memorable Dr Increase Mather_ (Boston, 1724); there
are also a memoir and constant references in Cotton Mather's
_Magnalia_ (London, 1702) especially vol. iv.; there is an excellent
sketch in the first volume of J. L. Sibley's _Biographical Sketches of
Graduates of Harvard University_ (Cambridge, 1873), with an exhaustive
list of Mather's works (about 150 titles); there is much valuable
matter in Williston Walker's _Ten New England Leaders_ (New York,
1901) and in his _Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism_ (New
York, 1893); for literary criticism of the Mathers see ch. xii. of M.
C. Tyler's _History of American Literature, 1607-1676_ (New York,
1878), and Barrett Wendell's _Cotton Mather_ (New York, 1891).
Mather's worth has been under-estimated by Josiah Quincy, Justin
Winsor and other historians out of sympathy with his ecclesiastical
spirit, who represent him as only an ambitious narrow-minded schemer.
(R. We.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] He was so christened "because of the never-to-be-forgotten
increase, of every sort, wherewith God favoured the country about the
time of his nativity." He often latinized his name, spelling it
_Crescentius Matherus_.
[2] That is, King Philip's War, the Boston fires of 1676, when
Mather's church and home were burned, and 1679, the threatened
introduction of Episcopacy, and the general spiritual decay of the
country.
[3] He had previously been arrested and acquitted on a charge of
having attributed the forged letter to Randolph.
[4] Mather led the resistance to the royal demand instigated by
Edward Randolph in 1683, for the annulment of the college charter,
and after its vacation in 1684 strove for the grant of a new charter;
King James promised him a confirmation of the former charter; the new
provincial charter granted by William and Mary confirmed all gifts
and grants to colleges; in 1692 Mather drafted an act incorporating
the college, which was signed by Phips but was disallowed in England;
and in 1696, 1697, 1699, and 1700, Mather repeated his efforts for a
college charter.
[5] Mather was made a licenser of the Press in 1674 when the General
Court abolished the monopoly of the Cambridge Press.
MATHER, RICHARD (1596-1669), American Congregational clergyman, was born
in Lowton, in the parish of Winwick, near Liverpool, England, of a
family which was in reduced circumstances but entitled to bear a
coat-of-arms. He studied at Winwick grammar school, of which he was
appointed a master in his fifteenth year, and left it in 1612 to become
master of a newly established school at Toxteth Park, Liverpool. After a
few months at Brasenose College, Oxford, he began in November 1618 to
preach at Toxteth, and was ordained there, possibly only as deacon,
early in 1619. In August-November 1633 he was suspended for
nonconformity in matters of ceremony; and in 1634 was again suspended by
the visitors of Richard Neile, archbishop of York, who, hearing that he
had never worn a surplice during the fifteen years of his ministry,
refused to reinstate him and said that "it had been better for him that
he had gotten Seven Bastards." He had a great reputation as a preacher
in and about Liverpool; but, advised by letters of John Cotton and
Thomas Hooker, and persuaded by his own elaborate formal "Arguments
tending to prove the Removing from Old-England to New ... to be not only
lawful, but also necessary for them that are not otherwise tyed, but
free," he left England and on the 17th of August 1635, and landed in
Boston after an "extraordinary and miraculous deliverance" from a
terrible storm. As a famous preacher "he was desired at Plimouth,
Dorchester, and Roxbury." He went to Dorchester, where the Church had
been greatly depleted by migrations to Windsor, Connecticut; and where,
after a delay of several months, in August 1636 there was constituted by
the consent of magistrates and clergy a church of which he was "teacher"
until his death in Dorchester on the 22nd of April 1669.
He was an able preacher, "aiming," said his biographer, "to shoot his
arrows not over his people's heads, but into their Hearts and
Consciences"; and he was a leader of New England Congregationalism,
whose policy he defended and described in the tract _Church Government
and Church Covenant Discussed, in an Answer of the Elders of the
Severall Churches of New England to Two and Thirty Questions_ (written
1639; printed 1643), and in his _Reply to Mr Rutherford_ (1647), a
polemic against the Presbyterianism to which the English
Congregationalists were then tending. He drafted the Cambridge
Platform, an ecclesiastical constitution in seventeen chapters,
adopted (with the omission of Mather's paragraph favouring the
"Half-way Covenant," of which he strongly approved) by the general
synod in August 1646. In 1657 he drafted the declaration of the
Ministerial Convention on the meaning and force of the Half-way
Covenant; this was published in 1659 under the title: _A Disputation
concerning Church Members and their Children in Answer to XXI.
Questions_. With Thomas Welde and John Eliot he wrote the "Bay Psalm
Book," or, more accurately, _The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully
Translated into English Metre_ (1640), probably the first book printed
in the English colonies.
He married in 1624 Katherine Hoult or Holt (d. 1655), and secondly in
1656 Sarah Hankredge (d. 1676), the widow of John Cotton. Of six sons,
all by his first wife, four were ministers: SAMUEL (1626-1671), the
first fellow of Harvard College who was a graduate, chaplain of Magdalen
College, Oxford, in 1650-1653, and pastor (1656-1671, excepting
suspension in 1660-1662) of St Nicholas's in Dublin; NATHANIEL
(1630-1697), who graduated at Harvard in 1647, was vicar of Barnstaple,
Devon, in 1656-1662, pastor of the English Church in Rotterdam, his
brother's successor in Dublin in 1671-1688, and then until his death
pastor of a church in London; ELEAZAR (1637-1669), who graduated at
Harvard in 1656 and after preaching in Northampton, Massachusetts, for
three years, became in 1661 pastor of the church there; and INCREASE
MATHER (q.v.). Horace E. Mather, in his _Lineage of Richard Mather_
(Hartford, Connecticut, 1890), gives a list of 80 clergymen descended
from Richard Mather, of whom 29 bore the name Mather and 51 other names,
the more famous being Storrs and Schauffler.
