The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 312

MINSTRELS, a body of men who during the Middle Ages wandered from place to place, especially from court to court, singing their own compositions to the harp for accompaniment.

MINTO, EARL OF, Governor-General of India; was bred to the bar, served in Parliament and as amba.s.sador, went out to India in 1806, consolidated the British power, captured Java, and opened diplomatic relations with powers around (17501814).

MIRABEAU, GABRIEL HONORe RIQUETTI, COMTE DE, son of the succeeding, born at the mansion-house of Bignon; was a man of ma.s.sive intellect and strong physical frame, who came to the front in the French Revolution; being expelled from his order by the n.o.blesse of Provence, he ingratiated himself with the Third Estate, and was elected commons-deputy of Aix to the States-General in 1789, where he became, as the incarnation of the whole movement, the ruling spirit of the hour, and gave proof, if he had lived, of being able to change the whole course of the Revolution, for he was already in communication with the court and in hopes of gaining it over to accept the inevitable, when he sickened and died, to the consternation of the entire people, whose affection and confidence he had won (1749-1791). See CARLYLE'S "FRENCH REVOLUTION" and his Essay in his "MISCELLANIES."

MIRABEAU, VICTOR RIQUETTI, MARQUIS DE, "crabbed old friend of men,"

born at Pertuis, in Provence, claimed to be of Florentine descent; "could never make the world go to his mind," and set about reforming it by coercing a family as self-willed as himself, to the driving of his celebrated son to desperate courses and reckless excesses; advocated the doctrines of the French economists in a series of writings instinct with a certain theoretical philanthropy (1716-1783).

MIRACLE PLAYS were strictly speaking dramas founded on legends of the saints, as distinct from mysteries founded on scriptural subjects, but the name came to cover all those religious representations for the instruction of the people fostered by the Church of the Middle Ages, performed first in churches, afterwards in public places; they were common in England from the 12th century, but latterly became corrupt through the introduction of grotesque indecorous comicalities; the rise of the drama led to their abandonment; on the Continent ecclesiastical action was taken against them, not by the Reformers, but by the Church itself in the 18th century, and everywhere they have all but disappeared; the Pa.s.sion Play acted every 10 years at Oberammergau, Bavaria, is the only important survival.

MIRANDA, the beautiful daughter of the magician Prospero in Shakespeare's "Tempest."

MIRANDA, FRANCESCO DE, a Portuguese poet; wrote sonnets and epistles in verse; was predecessor of Camoens (1495-1558).

MISERERE, a carved bracket on the under side of the stall seats in mediaeval churches, which, when the seat was turned up during the standing portion of the service, afforded support to the older clergy. Miserere, the Catholic name for the 51st Psalm.

MISHNA, the oral law of the Jews, which is divided into six parts, and const.i.tutes the text of the Talmud, of which the Gemara is the commentary.

MISPRISION, a high offence under, but close upon, the degree of a capital one; misprision of treason being a concealment of a felony without consenting to it.

MISSAL, a book containing the service of the ma.s.s for the entire year, such as is now in almost universal use throughout the Catholic world.

MISSISSIPPI (1,290), an American State on the E. bank of the Lower Mississippi, ab.u.t.ting on the Gulf of Mexico, between Louisiana and Alabama; has a hilly surface, traversed by numerous rivers, the Yazoo, a tributary of the Mississippi, forming a great fertile delta; the climate is free from extremes; the chief industry is agriculture; the best crops are grown in the N., and on the alluvial bottom lands; in the centre and NE. are good grazing farms; cotton, corn, oats, and fruits are the chief crops; virgin forests of hardwood cover much of the delta; valuable deposits of pipe and ochre clays and of lignite are found; cotton is manufactured, and there is trade in lumber; more than half the population is coloured, and the races are kept distinct in the State schools; the State university is at Oxford, and there are many other colleges; Jackson (6), the capital, is the chief railway centre, Meridian (10) has iron manufactures, Vicksburg (13) and Natchez (10) are the chief riverports; Mississippi was colonised by the French in 1699, ceded to Britain 1763, admitted to the Union 1817, joined the South in 1861, but was readmitted to the Union in 1869.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER rises in Lake Itaska, Minnesota, and flowing S.

for 2800 m., enters the Gulf of Mexico by a large delta; its earlier course is through picturesque country, often in gorges, with rapids such as the St. Anthony Falls, the Des Moines and Rock Island Rapids. After receiving the Missouri, 3000 m. long, from the Rocky Mountains, it flows 2 m. per hour through great alluvial plains, which are protected from its overflows by hundreds of miles of earth embankments, and is joined by the Ohio from the E., the Red and Arkansas Rivers from the W., and many other navigable streams. The Mississippi is navigable by large steamers for 2000 m.; St. Louis, Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez, and New Orleans are among the chief ports on its banks.

MISSISSIPPI SCHEME was started in France 1717 by John Law and the Government, ostensibly to develop the Mississippi basin, but really to ease the pressure on the exchequer; a company was formed and empowered to monopolise almost all the foreign trade; 624,000 shares were issued; depreciated paper currency was accepted in payment, and the national bank issued notes without stint; in 1719 the demand for shares was enormous; the nation was completely carried away; next year the crash came; the Government made every effort to save the position, but in vain; the distress was extreme, and Law had to leave the country.

