in classical acquirements. At the age of fourteen | spring of 1809 he removed to Cawnpore, where he he became a candidate for a scholarship in Corpus laboured under many disadvantages, being without Christi College, Oxford, but failed. Having re- a church, and having to preach in the open air, exsolved to continue a year longer at school, he after-posed to the violence of the heat. Towards the wards became a student in St. John's College, end of that year, he began his ministrations to the Cambridge, to which he was led, chiefly to enjoy heathen. "A crowd of mendicants, whom, to prethe society of an intimate and valued friend, whose vent perpetual interruptions, he had appointed to pious character and conversation produced a com- meet on a stated day for the distribution of alms, plete revolution in the views of Martyn in regard frequently assembled before his house in immense to religion. But his conversion, so far from inter- numbers, presenting an affecting spectacle of exfering with his preparations at the university, treme wretchedness. To this congregation he detertended to increase his ardour in literary pursuits, mined to preach the Word of Life. The following by leading him to regard time as a talent, for the Sunday he preached again to the beggars, in number right improvement of which he was accountable. about five hundred, and on the last day of the year Stimulated to diligence by this high motive, he be- he again addressed them to the amount of nearly came an indefatigable student, and his industry was six hundred. Afterwards Martyn, having become rewarded by the highest academical honours being proficient in the knowledge and use of the Persic, adjudged to him, for he was declared 'Senior Wran- resolved to extend his missionary labours to Persia. gler,' in Jan., 1801, before he had completed his He accordingly established himself at Shiraz, with twentieth year. He now engaged in superintending the immediate view of revising his Persian and the studies of some pupils, while, at the same time, Arabic translations of the New Testament with the he was assiduously preparing for the election in aid of some learned natives. In that place he March, 1802, when he was chosen Fellow of St. remained ten months, improving the time that was John's, and almost immediately after carried off the not occupied on his version in religious discussions highest prize for Latin prose composition which the with the Moolahs and Soofis. In crowded assemUniversity had to bestow. Unseduced, however, by blies of those literary Persians, he appeared the the splendour of these academical successes, Mr. Mar- single unassisted advocate of the Christian faith, tyn's desires strongly ran in a totally different direc- and yet by his zeal, tempered by judgment, he extion, and he resolved on dedicating his life and ener-cited great stir and interest in religious inquiries. gies to the service of God in the missionary cause. He In that place besides the complete version of his opened a communication with the Church Mission- New Testament, he completed, also, a Persian transary Society. This part of his plan, however, hav-lation of the Psalms, a sweet employment,' as he ing been abandoned, in consequence of some family losses, which made his sister dependent on him for support, his friends applied, and at length succeeded in obtaining for him a chaplaincy in the East India Company's service. Shortly after his arrival in Calcutta, where he was to wait for his appointment, he was overtaken by fever, which nearly terminated his life; but the long interval of leisure afforded him, before he was completely convalescent, was industriously improved in acquiring a knowledge of Hindostanee, and making himself acquainted with the state and feelings of the English residents in India. After a lapse of five months, he received his appointment to Dinapore, and his duty there was to read prayers to the soldiery at the barracks -the only service he was allowed to perform-for as there was no accommodation for their sitting, a sermon was dispensed with. But not content with this abridgement of his work, he extended his labours by commencing to preach to the natives in the vernacular language of India, and to this, at the time, novel service, a great crowd-chiefly of women-repaired. This service he continued, at the same time superintending five schools which he had planted at Dinapore, visiting hospitals, and affording religious instruction to all who came to him. In addition to these public labours, he was privately engaged in revising the sheets of the Hindostanee version of the New Testament which he had executed, superintending the Persian translation which had been committed to the care of Sabot, and prosecuting the study of Arabic, in which language he already meditated another translation. In the says, 'which caused six weary moons that waxed MARTYN, JOHN, F.R.S., professor of botany at MARTYN, THOMAS, F.R.S., son of the preceding, dist. as a botanical and antiquar. au., 1736-1825. MARVELL, ANDREW, a statesman and poet, was born at Hull on the 15th of November, 1620. Little is known of his education and early history, and in after life he was more distinguished by his firmness and honest adherence to constitutional principle, than either by his genius as a poet or his eminence as a statesman. He began his parliamentary career in 1660, as representative of his native town. He was deeply imbued with the spirit of the long parliament, and brought its constitutional principles, and wonderful aptness for the transaction of collective business, into the parliaments of the restoration, in a