See _The Life and Death of That Reverend Man of God, Mr Richard
Mather_ (Cambridge, 1670; reprinted 1850, with his _Journal_ for 1635,
by the Dorchester Antiquarian and Historical Society), with an
introduction by Increase Mather, who may have been the author; W. B.
Sprague's _Annals of the American Pulpit_, vol. i. (New York, 1857);
Cotton Mather's _Magnalia_ (London, 1702); an essay on Richard Mather
in Williston Walker's _Ten New England Leaders_ (New York, 1901); and
the works referred to in the article on Increase Mather. (R. We.)
MATHERAN, a hill sanatorium in India, in the Kolaba district of Bombay,
2460 ft. above the sea, and about 30 m. E. of Bombay city. Pop. (1901),
3060. It consists of several thickly wooded ridges, on a spur of the
Western Ghats, with a magnificent outlook over the plain below and the
distant sea. First explored in 1850, it has since become the favourite
resort of the middle classes of Bombay (especially the Parsis) during
the spring and autumn months. It has recently been connected by a 2 ft.
gauge mountain line with Neral station on the Great Indian Peninsula
railway, 54 m. from Bombay.
MATHESON, GEORGE (1842-1906), Scottish theologian and preacher, was born
in Glasgow in 1842, the son of George Matheson, a merchant. He was
educated at the university of Glasgow, where he graduated first in
classics, logic and philosophy. In his twentieth year he became totally
blind, but he held to his resolve to enter the ministry, and gave
himself to theological and historical study. His first ministry began in
1868 at Innellan, on the Argyllshire coast between Dunoon and Toward.
His books on _Aids to the Study of German Theology, Can the Old Faith
live with the New? The Growth of the Spirit of Christianity from the
First Century to the Dawn of the Lutheran Era_, established his
reputation as a liberal and spiritually minded theologian; and Queen
Victoria invited him to preach at Balmoral. In 1886 he removed to
Edinburgh, where he became minister of St Bernard's Parish Church. Here
his chief work as a preacher was done. In 1879 the university of
Edinburgh conferred upon him the honorary degree of D.D., and the same
year he declined an invitation to the pastorate of Crown Court, London,
in succession to Dr John Cumming (1807-1881). In 1881 he was chosen as
Baird lecturer, and took for his subject "Natural Elements of Revealed
Theology," and in 1882 he was the St Giles lecturer, his subject being
"Confucianism." In 1890 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh, Aberdeen gave him its honorary LL.D., and in 1899 he was
appointed Gifford lecturer by that university, but declined on grounds
of health. In the same year he severed his active connexion with St
Bernard's. One of his hymns, "O love that will not let me go," has
passed into the popular hymnology of the Christian Church. He died
suddenly of apoplexy on the 28th of August 1906. His exegesis owes its
interest to his subjective resources rather than to breadth of learning;
his power lay in spiritual vision rather than balanced judgment, and in
the vivid apprehension of the factors which make the Christian
personality, rather than in constructive doctrinal statement.
MATHEW, THEOBALD (1790-1856), Irish temperance reformer, popularly known
as Father Mathew, was descended from a branch of the Llandaff family,
and was born at Thomastown, Tipperary, on the 10th of October 1790. He
received his school education at Kilkenny, whence he passed for a short
time to Maynooth; from 1808 to 1814 he studied at Dublin, where in the
latter year he was ordained to the priesthood. Having entered the
Capuchin order, he, after a brief time of service at Kilkenny, joined
the mission in Cork, which was the scene of his religious and benevolent
labours for many years. The movement with which his name is most
intimately associated began in 1838 with the establishment of a total
abstinence association, which in less than nine months, thanks to his
moral influence and eloquence, enrolled no fewer than 150,000 names. It
rapidly spread to Limerick and elsewhere, and some idea of its
popularity may be formed from the fact that at Nenagh 20,000 persons are
said to have taken the pledge in one day, 100,000 at Galway in two days,
and 70,000 in Dublin in five days. In 1844 he visited Liverpool,
Manchester and London with almost equal success. Meanwhile the expenses
of his enterprise had involved him in heavy liabilities, and led on one
occasion to his arrest for debt; from this embarrassment he was only
partially relieved by a pension of £300 granted by Queen Victoria in
1847. In 1849 he paid a visit to the United States, returning in 1851.
He died at Queenstown on the 8th of December, 1856.
See _Father Mathew, a Biography_, by J. F. Maguire, M.P. (1863).
MATHEWS, CHARLES (1776-1835), English actor, was born in London on the
28th of June 1776. His father was "a serious bookseller," who also
officiated as minister in one of Lady Huntingdon's chapels. Mathews was
educated at Merchant Taylors' School. His love for the stage was formed
in his boyhood, when he was apprentice to his father, and the latter in
1794 unwillingly permitted him to enter on a theatrical engagement in
Dublin. For several years Mathews had not only to content himself with
thankless parts at a low salary, but in May 1803 he made his first
London appearance at the Haymarket as Jabel in Cumberland's _The Jew_
and as Lingo in _The Agreeable Surprise_. From this time his
professional career was an uninterrupted triumph. He had a wonderful
gift of mimicry, and could completely disguise his personality without
the smallest change of dress. The versatility and originality of his
powers were admirably displayed in his "At Homes," begun in the Lyceum
theatre in 1818, which, according to Leigh Hunt, "for the richness and
variety of his humour, were as good as half a dozen plays distilled."
