of Europe. The ceilings were painted by Velasquez, Mengs, and other eminent artists; the richest marbles and mirrors adorn the walls. Many of the best pictures, however, have been removed to the gallery in the Prado. The armory, occupying the S. façade, contains collections of weapons of all ages, and is peculiarly rich in Moorish arms and accoutrements. The other principal public buildings are the new palace of the cortes, opened in 1850, in the square of the same name; the Buena Vista palace, now used as a museum of civil engineering; and a number of private palaces, the most remarkable of which are those of the dukes of Liria and Alba, with valuable picture galleries, and of the count of Altamira and the banker Salamanca. The royal museum of painting and sculpture, in the Prado, is one of the finest picture galleries in the world, containing the best productions of Murillo, Velasquez, and other great Spanish masters. One long room is almost covered with the works of Rubens; the Titians fill another room; and Paul Veronese is represented here almost as magnificently as in Venice. There are some very fine Guidos, and 10 pictures by Raphael, including his Lo spasimo di Sicilia, which is considered the best work in the museum. There are 22 pictures by Vandyke, a very large number by Teniers, and some of the finest landscapes of Claude Lorraine. The private gallery of Madrazo, who was until his death in 1859 president of the academy of fine arts, contains many works of the highest merit. Among the finest public monuments are an equestrian statue of Philip IV. in the Plaza del Oriente, a statue of Cervantes in the Plaza de las Cortes, and the monument dedicated to the memory of those killed by the French, May 2, 1808.-The hospitals of Madrid are numerous, and include several for foundlings, orphans, foreigners and strangers, and a military hospital. The principal charitable institutions are the royal hospital of San Fernando, resembling an English workhouse; the general hospital in the Calle de Atocha, accommodating nearly 2,000 persons, and also serving as a practical school for the students of the academy of medicine of both sexes; and the mendicity depot for the reception of paupers. Education is promoted by 60 public primary schools, by a number of colleges, and by religious and private institutions. Girls are chiefly educated in convents. The university of Alcala was transferred to Madrid in 1836, and chairs of medicine, natural history, and astronomy were added to it in 1845. The great national library is in the royal palace, and the library of San Isidro has a large collection of books which formerly belonged to the Jesuits. Madrid possesses a botanic garden; an observatory; a museum of natural history, containing a collection of superb emeralds and fine ores of the precious metals; many learned and literary societies, at the head of which stands the Spanish academy; various establishments for the promotion of music and art; and 9 theatres, comprising the Teatro Real, one of the finest in Europe for the performance of Italian opera, the Zarzuela, for the exclusive performance of Spanish vaudevilles, chiefly adaptations from the French, and El Circo, famous for its scenic entertainments, consisting of the national dances. The number of daily journals is now (1860) about 25, including the gazette of the government. Clubs, coffee houses, reading rooms, cabs, and other conveniences for strangers are increasing in number.-The Madrilenians are noted for their imitation of French tastes, fashions, and modes of living. The higher classes keep late hours, rise late, and breakfast generally on chocolate. After the dinner follows the siesta, a season of almost universal repose. The shops are then closed, the windows shut, and scarcely any person is seen in the street; the stall keepers spread cloth over their wares, and even the Galician water carriers sleep upon their water casks. After the siesta the ladies lounge in the balconies and the gentlemen are engaged in smoking till the time for the promenade in the Prado, and the tertulia, a social meeting for conversation and music closing the day. Indolence is the characteristic of high and low. The workmen of the city are chiefly Catalans, Valencians, Aragonese, Asturians, and Galicians. The manufactures are inconsiderable, and almost all articles of trade and consumption are imported from foreign countries or from the Spanish provinces. Government manufactories exist of porcelain, tapestry, and carriages; but they are supposed to be as little profitable as the public saltpetre works and the mirror manufactory of St. Ildefonso. Butter comes from Aragon, oranges and lemons from Valencia, and dates from Murcia; and the markets are well supplied with fruit. Commerce is paralyzed by the