VOLUME XVII SLICE VIII Matter to Mecklenburg (continued 3)

Apparatus ad bibliothecam maximam patrum le Nourry 1703 2

L’Art de vérifier les dates Dantine, Durand, Clémencet 1750 1 in 4to

Ed. 2 Clément 1770 1

Ed. 3 Clément 1783-1787 3

The 58 works in the above list comprise 199 great folio volumes and 39 in 4to or 8vo. The full Maurist bibliography contains the names of some 220 writers and more than 700 works. The lesser works in large measure cover the same fields as those in the list, but the number of works of purely religious character, of piety, devotion and edification, is very striking. Perhaps the most wonderful phenomenon of Maurist work is that what was produced was only a portion of what was contemplated and prepared for. The French Revolution cut short many gigantic undertakings, the collected materials for which fill hundreds of manuscript volumes in the Bibliothèque nationale of Paris and other libraries of France. There are at Paris 31 volumes of Berthereau’s materials for the Historians of the Crusades, not only in Latin and Greek, but in the oriental tongues; from them have been taken in great measure the Recueil des historiens des croisades, whereof 15 folio volumes have been published by the Académie des Inscriptions. There exist also the preparations for an edition of Rufinus and one of Eusebius, and for the continuation of the Papal Letters and of the Concilia Galliae. Dom Caffiaux and Dom Villevielle left 236 volumes of materials for a Trésor généalogique. There are Benedictine Antiquities (37 vols.), a Monasticon Gallicanum and a Monasticon Benedictinum (54 vols.). Of the Histories of the Provinces of France barely half a dozen were printed, but all were in hand, and the collections for the others fill 800 volumes of MSS. The materials for a geography of Gaul and France in 50 volumes perished in a fire during the Revolution.

When these figures were considered, and when one contemplates the vastness of the works in progress during any decade of the century 1680-1780; and still more, when not only the quantity but the quality of the work, and the abiding value of most of it is realized, it will be recognized that the output was prodigious and unique in the history of letters, as coming from a single society. The qualities that have made Maurist work proverbial for sound learning are its fine critical tact and its thoroughness.

The chief source of information on the Maurists and their work is Dom Tassin’s Histoire littéraire de la congregation de Saint-Maur (1770); it has been reduced to a bare bibliography and completed by de Lama, Bibliothèque des écrivains de la congr. de S.-M. (1882). The two works of de Broglie, Mabillon (2 vols., 1888) and Montfaucon (2 vols., 1891), give a charming picture of the inner life of the great Maurists of the earlier generation in the midst of their work and their friends. Sketches of the lives of a few of the chief Maurists will be found in McCarthy’s Principal Writers of the Congr. of S. M. (1868). Useful information about their literary undertakings will be found in De Lisle’s Cabinet des MSS. de la Bibl. Nat. Fonds St Germain-des-Prés. General information will be found in the standard authorities: Helyot, Hist. des ordres religieux (1718), vi. c. 37; Heimbucher, Orden und Kongregationen (1907) i. § 36; Wetzer und Welte, Kirchenlexicon (ed. 2) and Herzog-Hauck’s Realencyklopädie (ed. 3), the latter an interesting appreciation by the Protestant historian Otto Zöckler of the spirit and the merits of the work of the Maurists.

(E. C. B.)

1 His festival is kept on the 15th of January. He founded the monastery of Glanfeuil or St Maur-sur-Loire.

2 14 vols. of materials collected for the continuation are at Paris.

3 The printing of vol. ii. was impeded by the Revolution.

MAURITIUS, an island and British colony in the Indian Ocean (known whilst a French possession as the Île de France). It lies between 57° 18′ and 57° 49′ E., and 19° 58′ and 20° 32′ S., 550 m. E. of Madagascar, 2300 m. from the Cape of Good Hope, and 9500 m. from England via Suez. The island is irregularly elliptical—somewhat triangular—in shape, and is 36 m. long from N.N.E. to S.S.W., and about 23 m. broad. It is 130 m. in circumference, and its total area is about 710 sq. m. (For map see Madagascar.) The island is surrounded by coral reefs, so that the ports are difficult of access.

From its mountainous character Mauritius is a most picturesque island, and its scenery is very varied and beautiful. It has been admirably described by Bernardin de St Pierre, who lived in the island towards the close of the 18th century, in Paul et Virginie. The most level portions of the coast districts are the north and north-east, all the rest being broken by hills, which vary from 500 to 2700 ft. in height. The principal mountain masses are the north-western or Pouce range, in the district of Port Louis; the south-western, in the districts of Rivière Noire and Savanne; and the south-eastern range, in the Grand Port district. In the first of these, which consists of one principal ridge with several lateral spurs, overlooking Port Louis, are the singular peak of the Pouce (2650 ft.), so called from its supposed resemblance to the human thumb; and the still loftier Pieter Botte (2685 ft.), a tall obelisk of bare rock, crowned with a globular mass of stone. The highest summit in the island is in the south-western mass of hills, the Piton de la Rivière Noire, which is 2711 ft. above the sea. The south-eastern group of hills consists of the Montagne du Bambou, with several spurs running down to the sea. In the interior are extensive fertile plains, some 1200 ft. in height, forming the districts of Moka, Vacois, and Plaines Wilhelms; and from nearly the centre of the island an abrupt peak, the Piton du Milieu de l’Île rises to a height of 1932 ft. Other prominent summits are the Trois Mamelles, the Montagne du Corps de Garde, the Signal Mountain, near Port Louis, and the Morne Brabant, at the south-west corner of the island.

The rivers are small, and none is navigable beyond a few hundred yards from the sea. In the dry season little more than brooks, they become raging torrents in the wet season. The principal stream is the Grande Rivière, with a course of about 10 m. There is a remarkable and very deep lake, called Grand Bassin, in the south of the island, it is probably the extinct crater of an ancient volcano; similar lakes are the Mare aux Vacois and the Mare aux Joncs, and there are other deep hollows which have a like origin.

Geology.—The island is of volcanic origin, but has ceased to show signs of volcanic activity. All the rocks are of basalt and greyish-tinted lavas, excepting some beds of upraised coral. Columnar basalt is seen in several places. The remains of ancient craters can be distinguished, but their outlines have been greatly destroyed by denudation. There are many caverns and steep ravines, and from the character of the rocks the ascents are rugged and precipitous. The island has few minerals, although iron, lead and copper in very small quantities have in former times been obtained. The greater part of the surface is composed of a volcanic breccia, with here and there lava-streams exposed in ravines, and sometimes on the surface. The commonest lavas are dolerites. In at least two places sedimentary rocks are found at considerable elevations. In the Black River Mountains, at a height of about 1200 ft., there is a clay-slate; and near Midlands, in the Grand Port group of mountains, a chloritic schist occurs about 1700 ft. above the sea, forming the hill of La Selle. This schist is much contorted, but seems to have a general dip to the south or south-east. Evidence of recent elevation of the island is furnished by masses of coral reef and beach coral rock standing at heights of 40 ft. above sea-level in the south, 12 ft. in the north and 7 ft. on the islands situated on the bank extending to the north-east.1

Climate.—The climate is pleasant during the cool season of the year, but oppressively hot in summer (December to April), except in the elevated plains of the interior, where the thermometer ranges from 70° to 80° F., while in Port Louis and on the coast generally it ranges from 90° to 96°. The mean temperature for the year at Port Louis is 78.6°. There are two seasons, the cool and comparatively dry season, from April to November, and the hotter season, during the rest of the year. The climate is now less healthy than it was, severe epidemics of malarial fever having frequently occurred, so that malaria now appears to be endemic among the non-European population. The rainfall varies greatly in different parts of the island. Cluny in the Grand Port (south-eastern) district has a mean annual rainfall of 145 in.; Albion on the west coast is the driest station, with a mean annual rainfall of 31 in. The mean monthly rainfall for the whole island varies from 12 in. in March to 2.6 in. in September and October. The Royal Alfred Observatory is situated at Pamplemousses, on the north-west or dry side of the island. From January to the middle of April, Mauritius, in common with the neighbouring islands and the surrounding ocean from 8° to 30° of southern latitude is subject to severe cyclones, accompanied by torrents of rain, which often cause great destruction to houses and plantations. These hurricanes generally last about eight hours, but they appear to be less frequent and violent than in former times, owing, it is thought, to the destruction of the ancient forests and the consequent drier condition of the atmosphere.

Fauna and Flora.—Mauritius being an oceanic island of small size, its present fauna is very limited in extent. When first seen by Europeans it contained no mammals except a large fruit-eating bat (Pteropus vulgaris), which is plentiful in the woods; but several mammals have been introduced, and are now numerous in the uncultivated region. Among these are two monkeys of the genera Macacus and Cercopithecus, a stag (Cervus hippelaphus), a small hare, a shrew-mouse, and the ubiquitous rat. A lemur and one of the curious hedgehog-like Insectivora of Madagascar (Centetes ecaudatus) have probably both been brought from the larger island. The avifauna resembles that of Madagascar; there are species of a peculiar genus of caterpillar shrikes (Campephagidae), as well as of the genera Pratincola, Hypsipetes, Phedina, Tchitrea, Zosterops, Foudia, Collocalia and Coracopsis, and peculiar forms of doves and parakeets. The living reptiles are small and few in number. The surrounding seas contain great numbers of fish; the coral reefs abound with a great variety of molluscs; and there are numerous land-shells. The extinct fauna of Mauritius has considerable interest. In common with the other Mascarene islands, it was the home of the dodo (Didus ineptus); there were also Aphanapteryx, a species of rail, and a short-winged heron (Ardea megacephala), which probably seldom flew. The defenceless condition of these birds led to their extinction after the island was colonized. Considerable quantities of the bones of the dodo and other extinct birds—a rail (Aphanapteryx), and a short-winged heron—have been discovered in the beds of some of the ancient lakes (see Dodo). Several species of large fossil tortoises have also been discovered; they are quite different from the living ones of Aldabra, in the same zoological region.

