MAHMUD.

and North Africa, European interests would for a time be very seriously affected. An excellent brief account of Mandism is contained in "The Mahdi, Past and Present," by James Darmesteter (London, 1885).

MAHMUD of Ghazni, celebrated in history as the first Mohammedan invader of India, was born 2nd October, 971 A.D. His father, originally a Turki slave, had by his great abilities as a soldier been raised to the position of raer of Ghazni, and though at his death he named his son Il to be his successor, the latter was conquered by his younger brother Mahmud, who obtained undisputed power as sovereign of Khorasan and Ghazni in 997. He was confirmed in the possession of his authority by the Caph of Bagdad, and he is said to have resolved on an Lal expedition against the idolators of India. He stated on the first of these in the year 1000 A.D., and thugh he did not lead a fresh expedition every year, his avasols were so numerous and successful as to enable him to reduce the Punjab to the position of a dependency, and to enrich his treasury to an enormous extent by the booty carried off. He was a determined idol-breaker, and he made the Hindu temples special objects of attack. The story of his refusing a heavy ransom for a celebrated idol, and after breaking in its face with his battle-axe being rewarded by a shower of jewels which had been hidden in the bow head of the image, is well known. He was a brave and skiful soldier and an earnest champion of Islam, but Es love of plunder seems to have also had something to do with his repeated invasions of India. He was not merely a sler. Lowever, for he erected some magnificent buildings alis capital, and carried out important public works. He was also a liberal patron of learning and literature, and his art became the home of several celebrated Arabic poets and historians. Among the most famous of these was the port Frinsi, and it was at the request of Mahmud that Friasi undertook the composition of the "Sháhnámeh” Epic of kings). His connection with the poet, however, was rather unfortunate for both parties, as we have already sted in the history of FIRDUSI. Mahmud died at Ghazni a1930, in the sixty-first year of his age and thirty-third of his reign, and his tomb is still shown in a garden a short tance from that city.

MAHMUD II., Sultan of Turkey, the younger son of Hamid or Ahmed IV., was born on the 14th of Farazan A.H. 1199 (20th July, 1785). In 1808 he depd his elder brother Mustapha, and secured his position ordering him to be strangled together with his infant , and by drowning in the Bosphorus all of Mustapha's wwwho promised to furnish heirs to the throne. By ee murders Mahmud became the only male descendant fman, which was a matter of great importance, the par bellef being that Turkey would last no longer than the y by whose great ancestor the empire was founded. The war with Russia was then prosecuted vigorously, but It was compelled by exhaustion to make peace on

May, 1812. Mahmud then set himself to subjugate sen-independent pashas of the outlying provinces, and to carry out internal reforms. The rebellion of the W was crushed in 1818 by Ibrahim Pasha, and Ali was overthrown and killed in 1822, but in 1821 face revolted and another contest with Russia was comaced. The independence of Greece was secured by the st of the Turko-Egyptian fleet at Navarino by the tized British, French, and Russian fleets, in 1827, its existence as a separate kingdom was not reed by Turkey until 1830. During the progress the Greek revolution Mahmud had to suppress a reben on the part of the janissaries, and after causing ut 6000 of them to be slaughtered he broke up and exed this formidable force. His next war was with Meceret Ali, who had raised an insurrection in Egypt, and be was only saved from overthrow by the intervention of

MAHOMET.

Russia, by whom peace was enforced in 1833. Still determined upon effecting the changes he considered necessary for the reorganization of Turkey, he modified and rearranged the system of taxation, formed a militia, and established schools for some branches of Western knowledge. At the same time he prepared for making war anew upon Mehemet Ali, and the conflict commenced in 1839. Mahmud died 1st July, 1839, a few days before the news arrived of the defeat of his forces by Ibrahim Pasha, son of Mehemet Ali, on 24th June. He was a sovereign of great sagacity, energy, and resolution, and under happier circumstances might have done for Turkey what Peter the Great did for Russia.