absence of any navigable river and by the uninviting situation of the capital; but the financial operations and the transactions on the stock exchange, chiefly in Spanish securities, are of great importance. The principal bank is that of San Fernando. Notwithstanding the general laziness of the people, they are free from the drunkenness which is to be found among the lower classes in other countries, and highway robberies are comparatively rare, especially since the recent establishment of a police after the system of London. The government is paying more attention to the improvement of the city, and in the budget of 1859 23,000,000 reals were appropriated to public buildings in the Puerta del Sol and 4,000,000 to the mint. The savings bank of Madrid exhibits also a steady increase. In 1849 the deposits from 1,204 persons were $100,000; in 1859, from 4,365 persons, they amounted to $400,000.—Madrid is supposed to occupy the site of the Mantua Carpetanorum of the Romans, which was called Majoritum by the Goths and Majrit by the Arabs. The earliest authentic historical record of Madrid does not go back much beyond the early part of the 10th century. Under the rule of the Arabs it was a mere military outpost, which was finally taken from them at the end of that century by Alfonso VI., who annexed it to the bishopric of Toledo, to which it still belongs. It continned to be an insignificant place till the reign of Henry III. of Castile, who resided there during the hunting season, the neighboring mountairs abounding then with the wild boar and the bear. It first rose to importance under Charles V., who made it his occasional residence, and Philip II. at last made it his capital and only court in 1560. Madrid was entered by the French under Murat, March 23, 1808; but the heroic rising of the inhabitants (May 2) obliged them to evacuate the city. It was entered by Joseph Bonaparte July 20, and again evacuated Aug. 2. Napoleon finally took possession of it in December following, and King Joseph held it till 1813, when it was restored to Spain by the duke of Wellington. MADRIGAL, a species of minor poem, having generally fewer verses than the sonnet or roundelay, and, unlike them, subjected to no stringent rules, the poet being allowed to follow his own convenience and fancy in the arrangement of rhymes and verses. With somewhat of epigrammatic terseness, it expresses in simple language tender and delicate sentiments, generally of an amatory or pastoral character, and occasionally ventures upon a higher strain of thought. It was very generally cultivated in Europe from the latter part of the 15th to the commencement of the 18th century, and appears to have been popular among the classical writers of antiquity, many of the shorter pieces in the Greek anthology and the works of Catullus and Martial, which are styled epigrams, being genuine specimens of the madrigal. The etymology of the word is involved in much uncertainty; but there is strong evidence that it is of pastoral origin and a native of southern Europe, although Dr. Burney and others derive it from the words alla madre, “to the mother," the beginning of certain hymns to the Virgin, on the supposition that the earliest madrigals were poems of this description; hence madrialle and madrigale. In music the madrigal is an elaborate vocal composition in 4, 5, 6, and sometimes 7 or 8 parts, of a rich and sonorous character, somewhat studied in its construction, and comprising imitations, canons, and fugues. Choron calls it a species of composition resembling the fugue, but the style of which, being less dry, admits of every kind of expression. Simple madrigals, which long antedated the opera, were for voices only, after them came accompanied madrigals, performed to the accompaniment of one or more instruments, and which were the immediate precursors of the opera. The former class were originally adapted to sacred words, and the music resembled that written for the church; hence the term spiritual madrigals, of which the celebrated psalms of Marcello, the Venetian composer, afford favorable specimens. From the middle of the 16th to the close of the 17th century, during which both classes were most extensively cultivated, they assumed a freer style, and in the compositions of Palestrina, Luca Marenzio, Gesualdo the prince of Venosa, Monteverde, Mazocchi, and particularly of Alessandro Scarlatti, adequately interpreted the romantic and impassioned words to which they were adapted. In England during the Elizabethan period they reached a high degree of perfection, and among the prominent madrigal writers of the time may be found the names of Wilbye, Morley, Orlando Gibbons, and other composers, who vied with the best of their contemporaries on the continent. At the present day this species