Chapter II (part 20 of 23)

Chapter II (part 20 of 23)

Marie Francis Xavier Bichat, was born in 1771 and died in 1802, accomplishing his extraordinary work as an anatomist and physician within a lifetime of thirty-one years. "The peculiar physiological views of Bichat are to be found stated more or less distinctly in all his works; and it is a merit of his that he has always kept in sight the necessary connexion of this part of the science of medicine with every other, and, so far as he has developed his ideas upon the subjects of pathology, materia medica, and therapeutics, they seem all to have been founded upon and connected with the principles of physiology, which he had adopted. … Everything around living bodies, according to Bichat, tends constantly to their destruction. And to this influence they would necessarily yield, were they not gifted with some permanent principle of reaction. This principle is their life, and a living system is therefore necessarily always engaged in the performance of functions, whose object is to resist death. Life, however, does not consist in a single principle, as has been taught by some celebrated writers, by Stahl, Van Helmont, and Barthez, &c. We are to study the phenomena of life, as we do those of other matter, and refer the operations performed in living systems to such ultimate principles as we can trace them to, in the same way that we do the operations taking place among inorganic substances. … His essential doctrine … is that there is no one single, individual, presiding principle of vitality, which animates the body, but that it is a collection of matter gifted for a time with certain powers of action, combined into organs which are thus enabled to act, and that the result is a series of functions, the connected performance of which constitutes it a living thing. This is his view of life, considered in the most general and simple way. But in carrying the examination farther, he points out two remarkable modifications of life, as considered in different relations, one common both to vegetables and animals, the other peculiar to animals. … Those which we have in common with the vegetable, which are necessary merely to our individual, bodily existence, are called the functions of organic life, because they are common to all organized matter. Those, on the other hand, which are peculiar to animals, which in them are superadded to the possession of the organic functions, are called the functions of animal life. Physiologically speaking, then, we have two lives, the concurrence of which enables us to live and move and have our being; both equally necessary to the relations we maintain as human beings, but not equally necessary to the simple existence of a living thing. … The two lives differ, in some important respects, as to the organs by which their functions are performed. Those of the animal life present a symmetry of external form, strongly contrasted with the irregularity, which is a prominent characteristic of those of organic life. In the animal life, every function IS either performed by a pair of organs, perfectly similar in structure and size, situated one upon each side of the median dividing line of the body, or else by a single organ divided into two similar and perfectly symmetrical halves by that line. … The organs of the organic life, on the contrary, present a picture totally different; they are irregularly formed, and irregularly arranged. … This symmetry of the form is accompanied by a corresponding harmony in the functions of the organs of the animal life. … The functions of the organic life are constantly going on; they admit of no interruption, no repose. … In those of the animal life, the case is widely different. They have intervals of entire repose. The organs of this life are incapable of constant activity, they become fatigued by exercise and require rest. This rest, with regard to any particular organ, is the sleep of that organ. … Upon this principle, Bichat founds his theory of sleep. General sleep is the combination of the sleep of particular organs. Sleep then is not any definite state, but is more or less complete rest of the whole system in proportion to the number of organs which require repose. … The two lives differ also in regard to habit; the animal being much under its control, the organic but slightly. … But the principal and most important feature in the physiological system of Bichat, is the complete, and entire, and exclusive explanation of all the phenomena of the living system upon the principles of vitality alone. Former physiologists have not always kept this distinctly in view. … The human body has been regarded, too often, as a mass of matter, organized to be sure, but yet under the direction of physical laws, and the performance of its functions has been ascribed to the powers of inorganic matter. Hence, physiology has generally been somewhat tinctured by the favorite science of the age, with some of its notions. … With Bichat the properties of life were all in all. The phenomena of the system, whether in health or disease, were all ascribed to their influence and operation."

_J. Ware, Life and Writings of Bichat (North American Review, July, 1822)._

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MEDICAL SCIENCE: 18-19th Centuries. Pinel and the Reform in treatment of the Insane.

Philippe Pinel, "who had attained some distinction as an alienist, was appointed, 1792, to fill the post of superintendent of the Bicêtre, which then contained upwards of 200 male patients, believed not only to be incurable, but entirely uncontrollable. The previous experience of the physician, here stood him in good stead. He had been a diligent student of the authorities of his own and foreign countries on diseases of the mind, and in his earlier years had been appointed by the French government to report on the condition of the asylums at Paris and Charenton. On assuming the oversight of the Bicêtre, he found 53 men languishing in chains, some of whom had been bound for a great number of years. These were regarded by the authorities as dangerous and even desperate characters; but the sight of men grown gray and decrepit as the result of prolonged torture, made a very different impression on the mind of Pinel. He addressed appeal after appeal to the Commune, craving power to release, without delay, the unhappy beings under his charge. The authorities tardily and unwillingly yielded to the importunity of the physician. An official, who was deputed by the Commune to accompany the superintendent and watch his experiment, no sooner caught sight of the chained maniacs than he excitedly exclaimed: 'Ah, ça! citoyen, es-tu fou toi-même de vouloir déchaîner de pareils animaux?' The physician was not to be deterred, however, from carrying out his benevolent project, and did not rest satisfied until all of the 53 men had been gradually liberated from their chains. Singular as it may appear, the man who had been regarded as the most dangerous, and who had survived forty years of this severe treatment, was afterwards known as the faithful and devoted servant of Pinel. The reforms of Pinel were not confined to the Bicêtre, an establishment exclusively for men, but extended to the Salpêtrière, an institution for women. There is, perhaps, no more touching event in history than that of this kind-hearted and wise physician removing the bands and chains from the ill-fated inmates of this place of horrors. The monstrous fallacy of cruel treatment once fully exposed, the insane came to be looked upon as unfortunate human beings, stricken with a terrible disease, and, like other sick persons, requiring every aid which science and benevolent sympathy could provide with a view to cure. Governmental inquiries were instituted with a view to the attainment of better treatment, and in different countries, almost simultaneously, the provision of suitable and adequate accommodation for the insane was declared to be a State necessity."

W. P. Letchworth, The Insane in Foreign Countries, chapter 1.

MEDICAL SCIENCE: 19th Century. The Discovery of Anæsthetics.

"In 1798, Mr. Humphry Davy, an apprentice to Mr. Borlase a surgeon at Bodmin, had so distinguished himself by zeal and power in the study of chemistry and natural philosophy, that he was invited by Dr. Beddoes of Bristol, to become the 'superintendent of the Pneumatic Institution which had been established at Clifton for the purpose of trying the medicinal effects of different gases.' He obtained release from his apprenticeship, accepted the appointment, and devoted himself to the study of gases, not only in their medicinal effects, but much more in all their chemical and physical relations. After two years' work he published his 'Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, chiefly concerning Nitrous Oxide.' … He wrote, near the end of his essay: 'As nitrous oxide in its extensive operation appears capable of destroying physical pain, it may probably be used with advantage during surgical operations in which no great effusion of blood takes place.' It seems strange that no one caught at a suggestion such as this. … The nitrous oxide might have been of as little general interest as the carbonic or any other, had it not been for the strange and various excitements produced by its inhalation. These made it a favourite subject with chemical lecturers, and year after year, in nearly every chemical theatre, it was fun to inhale it after the lecture on the gaseous compounds of nitrogen; and among those who inhaled it there must have been many who, in their intoxication, received sharp and heavy blows, but, at the time, felt no pain. And this went on for more than forty years, exciting nothing worthy to be called thought or observation, till, in December 1844, Mr. Colton, a popular itinerant lecturer on chemistry, delivered a lecture on 'laughing gas' in Hartford, Connecticut. Among his auditors was Mr. Horace Wells, an enterprising dentist in that town, a man of some power in mechanical invention. After the lecture came the usual amusement of inhaling the gas, and Wells, in whom long wishing had bred a kind of belief that something might be found to make tooth-drawing painless, observed that one of the men excited by the gas was not conscious of hurting himself when he fell on the benches and bruised and cut his knees. Even when he became calm and clear-headed the man was sure that he did not feel pain at the time of his fall. Wells was at once convinced—more easily convinced than a man of more scientific mind would have been—that, during similar insensibility, in a state of intense nervous excitement, teeth might be drawn without pain, and he determined that himself and one of his own largest teeth should be the first for trial. Next morning Colton gave him the gas, and his friend Dr. Riggs extracted his tooth. He remained unconscious for a few moments, and then exclaimed, 'A new era in tooth-pulling! It did not hurt me more than the prick of a pin. It is the greatest discovery ever made.' In the next three weeks Wells extracted teeth from some twelve or fifteen persons under the influence of the nitrous oxide, and gave pain to only two or three. Dr. Riggs, also, used it with the same success, and the practice was well known and talked of in Hartford. Encouraged by his success Wells went to Boston, wishing to enlarge the reputation of his discovery and to have an opportunity of giving the gas to some one undergoing a surgical operation. Dr. J. C. Warren, the senior Surgeon of the Massachusetts General Hospital, to whom he applied for this purpose, asked him to show first its effects on some one from whom he would draw a tooth. He undertook to do this in the theatre of the medical college before a large class of students, to whom he had, on a previous day, explained his plan. Unluckily, the bag of gas from which the patient was inhaling was taken a way too soon; he cried out when his tooth was drawn; the students hissed and hooted; and the discovery was denounced as an imposture. Wells left Boston disappointed and disheartened; he fell ill, and was for many months unable to practise his profession. Soon afterwards he gave up dentistry, and neglected the use and study of the nitrous oxide, till he was recalled to it by a discovery even more important than his own. The thread of the history of nitrous oxide may be broken here. {2144} The inhalation of sulphuric ether was often, even in the last century, used for the relief of spasmodic asthma, phthisis, and some other diseases of the chest. … As the sulphuric ether would 'produce effects very similar to those occasioned by nitrous oxide,' and was much the more easy to procure, it came to be often inhaled, for amusement, by chemist's lads and by pupils in the dispensaries of surgeons. It was often thus used by young people in many places in the United States. They had what they called 'ether frolics.' … Among those who had joined in these ether-frolics was Dr. Wilhite of Anderson, South Carolina. In one of them, in 1839," a negro boy was unconscious so long that he was supposed for some time to be dead. "The fright at having, it was supposed, so nearly killed the boy, put an end to the ether-frolics in that neighbourhood; but in 1842, Wilhite had become a pupil of Dr. Crauford Long, practising at that time at Jefferson (Jackson County, Georgia). Here he and Dr. Long and three fellow-pupils often amused themselves with the ether-inhalation, and Dr. Long observed that when he became furiously excited, as he often did, he was unconscious of the blows which he, by chance, received as he rushed or tumbled about. He observed the same in his pupils; and thinking over this, and emboldened by what Mr. Wilhite told him of the negro-boy recovering after an hour's insensibility, he determined to try whether the ether-inhalation would make any one insensible of the pain of an operation. So, in March, 1842, nearly three years before Wells's observations with the nitrous oxide, he induced a Mr. Venable, who had been very fond of inhaling ether, to inhale it till he was quite insensible. Then he dissected a tumour from his neck; no pain was felt, and no harm followed. Three months later, he similarly removed another tumour from him; and again, in 1842 and in 1845, he operated on other three patients, and none felt pain. His operations were known and talked of in his neighbourhood; but the neighbourhood was only that of an obscure little town; and he did not publish any of his observations. … He waited to test the ether more thoroughly in some greater operation than those in which he had yet tried it; and then he would have published his account of it. While he was waiting, others began to stir more actively in busier places, where his work was quite unknown, not even heard of. Among those with whom, in his unlucky visit to Boston, Wells talked of his use of the nitrous oxide, and of the great discovery which he believed that he had made, were Dr. Morton and Dr. Charles Jackson. … Morton was a restless energetic dentist, a rough man, resolute to get practice and make his fortune. Jackson was a quiet scientific gentleman, unpractical and unselfish, in good repute as a chemist, geologist, and mineralogist. At the time of Wells's visit, Morton, who had been his pupil in 1842, and for a short time, in 1843, his partner, was studying medicine and anatomy at the Massachusetts Medical College, and was living in Jackson's house. Neither Morton nor Jackson put much if any faith in Wells's story, and Morton witnessed his failure in the medical theatre. Still, Morton had it in his head that tooth-drawing might somehow be made painless. … Jackson had long known, as many others did, of sulphuric ether being inhaled for amusement and of its producing effects like those of nitrous oxide; he knew also of its employment as a remedy for the irritation caused by inhaling chlorine. He had himself used it for this purpose, and once, in 1842, while using it, he became completely insensible. He had thus been led to think that the pure ether might be used for the prevention of pain in surgical operations; he spoke of it with some scientific friends, and sometimes advised a trial of it; but he did not urge it or take any active steps to promote even the trial. One evening, Morton, who was now in practice as a dentist, called on him, full of some scheme which he did not divulge, and urgent for success in painless tooth-drawing. Jackson advised him to use the ether, and taught him how to use it. On that same evening, the 30th of September, 1846, Morton inhaled the ether, put himself to sleep, and, when he awoke, found that he had been asleep for eight minutes. Instantly, as he tells, he looked for an opportunity of giving it to a patient; and one just then coming in, a stout healthy man, he induced him to inhale, made him quite insensible, and drew his tooth without his having the least consciousness of what was done. But the great step had yet to be made. … Could it be right to incur the risk of insensibility long enough and deep enough for a large surgical operation? It was generally believed that in such insensibility there was serious danger to life. Was it really so? Jackson advised Morton to ask Dr. J. C. Warren to let him try, and Warren dared to let him. It is hard, now, to think how bold the enterprise must have seemed to those who were capable of thinking accurately on the facts then known. The first trial was made on the 16th of October, 1846. Morton gave the ether to a patient in the Massachusetts General Hospital, and Dr. Warren removed a tumour from his neck. The result was not complete success; the patient hardly felt the pain of the cutting, but he was aware that the operation was being performed. On the next day, in a severer operation by Dr. Hayward, the success was perfect; the patient felt nothing, and in long insensibility there was no appearance of danger to life. The discovery might already be deemed complete; for the trials of the next following days had the same success, and thence onwards the use of the ether extended over constantly widening fields. … It might almost be said that in every place, at least in Europe, where the discovery was promoted more quickly than in America, the month might be named before which all operative surgery was agonising, and after which it was painless."

_Sir J. Paget, Escape from Pain (Nineteenth Century, December 1879)._

MEDICAL SCIENCE: 19th Century. The Study of Fermentation and its results.

"It was some time ago the current belief that epidemic diseases generally were propagated by a kind of malaria, which consisted of organic matter in a state of motor-decay; that when such matter was taken into the body through the lungs, skin, or stomach, it had the power of spreading there the destroying process by which itself had been assailed. Such a power was visibly exerted in the case of yeast. A little leaven was seen to leaven the whole lump—a mere speck of matter, in this supposed state of decomposition, being apparently competent to propagate indefinitely its own decay. Why should not a bit of rotten malaria act in a similar manner within the human frame? In 1836 a very wonderful reply was given to this question. In that year Cagniard de la Tour discovered the yeast-plant—a living organism, which when placed in a proper medium feeds, grows, and reproduces itself, and in this way carries on the process which we name fermentation. By this striking discovery fermentation was connected with organic growth. Schwann, of Berlin, discovered the yeast-plant independently about the same time."

J. Tyndall, Fragments of Science, volume 1, chapter 5.

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The question of fermentation "had come to present an entirely new aspect through the discovery of Cagniard de la Tour that yeast is really a plant belonging to one of the lowest types of fungi, which grows and reproduces itself in the fermentable fluid, and whose vegetative action is presumably the cause of that fermentation, just as the development of mould in a jam-pot occasions a like change in the upper stratum of the jam, on whose surface, and at whose expense, it lives and reproduces itself. Chemists generally—especially Liebig, who had a fermentation theory of his own—pooh-poohed this idea altogether; maintaining the presence of the yeast-plant to be a mere concomitant, and refusing to believe that it had any real share in the process. But in 1843, Professor Helmholtz, then a young undistinguished man, devised a method of stopping the passage of organic germs from a fermenting into a fermentable liquid, without checking the passage of fluids; and as no fermentation was then set up, he drew the inference that the 'particulate' organic germs, not the soluble material of the yeast, furnish the primum mobile of this change,—a doctrine which, though now universally accepted, had to fight its way for some time against the whole force of chemical authority. A little before Cagniard de la Tour's discovery, a set of investigations had been made by Schulze and Schwann, to determine whether the exclusion of air was absolutely necessary to prevent the appearance of living organisms in decomposing fluids, or whether these fluids might be kept free from animal or vegetable life, by such means as would presumably destroy any germs which the air admitted to them might bring in from without, such as passing it through a red-hot tube or strong sulphuric acid. These experiments, it should be said, had reference rather to the question of 'spontaneous generation,' or 'abiogenesis,' than to the cause of fermentation and decomposition; its object being to determine whether the living things found by the microscope in a decomposing liquid exposed to the air, spring from germs brought by the atmosphere, or are generated 'de novo' in the act of decay—the latter doctrine having then many upholders. But the discovery of the real nature of yeast, and the recognition of the part it plays in alcoholic fermentation, gave an entirely new value to Schulze's and Schwann's results; suggesting that putrefactive and other kinds of decomposition may be really due, not (as formerly supposed) to the action of atmospheric oxygen upon unstable organic compounds, but to a new arrangement of elements brought about by the development of germinal particles deposited from the atmosphere. It was at this point that Pasteur took up the inquiry; and for its subsequent complete working-out, science is mainly indebted to him: for although other investigators—notably Professor Tyndall—have confirmed and extended his conclusions by ingenious variations on his mode of research, they would be the first to acknowledge that all those main positions which have now gained universal acceptance—save on the part of a few obstinate 'irreconcilables'—have been established by Pasteur's own labours. … The first application of these doctrines to the study of disease in the living animal was made in a very important investigation, committed to Pasteur by his old master in chemistry (the eminent and eloquent Dumas), into the nature of the 'pébrine,' which was threatening to extinguish the whole silk culture of France and Italy. … Though it concerned only a humble worm, it laid the foundation of an entirely new system and method of research into the nature and causes of a large class of diseases in man and the higher animals, of which we are now only beginning to see the important issues. Among the most immediately productive of its results, may be accounted the 'antiseptic surgery' of Professor Lister; of which the principle is the careful exclusion of living bacteria and other germs, alike from the natural internal cavities of the body, and from such as are formed by disease, whenever these may be laid open by accident, or may have to be opened surgically. This exclusion is effected by the judicious use of carbolic acid, which kills the germs without doing any mischief to the patient; and the saving of lives, of limbs, and of severe suffering, already brought about by this method, constitutes in itself a glorious triumph alike to the scientific elaborator of the germ-doctrine, and to the scientific surgeon by whom it has been thus applied. A far wider range of study, however, soon opened itself. The revival by Dr. Farr of the doctrine of 'zymosis' (fermentation),—long ago suggested by the sagacity of Robert Boyle, and practically taken up in the middle of the last century by Sir John Pringle (the most scientific physician of his time),—as the expression of the effect produced in the blood by the introduction of a specific poison (such as that of small-pox, measles, scarlatina, cholera, typhus, &c.), had naturally directed the attention of thoughtful men to the question (often previously raised speculatively), whether these specific poisons are not really organic germs, each kind of which, a real 'contagium vivum,' when sown in the circulating fluid, produces a definite 'zymosis' of its own, in the course of which the poison is reproduced with large increase, exactly after the manner of yeast in a fermenting wort. Pasteur's success brought this question to the front, as one not to talk about, but to work at."

_W. B. Carpenter, Disease-Germs (Nineteenth Century, October, 1881)._

ALSO IN: _L. Pasteur, Studies in Fermentation._

_Dr. Duclaux, Fermentation._

MEDICAL SCIENCE: 19th Century. Virchow and Cellular Pathology.

"That really gifted scholar and paragon of industry and attainment, Rudolph Virchow, announced in 1858 a theory known as Modern Vitalism which was borrowed from natural scientific medicine and is distinguished from the vitalism of the previous century in this, that it breaks up the old vital force, which was supposed to be either distributed throughout the entire body, or located in a few organs, into an indefinite number of associate vital forces working harmoniously, and assigns to them all the final elementary principles without microscopic seat. 'Every animal principle has a sum of vital unities, each of which bears all the characteristics of life. {2146} The characteristics and unity of life cannot be found in any determinate point of a higher organism, e. g., in the brain, but only in the definite, ever recurring arrangements of each element present. Hence it results that the composition of a large body amounts to a kind of social arrangement, in which each one of the movements of individual existence is dependent upon the others, but in such a way that each element has a special activity of its own, and that each, although it receives the impulse to its own activity from other parts, still itself performs its own functions.' This it will be seen is nothing but another way of expressing the cell doctrine to which most medical men are now committed, which means that our bodies are built up with cells, and that each cell has a unity and a purpose of its own. Sir Robert Hooke in 1677 discovered plant cells. Schwann discovered animal cells, and Robert Brown discovered cell nuclei, but it remained for Virchow, using the microscope, to supply the gap which had risen between anatomical knowledge and medical theory, that is, to supply a 'cellular pathology,' since which time the cell has assumed the role which the fibre occupied in the theories of the 17th and 18th centuries. Time alone can decide as to the ultimate validity of these views. This theory was from its announcement most enthusiastically received, and so far has responded to nearly all the requirements which have been made of it. Even its author was almost startled with its success. … As a result of Virchow's labors there has arisen in Germany what has been called the medical school of natural sciences of which Virchow is the intellectual father. This school seeks mainly by means of pathological anatomy and microscopy, experimental physiology and pathology, and the other applied sciences, or rather by their methods, to make medicine also an exact science."

_Roswell Park, Lectures on the History of Medicine (in MS.)._

MEDICAL SCIENCE: 19th Century. The development of Bacteriology.

"The traditional expression contagium vivum received a more precise meaning in 1840 from Henle, who in his 'Pathologischen Untersuchungen,' showed clearly and distinctly that the contagia till then invisible must be regarded as living organisms, and gave his reasons for this view. … If we are forced to recognise the characteristic qualities of living beings in these contagia, there is no good reason why we should not regard them as real living beings, parasites. For the only general distinction between their mode of appearance and operation and that of parasites is, that the parasites with which we are acquainted have been seen and the contagia have not. That this may be due to imperfect observation is shown by the experiments on the itch in 1840, in which the contagium, the itch-mite, though almost visible without magnifying power, was long at least misunderstood. It was only a short time before that the microscopic Fungus, Achorion, which causes favus, was unexpectedly discovered, as well as the Fungus which gives rise to the infectious disease in the caterpillar of the silkworm known as muscardine. Other and similar cases occurred at a later time, and among them that of the discovery of the Trichinae between 1850 and 1860, a very remarkable instance of a contagious parasite long overlooked. Henle repeated his statements in 1853 in his 'Rationelle Pathologie,' but for reasons which it is not our business to examine, his views on animal pathology met with little attention or approval. It was in connection with plant-pathology that Henle's views were first destined to further development, and obtained a firmer footing. It is true that the botanists who occupied themselves with the diseases of plants knew nothing of Henle's pathological writings, but made independent efforts to carry on some first attempts which had been made with distinguished success in the beginning of the century. But they did in fact strike upon the path indicated by Henle, and the constant advance made after, about the year 1850, resulted not only in the tracing back of all infectious diseases in plants to parasites as their exciting cause, but in proving that most of the diseases of plants are due to parasitic infection. It may now certainly be admitted that the task was comparatively easy in the vegetable kingdom, partly because the structure of plants makes them more accessible to research, partly because most of the parasites which infect them are true Fungi, and considerably larger than most of the contagia of animal bodies. From this time observers in the domain of animal pathology, partly influenced, more or less, by these discoveries in botany, and partly in consequence of the revival of the vitalistic theory of fermentation by Pasteur about the year 1860, returned to Henle's vitalistic theory of contagion. Henle himself, in the exposition of his views, had already indicated the points of comparison between his own theory and the theory of fermentation founded at that time by Cagniard-Latour and Schwann. Under the influence, as he expressly says, of Pasteur's writings, Davaine recalled to mind the little rods first seen by his teacher, Rayer, in the blood of an animal suffering from anthrax, and actually discovered in them the exciting cause of the disease, which may be taken as a type of an infectious disease both contagious and miasmatic also, in so far as it originates, as has been said, in anthrax-districts. This was, in 1863, a very important confirmation of Henle's theory, inasmuch as a very small parasite, not very easy of observation at that time, was recognised as a contagium. It was some time before much further advance was made. … The latest advance to be recorded begins with the participation of Robert Koch in the work of research since 1876."