MAHOG'ANY, a beautiful species of cabinet wood, so called from Mahogani, the American name of the tree Swietenia Mahogani, which belongs to the order MELIACE.E. It is a native chiefly of the Bay of Honduras, whence it is largely exported to this country. It is also exported from Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and South America generally. The tree is straight and tall in its growth. It is about 4 feet in diameter, and sometimes rises 60 feet from the spur to the limb. Its foliage is of a beautiful deep green, the flower of a reddish or saffron colour, and the fruit as large as a turkey's egg. Some of these trees grow to a height of 100 feet. The wood is usually hard, takes a fine polish, and is much used in all kinds of cabinet-work. The first appropriation of this valuable wood in England possesses some historical interest. At the end of the last century, a physician, Dr. Gibbons, had a brother, a West Indian captain, who brought over some planks of this wood as ballast. Mrs. Gibbons wanted a candle-box; the doctor called on his cabinetmaker, Woollaston, in Long Acre, to make him one of this wood. Woollaston complained that it was too hard. The doctor said he must get stronger tools. The candle-box was made, and approved, insomuch that the doctor then insisted on having a bureau made of the same wood, when the fine colour and polish were so pleasing that he invited all his friends to come and see it, among them the Duchess of Buckingham. Her Grace begged some of the wood from Dr. Gibbons, and employed Woollaston to make her a bureau also, and this contributed to the fame of mahogany, which soon came into general use.

Mahogany has neither taste nor smell, shrinks very little, and warps or twists less than any other species of timber. It is very durable when kept dry, but does not last long when exposed to the weather. It is not attacked by worms. Like the pine tribe, the timber is best on dry rocky soils or in exposed situations. Part of that procured from Honduras grows upon moist low land, and is, generally speaking, decidedly inferior to that brought from Cuba and Hayti, being soft, coarse, and spongy, while the other is close-grained and hard, of a darker colour, and sometimes strongly figured.

MAHOM ET (the prophet of Islam). See MOHAMMED. MAHOM ET was the name of two famous sultans of the Ottoman Turks.

MAHOMET I. was the restorer of the Ottoman Empire, which he found in a state of anarchy after the fall of Bayazid, the first who was styled sultan (i.e. civil head of Islam) by the Caliph. He extended his conquests into Europe, and obliged the princes of Bosnia, Servia, and Wallachia to pay him tribute. He died, after nine years' reign, in 1421.

MAHOMET II., son of Murad (or Amurath) II., and grandson of Mahomet I., was proclaimed emperor of the Ottomans after the voluntary abdication of his father in 1444; Murad, however, was obliged to resume the reins of government till his death, in 1451, when Mahomet

commenced his reign. He prosecuted many successful wars in Europe, taking Constantinople (1453), Corinth (1458), Trebizond (1461), Negropont (1470), and Otranto (1480), by storm; he, however, met with some reverses at Belgrade (1456) and Rhodes (1480). He died in Bithynia

MAIGRE.

MAIGRE (Sciana aquila), a fish belonging to the family Seinidæ, the order Acanthopterygii, is sometimes ught on British coasts. It has a very wide range, being unmen in the Mediterranean and extending to Australia ari the Cape of Good Hope. The maigre is a large fish, being usually 3 feet long, and sometimes attaining a length 46 feet. The body is thick and elongated, greenish-brown abre and bluish-white below; the head is short and rounded, and the mouth is not provided with barbels. The soft dorsal t is much more developed than either the spinous dorsal or the anal. The ventral fins are pectoral, with one spine tive soft rays. The air bladder is curiously fringed. The flesh of the maigre, though dry, is considered good and wholesome. Formerly the head was greatly esteemed bepicures, and in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it the custom to present it as a valuable gift to the three servators of the city of Rome.

MAIL (from the French maille), strictly "the mesh of anet," but applied in a collective view to defensive armour !med of iron rings or round meshes. Boyer, in his French 4) cary, translates maille "a little iron ring;" but later a coat of mail (also denominated the hauberk or habercame to mean any armour for the body, whether -nal or plate-mail. See ARMOUr. MAIMON IDES, or MOSES BEN MAIMON Vses the son of Maimon), called by the Jews Mba, from the initials of the latter name with title Rabbi prefixed, the greatest theologian and the Jews ever produced, was born at Cordova, March, 1135. His ancestors for six generations had et distinguished for learning, and his father, Maimon, the author of several important works in Arabic and E. The father, owing to the persecutions of Caliph Mamen, who became master of Cordova in 1148, vaged to remove with his family to Fez, where he an external profession of Mohammedanism for the prace, but kept up at the same time the domestic Tatre of Judaism. He maintained this for sixteen