great measure consisting of men of a totally different stamp. He was the first great practical advocate of the important principle that the constituency should know the conduct of its representative, and that although he need not be a delegate merely to do what they require, yet he must be so far responsible that he is to be removed when he ceases to represent their sentiments. He wrote a series of letters to his constituents, describing the proceedings of parliament, and accounting for his own conduct; and the electors on their part adhered to him with zealous steadiness. There is a well-known anecdote of his declining a bribe from the lord treasurer because he had enough for a frugal dinner. Some of his pamphlets on the affairs of the day are valuable for their clearness and correctness; but his poetry is seldom read. The only office ever held by him was that of secretary of an embassy to the northern powers. He died on the 16th of August, 1678. [J.HI.B.] House of Marvell, Highgate, London. MARY, queen regnant of England, daughter of Henry VIII. and Catherine of Arragon, was born at the commencement of 1516, and succeeded her brother, Edward VI., in 1553. Her adherence to the Church of Rome gave occasion to the proclamation of her cousin, Lady Jane Grey, who was shortly afterwards beheaded, and the party who had elevated her to the throne completely subdued. In 1554, Mary was married to Philip of Spain. Devoting herself to the restoration of the Roman Catholic religion, nearly 300 persons suffered at the stake as heretics in the short space of three or four years. Happily for the nation, she died soon after the loss of Calais, November 17, 1558, and was succeeded by her half-sister, Elizabeth. MARY, companion of William III. on the throne of England, was the eldest daughter of James II. by Ann Hyde, daughter of the lord chancellor Clarendon. She was born 1662, married to William, prince of Orange, in 1677, and came to the throne in the interest of the protestant religion after the Revolution of 1688. She died in the thirty-third year of her age, 1694. MARY, queen of Scotland, was born in the year 1542. The day of her birth, like the more important events of her history, has been matter of controversy, but it takes no wider range than between the 8th and the 12th of December. Her father, James V., who died on the 13th, just heard of her birth ere he expired. The time was a gloomy and critical one for royalty in Scotland, but the frail infant survived contests and convulsions, in which one strong enough to take part in them might have been sacrificed. While she was yet in infancy, it was part of the policy of Henry VIII. to unite the kingdoms by marrying her to his son Edward. He set about the accomplishment of this scheme with a characteristic rash haste, which roused the spirits of the Scots against it. The young queen's mother, Mary of Lorraine, strengthened that alliance with the French court which political events had created in Scotland, and the Scottish statesmen settled the difficulty with England by sending the child to France in her sixth year. Her education was essentially that of the French court, and it affords a general solution of some of the moral difficulties connected with her career, to collect from the sad history of the times the principles which she must have then imbibed. She was early affianced to the Dauphin, and as he became King Francis II. in 1559, she then was queen of France and Scotland. On the ground of Elizabeth's illegitimacy, the Romish party claimed for Mary the sovereignty of England as a descendant of the sister of Henry VIII., and the union of the French and Scottish crowns in her person, made the claim formidable. death of Francis, however, after reigning for a few months, broke the main element of strength in her pretensions. She was now only Queen of Scotland, a country poor and turbulent. Leaving with bitter regret the brilliant court of France in 1562, she was received with a rude joy scarcely calculated to reconcile her to the change in the sordid and dreary chambers of Holyrood. even were important national affairs in a condition to gratify her, for in the previous year protestantism having been established, her religion had been suppressed, and its profession rendered a crime. She had many contests with Knox and 'the lords of the congregation,' in which earnestness, zeal, and rugged determination on the one side, were met by feminine wit and the overawing influence of royal rank on the other. It was on the 29th of July, 1565, that she celebrated her unhappy marriage with her worthless connection, Henry, Lord Darnley. The next great event in her strange career, was the murder in her presence of her humble friend David Rizzio, the musician, her husband leading on the assassins. It was on the 10th of February, 1567, that Darnley himself was murdered, and the house in which he lived blown up The Nor MATHEWS, CHARLES, an English comedian, with powers of mimicry never excelled, was born in 1776. His talents were various, and he had the rare capacity of creating characters out of slender materials given by the writers of his entertainments, which he denominated Mathews at Home.' To these monologues the comedian resorted, in the first instance, to occupy the intervals that occurred between his stage-engagements; but they proved so successful as to command ultimately his undivided attention. He died in 1837. [J.A.H.] ever, that he wrote jointly with others, especially most eminent of the family, was born at Bosto Fletcher, Middleton, and Rowley. A melancholy 1663, died 1728. His works are very numerous, letter, written