of composition may be considered to have been supplanted by motetts, or to have nearly passed away, although in the glee, the catch, and other forms of part songs its influence may still be traced. In England the "Madrigal Society," founded in 1741, has fostered a taste for madrigal music. MADURA, or MADOORA, an island of the Asiatic archipelago, in the Sunda group, N. E. of Java, from which it is separated by a strait from 1 to 2 m. wide; it lies between lat. 6° 10' and 6° 45′ S. and long. 112° 45′ and 114° 5′ E.; area, 1,260 sq. m.; pop. in 1850, 316,370. A chain of low calcareous hills runs through it from N. to S., but there are no high mountains. The geological formation and vegetable products resemble those of Java; the soil is generally poor, and a large part of it is uncultivated. The inhabitants are of the same race as the Javanese, and about on a level with them in point of civilization, but they speak a language of their own in two very distinct dialects, using the Javanese however in writing. They have a nominal sovereign who resides at Bangkallan, but the whole island is virtually subject to the Dutch, who first landed there in 1747. Great numbers of the Madurese have settled on the island of Java, where it is supposed that they number nearly 1,000,000 souls. MADVIG, JOHANN NICOLAUS, a Danish philologist and politician, born at Svanike, in the island of Bornholm, Aug. 7, 1804. He completed his education at the university of Copenhagen, where in 1829 he was appointed professor of the Latin language and literature. Previous to that time he had acquired considerable reputation for philological learning by the publication of 3 works on the writings of Cicero, many of whose philosophical treatises he subsequently edited. He has also edited the works of Lucretius, Juvenal, and Livy, and in 1829 wrote a pamphlet to prove that the work De Orthographia of Apuleius, first published by Mai in 1823, was the work of a literary impostor of the 15th century. His Opuscula Academica (2 vols. 8vo., Copenhagen, 1834-'42) contain interesting doc uments and commentaries on many points in Roman history and antiquities. Among his remaining contributions to philological literature are: a Glance at the Constitutions of Antiquity," "The Creation, Development, and Life of Language," ""On the Fundamental Idea of Ancient Metres," a new "Latin Grammar for Schools" (translated by the Rev. G. Woods, 4th ed., Oxford, 1859), &c. In political life he has favored the union of the Scandinavian nations, and has also labored earnestly as a deputy in the national diet to promote the interests of the university of Copenhagen. In 1848 he was appointed minister of public worship, which position he exchanged in 1852 for that of general director of public instruction. MEANDER (now Meinder, or BoyukMeinder), a river of Asia Minor, rising in Mt. Aulocrenas in Phrygia. It flows in a S. W. direction, and its remarkable tortuousness has caused its name to be used as a common word both in ancient and modern times. After leaving Phrygia, it passes into Caria, and has its outlet between Priene and Myus, in that part of the Egæan called the Icarian sea. Its principal tributaries are the Obrimas, Marsyas, Cludrus, Lycus, and Harpasus. The Mæander bears to the sea an immense quantity of mud, which, deposited at its mouth through a succession of ages, has extended the coast outward about 20 or 30 stadia, and joined several small islands to the continent. Its entire length is over 170 m. MECENAS, CAIUS CILNIUS, a Roman statesman, born April 13 in some year between 73 and 63 B. C., died in Rome in 8 B. C. Though his family was only of the equestrian order, it was yet of high antiquity, deriving its descent from the Lucumones of Etruria, and said to number among its ancestors the famous Porsena. Maecenas received an excellent education, and was well acquainted with Greek and Roman literature. His first connection with Octavius was probably in the capacity of tutor; and almost immediately after the appearance of Octavius on the political stage, we find the name of Maecenas in frequent conjunction with his, as principal counsellor and minister. The first diplomatic business that Mæcenas conducted was the negotiation of a marriage, in 40 B. C., between Octavius and Scribonia, the sister-in-law of Sextus Pompey. His success in this affair led to his appointment, at a later period of the same year, to represent Octavius at the conference of Brundusium, where peace was made with Antony. During the war with Antony Macenas remained at Rome, and administered the civil government of Italy; and after the return of Octavius from the East, it was he who is said to have counselled him to retain the supreme power and establish the empire, while Agrippa was in favor of restoring the