Off the stage his simple and kind-hearted disposition won him affection
and esteem. In 1822 Mathews visited America, his observation on his
experiences there forming for the reader a most entertaining portion of
his biography. From infancy his health had been uncertain, and the toils
of his profession gradually undermined it. In 1834 he paid a second
visit to America. His last appearance in New York was on the 11th of
February 1835, when he played Samuel Coddle in _Married Life_ and Andrew
Steward in _The Lone House_. He died at Plymouth on the 28th of June
1835. In 1797 he had married Eliza Kirkham Strong (d. 1802), and in 1803
Anne Jackson, an actress, the author of the popular and diverting
_Memoirs, by Mrs Mathews_ (4 vols., 1838-1839).
His son CHARLES JAMES MATHEWS (1803-1878), who was born at Liverpool on
the 26th of December 1803, became even better known as an actor. After
attending Merchant Taylors' School he was articled as pupil to an
architect, and continued for some years nominally to follow this
profession. His first public appearance on the stage was made on the 7th
of December 1835, at the Olympic, London, as George Rattleton in his own
play _The Humpbacked Lover_, and as Tim Topple the Tiger in Leman Rode's
_Old and Young Stager_. In 1838 he married Madame Vestris, then lessee
of the Olympic, but neither his management of this theatre, nor
subsequently of Covent Garden, nor of the Lyceum, resulted in pecuniary
success, although the introduction of scenery more realistic and careful
in detail than had hitherto been employed was due to his enterprise. In
the year of his marriage he visited America, but without receiving a
very cordial welcome. As an actor he held in England an unrivalled place
in his peculiar vein of light eccentric comedy. The easy grace of his
manner, and the imperturbable solemnity with which he perpetrated his
absurdities, never failed to charm and amuse; his humour was never
broad, but always measured and restrained. It was as the leading
character in such plays as the _Game of Speculation_, _My Awful Dad_,
_Cool as a Cucumber_, _Patter versus Clatter_, and _Little Toddlekins_,
that he specially excelled. In 1856 Mme Vestris died, and in the
following year Mathews again visited the United States, where in 1858 he
married Mrs A. H. Davenport. In 1861 they gave a series of "At Homes" at
the Haymarket theatre, which were almost as popular as had been those of
the elder Mathews. Charles James Mathews was one of the few English
actors who played in French successfully,--his appearance in Paris in
1863 in a French version of _Cool as a Cucumber_, written by himself,
being received with great approbation. He also played there again in
1865 as Sir Charles Coldcream in the original play _L'Homme blasé_
(English version by Boucicault, _Used up_). After reaching his
sixty-sixth year, Mathews set out on a tour round the world, in which
was included a third visit to America, and on his return in 1872 he
continued to act without interruption till within a few weeks of his
death on the 24th of June 1878. He made his last appearance in New York
at Wallack's theatre on the 7th of June 1872, in H. J. Byron's _Not such
a Fool as he Looks_. His last appearance in London was at the Opéra
Comique on the 2nd of June 1877, in _The Liar_ and _The Cosy Couple_. At
Stalybridge he gave his last performance on the 8th of June 1878, when
he played Adonis Evergreen in his own comedy _My Awful Dad_.
See the _Life of Charles James Mathews_, edited by Charles Dickens (2
vols., 1879); H. G. Paine in _Actors and Actresses of Great Britain
and the United States_ (New York, 1886).
MATHEWS, THOMAS (1676-1751), British admiral, son of Colonel Edward
Mathews (d. 1700), and grandson on his mother's side of Sir Thomas
Armstrong (1624-1684), who was executed for the Rye House Plot, was born
at Llandaff Court, Llandaff. He entered the navy and became lieutenant
in 1699, being promoted captain in 1703. During the short war with Spain
(1718-20) he commanded the "Kent" in the fleet of Sir George Byng (Lord
Torrington), and from 1722 to 1724 he had the command of a small
squadron sent to the East Indies to repress the pirates of the coast of
Malabar. He saw no further service till March 1741, when he was
appointed to the command in the Mediterranean, and plenipotentiary to
the king of Sardinia and the other courts of Italy. It is impossible to
understand upon what grounds he was selected. As an admiral he was not
distinguished; he was quite destitute of the experience and the tact
required for his diplomatic duties; and he was on the worst possible
terms with his second in command, Richard Lestock (1679?-1746). Yet the
purpose for which he was sent out in his double capacity was not
altogether ill performed. In 1742 Mathews sent a small squadron to
Naples to compel King Charles III., afterwards king of Spain, to remain
neutral. It was commanded by commodore, afterwards admiral, William
Martin (1696?-1756), who refused to enter into negotiations, and gave
the king half an hour in which to return an answer. In June of the same
year a squadron of Spanish galleys, which had taken refuge in the Bay of
Saint Tropez, was burnt by the fireships of Mathews' fleet. In the
meantime a Spanish squadron of line-of-battleships had taken refuge in
Toulon, and was watched by the British fleet from its anchorage at
Hyères. In February 1744 the Spaniards put to sea in company with a
French force. Mathews, who had now returned to his flagship, followed,
and an engagement took place on the 11th of February. The battle was
highly discreditable to the British fleet, and not very honourable to
their opponents, but it is of the highest historical importance in the
history of the navy. It marked the lowest pitch reached in discipline
and fighting and efficiency by the fleet in the 18th century, and it had
a very bad effect in confirming the pedantic system of tactics set up by
the old Fighting Instructions. The British fleet followed the enemy in
light winds on the 10th of February, and became scattered. Mathews
hoisted the signal to form the line, and then when night fell, to lie
to. At that moment Lestock, who commanded in the rear, was at a
considerable distance from the body of the fleet, and he ought
undoubtedly to have joined his admiral before lying to, but he obeyed
the second order, with the result, which it is impossible not to feel
that he foresaw and desired, that when morning came he was a long way
off the flag of Mathews. The enemy were within striking distance of the
van and centre of the British fleet, and Mathews attacked their rear.