A. De Bary, Lectures on Bacteria, pages 145-148.

"M. Pasteur is no ordinary man; he is one of the rare individuals who must be described by the term 'genius.' Having commenced his scientific career and attained great distinction as a chemist, M. Pasteur was led by his study of the chemical process of fermentations to give his attention to the phenomena of disease in living bodies resembling fermentations. Owing to a singular and fortunate mental characteristic, he has been able, not simply to pursue a rigid path of investigation dictated by the logical or natural connection of the phenomena investigated, but deliberately to select for inquiry matters of the most profound importance to the community, and to bring his inquiries to a successful practical issue in a large number of instances. {2147} Thus he has saved the silkworm industry of France and Italy from destruction, he has taught the French wine-makers to quickly mature their wine, he has effected an enormous improvement and economy in the manufacture of beer, he has rescued the sheep and cattle of Europe from the fatal disease 'anthrax,' and it is probable—he would not himself assert that it is at present more than probable—that he has rendered hydrophobia a thing of the past. The discoveries made by this remarkable man would have rendered him, had he patented their application and disposed of them according to commercial principles, the richest man in the world. They represent a gain of some millions sterling annually to the community. … M. Pasteur's first experiment in relation to hydrophobia was made in December 1880, when he inoculated two rabbits with the mucus from the mouth of a child which had died of that disease. As his inquiries extended he found that it was necessary to establish by means of experiment even the most elementary facts with regard to the disease, for the existing knowledge on the subject was extremely small, and much of what passed for knowledge was only ill-founded tradition."

E. R. Lankester, The Advancement of Science, pages 121-123.

"The development of our knowledge relating to the bacteria, stimulated by the controversy relating to spontaneous generation and by the demonstration that various processes of fermentation and putrefaction are due to microörganisms of this class, has depended largely upon improvements in methods of research. Among the most important points in the development of bacteriological technique we may mention first, the use of a cotton air filter (Schröder and Von Dusch, 1854); second, the sterilization of culture fluids by heat (methods perfected by Pasteur, Koch, and others); third, the use of the aniline dyes as staining agents (first recommended by Weigert in 1877); fourth, the introduction of solid culture media and the 'plate method' for obtaining pure cultures, by Koch in 1881. The various improvements in methods of research, and especially the introduction of solid culture media and Koch's 'plate method' for isolating bacteria from mixed 'cultures, have placed bacteriology upon a scientific basis. … It was a distinguished French physician, Davaine, who first demonstrated the etiological relation of a microörganism of this class to a specific infectious disease. The anthrax bacillus had been seen in the blood of animals dying from this disease by Pollender in 1849, and by Davaine in 1850, but it was several years later (1863) before the last-named observer claimed to have demonstrated by inoculation experiments the causal relation of the bacillus to the disease in question. The experiments of Davaine were not generally accepted as conclusive, because in inoculating an animal with blood containing the bacillus, from an infected animal which had succumbed to the disease, the living microörganism was associated with material from the body of the diseased animal. This objection was subsequently removed by the experiments of Pasteur, Koch, and many others, with pure cultures of the bacillus, which were shown to have the same pathogenic effects as had been obtained in inoculation experiments with the blood of an infected animal."

G. M. Sternberg, Manual of Bacteriology, page 6.

"In 1876 the eminent microscopist, Professor Cohn, of Breslau, was in London, and he then handed me a number of his 'Beiträge,' containing a memoir by Dr. Koch on Splenic Fever (Milzbrand, Charbon, Malignant Pustule), which seemed to me to mark an epoch in the history of this formidable disease. With admirable patience, skill, and penetration Koch followed up the life-history of bacillus anthracis, the contagium of this fever. At the time here referred to he was a young physician holding a small appointment in the neighbourhood of Breslau, and it was easy to predict, and indeed I predicted at the time, that he would soon find himself in a higher position. When I next heard of him he was head of the Imperial Sanitary Institute of Berlin. … Koch was not the discoverer of the parasite of splenic fever. Davaine and Rayer, in 1850, had observed the little microscopic rods in the blood of animals which had died of splenic fever. But they were quite unconscious of the significance of their observation, and for thirteen years, as M. Radot informs us, strangely let the matter drop. In 1863 Davaine's attention was again directed to the subject by the researches of Pasteur, and he then pronounced the parasite to be the cause of the fever. He was opposed by some of his fellow-countrymen; long discussions followed, and a second period of thirteen years, ending with the publication of Koch's paper, elapsed before M. Pasteur took up the question. I always, indeed, assumed that from the paper of the learned German came the impulse towards a line of inquiry in which M. Pasteur has achieved such splendid results."

J. Tyndall, New Fragments, pages 190-191.

"On the 24th of March, 1882, an address of very serious public import was delivered by Dr. Koch before the Physiological Society of Berlin. … The address … is entitled 'The Etiology of Tubercular Disease.' Koch first made himself known, and famous, by the penetration, skill, and thoroughness of his researches on the contagium of anthrax, or splenic fever. … Koch's last inquiry deals with a disease which, in point of mortality, stands at the head of them all. 'If,' he says, 'the seriousness of a malady be measured by the number of its victims, then the most dreaded pests which have hitherto ravaged the world—plague and cholera included—must stand far behind the one now under consideration.' Then follows the startling statement that one-seventh of the deaths of the human race are due to tubercular disease. Prior to Koch it had been placed beyond doubt that the disease was communicable; and the aim of the Berlin physician has been to determine the precise character of the contagium which previous experiments on inoculation and inhalation had proved to be capable of indefinite transfer and reproduction. He subjected the diseased organs of a great number of men and animals to microscopic examination, and found, in all cases, the tubercles infested by a minute, rod-shaped parasite, which by means of a special dye, he differentiated from the surrounding tissue. 'It was,' he says, 'in the highest degree impressive to observe in the centre of the tubercle-cell the minute organism which had created it.' Transferring directly, by inoculation, the tuberculous matter from diseased animals to healthy ones, he in every instance reproduced the disease. To meet the objection that it was not the parasite itself, but some virus in which it was imbedded in the diseased organ, that was the real contagium, he cultivated his bacilli artificially for long periods of time and through many successive generations. {2148} With a speck of matter, for example, from a tuberculous human lung, he infected a substance prepared, after much trial, by himself, with the view of affording nutriment to the parasite. In this medium he permitted it to grow and multiply: From the new generation he took a minute sample, and infected therewith fresh nutritive matter, thus producing another brood. Generation after generation of bacilli were developed in this way, without the intervention of disease. At the end of the process, which sometimes embraced successive cultivations extending over half a year, the purified bacilli were introduced into the circulation of healthy animals of various kinds. In every case inoculation was followed by the reproduction and spread of the parasite, and the generation of the original disease. … The moral of these experiments is obvious. In no other conceivable way than that pursued by Koch could the true character of the most destructive malady by which humanity is now assailed be determined. And however noisy the fanaticism of the moment may be, the common-sense of Englishmen will not, in the long run, permit it to enact cruelty in the name of tenderness, or to debar us from the light and leading of such investigations as that which is here so imperfectly described."

J. Tyndall, New Fragments, pages 423-428.

MEDICAL SCIENCE: 19th Century. The Theory of Germ Diseases.

"An account of the innumerable questions and investigations in this department of modern pathogenesis, of the various views on certain questions, etc., does not fall within the compass of our brief sketch. Nor are we able to furnish a consistent theory, simply because such an one does not [1889] exist. One fact alone is agreed upon, to wit, that certain of the lower fungi, as parasites within or upon the body, excite diseases (infectious diseases). As regards the modus operandi of these parasites two main theories are held. According to one theory, these parasites, by their development, deprive the body of its nutriment and endanger life particularly when, thronging in the blood, they deprive this of the oxygen necessary for existence. According to the other theory, they threaten life by occasioning decompositions which engender putrid poisons (ptomaines). These latter poisons were first isolated by P. L. Panum in 1856, and have been recently specially studied by Brieger (Ueber Ptomaine, Berlin, 1885-86). They act differently upon bodies according to the variety of the alkaloidal poison. Metschnikoff regards the white blood-corpuscles as antagonists of these parasites (thus explaining the cases of recovery from parasitic diseases), and in this point of view calls them 'phagocytes.' On the other hand E. Salmon and Theodore Smith ('Transactions of the Washington Biological Society, February 22d, 1886) were the first to demonstrate that sterilized nutritive solutions or germ-free products of change of matter of the virulent exciters of disease, when injected, afford protection. A. Chauveau as early as 1880 had brought forward evidence of the probability of this fact, and Hans Buchner in 1879 admitted the possibility of depriving bacteria of their virulence. Pasteur, however, believes he has demonstrated that by continued cultures (also a sort of bacillary Isopathy) 'debilitated' germs act as prophylactics against the corresponding parasitic diseases, and he even thinks he has confirmed this by his inoculations against hydrophobia—a view, at all events, still open to doubt. … The chief diseases regarded as of parasitic origin at present are: anthrax (Davaine, 1850); relapsing fever (Obermeier, 1873); gonorrhœa and blenorrhœa neonatorum (Neisser, 1879); glanders (Struck, 1882, Loeffler and Schütz); syphilis (Sigm. Lustgarten, 1884); diphtheria (Oertel, Letzerich, Klebs); typhus (Eberle, Klebs); tuberculosis (Koch, 1882); cholera (Koch, 1884); lepra (Armauer-Hansen); actinomycosis (Bollinger in cattle, 1877; Israel in man, 1884); septicæmia (Klebs); erysipelas (Fehleisen); pneumonia (Friedländer); malarial fever (Klebs, Tommasi-Crudeli, Marchiafava); malignant œdema (Koch); tetanus (Carle and Rattone, Nicolaier, Roeschlaub assumed a tetania occasioned by bacilli); cancer (Scheuerlen; priority contested by Dr. G. Rappia and Prof. Domingo Freire of Rio Janeiro); yellow fever (microbe claimed to have been discovered by Freire); dysentery (bacillary diphtheritis of the large intestine); cholera nostras (Finkler and Prior); scarlet fever (Coze and Feltz, '72); variola and vaccina (Keber, Zülzer, Weigert, Klebs); acute yellow atrophy of the liver (Klebs, Waldeyer, Eppinger); endocarditis (Ziegler); hæmophilia neonatorum (Klebs, Eppinger); trachoma (Sattler); keratitis (Leber—aspergillus); ulcus rodens corneæ (Sattler); gonorrhœal rheumatism (Petrone, Kammerer). If the bacterial theory of infection, constantly threatening life by such numerous pathogenic varieties of infecting organisms, must be looked upon as a gloomy one, the anti-bacterial Phagocyte Theory of Metschnikoff, professor of zoology in Odessa, is adapted to make one feel more comfortable, inasmuch as it brings into view the possibility of an antagonism to these infecting organisms, and explains the method of nature's cures. Metschnikoff observed that the wandering cells—the white blood corpuscles—after the manner of amœbæ, surround, hold fast, digest ('devour,' hence 'phagocytes'), and thus render harmless the bacteria which have entered the body. … The prophylactic effects of inoculation are explained on the theory that by means of this operation the wandering cells are prepared, as it were, for subsequent accidental irruptions of similar pathogenic bacteria, are habituated or compelled thereby to at once devour such organisms when they enter the body spontaneously, and thus to render them harmless. Inoculation would thus be a sort of training or education of the phagocytes. The immunity of many persons from infectious diseases, so far as it is not effected by inoculations, would by analogy be explained on the theory that with such individuals the phagocytes are from the outset so constituted that they at once render harmless any stray bacteria which come within their domain by immediately devouring them. … When … in spite of the phagocytes, the patients die of infectious diseases, the fact is to be explained by the excessive number of the bacteria present, which is so great that the phagocytes are unequal to the task of 'devouring' them all."

J. H. Baas, Outlines of the History of Medicine, pages 1007-1009.

{2149}

MEDICAL SCIENCE: 19th Century. Sanitary Science and Legislation.

"Together with the growth of our knowledge of the causes of disease there has been … slowly growing up also a new kind of warfare against disease. It is this science of hygiene which is now promising to transform all the old traditional ways of dealing with disease, and which now makes possible the organisation of the conditions of health. And this science of hygiene, it must be repeated, rests on the exact knowledge of the causes of disease which we are now obtaining. … At the beginning of the eighteenth century Mead, a famous physician of that day, whose reputation still lives, had proposed the formation of a central board of health to organise common measures for the public safety. It was not, however, until more than a hundred years later, in 1831, under the influence of the terror of cholera, that this first step was taken; so that, as it has been well said and often since proved, 'panic is the parent of sanitation.' In 1842 Sir Edwin Chadwick issued his report on 'The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain.' This report produced marked effect, and may truly be said to have inaugurated the new era of collective action, embodying itself in legislation directed to the preservation of national health, an era which is thus just half a century old. Chadwick's report led to a Royal Commission, which was the first step in the elevation of public health to a State interest; and a few years later (1847) Liverpool, and immediately afterwards London, appointed the first medical officers of health in Great Britain. In 1848 another epidemic of cholera appeared, and a General Board of Health was established. During this epidemic Dr. Snow began those inquiries which led to the discovery that the spread of the disease was due to the contamination of drinking-water by the intestinal discharges of patients. That discovery marked the first great stage in the new movement. Henceforth the objects to be striven for in the evolution of sanitation became ever more clear and precise, and a succession of notable discoveries in connection with various epidemics enlarged the sphere of sanitation, and revealed new possibilities in the prevention of human misery."

H. Ellis, The Nationalisation of Health, pages 21-24.

"Of all countries of the civilized world, none has a sanitary code so complete and so precise as England. In addition, English legislation is distinguished from that of other countries, by the fact that the principal regulations emanate from Parliament instead of being simple administrative orders. Thus the legislation is the work of the nation, which has recognised its necessity in its own interest. Consequently the laws are respected, and, as a rule, religiously observed, without objection or murmur. In the whole country, the marvellous results which have been produced can be seen. Thanks to these laws, the rate of mortality has been lowered, the mean duration of life increased, the amount of sickness decreased. They have greatly alleviated the misery in the houses of the poor, who, thanks to sanitary measures, have a better prospect of recovering their health and the means of providing for their subsistence and that of their families. … The sanitary administration of England is, in accordance with the Public Health Act of 1875, in the hands of a central authority, the Local Government Board; and local authorities, the Local Boards of Health. The Local Government Board consists of a president, nominated by the Queen, and the following ex-officio members:—the Lord President of the Privy Council, all the principal Secretaries of State for the time being, the Lord Privy Seal, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, a Parliamentary Secretary, and a permanent Secretary. The President and Secretaries are, properly speaking, the directors of the Local Government Board, the other members being only consulted on matters of prime importance. Nine special departments are controlled by the Local Government Board:

1. Poor-law administration. 2. Legal questions. 3. Sanitary regulations respecting buildings. 4. Sanitary regulations respecting sewers, streets, etc. 5. Medical and hygienic matters. 6. Vaccination. 7. The Hygiene of factories. 8. The water supply of London. 9. Statistics.

Medical and sanitary matters are under the direction of a Medical Officer, and an Assistant Medical Officer."

A. Palmberg, Treatise on Public Health: England, chapter 1.

"The United States have no uniform legislation for the organization of public hygiene to the present day. Each State organizes this service as it chooses. … That which characterizes the sanitary organization of the States is the fact that, in a large number of States, the right is granted to the sanitary administrations to carry before the justices the infractions of the regulations on this subject. It is a similar organization to that of Great Britain, with a little less independence, and it is the logical result of the general system of administration which exists in the American Union. … Without doubt the day will come when the National Board of Health will be by act of Congress, with the consent of all the States, the real superior council of public hygiene of the American Union."

_E. Sève, On the General Organization of Public Hygiene (Proceedings, International Sanitary Conference, 1881)._

"The General Government [of the United States] can do little in the way of compulsory legislation, which might interfere with the action of the several States to control their own sanitary affairs. It is possible that upon the ground of power to legislate with regard to commerce, it might establish some general system of quarantine and do something toward the prevention of the pollution of navigable streams; but it could probably only do this with such restrictions and exceptions as would make its action of little practical value, unless, indeed, it should resort to its right of eminent domain, and become liable for all damages, individual or municipal, which its action might cause. … No one would deny that the General Government can properly create an organization for the purpose of collecting and diffusing information on sanitary matters; but comparatively few understand how much real power and influence such an organization might acquire without having the slightest legal authority to enforce any of its recommendations. The passing of sanitary laws, and the granting to a certain department the power to enforce these laws, will not ensure good public health unless the public at large supports those laws intelligently, and it can only do this through State and municipal sanitary organizations. The General Government might do much to promote the formation of such organizations, and to assist them in various ways. … By the 'act to prevent the introduction of infectious or contagious diseases into the United States, and to establish a national board of health,' approved March 3, 1879, the first step has been taken in the direction above indicated. {2150} The act provides for a national board of health, to consist of seven members, appointed by the President, and of four officers detailed from the Medical Department of the Army, Medical Department of the Navy, and the Marine Hospital Service, and the Department of Justice respectively. No definite term of Office is prescribed, the Board being essentially provisional in character. The duties of the board are 'to obtain information upon all matters affecting the public health, to advise the several departments of the government, the executives of the several States, and the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, on all questions submitted by them, or whenever in the opinion of the board such advice may tend to the preservation and improvement of the public health.' The board is also directed to prepare a plan for a national public health organization in conjunction with the National Academy of Sciences."

J. S. Billings, Introduction to "A Treatise on Hygiene and Public Health," edited by A. IL Buck.

ALSO IN: _Sir J. Simon, English Sanitary Institutions_

Sir J. Simon, Public Health: Reports of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council and Local Government Board.

_United States National Board of Health, Annual Reports._

_Massachusetts Board of Health, Annual Reports._

----------MEDICAL SCIENCE: End----------

MEDICI, The.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1378-1427, and after.

----------MEDINA: Start--------

MEDINA: the City of the Prophet.

By Mahomet's Hegira or flight from Mecca to Yethrib, A. D. 622, the latter city became the seat of Islam and was henceforward known as Medina—Medinet-en-Neby—"the City of the Prophet."

S. Lane-Poole, Studies in a Mosque, chapter 2.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 609-632.

MEDINA: A. D. 661. The Caliphate transferred.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 661.

MEDINA: A. D. 683. Stormed and sacked.

In the civil war which followed the accession of Yezid, the second of the Omeyyad caliphs, Medina was besieged and stormed by Yezid's army and given up for three days to every imaginable brutality on the part of the soldiery. The inhabitants who survived were made slaves.

Sir W. Muir, Annals of the Early Caliphate, chapter 50.

ALSO IN: W. Irving, Mahomet and his Successors, volume 2, chapter 47.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 715-750.

----------MEDINA: End----------

MEDINA DEL RIO SECO, Battle of.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1808 (MAY-SEPTEMBER).

MEDIOLANUM.

Modern Milan. Taken by the Romans in 222 B. C. from the Insubrian Gauls.

See ROME: B. C. 295-191.

MEDIOMATRICI.

The original form of the name of the city of Metz, which had been called Divodurum by the Gauls at an earlier day.

MEDISM. MEDIZED GREEKS.

During the wars of the Persians against the Greeks, the former had many friends and allies, both secret and open, among the latter. These were commonly called Medized Greeks, and their treason went by the name of Medism.

MEDITERRANEAN FUND.

A special fund provided by the United States Congress, in 1803, for the War with Tripoli.

H. Adams, History of the United States, volume 2, chapter 7.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: When named.

"For this sea … the Greeks had no distinctive name, because it had so long been practically the only one known to them; and Strabo can only distinguish it as 'the Inner' or 'Our' Sea. … The now familiar appellation of Mediterranean is in like manner first used by Solinus [third century], only as a convenient designation, not as a strictly geographical term. … The first extant author who employs it distinctly as a proper name is Isidorus, who wrote in the seventh century."

E: H. Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, chapter 21, section 1, chapter 23, section 2, foot-note, chapter 31 (volume 2).

MEERUT, The Sepoy mutiny at.

See INDIA: A. D. 1857 (MAY).

MEGALESIA, The.

See LUDI.

----------MEGALOPOLIS: Start--------

MEGALOPOLIS: B. C. 371. The founding of the city.

See GREECE: B. C. 371.

MEGALOPOLIS: B. C. 317. Defense against Polysperchon.

See GREECE: B. C. 321-312.

MEGALOPOLIS: B. C. 222. Destruction and restoration.

The last exploit of Cleomenes of Sparta, in his struggle with the Achæan League and its ally, the king of Macedonia, before the fatal field of Sellasia, was the capture of Megalopolis, B. C. 222. Most of the citizens escaped. He offered to restore their town to them, if they would forsake the League. They refused, and he destroyed it, so utterly that its restoration was believed to be impossible. But in the following year the inhabitants were brought back and Megalopolis existed again, though never with its former importance.

Polybius, Histories, book 2, chapter 55 and after (volume 1).

MEGALOPOLIS: B. C. 194-183. In the Achaian League.

"The city of Megalopolis held at this time [B. C. 194-183] the same sort of position in the Achaian League which the State of Virginia held in the first days of the American Union. Without any sort of legal preëminence, without at all assuming the character of a capital, Megalopolis was clearly the first city of the League, the city which gave the nation the largest proportion of its leading statesmen. Megalopolis, like Virginia, was 'the Mother of Presidents,' and that too of Presidents of different political parties. As Virginia produced both Washington and Jefferson, so Megalopolis, if she produced Philopoimen and Lykortas, produced also Aristainos and Diophanes."

E. A. Freeman, History of Federal Government, chapter 9, section 2.

----------MEGALOPOLIS: End--------

----------MEGARA: Start--------

MEGARA.

Megara, the ancient Greek city and state whose territory lay between Attica and Corinth, forming part of the Corinthian isthmus, "is affirmed to have been originally settled by the Dorians of Corinth, and to have remained for some time a dependency of that city. It is farther said to have been at first merely one of five separate villages—Megara, Heræa, Peiræa, Kynosura, Tripodiskus—inhabited by a kindred population, and generally on friendly terms, yet sometimes distracted by quarrels. …

See CORINTH: B. C. 745-725.

Whatever may be the truth respecting this alleged early subjection of Megara, we know it in the historical age, and that too as early as the 14th Olympiad, only as an independent Dorian city, maintaining the integrity of its territory under its leader Orsippus, the famous Olympic runner, against some powerful enemies, probably the Corinthians. It was of no mean consideration, possessing a territory which extended across Mount Geraneia to the Corinthian Gulf, on which the fortified town and port of Pêgæ, belonging to the Megarians, was situated. It was mother of early and distant colonies,—and competent, during the time of Solon, to carry on a protracted contest with the Athenians, for the possession of Salamis; wherein, although the latter were at last victorious, it was not without an intermediate period of ill-success and despair."

G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 9.

See, also, GREECE: THE MIGRATIONS.

{2151}

MEGARA: B. C. 610-600. Struggle with Athens for Salamis. Spartan arbitration favorable to the Athenians.

See ATHENS: B. C. 610-586.

MEGARA: B. C. 458-456. Alliance with Athens in war with Corinth and Ægina.

See GREECE: B. C. 458-456.

MEGARA: B. C. 446-445. Rising against Athens.

See GREECE: B. C. 449-445.

MEGARA: B. C. 431-424. Athenian invasions and ravages.

See ATHENS: B. C. 431.

MEGARA: B. C. 339-338. Resistance to Philip of Macedon.

See GREECE: B. C. 357-336.

----------MEGARA: End--------

MEGARA OF CARTHAGE, The.

See CARTHAGE: DIVISIONS.

MEGIDDO.

The valley of Megiddo, forming the western part of the great Plain of Esdraelon, in northern Palestine—stretching from the valley of the Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea, along the course of the river Kishon—was the field of many important battles in ancient times. Thothmes III. of the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty, whose reign is placed about 1600 B. C., met there, near the city of Megiddo, and defeated a confederacy of Syrian and Canaanite princes who attempted to throw off his yoke. A remarkable account of his victory and of the spoils he took is preserved in inscriptions on the walls of the temple at Karnak.