republic. The influence of Mæcenas over Augustus, and his participation in the government, still continued for a number of years; and when at length a coolness sprang up between them, he withdrew from the political world to a palace on the Esquiline hill which he had built, and which had long been the principal resort of all the wits and literati of Rome. Whatever may have been the misdeeds of Maecenas as a patriot or a man, his liberal patronage of learning and genius has secured to him a lasting fame. Among those who experienced his friendship and generosity, the most distinguished were the poets Horace and Virgil, the former of whom was indebted to him for an estate in the country of the Sabines, and the latter for the restoration of his hereditary property near Mantua, which had been seized by the Augustan soldiery in 41 B. C. Though a man of literary taste rather than of genius, he was nevertheless himself the author of some poems, dramas, and memoirs, all of which have perished save the fragments collected by Lion in Macenatiana (Göttingen, 1824). MÆLAR, MALAR, or MAELAREN, a lake of Sweden, extending from Stockholm on the E. to Koeping on the W., a distance of about 75 m., and comprising an area of about 300 sq. m. Its width is extremely variable. It has numerous arms branching off in all directions, and communicates with the Baltic by a canal called the Soedertelge, and also by a short channel, on the shores and on an island of which stands the city of Stockholm. It contains about 1,400 islands, and is noted for its picturesque scenery. MAELSTRÖM (Norwegian, grinding or whirling stream), an ocean current or whirlpool off the coast of Norway to the S. W. of the Loffoden islands, in lat. 67° 48′ N. and long. 12° E. It runs between the islands of Væröe and Moskōe, or rather between Moskōe and a large solitary rock which lies in the middle of the strait dividing Mosköe from Væröe. According to the commonly received account of this whirlpool, the roar of its ebb equals that of the loudest cataracts, the noise being heard several leagues off; while its vortex is of such an extent and depth that if a ship comes within its attraction, it is inevitably absorbed and carried down to the bottom, and there beaten to pieces against the rocks, and when the tide changes the fragments are thrown up again. It was said that when the stream was most boisterous, and its fury heightened by a storm, it was dangerous to approach within several miles of it; that boats and ships have been destroyed by not guarding against it before they were within its reach; and that frequently whales came too near the stream and were overpowered by its violence and dashed to pieces in its depths. In the year 1645, says Jonas Ramus, early in the morning of Sexagesima Sunday, it raged with such noise and impetuosity that the very stones of the houses on the coast fell to the ground. Lord Dufferin, who cruised on the coast of Norway in 1856, was assured by intelligent inhabitants of the Loffoden islands that the stories about the Maelström were ridiculously exaggerated. "On ordinary occasions," he says in his "Letters from High Latitudes," "the site of the supposed vortex is perfectly unruffled, and it is only when a strong weather tide is running that any unusual movements can be observed; even then the disturbance does not amount to much more than a rather troublesome race." "Often and often, when she was a girl," said his informant, "had his wife and her sisters sailed over its fabulous crater in an open boat." Mr. Bayard Taylor, in describing his voyage on the Norwegian coast, also in 1856, says: "According to Captain Rüs and other modern authorities which I consulted, the Maelström has lost all its terrors and attractions. Under certain cccditions of wind and tide, an eddy is formed in the strait, it is true, which may be dangerous to small boats; but the place is by no means so much dreaded as the Salten fiord, where the tide rushing in is caught in such a manner as to form a bore, as in the bay of Fundy, and frequently proves destructive to fishing craft. It is the general opinion that some of the rocks which for merly made the Maelström so terrible have been worn away, or that some submarine convulsion has taken place which has changed the action of the waters; otherwise it is impossible to account for the reputation it once possessed." From a statement made in 1859 by Mr. Hagerup, minister of the Norwegian marine, and by Major Vibe, superintendent of the Norwegian hydrographic surveys, who had personally examined the Maelstrom and made official reports upon it, the real nature of this famous whirlpool appears to be as follows. When the wind is steady and not too violent, boats may venture upon it in summer at flood or ebb tide, when it is still for about