about 1613 to Henslowe the theat- but the principal of them are An Ecclesiastical rical manager, shows him to have been then in History of New England,' 'The Christian Philosogreat pecuniary distress; he himself, in a dedica-pher,'Psalterium Americanum,' and 'The Wontion, dated 1632, thankfully acknowledges that the ders of the Invisible World,' which is an account bounty of one or two men of rank had kept him of the trials of witches, with observations on the alive; and the obscurity of his sad career, at its operation of spirits in association with men. close, is proved by the register of St. Saviours' in Southwark, which, in 1640, notes the burial of Philip Massinger, a stranger.' The famous collection of manuscript plays, which the cook of the herald Warburton used for covering pies, contained twelve attributed to Massinger. Gifford names thirty-seven plays as being his in whole or in part, and prints eighteen of these. Some critics insist on placing Massinger next after Shakspeare; and it is at least indisputable that he is one of the very best of the Old English dramatists. He wants comic humour, but has prodigious vigour, more, indeed, than almost any of his contemporaries, in the conception and delineation of character; his representations of society abound in traits of keen observation, and boldly independent thinking; his situations and incidents are devised with great originality and force; and his serious passages, though often wanting in natural pathos, have a lofty melancholy both of imagery and feeling, and a peculiar grace and melody of expression. He is known to play-goers by A New Way to Pay Old Debts; his 'Maid of Honour' also has been restored to the stage; and Rowe's 'Fair Penitent' is a plagiarism from his 'Fatal Dowry.' Among his other works may be named especially the MATTHEW OF WESTMINSTER, one of the most gloomy tragedy of 'The Unnatural Combat, and venerable, and most scrupulously accurate fathers The City Madam,' an extraordinarily spirited pic-of English history, was a Benedictine monk of the ture of actual life, idealized into a semi-comic Abbey of Westminster, and lived at an uncertain strain of poetry. [W.S.] period in the 14th century. His history modelled on the style of Matthew Paris, extended to 1307, and was continued seventy years later by another hand. · MASSINGHERD, SIR OSWALD, of Lincolnshire, distinguished as a knight of St. John of Jerusalem, last prior of that order in Ireland, and last Turcopolier of Malta, born 1490; installed prior at the instance of Cardinal Pole in the reign of Queen Mary, 1550. MATHIAS, THOMAS JAMES, a writer in the department of polite literature and criticism, who became a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1776, and died at Naples 1835. Besides The Pursuits of Literature,' and other publications in English, he is the author of several works in Italian, which he wrote with great facility. MATTHEW, TOBIAS, successively bishop of Durham, and archbishop of York, distinguished for his learning and virtues, was born in Bristol 1546, died 1628. His son, of the same name, was a courtier, accomplished as an artist and man of letters, and acted the part of a Jesuit spy, 1578-1655. MATTHEWS, T., an English admiral, d. 1751. MATTOCKS, ISABELLA, an actress, 1746-1826 MATURIN, CHARLES ROBERT, descendec from a French family, who fled their country on the revocation of the edict of Nantes, was born in Dublin, 1782. He was educated for the church, in which he became a curate, and wrote some discourses directed against the errors of Rome. He acquired somewhat more celebrity, however, as a novelist and writer for the stage, and is said to have been an eloquent preacher, died 1825. MATURIN, HENRY, an Irish clergyman, author of several tragedies and novels, 1772-1842. MASSON, FRANCIS, a Scot. botan., 1741-1805. MASTERS, R., an antiquarian writer, 1713-98. MASTERS, THOMAS, a scholar and poetical writer, who is said to have assisted Lord Herbert of Cherbury in his life of Henry VIII., died 1643. MATHER, RICHARD, a native of Lancashire, who took orders at Oxford, but was suspended for nonconformity in 1633, and afterwards settled in New England. Died there 1669. SAMUEL, his eldest son, born in Lancashire 1626, accompanied his father to America 1635, but returning to England in 1650, was actively employed as a minister in various parts of the three kingdoms, and died 1671. INCREASE, youngest son of Richard, born MAURICE, THOMAS, an Oriental scholar and in New England 1635, took his degree of B.A. at historian, was descended from a respectable Welch Harvard college 1656, and joined his brother in family, and was born at Hertford, 1753. He was Ireland 1657. He was afterwards known as a a minister of the Church of England, and assisdeputy to the English government in the cause of tant-librarian at the British Museum, where he colonial freedom, and takes rank in literature as a died 1824. His principal works relate to the religions essayist and historian, died 1723. Cor-history and antiquities of Hindostan. TON-MATHER, D.D., son of the preceding, and the MAVOR, WILLIAM FORDYCE, a Scottish MAUDUIT, ISRAEL, son of a dissenting minister, known as a political wr., London, 1708-87. MAUNDREL, H., a cel. traveller, date 1697. clergyman of the Church of England, author of many works, the subjects of which are addressed to the education of youth, 1758-1838. MAWE, JOSEPH, a master of the sciences of mineralogy and conchology, author of a "Treatise on Diamonds and Precious Stones,' 'Familiar Lessons on Mineralogy and Geology," "The Linnæ an System of Conchology,' &c., b. abt. 1755, d. 