H. Brugsch, History of Egypt, chapter 13 (volume 1).

It was at Megiddo, also, that Sisera, commanding the forces of the Canaanites, was beaten and driven to flight by the Israelites under Barak. Gideon's' assault on the Midianites was from the slope of Mount Gilboa, which rises out of the same valley. The latter battle has been called by historians the Battle of Jezreel, and Jezreel is one of the forms of the name of the valley of Esdraelon. It was there that the Philistines were arrayed when Saul fought his last battle with them, and on the slopes of Gilboa he fell on his sword and died. On the same historic plain, near the city of Megiddo, Josiah, king of Judah, fought against Necho, the Pharaoh of Egypt, B. C. 609, and was defeated and mortally wounded. The plain of Megiddo was so often, in fact, the meeting place of ancient armies that it seems to have come to be looked upon as the typical battle-ground, and apparently the name Armageddon in Revelations is an allusion to it in that sense. The ancient city of Megiddo has been identified in site with the present town of Ledjûn, which is the Legio of the Romans—the station of a Roman legion.

MEGISTANES, The.

"The king [of the Parthian monarchy] was permanently advised by two councils, consisting of persons not of his own nomination, whom rights, conferred by birth or office, entitled to their seats. One of these was a family conclave, … or assembly of the full-grown males of the Royal House; the other was a senate comprising both the spiritual and the temporal chiefs of the nation, the Sophi, or 'Wise Men,' and the Magi, or 'Priests.' Together these two bodies constituted the Megistanes, the 'Nobles' or 'Great Men'—the privileged class which to a considerable extent checked and controlled the monarch. The monarchy was elective; but only in the house of the Arsacidæ."

G. Rawlinson, Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy, chapter 6.

MEHDI, AL.

See MAHDI, AL.

MEHEMET ALI AND THE INDEPENDENT PASHALIK OF EGYPT.

See TURKS: A. D. 1831-1840; and EGYPT: A. D. 1840-1869.

MEHERRINS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: IROQUOIS TRIBES OF THE SOUTH

MEIGS, Fort, Sieges of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812-1813 HARRISON'S NORTHWESTERN CAMPAIGN.

MELBOURNE MINISTRIES, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1834-1837; and 1841-1842.

MELCHITES.

A name applied in the religious controversies of the 6th century, by the heretical Jacobites, to the adherents of the orthodox church. It signified that they were imperialists, or royalists, taking their doctrines from the sovereign power.

H. F. Tozer, The Church and the Eastern Empire, chapter 5.

MELDÆ, The.

A tribe in ancient Gaul which was established in the north of the modern French department of the Seine-et-Marne and in a small part of the department of the Oise.

Napoleon III., History of Cæsar, book 3, chapter 2, footnote (volume 2).

MELIAN FAMINE.

See GREECE: B. C. 416.

MELIGNANO, MARIGNANO, Battle of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1515.

MELISCEET INDIANS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

MELORIA, Battles of (1241 and 1284).

See PISA: A. D. 1063-1293.

MELOS: Siege, conquest and massacre by the Athenians:

See GREECE: B. C. 416.

MELUN, Siege of.

One of the important sieges in the second campaign of the English king Henry V. in France, A. D. 1420.

Monstrelet, Chronicles, book 1, chapters 226-230 (volume 1).

MEMLUKS.

See MAMELUKES.

----------MEMPHIS, Egypt: Start--------

MEMPHIS, Egypt.

The foundation of Memphis is the first event in Egyptian history, the one large historical incident in the reign of the first king, who emerges a real man from the shadow land which the Egyptians called the reign of the gods. … Menes, the founder of Memphis and Egyptian history, came from the south. Civilisation descended the Nile. His native place was Thinis, or This, in Upper Egypt, a still older town, where his shadowy predecessors ruled. … A great engineering work was the first act of the builder. He chose his site … but the stream was on the wrong side, flowing below the Libyan chain, flowing over where the city should be, offering no water-bulwark against the invader from the eastern border. So he raised, a few miles to the south, a mighty dyke, and turned the river into the present course, founding the city on the west bank, with the desert behind and the Nile before. … The new city received a name which reflects the satisfaction of the ancient founder: he called it Mennufre, 'the Good' or 'Perfect Mansion.' This was the civil name. … The civil name is the parent of the Greek Memphis and the Hebrew Moph, also found in the form Noph."

R. S. Poole, Cities of Egypt, chapter 2.

See, also, EGYPT: THE OLD EMPIRE AND THE MIDDLE EMPIRE.

{2152}

MEMPHIS: A. D. 640-641. Surrender to the Moslems.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 640-646.

----------MEMPHIS, Egypt: End--------

----------MEMPHIS, Tennessee: Start--------

MEMPHIS, Tennessee: A. D. 1739-1740. A French fort on the site.

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1719-1750.

MEMPHIS, Tennessee: A. D. 1862. Naval fight in the river. Surrender of the city to the Union forces.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (JUNE: ON THE MISSISSIPPI).

----------MEMPHIS, Tennessee: End--------

MENAPII, The.

See BELGÆ; also, IRELAND: TRIBES OF EARLY CELTIC INHABITANTS.

MENDICANT ORDERS. Franciscans. Dominicans.

"This period [12-13th centuries], so prolific in institutions of every sort, also gave birth to the Mendicant orders, a species of spiritual chivalry still more generous and heroic than that which we have just treated [the military-religious orders], and unique in history. … Many causes combined to call them into existence. In proportion as the Church grew wealthy her discipline relaxed, and dangers menaced her on every side. … The problem thus presented to the Church was taken up at the opening of the 13th century, and thrown into practical shape by two men equally eminent in intellectual endowments and spiritual gifts. While each solved it in his own way, they were both attached to each other by the closest friendship. Dominic, a member of the powerful house of Guzman, was born in the year 1170, at Callaruega (Calahorra, in Old Castile), a village in the diocese of Osma. While pursuing his studies in the university of Valencia, he was distinguished by a spirit of charity and self·sacrifice. … Diego, Bishop of Osma, … a man of severe character, and ardently devoted to the good of the Church, found in Dominic one after his own heart. He took the young priest with him on a mission which he made to the south of France." Dominic was finally left in charge of the mission. "His peaceful disposition, his spirit of prayer, his charity, forbearance, and patient temper formed a consoling contrast to the bloody crusade which had recently been set on foot against the Albigenses. After spending ten years in this toilsome and thankless mission, labouring only for love of God and the profit of souls, he set out for Rome, in 1215, with his plans fully matured, and submitted to Pope Innocent III. the project of giving to the Church a new method of defence, in an order which should combine the contemplative life of the monk with the active career of a secular priest. … Innocent gave his sanction to Dominic's project, provided he would manage to bring it under some of the existing Rules. Dominic accordingly selected the Rule of St. Augustine, introducing a few changes, with a view to greater severity, taken from the Rule of the Premonstratensians. That the members of the new order might be free to devote themselves entirely to their spiritual labours, they were forbidden to accept any property requiring their active administration, but were permitted to receive the incomes of such as was administered by others. Property, therefore, might be held by the Order as a body, but not administered by its members. Pope Honorius III. confirmed the action of his illustrious predecessor, and approved the Order in the following year, giving it, from its object, the name of the 'Order of Friars Preachers' ('Ordo Prædicatorum, Fratres Prædicatores'). … Dominic founded, in the year 1206, an Order of Dominican nuns. … The dress of the Dominicans is a white garment and scapular, resembling in form that of the Augustinians, with a black cloak and a pointed cap. Francis of Assisi, the son of a wealthy merchant named Bernardini, was born in the year 1182, in Assisi, in Umbria. His baptismal name was John, but from his habit of reading the romances of the Troubadours in his youth, he gradually acquired the name of Il Francesco, or the Little Frenchman. … When about twenty-four years of age, he fell dangerously ill, and, while suffering from this attack, gave himself up to a train of religious thought which led him to consider the emptiness and uselessness of his past life. … He … conceived the idea of founding a society whose members should go about through the whole world, after the manner of the apostles, preaching and exhorting to penance. … His zeal gradually excited emulation, and prompted others to aspire after the same perfection. His first associates were his townsmen, Bernard Quintavalle and Peter Cattano, and others soon followed. Their habit consisted of a long brown tunic of coarse woolen cloth, surmounted by a hood of the same material, and confined about the waist with a hempen cord. This simple but ennobling dress was selected because it was that of the poor peasants of the surrounding country. … He sent his companions, two-and-two, in all directions, saying to them in taking leave: 'Go; always travel two-and-two. Pray until the third hour; then only may you speak. Let your speech be simple and humble.' … With St. Francis, absolute poverty was not only a practice, it was the essential principle on which he based his Order. Not only were the individual members forbidden to have any personal property whatever, but neither could they hold any as an Order, and were entirely dependent for their support upon alms. … Hence the chief difference between mendicant and other monastic orders consists in this, that, in the former, begging takes the place of the ordinary vow of personal poverty. … In 1223, Pope Honorius III. approved the Order of Franciscans (Fratres Minores), to which … Innocent III. had given a verbal sanction in 1210."

J. Alzog, Manual of Universal Church History, section 247 (volume 2).

"They were" called 'Friars' because, out of humility, their founders would not have them called 'Father' and 'Dominus,' like the monks, but simply 'Brother' ('Frater,' 'Frère,' Friar). … Dominic gave to his order the name of Preaching Friars; more commonly they were styled Dominicans, or, from the colour of their habits, Black Friars. … The Franciscans were styled by their founder 'Fratri Minori'—lesser brothers, Friars Minors; they were more usually called Grey Friars, from the colour of their habits, or Cordeliers, from the knotted cord which formed their characteristic girdle."

E. L. Cutts, Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, chapter 5.

{2153}

"People talk of 'Monks and Friars' as if these were convertible terms. The truth is that the difference between the Monks and the Friars was almost one of kind. The Monk was supposed never to leave his cloister. The Friar in St. Francis' first intention had no cloister to leave."

_A. Jessopp, The Coming of the Friars, 1._

ALSO IN: _Mrs. Oliphant, Life of St. Francis of Assisi._

_H. L. Lacordaire, Life of St. Dominic._

R. Pauli, Pictures of Old England, chapter 2.

E. F. Henderson, Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages, book 3, number 8.

_P. Sabatier, Life of St. Francis of Assisi._

MENENDEZ'S MASSACRE OF FLORIDA HUGUENOTS.

See FLORIDA: A. D. 1565.

MENHIR.

Meaning literally "long-stone." The name is usually given to single, upright stones, sometimes very large, which are found in the British islands, France and elsewhere, and which are supposed to be the rude sepulchral monuments of some of the earlier races, Celtic and pre-Celtic.

Sir J. Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, chapter 5.

MENOMINEES, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

MENTANA, Battle of (1867).

See ITALY: A. D. 1867-1870.

----------MENTZ: Start--------

MENTZ: Origin.

See MOGONTIACUM.

MENTZ: A. D. 406. Destruction by the Germans.

See GAUL: A. D. 406-409.

MENTZ: 12th Century. Origin of the electorate.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1125-1152.

MENTZ: A. D. 1455-1456. Appearance of the first printed book.

See PRINTING: A. D. 1430-1456.

MENTZ: A. D. 1631. Occupied by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1631-1632.

MENTZ: A. D. 1792. Occupation by the French Revolutionary army. Incorporation with the French Republic.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1792 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER).

MENTZ: A. D. 1793. Recovery by the Germans.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (JULY-DECEMBER).

MENTZ: A. D. 1801-1803. Extinction of the electorate.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1801-1803.

----------MENTZ: End--------

MENTZ, Treaty of (1621).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1621-1623.

MENZEL PAPERS, The.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1755-1756, and 1756.

MERCED, The order of La.

"Jayme [king of Aragon, called El Conquistador], when a captive in the hands of Simon de Montfort [see SPAIN: A. D. 1212-1238], had—mere baby as he was—made a vow that, when he should be a man and a king, he would endeavour to do something for the redemption of captives. So, before he was a man in age, he instituted another religious order of knighthood, called La Merced, which added to their other duties that of collecting alms and using them for the ransoming of captives to the Moors."

C. M. Yonge, The Story of the Christians and Moors of Spain, page 184.

MERCENARIES, Revolt of the.

See CARTHAGE: B. C. 241-238.

MERCHANT ADVENTURERS.

"The original Company of the Merchant Adventurers carried on trade chiefly with the Netherlands. Their principal mart was at first Bruges, whence it was removed to Antwerp early in the fifteenth century. In distinction from the staplers, who dealt in certain raw materials, the Merchant Adventurers had the monopoly of exporting certain manufactured articles, especially cloths. Though of national importance, they constituted a strictly private company, and not, like the staplers, an administrative organ of the British government. The former were all subjects of the English crown; the staplers were made up of aliens as well as Englishmen. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries frequent dissensions broke out between these two bodies regarding the exportation of cloth. To carry on foreign trade freely in wool as well as in cloth, a merchant had to join both companies. Much obscurity hangs over the early history of the Merchant Adventurers. They claimed' that John, Duke of Brabant, founded their society in 1216 or 1248, and that it originally bore the name of the Brotherhood of St. Thomas à Becket. But it could scarcely have existed in its later form before the reign of Edward III., when the cloth industry began to flourish in England. The earliest charter granted to it as an organized association dates from the year 1407. Their powers were greatly increased by Henry VII. The soul of this society, and perhaps its original nucleus, was the Mercers' Company of London. … Though the most influential Merchant Adventurers resided in London, there were many in other English towns. … The contrast between the old Gild Merchant and the Company of Merchant Adventurers is striking. The one had to do wholly with foreign trade, and its members were forbidden to exercise a manual occupation or even to be retail shopkeepers; the other consisted mainly of small shopkeepers and artisans. The line of demarkation between merchants and manual craftsmen was sharply drawn by the second half of the sixteenth century, the term 'merchant' having already acquired its modern signification as a dealer on an extensive scale. Besides the Company of Merchant Adventurers trading to the Low Countries—which during the eighteenth century was called the Hamburg Company—various new Companies of Merchant Adventurers trading to other lands arose in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, especially during the reigns of Elizabeth and her immediate successors. Among them were the Russian or Muscovy Company, the Turkey or Levant Company, the Guinea Company, the Morocco Company, the Eastland Company, the Spanish Company, and the East India Company, the last-mentioned being the most powerful of them all."

C. Gross, The Gild Merchant, pages 148-156.

MERCHANT GUILD.

See GUILDS, MEDIÆVAL.

MERCHANT TAYLORS' SCHOOL.

See EDUCATION, MODERN: EUROPEAN COUNTRIES—ENGLAND.

MERCIA, The Kingdom of.

A kingdom formed at the close of the 6th century by the West Angles, on the Welsh border, or March. The people who formed it had acquired the name of Men of the March, from which they came to be called Mercians, and their kingdom Mercia. In the next century, under King Penda, its territory and its power were greatly extended, at the expense of Northumbria.

_J. R. Green, The Making of England._

See, also, ENGLAND: A. D. 547-633.

{2154}

MERCY FOR THE REDEMPTION OF CHRISTIAN CAPTIVES, The Order of.

"For the institution of this godlike order, the Christian world was indebted to Pope Innocent III., at the close of the 12th century. … The exertions of the order were soon crowned with success. One third of its revenues was appropriated to the objects of its foundation, and thousands groaning in slavery were restored to their country. … The order … met with so much encouragement that, in the time of Alberic, the monk (who wrote about forty years after its institution), the number of monastic houses amounted to 600, most of which were situated in France, Lombardy and Spain."

S. A. Dunham, History of Spain and Portugal, book 3, section 3, chapter 4 (volume 4).

MERGENTHEIM, Battle of (1645).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1640-1645.

----------MERIDA: Start--------

MERIDA, Origin of.

See EMERITA AUGUSTA.

MERIDA: A. D. 712. Siege and capture by the Arab-Moors.

See SPAIN: A. D. 711-713.

----------MERIDA: End--------

MERIDIAN, Mississippi, Sherman's Raid to.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863-1864 (DECEMBER-APRIL: TENNESSEE-MISSISSIPPI).

MERMNADÆ, The. The third dynasty of the kings of Lydia, beginning with Gyges and ending with Crœsus.

M. Duncker, History of Antiquity, book 4, chapter 17 (volume 3).

MEROË, The Kingdom of.

See ETHIOPIA.

MEROM, Battle of.

The final great victory won by Joshua in the conquest of Canaan, over the Canaanite and Amorite kings, under Jabin, king of Hazor, who seems to have been a kind of over-king or chieftain among them.

Dean Stanley, Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church, lecture 12 (volume 1).

MEROVINGIANS, The.

See FRANKS: A. D. 448-456; and 511-752.

MERRIMAC AND MONITOR, Battle of the.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (MARCH).

MERRYMOUNT.

See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1622-1628.

MERTÆ, The.

See BRITAIN: CELTIC TRIBES.

MERTON, Statutes of.

A body of laws enacted at a Great Council held at Merton, in England, under Henry III., A. D. 1236, which marks an important advance made in the development of constitutional legislation.

_G. W. Prothero, Simon de Montfort._

MERU.

See MERV.

----------MERV: Start--------

MERV, OR MERU: A. D. 1221. Destruction by Jingis Khan.

In the merciless march through Central Asia of the awful Mongol horde set in motion by Jingis Khan, the great city of Meru (modern Merv) was reached in the autumn of A. D. 1220. This was "Meru Shahjan, i. e., Meru the king of the world, one of the four chief cities of Khorassan, and one of the oldest cities of the world. It had been the capital of the great Seljuk Sultans Melikshah and Sanjar, and was very rich and populous. It was situated on the banks of the Meri el rond, also called the Murjab. … The siege commenced on the 25th of February, 1221. The governor of the town … sent a venerable imam as an envoy to the Mongol camp. He returned with such fair promises that the governor himself repaired to the camp, and was loaded with presents; he was asked to send for his chief relations and friends; when these were fairly in his power, Tulni [one of the sons of Jingis Khan] ordered them all, including the governor, to be killed. The Mongols then entered the town, the inhabitants were ordered to evacuate it with their treasures; the mournful procession, we are told, took four days to defile out. … A general and frightful massacre ensued; only 400 artisans and a certain number of young people were reserved as slaves. The author of the 'Jhankushai' says that the Seyid Yzz-ud-din, a man renowned for his virtues and piety, assisted by many people, were thirteen days in counting the corpses, which numbered 1,300,000. Ibn al Ethir says that 700,000 corpses were counted. The town was sacked, the mausolemn of the Sultan Sanjar was rifled and then burnt, and the walls and citadel of Meru levelled with the ground."

H. H. Howorth, History of the Mongols, volume 1, page 87.

See, also, KHORASSAN: A. D. 1220-1221.

MERV, OR MERU: A. D. 1884. Russian occupation.

See RUSSIA. A. D. 1869-1881.

----------MERV: End--------

MERWAN I., Caliph, A. D. 683-684.

Merwan II., Caliph, 744-750.

MERWING.

One of the forms given to the name of the royal family of the Franks, established in power by Clovis, and more commonly known as the Merovingian Family.

MÉRY, Battle of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (JANUARY-MARCH).

MESCHIANZA, MISCHIANZA, The.

See PHILADELPHIA: A. D. 1777-1778.

MESOPOTAMIA.

"Between the outer limits of the Syro-Arabian desert and the foot of the great mountain-range of Kurdistan and Luristan intervenes a territory long famous in the world's history, and the chief site of three out of the five empires of whose history, geography, and antiquities it is proposed to treat in the present volumes. Known to the Jews as Aram-Naharaim, or 'Syria of the two rivers'; to the Greeks and Romans as Mesopotamia, or 'the between-river country'; to the Arabs as Al-Jezireh, or, 'the island,' this district has always taken its name from the streams [the Tigris and Euphrates] which constitute its most striking feature."

G. Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies: Chaldœa, chapter 1.

MESSALINA, The infamies of.

See ROME: A. D. 47-54.

MESSANA.

See MESSENE.

MESSAPIANS, The.

See ŒNOTRIANS.

----------MESSENE: Start--------

MESSENE, in Peloponnesus: B. C. 369. The founding of the city. Restoration of the enslaved Messenians.

See MESSENIAN WAR, THE THIRD; also, GREECE: B. C. 371-362.

MESSENE: B. C. 338. Territories restored by Philip of Macedon.

See GREECE; B. C. 357-336.

MESSENE: B. C. 184. Revolt from the Achæan League.

A faction in Messene which was hostile to the Achæan League having gained the ascendancy, B. C. 184, declared its secession from the League. Philopœmen, the chief of the League, proceeded at once with a small force to reduce the Messenians to obedience, but was taken prisoner and was foully executed by his enemies. Bishop Thirlwall pronounced him "the last great man whom Greece produced." The death of Philopœmen was speedily avenged on those who caused it and Messene was recovered to the League.

C. Thirlwall, History of Greece, chapter 65.

ALSO IN: _Plutarch, Philopœmen._

{2155}

MESSENE (MODERN MESSINA), in Sicily. The founding of the city.

"Zancle was originally colonised by pirates who came from Cyme the Chalcidian city in Opicia. … Zancle was the original name of the place, a name given by the Sicels because the site was in shape like a sickle, for which the Sicel word is Zanclon. These earlier settlers were afterwards driven out by the Samians and other Ionians, who when they fled from the Persians found their way to Sicily. Not long afterwards Anaxilas, the tyrant of Rhegium, drove out these Samians. He then repeopled their city with a mixed multitude, and called the place Messene, after his native country."

Thucydides, History, translated by Jowett, book 6, section 4.

MESSENE: B. C. 396. Destruction by the Carthaginians.

See SYRACUSE: B. C. 397-396.

MESSENE: B. C. 264. The Mamertines.

See PUNIC WAR, THE FIRST.

MESSINA: A. D. 1849. Bombardment and capture by King Ferdinand.

See ITALY: A. D. 1848-1849.

----------MESSENIAN WARS: Start--------

MESSENIAN WARS, The First and Second.

The Spartans were engaged in two successive wars with their neighbors of Messenia, whose territory, adjoining their own in the southwestern extremity of Peloponnesus, was rich, prosperous and covetable. "It was unavoidable that the Spartans should look down with envy from their bare rocky ridges into the prosperous land of their neighbours and the terraces close by, descending to the river, with their well-cultivated plantations of oil and wine. Besides, the Dorians who had immigrated into Messenia had, under the influence of the native population and of a life of comfortable ease, lost their primitive character. Messenia seemed like a piece of Arcadia, with which it was most intimately connected. … Hence this was no war of Dorians against Dorians; it rather seemed to be Sparta's mission to make good the failure of the Dorization of Messenia which had sunk back into Pelasgic conditions of life, and to unite with herself the remains of the Dorian people still surviving there. In short, a variety of motives contributed to provoke a forcible extension of Spartan military power on this particular side."

E. Curtius, History of Greece, book 2, chapter 1 (volume 1).

The First Messenian War was commenced B. C. 745 and lasted twenty years, ending in the complete subjugation of the Messenians, who were reduced to a state of servitude like that of the Helots of Sparta. After enduring the oppression for thirty-nine years, the Messenians rose in revolt against their Spartan masters, B. C. 685. The leader and great hero of this Second Messenian War was Aristomenes, whose renown became so great in the despairing struggle that the latter was called among the ancients the Aristomnean War. But all the valor and self-sacrifice of the unhappy Messenians availed nothing. They gave up the contest, B. C. 668; large numbers of them escaped to other lands and those who remained were reduced to a more wretched condition than before.

C. Thirlwall, History of Greece, chapter 9.

See, also, SPARTA: B. C. 743-510.

MESSENIAN WARS: The Third.

"The whole of Laconia [E. C. 464] was shaken by an earthquake, which opened great chasms in the ground, and rolled down huge masses from the highest peaks of Taygetus: Sparta itself became a heap of ruins, in which not more than five houses are said to have been left standing. More than 20,000 persons were believed to have been destroyed by the shock, and the flower of the Spartan youth was overwhelmed by the fall of the buildings in which they were exercising themselves at the time."

C. Thirlwall, History of Greece, chapter 17.

The Helots of Sparta, especially those who were descended from the enslaved Messenians, took advantage of the confusion produced by the earthquake, to rise in revolt. Having secured possession of Ithome, they fortified themselves in the town and withstood there a siege of ten years,—sometimes called the Third Messenian War. The Spartans invited the Athenians to aid them in the siege, but soon grew jealous of their allies and dismissed them with some rudeness. This was one of the prime causes of the animosity between Athens and Sparta which afterward flamed out in the Peloponnesian War. In the end, the Messenians at Ithome capitulated and were allowed to quit the country; whereupon the Athenians settled them at Naupactus, on the Corinthian gulf, and so gained an ardent ally, in an important situation.