half an hour. At the point half way between flood and ebb it is most violent, and boats would then be in danger. At certain times it may be passed at any state of the tide by steamers and by large ships with a steady wind. But in winter and in storms it would be highly dangerous for any vessel to attempt to pass the Maelstrom. Its direction and violence are in a high degree dependent on wind and weather. When there blows on the sea a storm from the west, the stream in winter runs continually to the east at the rate of 6 knots an hour, without clanging its direction with the rising or falling tide and if at such a time the tide is rising, the stream becomes excessively violent and entirely unnavigable for steamers or any other craft. At certain states of the wind and tide in winter the whole stream boils in mighty whirls, against which the largest steamer could not successfully contend. These whirls, however, would not draw vessels to the bottom as was formerly believed, but would destroy them by dashing them against the rocks, or in case of small vessels by filling them and thus causing them to founder. There is no reason to suppose that the Maelstrom has been changed by any convulsion, or by the wearing away of the rocks. The official report further states that strong currents are very common on the Norwegian coast, and some of them are still more violent than the Maelstrom, though they do not, like that, have different courses at different points. One of the best known is Saltstræmmen, between Stræmee and Kanaplunde, in Salten fiord in Nordland. This is a narrow sound about 900 feet broad, which connects Skiærstad fiord, 30 miles long, with Salten fiord, and from the violence and turbulence of its currents this channel is often VOL. XI.-4 utterly impassable. The current also between the islands Væröe and Roest is very violent, and the direction of the stream goes the whole round of the compass in the course of 12 hours. Flanders about 1235, died in Damm, near MAERLANT, JAKOB, a Dutch poet, born in Bruges, in 1300. His earliest poems, the "Trojan War" and "Alexander," imitations of printed. He afterward devoted himself to the the French romances of chivalry, are yet unelaboration of biblical subjects, ecclesiastical and secular histories, or purely didactic themes. He is styled the father of Dutch poetry. Among his metrical productions are a life of St. Francis, in which he follows the Latin of Bonaventura (published by Tideman, Leyden, 1848); the Heimelijkheid der Heimelijkheden (Dort, 1838), after the Secreta Secretorum falsely as1496; Dort, 1834), a dialogue between the poet cribed to Aristotle; Wapene Martijn (Antwerp, and his friend Martin on the course of the world and various important questions; and Van den Lande van Overzee, an appeal for the deliverance of the Holy Land from the Saracens. He completed in 1270 a version of the Bible, and began in 1283 his Spieghel historiael, a chronicle of the history of the world, which was continued by others after his death. Portions of it have been printed (Leyden, 1784-'5; Amsterdam, edited by Bilderdijk, 1812). He was also a sculptor and painter. born in Dort in 1632, died in 1693. In his MAES, or MAAS, NICOLAS, a Dutch artist, youth he went to Amsterdam and entered the school of Rembrandt, under whose instruction he became an excellent colorist. He painted small historical subjects, and subsequently portraits. His cabinet pictures are very scarce and bring high prices. His portraits are distinguished by vigor of coloring and skilful relief. of Holland, capital of the Dutch portion of Lim- has wide and clean streets. The town hall is Catholic and 3 Calvinistic, 4 hospitals and orphan asylums, and a public library. The manufactures are of woollen and cotton stuffs, leather, soap, tobacco, firearms, beer, and spirits. The city is connected by railroad with the principal cities of Belgium and Prussia. Maestricht has sustained many sieges. It was taken by the Spaniards in 1579, and most of the people massacred. Louis XIV. took it in 1673, and it was afterward unsuccessfully besieged by William of Orange. The Belgians attacked it in 1830 with out success. MAFFEI, FRANCESCO SCIPIONE, marquis, an Italian author, born in Verona, June 1, 1675, died there, Feb. 11, 1755. He was educated at the college of Parma. In 1698 he went to Rome, applied himself to poetry, and was received into the academy of Arcadians. He joined his brother Alessandro in the Bavarian service in the war of the Spanish succession, and was engaged in the battle of Donauwörth in 1704. His rank and accomplishments introduced him to the most cultivated society of Italy on his return. His acknowledged personal bravery gave dignity to his denunciation of the practice of duelling in his treatise Della scienza chiamata