ping for a larger measure of public liberty, but 4st, finding the new caliph as bigoted as the old, he Pred to emigrate, and accordingly embarked with his y for Acre, from whence he passed to Jerusalem, be died. On his father's death Maimonides removed Car, where, as he shared the feeling common to most Jewish rabbis, that religious learning should never er a means of gaining bread, he supported himself ang in jewels, and afterwards by the practice of In the latter he gained so great a reputation spite of his race and religion, he was made court to Saladin of Egypt. His attainments in learnad by this time become so famous that young Jewish te flocked from all parts to listen to his lectures in ical college of Cairo, and he was frequently conby congregations and rabbis on questions of difficulty tarters pertaining to the law. Nor was this fame uned, for it is evident from his writings that he had not ted the Bible and Talmud profoundly, but had The self master of the whole extent of Arabian science, of Greek philosophy also, as far as it had been made Ale by Arabic translations. He was the author of botas works on astronomy, mathematics, and medicine Late, which were highly esteemed by Arabian scholars; amatest works, and those on which his fame and * have been chiefly based, were in connection with and philosophy. Among these the most importCommentary on the Mishnah," written in an in Fez in 1158 and finished ten years after* Caro. This work forms an elaborate historical to the oral law, and it traces its development, ***, plan, &c., in so masterly a manner that it was garded as being an essential part of the Talmud ino edition is considered complete without it.

VUL. IX.

MAINE.

This was followed by the "Sepher Hammisvoth," or Book of the Precepts, an exact enumeration of the 613 Biblical precepts recognized by the rabbis, together with thirteen articles of belief, which every Jew, in the opinion of Maimonides, is bound to hold and confess, and which were afterwards included in the synagogue ritual. This book, however, was merely a preliminary to the author's masterpiece, entitled the "Mishneh Torah," a gigantic work, containing a systematic codification of the whole Jewish law as it is to be found in the Bible and in the Talmud. It was written in Hebrew, was divided into fourteen books, and it comprises 982 chapters. The first book, which sets forth the duties of knowledge, and is chiefly theological, is prized by Jewish rabbis as of inestimable worth. Next to this work in importance, and quite equal to it in interest, was the "Guide of the Perplexed," written in Arabic and designed to reconcile Jewish theology with refined Greek philosophy. This work, while it contributed more than any other to the rational development of Judaism, became, immediately after the author's death, the centre of a fierce controversy among the Jews, which raged with the most bitter intensity for over a century, and the echoes of which have hardly yet died away.

Maimonides died at Cairo, 13th December, 1204, so that he did not quite attain to the age of seventy. In his own time he was styled the "Light of the Age," and he has since been recognized not only as one of the greatest scholars of Judaism, but also as one of the noblest and grandest thinkers of all time. Notwithstanding the immense progress made in learning since his day his works are still studied with interest by European scholars, and a fine edition of his "Guide was published in Paris, in Arabic and French, in 1856-66. The estimate formed of his character by his countrymen may be gathered from the saying current among them-"From Moses till Moses appeared no second Moses."

MAIN, a navigable river of Germany, rising from two sources-the Red and the White Main-in the Fichtelgebirge, North Bavaria, Germany. Its two streams unite in the circle of Upper Danube, and then it flows west, with many windings, into the territory of Hesse, through a rich vine country, joining the Rhine opposite Mainz. It is navigable 240 miles from the Rhine. It receives on the left bank the Regnitz and Tauber, on the right bank the Saale and Nidder. Length, 280 miles.

MAIN PLOT and BYE PLOT, or " Surprising Treason,' were two closely connected enterprises. The Main Plot was arranged for the purpose of seizing the person of King James I., and placing Arabella Stuart on the throne, and was led by Sir Walter Raleigh, Lord Cobham, Lord Grey, and other conspirators, aided by Spanish influence and money, in the summer of 1603, immediately after James' accession. The plots were discovered (the Bye Plot was much the same, except that it omitted the design in favour of Arabella Stuart), and Raleigh was arrested with all the rest, July, 1603. The conspirators were tried and condemned at Winchester in November: two Catholic priests, Watson and Clarke, were hanged; Brooke, brother of Cobham, and the only one in both plots, was beheaded on 5th December; Cobham, Grey, and Sir Griffin Markham were reprieved on the very scaffold, 9th December, and Raleigh languished out his life in prison till 30th January, 1616, when he was released. [For his subsequent fate see the article RALEIGH.] His guilt as to the Main Plot rested on the evidence of Cobham alone, and there are good reasons for believing him innocent.

MAINE is the most north-easterly of the United States of North America. It is bounded S. W. and W. by New Hampshire, S. by the Atlantic Ocean, E. by New Brunswick, and N. and N.W. by Canada. The southern boundary of Canada, which had long been in dispute between the United States and Great Britain, was definitively settled

5

MAINE.

in 1846. The area is 31,766 square miles, and the population in 1880 was 648,945.