The battle was ill fought, as it had been ill prepared. Lestock never
came into action at all. One Spanish line-of-battleship, the "Poder"
(74), was taken, but afterwards burnt. Several of the British captains
behaved very badly, and Mathews in a heat of confused anger bore down on
the enemy out of his line, while the signal to keep the line was still
flying at his mast head. The French and Spaniards got away, and were not
pursued by Mathews, though they were of inferior strength.
Deep indignation was aroused at home by this naval miscarriage, and the
battle led to more than twenty courts-martial and a parliamentary
inquiry. The evils which had overrun the navy were clearly displayed,
and in so far some good was done. It was shown for instance that one of
the captains whose ship behaved worst was a man of extreme age who was
nearly blind and deaf. One of the captains was so frightened at the
prospect of a trial that he deserted on his way home and disappeared
into Spain. Mathews resigned and returned home after the battle. In
consequence of the parliamentary motion for inquiry, Lestock was brought
to trial, and acquitted on the ground that he had obeyed orders. Then
Mathews was tried in 1746, and was condemned to be dismissed the service
on the ground that he had not only failed to pursue the enemy but had
taken his fleet into action in a confused manner. He had in fact not
waited till he had his fleet in a line with the enemy before bearing
down on them, and he had disordered his own line. To the country at
large it appeared strange that the admiral who had actually fought
should be condemned, while the admiral who had kept at a distance was
acquitted. Mathews looked upon his condemnation as the result of mere
party spirit. Sheer pedantry on the part of the officers forming the
court-martial affords a more satisfactory explanation. They judged that
a naval officer was bound not to go beyond the Fighting Instructions as
Mathews had undoubtedly done, and therefore condemned him. Their
decision had a serious effect in fixing the rule that all battles, at
any rate against enemies of equal or nearly equal numbers, were to be
fought on one pattern. Mathews died on the 2nd of October 1751 in
London. There is a portrait of him in the Painted Hall at Greenwich.
In Beatson's _Naval and Military Memoirs_, vol. i., will be found a
fair account of the battle of February 1744. It is fully dealt with by
Montagu Burrows in his _Life of Hawke_. The French account may be
found in Tronde's _Batailles Navales de la France_. The Spanish view
is in the _Vida de Don Josef Navarro_ by Don Josef de Vargas. The
battle led to a violent pamphlet controversy. The charges and findings
at the courts-martial on both Lestock and Mathews were published at
the time. The minor trials arising out of the action are collected in
a folio under the title "Copies of all the Minutes and Proceedings
taken at and upon the several Tryals of Captain George Burrish"
(1746). A "Narrative" was published by, or for, Lestock in 1744, and
answered by, or on behalf of, Mathews under the title "Ad----l
M----w's Conduct in the late Engagement Vindicated" in 1745.
(D. H.)
MATHY, KARL (1807-1868), Badenese statesman, was born at Mannheim on the
17th of March 1807. He studied law and politics at Heidelberg, and
entered the Baden government department of finance in 1829. His sympathy
with the revolutionary ideas of 1830, expressed in his paper the
_Zeitgeist_, cost him his appointment in 1834, and he made his way to
Switzerland, where he contributed to the _Jeune Suisse_ directed by
Mazzini. On his return to Baden in 1840 he edited the _Landtagszeitung_
at Carlsruhe, and in 1842 he entered the estates for the town of
Constance. He became one of the opposition leaders and in 1847 helped to
found the _Deutsche Zeitung_, a paper which eventually did much to
further the cause of German unity. He took part in the preliminary
parliament and in the assembly of Frankfort in 1848-1849, where he
supported the policy of H. W. A. von Gagern, and after the refusal of
Frederick William IV. to accept the imperial crown he still worked for
the cause of unity. He was made finance minister in Baden in May 1849,
but was dismissed after a few days of office. He then applied his
financial knowledge to banking business in Cologne, Berlin, Gotha and
Leipzig. He was recalled to Baden in 1862, and in 1864 became president
of the new ministry of commerce. He sought to bring Baden institutions
into line with those of northern Germany with a view to ultimate union,
and when in 1866 Baden took sides with Austria against Prussia he sent
in his resignation. After the war he became president of a new cabinet,
but he did not live to see the realization of the policy for which he
had striven. He died at Carlsruhe on the 3rd of February 1868.
His letters during the years 1846-1848 were edited by Ludwig Mathy
(Leipzig, 1899), and his life was written by G. Freytag (Leipzig, 2nd
ed., 1872).