Owing to the destruction of the primeval forests for the formation of sugar plantations, the indigenous flora is only seen in parts of the interior plains, in the river valleys and on the hills; and it is not now easy to distinguish between what is native and what has come from abroad. The principal timber tree is the ebony (Diospyros ebeneum), which grows to a considerable size. Besides this there are bois de cannelle, olive-tree, benzoin (Croton Benzoe), colophane (Colophonia), and iron-wood, all of which arc useful in carpentry; the coco-nut palm, an importation, but a tree which has been so extensively planted during the last hundred years that it is extremely plentiful; the palmiste (Palma dactylifera latifolia), the latanier (Corypha umbraculifera) and the date-palm. The vacoa or vacois, (Pandanus utilis) is largely grown, the long tough leaves being manufactured into bags for the export of sugar, and the roots being also made of use; and in the few remnants of the original forests the traveller’s tree (Urania speciosa), grows abundantly. A species of bamboo is very plentiful in the river valleys and in marshy situations. A large variety of fruit is produced, including the tamarind, mango, banana, pine-apple, guava, shaddock, fig, avocado-pear, litchi, custard-apple and the mabolo (Diospyros discolor), a fruit of exquisite flavour, but very disagreeable odour. Many of the roots and vegetables of Europe have been introduced, as well as some of those peculiar to the tropics, including maize, millet, yams, manioc, dhol, gram, &c. Small quantities of tea, rice and sago, have been grown, as well as many of the spices (cloves, nutmeg, ginger, pepper and allspice), and also cotton, indigo, betel, camphor, turmeric and vanilla. The Royal Botanical Gardens at Pamplemousses, which date from the French occupation of the island, contain a rich collection of tropical and extra-tropical species.

Inhabitants.—The inhabitants consist of two great divisions, those of European blood, chiefly French and British, together with numerous half-caste people, and those of Asiatic or African blood. The population of European blood, which calls itself Creole, is greater than that of any other tropical colony; many of the inhabitants trace their descent from ancient French families, and the higher and middle classes are distinguished for their intellectual culture. French is more commonly spoken than English. The Creole class is, however, diminishing, though slowly, and the most numerous section of the population is of Indian blood.

The introduction of Indian coolies to work the sugar plantations dates from the period of the emancipation of the slaves in 1834-1839. At that time the negroes who showed great unwillingness to work on their late masters’ estates, numbered about 66,000. Immigration from India began in 1834, and at a census taken in 1846, when the total population was 158,462, there were already 56,245 Indians in the island. In 1851 the total population had increased to 180,823, while in 1861 it was 310,050. This great increase was almost entirely due to Indian immigration, the Indian population, 77,996 in 1851, being 192,634 in 1861. From that year the increase in the Indian population has been more gradual but steady, while the non-Indian population has decreased. From 102,827 in 1851 it rose to 117,416 in 1861 to sink to 99,784 in 1871. The figures for the three following census years were:—

1881. 1891. 1901.

Indians 248,993 255,920 259,086

Others 110,881 114,668 111,937

——— ——— ———

Total 359,874 370,588 371,023

——— ——— ———

Including the military and crews of ships in harbour, the total population in 1901 was 373,336.2 This total included 198,958 Indo-Mauritians, i.e. persons of Indian descent born in Mauritius, and 62,022 other Indians. There were 3,509 Chinese, while the remaining 108,847 included persons of European, African or mixed descent, Malagasy, Malays and Sinhalese. The Indian female population increased from 51,019 in 1861 to 115,986 in 1901. In the same period the non-Indian female population but slightly varied, being 56,070 in 1861 and 55,485 in 1901. The Indo-Mauritians are now dominant in commercial, agricultural and domestic callings, and much town and agricultural land has been transferred from the Creole planters to Indians and Chinese. The tendency to an Indian peasant proprietorship is marked. Since 1864 real property to the value of over £1,250,000 has been acquired by Asiatics. Between 1881 and 1901 the number of sugar estates decreased from 171 to 115, those sold being held in small parcels by Indians. The average death-rate for the period 1873-1901 was 32.6 per 1000. The average birth-rate in the Indian community is 37 per 1000; in the non-Indian community 34 per 1000. Many Mauritian Creoles have emigrated to South Africa. The great increase in the population since 1851 has made Mauritius one of the most densely peopled regions of the world, having over 520 persons per square mile.

Chief Towns.—The capital and seat of government, the city of Port Louis, is on the north-western side of the island, in 20° 10′ S., 57° 30′ E. at the head of an excellent harbour, a deep inlet about a mile long, available for ships of the deepest draught. This is protected by Fort William and Fort George, as well as by the citadel (Fort Adelaide), and it has three graving-docks connected with the inner harbour, the depths alongside quays and berths being from 12 to 28 ft. The trade of the island passes almost entirely through the port. Government House is a three-storeyed structure with broad verandas, of no particular style of architecture, while the Protestant cathedral was formerly a powder magazine, to which a tower and spire have been added. The Roman Catholic cathedral is more pretentious in style, but is tawdry in its interior. There are, besides the town-hall, Royal College, public offices and theatre, large barracks and military stores. Port Louis, which is governed by an elective municipal council, is surrounded by lofty hills and its unhealthy situation is aggravated by the difficulty of effective drainage owing to the small amount of tide in the harbour. Though much has been done to make the town sanitary, including the provision of a good water-supply, the death-rate is generally over 44 per 1000. Consequently all those who can make their homes in the cooler uplands of the interior. As a result the population of the city decreased from about 70,000 in 1891 to 53,000 in 1901. The favourite residential town is Curepipe, where the climate resembles that of the south of France. It is built on the central plateau about 20 m. distant from Port Louis by rail and 1800 ft. above the sea. Curepipe was incorporated in 1888 and had a population (1901) of 13,000. On the railway between Port Louis and Curepipe are other residential towns—Beau Bassin, Rose Hill and Quatre Bornes. Mahébourg, pop. (1901), 4810, is a town on the shores of Grand Port on the south-east side of the island, Souillac a small town on the south coast.

Industries.—The Sugar Plantations: The soil of the island is of considerable fertility; it is a ferruginous red clay, but so largely mingled with stones of all sizes that no plough can be used, and the hoe has to be employed to prepare the ground for cultivation. The greater portion of the plains is now a vast sugar plantation. The bright green of the sugar fields is a striking feature in a view of Mauritius from the sea, and gives a peculiar beauty and freshness to the prospect. The soil is suitable for the cultivation of almost all kinds of tropical produce, and it is to be regretted that the prosperity of the colony depends almost entirely on one article of production, for the consequences are serious when there is a failure, more or less, of the sugar crop. Guano is extensively imported as a manure, and by its use the natural fertility of the soil has been increased to a wonderful extent. Since the beginning of the 20th century some attention has been paid to the cultivation of tea and cotton, with encouraging results. Of the exports, sugar amounts on an average to about 95% of the total. The quantity of sugar exported rose from 102,000 tons in 1854 to 189,164 tons in 1877. The competition of beet-sugar and the effect of bounties granted by various countries then began to tell on the production in Mauritius, the average crop for the seven years ending 1900-1901 being only 150,449 tons. The Brussels Sugar Convention of 1902 led to an increase in production, the average annual weight of sugar exported for the three years 1904-1906 being 182,000 tons. The value of the crop was likewise seriously affected by the causes mentioned, and by various diseases which attacked the canes. Thus in 1878 the value of the sugar exported was £3,408,000; in 1888 it had sunk to £1,911,000, and in 1898 to £1,632,000. In 1900 the value was £1,922,000, and in 1905 it had risen to £2,172,000. India and the South African colonies between them take some two-thirds of the total produce. The remainder is taken chiefly by Great Britain, Canada and Hong-Kong. Next to sugar, aloe-fibre is the most important export, the average annual export for the five years ending 1906 being 1840 tons. In addition, a considerable quantity of molasses and smaller quantities of rum, vanilla and coco-nut oil are exported. The imports are mainly rice, wheat, cotton goods, wine, coal, hardware and haberdashery, and guano. The rice comes principally from India and Madagascar; cattle are imported from Madagascar, sheep from South Africa and Australia, and frozen meat from Australia. The average annual value of the exports for the ten years 1896-1905 was £2,153,159; the average annual value of the imports for the same period £1,453,089. These figures when compared with those in years before the beet and bounty-fed sugar had entered into severe competition with cane sugar, show how greatly the island had thereby suffered. In 1864 the exports were valued at £2,249,000; in 1868 at £2,339,000; in 1877 at £4,201,000 and in 1880 at £3,634,000. And in each of the years named the imports exceeded £2,000,000 in value. Nearly all the aloe-fibre exported is taken by Great Britain, and France, while the molasses goes to India. Among the minor exports is that of bambara or sea-slugs, which are sent to Hong-Kong and Singapore. This industry is chiefly in Chinese hands. The great majority of the imports are from Great Britain or British possessions.

The currency of Mauritius is rupees and cents of a rupee, the Indian rupee (= 16d.) being the standard unit. The metric system of weights and measures has been in force since 1878.

Communications.—There is a regular fortnightly steamship service between Marseilles and Port Louis by the Messageries Maritimes, a four-weekly service with Southampton via Cape Town by the Union Castle, and a four-weekly service with Colombo direct by the British India Co.’s boats. There is also frequent communication with Madagascar, Réunion and Natal. The average annual tonnage of ships entering Port Louis is about 750,000 of which five-sevenths is British. Cable communication with Europe, via the Seychelles, Zanzibar and Aden, was established in 1893, and the Mauritius section of the Cape-Australian cable, via Rodriguez, was completed in 1902.

Railways connect all the principal places and sugar estates on the island, that known as the Midland line, 36 miles long, beginning at Port Louis crosses the island to Mahébourg, passing through Curepipe, where it is 1822 ft. above the sea. There are in all over 120 miles of railway, all owned and worked by the government. The first railway was opened in 1864. The roads are well kept and there is an extensive system of tramways for bringing produce from the sugar estates to the railway lines. Traction engines are also largely used. There is a complete telegraphic and telephonic service.

Government and Revenue.—Mauritius is a crown colony. The governor is assisted by an executive council of five official and two elected members, and a legislative council of 27 members, 8 sitting ex officio, 9 being nominated by the governor and 10 elected on a moderate franchise. Two of the elected members represent St Louis, the 8 rural districts into which the island is divided electing each one member. At least one-third of the nominated members must be persons not holding any public office. The number of registered electors in 1908 was 6186. The legislative session usually lasts from April to December. Members may speak either in French or English. The average annual revenue of the colony for the ten years 1896-1905, was £608,245, the average annual expenditure during the same period £663,606. Up to 1854 there was a surplus in hand, but since that time expenditure has on many occasions exceeded income, and the public debt in 1908 was £1,305,000, mainly incurred however on reproductive works.