Surface and Soil.-The coast-line of Maine is indented by numerous bays, of which the principal are-Casco Bay, Penobscot Bay, Frenchman's Bay, Machias Bay, and Passamaquoddy Bay. These bays contain a great number of small islands, about 400 altogether, and some of considerable size; such as Mount Desert, in Frenchman's Bay, and LONG ISLAND, Fox Island, and Deer Island, in Penobscot Bay. Though the frost along this shore is very intense in winter, and the numerous islands favour the formation of ice, the harbours are commonly open all the year round, the strength of the tide, which rises to between 24 and 40 feet, preventing their being closed up. Indeed Maine has more good harbours than any other state in the Union. The country rises gradually, but rather rapidly, from the shore. The surface of the state is mostly hilly, but it is only in the north-western and northern districts that the hills rise to the height of mountains, of which the highest, Mount Katahdin, rises to 5385 feet. This mountainous district occupies more than one-fifth of the area of the state.

The centre of the state is occupied by a hilly region, which is well drained by numerous rivers with a rapid course. The southern portion is level and marshy. Along the sea-coast, and from 10 to 20 miles inland, the soil is of moderate fertility, and frequently intersected with sandy and sterile tracts; but beyond this region the soil improves considerably, and produces plentiful crops of grain, flax, and hemp.

Rivers. The rivers in the southern district have a short course. The principal are the Piscataqua, the Saco, and the Presumscot or Casco. East of Casco Bay is a deep indentation which receives two considerable rivers, the Androscoggin and the Kennebec. The Androscoggin rises about 45° 12′ N. lat., 71° 15′ W. lon., and flowing south and west, and again south and west, after a course of about 200 miles joins the Kennebec near its mouth in Kennebec Bay. The Kennebec rises in several branches on the eastern declivity of the mountain-range which separates Maine from Canada; these branches unite in Moosehead Lake, a sheet of water about 30 miles long from north to south, with a breadth varying from 5 to 20 miles. From this lake the Kennebec issues in a large stream, and the general direction of the remainder of its course is to the south, till it reaches the mouth of the Androscoggin, after a course of about 250 miles. Though its course is obstructed by falls and shoals, like that of the Androscoggin, it is of great importance in the transportation of lumber. The tide ascends to Augusta, 70 miles from the open sea. The Penobscot falls into Penobscot Bay, has a course of about 250 miles, and is navigable for large ships to Bangor, 52 miles from the sea. The St. Croix or Scodie, which separates Maine from New Brunswick, enters Passamaquoddy Bay after a course of about 100 miles. Lakes and ponds in the interior are very numerous, especially in the north.

Climate. The winter is very severe. From the 1st of November to the 1st of April the ground is covered with snow, and the rivers and lakes with ice. The summer on the sea-shore is very hot: the thermometer frequently rises to 90°, and even 96°, and the weather is subject to sudden and great changes. Drought is frequent, but the country generally is healthy.

Productions, ge.-The principal products of this state are maize, wheat, barley, rye, and flax, with pine and other timber; apples, cherries, &c. The minerals comprise marble, iron ore, and lead. The annual value of the cotton manufactures has been estimated at 2,500,000 dollars. Shipbuilding is also extensively carried on-one-third of all the ships of America being built on its rivers and harbours.

Maine has some good canals, and fair railway communication. The legislation of Maine is remarkable as containing the enactments known as the Maine Liquor Laws, to prohibit the sale of intoxicating beverages, except cider, by any but the constituted authorities for the purposes of medicine, mechanics, or manufacture. The law was passed in 1851, and whatever doubts there may be as to the wisdom of the policy on general grounds, it cannot be denied that they have greatly decreased, though they have not by any means stopped, drunkenness.

Maine seems to have been discovered by one of the Cabots in 1497. It was afterwards visited by the French, who called the southern part, west of the Kennebec, Maine, and the eastern part Acadie. The English made some settlements in the southern district about 1635. The first charter was proprietary, and granted in 1639 to Sir Ferdinand Gorges, but in 1652 Maine was united to Massachusetts, under the title of the county of Yorkshire. Massachusetts, in 1819, gave permission to the freemen of Maine to decide the question of a separation, when, the majority of votes being in favour of it, it became an inde pendent state. In its early history it is said that every twentieth settler was killed by the Indians.

MAINE, LE, one of the old provinces of France, was bounded N. by Normandie, E. by Orléanais, S. by Ana or Touraine, and W. by Bretagne. It now forms the greater part of the departments MAYENNE and SARTHE, and part of ORNE.