MATILDA (1102-1164), queen of England and empress, daughter of Henry I.
of England, by Matilda, his first wife, was born in 1102. In 1109 she
was betrothed to the emperor-elect, Henry V., and was sent to Germany,
but the marriage was delayed till 1114. Her husband died after eleven
years of wedlock, leaving her childless; and, since both her brothers
were now dead, she was recalled to her father's court in order that she
might be recognized as his successor in England and Normandy. The Great
Council of England did homage to her under considerable pressure. Their
reluctance to acknowledge a female sovereign was increased when Henry
gave her in marriage to Geoffrey Plantagenet, the heir of Anjou and
Maine (1129); nor was it removed by the birth of the future Henry II. in
1133. On the old king's death both England and Normandy accepted his
nephew, Stephen, of Mortain and Boulogne. Matilda and her husband were
in Anjou at the time. They wasted the next few years in the attempt to
win Normandy; but Earl Robert of Gloucester, the half-brother of the
empress, at length induced her to visit England and raise her standard
in the western shires, where his influence was supreme. Though on her
first landing Matilda only escaped capture through the misplaced
chivalry of her opponent, she soon turned the tables upon him with the
help of the Church and the barons of the west. Stephen was defeated and
captured at Lincoln (1141); the empress was acclaimed lady or queen of
England (she used both titles indifferently) and crowned at London. But
the arrogance which she displayed in her prosperity alienated the
Londoners and the papal legate, Bishop Henry of Winchester. Routed at
the siege of Winchester, she was compelled to release Stephen in
exchange for Earl Robert, and thenceforward her cause steadily declined
in England. In 1148, having lost by the earl's death her principal
supporter, she retired to Normandy, of which her husband had in the
meantime gained possession. Henceforward she remained in the background,
leaving her eldest son Henry to pursue the struggle with Stephen. She
outlived Henry's coronation by ten years; her husband had died in 1151.
As queen-mother she played the part of a mediator between her sons and
political parties. Age mellowed her temper, and she turned more and more
from secular ambitions to charity and religious works. She died on the
30th of January 1164.
See O. Rössler, _Kaiserin Mathilde_ (Berlin, 1897); J. H. Round,
_Geoffrey de Mandeville_ (London, 1892). (H. W. C. D.)
MATILDA (1046-1115), countess or margravine of Tuscany, popularly known
as the Great Countess, was descended from a noble Lombard family. Her
great-grandfather, Athone of Canossa, had been made count of Modena and
Reggio by the emperor Otto I., and her grandfather had, in addition,
acquired Mantua, Ferrara and Brescia. Her own father, Boniface II., the
Pious, secured Tuscany, the duchy of Spoleto, the county of Parma, and
probably that of Cremona; and was loyal to the emperor until Henry
plotted against him. Through the murder of Count Boniface in 1052 and
the death of her older brother and sister three years later, Matilda was
left, at the age of nine, sole heiress to the richest estate in Italy.
She received an excellent education under the care of her mother,
Beatrice of Bar, the daughter of Frederick of Lorraine and aunt of Henry
III., who, after a brief detention in Germany by the emperor, married
Godfrey IV. of Lorraine, brother of Pope Stephen IX. (1057-1058).
Thenceforth Matilda's lot was cast against the emperor in the great
struggle over investiture, and for over thirty years she maintained the
cause of the successive pontiffs, Gregory VII., Victor III., Urban II.,
Paschal II., with varying fortune, but with undaunted resolution. She
aided the pope against the Normans in 1074, and in 1075 attended the
synod at which Guibert was condemned and deprived of the archbishopric
of Ravenna. Her hereditary fief of Canossa was the scene (Jan. 28, 1077)
of the celebrated penance of Henry IV. before Gregory VII. She provided
an asylum for Henry's second wife, Praxides, and urged his son Conrad to
revolt against his father. In the course of the protracted struggle her
villages were plundered, her fortresses demolished, and Pisa and Lucca
temporarily lost, but she remained steadfast in her allegiance, and,
before her death, had, by means of a league of Lombard cities which she
formed, recovered all her possessions. The donation of her estates to
the Holy See, originally made in 1077 and renewed on the 17th of
November 1102, though never fully consummated on account of imperial
opposition, constituted the greater part of the temporal dominion of the
papacy. Matilda was twice married, first to Godfrey V. of Lorraine,
surnamed the Humpbacked, who was the son of her step-father and was
murdered on the 26th of February 1076; and secondly to the 17-year-old
Welf V. of Bavaria, from whom she finally separated in 1095--both
marriages of policy, which counted for little in her life. Matilda was
an eager student: she spoke Italian, French and German fluently, and
wrote many Latin letters; she collected a considerable library; she
supervised an edition of the Pandects of Justinian; and Anselm of
Canterbury sent her his _Meditations_. She combined her devotion to the
papacy and her learning with very deep personal piety. She died after a
long illness at Bodeno, near Modena, on the 24th of July 1115, and was
buried in the Benedictine church at Polirone, whence her remains were
taken to Rome by order of Urban VIII. in 1635 and interred in St
Peter's.
The contemporary record of Matilda's life in rude Latin verse, by her
chaplain Domnizone (Donizo or Domenico), is preserved in the Vatican
Library. The best edition is that of Bethmann in the _Monumenta germ.
hist. scriptores_, xii. 348-409. The text, with an Italian
translation, was published by F. Davoli under the title _Vita della
granda contessa Matilda di Canossa_ (Reggio nell' Emilia 1888 seq.).
See A. Overmann, _Gräfin Mathilde von Tuscien; ihre Besitzungen ... u.
ihre Regesten_ (Innsbruck, 1895); A. Colombo, _Una Nuova vita delta
contessa Matilda in R. accad. d. sci. Atti_, vol. 39 (Turin, 1904); L.
Tosti, _La Contessa Matilda ed i romani pontefici_ (Florence, 1859);
A. Pannenborg, _Studien zur Geschichte der Herzogin Matilde von
Canossa_ (Göttingen, 1872); F. M. Fiorentini, _Memorie della Matilda_
(Lucca, 1756); and Nora Duff, _Matilda of Tuscany_ (1910).
(C. H. Ha.)