The island has largely retained the old French laws, the codes civil, de procédure, du commerce, and d’instruction criminelle being still in force, except so far as altered by colonial ordinances. A supreme court of civil and criminal justice was established in 1831 under a chief judge and three puisne judges.

Religion and Education.—The majority of the European inhabitants belong to the Roman Catholic faith. They numbered at the 1901 census 117,102, and the Protestants 6644. Anglicans, Roman Catholics and the Church of Scotland are helped by state grants. At the head of the Anglican community is the bishop of Mauritius; the chief Romanist dignitary is styled bishop of Port Louis. The Mahommedans number over 30,000, but the majority of the Indian coolies are Hindus.

The educational system, as brought into force in 1900, is under a director of public instruction assisted by an advisory committee, and consists of two branches (1) superior or secondary instruction, (2) primary instruction. For primary instruction there are government schools and schools maintained by the Roman Catholics, Protestants and other faiths, to which the government gives grants in aid. In 1908 there were 67 government schools with 8400 scholars and 90 grant schools with 10,200 scholars, besides Hindu schools receiving no grant. The Roman Catholic scholars number 67.72%; the Protestants 3.80%; Mahommedans 8.37%; and Hindus and others 20.11%. Secondary and higher education is given in the Royal College and associated schools at Port Louis and Curepipe.

Defence.—Mauritius occupies an important strategic position on the route between South Africa and India and in relation to Madagascar and East Africa, while in Port Louis it possesses one of the finest harbours in the Indian Ocean. A permanent garrison of some 3000 men is maintained in the island at a cost of about £180,000 per annum. To the cost of the troops Mauritius contributes 51⁄2% of its annual revenue—about £30,000.

History.—Mauritius appears to have been unknown to European nations, if not to all other peoples, until the year 1505, when it was discovered by Mascarenhas, a Portuguese navigator. It had then no inhabitants, and there seem to be no traces of a previous occupation by any people. The island was retained for most of the 16th century by its discoverers, but they made no settlements in it. In 1598 the Dutch took possession, and named the island “Mauritius,” in honour of their stadtholder, Count Maurice of Nassau. It had been previously called by the Portuguese “Ilha do Cerné,” from the belief that it was the island so named by Pliny. But though the Dutch built a fort at Grand Port and introduced a number of slaves and convicts, they made no permanent settlement in Mauritius, finally abandoning the island in 1710. From 1715 to 1767 (when the French government assumed direct control) the island was held by agents of the French East India Company, by whom its name was again changed to “Île de France.” The Company was fortunate in having several able men as governors of its colony, especially the celebrated Mahé de Labourdonnais (q.v.), who made sugar planting the main industry of the inhabitants.3 Under his direction roads were made, forts built, and considerable portions of the forest were cleared, and the present capital, Port Louis, was founded. Labourdonnais also promoted the planting of cotton and indigo, and is remembered as the most enlightened and best of all the French governors. He also put down the maroons or runaway slaves who had long been the pest of the island. The colony continued to rise in value during the time it was held by the French crown, and to one of the intendants,4 Pierre Poivre, was due the introduction of the clove, nutmeg and other spices. Another governor was D’Entrecasteaux, whose name is kept in remembrance by a group of islands east of New Guinea.

During the long war between France and England, at the commencement of the 19th century, Mauritius was a continual source of much mischief to English Indiamen and other merchant vessels; and at length the British government determined upon an expedition for its capture. This was effected in 1810; and upon the restoration of peace in 1814 the possession of the island was confirmed to Britain by the Treaty of Paris. By the eighth article of capitulation it was agreed that the inhabitants should retain their own laws, customs, and religion; and thus the island is still largely French in language, habits, and predilections; but its name has again been changed to that given by the Dutch. One of the most distinguished of the British governors was Sir Robert Farquhar (1810-1823), who did much to abolish the Malagasy slave trade and to establish friendly relations with the rising power of the Hova sovereign of Madagascar. Later governors of note were Sir Henry Barkly (1863-1871), and Sir J. Pope Hennessy (1883-1886 and 1888).

The history of the colony since its acquisition by Great Britain has been one of social and political evolution. At first all power was concentrated in the hands of the governor, but in 1832 a legislative council was constituted on which non-official nominated members served. In 1884-1885 this council was transformed into a partly elected body. Of more importance than the constitutional changes were the economic results which followed the freeing of the slaves (1834-1839)—for the loss of whose labour the planters received over £2,000,000 compensation. Coolies were introduced to supply the place of the negroes, immigration being definitely sanctioned by the government of India in 1842. Though under government control the system of coolie labour led to many abuses. A royal commission investigated the matter in 1871 and since that time the evils which were attendant on the system have been gradually remedied. One result of the introduction of free labour has been to reduce the descendants of the slave population to a small and unimportant class—Mauritius in this respect offering a striking contrast to the British colonies in the West Indies. The last half of the 19th century was, however, chiefly notable in Mauritius for the number of calamities which overtook the island. In 1854 cholera caused the death of 17,000 persons; in 1867 over 30,000 people died of malarial fever; in 1892 a hurricane of terrific violence caused immense destruction of property and serious loss of life; in 1893 a great part of Port Louis was destroyed by fire. There were in addition several epidemics of small-pox and plague, and from about 1880 onward the continual decline in the price of sugar seriously affected the islanders, especially the Creole population. During 1902-1905 an outbreak of surra, which caused great mortality among draught animals, further tried the sugar planters and necessitated government help. Notwithstanding all these calamities the Mauritians, especially the Indo-Mauritians, have succeeded in maintaining the position of the colony as an important sugar-producing country.

Dependencies.—Dependent upon Mauritius and forming part of the colony are a number of small islands scattered over a large extent of the Indian Ocean. Of these the chief is Rodriguez (q.v.), 375 m. east of Mauritius. Considerably north-east of Rodriguez lie the Oil Islands or Chagos archipelago, of which the chief is Diego Garcia (see Chagos). The Cargados, Carayos or St Brandon islets, deeps and shoals, lie at the south end of the Nazareth Bank about 250 m. N.N.E. of Mauritius. Until 1903 the Seychelles, Amirantes, Aldabra and other islands lying north of Madagascar were also part of the colony of Mauritius. In the year named they were formed into a separate colony (see Seychelles). Two islands, Farquhar and Coetivy, though geographically within the Seychelles area, remained dependent on Mauritius, being owned by residents in that island. In 1908, however, Coetivy was transferred to the Seychelles administration. Amsterdam and St Paul, uninhabited islands in the South Indian Ocean, included in an official list of the dependencies of Mauritius drawn up in 1880, were in 1893 annexed by France. The total population of the dependencies of Mauritius was estimated in 1905 at 5400.

Authorities.—F. Leguat, Voyages et aventures en deux isles désertes des Indes orientales (Eng. trans., A New Voyage to the East Indies; London, 1708); Prudham, “England’s Colonial Empire,” vol. i., The Mauritius and its Dependencies (1846); C. P. Lucas, A Historical Geography of the British Colonies, vol. i. (Oxford, 1888); Ch. Grant, History of Mauritius, or the Isle of France and Neighbouring Islands (1801); J. Milbert, Voyage pittoresque à l’Île-de-France, &c., 4 vols. (1812); Aug. Billiard, Voyage aux colonies orientales (1822); P. Beaton, Creoles and Coolies, or Five Years in Mauritius (1859); Paul Chasteau, Histoire et description de l’île Maurice (1860); F. P. Flemyng, Mauritius, or the Isle of France (1862); Ch. J. Boyle, Far Away, or Sketches of Scenery and Society in Mauritius (1867); L. Simonin, Les Pays lointains, notes de voyage (Maurice, &c.) (1867); N. Pike, Sub-Tropical Rambles in the Land of the Aphanapteryx (1873); A. R. Wallace. “The Mascarene Islands,” in ch. xi. vol. i. of The Geographical Distribution of Animals (1876); K. Möbius, F. Richter and E. von Martens, Beiträge zur Meeresfauna der Insel Mauritius und der Seychellen (Berlin, 1880); G. Clark, A Brief Notice of the Fauna of Mauritius (1881); A. d’Épinay, Renseignements pour servir à l’histoire de l’Île de France jusqu’à 1810 (Mauritius, 1890); N. Decotter, Geography of Mauritius and its Dependencies (Mauritius, 1892); H. de Haga Haig, “The Physical Features and Geology of Mauritius” in vol. li., Q. J. Geol. Soc. (1895); the Annual Reports on Mauritius issued by the Colonial Office, London; The Mauritius Almanack published yearly at Port Louis. A map of the island in six sheets on the scale of one inch to a mile was issued by the War Office in 1905.

(J. Si.*)

1 See Geog. Journ. (June 1895), p. 597.

2 The total population of the colony (including dependencies) on the 1st of January 1907 was estimated at 383,206.

3 Labourdonnais is credited by several writers with the introduction of the sugar cane into the island. Leguat, however, mentions it as being cultivated during the Dutch occupation.

4 The régime introduced in 1767 divided the administration between a governor, primarily charged with military matters, and an intendant.