Thucydides, History, book 1, sections 101-103.

Nearly one hundred years later (B. C. 369) when Thebes, under Epaminondas, rose to power in Greece and Sparta was humiliated, it was one of the measures of the Theban statesman to found at Ithome an important city which he named Messene, into which the long oppressed Messenians were gathered, from slavery and from exile, and were organized in a state once more, free and independent.

C. Thirlwall, History of Greece, chapter 39.

ALSO IN: G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 78.

----------MESSENIAN WARS: End----------

MESSIDOR, The month.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (OCTOBER) THE NEW REPUBLICAN CALENDAR.

MESTIZO. MULATTO.

A half-breed person in Peru, born of a white father and an Indian mother, is called a Mestizo. One born of a white father and a negro mother is called a mulatto.

J. J. Von Tschudi, Travels in Peru, chapter 5.

METAPONTIUM.

See SIRIS.

METAURUS, Battle of the.

See PUNIC WAR, THE SECOND.

METAURUS, Defeat of the Alemanni.

See ALEMANNI: A. D. 270.

MÉTAYERS.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1789.

METEMNEH, Battle of(1885).

See EGYPT: A. D. 1884-1885.

METHODISTS: Origin of the Religious Denomination.

"The term Methodist was a college nickname bestowed upon a small society of students at Oxford who met together between 1729 and 1735 for the purpose of mutual improvement. They were accustomed to communicate every week, to fast regularly on Wednesdays and Fridays, and on most days during Lent; to read and discuss the Bible in common, to abstain from most forms of amusement and luxury, and to visit sick persons and prisoners in the gaol. John Wesley, the master-spirit of this society, and the future leader of the religious revival of the eighteenth century, was born in 1703, and was the second surviving son of Samuel Wesley, the Rector of Epworth, in Lincolnshire. … The society hardly numbered more than fifteen members, and was the object of much ridicule at the university; but it included some men who afterwards played considerable parts in the world. {2156} Among them was Charles, the younger brother of John Wesley, whose hymns became the favourite poetry of the sect, and whose gentler, more submissive, and more amiable character, though less fitted than that of his brother for the great conflicts of public life, was very useful in moderating the movement, and in drawing converts to it by personal influence. Charles Wesley appears to have been the first to originate the society at Oxford; he brought Whitefield into its pale, and besides being the most popular poet he was one of the most persuasive preachers of the movement. There, too, was James Hervey, who became one of the earliest links connecting Methodism with general literature."

W. E. H. Lecky, History of England in the 18th Century, chapter 9 (volume 2).

METHUEN, Rout of.

The first Scotch army assembled by Robert Bruce after he had been crowned king of Scotland, was surprised and routed by Aymer de Valence, June 26, 1306.

C. H. Pearson, History of England during the Early and Middle Ages, volume 2, chapter 14.

METHUEN TREATY, The.

See PORTUGAL: A. D. 1703; and SPAIN: A. D. 1703-1704.

METÖACS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

METŒCI.

"Resident aliens, or Metœci, are non-citizens possessed of personal freedom, and settled in Attica. Their number, in the flourishing periods of the State, might amount to 45,000, and therefore was about half that of the citizens."

G. F. Schömann, Antiquity of Greece: The State, part 3, chapter 3, section 2.

METON, The year of.

"Hitherto [before the age of Pericles] the Athenians had only had the Octaëteris, i. e., the period of eight years, of which three were composed of thirteen months, in order thus to make the lunar years correspond to the solar. But as eight such solar years still amount to something short of 99 lunar months, this cycle was insufficient for its purpose. … Meton and his associates calculated that a more correct adjustment might be obtained within a cycle of 6,940 days. These made up 235 months, which formed a cycle of 19 years; and this was the so-called 'Great Year,' or 'Year of Meton.'"

E. Curtius, History of Greece, book 3, chapter 3 (volume 2).

METRETES, The.

See EPHAH.

METROPOLITANS.

See PRIMATES.

METROPOTAMIA, The proposed State of.

See NORTHWEST TERRITORY: A. D. 1784.

METTERNICH, The governing system of.

See HOLY ALLIANCE.

----------METZ: Start--------

METZ: Original names.

The Gallic town of Divodurum acquired later the name of Mediomatrici, which modern tongues have changed to Metz.

C. Merivale, History of the Romans, chapter 34, foot-note.

METZ: A. D. 451. Destruction by the Huns.

See HUNS: A. D. 451.

METZ: A. D. 511-752. The Austrasian capital.

See FRANKS: A. D. 511-752.

METZ: A. D. 1552-1559. Treacherous occupation by the French. Siege by Charles V. Cession to France.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1547-1559.

METZ: A. D. 1648. Ceded to France in the Peace of Westphalia.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1648.

METZ: A. D. 1679-1680. The Chamber of Reannexation.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1679-1681.

METZ: A. D. 1870. The French army of Bazaine enclosed and besieged. The surrender.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1870 (JULY-AUGUST), to (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).

METZ: A. D. 1871. Cession to Germany.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1871 (JANUARY-MAY).

----------METZ: End--------

MEXICAN PICTURE-WRITING.

See AZTEC AND MAYA PICTURE-WRITING.

----------MEXICO: Start--------

MEXICO. Ancient: The Maya and Nahua peoples and their civilization.

"Notwithstanding evident marks of similarity in nearly all the manifestations of the progressional spirit in aboriginal America, in art, thought, and religion, there is much reason for and convenience in referring all the native civilization to two branches, the Maya and the Nahua, the former the more ancient, the latter the more recent and wide-spread. … It is only, however, in a very general sense that this classification can be accepted, and then only for practical convenience in elucidating the subject; since there are several nations that must be ranked among our civilized peoples, which, particularly in the matter of language, show no Maya nor Nahua affinities. Nor is too much importance to be attached to the names Maya and Nahua, by which I designate these parallel civilizations. The former is adopted for the reason that the Maya people and tongue are commonly regarded as among the most ancient in all the Central American region, a region where formerly flourished the civilization that left such wonderful remains at Palenque, Uxmal, and Copan; the latter as being an older designation than either Aztec or Toltec, both of which stocks the race Nahua includes. The civilization of what is now the Mexican Republic, north of Tehuantepec, belonged to the Nahua branch, both at the time of the conquest and throughout the historic period preceding. Very few traces of the Maya element occur north of Chiapas, and these are chiefly linguistic, appearing in two or three nations dwelling along the shores of the Mexican gulf. In published works upon the subject the Aztecs are the representatives of the Nahua element; indeed, what is known of the Aztecs has furnished material for nine tenths of all that has been written on the American civilized nations in general. The truth of the matter is that the Aztecs were only the most powerful of a league or confederation of three nations, which in the 16th century, from their capitals in the valley, ruled central Mexico."

H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, volume 2, chapter 2.

"The evidence … has pointed—with varying force, but with great uniformity of direction—towards the Central or Usumacinta region [Central America], not necessarily as the original cradle of American civilization, but as the most ancient home to which it can be traced by traditional, monumental, and linguistic records. … {2157} Throughout several centuries preceding the Christian era, and perhaps one or two centuries following, there flourished in Central America the great Maya empire of the Chanes, Culhuas, or Serpents, known to its foes as Xibalba, with its centre in Chiapas at or near Palenque, and with several allied capitals in the surrounding region. Its first establishment at a remote period was attributed by the people to a being called Votan, who was afterwards worshipped as a god. … From its centre in the Usumacinta region the Votanic power was gradually extended north-westward towards Anáhuac, where its subjects vaguely appear in tradition as Quinames, or giants. It also penetrated northeastward into Yucatan, where Zamná was its reputed founder, and the Cocomes and Itzas probably its subjects. … The Maya empire seems to have been in the height of its prosperity when the rival Nahua power came into prominence, perhaps two or three centuries before Christ. The origin of the new people and of the new institutions is as deeply shrouded in mystery as is that of their predecessors. … The Plumed Serpent, known in different tongues as Quetzalcoatl, Gucumatz, and Cukulcan, was the being who traditionally founded the new order of things. The Nahua power grew up side by side with its Xibalban predecessor, having its capital Tulan apparently in Chiapas. Like the Maya power, it was not confined to its original home, but was borne … towards Anáhuac. … The struggle on the part of the Xibalbans seems to have been that of an old effete monarchy against a young and progressive people. Whatever its cause, the result of the conquest was the overthrow of the Votanic monarchs at a date which may be approximately fixed within a century before or after the beginning of our era. From that time the ancient empire disappears from traditional history. … Respecting the ensuing period of Nahua greatness in Central America nothing is recorded save that it ended in revolt, disaster, and a general scattering of the tribes at some period probably preceding the 5th century. The national names that appear in connection with the closing struggles are the Toltecs, Chichimecs, Quichés, Nonohualcas, and Tutul Xius, none of them apparently identical with the Xibalbans. … Of the tribes that were successively defeated and forced to seek new homes, those that spoke the Maya dialects, although considering themselves Nahuas, seem to have settled chiefly in the south and east. Some of them afterwards rose to great prominence in Guatemala and Yucatan. … The Nahua-speaking tribes as a rule established themselves in Anáhuac and in the western and north-western parts of Mexico. … The valley of Mexico and the country immediately adjoining soon became the centre of the Nahuas in Mexico."

H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, volume 5, chapter 3.

See, also, AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MAYAS; and AZTEC AND MAYA PICTURE-WRITING.

MEXICO: Ancient: The Toltec empire and civilization. Are they mythical?

"The old-time story, how the Toltecs in the 6th century appeared on the Mexican table-land, how they were driven out and scattered in the 11th century, how after a brief interval the Chichimecs followed their footsteps, and how these last were succeeded by the Aztecs who were found in possession,—the last two, and probably the first, migrating in immense hordes from the far north-west,—all this is sufficiently familiar to readers of Mexican history, and is furthermore fully set forth in the 5th volume of this work. It is probable, however, that this account, accurate to a certain degree, has been by many writers too literally construed; since the once popular theory of wholesale national migrations of American peoples within historic times, and particularly of such migrations from the northwest, may now be regarded as practically unfounded. The 6th century is the most remote period to which we are carried in the annals of Anáhuac by traditions sufficiently definite to be considered in any proper sense as historic records. … At the opening … of the historic times, we find the Toltecs in possession of Anáhuac and the surrounding country. Though the civilization was old, the name was new, derived probably, although not so regarded by all, from Tollan, a capital city of the empire, but afterward becoming synonymous with all that is excellent in art and high culture. Tradition imputes to the Toltecs a higher civilization than that found among the Aztecs, who had degenerated with the growth of the warlike spirit, and especially by the introduction of more cruel and sanguinary religious rites. But this superiority, in some respects not improbable, rests on no very strong evidence, since this people left no relics of that artistic skill which gave them so great traditional fame; there is, however, much reason to ascribe the construction of the pyramids at Teotihuacan and Cholula to the Toltec or a still earlier period. Among the civilized peoples of the 16th century, however, and among their descendants down to the present day, nearly every ancient relic of architecture or sculpture is accredited to the Toltecs, from whom all claim descent. … So confusing has been the effect of this universal reference of all traditional events to a Toltec source, that, while we can not doubt the actual existence of this great empire, the details of its history, into which the supernatural so largely enters, must be regarded as to a great extent mythical. There are no data for fixing accurately the bounds of the Toltec domain, particularly in the south. There is very little, however, to indicate that it was more extensive in this direction than that of the Aztecs in later times, although it seems to have extended somewhat farther northward. On the west there is some evidence that it included the territory of Michoacan, never subdued by the Aztecs; and it probably stretched eastward to the Atlantic. … During the most flourishing period of its traditional five centuries of duration, the Toltec empire was ruled by a confederacy, similar in some respects to the alliance of later date between Mexico, Tezcuco and Tlacopan. The capitals were Culhuacan, Otompan, and Tollan, the two former corresponding somewhat in territory with Mexico and Tezcuco, while the latter was just beyond the limits of the valley toward the north-west. Each of these capital cities became in turn the leading power in the confederacy. Tollan reached the highest eminence in culture, splendor, and fame, and Culhuacan was the only one of the three to survive by name the bloody convulsions by which the empire was at last overthrown, and retain anything of her former greatness. Long-continued civil wars, arising chiefly from dissensions between rival religious factions, … gradually undermine the imperial thrones. … So the kings of Tollan, Culhuacan, and Otompan, lose, year by year, their prestige, and finally, in the middle of the 11th century, are completely overthrown, leaving the Mexican tableland to be ruled by new combinations of rising powers."

H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, volume 2, chapter 2.

{2158}

"Long before the Aztecs, a Toltec tribe called the Acolhuas, or Culhuas, had settled in the valley of Mexico. The name is more ancient than that of Toltec, and the Mexican civilization might perhaps as appropriately be called Culhua as Nahua. The name is interpreted 'crooked' from coloa, bend; also 'grandfather' from colli. Colhuacan might therefore signify Land of Our Ancestors."

H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, volume 4, page 23, foot-note.

"The most venerable traditions of the Maya race claimed for them a migration from 'Tollan in Zuyva.' … This Tollan is certainly none other than the abode of Quetzalcoatl. … The cities which selected him as their tutelary deity were named for that which he was supposed to have ruled over. Thus we have Tollan and Tollantzinco ('behind Tollan') in the Valley of Mexico, and the pyramid Cholula was called 'Tollan-Cholollan,' as well as many other Tollans and Tulas among the Nahuatl colonies. The natives of the city of Tula were called, from its name, Tolteca, which simply means 'those who dwell in Tollan.' And who, let us ask, were these Toltecs? They have hovered about the dawn of American history long enough. To them have been attributed not only the primitive culture of Central America and Mexico, but of lands far to the north, and even the earthworks of the Ohio Valley. It is time they were assigned their proper place, and that is among the purely fabulous creations of the imagination, among the giants and fairies, the gnomes and sylphs, and other such fancied beings which in all ages and nations the popular mind has loved to create. Toltec, Toltecatl, which in later days came to mean a skilled craftsman or artificer, signifies, as I have said, an inhabitant of Tollan—of the City of the Sun—in other words, a Child of Light. … In some, and these I consider the original versions of the myth, they do not constitute a nation at all, but are merely the disciples or servants of Quetzalcoatl. They have all the traits of beings of supernatural powers."

D. G. Brinton, American Hero-Myths, chapter 3, section 3.

ALSO IN: D. G. Brinton, Essays of an Americanist, pages 83-100.

A recent totally contrary view, in which the Toltecs are fully accepted and modernized, is presented by M. Charnay.

_D. Charnay, Ancient Cities of the New World._

MEXICO: A. D. 1325-1502. The Aztec period. The so called empire of Montezuma.

"The new era succeeding the Toltec rule is that of the Chichimec empire, which endured with some variations down to the coming of Cortes. The ordinary version of the early annals has it, that the Chichimecs, a wild tribe living far in the north-west, learning that the fertile regions of Central Mexico had been abandoned by the Toltecs, came down in immense hordes to occupy the land. … The name Chichimec at the time of the Spanish conquest, and subsequently, was used with two significations, first, as applied to the line of kings that reigned at Tezcuco, and second, to all the wild hunting tribes, particularly in the broad and little-known regions of the north. Traditionally or historically, the name has been applied to nearly every people mentioned in the ancient history of America. This has caused the greatest confusion among writers on the subject, a confusion which I believe can only be cleared up by the supposition that the name Chichimec, like that of Toltec, never was applied as a tribal or national designation proper to any people, while such people were living. It seems probable that among the Nahua peoples that occupied the country from the 6th to the 11th centuries, a few of the leading powers appropriated to themselves the title Toltecs, which had been at first employed by the inhabitants of Tollan, whose artistic excellence soon rendered it a designation of honor. To the other Nahua peoples, by whom these leading powers were surrounded, whose institutions were identical, but whose polish and elegance of manner were deemed by these self-constituted aristocrats somewhat inferior, the term Chichimecs, barbarians, etymologically 'dogs,' was applied. After the convulsions that overthrew Tollan, and reversed the condition of the Nahua nations, the 'dogs' in their turn assumed an air of superiority and retained their designation, Chichimecs, as a title of honor and nobility."

H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, volume 2, chapter 2.

"We may suppose the 'Toltec period' in Mexican tradition to have been simply the period when the pueblo-town of Tollan was flourishing, and domineered most likely over neighbouring pueblos. One might thus speak it as one would speak of the 'Theban period' in Greek history. After the 'Toltec period,' with perhaps an intervening 'Chichimec period' of confusion, came the 'Aztec period;' or, in other words, some time after Tollan lost its importance, the city of Mexico came to the front. Such, I suspect, is the slender historical residuum underlying the legend of a 'Toltec empire.' The Codex Ramirez assigns the year 1168 as the date of the abandonment of the Serpent Hill by the people of Tollan. We begin to leave this twilight of legend when we meet the Aztecs already encamped in the Valley of Mexico. Finding the most obviously eligible sites preoccupied, they were sagacious enough to detect the advantages of a certain marshy spot through which the outlets of lakes Chalco and Xochimilco, besides sundry rivulets, flowed northward and eastward into Lake Tezcuco. Here in the year 1325 they began to build their pueblo, which they called Tenochtitlan,—a name whereby hangs a tale. When the Aztecs, hard pressed by foes, took refuge among these marshes, they came upon a sacrificial stone which they recognized as one upon which some years before one of their priests had immolated a captive chief. From a crevice in this stone, where a little earth was imbedded, there grew a cactus, upon which sat an eagle holding in its beak a serpent. A priest ingeniously interpreted this symbolism as a prophecy of signal and long-continued victory, and forthwith diving into the lake he had an interview with Tlaloc, the god of waters, who told him that upon that very spot the people were to build their town. The place was therefore called Tenochtitlan, or 'place of the cactus-rock,' but the name under which it afterward came to be best known was taken from Mexitl, one of the names of the war-god Huitzilopochtli. The device of the rock and cactus, with the eagle and serpent, formed a tribal totem for the Aztecs, and has been adopted as the coat-of-arms of the present Republic of Mexico.

{2159}

The pueblo of Tenochtitlan was surrounded by salt marshes; which by dint of dikes and causeways the Aztecs gradually converted into a large artificial lake, and thus made their pueblo by far the most defensible stronghold in Anahuac,— impregnable, indeed, so far as Indian modes of attack were concerned. The advantages of this commanding position were slowly but surely realized. A dangerous neighbour upon the western shore of the lake was the tribe of Tecpanecas, whose principal pueblo was Azcaputzalco. The Aztecs succeeded in making an alliance with these Tecpanecas, but it was upon unfavourable terms and involved the payment of tribute to Azcaputzalco. It gave the Aztecs, however, some time to develop their strength. Their military organization was gradually perfected, and in 1375 they elected their first tlacatecuhtli, or 'chief-of-men,' whom European writers, in the loose phraseology formerly current, called 'founder of the Mexican empire.' The name of this official was Acamapichtli, or 'Handful-of-Reeds.' During the eight-and-twenty years of his chieftancy the pueblo houses in Tenochtitlan began to be built very solidly of stone, and the irregular water-courses flowing between them were improved into canals. Some months after his death in 1403 his son Huitzilihuitl, or 'Humming-bird,' was chosen to succeed him. This Huitzilihuitl was succeeded in 1414 by his brother Chimalpopoca, or 'Smoking Shield,' under whom temporary calamity visited the Aztec town. The alliance with Azcaputzalco was broken, and that pueblo joined its forces to those of Tezcuco on the eastern shore of the lake. United they attacked the Aztecs, defeated them, and captured their chief-of-men, who died a prisoner in 1427. He was succeeded by Izcoatzin, or 'Obsidian Snake,' an aged chieftain who died in 1436. During these nine years a complete change came over the scene. Quarrels arose between Azcaputzalco and Tezcuco; the latter pueblo entered into alliance with Tenochtitlan, and together they overwhelmed and destroyed Azcaputzalco, and butchered most of its people. What was left of the conquered pueblo was made a slave mart for the Aztecs, and the remnant of the people were removed to the neighbouring pueblo of Tlacopan, which was made tributary to Mexico. By this great victory the Aztecs also acquired secure control of the springs upon Chepultepec, or 'Grasshopper Hill,' which furnished a steady supply of fresh water to their island pueblo. The next step was the formation of a partnership between the three pueblo towns, Tenochtitlan, Tezcuco, and Tlacopan, for the organized and systematic plunder of other pueblos. All the tribute or spoils extorted was to be divided into five parts, of which two parts each were for Tezcuco and Tenochtitlan, and one part for Tlacopan. The Aztec chief-of-men became military commander of the confederacy, which now' began to extend operations to a distance. The next four chiefs-of-men were Montezuma, or 'Angry Chief,' the First, from 1436 to 1464; Axayacatl, or 'Face-in-the-Water,' from 1464 to 1477; Tizoc, or 'Wounded Leg,' from 1477 to 1486; and Ahuizotl, or 'Water-Rat,' from 1486 to 1502. Under these chiefs the great temple of Mexico was completed, and the aqueduct from Chepultepec was increased in capacity until it not only supplied water for ordinary uses, but could also be made to maintain the level of the canals and the lake. In the driest seasons, therefore, Tenochtitlan remained safe from attack. Forth from this well-protected lair the Aztec warriors went on their errands of blood. Thirty or more pueblo towns, mostly between Tenochtitlan and the Gulf coast, scattered over an area about the size of Massachusetts, were made tributary to the Confederacy; and as all these communities spoke the Nahua language, this process of conquest, if it had not been cut short by the Spaniards, might in course of time have ended in the formation of a primitive kind of state. This tributary area formed but a very small portion of the country which we call Mexico. If the reader will just look at a map of the Republic of Mexico in a modern atlas, and observe that the states of Queretaro, Guanaxuato, Michoacan, Guerrero, and a good part of La Puebla, lie outside the region sometimes absurdly styled 'Montezuma's Empire,' and surround three sides of it, he will begin to put himself into the proper state of mind for appreciating the history of Cortes and his companions. Into the outlying region just mentioned, occupied by tribes for the most part akin to the Nahuas in blood and speech, the warriors of the Confederacy sometimes ventured, with varying fortunes. They levied occasional tribute among the pueblos in these regions, but hardly made any of them regularly tributary. The longest range of their arms seems to have been to the eastward, where they sent their tax-gatherers along the coast into the isthmus of Tehuantepec, and came into conflict with the warlike Mayas and Quiches. … Such was, in general outline, what we may call the political situation in the time of the son of Axayacatl, the second Montezuma, who was elected chief-of-men in 1502, being then thirty-four years of age."

J. Fiske, The Discovery of America, chapter 8 (volume 2).

MEXICO: A. D. 1517-1518. First found by the Spaniards.

See AMERICA: A. D. 1517-1518.

MEXICO: A. D. 1519 (February-April). The coming of Cortes and the Spaniards.