cavalleresca (Rome, 1710). He was one of the founders in 1710 of the Giornale dei letterati, the first literary journal in Italy, one of the objects of which was to acquaint the Italians with foreign literature. He aided in the reformation of the Italian theatre by his Trattato dei teatri antichi e moderni, and still more by his tragedy Merope (1713), which was received with great applause, and was declared by Voltaire worthy of the most flourishing period of Athens. His comedy La ceremonia was also successfully represented. The discovery of manuscripts in the cathedral of Verona directed him to archæological studies, and in 1731 he published his Verona Illustrata, abounding in antiquarian, literary, and historical details, written with a critical spirit and in an elegant style. He had a European reputation when in 1782 he began his travels in France, England, Holland, and Austria, collecting in France the materials of his Gallia Antiquitates (Paris, 1733). In England he was received at the court of George II., became a member of the royal society, and had the degree of LL.D. conferred on him by the university of Oxford. Among his works were 3 treatises against the prevalent belief in magic. He had a controversy with the Jansenists, through whose influence he suffered a brief exile when 70 years of age. A bust was raised to his honor by the academy of Verona during his life. His collected works were published at Venice in 1790, in 21 vols. MAFFITT, JOHN NEWLAND, an American clergyman, born in Dublin, Ireland, Dec. 28, 1794, died in Mobile, Ala., May 28, 1850. He became a preacher in the Wesleyan connection in Ireland, and early gave promise of those remarkable powers as an orator that characterized him in after life. He came to the United States in 1819, and was admitted into the New England Methodist Episcopal conference. During the 12 years that he remained in this conference he was appointed to some of the most prominent Methodist churches. At the expiration of the above period he removed to New York and took a local relation, travelling at his own discretion, and preaching, lecturing, and delivering addresses in various parts of the country. In 1833, conjointly with the Rev. L. Garrett, he issued in Nashville, Tenn., a weekly journal, entitled "Western Methodist," which has been continued under various names until the present time, the last being that of "The Christian Advocate," the central organ of the M. E. church, South. His labors as a preacher in the West and South were attended with great success. Wherever he went immense crowds were attracted to his ministry. In 1837 he was elected to the chair of elocution and belles-lettres in the La Grange college, Ala., which post he held until he was elected chaplain to congress in 1841. His residence was afterward mainly in the Atlantic cities until 1847, when, by misfortune growing out of a second marriage, he was obliged to leave for the South, and took up his residence in Arkansas, where he labored with some success.for 2 years, at the expiration of which time he went to some of the chief cities of the South. The difficulties under which he labored pressed heavily upon his spirits, and he sunk under them. The power which he had over the masses, who had flocked in crowds to his ministry in other years, was gone, and after a brief period he died of a disease of the heart. His conduct was not always governed by due discretion, and his want of it in some instances brought obloquy upon him. Beside fugitive contributions to the press, he left an Autobiography," "Calvary Tokens," and an "Oratorical Dictionary." 66 MAGADOXO, or MUKDISHA, an Arabian town on the E. coast of Africa, in lat. 2° 2' N., long. 45° 25' E., subject to the imam of Muscat ; pop. 5,000. It is a place of considerable trade, being frequented by Arab and Indian vessels and a few European ships, and by caravans bringing grain, ivory, hides, horses, and slaves from the Galla countries to the west of it. Its imports are chiefly sugar, dates, firearms, and salt fish. The town is surrounded by a wall, and contains a mosque and about 150 houses of stone, the rest of the buildings being of wood. Magadoxo was a considerable town, strongly fortified, when in 1498 it was bombarded by the Portuguese squadron commanded by Vasco da Gama. It was subsequently subject to Portugal. MAGALHAENS, or MAGELLAN, FERNANDO, a Portuguese navigator, born in Oporto in the latter half of the 15th century, killed at Mactan, one of the Philippine islands, April 27, 1521. Entering the Portuguese navy at an early age, he served for 5 years in the East Indies under Albuquerque, and participated with distinction in the siege of Malacca in 1511. Discontented with the inadequate recompense which he received for his services, he withdrew about 1517 |