MAURY, JEAN SIFFREIN (1746-1817), French cardinal and archbishop of Paris, the son of a poor cobbler, was born on the 26th of June 1746 at Valréas in the Comtat-Venaissin, the district in France which belonged to the pope. His acuteness was observed by the priests of the seminary at Avignon, where he was educated and took orders. He tried his fortune by writing éloges of famous persons, then a favourite practice; and in 1771 his éloge on Fénelon was pronounced next best to Laharpe’s by the Academy. The real foundation of his fortunes was the success of a panegyric on St Louis delivered before the Academy in 1772, which caused him to be recommended for an abbacy. In 1777 he published under the title of Discours choisis his panegyrics on Saint Louis, Saint Augustine and Fénelon, his remarks on Bossuet and his Essai sur l’éloquence de la chaire, a volume which contains much good criticism, and remains a French classic. The book was often reprinted as Principes de l’éloquence. He became a favourite preacher in Paris, and was Lent preacher at court in 1781, when King Louis XVI. said of his sermon: “If the abbé had only said a few words on religion he would have discussed every possible subject.” In 1781 he obtained the rich priory of Lyons, near Péronne, and in 1785 he was elected to the Academy, as successor of Lefranc de Pompignan. His morals were as loose as those of his great rival Mirabeau, but he was famed in Paris for his wit and gaiety. In 1789 he was elected a member of the states-general by the clergy of the bailliage of Péronne, and from the first proved to be the most able and persevering defender of the ancien régime, although he had drawn up the greater part of the cahier of the clergy of Péronne, which contained a considerable programme of reform. It is said that he attempted to emigrate both in July and in October 1789; but after that time he held firmly to his place, when almost universally deserted by his friends. In the Constituent Assembly he took an active part in every important debate, combating with especial vigour the alienation of the property of the clergy. His life was often in danger, but his ready wit always saved it, and it was said that one bon mot would preserve him for a month. When he did emigrate in 1792 he found himself regarded as a martyr to the church and the king, and was at once named archbishop in partibus, and extra nuncio to the diet at Frankfort, and in 1794 cardinal. He was finally made bishop of Montefiascone, and settled down in that little Italian town—but not for long, for in 1798 the French drove him from his retreat, and he sought refuge in Venice and St Petersburg. Next year he returned to Rome as ambassador of the exiled Louis XVIII. at the papal court. In 1804 he began to prepare his return to France by a well-turned letter to Napoleon, congratulating him on restoring religion to France once more. In 1806 he did return; in 1807 he was again received into the Academy; and in 1810, on the refusal of Cardinal Fesch, was made archbishop of Paris. He was presently ordered by the pope to surrender his functions as archbishop of Paris. This he refused to do. On the restoration of the Bourbons he was summarily expelled from the Academy and from the archiepiscopal palace. He retired to Rome, where he was imprisoned in the castle of St Angelo for six months for his disobedience to the papal orders, and died in 1817, a year or two after his release, of disease contracted in prison and of chagrin. As a critic he was a very able writer, and Sainte-Beuve gives him the credit of discovering Father Jacques Bridayne, and of giving Bossuet his rightful place as a preacher above Massillon; as a politician, his wit and eloquence make him a worthy rival of Mirabeau. He sacrificed too much to personal ambition, yet it would have been a graceful act if Louis XVIII. had remembered the courageous supporter of Louis XVI., and the pope the one intrepid defender of the Church in the states-general.

The Œuvres choisies du Cardinal Maury (5 vols., 1827) contain what is worth preserving. Mgr Ricard has published Maury’s Correspondance diplomatique (2 vols., Lille, 1891). For his life and character see Vie du Cardinal Maury, by Louis Siffrein Maury, his nephew (1828); J. J. F. Poujoulat, Cardinal Maury, sa vie et ses œuvres (1855); Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi (vol. iv.); Mgr Ricard, L’Abbé Maury (1746-1791), L’Abbé Maury avant 1789, L’Abbé Maury et Mirabeau (1887); G. Bonet-Maury, Le Cardinal Maury d’après ses mémoires et sa correspondance inédits (Paris, 1892); A. Aulard, Les Orateurs de la constituante (Paris, 1882). Of the many libels written against him during the Revolution the most noteworthy are the Petit carême de l’abbé Maury, with a supplement called the Seconde année (1790), and the Vie privée de l’abbé Maury (1790), claimed by J. R. Hébert, but attributed by some writers to Restif de la Bretonne. For further bibliographical details see J. M. Quérard, La France littéraire, vol. v. (1833).

MAURY, LOUIS FERDINAND ALFRED (1817-1892), French scholar, was born at Meaux on the 23rd of March 1817. In 1836, having completed his education, he entered the Bibliothèque Nationale, and afterwards the Bibliothèque de l’Institut (1844), where he devoted himself to the study of archaeology, ancient and modern languages, medicine and law. Gifted with a great capacity for work, a remarkable memory and an unbiassed and critical mind, he produced without great effort a number of learned pamphlets and books on the most varied subjects. He rendered great service to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, of which he had been elected a member in 1857. Napoleon III. employed him in research work connected with the Histoire de César, and he was rewarded, proportionately to his active, if modest, part in this work, with the positions of librarian of the Tuileries (1860), professor at the College of France (1862) and director-general of the Archives (1868). It was not, however, to the imperial favour that he owed these high positions. He used his influence for the advancement of science and higher education, and with Victor Duruy was one of the founders of the École des Hautes Études. He died at Paris four years after his retirement from the last post, on the 11th of February 1892.

Bibliography.—His works are numerous: Les Fées au moyen âge and Histoire des légendes pieuses au moyen âge; two books filled with ingenious ideas, which were published in 1843, and reprinted after the death of the author, with numerous additions under the title Croyances et légendes du moyen âge (1896); Histoire des grandes forêts de la Gaule et de l’ancienne France (1850, a 3rd ed. revised appeared in 1867 under the title Les Forêts de la Gaule et de l’ancienne France); La Terre et l’homme, a general historical sketch of geology, geography and ethnology, being the introduction to the Histoire universelle, by Victor Duruy (1854); Histoire des religions de la Grèce antique, (3 vols., 1857-1859); La Magie et l’astrologie dans l’antiquité et dans le moyen âge (1863); Histoire de l’ancienne académie des sciences (1864); Histoire de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres (1865); a learned paper on the reports of French archaeology, written on the occasion of the universal exhibition (1867); a number of articles in the Encyclopédie moderne (1846-1851), in Michaud’s Biographie universelle (1858 and seq.), in the Journal des savants in the Revue des deux mondes (1873, 1877, 1879-1880, &c.). A detailed bibliography of his works has been placed by Auguste Longnon at the beginning of the volume Les Croyances et légendes du moyen âge.

MAURY, MATTHEW FONTAINE (1806-1873), American naval officer and hydrographer, was born near Fredericksburg in Spottsylvania county, Virginia, on the 24th of January 1806. He was educated at Harpeth academy, and in 1825 entered the navy as midshipman, circumnavigating the globe in the “Vincennes,” during a cruise of four years (1826-1830). In 1831 he was appointed master of the sloop “Falmouth” on the Pacific station, and subsequently served in other vessels before returning home in 1834, when he married his cousin, Ann Herndon. In 1835-1836 he was actively engaged in producing for publication a treatise on navigation, a remarkable achievement at so early a stage in his career; he was at this time made lieutenant, and gazetted astronomer to a South Sea exploring expedition, but resigned this position and was appointed to the survey of southern harbours. In 1839 he met with an accident which resulted in permanent lameness, and unfitted him for active service. In the same year, however, he began to write a series of articles on naval reform and other subjects, under the title of Scraps from the Lucky-Bag, which attracted much attention; and in 1841 he was placed in charge of the Dépôt of Charts and Instruments, out of which grew the United States Naval Observatory and the Hydrographie Office. He laboured assiduously to obtain observations as to the winds and currents by distributing to captains of vessels specially prepared log-books; and in the course of nine years he had collected a sufficient number of logs to make two hundred manuscript volumes, each with about two thousand five hundred days’ observations. One result was to show the necessity for combined action on the part of maritime nations in regard to ocean meteorology. This led to an international conference at Brussels in 1853, which produced the greatest benefit to navigation as well as indirectly to meteorology. Maury attempted to organize co-operative meteorological work on land, but the government did not at this time take any steps in this direction. His oceanographical work, however, received recognition in all parts of the civilized world, and in 1855 it was proposed in the senate to remunerate him, but in the same year the Naval Retiring Board, erected under an act to promote the efficiency of the navy, placed him on the retired list. This action aroused wide opposition, and in 1858 he was reinstated with the rank of commander as from 1855. In 1853 Maury had published his Letters on the Amazon and Atlantic Slopes of South America, and the most widely popular of his works, the Physical Geography of the Sea, was published in London in 1855, and in New York in 1856; it was translated into several European languages. On the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Maury threw in his lot with the South, and became head of coast, harbour and river defences. He invented an electric torpedo for harbour defence, and in 1862 was ordered to England to purchase torpedo material, &c. Here he took active part in organizing a petition for peace to the American people, which was unsuccessful. Afterwards he became imperial commissioner of emigration to the emperor Maximilian of Mexico, and attempted to form a Virginian colony in that country. Incidentally he introduced there the cultivation of cinchona. The scheme of colonization was abandoned by the emperor (1866), and Maury, who had lost nearly his all during the war, settled for a while in England, where he was presented with a testimonial raised by public subscription, and among other honours received the degree of LL.D. of Cambridge University (1868). In the same year, a general amnesty admitting of his return to America, he accepted the professorship of meteorology in the Virginia Military Institute, and settled at Lexington, Virginia, where he died on the 1st of February 1873.

Among works published by Maury, in addition to those mentioned, are the papers contributed by him to the Astronomical Observations of the United States Observatory, Letter concerning Lanes for Steamers crossing the Atlantic (1855); Physical Geography (1864) and Manual of Geography (1871). In 1859 he began the publication of a series of Nautical Monographs.

See Diana Fontaine Maury Corbin (his daughter), Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury (London, 1888).

MAUSOLEUM, the term given to a monument erected to receive the remains of a deceased person, which may sometimes take the form of a sepulchral chapel. The term cenotaph (κενός, empty, τάφος, tomb) is employed for a similar monument where the body is not buried in the structure. The term “mausoleum” originated with the magnificent monument erected by Queen Artemisia in 353 B.C. in memory of her husband King Mausolus, of which the remains were brought to England in 1859 by Sir Charles Newton and placed in the British Museum. The tombs of Augustus and of Hadrian in Rome are perhaps the largest monuments of the kind ever erected.

MAUSOLUS (more correctly Maussollus), satrap and practically ruler of Caria (377-353 B.C.). The part he took in the revolt against Artaxerxes Mnemon, his conquest of a great part of Lycia, Ionia and of several of the Greek islands, his co-operation with the Rhodians and their allies in the war against Athens, and the removal of his capital from Mylasa, the ancient seat of the Carian kings, to Halicarnassus are the leading facts of his history. He is best known from the tomb erected for him by his widow Artemisia. The architects Satyrus and Pythis, and the sculptors Scopas, Leochares, Bryaxis and Timotheus, finished the work after her death. (See Halicarnassus.) An inscription discovered at Mylasa (Böckh, Inscr. gr. ii. 2691 c.) details the punishment of certain conspirators who had made an attempt upon his life at a festival in a temple at Labranda in 353.