MATINS (Fr. _matines_, med. Lat. _matutinae_, sc. possibly vigiliae,
morning watches; from _matutinus_, "belonging to the morning"), a word
now only used in an ecclesiastical sense for one of the canonical hours
in the Roman Breviary, originally intended to be said at midnight, but
sometimes said at dawn, after which "lauds" were recited or sung. In the
modern Roman Catholic Church, outside monastic services, the office is
usually said on the preceding afternoon or evening. The word is also
used in the Roman Catholic Church for the public service held on Sunday
mornings before the mass (see BREVIARY; and HOURS, CANONICAL). In the
Church of England since the Reformation matins is used for the order of
public morning prayer.
MATLOCK, a market town in the western parliamentary division of
Derbyshire, England, on the river Derwent, 17 m. N. by W. of Derby on
the Midland railway. Pop. (1901), of urban district of Matlock, 5979; of
Matlock Bath and Scarthin Nick, 1819. The entire township includes the
old village of Matlock, the commercial and manufacturing district of
Matlock Bridge, and the fashionable health resorts of Matlock Bath and
Matlock Bank. The town possesses cotton, corn and paper mills, while in
the vicinity there are stone-quarries and lead mines. A peculiar local
industry is the manufacture of so-called "petrified" birds' nests,
plants, and other objects. These are steeped in water from the mineral
springs until they become encrusted with a calcareous deposit which
gives them the appearance of fossils. Ornaments fashioned out of spar
and stalactites have also a considerable sale.
MATLOCK BATH, one and a half miles south of Matlock, having a separate
railway station, overlooks the narrow and precipitous gorge of the
Derwent, and stands in the midst of woods and cliffs, deriving its name
from three medicinal springs, which first became celebrated towards the
close of the 17th century. They were not known to the Romans, although
lead-mining was carried on extensively in the district in the 1st and
2nd centuries A.D. The mean temperature of the springs is 68° F.
Extensive grounds have been laid out for public use; and in the
neighbourhood there are several fine stalactite caverns.
Sheltered under the high moorlands of Darley, MATLOCK BANK has grown up
about a mile north-east of the old village, and has become celebrated
for the number and excellence of its hydropathic establishments. A
tramway, worked by a single cable, over a gradient said to be the
steepest in the world, affords easy communication with Matlock Bridge.
MATOS FRAGOSO, JUAN DE (1614?-1689), Spanish dramatist, of Portuguese
descent, was born about 1614 at Alsito (Alemtejo). After taking his
degree in law at the university of Evora, he proceeded to Madrid, where
he made acquaintance with Perez de Montalbán, and thus obtained an
introduction to the stage. He quickly displayed great cleverness in
hitting the public taste, and many contemporaries of superior talent
eagerly sought his aid as a collaborator. The earliest of his printed
plays is _La Defensa de la fé y principe prodigioso_ (1651), and twelve
more pieces were published in 1658. But though his popularity continued
long after his death (January 4, 1689), Matos Fragoso's dramas do not
stand the test of reading. His emphatic preciosity and sophistical
insistence on the "point of honour" are tedious and unconvincing; in _La
Venganza en el despeño_, in _Á lo que obliga un agravio_, and in other
plays, he merely recasts, very adroitly, works by Lope de Vega.
MATRASS (mod. Lat. _matracium_), a glass vessel with a round or oval
body and a long narrow neck, used in chemistry, &c., as a digester or
distiller. The Florence flask of commerce is frequently used for this
purpose. The word is possibly identical with an old name "matrass" (Fr.
_materas_, _matelas_) for the bolt or quarrel of a cross-bow. If so,
some identity of shape is the reason for the application of the word;
"bolt-head" is also used as a name for the vessel. Another connexion is
suggested with the Arabic _matra_, a leather bottle.
MATRIARCHATE ("rule of the mother"), a term used to express a supposed
earliest and lowest form of family life, typical of primitive societies,
in which the promiscuous relations of the sexes result in the child's
father being unknown (see FAMILY). In such communities the mother took
precedence of the father in certain important respects, especially in
line of descent and inheritance. Matriarchate is assumed on this theory
to have been universal in prehistoric times. The prominent position then
naturally assigned women did not, however, imply any personal power,
since they were in the position of mere chattels: it simply constituted
them the sole relatives of their children and the only centre of any
such family life as existed. The custom of tracing descent through the
female is still observed among certain savage tribes. In Fiji father and
son are not regarded as relatives. Among the Bechuanas the chieftainship
passes to a brother, not to a son. In Senegal, Loango, Congo and Guinea,
relationship is traced through the female. Among the Tuareg Berbers a
child takes rank, freeman's or slave's, from its mother.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--J. F. McLennan, _Patriarchal Theory_ (London, 1885); T.
T. Bachofen, _Das Mutterrecht_ (Stuttgart, 1861); E. Westermarck,
_History of Human Marriage_ (1894); A. Giraud-Teulon, _La Mère chez
certains peuples de l'antiquité_ (Paris, 1867); _Les Origines du
mariage et de la famille_ (Geneva and Paris, 1884); C. S. Wake, _The
Development of Marriage and Kinship_ (London, 1889); Ch. Letourneau,
_L'Évolution du mariage et de la famille_ (Paris, 1888); L. H. Morgan,
_Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of Human Family_, "Smithsonian
Contributions to Knowledge," vol. xvii. (Washington, 1871); C. N.
Starcke, _The Primitive Family_ (London, 1889).