Some time in the latter part of the year 1517, the Spaniards in Cuba had acquired definite knowledge of a much civilized people who inhabited "terra firma" to the west of them, by the return of Hernandez de Cordova from his involuntary voyage to Yucatan (see AMERICA: A. D. 1157-1518). In the spring of 1518 the Cuban governor, Velasquez, had enlarged that knowledge by sending an expedition under Grijalva to the Mexican coast, and, even before Grijalva returned, he had begun preparations for a more serious undertaking of conquest and occupation in the rich country newly found. For the command of this second armament he selected Hernando Cortes, one of the boldest and most ambitious of the adventurers who had helped to subdue and settle the island of Cuba. Before the fleet sailed, however, a jealous distrust of his lieutenant had become excited by some cause in the governor's mind, and he attempted to supersede him in the command, Cortes slipped out of port, half prepared as he was for the voyage, defied the orders of his superior, and made his way (February, 1519) to the scene of his future conquests, actually as a rebel against the authority which commissioned him. "The squadron of Cortés was composed of eleven small vessels. {2160} There were 110 sailors, 553 soldiers, of which 13 were armed with muskets, and 32 with arquebuses, the others with swords and pikes only. There were 10 little field-pieces, and 16 horses. Such were the forces with which the bold adventurer set forth to conquer a vast empire, defended by large armies, not without courage, according to the report of Grijalva. But the companions of Cortes were unfamiliar with fear. Cortés followed the same route as Grijalva. … At the Tabasco River, which the Spanish called Rio de Grijalva, because that explorer had discovered it, they had a fight with some natives who resisted their approach. These natives fought bravely, but the fire-arms, and above all the horses, which they conceived to be of one piece with their riders, caused them extreme terror, and the rout was complete. … The native prince, overcome, sent gifts to the conqueror, and, without much knowing the extent of his agreement, acknowledged himself as vassal of the king of Spain, the most powerful monarch of the world." Meantime, tidings of a fresh appearance of the same strange race which had briefly visited the shores of the empire the year before were conveyed to Montezuma, and the king, who had sent envoys to the strangers before, but not quickly enough to find them, resolved to do so again. "The presents prepared for Grijalva, which had reached the shore too late, were, alas! all ready. To these were now added the ornaments used in the decoration of the image of Quetzalcoatl, on days of solemnity, regarded as the most sacred among all the possessions of the royal house of Mexico. Cortés accepted the rôle of Quetzalcoatl and allowed himself to be decorated with the ornaments belonging to that god without hesitation. The populace were convinced that it was their deity really returned to them. A feast was served to the envoys, with the accompaniment of some European wine which they found delicious. … During the feast native painters were busy depicting every thing they saw to be shown to their royal master. … Cortes sent to Montezuma a gilt helmet with the message that he hoped to see it back again filled with gold. … The bearer of this gift and communication, returning swiftly to the court, reported to the monarch that the intention of the stranger was to come at once to the capital of the empire. Montezuma at once assembled a new council of all his great vassals, some of whom urged the reception of Cortés, others his immediate dismissal. The latter view prevailed, and the monarch sent, with more presents to the unknown invader, benevolent but peremptory commands that he should go away immediately. … Meanwhile the Spanish camp was feasting and reposing in huts of cane, with fresh provisions, in great joy after the weariness of their voyage. They accepted with enthusiasm the presents of the emperor, but the treasures which were sent had an entirely different effect from that hoped for by Montezuma; they only inflamed the desire of the Spaniard to have all within his grasp, of which this was but a specimen. It was now that the great mistake in policy was apparent, by which the Aztec chieftain had for years been making enemies all over the country, invading surrounding states, and carrying off prisoners for a horrible death by sacrifice. These welcomed the strangers and encouraged their presence."

S. Hale, The Story of Mexico, chapter 13.

ALSO IN: _Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Memoirs, chapter 2-39 (volume 1). _

J. Fiske, The Discovery of America, chapter 8 (volume 2).

MEXICO: A. D. 1519 (June-October). The advance of Cortés to Tlascala.

"Meanwhile Cortés, by his craft, quieted a rising faction of the party of Velasquez which demanded to be led back to Cuba. He did this by seeming to acquiesce in the demand of his followers in laying the foundations of a town and constituting its people a municipality competent to choose a representative of the royal authority. This done, Cortés resigned his commission from Velasquez, and was at once invested with supreme power by the new municipality. The scheme which Velasquez had suspected was thus brought to fruition. Whoever resisted the new captain was conquered by force, persuasion, tact, or magnetism; and Cortés became as popular as he was irresistible. At this point messengers presented themselves from tribes not far off who were unwilling subjects of the Aztec power. The presence of possible allies was a propitious circumstance, and Cortés proceeded to cultivate the friendship of these tribes. He moved his camp day by day along the shore, inuring his men to marches, while the fleet sailed in company. They reached a large city [Cempoalla, or Zempoalla, the site of which has not been determined], and were regaled. Each chief told of the tyranny of Montezuma, and the eyes of Cortés glistened. The Spaniards went on to another town, slaves being provided to bear their burdens. Here they found tax-gatherers of Montezuma collecting tribute. Emboldened by Cortés' glance, his hosts seized the Aztec emissaries and delivered them to the Spaniards. Cortés now played a double game. He propitiated the servants of Montezuma by secretly releasing them, and added to his allies by enjoining every tribe he could reach to resist the Aztec collectors of tribute. The wandering municipality, as represented in this piratical army, at last stopped at a harbor where a town (La Villa Rica de Vera Cruz) sprang up, and became the base of future operations." At this point in his movements the adventurer despatched a vessel to Spain, with letters to the king, and with dazzling gifts of gold and Aztec fabrics. "Now came the famous resolve of Cortés. He would band his heterogeneous folk together— adherents of Cortés and of Velasquez—in one common cause and danger. So he adroitly led them to be partners in the deed which he stealthily planned. Hulk after hulk of the apparently worm-eaten vessels of the fleet sank in the harbor, until there was no flotilla left upon which any could desert him. The march to Mexico was now assured. The force with which to accomplish this consisted of about 450 Spaniards, six or seven light guns, fifteen horses, and a swarm of Indian slaves and attendants. A body of the Totonacs accompanied them. Two or three days brought them into the higher plain and its enlivening vegetation. When they reached the dependencies of Montezuma, they found orders had been given to extend to them every courtesy. They soon reached the Anahuac plateau, which reminded them not a little of Spain itself. They passed from cacique to cacique, some of whom groaned under the yoke of the Aztec; but not one dared do more than orders from Montezuma dictated. {2161} Then the invaders approached the territory of an independent people, those of Tlascala, who had walled their country against neighboring enemies. A fight took place at the frontiers, in which the Spaniards lost two horses. They forced passes against great odds, but again lost a horse or two,— which was a perceptible diminution of their power to terrify. The accounts speak of immense hordes of the Tlascalans, which historians now take with allowances, great or small. Cortés spread what alarm he could by burning villages and capturing the country people. His greatest obstacle soon appeared in the compacted army of Tlascalans arrayed in his front. The conflict which ensued was for a while doubtful. Every horse was hurt, and 60 Spaniards were wounded; but the result was the retreat of the Tlascalans. Divining that the Spanish power was derived from the sun, the enemy planned a night attack; but Cortés suspected it, and assaulted them in their own ambush. Cortés now had an opportunity to display his double-facedness and his wiles. He received embassies both from Montezuma and from the senate of the Tlascalans. He cajoled each, and played off his friendship for the one in cementing an alliance with the other. But to Tlascala and Mexico he would go, so he told them. The Tlascalans were not averse, for they thought it boded no good to the Aztecs, if he could be bound to themselves. Montezuma dreaded the contact, and tried to intimidate the strangers by tales of the horrible difficulties of the journey. Presently the army took up its march for Tlascala, where they were royally received, and wives in abundance were bestowed upon the leaders. Next they passed to Cholula, which was subject to the Aztecs."

J. Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America, volume 2, chapter 6.

MEXICO: A. D. 1519 (October). The Massacre at Cholula. The march to Mexico.

"The distance from Tlascala to Chololan [or Cholula] is but from 15 to 20 miles. It was a kind of holy place, venerated far and wide in Anahuac; pilgrimages were made thither, as the Mahometans go to Mecca, and Christians to Jerusalem or Rome. The city was consecrated to the worship of Quetzalcoatl, who had there the noblest temple in all Mexico, built, like all the temples in the country, on the summit of a truncated pyramid. The traveller of the present day beholds this pyramid on the horizon as he approaches Puebla, on his route from Vera Cruz to Mexico. But the worship of the beneficent Quetzalcoatl had been perverted by the sombre genius of the Aztecs. To this essentially good deity 6,000 human victims were annually immolated in his temple at Chololan. … The Spaniards found at Chololan an eager and, to all appearance at least, a perfectly cordial welcome." But this hospitality masked, it is said, a great plot for their destruction, which Montezuma had inspired and to aid which he had sent into the neighborhood of the city a powerful Mexican army. The plot was revealed to Cortez—so the Spanish historians relate—and "he took his resolution with his accustomed energy and foresight. He made his dispositions for the very next day. He acquainted the caciques of Chololan that he should evacuate the city at break of dawn, and required them to furnish 2,000 porters or 'tamanes,' for the baggage. The caciques then organized their attack for the morrow morning, not without a promise of the men required, whom, in fact, they brought at dawn to the great court in which the foreigners were domiciled. The conflict soon began. The Spaniards, who were perfectly prepared, commenced by massacring the caciques. The mass of Chololans that attempted to invade their quarters were crushed under the fire of their artillery and musketry, and the charges of their cavalry. Hearing the reports, the Tlascalans, who had been left at the entrance of the city, rushed on to the rescue. … They could now glut their hatred and vengeance; they slaughtered as long as they could, and then set to work at plunder. The Spaniards, too, after having killed all that resisted, betook themselves to pillage. The unfortunate city of Chololan was thus inundated with blood and sacked. Cortez, however, enjoined that the women and children should be spared, and we are assured that in that he was obeyed, even by his cruel auxiliaries from Tlascala. … To the praise of Cortez it must be said that, after the victory, he once more showed himself tolerant: he left the inhabitants at liberty to follow their old religion on condition that they should no longer immolate human victims. After this signal blow, all the threats, all the intrigues, of Montezuma, had no possible effect, and the Aztec emperor could be under no illusion as to the inflexible intention of Cortez. The latter, as soon as he had installed new chiefs at Chololan, and effaced the more hideous traces of the massacre and pillage that had desolated the city, set out with his own troops and his Indian auxiliaries from Tlascala for the capital of the Aztec empire, the magnificent city of Tenochtitlan."

M. Chevalier, Mexico, Ancient and Modern, part 2, chapter 4 (volume 1).

MEXICO: The Capital of Montezuma as described by Cortés and Bernal Diaz.

"This Province is in the form of a circle, surrounded on all sides by lofty and rugged mountains; its level surface comprises an area of about 70 leagues in circumference, including two lakes, that overspread nearly the whole valley, being navigated by boats more than 50 leagues round. One of these lakes contains fresh, and the other, which is the larger of the two, salt water. On one side of the lakes, in the middle of the valley, a range of highlands divides them from one another, with the exception of a narrow strait which lies between the highlands and the lofty Sierras. This strait is a bow-shot wide, and connects the two lakes; and by this means a trade is carried on between the cities and other settlements on the lakes in canoes without the necessity of travelling by land. As the salt lake rises and falls with its tides like the sea, during the time of high water it pours into the other lake with the rapidity of a powerful stream; and on the other hand, when the tide has ebbed, the water runs from the fresh into the salt lake. This great city of Temixtitan [Tenochtitlan—Mexico] is situated in this salt lake, and from the main land to the denser parts of it, by whichever route one chooses to enter, the distance is two leagues. There are four avenues or entrances to the city, all of which are formed by artificial causeways, two spears' length in width. The city is as large as Seville or Cordova; its streets, I speak of the principal ones, are very wide and straight; some of these, and all the inferior ones, are half land and half water, and are navigated by canoes. {2162} All the streets at intervals have openings, through which the water flows, crossing from one street to another; and at these openings, some of which are very wide, there are also very wide bridges, composed of large pieces of timber, of great strength and well put together; on many of these bridges ten horses can go abreast. … This city has many public squares, in which are situated the markets and other places for buying and selling. There is one square twice as large as that of the city of Salamanca, surrounded by porticoes, where are daily assembled more than 60,000 souls, engaged in buying and selling; and where are found all kinds of merchandise that the world affords, embracing the necessaries of life, as for instance articles of food, as well as jewels of gold and silver, lead, brass, copper, tin, precious stones, bones, shells, snails, and feathers. … Every kind of merchandise is sold in a particular street or quarter assigned to it exclusively, and thus the best order is preserved. They sell everything by number or measure; at least so far we have not observed them to sell any thing by weight. There is a building in the great square that is used as an audience house, where ten or twelve persons, who are magistrates, sit and decide all controversies that arise in the market, and order delinquents to be punished. … This great city contains a large number of temples, or houses for their idols, very handsome edifices, which are situated in the different districts and the suburbs. … Among these temples there is one which far surpasses all the rest, whose grandeur of architectural details no human tongue is able to describe; for within its precincts, surrounded by a lofty wall, there is room enough for a town of 500 families. Around the interior of this enclosure there are handsome edifices, containing large halls and corridors, in which the religious persons attached to the temple reside. There are full 40 towers, which are lofty and well built, the largest of which has 50 steps leading to its main body, and is higher than the tower of the principal church at Seville. The stone and wood of which they are constructed are so well wrought in every part that nothing could be better done. … This noble city contains many fine and magnificent houses; which may be accounted for from the fact that all the nobility of the country, who are the vassals of Muteczuma, have houses in the city, in which they reside a certain part of the year; and, besides, there are numerous wealthy citizens who also possess fine houses."

_H. Cortés, Despatches [Letters] (translated by G. Folsom), letter 2, chapter 5. _

"We had already been four days in the city of Mexico, and neither our commander nor any of us had, during that time, left our quarters, excepting to visit the gardens and buildings adjoining the palace. Cortes now, therefore, determined to view the city, and visit the great market, and the chief temple of Huitzilopochtli. … The moment we arrived in this immense market, we were perfectly astonished at the vast numbers of people, the profusion of merchandise which was there exposed for sale, and at the good police and order that reigned throughout. … Every species of goods which New Spain produces were here to be found; and everything put me in mind of my native town Medina del Campo during fair time, where every merchandise has a separate street assigned for its sale. … On quitting the market, we entered the spacious yards which surround the chief temple. … Motecusuma, who was sacrificing on the top to his idols, sent six papas and two of his principal officers to conduct Cortes up the steps. There were 114 steps to the summit. …Indeed, this infernal temple, from its great height, commanded a view of the whole surrounding neighbourhood. From this place we could likewise see the three causeways which led into Mexico. … We also observed the aqueduct which ran from Chapultepec, and provided the whole town with sweet water. We could also distinctly see the bridges across the openings, by which these causeways were intersected, and through which the waters of the lake ebbed and flowed. The lake itself was crowded with canoes, which were bringing provisions, manufactures and other merchandise to the city. From here we also discovered that the only communication of the houses in this city, and of all the other towns built in the lake, was by means of drawbridges or canoes. In all these towns the beautiful white plastered temples rose above the smaller ones, like so many towers and castles in our Spanish towns, and this, it may be imagined, was a splendid sight."

Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Memoirs (translated by Lockhart), chapter 92 (volume 1).

MEXICO: The same as viewed in the light of modern historical criticism.

"In the West India Islands the Spanish discoverers found small Indian tribes under the government of chiefs; but on the continent, in the Valley of Mexico, they found a confederacy of three Indian tribes under a more advanced but similar government. In the midst of the valley was a large pueblo, the largest in America, surrounded with water, approached by causeways; in fine, a water-girt fortress impregnable to Indian assault. This pueblo presented to the Spanish adventurers the extraordinary spectacle of an Indian society lying two ethnical periods back of European society, but with a government and plan of life at once intelligent, orderly, and complete. … The Spanish adventurers who captured the pueblo of Mexico saw a king in Montezuma, lords in Aztec chiefs, and a palace in the large joint-tenement house occupied, Indian fashion, by Montezuma and his fellow-householders. It was, perhaps, an unavoidable self-deception at the time, because they knew nothing of the Aztec social system. Unfortunately it inaugurated American aboriginal history upon a misconception of Indian life which has remained substantially unquestioned until recently. The first eye-witnesses gave the keynote to this history by introducing Montezuma as a king, occupying a palace of great extent crowded with retainers, and situated in the midst of a grand and populous city, over which, and much besides, he was reputed master. But king and kingdom were in time found too common to express all the glory and splendor the imagination was beginning to conceive of Aztec society; and emperor and empire gradually superseded the more humble conception of the conquerors. … To every author, from Cortes and Bernal Diaz to Brasseur de Bourbourg and Hubert H. Bancroft, Indian society was an unfathomable mystery, and their works have left it a mystery still. Ignorant of its structure and principles, and unable to comprehend its peculiarities, they invoked the imagination to supply whatever was necessary to fill out the picture. … {2163} Thus, in this case, we have a grand historical romance, strung upon the conquest of Mexico as upon a thread; the acts of the Spaniards, the pueblo of Mexico, and its capture, are historical, while the descriptions of Indian society and government are imaginary and delusive. … There is a strong probability, from what is known of Indian life and society, that the house in which Montezuma lived, was a joint-tenement house of the aboriginal American model, owned by a large number of related families, and occupied by them in common as joint proprietors; that the dinner [of Montezuma, in his palace, as described by Cortes and Bernal Diaz] … was the usual single daily meal of a communal household, prepared in a common cookhouse from common stores, and divided, Indian fashion, from the kettle; and that all the Spaniards found in Mexico was a simple confederacy of three Indian tribes, the counterpart of which was found in all parts of America. It may be premised further that the Spanish adventurers who thronged to the new world after its discovery found the same race of Red Indians in the West India Islands, in Central and South America, in Florida, and in Mexico. In their mode of life and means of subsistence, in their weapons, arts, usages, and customs, in their institutions, and in their mental and physical characteristics, they were the same people in different stages of advancement. No distinction of race was observed, and none in fact existed. … Not a vestige of the ancient pueblo of Mexico (Tenochtitlan) remains to assist us to a knowledge of its architecture. Its structures, which were useless to a people of European habits, were speedily destroyed to make room for a city adapted to the wants of a civilized race. We must seek for its characteristics in contemporary Indian houses which still remain in ruins, and in such of the early descriptions as have come down to us, and then leave the subject with but little accurate knowledge. Its situation, partly on dry land and partly in the waters of a shallow artificial pond formed by causeways and dikes, led to the formation of streets and squares, which were unusual in Indian pueblos, and gave to it a remarkable appearance. … Many of the houses were large, far beyond the supposable wants of a single Indian family. They were constructed of adobe brick, and of stone, and plastered over in both cases with gypsum, which made them a brilliant white; and some were constructed of a red porous stone. In cutting and dressing this stone flint implements were used. The fact that the houses were plastered externally leads us to infer that they had not learned to dress stone and lay them in courses. It is not certainly established that they had learned the use of a mortar of lime and sand. In the final attack and capture, it is said that Cortes, in the course of seventeen days, destroyed and levelled three-quarters of the pueblo, which demonstrates the flimsy character of the masonry. … It is doubtful whether there was a single pueblo in North America, with the exception of Tlascala, Cholula, Tezcuco, and Mexico, which contained 10,000 inhabitants. There is no occasion to apply the term 'city' to any of them. None of the Spanish descriptions enable us to realize the exact form and structure of these houses, or their relations to each other in forming a pueblo. … It is evident from the citations made that the largest of these joint·tenement houses would accommodate from 500 to 1,000 or more people, living in the fashion of Indians; and that the courts were probably quadrangles, formed by constructing the building on three sides of an inclosed space, as in the New Mexican pueblos, or upon the four sides, as in the House of the Nuns, at Uxmal."

_L. H. Morgan, Houses and House-life of the American Aborigines (United States Geographical and Geological Survey of Rocky Mountain Region: Contribution to North American Ethnology, volume 4), chapter 10._

MEXICO: A. D. 1519-1520. Captivity of Montezuma, Cortés ruling in his name. The discomfiture of Narvaez. The revolt of the capital.

When Cortés had time to survey and to realize his position in the Mexican capital, he saw that it was full of extreme danger. To be isolated with so small a force in the midst of any hostile, populous city would be perilous; but in Mexico that peril was immeasurably increased by the peculiar situation and construction of the island-city—Venice-like in its insulation, and connected with the mainland by long and narrow, causeways and bridges, easily broken and difficult to secure for retreat. With characteristic audacity, the Spanish leader mastered the danger of the situation, so to speak, by taking Montezuma himself in pledge for the peace and good behavior of his subjects. Commanded by Cortés to quit his palace, and to take up his residence with the Spaniards in their quarters, the Mexican monarch remonstrated but obeyed, and became from that day the shadow of a king. "During, six months that Cortes remained in Mexico [from November, 1519, until May, 1520], the monarch continued in the Spanish quarters, with an appearance of as entire satisfaction and tranquillity as if he had resided there, not from constraint, but through choice. His ministers and officers attended him as usual. He took cognizance of all affairs; every order was issued in his name. … Such was the dread which both Montezuma and his subjects had of the Spaniards, or such the veneration in which they held them, that no attempt was made to deliver their sovereign from confinement, and though Cortes, relying on this ascendant which he had acquired over their minds, permitted him not only to visit his temples, but to make hunting excursions beyond the lake, a guard of a few Spaniards carried with it such a terrour as to intimidate the multitude, and secure the captive monarch. Thus, by the fortunate temerity of Cortes in seizing Montezuma, the Spaniards at once secured to themselves more extensive authority in the Mexican empire than it was possible to have acquired in a long course of time by open force; and they exercised more absolute sway in the name of another than they could have done in their own. … Cortes availed himself to the utmost of the powers which he possessed by being able to act in the name of Montezuma. He sent some Spaniards, whom he judged best qualified for such commissions, into different parts of the empire, accompanied by persons of distinction, whom Montezuma appointed to attend them both as guides and protectors. They visited most of the provinces, viewed their soil and productions, surveyed with particular care the districts which yielded gold or silver, pitched upon several places as proper stations for future colonies, and endeavoured to prepare the minds of the people for submitting to the Spanish yoke." At the same time, Cortes strengthened his footing in the capital by building and launching two brigantines on the lake, with an equipment and armament which his royal prisoner caused to be brought up for him from Vera Cruz. {2164} He also persuaded Montezuma to acknowledge himself a vassal of the King of Castile, and to subject his kingdom to the payment of an annual tribute. But, while his cunning conquest of an empire was advancing thus prosperously, the astute Spanish captain allowed his prudence to be overridden by his religious zeal. Becoming impatient at the obstinacy with which Montezuma clung to his false gods, Cortes made a rash attempt, with his soldiers, to cast down the idols in the great temple of the city, and to set the image of the Virgin in their place. The sacrilegious outrage roused the Mexicans from their tame submission and fired them with an inextinguishable rage. At this most unfortunate juncture, news came from Vera Cruz which demanded the personal presence of Cortes on the coast. Velasquez, the hostile governor of Cuba, to whom the adventurer in Mexico was a rebel, had sent, at last, an expedition, to put a stop to his unauthorized proceedings and to arrest his person. Cortes faced the new menace as boldly as he had faced all others. Leaving 150 men in the angry Mexican capital, under Pedro de Alvarado, he set out with the small remainder of his force to attack the Spanish intruders. Even after picking up some detachments outside and joining the garrison at Vera Cruz, he could muster but 250 men; while Narvaez, who commanded the expedition from Cuba, had brought 800 foot soldiers and 80 horse, with twelve pieces of cannon. The latter had taken possession of the city of Zempoalla and was strongly posted in one of its temples. There Cortes surprised him, in a night attack, took him prisoner, in a wounded state, and compelled his troops to lay down their arms. Nearly the whole of the latter were soon captivated by the commanding genius of the man they had been sent to arrest, and enlisted in his service. He found himself now at the head of a thousand well armed men; and he found in the same moment that he needed them all. For news came from Mexico that Alvarado, thinking to anticipate and crush a suspected intention of the Mexicans to rise against him, had provoked the revolt and made it desperate by a most perfidious, brutal massacre of several hundred of the chief persons of the empire, committed while they were celebrating one of the festivals of their religion, in the temple. The Spaniards at Mexico were now beleaguered, as the consequence, in their quarters, and their only hope was the hope that Cortes would make haste to their rescue,—which he did.

W. Robertson, History of America, book 5 (volume 2).

ALSO IN: H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, volume 4, chapters 17-23.

MEXICO: A. D. 1520 (JUNE-JULY). The return of Cortes to the Mexican Capital. The battle in the city. The death of Montezuma. The disastrous Retreat of the Spaniards.