See Diod. Sic. xv. 90, 3, xvi. 7, 4, 36, 2; Demosthenes, De Rhodiorum libertate; J. B. Bury, Hist. of Greece (1902), ii. 271; W. Judeich, Kleinasiatische Studien (Marburg, 1892), pp. 226-256, and authorities under Halicarnassus.

MAUVE, ANTON (1838-1888), Dutch landscape painter, was born at Zaandam, the son of a Baptist minister. Much against the wish of his parents he took up the study of art and entered the studio of Van Os, whose dry academic manner had, however, but little attraction for him. He benefited far more by his intimacy with his friends Jozef Israels and W. Maris. Encouraged by their example he abandoned his early tight and highly finished manner for a freer, looser method of painting, and the brilliant palette of his youthful work for a tender lyric harmony which is generally restricted to delicate greys, greens, and light blue. He excelled in rendering the soft hazy atmosphere that lingers over the green meadows of Holland, and devoted himself almost exclusively to depicting the peaceful rural life of the fields and country lanes of Holland—especially of the districts near Oosterbeck and Wolfhezen, the sand dunes of the coast at Scheveningen, and the country near Laren, where he spent the last years of his life. A little sad and melancholy, his pastoral scenes are nevertheless conceived in a peaceful soothing lyrical mood, which is in marked contrast to the epic power and almost tragic intensity of J. F. Millet. There are fourteen of Mauve’s pictures at the Mesdag Museum at the Hague, and two (“Milking Time” and “A Fishing Boat putting to Sea”) at the Ryks Museum in Amsterdam. The Glasgow Corporation Gallery owns his painting of “A Flock of Sheep.” The finest and most representative private collection of pictures by Mauve was made by Mr J. C. J. Drucker, London.

MAVROCORDATO, Mavrocordat or Mavrogordato, the name of a family of Phanariot Greeks, distinguished in the history of Turkey, Rumania and modern Greece. The family was founded by a merchant of Chios, whose son Alexander Mavrocordato (c. 1636-1709), a doctor of philosophy and medicine of Bologna, became dragoman to the sultan in 1673, and was much employed in negotiations with Austria. It was he who drew up the treaty of Karlowitz (1699). He became a secretary of state, and was created a count of the Holy Roman Empire. His authority, with that of Hussein Kupruli and Rami Pasha, was supreme at the court of Mustapha II., and he did much to ameliorate the condition of the Christians in Turkey. He was disgraced in 1703, but was recalled to court by Sultan Ahmed III. He left some historical, grammatical, &c. treatises of little value.

His son Nicholas Mavrocordato (1670-1730) was grand dragoman to the Divan (1697), and in 1708 was appointed hospodar (prince) of Moldavia. Deposed, owing to the sultan’s suspicions, in favour of Demetrius Cantacuzene, he was restored in 1711, and soon afterwards became hospodar of Walachia. In 1716 he was deposed by the Austrians, but was restored after the peace of Passarowitz. He was the first Greek set to rule the Danubian principalities, and was responsible for establishing the system which for a hundred years was to make the name of Greek hateful to the Rumanians. He introduced Greek manners, the Greek language and Greek costume, and set up a splendid court on the Byzantine model. For the rest he was a man of enlightenment, founded libraries and was himself the author of a curious work entitled Περὶ καθήκοντων (Bucharest, 1719). He was succeeded as grand dragoman (1709) by his son John (Ioannes), who was for a short while hospodar of Moldavia, and died in 1720.

Nicholas Mavrocordato was succeeded as prince of Walachia in 1730 by his son Constantine. He was deprived in the same year, but again ruled the principality from 1735 to 1741 and from 1744 to 1748; he was prince of Moldavia from 1741 to 1744 and from 1748 to 1749. His rule was distinguished by numerous tentative reforms in the fiscal and administrative systems. He was wounded and taken prisoner in the affair of Galati during the Russo-Turkish War, on the 5th of November 1769, and died in captivity.

Prince Alexander Mavrocordato (1791-1865), Greek statesman, a descendant of the hospodars, was born at Constantinople on the 11th of February 1791. In 1812 he went to the court of his uncle Ioannes Caradja, hospodar of Walachia, with whom he passed into exile in Russia and Italy (1817). He was a member of the Hetairia Philike and was among the Phanariot Greeks who hastened to the Morea on the outbreak of the War of Independence in 1821. He was active in endeavouring to establish a regular government, and in January 1822 presided over the first Greek national assembly at Epidaurus. He commanded the advance of the Greeks into western Hellas the same year, and suffered a defeat at Peta on the 16th of July, but retrieved this disaster somewhat by his successful resistance to the first siege of Missolonghi (Nov. 1822 to Jan. 1823). His English sympathies brought him, in the subsequent strife of factions, into opposition to the “Russian” party headed by Demetrius Ypsilanti and Kolokotrones; and though he held the portfolio of foreign affairs for a short while under the presidency of Petrobey (Petros Mavromichales), he was compelled to withdraw from affairs until February 1825, when he again became a secretary of state. The landing of Ibrahim Pasha followed, and Mavrocordato again joined the army, only escaping capture in the disaster at Sphagia (Spakteria), on the 9th of May 1815, by swimming to Navarino. After the fall of Missolonghi (April 22, 1826) he went into retirement, until President Capo d’Istria made him a member of the committee for the administration of war material, a position he resigned in 1828. After Capo d’Istria’s murder (Oct. 9, 1831) and the resignation of his brother and successor, Agostino Capo d’Istria (April 13, 1832), Mavrocordato became minister of finance. He was vice-president of the National Assembly at Argos (July, 1832), and was appointed by King Otto minister of finance, and in 1833 premier. From 1834 onwards he was Greek envoy at Munich, Berlin, London and—after a short interlude as premier in Greece in 1841—Constantinople. In 1843, after the revolution of September, he returned to Athens as minister without portfolio in the Metaxas cabinet, and from April to August 1844 was head of the government formed after the fall of the “Russian” party. Going into opposition, he distinguished himself by his violent attacks on the Kolettis government. In 1854-1855 he was again head of the government for a few months. He died in Aegina on the 18th of August 1865.

See E. Legrand, Genealogie des Mavrocordato (Paris, 1886).

MAWKMAI (Burmese Maukmè), one of the largest states in the eastern division of the southern Shan States of Burma. It lies approximately between 19° 30′ and 20° 30′ N. and 97° 30′ and 98° 15′ E., and has an area of 2,787 sq. m. The central portion of the state consists of a wide plain well watered and under rice cultivation. The rest is chiefly hills in ranges running north and south. There is a good deal of teak in the state, but it has been ruinously worked. The sawbwa now works as contractor for government, which takes one-third of the net profits. Rice is the chief crop, but much tobacco of good quality is grown in the Langkö district on the Têng river. There is also a great deal of cattle-breeding. The population in 1901 was 29,454, over two-thirds of whom were Shans and the remainder Taungthu, Burmese, Yangsek and Red Karens. The capital, Mawkmai, stands in a fine rice plain in 20° 9′ N. and 97° 25′ E. It had about 150 houses when it first submitted in 1887, but was burnt out by the Red Karens in the following year. It has since recovered. There are very fine orange groves a few miles south of the town at Kantu-awn, called Kadugate by the Burmese.

MAXENTIUS, MARCUS AURELIUS VALERIUS, Roman emperor from A.D. 306 to 312, was the son of Maximianus Herculius, and the son-in-law of Galerius. Owing to his vices and incapacity he was left out of account in the division of the empire which took place in 305. A variety of causes, however, had produced strong dissatisfaction at Rome with many of the arrangements established by Diocletian, and on the 28th of October 306, the public discontent found expression in the massacre of those magistrates who remained loyal to Flavius Valerius Severus and in the election of Maxentius to the imperial dignity. With the help of his father, Maxentius was enabled to put Severus to death and to repel the invasion of Galerius; his next steps were first to banish Maximianus, and then, after achieving a military success in Africa against the rebellious governor, L. Domitius Alexander, to declare war against Constantine as having brought about the death of his father Maximianus. His intention of carrying the war into Gaul was anticipated by Constantine, who marched into Italy. Maxentius was defeated at Saxa Rubra near Rome and drowned in the Tiber while attempting to make his way across the Milvian bridge into Rome. He was a man of brutal and worthless character; but although Gibbon’s statement that he was “just, humane and even partial towards the afflicted Christians” may be exaggerated, it is probable that he never exhibited any special hostility towards them.

See De Broglie, L’Église et l’empire Romain au quatrième siècle (1856-1866), and on the attitude of the Romans towards Christianity generally, app. 8 in vol. ii. of J. B. Bury’s edition of Gibbon (Zosimus ii. 9-18; Zonaras xii. 33, xiii. 1; Aurelius Victor, Epit. 40; Eutropius, x. 2).

MAXIM, SIR HIRAM STEVENS (1840- ), Anglo-American engineer and inventor, was born at Sangerville, Maine, U.S.A., on the 5th of February 1840. After serving an apprenticeship with a coachbuilder, he entered the machine works of his uncle, Levi Stevens, at Fitchburg, Massachusetts, in 1864, and four years later he became a draughtsman in the Novelty Iron Works and Shipbuilding Company in New York City. About this period he produced several inventions connected with illumination by gas; and from 1877 he was one of the numerous inventors who were trying to solve the problem of making an efficient and durable incandescent electric lamp, in this connexion introducing the widely-used process of treating the carbon filaments by heating them in an atmosphere of hydrocarbon vapour. In 1880 he came to Europe, and soon began to devote himself to the construction of a machine-gun which should be automatically loaded and fired by the energy of the recoil (see Machine-Gun). In order to realize the full usefulness of the weapon, which was first exhibited in an underground range at Hatton Garden, London, in 1884, he felt the necessity of employing a smokeless powder, and accordingly he devised maximite, a mixture of trinitrocellulose, nitroglycerine and castor oil, which was patented in 1889. He also undertook to make a flying machine, and after numerous preliminary experiments constructed an apparatus which was tried at Bexley Heath, Kent, in 1894. (See Flight.) Having been naturalized as a British subject, he was knighted in 1901. His younger brother, Hudson Maxim (b. 1853), took out numerous patents in connexion with explosives.