MAINE-ET-LOIRE, a department in France, formed out of the old province of Anjou, and named from its two principal rivers, the Maine and the Loire, is bounded N. by the departments of Mayenne and Sarthe, E. by Indre-etLoire, S. by the departments of Vienne, Deux-Sèvres, and Vendée, and W. by Loire-Inférieure. Its greatest length is 77 miles, its greatest breadth 60 miles. The area is 2750 square miles; the population in 1882 was 523,491.

Surface. The department presents a pleasing variety of low hills, mostly planted with vines, and of plains, with are very fertile. The fields are inclosed by ditches and quickset hedges, within which clumps of trees are planted here and there, the whole giving a warm and agreeable aspect to the country.

Rivers.-The department belongs entirely to the basin of the Loire, which river crosses it from E. to W., and forms in its course several beautiful islands. The northern districts are drained by the Mayenne and its feeder the Oudon, by the Sarthe and its feeder the Loire, and by the Authion. The Mayenne and the Sarthe unite above Argers, and form the Maine, which after a course of about 5 miles falls into the Loire south by west of Angers. These lastnamed rivers are navigable; the Loire steamers between Nantes and Tours ply up the Maine as far as Angers. The chief feeders of the Loire from the left bank in this department are the Thouet and the Layon. The Sèvre-Nanta.", and its tributary the Moine, drain a small portion of the south-west of the department. The department is traversed by the Orléans-Nantes Railway. The climate is healthy, and the temperature mild; winter is rainy; west and southwest winds prevail.

Soil, Products, &c.-The soil is generally fertile, y ing corn more than enough for the consumption. The chef crops are wheat, rye, barley, and pulse of all kinds. Uth valuable products are hemp, flax, nuts, excellent fruits, &c. About 15,000,000, gallons of white and red wine are made annually, some of which is of good quality. A considerable quantity of effervescing wine, resembling the true charpe and rivalling it in quality, is manufactured. The depotment is famous for its melons. A considerable quantity of cider is also made. The forests, which are extensive, cou sist chiefly of onk and beech. The pasturage is good, and great numbers of horses, mules, horned cattle, and sheep are reared. Deer and wild boars are met with in the forests;

MAINTENON.

wires and badgers are sometimes seen; foxes, weasels, and wild cats are more common. Feathered game is very abundant. Fish is plentiful; the rivers are infested by otters. Among the reptiles are vipers, adders, the common stake, and land-lizards.

The minerals worked comprise slate, granite, marble, and Est. The quarries of the former, especially those of Angers, are vast excavations, worked right from the surface of the ard. The principal manufactures carried on are linens, dalets, ginghams, and calicoes. Grain is extensively exported. The department is divided into the five arronisements-Angers, Baugé, Segré, Cholet, and Saumur. The capital of the department is ANGERS.

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MAINTENON, FRANÇOISE D'AUBIGNÉ, MARQUISE DE, the second wife of Louis XIV., was pers in a prison at Niort on 27th November, 1635, where Le father had been imprisoned as a Huguenot. In 1639 te was released, and emigrated with his family to Martinique, where he died in 1645. Madame d'Aubigné returned France, and died there in 1650, after suffering much from poverty, leaving her daughter absolutely penniless. 1. this condition Mademoiselle d'Aubigné was befriended by the poet Scarron, who offered either to pay for her adEssion to a convent, or, though he was deformed and an rad, to make her his wife. She accepted the latter eft, and became Madame Scarron in 1651. To the poet de was a kind and attentive wife, and her beauty and inpace enabled her to take a prominent position in the list of the refined and intellectual society which frequented as ouse. After his death in 1660, she enjoyed his pension kr a few years; but it was stopped in 1666, and she was peparing to start for Portugal, to become lady-attendant the queen, when she made the acquaintance of the king's stress, Madame de Montespan, who obtained for her the al of the pension and induced her to stay in Paris. St. was afterwards intrusted with the education and care the children which Madame de Montespan had borne to Las XIV., a task which she carried out with unremitting | Lates and devotion for several years. Out of her savshe purchased the estate of Maintenon, and when she sed with the children to court she so gained the favour of the king that he raised her estate to a marquisate. mately she displaced Madame de Montespan herself, 21 after the death of the queen, although she had reached zesze of fifty, she was, in 1685, secretly married to Louis. 1. thirty years she retained his respect and affection, and Singh she was never publicly acknowledged as queen, she bed much authority in national affairs. She enjoyed a. A great reputation for devotion, and her influence at