The alarming intelligence which came to him from the Mexican capital called out in Cortés the whole energy of his nature. Hastily summoning back the various expeditions he had already sent out, and gathering all his forces together, he "reviewed his men, and found that they amounted to 1,300 soldiers, among whom were 96 horsemen, 80 cross-bowmen, and about 80 musketeers. Cortez marched with great strides to Mexico, and entered the city at the head of this formidable force on the 24th of June, 1520, the day of John the Baptist. Very different was the reception of Cortez on this occasion from that on his first entry into Mexico, when Montezuma had gone forth with all pomp to meet him. Now, the Indians stood silently in the doorways of their houses, and the bridges between the houses were taken up. Even when he arrived at his own quarters he found the gates barred, so strict had been the siege, and he had to demand an entry." The Mexicans, strangely enough, made no attempt to oppose his entrance into the city and his junction with Alvarado; yet the day after his return their attack upon the Spanish quarters, now so strongly reinforced, was renewed. "Cortez, who was not at all given to exaggeration, says that neither the streets nor the terraced roofs ('azoteas') were visible, being entirely obscured by the people who were upon them; that the multitude of stones was so great that it seemed as if it rained stones; and that the arrows came so thickly that the walls and the courts were full of them, rendering it difficult to move about. Cortez made two or three desperate sallies, and was wounded. The Mexicans succeeded in setting fire to the fortress, which was with difficulty subdued, and they would have scaled the walls at the point where the fire had done most damage but for a large force of cross-bowmen, musketeers, and artillery, which Cortez threw forward to meet the danger. The Mexicans at last drew back, leaving no fewer than 80 Spaniards wounded in this first encounter. The ensuing morning, as soon as it was daylight, the attack was renewed. … Again, and with considerable success, Cortez made sallies from the fortress in the course of the day; but at the end of it there were about 60 more of his men to be added to the list of wounded, already large, from the injuries received on the preceding day. The third day was devoted by the ingenious Cortez to making three movable fortresses, called 'mantas,' which, he thought, would enable his men, with less danger, to contend against the Mexicans upon their terraced roofs. … It was on this day that the unfortunate Montezuma, either at the request of Cortez, or of his own accord, came out upon a battlement and addressed the people." He was interrupted by a shower of stones and arrows and received wounds from which he died soon after. The fighting on this day was more desperate than it had been before. The Spaniards undertook to dislodge a body of the Indians who had posted themselves on the summit of the great temple, which was dangerously near at hand. Again and again they were driven back, until Cortez bound his shield to his wounded arm and led the assault. Then, after three hours of fighting, from terrace to terrace, they gained the upper platform and put every Mexican to the sword. But 40 Spaniards perished in the struggle. "This fight in the temple gave a momentary brightness to the arms of the Spaniards and afforded Cortez an opportunity to resume negotiations. But the determination of the Mexicans was fixed and complete. … They would all perish, if that were needful, to gain their point of destroying the Spaniards. They bade Cortez look at the streets, the squares, and the terraces, covered with people; and then, in a business-like and calculating manner, they told him that if 25,000 of them were to die for each Spaniard, still the Spaniards would perish first. … {2165} It generally requires at least as much courage to retreat as to advance. Indeed, few men have the courage and the ready wisdom to retreat in time. But Cortez, once convinced that his position in Mexico was no longer tenable, wasted no time or energy in parleying with danger. Terror had lost its influence with the Mexicans, and superior strategy was of little avail against such overpowering numbers. … Cortez resolved to quit the city that night [July 1, 1520]. … A little before midnight the stealthy march began. The Spaniards succeeded in laying down the pontoon over the first bridge-way, and the vanguard with Sandoval passed over; but, while the rest were passing, the Mexicans gave the alarm with loud shouts and blowing of horns. … Almost immediately upon this alarm the lake was covered with canoes. It rained, and the misfortunes of the night commenced by two horses slipping from the pontoon into the water. Then the Mexicans attacked the pontoon-bearers so furiously that it was impossible for them to raise it up again." After that, all seems to have been a confused struggle in the darkness, where even Cortez could do little for the unfortunate rear-guard of his troops. "This memorable night has ever been celebrated in American history as 'la noche triste.' In this flight from Mexico all the artillery was lost, and there perished 450 Spaniards, … 4,000 of the Indian allies, 46 horses, and most of the Mexican prisoners, including one son and two daughters of Montezuma, and his nephew the King of Tezcuco. A loss which posterity will ever regret was that of the books and accounts, memorials and writings, of which there were some, it is said, that contained a narrative of all that had happened since Cortez left Cuba. … In the annals of retreats there has seldom been one recorded which proved more entirely disastrous."

Sir A. Helps, Spanish Conquest in America, book 10, chapters 7-8 (volume 2).

MEXICO: A. D. 1520-1521. The retreat to Tlascala. Reinforcements and recovery. Cortes in the field again. Preparations to attack Mexico.

"After the disasters and fatigues of the 'noche triste,' the melancholy and broken band of Cortez rested for a day at Tacuba, whilst the Mexicans returned to their capital, probably to bury the dead and purify their city. It is singular, yet it is certain, that they did not follow up their successes by a death blow at the disarmed Spaniards. But this momentary paralysis of their efforts was not to be trusted, and accordingly Cortez began to retreat eastwardly, under the guidance of the Tlascalans, by a circuitous route around the northern limits of lake Zumpango. The flying forces and their auxiliaries were soon in a famishing condition, subsisting alone on corn or on wild cherries gathered in the forest, with occasional refreshment and support from the carcase of a horse that perished by the way. For six days these fragments of the Spanish army continued their weary pilgrimage, and, on the seventh, reached Otumba." At Otumba their progress was barred by a vast army of the Aztecs, which had marched by a shorter road to intercept them; but after a desperate battle the natives fled and the Spaniards were troubled no more until they reached the friendly shelter of Tlascala. The Tlascalans held faithfully to their alliance and received the flying strangers with helpful hands and encouraging words. But many of Cortez' men demanded permission to continue their retreat to Vera Cruz. "Just at this moment, too, Cuitlahua, who mounted the throne of Mexico on the death of Montezuma, despatched a mission to the Tlascalans, proposing to bury the hatchet, and to unite in sweeping the Spaniards from the realm." A hot discussion ensued in the council of the Tlascalan chiefs, which resulted in the rejection of the Mexican proposal, and the confidence of Cortez was restored. He succeeded in pacifying his men, and gave them employment by expeditions against tribes and towns within reach which adhered to the Mexican king. After some time he obtained reinforcements, by an arrival of vessels at Vera Cruz bringing men and supplies, and he began to make serious preparations for the reconquest of the Aztec capital. He "constructed new arms and caused old ones to be repaired; made powder with sulphur obtained from the volcano of Popocatopetl; and, under the direction of his builder, Lopez, prepared the timber for brigantines, which he designed to carry, in pieces, and launch on the lake at the town of Tezcoco. At that port, he resolved to prepare himself fully for the final attack, and, this time, he determined to assault the enemy's capital by water as well as by land." The last day of December found him once more on the shores of the Mexican lake, encamped at Tezcoco, with a Spanish force restored to 600 men in strength, having 40 horses, 80 arquebuses and nine small cannon. Of Indian allies he is said to have had many thousands. Meantime, Cuitlahua had died of smallpox—which came to the country with the Spaniards—and had been succeeded by Guatemozin, his nephew, a vigorous young man of twenty-five. "At Tezcoco, Cortéz was firmly planted on the eastern edge of the valley of Mexico, in full sight of the capital which lay across the lake, near its western shore, at the distance of about twelve miles. Behind him, towards the sea-coast, he commanded the country, … while, by passes through lower spurs of the mountains, he might easily communicate with the valleys of which the Tlascalans and Cholulans were masters." One by one he reduced and destroyed or occupied the neighboring towns, and overran the surrounding country, in expeditions which made the complete circle of the valley and gave him a complete knowledge of it, while they re-established the prestige of the Spaniards and the terror of their arms. On the 28th of April the newly built brigantines, 12 in number, were launched upon the lake, and all was in readiness for an attack upon the city, with forces now increased by fresh arrivals to 87 horse and 818 Spanish infantry, with three iron field pieces and 15 brass falconets.

B. Mayer, Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, book 1, chapters 6-8 (volume 1).

MEXICO: A. D. 1521 (May-July). The siege of the Aztec capital begun.

"The observations which Cortes had made in his late tour of reconnaissance had determined him to begin the siege by distributing his forces into three separate camps, which he proposed to establish at the extremities of the principal causeways," under three of his captains, Alvarado, Olid and Sandoval. The movement of forces from Tezcuco began on the 10th of May, 1521. {2166} Alvarado and Olid occupied Tacuba, cut the aqueduct which conveyed water from Chapoltepec to the capital, and made an unsuccessful attempt to get possession of the fatal causeway of "the noche triste." Holding Tacuba, however, Alvarado commanded that important passage, while Sandoval, seizing the city of Iztapalapan, at the southern extremity of the lake, and Olid, establishing himself near the latter, at Cojohuacan, were planted at the two outlets, it would seem, of another of the causeways, which branched to attain the shore at those two points. When so much had been accomplished, Cortés, in person, set sail with his fleet of brigantines and speedily cleared the lake of all the swarm of light canoes and little vessels with which the unfortunate Mexicans tried vainly though valorously to dispute it with him. "This victory, more complete than even the sanguine temper of Cortés had prognosticated, proved the superiority of the Spaniards, and left them, henceforth, undisputed masters of the Aztec sea. It was nearly dusk when the squadron, coasting along the great southern causeway, anchored off the point of junction, called Xoloc, where the branch from Cojohuacan meets the principal dike. The avenue widened at this point, so as to afford room for two towers, or turreted temples, built of stone, and surrounded by walls of the same material, which presented altogether a position of some strength, and, at the present moment, was garrisoned by a body of Aztecs. They were not numerous; and Cortés, landing with his soldiers, succeeded without much difficulty in dislodging the enemy, and in getting possession of the works." Here, in a most advantageous position on the great causeway, the Spanish commander fortified himself and established his headquarters, summoning Olid with half of his force to join him and transferring Sandoval to Olid's post at Cojohuacan. "The two principal avenues to Mexico, those on the south and the west, were now occupied by the Christians. There still remained a third, the great dike of Tepejacac, on the north, which, indeed, taking up the principal street, that passed in a direct line through the heart of the city, might be regarded as a continuation of the dike of Iztapalapan. By this northern route a means of escape was still left open to the besieged, and they availed themselves of it, at present, to maintain their communications with the country, and to supply themselves with provisions. Alvarado, who observed this from his station at Tacuba, advised his commander of it, and the latter instructed Sandoval to take up his position on the causeway. That officer, though suffering at the time from a severe wound, … hastened to obey; and thus, by shutting up its only communication with the surrounding country, completed the blockade of the capital. But Cortés was not content to wait patiently the effects of a dilatory blockade." He arranged with his subordinate captains the plan of a simultaneous advance along each of the causeways toward the city. From his own post he pushed forward with great success, assisted by the brigantines which sailed along side, and which, by the flanking fire of their artillery, drove the Aztecs from one barricade after another, which they had erected at every dismantled bridge. Fighting their way steadily, the Spaniards traversed the whole length of the dike and entered the city; penetrated to the great square; saw once more their old quarters; scaled again the sides of the pyramid-temple, to slay the bloody priests and to strip the idols of their jewels and gold. But the Aztecs were frenzied by this sacrilege, as they had been frenzied by the same deed before, and renewed the battle with so much fury that the Spaniards were driven back in thorough panic and disarray. "All seemed to be lost;—when suddenly sounds were heard in an adjoining street, like the distant tramp of horses galloping rapidly over the pavement. They drew nearer and nearer, and a body of cavalry soon emerged on the great square. Though but a handful in number, they plunged boldly into the thick of the enemy," who speedily broke and fled, enabling Cortés to withdraw his troops in safety. Neither Alvarado nor Sandoval, who had greater difficulties to overcome, and who had no help from the brigantines, reached the suburbs of the city; but their assault had been vigorously made, and had been of great help to that of Cortés. The success of the demonstration spread consternation among the Mexicans and their vassals, and brought a number of the latter over to the Spanish side. Among these latter was the prince of Tezcuco, who joined Cortés, with a large force, in the next assault which the latter made presently upon the city. Again penetrating to the great square, the Spaniards on this occasion destroyed the palaces there by fire. But the spirit of the Mexicans remained unbroken, and they were found in every encounter opposing as obstinate a resistance as ever. They contrived, too, for a remarkable length of time, to run the blockade of the brigantines on the lake and to bring supplies into the city by their canoes. But, at length, when most of the great towns of the neighborhood had deserted their cause, the supplies failed and starvation began to do its work in the fated city. At the same time, the Spaniards were amply provisioned, and their new allies built barracks and huts for their shelter. Cortés "would gladly have spared the town and its inhabitants. … He intimated more than once, by means of the prisoners whom he released, his willingness to grant them fair terms of capitulation. Day after day, he fully expected his proffers would be accepted. But day after day he was disappointed. He had yet to learn how tenacious was the memory of the Aztecs."

W. H. Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico, book 6, chapters 4-5.

MEXICO: A. D. 1521 (July). Disastrous repulse of the Spaniards.

"The impatience of the soldiers grew to a great height, and was supported in an official quarter—by no less a person than Alderete, the king's treasurer. Cortez gave way, against his own judgment, to their importunities" and another general attack was ordered. "On the appointed day Cortez moved from his camp, supported by seven brigantines, and by more than 3,000 canoes filled with his Indian allies. When his soldiers reached the entrance of the city, he divided them in the following manner. There were three streets which led to the market-place from the position which the Spaniards had already gained. Along, the principal street, the king's treasurer, with 70 Spaniards and 15,000 or 20,000 allies, was to make his way. His rear was to be protected by a small guard of horsemen. The other two streets were smaller, and led from the street of Tlacuba to the market-place. {2167} Along the broader of these two streets Cortez sent two of his principal captains, with 80 Spaniards and 10,000 Indians; he himself, with eight horsemen, 75 foot-soldiers, 25 musketeers, and an 'infinite number' of allies, was to enter the narrower street. At the entrance to the street of Tlacuba he left two large cannon, with eight horsemen to guard them, and at the entrance of his own street he also left eight horsemen to protect the rear. … The Spaniards and their allies made their entrance into the city with even more success and less embarrassment than on previous occasions. Bridges and barricades were gained, and the three main bodies of the army moved forward into the heart of the city." But in the excitement of their advance they left unrepaired behind them a great breach in the causeway, ten or twelve paces wide, although Cortez had repeatedly enjoined upon his captains that no such dangerous death-trap should be left to catch them in the event of a retreat. The neglect in this case was most disastrous. Being presently repulsed and driven back, the division which had allowed this chasm to yawn behind it was engulfed. Cortez, whose distrust had been excited in some way, discovered the danger, but too late. He made his way to the spot, only to find "the whole aperture so full of Spaniards and Indians that, as he says, there was not room for a straw to float upon the surface of the water. The peril was so imminent that Cortez not only thought that the Conquest of Mexico was gone, but that the term of his life as well as of his victories had come, and he resolved to die there fighting. All that he could do at first was to help his men out of the water; and, meanwhile, the Mexicans charged upon them in such numbers that he and his little party were entirely surrounded. The enemy seized upon his person, and would have carried him off but for the resolute bravery of some of his guard, one of whom lost his life there in succouring his master. … At last he and a few of his men succeeded in fighting their way to the broad street of Tlacuba, where, like a brave captain, instead of continuing his flight, he and the few horsemen who were with him turned round and formed a rear guard to protect his retreating troops. He also sent immediate orders to the king's treasurer and the other commanders to make good their retreat."

Sir A. Helps, The Spanish Conquest in America, book 11, book 1 (volume 2).

"As we were thus retreating, we continually heard the large drum beating from the summit of the chief temple of the city. Its tone was mournful indeed, and sounded like the very instrument of Satan. This drum was so vast in its dimensions that it could be heard from eight to twelve miles distance. Every time we heard its mournful sound, the Mexicans, as we subsequently learnt, offered to their idols the bleeding hearts of our unfortunate countrymen. … After we had at last, with excessive toil, crossed a deep opening, and had arrived at our encampment, … the large drum of Huitzilopochtli again resounded from the summit of the temple, accompanied by all the hellish music of shell trumpets, horns, and other instruments. … We could plainly see the platform, with the chapel in which those cursed idols stood; how the Mexicans had adorned the heads of the Spaniards with feathers, and compelled their victims to dance round the god Huitzilopochtli; we saw how they stretched them out at full length on a large stone, ripped open their breasts with flint knives, tore out the palpitating heart and offered it to their idols. Alas! we were forced to be spectators of all this, and how they then seized hold of the dead bodies by the legs and threw them headlong down the steps of the temple, at the bottom of which other executioners stood ready to receive them, who severed the arms, legs, and heads from the bodies, drew the skin off the faces, which were tanned with the beards still adhering to them, and produced as spectacles of mockery and derision at their feasts; the legs, arms, and other parts of the body being cut up and devoured. … On that terrible day the loss of the three divisions amounted to 60 men and 7 horses."

Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Memoirs, chapter 152 (volume 2).

MEXICO: A. D. 1521 (August). The last days of the Siege. The taking of the ruined city. The end of the Aztec dominion.

"Guatemozin's victory diffused immense enthusiasm among the Aztecs and those who remained united to them. The priests proclaimed that the gods, satiated by the sacrifice of the Spanish prisoners, had promised to rid the country of the foreigners, and that the promise would be fulfilled within eight days. This intelligence spread alarm among the allies of the Spaniards. They deserted in great numbers—not to go over to the Aztecs, whose anger they dreaded, but to return to their homes. Cortez had good watch kept in the camp. The sorties of the besieged were repulsed; the eight days passed without the Spaniards having lost more than a few marauders. The allies, seeing that the oracle was wrong, came back to their former friends. The aggressive ardour of the besieged grew cooler, and they soon found themselves assailed by the plagues that ordinarily attack troops massed in a city—not only famine, but epidemic diseases, the result of want and overcrowding. … Famine pinched them more cruelly day after day. Lizards and such rats as they could find were their richest nourishment; reptiles and insects were eagerly looked for, trees stripped of their bark, and roots stealthily sought after by night. Meanwhile, Cortez, seeing that there was no other means of bringing them to submission, pursued the work of destruction he had resolved on with so much regret. … Heaps of bodies were found in every street that was won from them; this people, so punctilious in their customs of sepulture, had ceased to bury their dead. … Soon there was left to the besieged but one quarter, and that the most incommodious of all, forming barely an eighth of the city, where there were not houses enough to give them shelter. … The 13th August, 1521, had now arrived, and that was to be the last day of this once flourishing empire. Before making a final assault, Cortez once more invited the emperor to his presence. His envoys came back with the 'cihuacoatl,' a magistrate of the first rank, who declared, with an air of consternation, that Guatemozin knew how to die, but that he would not come to treat. Then, turning towards Cortez, he added: 'Do now whatever you please.' 'Be it so,' replied Cortez; 'go and tell your friends to prepare; they are going to die.' In fact, the troops advanced; there was a last mêlée, a last carnage, on land and on the lake. … {2168} Guatemozin, driven to the shore of the lake, threw himself into a canoe with a few warriors, and endeavoured to escape by dint of rowing; but he was pursued by a brigantine of the Spanish fleet, taken and brought to Cortez, who received him with the respect due to a crowned head. … The Aztec empire had ceased to exist; Spanish sway was established in Mexico. The Cross was triumphant in that fine country, and there was no sharer in its reign. The number of persons that perished in the siege has been differently estimated. The most moderate calculation puts it at 120,000 on the side of the Aztecs. Very many Indians fell on the side of the besiegers. The historian Ixtlixochitl says there were 30,000 dead of the warriors of Tezcuco alone. All that were left alive of the Aztecs were, at the request of Guatemozin, allowed to leave the city in freedom, on the morning after it was taken. … They dispersed in all directions, everywhere spreading a terror of the Spaniards, and the feeling that to resist them was impossible. That conviction must have been established speedily and firmly, for there was no further attempt at resistance, unless it were at one point, in the territory of Panuco, near the Atlantic Ocean."

M. Chevalier, Mexico, Ancient and Modern, part 2, chapters 8-9 (volume 1).

ALSO IN: H. Cortes, Despatches [Letters] MEXICO, translated by G. Folsom, letter 3, chapter 5.

MEXICO: A. D. 1521-1524. The rebuilding of the capital. The completion and settlement of the Conquest.

"The first ebullition of triumph was succeeded in the army by very different feelings, as they beheld the scanty spoil gleaned from the conquered city;" and Cortés was driven, by the clamors and suspicions of his soldiers, to subject his heroic captive, Guatemozin, to torture, in the hope of wringing from him a disclosure of some concealment of his imagined treasures. Its only result was to add another infamy to the name and memory of the conquerors. "The commander-in-chief, with his little band of Spaniards, now daily recruited by reinforcements from the Islands, still occupied the quarters of Cojohuacan, which they had taken up at the termination of the siege. Cortés did not immediately decide in what quarter of the Valley to establish the new capital which was to take the place of the ancient Tenochtitlan. … At length he decided on retaining the site of the ancient city, … and he made preparations for the reconstruction of the capital on a scale of magnificence which should, in his own language, 'raise her to the rank of Queen of the surrounding provinces, in the same manner as she had been of yore.' The labor was to be performed by the Indian population, drawn from all quarters of the Valley, and including the Mexicans themselves, great numbers of whom still lingered in the neighborhood of their ancient residence. … In less than four years from the destruction of Mexico, a new city had risen on its ruins, which, if inferior to the ancient capital in extent, surpassed it in magnificence and strength. It occupied so exactly the same site as its predecessor that the 'plaza mayor,' or great square, was the same spot which had been covered by the huge 'teocalli' and the palace of Montezuma; while the principal streets took their departure as before from this central point, and, passing through the whole length of the city, terminated at the principal causeways. Great alterations, however, took place in the fashion of the architecture." Meantime, Cortés had been brought into much danger at the Spanish court, by the machinations of his enemies, encouraged by Bishop Fonseca, the same minister who pursued Columbus with hostility. His friends in Spain rallied, however, to his support, and the result of an investigation, undertaken by a board to which the Emperor Charles V. referred all the charges against him, was the confirmation of his acts in Mexico to their full extent. "He was constituted Governor, Captain-General, and Chief Justice of New Spain, with power to appoint to all offices, civil and military, and to order any person to leave the country whose residence there he might deem prejudicial to the interests of the Crown. This judgment of the council was ratified by Charles V., and the commission investing Cortés with these ample powers was signed by the emperor at Valladolid, October 15th, 1522. … The attention of Cortés was not confined to the capital. He was careful to establish settlements in every part of the country which afforded a favourable position for them. … While thus occupied with the internal economy of the country, Cortés was still bent on his great schemes of discovery and conquest." He fitted out a fleet to explore the shores of the Pacific, and another in the Gulf of Mexico—the prime object of both being the discovery of some strait that would open one ocean to the other. He also sent Olid in command of an expedition by sea to occupy and colonize Honduras, and Alvarado, by land, at the head of a large force, to subdue Guatemala. The former, having partly accomplished his mission, attempted to establish for himself an independent jurisdiction, and his conduct induced Cortés to proceed to Honduras in person. It was in the course of this expedition that Guatemozin, the dethroned Mexican chief, who had been forced to accompany his conqueror, was accused of a plot against the Spaniards and was hung to a tree. 'We have the testimony of Bernal Diaz, one of the Spaniards on the spot, that the execution "was most unjust, and was thought wrong by all of us." "Within three short years after the Conquest [Cortés] had reduced under the dominion of Castile an extent of country more than 400 leagues in length, as he affirms, on the Atlantic coast, and more than 500 on the Pacific; and, with the exception of a few interior provinces of no great importance, had brought them to a condition of entire tranquillity."

W. H. Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico, book 7, chapters 1-3.

ALSO IN: H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, volume 5 (Mexico, volume 2), chapters 1-8.

MEXICO: A. D. 1535-1540. Introduction of Printing.

See PRINTING, &C: A. D. 1535—1709.

MEXICO: A. D. 1535-1822. Under the Spanish viceroys.