MAXIMA AND MINIMA, in mathematics. By the maximum or minimum value of an expression or quantity is meant primarily the “greatest” or “least” value that it can receive. In general, however, there are points at which its value ceases to increase and begins to decrease; its value at such a point is called a maximum. So there are points at which its value ceases to decrease and begins to increase; such a value is called a minimum. There may be several maxima or minima, and a minimum is not necessarily less than a maximum. For instance, the expression (x2 + x + 2)/(x − 1) can take all values from −∞ to −1 and from +7 to +∞, but has, so long as x is real, no value between -1 and +7. Here −1 is a maximum value, and +7 is a minimum value of the expression, though it can be made greater or less than any assignable quantity.

The first general method of investigating maxima and minima seems to have been published in A.D. 1629 by Pierre Fermat. Particular cases had been discussed. Thus Euclid in book III. of the Elements finds the greatest and least straight lines that can be drawn from a point to the circumference of a circle, and in book VI. (in a proposition generally omitted from editions of his works) finds the parallelogram of greatest area with a given perimeter. Apollonius investigated the greatest and least distances of a point from the perimeter of a conic section, and discovered them to be the normals, and that their feet were the intersections of the conic with a rectangular hyperbola. Some remarkable theorems on maximum areas are attributed to Zenodorus, and preserved by Pappus and Theon of Alexandria. The most noteworthy of them are the following:—

1. Of polygons of n sides with a given perimeter the regular polygon encloses the greatest area.

2. Of two regular polygons of the same perimeter, that with the greater number of sides encloses the greater area.

3. The circle encloses a greater area than any polygon of the same perimeter.

4. The sum of the areas of two isosceles triangles on given bases, the sum of whose perimeters is given, is greatest when the triangles are similar.

5. Of segments of a circle of given perimeter, the semicircle encloses the greatest area.

6. The sphere is the surface of given area which encloses the greatest volume.

Serenus of Antissa investigated the somewhat trifling problem of finding the triangle of greatest area whose sides are formed by the intersections with the base and curved surface of a right circular cone of a plane drawn through its vertex.

The next problem on maxima and minima of which there appears to be any record occurs in a letter from Regiomontanus to Roder (July 4, 1471), and is a particular numerical example of the problem of finding the point on a given straight line at which two given points subtend a maximum angle. N. Tartaglia in his General trattato de numeri et mesuri (c. 1556) gives, without proof, a rule for dividing a number into two parts such that the continued product of the numbers and their difference is a maximum.

Fermat investigated maxima and minima by means of the principle that in the neighbourhood of a maximum or minimum the differences of the values of a function are insensible, a method virtually the same as that of the differential calculus, and of great use in dealing with geometrical maxima and minima. His method was developed by Huygens, Leibnitz, Newton and others, and in particular by John Hudde, who investigated maxima and minima of functions of more than one independent variable, and made some attempt to discriminate between maxima and minima, a question first definitely settled, so far as one variable is concerned, by Colin Maclaurin in his Treatise on Fluxions (1742). The method of the differential calculus was perfected by Euler and Lagrange.

John Bernoulli’s famous problem of the “brachistochrone,” or curve of quickest descent from one point to another under the action of gravity, proposed in 1696, gave rise to a new kind of maximum and minimum problem in which we have to find a curve and not points on a given curve. From these problems arose the “Calculus of Variations.” (See Variations, Calculus of.)

The only general methods of attacking problems on maxima and minima are those of the differential calculus or, in geometrical problems, what is practically Fermat’s method. Some problems may be solved by algebra; thus if y = ƒ(x) ÷ φ(x), where ƒ(x) and φ(x) are polynomials in x, the limits to the values of yφ may be found from the consideration that the equation yφ(x) − ƒ(x) = 0 must have real roots. This is a useful method in the case in which φ(x) and ƒ(x) are quadratics, but scarcely ever in any other case. The problem of finding the maximum product of n positive quantities whose sum is given may also be found, algebraically, thus. If a and b are any two real unequal quantities whatever {1⁄2(a + b)}2 > ab, so that we can increase the product leaving the sum unaltered by replacing any two terms by half their sum, and so long as any two of the quantities are unequal we can increase the product. Now, the quantities being all positive, the product cannot be increased without limit and must somewhere attain a maximum, and no other form of the product than that in which they are all equal can be the maximum, so that the product is a maximum when they are all equal. Its minimum value is obviously zero. If the restriction that all the quantities shall be positive is removed, the product can be made equal to any quantity, positive or negative. So other theorems of algebra, which are stated as theorems on inequalities, may be regarded as algebraic solutions of problems on maxima and minima.

For purely geometrical questions the only general method available is practically that employed by Fermat. If a quantity depends on the position of some point P on a curve, and if its value is equal at two neighbouring points P and P′, then at some position between P and P′ it attains a maximum or minimum, and this position may be found by making P and P′ approach each other indefinitely. Take for instance the problem of Regiomontanus “to find a point on a given straight line which subtends a maximum angle at two given points A and B.” Let P and P′ be two near points on the given straight line such that the angles APB and AP′B are equal. Then ABPP′ lie on a circle. By making P and P′ approach each other we see that for a maximum or minimum value of the angle APB, P is a point in which a circle drawn through AB touches the given straight line. There are two such points, and unless the given straight line is at right angles to AB the two angles obtained are not the same. It is easily seen that both angles are maxima, one for points on the given straight line on one side of its intersection with AB, the other for points on the other side. For further examples of this method together with most other geometrical problems on maxima and minima of any interest or importance the reader may consult such a book as J. W. Russell’s A Sequel lo Elementary Geometry (Oxford, 1907).

The method of the differential calculus is theoretically very simple. Let u be a function of several variables x1, x2, x3 ... xn, supposed for the present independent; if u is a maximum or minimum for the set of values x1, x2, x3, ... xn, and u becomes u + δu, when x1, x2, x3 ... xn receive small increments δx1, δx2, ... δxn; then δu must have the same sign for all possible values of δx1, δ2 ... δxn.

Now

δu = Σ δu δx1 + 1⁄2 { Σ δ2u δx12 + 2Σ δ2u δx1δx2 ... } + ....

δx1 δx12 δx1δx2

The sign of this expression in general is that of Σ(δu/δx1)δx1, which cannot be one-signed when x1, x2, ... xn can take all possible values, for a set of increments δx1, δx2 ... δxn, will give an opposite sign to the set −δx1, −δx2, ... −δxn. Hence Σ(δu/δx1)δx1 must vanish for all sets of increments δx1, ... δxn, and since these are independent, we must have δu/δx1 = 0, δu/δx2 = 0, ... δu/δxn = 0. A value of u given by a set of solutions of these equations is called a “critical value” of u. The value of δu now becomes

1⁄2 { Σ δ2u δx12 + 2 Σ δ2u δx1δx2 + ... };

δx12 δx1δx2

for u to be a maximum or minimum this must have always the same sign. For the case of a single variable x, corresponding to a value of x given by the equation du/dx = 0, u is a maximum or minimum as d2u/dx2 is negative or positive. If d2u/dx2 vanishes, then there is no maximum or minimum unless d2u/dx2 vanishes, and there is a maximum or minimum according as d4u/dx4 is negative or positive. Generally, if the first differential coefficient which does not vanish is even, there is a maximum or minimum according as this is negative or positive. If it is odd, there is no maximum or minimum.

In the case of several variables, the quadratic

Σ δ2u δx12 + 2 Σ δ2u δx1δx2 + ...

δx12 δx1δx2

must be one-signed. The condition for this is that the series of discriminants

a11 , a11 a12 , a11 a12 a13 , ...

a21 a22 a21 a22 a23

a31 a32 a33

where apq denotes δ2u/δapδaq should be all positive, if the quadratic is always positive, and alternately negative and positive, if the quadratic is always negative. If the first condition is satisfied the critical value is a minimum, if the second it is a maximum. For the case of two variables the conditions are

δ2u · δ2u > ( δ2u )2

δx12 δx22 δx1δx2

for a maximum or minimum at all and δ2u/δx12 and δ2u/δx22 both negative for a maximum, and both positive for a minimum. It is important to notice that by the quadratic being one-signed is meant that it cannot be made to vanish except when δx1, δx2, ... δxn all vanish. If, in the case of two variables,

δ2u · δ2u = ( δ2u )2

δx12 δx22 δx1δx2

then the quadratic is one-signed unless it vanishes, but the value of u is not necessarily a maximum or minimum, and the terms of the third and possibly fourth order must be taken account of.

Take for instance the function u = x2 − xy2 + y2. Here the values x = 0, y = 0 satisfy the equations δu/δx = 0, δu/δy = 0, so that zero is a critical value of u, but it is neither a maximum nor a minimum although the terms of the second order are (δx)2, and are never negative. Here δu = δx2 − δxδy2 + δy2, and by putting δx = 0 or an infinitesimal of the same order as δy2, we can make the sign of δu depend on that of δy2, and so be positive or negative as we please. On the other hand, if we take the function u = x2 − xy2 + y4, x = 0, y = 0 make zero a critical value of u, and here δu = δx2 − δxδy2 + δy4, which is always positive, because we can write it as the sum of two squares, viz. (δx − 1⁄2δy2)2 + 3⁄4δy4; so that in this case zero is a minimum value of u.

A critical value usually gives a maximum or minimum in the case of a function of one variable, and often in the case of several independent variables, but all maxima and minima, particularly absolutely greatest and least values, are not necessarily critical values. If, for example, x is restricted to lie between the values a and b and φ′(x) = 0 has no roots in this interval, it follows that φ′(x) is one-signed as x increases from a to b, so that φ(x) is increasing or diminishing all the time, and the greatest and least values of φ(x) are φ(a) and φ(b), though neither of them is a critical value. Consider the following example: A person in a boat a miles from the nearest point of the beach wishes to reach as quickly as possible a point b miles from that point along the shore. The ratio of his rate of walking to his rate of rowing is cosec α. Where should he land?