1829. MAXWELL, SIR M., a naval comman., d. 1831. MAXWELL, ROBERT, Lord, one of the lords of the regency for James V. of Scotland, d. 1546. MAXWELL, W. H., a lively English novelist, author of Wild Sports of the West,' &c., d. 1851. MAY, THOMAS, a republican poet and historian of the parliament of England, 1594-1650. MAYNARD, SIR JOHN, a lawyer and member of parliament, one of the managers of the trials of the earl of Strafford and Archbishop Laud, 1602-90. MAYNE, JASPER, an eminent clergyman, who amused himself as a wit and playwright, d. 1672. MAYNE, JOHN, a Scotch poet, died 1836. MAYNWARING, ARTHUR, a political and miscellaneous writer, time of William III., 1668-1712. MAYO, HERBERT, M.D., an English physiologist, died 1852. MAYOR, THOMAS, a Spanish friar, 17th cent. MAZZINGHI, JOSEPH, Count, an eminent opera composer, descended from a family of Tuscany, but born of an English mother in England, 1765, died at Bath 1844. MEAD, RICHARD, physician to George II., known as a professional writer, 1673-1754. MEADOWCOURT, RICHARD, a divine and critic, author of Notes on Milton, 1697-1769. MEARA. See O'MEARA. period when the Reform Bill was in agitation, and it required no mean talents, however well supported by party, to compete with such a statesman as Sir Robert Peel during subsequent years. He was an accomplished gentleman, an agreeable companion, and a finished speaker. Died 1848. [E.R.] MELDOLA, DR. RAPHAEL, principal of the Jewish rabbis in England, celebrated as a theologian and philosopher, died 1828. MELLON, HARRIET, a country actress, who was introduced on the London stage by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and became celebrated by her marriage in 1814 with Thomas Coutts, Esq., the wealthy banker, and in 1827 with the duke of St. Albans. She died in 1837, leaving the bulk of her immense property to the granddaughter of her first husband, and youngest daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, now known as Miss Burdett Coutts. MELMOTH, WILLIAM, a learned bencher of Lincoln's Inn, chiefly remembered as the author of a religious work entitled 'The Great Importance of a Religious Life,' 1666-1743. His son, of the same name, a classical transl. and poet, 1710-99. MELVIL, SIR JAMES, a Scottish statesman and historian, attached to the person of Mary Stuart, au. of Memoirs,' pub. in 1683, 1530-1606. MELVILLE, ANDREW, was the youngest of nine sons of Richard Melville of Baldovy, near Montrose, and was born on the 1st August, 1545. When only two years old he lost his father, who was killed at the battle of Pinkie, but his eldest brother took an affectionate charge of him. Placed first at the grammar school of Montrose, where he made great progress, especially in Latin, he entered St. Mary's College, St. Andrews, in 1559, in his fourteenth year. Having finished the usual course of study, he left the university in 1564, with a distinguished reputation, departed to the continent, attended for two years the university of Paris, and was then appointed a regent in the col MEARES, J., an English navigator in 1788-89. MEDE, JOSEPH, a English divine, 1586-1638. MEDINA, SIR J., a portrait painter, 1659-1711. MEHEGAN, WILLIAM ALEXANDER DE, descended from an Irish family who went into France with James II., distinguished as an elegant mis-lege of St. Marceon, when he was only twenty-one cellaneous writer, 1721-1766. MELBOURNE, WILLIAM LAMB, Viscount, the Whig statesman whose name and career is so familiar to the present generation, was born in 1779, and commenced his political life in parliament in 1805. The same year he married the Lady Caroline Ponsonby, known to literature as Lady Caroline Lamb, whose tastes were congenial with his own, and who shared with him the classical studies in which they were both proficient. In 1827 he became secretary for Ireland, and the next year, succeeding to his father's title, entered the House of Lords. In 1830 he joined the administration of Earl Grey as home secretary, and in March, 1834, succeeded him as premier. From the autumn of the same year to the spring of 1835, he was supplanted by the duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel, but at the latter period returned to power, and retained the premiership, with the exception of a brief retirement in 1839, till the close of his public life in 1841. Great difference of opinion prevails as to the statesmanship of Lord Melbourne, but he held office during that most trying years of age. Leaving the place after a siege, he travelled to Switzerland in a state of great fatigue and destitution, and on arriving at Geneva, obtained the chair of humanity in its academy. On his return to Scotland in July, 1574, he was immediately chosen principal of Glasgow college by the General Assembly. His zeal, assiduity, and skill in this high position, were of vast profit to the dilapidated seminary. In 1580, he was translated to the principality of St. Mary's College, St. Andrews, where his labours were very abundant in the reform of academic training and discipline. But his attention was also, and chiefly, devoted to ecclesiastical affairs, and he heartily and vigorously prosecuted his convictions. On the subject of church government his views were strictly presbyterian, and the establishment of this form of ecclesiastical administration in Scotland was mainly owing to his exertions and influence. Being moderator of the General Assembly, which met at St. Andrews in 1582, he proceeded with an act of discipline in defiance of a royal message to desist. Preaching at the next meeting of Assembly, he inveighed severely against the tyrannous measures of |