"Antonio de Mendoza, Conde de Tendilla, was the first viceroy sent by Charles V. to New Spain. He arrived in the autumn of 1535. … He had a well-balanced and moderate character, and governed the country with justice and generosity combined. He … set himself to reform the abuses which had already appeared, protected the Indians from the humiliations which the newly arrived Spaniards were disposed to put upon them; he stimulated all branches of agriculture, and finding the natives were already well informed in the cultivation of land, he encouraged them in this pursuit by all possible efforts. … {2169} To the religious orders in Mexico is due in great measure the firm base upon which the government of Spain was established there. The new viceroy fully recognized this, and encouraged the foundations of colleges and schools already undertaken by them. In every way he promoted the prosperity and growth of the country, and had the satisfaction in the course of his government, which lasted 15 years, to see everything bear the marks of his judgment and enterprise. It was he who founded two cities [Guadalajara and Valladolid] which have reached great importance. … Cortés was away when the Viceroy Mendoza arrived in Mexico. He still retained his title as governor, with the same powers always conferred upon him; but his long absences from the capital made it necessary, as he fully recognized, that some other strong authority should be established there. Nevertheless, he never got on very well with such other authorities, and on his return soon became at odds with Mendoza, who, in his opinion, interfered with his prerogatives. It was then that Cortés bade farewell to his family, and taking with him his eldest son and heir, Don Martin, then eight years old, he embarked for Spain, leaving Mendoza undisturbed in the execution of his office. … In 1536 was issued the first book printed in Mexico, on a press imported by Mendoza, and put into the hands of one Juan Pablos. … In 1550 this good ruler [Mendoza] sailed away from Mexico. … He passed on to take charge of the government of Peru, by a practice which came to be quite common—a sort of diplomatic succession by which the viceroys of New Spain were promoted to the post at Peru. Don Luis de Velasco, second viceroy of New Spain, made his entrance into the capital with great pomp, at the end of the year 1550. He, like his predecessor, had been selected with care by the orders of Charles V. … His first decree was one liberating 150 Indians from slavery, who were working chiefly in the mines. … He established in Mexico, for the security of travellers upon the highway, the tribunal of the Holy Brotherhood, instituted in Spain for the same purpose in the time of Isabella. He founded the Royal University of Mexico, and the Royal Hospital for the exclusive use of the natives. … The good Viceroy Velasco died in 1564, having governed the country for 14 years. … During the government of this ruler and his predecessor all the administration of New Spain, political, civil, and religious was established upon so firm a foundation that it could go on in daily action like a well regulated machine." In the meantime, Charles V. had resigned the burden of his great sovereignty, transferring all his crowns to his narrow-souled son, Philip II., who cared nothing for the New World except as a source of gold and silver supply and a field for religious bigotry. Under Philip "the character of the viceroys was lowered from the high standard adhered to when Charles the Emperor selected them himself. To follow the long list of them would be most tedious and useless, as they passed in rotation, governing according to the best of their lights for several years in Mexico, and then passing on, either by death or by promotion to Peru. In 1571 the Inquisition was fully established … and the next year the Jesuits arrived. … The first 'auto-da-fé' was celebrated in the year 1574, when, as its chronicler mentions cheerfully, 'there perished 21 pestilent Lutherans.' From this time such ceremonies were of frequent occurrence, but the Inquisition never reached the point it did in Old Spain. … The viceroys of New Spain under Philip III. [1578-1621] were, for the most part, men of judgment and moderation. While the government at home, in the hands of profligate favorites, was growing weaker and weaker, that of Mexico was becoming more firmly established." It was not shaken nor disturbed by the War of the Spanish Succession, during the early years of the eighteenth century; but the Revolution in France, which convulsed Europe before that century closed, wrought changes which were lasting in the New World as well as the Old. "There were in all 64 viceroys, beginning with Don Antonio de Mendoza, 1535, and ending with Juan O'Donoju in 1822."

S. Hale, The Story of Mexico, chapters 20-22.

ALSO IN: H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, volumes 5-6 (Mexico, volumes 2-3).

MEXICO: A. D. 1539-1586. Expeditions of Niza, Coronado, and others to the North. Search for the Seven Cities of Cibola.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: PUEBLOS.

MEXICO: A. D. 1810-1819. The first Revolutionary movement. Hidalgo. Allende. Morelos.

"The causes of the coming revolution were not hidden. The law that excluded Spaniards born in America from equal rights with those who were immigrants was a natural, not to say necessary, source of discontent among people whose good-will was much needed by any viceroy. There was inevitably not a little mutual repugnance between the Mexican and Spanish stocks, and the home government did nothing to mollify such asperities. There were commercial monopolies militant against public interests. The clergy were alienated, and since they were not thus so serviceable as formerly in the part of mediators in enforcing governmental aims, it was found necessary to use force where the people were not accustomed to it. The Viceroy Jose de Iturrigaray practised a seeming condescension that deceived no one, and he pursued his exactions partly by reason of self-interest, and partly in order to supply Madrid with means to meet the financial troubles that the Napoleonic era was creating. After some years of these conditions in New Spain, a conspiracy, resulting from a reaction, sent the viceroy back to Spain a prisoner. This gave strength to revolutionary sentiments, and a few trials for treason increased the discontent. The men who were now put successively in the vice-regal place had few qualities for the times, and a certain timidity of policy was not conducive to strength of government. … The outbreak, when it came, brought to the front a curate of Dolores, a native priest, Miguel Hidalgo, who commanded the confidence of the disaffected, and was relied upon to guide the priesthood. Ignacio de Allende had some of the soldierly qualities needed for a generalissimo. The purpose of these men and their allies, before they should openly proclaim a revolt, was to seize some of the leading Spaniards; but their plot being discovered, they hastily assembled at Dolores and raised the standard of revolt (1810). Thus banded together, but badly organized and poorly armed, a body of 5,000 insurgents marched from Dolores, headed by Hidalgo and Allende, and approached Guanajuato, where the intendente Riaña had intrenched himself in a fortified alhondiga, or granary. {2170} The attack of the rebels was headlong and bloody. The gates were fired with flaming rubbish, and through the glowing way the mad throng rushed, and after a hand-to-hand conflict (September 28, 1810) the fortress fell. The royalist leader had been killed, and scenes of pillage and riot followed. Meanwhile the viceroy in Mexico prepared to receive the insurgents, and his ally, the church, excommunicated their leaders. The military force of the royalists was inconsiderable, and what there was, it was feared, might prove not as loyal as was desirable. As Hidalgo marched towards the capital, he tried to seduce to his side a young lieutenant, Augustin Iturbide, who was in command of a small outlying force. The future emperor declined the offer, and, making his way to the city, was at once sent to join Trujillo, who commanded a corps of observation which confronted the insurgents, and who finally ran the chances of a battle at Las Cruces. … The insurgents soon surrounded him, and he was only able to reach the city by breaking with a part of his force through the enveloping line. Hidalgo had lost 2,000 men, but he had gained the day. He soon intercepted a despatch and learned from it that General Calleja had been put in motion from San Luis Potosi, and it seemed more prudent to Hidalgo that, instead of approaching Mexico, he should retreat to be nearer his recruiting ground. The retrograde movement brought the usual result to an undisciplined force, and he was already weakened by desertions when Calleja struck his line of march at Aculco. Hidalgo felt it important for the revolution to have time enough to spread into other parts of the province, and so he merely fought Calleja to cover his further retreat. The rebel leader soon gathered his forces at Celaya, while Allende, his colleague, posted himself at Guanajuato. Here the latter was attacked by Calleja and routed, and the royal forces made bloody work in the town. Hidalgo, moving to Valladolid, reorganized his army, and then, proceeding to Guadalajara, he set up a form of government, with Ignacio Lopez Rayon as Secretary-general. At this time the insurgents held completely the provinces of Nueva Galicia, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosi, a belt of country stretching from sea to sea in the latitude of Tampico. … In January, 1811, the signs were not very propitious for the royalists. … At this juncture … Hidalgo moved out from Guadalajara with his entire force, which was large enough, consisting of 60,000 foot, 20,000 horse, and 100 cannon; but it was poorly armed, and without effective discipline; while Calleja commanded a well-equipped and well-organized force, but in extent it only counted 3,000 foot, with as many horse, and ten guns. At the bridge of Calderon, 10 or 11 leagues from the city, Hidalgo prepared to stand. Here Calleja attacked him," and won the day, entering Guadalajara as a victor on the 21st of January, 1811. "Hidalgo fled with his broken army, and soon resigned the command to Allende. This general had scarcely 4,000 or 5,000 men left when he reached Saltillo, where he joined Jimenes. The disheartenment of defeat was spreading through the country. Town after town was heard from as yielding to the victors. The leaders, counselling together at Saltillo, resolved to escape to the United States; but, as they were marching,—about 2,000 in all, with 24 guns and a money-chest,—they fell into an ambush planned in the interest of a counter-revolution by one Elizondo, and, with nothing more than a show of resistance, the party was captured, one and all. The judgment of death upon Hidalgo, Allende, and Jimenes soon followed. The main force of the insurgents had thus disappeared, but a small body still remained in arms under the lead of Jose Maria Morelos." Morelos was uneducated, but capable and energetic, and he kept life in the rebellion for two years. He captured Orizaba in October, 1812, Oajaca in the following month, and Acapulco in the spring of 1813. In November of that year he appeared before Valladolid, the capital of Michoacan, but was attacked there by Iturbide and routed. "In January, 1814, Morelos made a final stand at Puruaran, but Iturbide still drove him on. Disaster followed upon disaster, till finally Morelos was deposed by his own congress. This body had adherents enough to make it necessary for Calleja to appeal to the home government for a reinforcement of 8,000 troops. … Morelos, meanwhile, commanding an escort which was protecting the migratory congress, was intercepted and captured by a force of royalists, and, after the forms of a trial, he was executed December 22, 1815. The campaign of 1816 was sustained by the insurgents against a force of 80,000 men which Calleja had collected. … Neither side had much success, and the war was simply tedious. At last, in August, a new viceroy, Juan Riaz de Apodaca, succeeded to Calleja, and uniting a more humane policy with vigor in disposing his forces, the leading rebel officers … surrendered in January, 1817. … A certain quixotic interest is lent to the closing months of the revolution by the adventurous exploits of Espoz y Mina. He had fitted out a small expedition in the United States, which, landing on the Gulf coast, for a while swept victoriously inland. … But Mina was finally surprised and executed. Other vagrant rebel leaders fell one by one into the hands of the royalists; but Guadalupe Victoria held out, and concealed himself in the wilds for two years."

J. Winsor, Spanish North America (Narrative and Critical History of America, volume 8, chapter 4).

ALSO IN: _W. D. Robinson, Memoirs of the Mexican Revolution._

MEXICO: A. D. 1819. Texas occupied as a province.

See TEXAS: A. D. 1819-1835.

MEXICO: A. D. 1820-1826. Independence of Spain. The brief empire of Iturbide and its fall. Constitution of the Republic of the United Mexican States.

"The establishment of a constitutional government in Spain, in 1820, produced upon Mexico an effect very different from what was anticipated. As the constitution provided for a more liberal administration of government in Mexico than had prevailed since 1812, the increased freedom of the elections again threw the minds of the people into a ferment, and the spirit of independence, which had been only smothered, broke forth anew. Moreover, divisions were created among the old Spaniards themselves; some being in favor of the old system, while others were sincerely attached to the constitution. Some formidable inroads on the property and prerogatives of the church alienated the clergy from the new government, and induced them to desire a return to the old system. {2171} The Viceroy, Apodaca, encouraged by the hopes held out by the Royalists in Spain, although he had at first taken the oath to support the constitution, secretly favored the party opposed to it, and arranged his plans for its overthrow. Don Augustin Iturbide, the person selected by the Viceroy to make the first open demonstration against the existing government, was offered the command of a body of troops on the western coast, at the head of which he was to proclaim the re-establishment of the absolute authority of the king. Iturbide, accepting the commission, departed from the capital to take command of the troops, but with intentions very different from those which the Viceroy supposed him to entertain. Reflecting upon the state of the country, and convinced of the facility with which the authority of Spain might be shaken off,—by bringing the Creole troops to act in concert with the old insurgents, —Iturbide resolved to proclaim Mexico wholly independent of the Spanish nation. Having his head quarters at the little town of Iguala, on the road to Acapulco, Iturbide, on the 24th of February, 1821, there proclaimed his project, known as the 'Plan of Iguala,' and induced his soldiers to take an oath to support it. This 'Plan' declared that Mexico should be an independent nation, its religion Catholic, and its government a constitutional monarchy. The crown was offered to Ferdinand VII, of Spain, provided he would consent to occupy the throne in person; and, in case of his refusal, to his infant brothers, Don Carlos and Don Francisco. A constitution was to be formed by a Mexican Congress; … all distinctions of caste were to be abolished. … The Viceroy, astonished by this unexpected movement of Iturbide, and remaining irresolute and inactive at the capital, was deposed, and Don Francisco Novello, a military officer, was placed at the head of the government; but his authority was not generally recognized, and Iturbide was left to pursue his plans in the interior without interruption. Being joined by Generals Guerrero and Victoria as soon as they knew that the independence of their country was the object of Iturbide, not only all the survivors of the first insurgents, but whole detachments of Creole troops flocked to his standard, and his success was soon rendered certain. The clergy and the people were equally decided in favor of independence; … and, before the month of July, the whole country recognized the authority of Iturbide, with the exception of the capital, in which Novello had shut himself up with the European troops. Iturbide had already reached Queretaro with his troops, on his road to Mexico, when he was informed of the arrival, at Vera Cruz, of a new Viceroy. … At Cordova, whither the Viceroy had been allowed to proceed, for the purpose of an interview with Iturbide, the latter induced him to accept by treaty the Plan of Iguala, as the only means of securing the lives and property of the Spaniards then in Mexico, and of establishing the right to the throne in the house of Bourbon. By this agreement, called the 'Treaty of Cordova,' the Viceroy, in the name of the king, his master, recognized the independence of Mexico, and gave up the capital to the army of the insurgents, which took possession of it, without effusion of blood, on the 27th of September, 1821. All opposition being ended, and the capital occupied, in accordance with a provision of the Plan of Iguala a provisional junta was established, the principal business of which was to call a congress for the formation of a constitution suitable to the country. At the same time a regency, consisting of five individuals, was elected, at the head of which was placed Iturbide. … When the congress assembled [February 24, 1822], three distinct parties were found amongst the members. The Bourbonists, adhering to the Plan of Iguala altogether, wished a constitutional monarchy, with a prince of the house of Bourbon at its head; the Republican, setting aside the Plan of Iguala, desired a federal republic; while a third party, the Iturbidists, adopting the Plan of Iguala with the exception of the article in favor of the Bourbons, wished to place Iturbide himself upon the throne. As it was soon learned that the Spanish government had declared the treaty of Cordova null and void, the Bourbonists ceased to exist as a party, and the struggle was confined to the Iturbidists and the Republicans." By the aid of a mob demonstration in the city of Mexico, on the night of May 18, 1822, the former triumphed, and Iturbide was declared emperor, under the title of Augustin the First. "The choice was ratified by the provinces without opposition, and Iturbide found himself in peaceable possession of a throne to which his own abilities and a concurrence of favorable circumstances had raised him. Had the monarch elect been guided by counsels of prudence, and allowed his authority to be confined within constitutional limits, he might perhaps have continued to maintain a modified authority; but forgetting the unstable foundation of his throne, he began his reign with all the airs of hereditary royalty. On his accession a struggle for power immediately commenced between him and the congress." After arbitrarily imprisoning the most distinguished members of that body, Iturbide, at last, proclaimed its dissolution and substituted a junta of his own nomination. "Before the end of November an insurrection broke out in the northern provinces, but this was speedily quelled by the imperial troops." It was followed in December by a more formidable revolt, led off by Santa Anna (or Santana), a young general who had supported Iturbide, but who had been haughtily dismissed from the government of Vera Cruz. Santa Anna was joined by Victoria and other old Republican leaders, and the power of Iturbide crumbled so rapidly that he resigned his crown on the 19th of March, 1823, promising to quit the country, on being assured a yearly allowance of $25,000 for his support. "With his family and suite he embarked for Leghorn on the 11th of May. … From Italy he proceeded to London, and made preparations for returning to Mexico; in consequence of which, congress, on the 28th of April, 1824, passed a decree of outlawry against him. He landed in disguise at Soto la Marina, July 14th, 1824; was arrested by General Garza, and shot at Padillo by order of the provincial congress of Tamaulipas, on the 19th of that month. … On the departure of Iturbide, a temporary executive was appointed, consisting of Generals Victoria, Bravo, and Negrete, by whom the government was administered until the meeting of a new congress, which assembled at the capital in August, 1823. {2172} This body immediately entered on the duties of preparing a new constitution, which was submitted on the 31st of January, 1824, and definitively sanctioned on the 4th of October following. By this instrument, modeled somewhat after the constitution of the United States, the absolute independence of the country was declared, and the several Mexican Provinces were united in a Federal Republic. The legislative power was vested in a Congress, consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives. … The supreme executive authority was vested in one individual, styled the 'President of the United Mexican States.' … The third article in the constitution declared that 'The Religion of the Mexican Nation is, and will be perpetually, the Roman Catholic Apostolic. The nation will protect it by wise and just laws, and prohibit the exercise of any other whatever.' … On the 1st of January, 1825, the first congress under the federal constitution assembled in the city of Mexico; and, at the same time, General Guadalupe Victoria was installed as president of the republic, and General Nicholas Bravo as vice-president. The years 1825 and 1826 passed with few disturbances; the administration of Victoria was generally popular; and the country enjoyed a higher degree of prosperity than at any former or subsequent period."

M. Willson, American History, book 3, part 2, chapters 4-5.

ALSO IN: H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, volume 7 (Mexico, volume 3), chapters 29-33, and volume 8, chapters 1-2.

MEXICO: A. D. 1822-1828. Free-Masonry in politics. The rival branches of the order. The Escocés and the Yorkinos.

For some years a furious contest raged between two political societies, "known as the 'Escocés' and 'Yorkinos'—or, as we should call them, Scotch Free-Masons and York Free-Masons—whose secret organizations were employed for political purposes by two rival political parties. At the time of the restoration of the Constitutional Government of Spain in 1820, Free-Masonry was introduced into Mexico; and as it was derived from the Scotch branch of that order, it was called, after the name of the people of Scotland, 'Escocés.' Into this institution were initiated many of the old Spaniards still remaining in the country, the Creole aristocracy, and the privileged classes—parties that could ill endure the elevation of a Creole colonel, Iturbide, to the Imperial throne. When Mr. Poinsett was sent out as Embassador to Mexico [1822], he carried with him the charter for a Grand Lodge from the American, or York order of Free-Masons in the United States. Into this new order the leaders of the Democratic party were initiated. The bitter rivalry that sprung up between these two branches of the Masonic body kept the country in a ferment for ten years, and resulted finally in the formation of a party whose motto was opposition to all secret societies, and who derived their name of Anti-Masons from the party of the same name then flourishing in the United States. When the Escocés had so far lost ground in popular favor as to be in the greatest apprehension from their prosperous but imbittered rivals, the Yorkinos, as a last resort, to save themselves, and to ruin the hated organization, they pronounced against all secret societies. … 'General Bravo,' Vice-President of Mexico, and leader of the Escocés, having issued his proclamation declaring that, as a last resort, he appealed to arms to rid the republic of that pest, secret societies, and that he would not give up the contest until he had rooted them out, root and branch, took up his position at Tulansingo—a village about 30 miles north of the City of Mexico. Here, at about daylight on the morning of the 7th January, 1828, he was assailed by General Guerrero, the leader of the Yorkinos, and commander of the forces of government.' After a slight skirmish, in which eight men were killed and six wounded, General Bravo and his party were made prisoners; and thus perished forever the party of the Escocés. This victory was so complete as to prove a real disaster to the Yorkinos. The want of outside pressure led to internal dissensions; so that when two of its own members, Guerrero and Pedraza, became rival candidates for the presidency, the election was determined by a resort to arms."

R. A. Wilson, Mexico: its Peasants and its Priests, chapter 5.

ALSO IN: H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, volume 8 (Mexico, volume 5), chapter 2.

MEXICO: A. D. 1828-1844. The rise of Santa Anna. Dissolution of the Federal System. The Unitary Republic established. Recognition by Spain. The Pastry War. Retrogradation and decline.

"After the death of Iturbide, by far the most powerful person in the nation was the Creole general Santa Anna, who, at the age of 24, had already destroyed the military empire of his chief. Santa Anna at first interested himself in the visionary project of Bolivar for framing a general confederation of the new nations of South America.

See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1826.

This project … failed completely; and for several years he settled down as governor of Vera Cruz, reconciled himself to the Federal Republic, and took no part in public life. In 1828, however, the Presidential election led to a civil war in which Santa Anna and his favourite Veracrusanos first found out their capabilities; and they had an opportunity of testing them again in the next year, when the feeble force of Barrados, the last military attempt made by Spain to reduce Mexico, was cut to pieces at Tampico. From that movement Santa Anna became the sole controller of the destinies of the country: and in 1833 he was elected President. Forty years ago all Europe knew the picture of Santa Anna, with his tall spare figure, sunburnt face, and black hair curling over his forehead; how he lived on his hacienda of Manga de Clavo, cockfighting, gambling, and horse-racing, occasionally putting himself at the head of his bronzed troops, and either making a dash at an insurrection, or making a pronunciamento on his own account. Mexican histories tell how gallantly he defended Vera Cruz in 1839, against the French invasion under Prince de Joinville [called 'the Pastry War,' because consequent on the non-payment of French claims, among which there was prominence given to a certain pastry-cook's claim for goods destroyed in the riot of a revolution at the capital in 1828]; how his leg, having been shattered by a ball, was buried with a solemn service and a funeral oration in the cemetery of Santa Paula in Mexico; and how, in a few years, when Santa Anna was in disgrace with the people, they destroyed the tomb, and kicked Santa Anna's limb about the streets with every mark of hatred and contempt. … {2173} The manifold difficulties of government in Mexico sufficiently attested the weakness of the Federal constitution; and in 1835, after a trial of eleven years, the state governments were dissolved, and the Republic, one and indivisible, set up for a time in their place. There was now to be a President, elected by an indirect vote for eight years, a Senate, and a House of Deputies, both elected by a direct popular vote, and an elective Supreme Court. Santa Anna, who was identified with the Unitary principle, was re-elected three times; so that with some intermission he governed Mexico for 20 years. The dissolution of the Federal government naturally strengthened the hands of Santa Anna; and in 1836 Mexico was for the first time recognized by Spain. But the unitary republic was a time of disaster and disgrace; and from the point of view of progress it was a period of reaction. … Europe looked forward, almost without jealousy, to the time when the great nation of North America would absorb this people of half-civilized Indians mixed with degenerate Spaniards. Events which now happened greatly strengthened this impression."

E. J. Payne, History of European Colonies, chapter 20, sections 6-7.

MEXICO: A. D. 1829-1837. The Abolition of Slavery.

"The general affairs of the country in the second half of 1829 were in a chaotic state. Disorganization fettered every branch of the government. … And yet, amidst its constant struggle, Guerrero's administration decreed several progressive measures, the most important of which was the abolition of slavery. African slavery had indeed been reduced to narrow limits. The Dominican provincial of Chiapas, Father Matias Cordoba, gave freedom to the slaves on the estates of his order. On the 16th of September, 1825, President Victoria had liberated in the country's name the slaves purchased with a certain fund collected for that purpose, as well as those given up by their owners to the patriotic junta. The general abolition, however, was not actually carried out for some time, certain difficulties having arisen; and several states, among which was Zacatecas, had decreed the freedom of slaves before the general government arrived at a final conclusion on the subject. As a matter of fact, the few remaining slaves were in domestic service, and treated more like members of families than as actual chattels. At last Deputy Tornel, taking advantage of the time when Guerrero was invested with extraordinary powers, drew up and laid before him a decree for total abolition. It was signed September 15, 1829, and proclaimed the next day, the national anniversary. The law met with no demur save from Coahuila and Texas, in which state were about 1,000 slaves, whose manumission would cost heavily, as the owners held them at a high valuation. It seems that the law was not fully enforced; for on the 5th of April, 1837, another was promulgated, declaring slavery abolished without exception and with compensation to the owners."

H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, volume 8 (Mexico, volume 5), chapter 4.

MEXICO: A. D. 1845. The Annexation of Texas to the United States.

See TEXAS: A. D. 1836-1845.

MEXICO: A. D. 1846. The American aggression which precipitated war.

"Texas had claimed the Rio Grande as her western limit, though she had never exercised actual control over either New Mexico or the country lying between the Nueces and the Rio Grande. The groundless character of the claims of Texas to the Rio Grande as its western boundary was even admitted by some friends of the measure. … Silas Wright, … referring to the boundaries of Texas, declared that 'they embraced a country to which Texas had no claims, over which she had never asserted jurisdiction, and which she had no right to cede.' Mr. Benton denounced the treaty [of annexation and cession of territory] as an attempt to seize 2,000 square miles of Mexican territory by the incorporation of the left bank of the Rio del Norte, which would be an act of direct aggression. … In ordering, therefore, General Taylor to pass a portion of his forces westward of the river Nueces, which was done before annexation was accomplished, President Polk put in peril the peace and the good name of the country. In his Annual Message of December of that year [1845] he stated that American troops were in position on the Nueces, 'to defend our own and the rights of Texas.' But, not content with occupying ground on and westward of the Nueces, he issued, on the 13th of January, 1846, the fatal order to General Taylor to advance and 'occupy positions on or near the left bank of the Rio del Norte.' That movement of the army from Corpus Christi to the Rio Grande, a distance of more than 100 miles, was an invasion of Mexican territory,—an act of war for which the President was and must ever be held responsible by the general judgment of mankind."