Here let AB be the direction of the beach, A the nearest point to the boat O, and B the point he wishes to reach. Clearly he must land, if at all, between A and B. Suppose he lands at P. Let the angle AOP be θ, so that OP = a secθ, and PB = b − a tan θ. If his rate of rowing is V miles an hour his time will be a sec θ/V + (b − a tan θ) sin α/V hours. Call this T. Then to the first power of δθ, δT = (a/V) sec2θ (sin θ − sin α)δθ, so that if AOB > α, δT and δθ have opposite signs from θ = 0 to θ = α, and the same signs from θ = α to θ = AOB. So that when AOB is > α, T decreases from θ = 0 to θ = α, and then increases, so that he should land at a point distant a tan α from A, unless a tan α > b. When this is the case, δT and δθ have opposite signs throughout the whole range of θ, so that T decreases as θ increases, and he should row direct to B. In the first case the minimum value of T is also a critical value; in the second case it is not.

The greatest and least values of the bending moments of loaded rods are often at the extremities of the divisions of the rods and not at points given by critical values.

In the case of a function of several variables, X1, x2, ... xn, not independent but connected by m functional relations u1 = 0, u2 = 0, ..., um = 0, we might proceed to eliminate m of the variables; but Lagrange’s “Method of undetermined Multipliers” is more elegant and generally more useful.

We have δu1 = 0, δu2 = 0, ..., δum = 0. Consider instead of δu, what is the same thing, viz., δu + λ1δu1 + λ2δu2 + ... + λmδum, where λ1, λ2, ... λm, are arbitrary multipliers. The terms of the first order in this expression are

Σ δu δx1 + λ1 Σ δu1 δx1 + ... + λm Σ δum δx1.

δx1 δx1 δx1

We can choose λ1, ... λm, to make the coefficients of δx1, δx2, ... δxm, vanish, and the remaining δxm+1 to δxn may be regarded as independent, so that, when u has a critical value, their coefficients must also vanish. So that we put

δu + δu1 + ... + λm δum = 0

δxr δxr δxr

for all values of r. These equations with the equations u1 = 0, ..., um = 0 are exactly enough to determine λ1, ..., λm, x1 x2, ..., xn, so that we find critical values of u, and examine the terms of the second order to decide whether we obtain a maximum or minimum.

To take a very simple illustration; consider the problem of determining the maximum and minimum radii vectors of the ellipsoid x2/a2 + y2/b2 + z2/c2 = 1, where a2 > b2 > c2. Here we require the maximum and minimum values of x2 + y2 + z2 where x2/a2 + y2/b2 + z2/c2 = 1.

We have

δu = 2xδx ( 1 + λ ) + 2yδy ( λ ) + 2zδz ( λ )

a2 b2 c2

+ δx2 ( 1 + λ ) + δy2 ( λ ) + δz2 ( λ ).

a2 b2 c2

To make the terms of the first order disappear, we have the three equations:—

x (1 + λ/a2) = 0, y (1 + λ/b2) = 0, z (1 + λ/c2) = 0.

These have three sets of solutions consistent with the conditions x2/a2 + y2/b2 + z2/c2 = 1, a2 > b2 > c2, viz.:—

(1) y = 0, z = 0, λ = −a2; (2) z = 0, x = 0, λ = −b2;

(3) x = 0, y = 0, λ = −c2.

In the case of (1) δu = δy2 (1 − a2/b2) + δz2 (1 − a2/c2), which is always negative, so that u = a2 gives a maximum.

In the case of (3) δu = δx2 (1 − c2/a2) + δy2 (1 − c2/b2), which is always positive, so that u = c2 gives a minimum.

In the case of (2) δu = δx2 (1 − b2/a2) − δz2(b2/c2 − 1), which can be made either positive or negative, or even zero if we move in the planes x2 (1 − b2/a2) = z2 (b2/c2 − 1), which are well known to be the central planes of circular section. So that u = b2, though a critical value, is neither a maximum nor minimum, and the central planes of circular section divide the ellipsoid into four portions in two of which a2 > r2 > b2, and in the other two b2 > r2 > c2.

(A. E. J.)

MAXIMIANUS, a Latin elegiac poet who flourished during the 6th century A.D. He was an Etruscan by birth, and spent his youth at Rome, where he enjoyed a great reputation as an orator. At an advanced age he was sent on an important mission to the East, perhaps by Theodoric, if he is the Maximianus to whom that monarch addressed a letter preserved in Cassiodorus (Variarum, i. 21). The six elegies extant under his name, written in old age, in which he laments the loss of his youth, contain descriptions of various amours. They show the author’s familiarity with the best writers of the Augustan age.

Editions by J. C. Wernsdorf, Poetae latini minores, vi.; E. Bährens, Poetae latini minores, v.; M. Petschenig (1890), in C. F. Ascherson’s Berliner Studien, xi.; R. Webster (Princeton, 1901; see Classical Review, Oct. 1901), with introduction and commentary; see also Robinson Ellis in American Journal of Philology, v. (1884) and Teuffel-Schwabe, Hist. of Roman Literature (Eng. trans.), § 490. There is an English version (as from Cornelius Gallus), by Hovenden Walker (1689), under the title of The Impotent Lover.

MAXIMIANUS, MARCUS AURELIUS VALERIUS, surnamed Herculius, Roman emperor from A.D. 286 to 305, was born of humble parents at Sirmium in Pannonia. He achieved distinction during long service in the army, and having been made Caesar by Diocletian in 285, received the title of Augustus in the following year (April 1, 286). In 287 he suppressed the rising of the peasants (Bagaudae) in Gaul, but in 289, after a three years’ struggle, his colleague and he were compelled to acquiesce in the assumption by his lieutenant Carausius (who had crossed over to Britain) of the title of Augustus. After 293 Maximianus left the care of the Rhine frontier to Constantius Chlorus, who had been designated Caesar in that year, but in 297 his arms achieved a rapid and decisive victory over the barbarians of Mauretania, and in 302 he shared at Rome the triumph of Diocletian, the last pageant of the kind ever witnessed by that city. On the 1st of May 305, the day of Diocletian’s abdication, he also, but without his colleague’s sincerity, divested himself of the imperial dignity at Mediolanum (Milan), which had been his capital, and retired to a villa in Lucania; in the following year, however, he was induced by his son Maxentius to reassume the purple. In 307 he brought the emperor Flavius Valerius Severus a captive to Rome, and also compelled Galerius to retreat, but in 308 he was himself driven by Maxentius from Italy into Illyricum, whence again he was compelled to seek refuge at Arelate (Arles), the court of his son-in-law, Constantine. Here a false report was received, or invented, of the death of Constantine, at that time absent on the Rhine. Maximianus at once grasped at the succession, but was soon driven to Massilia (Marseilles), where, having been delivered up to his pursuers, he strangled himself.

See Zosimus ii. 7-11; Zonaras xii. 31-33; Eutropius ix. 20, x. 2, 3; Aurelius Victor p. 39. For the emperor Galerius Valerius Maximianus see Galerius.

MAXIMILIAN I. (1573-1651), called “the Great,” elector and duke of Bavaria, eldest son of William V. of Bavaria, was born at Munich on the 17th of April 1573. He was educated by the Jesuits at the university of Ingolstadt, and began to take part in the government in 1591. He married in 1595 his cousin, Elizabeth, daughter of Charles II., duke of Lorraine, and became duke of Bavaria upon his father’s abdication in 1597. He refrained from any interference in German politics until 1607, when he was entrusted with the duty of executing the imperial ban against the free city of Donauwörth, a Protestant stronghold. In December 1607 his troops occupied the city, and vigorous steps were taken to restore the supremacy of the older faith. Some Protestant princes, alarmed at this action, formed a union to defend their interests, which was answered in 1609 by the establishment of a league, in the formation of which Maximilian took an important part. Under his leadership an army was set on foot, but his policy was strictly defensive and he refused to allow the league to become a tool in the hands of the house of Habsburg. Dissensions among his colleagues led the duke to resign his office in 1616, but the approach of trouble brought about his return to the league about two years later.

Having refused to become a candidate for the imperial throne in 1619, Maximilian was faced with the complications arising from the outbreak of war in Bohemia. After some delay he made a treaty with the emperor Ferdinand II. in October 1619, and in return for large concessions placed the forces of the league at the emperor’s service. Anxious to curtail the area of the struggle, he made a treaty of neutrality with the Protestant Union, and occupied Upper Austria as security for the expenses of the campaign. On the 8th of November 1620 his troops under Count Tilly defeated the forces of Frederick, king of Bohemia and count palatine of the Rhine, at the White Hill near Prague. In spite of the arrangement with the union Tilly then devastated the Rhenish Palatinate, and in February 1623 Maximilian was formally invested with the electoral dignity and the attendant office of imperial steward, which had been enjoyed since 1356 by the counts palatine of the Rhine. After receiving the Upper Palatinate and restoring Upper Austria to Ferdinand, Maximilian became leader of the party which sought to bring about Wallenstein’s dismissal from the imperial service. At the diet of Regensburg in 1630 Ferdinand was compelled to assent to this demand, but the sequel was disastrous both for Bavaria and its ruler. Early in 1632 the Swedes marched into the duchy and occupied Munich, and Maximilian could only obtain the assistance of the imperialists by placing himself under the orders of Wallenstein, now restored to the command of the emperor’s forces. The ravages of the Swedes and their French allies induced the elector to enter into negotiations for peace with Gustavus Adolphus and Cardinal Richelieu. He also proposed to disarm the Protestants by modifying the Restitution edict of 1629; but these efforts were abortive. In March 1647 he concluded an armistice with France and Sweden at Ulm, but the entreaties of the emperor Ferdinand III. led him to disregard his undertaking. Bavaria was again ravaged, and the elector’s forces defeated in May 1648 at Zusmarshausen. But the peace of Westphalia soon put an end to the struggle. By this treaty it was agreed that Maximilian should retain the electoral dignity, which was made hereditary in his family; and the Upper Palatinate was incorporated with Bavaria. The elector died at Ingolstadt on the 27th of September 1651. By his second wife, Maria Anne, daughter of the emperor Ferdinand II., he left two sons, Ferdinand Maria, who succeeded him, and Maximilian Philip. In 1839 a statue was erected to his memory at Munich by Louis I., king of Bavaria. Weak in health and feeble in frame, Maximilian had high ambitions both for himself and his duchy, and was tenacious and resourceful in prosecuting his designs. As the ablest prince of his age he sought to prevent Germany from becoming the battleground of Europe, and although a rigid adherent of the Catholic faith, was not always subservient to the priest.