MATRIMONY (Lat. _matrimonium_, marriage, which is the ordinary English
sense), a game at cards played with a full whist pack upon a table
divided into three compartments labelled "Matrimony," "Intrigue" and
"Confederacy," and two smaller spaces, "Pair" and "Best." These names
indicate combinations of two cards, any king and queen being
"Matrimony," any queen and knave "Intrigue," any king and knave
"Confederacy"; while any two cards of the same denomination form a
"Pair" and the diamond ace is "Best." The dealer distributes a number of
counters, to which an agreed value has been given, upon the
compartments, and the other players do likewise. The dealer then gives
one card to each player, face down, and a second, face up. If any
turned-up card is the diamond ace, the player holding it takes
everything on the space and the deal passes. If not turned, the diamond
ace has only the value of the other three aces. If it is not turned, the
players, beginning with the eldest hand, expose their second cards, and
the resulting combinations, if among the five successful ones, win the
counters of the corresponding spaces. If the counters on a space are not
won, they remain until the next deal.
MATRIX, a word of somewhat wide application, chiefly used in the sense
of a bed or enclosing mass in which something is shaped or formed (Late
Lat. _matrix_, womb; in classical Latin _matrix_ was only applied to an
animal kept for breeding). Matrix is thus used of a mould of metal or
other substance in which a design or pattern is made in intaglio, and
from which an impression in relief is taken. In die-sinking and coining,
the matrix is the hardened steel mould from which the die-punches are
taken. The term "seal" should strictly he applied to the impression only
on wax of the design of the matrix, but is often used both of the matrix
and of the impression (see SEALS). In mineralogy, the matrix is the mass
in which a crystal mineral or fossil is embedded. In mathematics, the
name "matrix" is used of an arrangement of numbers or symbols in a
rectangular or square figure. (See ALGEBRAIC FORMS.)
In med. Latin _matrix_ and the diminutive _matricula_ had the meaning
of a roll or register, particularly one containing the names of the
members of an institution, as of the clergy belonging to a cathedral,
collegiate or other church, or of the members of a university. From
this use is derived "matriculation," the admission to membership of a
university, also the name of the examination for such admission.
_Matricula_ was also the name of the contributions in men and money
made by the various states of the Holy Roman Empire, and in the modern
German Empire the contributions made by the federal states to the
imperial finances are called _Matrikularbeiträge_, matricular
contributions. (See GERMANY: _Finance_.)
MATROSS, the name (now obsolete) for a soldier of artillery, who ranked
next below a gunner. The duty of a matross was to assist the gunners in
loading, firing and sponging the guns. They were provided with
firelocks, and marched with the store-wagons, acting as guards. In the
American army a matross ranked as a private of artillery. The word is
probably derived from Fr. _matelot_, a sailor.
MATSUKATA, MARQUIS (1835- ), Japanese statesman, was born at Kagoshima
in 1835, being a son of a _samurai_ of the Satsuma clan. On the
completion of the feudal revolution of 1868 he was appointed governor of
the province of Tosa, and having served six years in this office, was
transferred to Tokyo as assistant minister of finance. As representative
of Japan at the Paris Exhibition of 1878, he took the opportunity
afforded by his mission to study the financial systems of the great
European powers. On his return home, he held for a short time in 1880
the portfolio of home affairs, and was in 1881 appointed minister of
finance. The condition of the currency of Japan was at that time
deplorable, and national bankruptcy threatened. The coinage had not only
been seriously debased during the closing years of the Tokugawa régime,
but large quantities of paper currency had been issued and circulated,
both by many of the feudal lords, and by the central government itself,
as a temporary expedient for filling an impoverished exchequer. In 1878
depreciation had set in, and the inconvertible paper had by the close of
1881 grown to such an extent that it was then at a discount of 80% as
compared with silver. Matsukata showed the government the danger of the
situation, and urged that the issue of further paper currency should be
stopped at once, the expenses of administration curtailed, and the
resulting surplus of revenue used in the redemption of the paper
currency and in the creation of a specie reserve. These proposals were
acted upon: the Bank of Japan was established, and the right of issuing
convertible notes given to it; and within three years of the initiation
of these financial reforms, the paper currency, largely reduced in
quantity, was restored to its full par value with silver, and the
currency as a whole placed on a solvent basis. From this time forward
Japan's commercial and military advancement continued to make
uninterrupted progress. But _pari passu_ with the extraordinary impetus
given to its trade by the successful conclusion of the war with China,
the national expenditure enormously increased, rising within a few years
from 80 to 250 million yen. The task of providing for this expenditure
fell entirely on Matsukata, who had to face strong opposition on the
part of the diet. But he distributed the increased taxation so equally,
and chose its subjects so wisely, that the ordinary administrative
expenditure and the interest on the national debt were fully provided
for, while the extraordinary expenditure for military purposes was met
from the Chinese indemnity. As far back as 1878 Matsukata perceived the
advantages of a gold standard, but it was not until 1897 that his scheme
could be realized. In this year the bill authorizing it was under his
auspices submitted to the diet and passed; and with this financial
achievement Matsukata saw the fulfilment of his ideas of financial
reform, which were conceived during his first visit to Europe.
Matsukata, who in 1884 was created Count, twice held the office of prime
minister (1891-1892, 1896-1898), and during both his administrations he
combined the portfolio of finance with the premiership; from October
1898 to October 1900 he was minister of finance only. His name in
Japanese history is indissolubly connected with the financial progress
of his country at the end of the 19th century. In 1902 he visited
England and America, and he was created G.C.M.G., and given the Oxford
degree of D.C.L. In September 1907 he was advanced to the rank of
Marquis.