MISSOLONGHI (6), Greek seaport and fis.h.i.+ng town, on the Gulf of Patras, chiefly noted for heroic defences in the War of Independence 1821-1826, and as the place of Byron's death 1824.

MISSOURI (2,679), an American State on the right bank of the Mississippi, between Iowa and Arkansas, is half the size of the British Isles, and is traversed by the Missouri River; N. of that river the country is level, S. of it there rise the Ozark tablelands; the soil is very fertile, and the State princ.i.p.ally agricultural; immense crops of maize, oats, potatoes, cotton, and tobacco are raised; there are large cattle ranches, and dressed beef and pork are largely exported; the climate is subject to extremes; coal, iron, lead, zinc, and other minerals abound, while marble, granite, and limestone are quarried; the rivers afford excellent transport facilities; the educational system is very complete; admitted to the Union in 1821, Missouri was divided in the Civil War, and suffered terribly, but since then has been very prosperous; the capital, St. Louis (452), is one of the greatest commercial and manufacturing towns in the Union, does a vast trade in grain and cotton, and has hardware, leather goods, and tobacco factories; Kansas City (133), has great pork-packing establishments and railroad iron-works.

MISTRAL, FREDERICK, poet of Southern France, born near Maillaune, was a peasant's son, and himself a peasant; his fame rose on the publication of the epic, "Mireio," in Provencal dialect, 1859; in 1867 he published "Calendou," and in 1876 a volume of songs, and in 1884 "Nerto,"

a novel; _b_. 1830.

MITFORD, MARY RUSSELL, auth.o.r.ess, born at Alresford, Hants, lived with her father, an extravagant physician, at Lyme Regis and London; she published poems in 1810-11-12, but, forced to earn a living, took to dramatic work; "Julian," "The Foscari," and "Rienzi" were successful if ephemeral tragedies; her best work was "Our Village," sketches of homely English life written with much care, and after appearing in the _London Magazine_, published in 5 vols., 1824-32 (1786-1855).

MITFORD, WILLIAM, English author; wrote a "History of Greece" and on the "English Metre, or the Harmony of Language" (1744-1827).

MITHRAS (i. e. the Friend), the highest of the second order of deities in the ancient Persian religion, the friend of man in this life and his protector against evil in the world to come, sided with Ormuzd against Ahriman, incarnated in the sun, and represented as a youth kneeling on a bull and plunging a dagger into his neck, while he is at the same time attacked by a dog, a serpent, and a scorpion.

MITHRIDATES THE GREAT, surnamed Eupator, king of Pontus from 123 to 63 B.C.; an implacable enemy of the Romans, between whom and him there raged from 90 to 63 a succession of wars, till he was defeated by Pompey near the Euphrates, when, being superseded by his son, he put an end to his life; he was a great man and conqueror, subdued many surrounding nations, and was a collector of works of art; he made a special study of poisons, and familiarised himself with all their antidotes, in view of possible attempts by means of them to take away his life.

MITRAILLEUSE, a gun consisting of several, as many as 25, barrels, from which a number of shots may be fired simultaneously or in rapid succession, used by the French in the Franco-German War.

MIVART, ST. GEORGE, naturalist, a Roman Catholic professor at Louvain, distinguished for his opposition to Darwinianism; _b_. 1827.

MNEMOSYNe in the Greek mythology the daughter of Uranos, the G.o.ddess of memory, and the mother of the Muses by Zeus.

MOA, the name of several species of New Zealand and Australian birds, from 2 to 14 ft. high, and quite wingless; almost extinct since the 17th century; two living specimens were captured in 1876.

MOAB, a pastoral region extending along the E. of lower parts of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, and inhabited by the descendants of Lot, now extinct, or merged among the Arabs.

MOABITE STONE, a stone 4 ft. high and 2 ft. broad found by Dr. Klein in 1868 among the ruins of Dhiban, a town in Moab, now in the Louvre at Paris, describing a victory of the Moabites over the Israelites; it was broken by the Arabs, but the fragments have been collected and put into their proper places.

MOBILE (31), a city and port of Alabama, U.S., 30 m. N. of the Gulf of Mexico; a thriving place; exports cotton, lumber, &c.

MOBILIER CReDIT, a banking and financial company founded in Paris in 1852; lends money on security of property other than real, and takes shares in public schemes, such as railways.

MODENA (31), Italian town, 62 m. N. of Florence; has a cathedral, with noted campanile, university, library, and art collections, and manufactures silk and leather; capital of a duchy (303); incorporated in the kingdom of Italy 1860.

MODERN ATHENS, Edinburgh, from its resemblance to Athens and its repute for literary culture; applied also to Boston, in America.

MODERN BABYLON, London, from its huge extent and the miscellaneous character of its inhabitants.

MODJESKA, HELENA, actress, born in Cracow; went on the stage after her first marriage in 1861, and from 1868 to 1876 was the favourite of Warsaw; retired to California on her second marriage, but returned to the stage, having learned English in seven months in California 1877, and till her final retirement in 1895, was eminently successful in America and Britain in such parts as Rosalind, Beatrice, &c.