See P. P. Wolf, Geschichte Kurfürst Maximilians I. und seiner Zeit (Munich, 1807-1809); C. M. Freiherr von Aretin, Geschichte des bayerschen Herzogs und Kurfürsten Maximilian des Ersten (Passau, 1842); M. Lossen, Die Reichstadt Donauwörth und Herzog Maximilian (Munich, 1866); F. Stieve, Kurfürst Maximilian I. von Bayern (Munich, 1882); F. A. W. Schreiber, Maximilian I. der Katholische Kurfürst von Bayern, und der dreissigjährige Krieg (Munich, 1868); M. Högl, Die Bekehrung der Oberpfalz durch Kurfürst Maximilian I. (Regensburg, 1903).

MAXIMILIAN I. (Maximilian Joseph) (1756-1825), king of Bavaria, was the son of the count palatine Frederick of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, and was born on the 27th of May 1756. He was carefully educated under the supervision of his uncle, Duke Christian IV. of Zweibrücken, took service in 1777 as a colonel in the French army, and rose rapidly to the rank of major-general. From 1782 to 1789 he was stationed at Strassburg, but at the outbreak of the revolution he exchanged the French for the Austrian service, taking part in the opening campaigns of the revolutionary wars. On the 1st of April 1795 he succeeded his brother, Charles II., as duke of Zweibrücken, and on the 16th of February 1799 became elector of Bavaria on the extinction of the Sulzbach line with the death of the elector Charles Theodore.

The sympathy with France and with French ideas of enlightenment which characterized his reign was at once manifested. In the newly organized ministry Count Max Josef von Montgelas (q.v.), who, after falling into disfavour with Charles Theodore, had acted for a time as Maximilian Joseph’s private secretary, was the most potent influence, an influence wholly “enlightened” and French. Agriculture and commerce were fostered, the laws were ameliorated, a new criminal code drawn up, taxes and imposts equalized without regard to traditional privileges, while a number of religious houses were suppressed and their revenues used for educational and other useful purposes. In foreign politics Maximilian Joseph’s attitude was from the German point of view less commendable. With the growing sentiment of German nationality he had from first to last no sympathy, and his attitude throughout was dictated by wholly dynastic, or at least Bavarian, considerations. Until 1813 he was the most faithful of Napoleon’s German allies, the relation being cemented by the marriage of his daughter to Eugène Beauharnais. His reward came with the treaty of Pressburg (Dec. 26, 1805), by the terms of which he was to receive the royal title and important territorial acquisitions in Swabia and Franconia to round off his kingdom. The style of king he actually assumed on the 1st of January 1806.

The new king of Bavaria was the most important of the princes belonging to the Confederation of the Rhine, and remained Napoleon’s ally until the eve of the battle of Leipzig, when by the convention of Ried (Oct. 8, 1813) he made the guarantee of the integrity of his kingdom the price of his joining the Allies. By the first treaty of Paris (June 3, 1814), however, he ceded Tirol to Austria in exchange for the former duchy of Würzburg. At the congress of Vienna, too, which he attended in person, Maximilian had to make further concessions to Austria, ceding the quarters of the Inn and Hausruck in return for a part of the old Palatinate. The king fought hard to maintain the contiguity of the Bavarian territories as guaranteed at Ried; but the most he could obtain was an assurance from Metternich in the matter of the Baden succession, in which he was also doomed to be disappointed (see Baden: History, iii. 506).

At Vienna and afterwards Maximilian sturdily opposed any reconstitution of Germany which should endanger the independence of Bavaria, and it was his insistence on the principle of full sovereignty being left to the German reigning princes that largely contributed to the loose and weak organization of the new German Confederation. The Federal Act of the Vienna congress was proclaimed in Bavaria, not as a law but as an international treaty. It was partly to secure popular support in his resistance to any interference of the federal diet in the internal affairs of Bavaria, partly to give unity to his somewhat heterogeneous territories, that Maximilian on the 26th of May 1818 granted a liberal constitution to his people. Montgelas, who had opposed this concession, had fallen in the previous year, and Maximilian had also reversed his ecclesiastical policy, signing on the 24th of October 1817 a concordat with Rome by which the powers of the clergy, largely curtailed under Montgelas’s administration, were restored. The new parliament proved so intractable that in 1819 Maximilian was driven to appeal to the powers against his own creation; but his Bavarian “particularism” and his genuine popular sympathies prevented him from allowing the Carlsbad decrees to be strictly enforced within his dominions. The suspects arrested by order of the Mainz Commission he was accustomed to examine himself, with the result that in many cases the whole proceedings were quashed, and in not a few the accused dismissed with a present of money. Maximilian died on the 13th of October 1825 and was succeeded by his son Louis I.

In private life Maximilian was kindly and simple. He loved to play the part of Landesvater, walking about the streets of his capital en bourgeois and entering into conversation with all ranks of his subjects, by whom he was regarded with great affection. He was twice married: (1) in 1785 to Princess Wilhelmine Auguste of Hesse-Darmstadt, (2) in 1797 to Princess Caroline Friederike of Baden.

See G. Freiherr von Lerchenfeld, Gesch. Bayerns unter König Maximilian Joseph I. (Berlin, 1854); J. M. Söltl, Max Joseph, König von Bayern (Stuttgart, 1837); L. von Kobell, Unter den vier ersten Königen Bayerns. Nach Briefen und eigenen Erinnerungen (Munich, 1894).

MAXIMILIAN II. (1811-1864), king of Bavaria, son of king Louis I. and of his consort Theresa of Saxe-Hildburghausen, was born on the 28th of November 1811. After studying at Göttingen and Berlin and travelling in Germany, Italy and Greece, he was introduced by his father into the council of state (1836). From the first he showed a studious disposition, declaring on one occasion that had he not been born in a royal cradle his choice would have been to become a professor. As crown prince, in the château of Hohenschwangau near Füssen, which he had rebuilt with excellent taste, he gathered about him an intimate society of artists and men of learning, and devoted his time to scientific and historical study. When the abdication of Louis I. (March 28, 1848) called him suddenly to the throne, his choice of ministers promised a liberal régime. The progress of the revolution, however, gave him pause. He strenuously opposed the unionist plans of the Frankfort parliament, refused to recognize the imperial constitution devised by it, and assisted Austria in restoring the federal diet and in carrying out the federal execution in Hesse and Holstein. Although, however, from 1850 onwards his government tended in the direction of absolutism, he refused to become the tool of the clerical reaction, and even incurred the bitter criticism of the Ultramontanes by inviting a number of celebrated men of learning and science (e.g. Liebig and Sybel) to Munich, regardless of their religious views. Finally, in 1859, he dismissed the reactionary ministry of von der Pfordten, and met the wishes of his people for a moderate constitutional government. In his German policy he was guided by the desire to maintain the union of the princes, and hoped to attain this as against the perilous rivalry of Austria and Prussia by the creation of a league of the “middle” and small states—the so-called Trias. In 1863, however, seeing what he thought to be a better way, he supported the project of reform proposed by Austria at the Fürstentag of Frankfort. The failure of this proposal, and the attitude of Austria towards the Confederation and in the Schleswig-Holstein question, undeceived him; but before he could deal with the new situation created by the outbreak of the war with Denmark he died suddenly at Munich, on the 10th of March 1864.

Maximilian was a man of amiable qualities and of intellectual attainments far above the average, but as a king he was hampered by constant ill-health, which compelled him to be often abroad, and when at home to live much in the country. By his wife, Maria Hedwig, daughter of Prince William of Prussia, whom he married in 1842, he had two sons, Louis II., king of Bavaria, and Otto, king of Bavaria, both of whom lost their reason.

See J. M. Söltl, Max der Zweite, König von Bayern (Munich, 1865); biography by G. K. Heigel in Allgem. Deutsche Biographie, vol. xxi. (Leipzig, 1885). Maximilian’s correspondence with Schlegel was published at Stuttgart in 1890.

MAXIMILIAN I. (1459-1519), Roman emperor, son of the emperor Frederick III. and Leonora, daughter of Edward, king of Portugal, was born at Vienna Neustadt on the 22nd of March 1459. On the 18th of August 1477, by his marriage at Ghent to Mary, who had just inherited Burgundy and the Netherlands from her father Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, he effected a union of great importance in the history of the house of Habsburg. He at once undertook the defence of his wife’s dominions from an attack by Louis XI., king of France, and defeated the French forces at Guinegatte, the modern Enguinegatte, on the 7th of August 1479. But Maximilian was regarded with suspicion by the states of Netherlands, and after suppressing a rising in Gelderland his position was further weakened by the death of his wife on the 27th of March 1482. He claimed to be recognized as guardian of his young son Philip and as regent of the Netherlands, but some of the states refused to agree to his demands and disorder was general. Maximilian was compelled to assent to the treaty of Arras in 1482 between the states of the Netherlands and Louis XI. This treaty provided that Maximilian’s daughter Margaret should marry Charles, the dauphin of France, and have for her dowry Artois and Franche-Comté, two of the provinces in dispute, while the claim of Louis on the duchy of Burgundy was tacitly admitted. Maximilian did not, however, abandon the struggle in the Netherlands. Having crushed a rebellion at Utrecht, he compelled the burghers of Ghent to restore Philip to him in 1485, and returning to Germany was chosen king of the Romans, or German king, at Frankfort on the 16th of February 1486, and crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle on the 9th of the following April. Again in the Netherlands, he made a treaty with Francis II., duke of Brittany, whose independence was threatened by the French regent, Anne of Beaujeu, and the struggle with France was soon renewed. This war was very unpopular with the trading cities of the Netherlands, and early in 1488 Maximilian, having entered Bruges, was detained there as a prisoner for nearly three months, and only set at liberty on the approach of his father with a large force. On his release he had promised he would maintain the treaty of Arras and withdraw from the Netherlands; but he delayed his departure for nearly a year and took part in a punitive campaign against his captors and their allies. On his return to Germany he made peace with France at Frankfort in July 1489, and in October several of the states of the Netherlands recognized him as their ruler and as guardian of his son. In March 1490 the county of Tirol was added to his possessions through the abdication of his kinsman, Count Sigismund, and this district soon became his favourite residence.