MATSYS (MASSYS or METZYS), QUINTIN (1466-1530), Flemish artist, was born
at Louvain, where he first learned a mechanical art. During the greater
part of the 15th century the centres in which the painters of the Low
Countries most congregated were Bruges, Ghent and Brussels. Towards the
close of the same period Louvain took a prominent part in giving
employment to workmen of every craft. It was not till the opening of the
16th century that Antwerp usurped the lead which it afterwards
maintained against Bruges and Ghent, Brussels, Mechlin and Louvain.
Quintin Matsys was one of the first men of any note who gave repute to
the gild of Antwerp. A legend relates how the smith of Louvain was
induced by affection for the daughter of an artist to change his trade
and acquire proficiency in painting. A less poetic but perhaps more real
version of the story tells that Quintin had a brother with whom he was
brought up by his father Josse Matsys, a smith, who held the lucrative
offices of clockmaker and architect to the municipality of Louvain. It
came to be a question which of the sons should follow the paternal
business, and which carve out a new profession for himself. Josse the
son elected to succeed his father, and Quintin then gave himself to the
study of painting. We are not told expressly by whom Quintin was taught,
but his style seems necessarily derived from the lessons of Dierick
Bouts, who took to Louvain the mixed art of Memlinc and Van der Weyden.
When he settled at Antwerp, at the age of twenty-five, he probably had a
style with an impress of its own, which certainly contributed most
importantly to the revival of Flemish art on the lines of Van Eyck and
Van der Weyden. What particularly characterizes Quintin Matsys is the
strong religious feeling which he inherited from earlier schools. But
that again was permeated by realism which frequently degenerated into
the grotesque. Nor would it be too much to say that the facial
peculiarities of the boors of Van Steen or Ostade have their
counterparts in the pictures of Matsys, who was not, however, trained to
use them in the same homely way. From Van der Weyden's example we may
trace the dryness of outline and shadeless modelling and the pitiless
finish even of trivial detail, from the Van Eycks and Memlinc through
Dierick Bouts the superior glow and richness of transparent pigments,
which mark the pictures of Matsys. The date of his retirement from
Louvain is 1491, when he became a master in the gild of painters at
Antwerp. His most celebrated picture is that which he executed in 1508
for the joiners' company in the cathedral of his adopted city. Next in
importance to that is the Marys of Scripture round the Virgin and Child,
which was ordered for a chapel in the cathedral of Louvain. Both
altar-pieces are now in public museums, one at Antwerp, the other at
Brussels. They display great earnestness in expression, great minuteness
of finish, and a general absence of effect by light or shade. As in
early Flemish pictures, so in those of Matsys, superfluous care is
lavished on jewelry, edgings and ornament. To the great defect of want
of atmosphere such faults may be added as affectation, the result of
excessive straining after tenderness in women, or common gesture and
grimace suggested by a wish to render pictorially the brutality of
gaolers and executioners. Yet in every instance an effort is manifest to
develop and express individual character. This tendency in Matsys is
chiefly illustrated in his pictures of male and female market bankers
(Louvre and Windsor), in which an attempt is made to display
concentrated cupidity and avarice. The other tendency to excessive
emphasis of tenderness may be seen in two replicas of the "Virgin and
Child" at Berlin and Amsterdam, where the ecstatic kiss of the mother is
quite unreal. But in these examples there is a remarkable glow of colour
which makes up for many defects. Expression of despair is strongly
exaggerated in a Lucretia at the museum of Vienna. On the whole the best
pictures of Matsys are the quietest; his "Virgin and Christ" or "Ecce
Homo" and "Mater Dolorosa" (London and Antwerp) display as much serenity
and dignity as seems consistent with the master's art. He had
considerable skill as a portrait painter. Egidius at Longford, which
drew from Sir Thomas More a eulogy in Latin verse, is but one of a
numerous class, to which we may add the portrait of Maximilian of
Austria in the gallery of Amsterdam. Matsys in this branch of practice
was much under the influence of his contemporaries Lucas of Leiden and
Mabuse. His tendency to polish and smoothness excluded to some extent
the subtlety of modulation remarkable in Holbein and Dürer. There is
reason to think that he was well acquainted with both these German
masters. He probably met Holbein more than once on his way to England.
He saw Dürer at Antwerp in 1520. Quintin died at Antwerp in 1530. The
puritan feeling which slumbered in him was fatal to some of his
relatives. His sister Catherine and her husband suffered at Louvain in
1543 for the then capital offence of reading the Bible, he being
decapitated, she buried alive in the square fronting the cathedral.
Quintin's son, Jan Matsys, inherited the art but not the skill of his
parent. The earliest of his works, a "St Jerome," dated 1537, in the
gallery of Vienna, the latest, a "Healing of Tobias," of 1564, in the
museum of Antwerp, are sufficient evidence of his tendency to
substitute imitation for original thought.
MATTEAWAN, a village of Fishkill township, Dutchess county, New York,
U.S.A., on the eastern bank of the Hudson river, opposite Newburgh and
15 m. S. of Poughkeepsie. Pop. (1890), 4278; (1900), 5807 (1044
foreign-born); (1905, state census), 5584; (1910), 6727. The village is
served by the Central New England railway, and is the seat of the
Matteawan state hospital for the criminal insane, the Highland hospital,
and the Sargeant industrial school. The Teller House dates back to the
beginning of the 18th century. Near Matteawan is Beacon Hill, the
highest of the highlands, which has an electric railway to its summit.
There are manufactures of hats, rubber goods, machinery (notably
"fuel-economizers"), &c., water-power being furnished by Fishkill Creek.
The village owns its waterworks, the supply for which is derived from
Beacon Hill. Matteawan was incorporated as a village in 1886.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 17, Slice 7 - "Mars" to "Matteawan"" ***
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