was always exercised on the side of decency and raty. One of the best of her acts was the founding 4school for poor girls, which afterwards grew into the mesa institution of St. Cyr, and she always showed taifa kird friend and patron of her pupils. After the oth of the king she retired to St. Cyr, where she reed in seclusion until her death, which took place 1 April, 1719. Her political influence was disastrous ter vantry. The later years of Louis XIV. were filled faltures and reverses. The Jesuit party rose under favor to great authority, and it is to her we must the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which directly andreetly brought such evil to France. Nevertheless, *-* errtain that she opposed the abominable persecuof the DRAGONNADES. Her letters have been fre.matov pribil-bed, the best edition being that of Théophile (1854)

MAINZ, MENTZ, or MAYENCE, the Roman Moentiarum, is a fortified city of West Germany, in the grandof Hesse-Darmstadt, on the left bank of the Rhine, w the junction of the Main with that river, on thep of a hill. The population in 1881 was 60,905. Mara a connected, by a bridge of boats and a railway iron

|

MAISTRE.

bridge over the Rhine, with the village of Kastel or Kassel, included in its system of fortifications, which render it one of the strongest and most important fortresses in Germany. Besides the ramparts, the city is defended by extensive outworks, comprising a citadel, six forts, and a strongly fortified island on the river. The old streets are for the most part narrow and crooked, but a number of handsome buildings and new streets have sprung up, while ample space for an immense extension of the town has been afforded by the widening of the line of circumvallation. Along the Rhine extends a handsome quay. Of the squares, the principal is the Parade, which is surrounded with avenues of trees. Of the eleven churches, of which one is for Protestants, the most remarkable are the cathedral, a vast building, surmounted by a lofty cupola; the Church of St. Ignatius, which is considered a model of beautiful ecclesiastical architecture; St. Peter's; and St. Stephen's. Under St. Boniface, the apostle of Central Germany, the see was raised to an archbishopric and made the seat of the primate of Germany. This prelate was the son of an English wheelwright, and he assumed a pair of wheels as his armorial bearings, which are retained to this day in the arms of the city. The other chief buildings are the grandducal palace, the arsenal, the palaces of the commandant and of the vice-governor, the episcopal palace, the theatre, &c. A bronze statue of Gutenberg (the inventor of printing, and a native of Mainz), modelled by Thorwaldsen, and cast in Paris, was erected in an open space opposite the theatre in 1837. A literary club now occupies the site of his house. A gymnasium has taken the place of the former university, and there are several schools. The city library consists of above 130,000 volumes-among which are some of the earliest extant specimens of printing-and in the same building there are extensive collections of Roman antiquities, medals, &c. The Eichelstein in the citadel is supposed to be a monument in honour of Drusus Germanicus, brother of the Emperor Tiberius. The environs are very beautiful, and the prospects over the surrounding country magnificent. Mainz is a free port; it has few manufactures, but the commerce is considerable. Steamers ply regularly to the chief towns on the Rhine. Two railways run from the city, one east to Frankfurt, the other north to Wiesbaden. The town was taken by the French in 1797, but ceded to Hesse-Darmstadt in 1815. Prior to 1866 the garrison was composed of Austrian and Prussian troops in equal proportions, and the military governor was alternately a Prussian and Austrian general. In 1870 it was declared an imperial city.

MAIRE DU PALAIS, or Mayor of the Palace, the head of the executive power under the later Karling kings of France. See FRANCE.

MAISTRE, JOSEPH, COMTE DE, the famous French author, was of noble Savoyard family, and was born at Chambéry in 1753. He took civil service in the duchy of Languedoc, retiring at the Revolution to Lausanne. When Switzerland was attacked he wrote his first important work, "Considérations sur la France." At this time he acted as minister at Turin to the King of Sardinia in his restricted territory. When Piedmont fell before the young Napoleon, De Maistre retired to Sardinia; and at the beginning of the present century he was sent to St. Petersburg to plead the cause of his master. There he remained till 1815, and wrote his great works, "Du Pape," "De l'Église Gallicane," and "Les Soirées de St. Petersbourg," the latter remaining unfinished. De Maistre is an uncompromising Ultramontane, declaring the Pope to be the source of all authority on earth; at the same time in all points, except those of faith, he admits considerable liberty. His plan of society is rigorously logical, and one feels in him, even when in the greatest disagreement with his views, one of the greatest thinkers of the eighteenth century. As a writer he is admirably clear, distinct, and