H. Wilson, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, volume 2, chapter 2.

ALSO IN: T. H. Benton, Thirty Years' View, volume 2, chapter 149.

MEXICO: A. D. 1846-1847. The American conquest of California.

See CALIFORNIA: A. D. 1846-1847.

MEXICO: A. D. 1846-1847. War with the United States. The first movements of American invasion. Palo Alto. Resaca de la Palma. Monterey. Buena Vista. Fremont in California.

"The annexation of Texas accomplished [see TEXAS: A. D. 1824-1836, and 1836-1845], General Taylor, the United States commander in the Southwest, received orders to advance to the Rio Grande. Such was the impoverished and distracted condition of Mexico that she apparently contemplated no retaliation for the injury she had sustained, and, had the American army remained at the Nueces, a conflict might perhaps have been avoided. But, on Taylor's approaching the Rio Grande, a combat ensued [May 8, 1846] at Palo Alto with Arista, the Mexican commander, who crossed over that stream. It ended in the defeat of the Mexicans, and the next day another engagement took place at Resaca de la Palma, with the same result. These actions eventually assumed considerable political importance. They were among the causes of General Taylor's subsequent elevation to the Presidency. As soon as intelligence of what had occurred reached Washington, President Polk, forgetting that the author of a war is not he who begins it, but he who has made it necessary, addressed a special message to Congress announcing that the Mexicans 'had at last invaded our territory, and shed the blood of our fellow-citizens on our own soil.' Congress at once (May 13th, 1846) passed an act providing money and men. {2174} Its preamble stated, 'Whereas, by the act of the Republic of Mexico, a state of war exists between that country and the United States, be it enacted,' etc. As long previously as 1843, Mr. Bocanegra, the Mexican Minister of Foreign Relations, had formally notified the American government that the annexation of Texas would inevitably lead to war. General Almonte, the Mexican minister at Washington, in a note to Mr. Upshur, the Secretary of State, said that, 'in the name of his nation, and now for them, he protests, in the most solemn manner, against such an aggression; and he moreover declares, by express order of his government, that, on sanction being given by the executive of the Union to the incorporation of Texas into the United States, he will consider his mission ended, seeing that, as the Secretary of State will have learned, the Mexican government is resolved to declare war as soon as it receives intimation of such an act.' War being thus provoked by the American government, General Scott received orders (November 18th, 1846) to take command of the expedition intended for the invasion of Mexico."

J. W. Draper, History of the American Civil War, chapter 23 (volume 1).

After his defeat at Resaca de la Palma, the Mexican general Arista "retreated in the direction of San Luis Potosi, and was superseded by General Pedro Ampudia. General Taylor marched his forces across the Rio Grande on the 17th of May and the invasion of Mexico was begun in earnest. From the 21st to the 24th of September, he was engaged with 7,000 men in the attack upon Monterey, the capital of Nueva Leon, garrisoned by a force of 9,000. He met with the same success which had attended his former engagements. General Ampudia was also forced to retire to San Luis Potosi. The brilliant features of this attack were the assault upon Obispado Viejo by General Worth on the first day of the fight, and the storming of the heights above on the following day. … Upon the defeat of Ampudia, Santa Anna, having then just attained to the chief magistracy of Mexico [the American blockading squadron at Vera Cruz had permitted him to return to the country, expecting that his presence would be advantageous to the invaders], and left it in the hands of his Vice-President, Gomez Farias, took the command of the Mexican forces and set out to check the advance of General Taylor. On the 23d of February, 1847, the bloody battle of Angostura, as it is called by the Mexicans (known to the Americans as the battle of Buena Vista), was fought, and lost by the Mexican army. Santa Anna returned to San Luis Potosi, whence he was called to the capital to head off the insurrection against Gomez Farias, by the party called derisively the Polkos, because their insurrection at that time was clearly favorable to the movements of the American army, and because James K. Polk was then the President of the United States and head of the American party favorable to the war. It was at this time that the army of Taylor was reduced to about 5,000 men in order to supply General Winfield Scott with forces to carry out his military operations, and the field of war was transferred to the region between Vera Cruz and the capital. While these events were in progress an expedition under General John C. Fremont had been made over-land through New Mexico and into California [see CALIFORNIA: A. D. 1846-1847; and NEW MEXICO: A. D. 1846], and under the directions of the United States government the Mexicans of California had been incited to revolt."

A. H. Noll, Short History of Mexico, chapter 9.

ALSO IN: H. Von Holst, Constitutional and Political History of the U. S., volume 3, chapters 4-9.

H. O. Ladd, History of the War with Mexico, chapters 4-8.

E. D. Mansfield, History of the Mexican War, chapters 2-4 and 8.

O. O. Howard, General Taylor, chapters 8-19.

MEXICO: A. D. 1847 (March-September). General Scott's campaign. From Vera Cruz to the capital. Cerro Gordo. Contreras. Churubusco. Molino del Rey. Chapultepec. The conquest complete.

"General Winfield Scott was ordered to Mexico, to take chief command and conduct the war according to his own plan. This was, in brief, to carry an expedition against Vera Cruz, reduce its defences, and then march on the city of Mexico by the shortest route. … On the 7th of March [1847], the fleet with Scott's army came to anchor a few miles south of Vera Cruz, and two days later he landed his whole force—nearly 12,000 men—by means of surf-boats. Vera Cruz was a city of 7,000 inhabitants, strongly fortified. … On the 22d the investment was complete. A summons to surrender being refused, the batteries opened, and the bombardment was kept up for four days, the small war vessels joining in it. The Mexican batteries and the castle [of San Juan de Ulloa, on a reef in the harbor] replied with spirit, and with some little effect; but the city and castle were surrendered on the 27th. The want of draught animals and wagons delayed till the middle of April the march upon the capital of the country, 200 miles distant. The first obstacle was found at Cerro Gordo, 50 miles northwest of Vera Cruz, where the Mexicans had taken position on the heights around a rugged mountain pass, with a battery commanding every turn of the road. A way was found to flank the position on the extreme left, and on the morning of April 18th the Americans attacked in three columns. … The divisions of Twiggs and Worth … attacked the height of Cerro Gordo, where the Mexicans were most strongly intrenched, and where Santa Anna commanded in person. This being carried by storm, its guns were turned first upon the retreating Mexicans, and then upon the advanced position that Pillow was assaulting in front. The Mexicans, finding themselves surrounded, soon surrendered. Santa Anna, with the remainder of his troops, fled toward Jalapa, where Scott followed him and took the place."

W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay, Popular History of the United States, volume 4, chapter 14.

"Less than a month later [after the battle of Cerro Gordo] the American army occupied the city of Puebla. Scott remained at Puebla during June and July, awaiting reinforcements and drilling them as they arrived. On the 7th of August he set out for the capital, which was now defended by about 30,000 troops. A series of encounters took place on the 19th, and on the next day three battles were fought, at Contreras, Churubusco, and San Antonio. They were in reality parts of one general engagement. The troops on both sides fought with stubbornness and bravery, but in the end the Mexicans were completely routed, and the pursuit of the flying enemy reached almost to the gates of the capital. A commissioner, Nicholas P. Trist, having been previously appointed to negotiate with the Mexicans, an armistice was now agreed upon, to begin on the 23d of August. {2175} The armistice, from a strategic point of view, was a mistake, the advantage of the overwhelming victories of the 19th and 20th was in great part lost, and the Mexicans were enabled to recover from the demoralization which had followed their defeat. The position of the American army, in the heart of the enemy's country, where it might be cut off from reinforcements and supplies, was full of danger, and the fortifications which barred the way to the capital, Molino del Rey, Casa Mata, and Chapultepec, were exceedingly formidable. On the 7th of September the armistice came to an end. The negotiations had failed, and General Scott prepared to move on the remaining works. A reconnoisance was made on that day, and on the 8th Scott attacked the enemy. The army of Santa Anna was drawn up with its right resting on Casa Mata and its left on Molino del Rey. Both these positions were carried by assault, and the Mexicans, after severe loss, were defeated and driven off the field. The next two days were occupied in preparing for the final assault upon Chapultepec. A careful disposition was made of the troops, batteries were planted within range, and on the 12th they opened a destructive fire. On the 13th a simultaneous assault was made from both sides, the troops storming the fortress with great bravery and dash, and the works were carried, the enemy flying in confusion. The army followed them along the two causeways of Belen and San Cosmé, fighting its way to the gates of the city. Here a struggle continued till after nightfall, the enemy making a desperate defence. Early the next morning, a deputation of the city council waited upon General Scott, asking for terms of capitulation. These were refused, and the divisions of Worth and Quitman entered the capital. Street fighting was kept up for two days longer, but by the 16th the Americans had secured possession of the city. Negotiations were now renewed, and the occupation of the territory, meanwhile, continued. The principal towns were garrisoned, and taxes and duties collected by the United States. Occasional encounters took place at various points, but the warfare was chiefly of a guerrilla character. Towards the close of the war General Scott was superseded by General Butler. But the work had been already completed."

J. R. Soley, The Wars of the United States, 1789-1850 (Narrative and Critical History of America, volume 7, chapter 6).

ALSO IN: H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, volume 8 (Mexico, volume 5), chapters 17-20.

General W. Scott, Memoirs, by himself, chapters 27-32 (volume 2.)

_President's Message and Documents, December 7, 1847 (Senate Ex. Doc., No. 1, 30th Cong., 1st Session)._

MEXICO: A. D. 1848. The Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo. Territory ceded to the United States.

"The Mexican people had now succumbed to the victorious armies of the 'barbarians of the North.' The Mexican Government was favorable to the settlement of the questions which had caused this unhappy war. A new administration was in power. General Anaya on the 11th of November was elected President of the Mexican Republic until the 8th of January, 1848, when the constitutional term of office would expire. … National pride … bowed to the necessities of the republic, and the deputies assembled in the Mexican Congress favored the organization of a commission for the purpose of reopening negotiations with Mr. Trist, who still remained in Mexico, and was determined to assume the responsibility of acting still as agent of the United States [although his powers had been withdrawn]. The lack of coöperation by the adherents of Santa Anna prevented immediate action on the part of these commissioners. On the 8th of January, 1848, General Herrera was elected Constitutional President of the Mexican Republic. … Under the new administration negotiations were easily opened with a spirit of harmony and concession which indicated a happy issue. Mexico gave up her claim to the Nueces as the boundary-line of her territory, and the United States did not longer insist upon the cession of Lower California and the right of way across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The previous offer of money by the United States for the cession of New Mexico and Upper California was also continued. … On the 2d of February a treaty of peace was unanimously adopted and signed by the commissioners at the city of Guadaloupe Hidalgo. … The ratifications of the Mexican Congress and of the United States Senate were exchanged May 30th, 1848. The United States, by the terms of this treaty, paid to Mexico $15,000,000 for the territory added to its boundaries. They moreover freed the Mexican Republic from all claims of citizens of the United States against Mexico for damages, which the United States agreed to pay to the amount of $3,250,000. The boundary-line was also fixed between the two republics. It began in the Gulf of Mexico three miles from the mouth of the Rio Grande del Norte, running up the centre of that river to the point where it strikes the southern boundary of New Mexico; then westward along that southern boundary which runs north of Elpaso, to its western termination; thence northward along the western line of New Mexico until it intersects the first branch of the river Gila, thence down the middle of the Gila until it empties into the Rio Colorado, following the division line between Upper and Lower California to the Pacific Ocean, one marine league south of the port of San Diego. On the 12th of June, the last of the United States troops left the capital of Mexico. … The partisan supporters of President Polk's administration did not hesitate to avow that the war with Mexico was waged for conquest of territory. … The demands of indemnity from Mexico first made by the United States were equal, exclusive of Texas, to half of the domain of Mexico, embracing a territory upward of 800,000 square miles. … The area of New Mexico, as actually ceded by treaty to the United States, was 526,078 square miles. The disputed ground of Texas, which rightfully belonged to Mexico, and which was also yielded in the treaty of peace, contained no less than 125,520 square miles. The acquisition of the total amount of 651,591 square miles of territory was one of the direct results of this war, in which President Polk was ever pretending 'to conquer a peace.' To this must be added the undisputed region of Texas, which was 325,520 square miles more, in order adequately to represent the acquisition of territory to the United States, amounting to 851,590 square miles. This has been computed to be seventeen times the extent of the State of New York. … The territory thus acquired included ten degrees of latitude on the Pacific coast, and extended east to the Rio Grande, a distance of 1,000 miles, … Five thousand miles of sea-coast were added to the possessions of the United States. … The mineral resources of the conquered territory, including California, New Mexico, Arizona, Western Colorado, Utah, and Nevada, have been developed to such an extent that their value is beyond computation."

H. O. Ladd, History of the War with Mexico, chapters 30-31.

ALSO IN: Treaties and Conventions between the United States and other Countries (edition of 1889), pages 681-694.

{2176}

MEXICO: A. D. 1848-1861. The succession of Revolutions and the War of the Reform. The new Constitution. The government of Juarez and the Nationalization of Church property.

"For a brief period, after the withdrawal of the American army, the Mexican people drew the breath of peace, disturbed only by outbreaks headed by the turbulent Paredes. … In June, 1848, Señor Herrera (who had been in power at the opening of the war with the United States) took possession of the presidential chair. For the first time within the memory of men then living, the supreme power changed hands without disturbance or opposition. … The army … was greatly reduced, arrangements were made with creditors abroad, and for the faithful discharge of internal affairs. General Mariano Arista, formerly minister of war, assumed peaceful possession of power, in January, 1851, and continued the wise and economical administration of his predecessor. But Mexico could not long remain at peace, even with herself; she was quiet merely because utterly prostrated, and in December, 1852, some military officers, thirsting for power, rebelled against the government. They commenced again the old system of 'pronunciamientos'; usually begun by some man in a province distant from the seat of government, and gradually gaining such strength that when finally met by the lawful forces they were beyond control. Rather than plunge his country anew into the horrors of a civil war, General Arista resigned his office and sailed for Europe, where he died in poverty a few years later. It may astonish anyone except the close student of Mexican history to learn the name of the man next placed in power by the revolutionists, for it was no one else than General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna! Recalled by the successful rebels from his exile in Cuba and South America, Santa Anna hastened to the scene of conflict. … He commenced at once to extend indefinitely the army, and to intrench himself in a position of despotic power, and, in December, 1853, he issued a decree which, in substance, declared him perpetual dictator. This aroused opposition all over the country, and the Liberals, who were opposed to an arbitrary centralized government, rose in rebellion. The most successful leaders were Generals Alvarez and Comonfort, who, after repeated victories, drove the arch conspirator from the capital, on the 9th of August, 1855. Santa Anna secretly left the city of Mexico, and a few days later embarked at Vera Cruz for Havana. During several years he resided in Cuba, St. Thomas, Nassau, and the United States, constantly intriguing for a return to power in Mexico."

F. A. Ober, Young Folks' History of Mexico, chapter 33.

"Upon the flight of Santa Anna, anarchy was imminent in the capital. The most prominent promoters of the revolution assembled quickly, and elected General Romulo Diaz de la Vega acting-president, and he succeeded in establishing order. … By a representative assembly General Martin Carrera was elected acting-president, and he was installed on the 15th of August, 1855, but resigned on the 11th of the following month, when the presidency devolved a second time upon General Romulo Diaz de la Vega. The revolution of Alvarez and Comonfort, known as the Plan de Ayotla, was entirely successful, and under the wise and just administration of Diaz de la Vega, the country was brought to the wholly abnormal state of quiet and order. Representatives of the triumphant party assembled in Cuernavaca and elected General Juan Alvarez president ad interim, and upon the formation of his cabinet he named Comonfort his Minister of War. Returning to the capital, he transferred the presidency to his Minister of War, and on the 12th of December, 1855, General Ignacio Comonfort entered upon the discharge of his duties as acting-president. He was made actual president by a large majority in the popular election held two years later, and was reinstalled on the 1st of December, 1857. He proved to be one of the most remarkable rulers of Mexico, and his administration marks the beginning of a new era in Mexican history. Scarcely had Comonfort begun his rule as the substitute of Alvarez, when revolutions again broke out and assumed formidable proportions. Puebla was occupied by 5,000 insurgents. Federal troops sent against them joined their cause. Comonfort succeeded in raising an army of 16,000 men, well equipped, and at its head marched to Puebla and suppressed the revolution before the end of March. But in October another rebellion broke out in Puebla, headed by Colonel Miguel Miramon. The government succeeded in suppressing this, as well as one which broke out in San Luis Potosi, and another, under the leadership of General Tomas Mejia, in Queretaro. It was by Comonfort that the war between the Church and the government, so long threatened, was precipitated. In June, 1856, he issued a decree ordering the sale of all the unimproved real estate held by the Church, at its assessed value. The Church was to receive the proceeds, but the land was to become thereby freed from all ecclesiastical control." Upon information of a conspiracy centering in one of the monasteries of the city of Mexico, the president sent troops to take possession of the place, and finally ordered it to be suppressed. These measures provoked an implacable hostility on the part of the supporters of the Church. "On the 5th of February, 1857, the present Constitution of Mexico was adopted by Congress. Comonfort, as Provisional President, subscribed it, and it was under its provisions that he was elected actual president. But ten days after his inauguration in December, 1857, and his taking the oath to support the new Constitution, the President, supposing that he could gain the full support of the Liberals, and claiming that he had found the operation of the Constitution impracticable, dissolved Congress and set the Constitution aside. He threw his legal successor, Benito Juarez, the President of the Supreme Court of Justice, and one of the supporters of the new Constitution, into prison." Revolution upon revolution now followed in quick succession. Comonfort fled the country. Zuloaga, Pezuela, Pavon, Miramon, were seated in turn in the presidential chair for brief terms of a half recognized government. {2177} "Constitutionally (if we may ever use that word seriously in connection with Mexican affairs), upon the abandonment of the presidency by Comonfort, the office devolved upon the President of the Supreme Court of Justice. That office was held at the time by Don Benito Juarez, who thereupon became president de jure of Mexico. … The most curious specimen of the nomenclature adopted in Mexican history is that which gives to the struggle between the Church party and its allies and the Constitutional government the name of the War of the Reform. … What was thereby reformed it would be difficult to say, … further than the suppression of the outreaching power, wealth, and influence of the Church, and the assertion of the supremacy of the State. … But the 'War of the Reform' had all the bitterness of a religious war. … Juarez, who is thus made to appear as a reformer, was the most remarkable man Mexico has ever produced. He was born in 1806 in the mountains of Oaxaca. … He belonged to the Zapoteca tribe of Indians. Not a drop of Spanish blood flowed in his veins. … Upon the flight of Comonfort, Juarez was utterly without support or means to establish his government. Being driven out of the capital by Zuloaga he went to Guadalajara, and then by way of the Pacific coast, Panama, and New Orleans, to Vera Cruz. There he succeeded in setting up the Constitutional government, supporting it out of the customs duties collected at the ports of entry on the Gulf coast. It was war to the knife between the President in Vera Cruz and the Anti-Presidents in the capital. … On the 12th of July, 1859, Juarez made a long stride in advance of Comonfort by issuing his famous decree, 'nationalizing'—that is, sequestrating, or more properly confiscating—the property of the Church. It was enforced in Vera Cruz at once. … The armies of the two rival governments met in conflict on many occasions. It was at Calpulalpam, in a battle lasting from the 21st to the 24th of December, 1860, that Miramon was defeated and forced to leave the country. General Ortega, in command of the forces of Juarez, advanced to the capital and held it for the return of his chief. When the army of Juarez entered the capital, on the 27th of December, the decree of sequestration began to be executed there with brutal severity. … Monasteries were closed forthwith, and the members of the various religious orders were expelled [from] the country. … It is said that from the 'nationalized' church property the government secured $20,000,000, without, as subsequent events showed, deriving any permanent benefit from it. It helped to precipitate another war, in which it was all dissipated, and the country was poorer than ever. … The decree issued by Juarez from Vera Cruz in 1859, nationalizing the property of the Church, was quickly followed up by a decree suspending for two years payment on all foreign debts. The national debt at that time amounted to about $100,000,000, according to some statements, and was divided up between England, Spain, and France. England's share was about $80,000,000. France's claim was comparatively insignificant. They were all said to have been founded upon usurious or fraudulent contracts, and the French claim was especially dubious. … Upon the issuing of the decree suspending payment on these foreign debts, the three creditor nations' at once broke off diplomatic relations with Mexico, and Napoleon III., of France, proceeded to carry out a plan which had for some time occupied his mind."

A. H. Noll, Short History of Mexico, chapters 10-11.

ALSO IN: H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, volume 8 (Mexico, volume 5), chapters 20-30, and volume 9 (6), chapter 1.

See CONSTITUTION OF MEXICO.

MEXICO: A. D. 1853. Sale of Arizona to the United States. The Gadsden Treaty.

See ARIZONA: A. D. 1853.

MEXICO: A. D. 1861-1867. The French intervention. Maximilian's ill-starred empire and its fate.

The expedition against Mexico "was in the beginning a joint undertaking of England, France, and Spain. Its professed object, as set forth in a convention signed in London on October 31st, 1861, was 'to demand from the Mexican authorities more efficacious protection for the persons and properties of their (the Allied Sovereigns') subjects, as well as a fulfilment of the obligations contracted toward their Majesties by the Republic of Mexico.' … Lord Russell, who had acted with great forbearance towards Mexico up to this time, now agreed to co-operate with France and Spain in exacting reparation from Juarez. But he defined clearly the extent to which the intervention of England would go. England would join in an expedition for the purpose, if necessary, of seizing on Mexican custom-houses, and thus making good the foreign claims. But she would not go a step further. She would have nothing to do with upsetting the Government of Mexico, or imposing any European system on the Mexican people. Accordingly, the Second Article of the Convention pledged the contracting parties not to seek for themselves any acquisition of territory or any special advantage, and not to exercise in the internal affairs of Mexico any influence of a nature to prejudice the right of the Mexican nation to choose and to constitute freely the form of its government. The Emperor of the French, however, had already made up his mind that he would establish a sort of feudatory monarchy in Mexico. He had long had various schemes and ambitions floating in his mind concerning those parts of America on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, which were once the possessions of France. … At the very time when he signed the convention with the pledge contained in its second article, he had already been making arrangements to found a monarchy in Mexico. If he could have ventured to set up a monarchy with a French prince at its head, he would probably have done so; but this would have been too bold a venture. He, therefore, persuaded the Archduke Maximilian, brother of the Emperor of Austria, to accept the crown of the monarchy he proposed to set up in Mexico. The Archduke was a man of pure and noble character, but evidently wanting in strength of mind, and he agreed, after some hesitation, to accept the offer. Meanwhile the joint expedition sailed. We [the English] sent only a line-of-battle ship, two frigates, and 700 marines. France sent in the first instance about 2,500 men, whom she largely reinforced immediately after. Spain had about 6,000 men, under the command of the late Marshal Prim. The Allies soon began to find that their purposes were incompatible. There was much suspicion about the designs of France. … Some of the claims set up by France disgusted the other Allies. The Jecker claims were for a long time after as familiar a subject of ridicule as our own Pacifico claims had been. {2178} A Swiss house of Jecker & Company had lent the former Government of Mexico $750,000, and got bonds from that Government, which was on its very last legs, for $15,000,000. The Government was immediately afterwards upset, and Juarez came into power. M. Jecker modestly put in his claim for $15,000,000. Juarez refused to comply with the demand. He offered to pay the $750,000 lent and five per cent. interest, but he declined to pay exactly twenty times the amount of the sum advanced. M. Jecker had by this time become somehow a subject of France, and the French Government took up his claim. It was clear that the Emperor of the French had resolved that there should be war. At last the designs of the French Government became evident to the English and Spanish Plenipotentiaries, and England and Spain withdrew from the Convention. … The Emperor of the French 'walked his own wild road, whither that led him.' He overran a certain portion of Mexico with his troops. He captured Puebla after a long and desperate resistance [and after suffering a defeat on the 5th of May, 1862, in the battle of Cinco de Mayo]; he occupied the capital, and he set up the Mexican Empire, with Maximilian as Emperor. French troops remained to protect the new Empire. Against all this the United States Government protested from time to time. … However, the Emperor Napoleon cared nothing just then about the Monroe doctrine, complacently satisfied that the United States were going to pieces, and that the Southern Confederacy would be his friend and ally. He received the protests of the American Government with unveiled indifference. At last the tide in American affairs turned. The Confederacy crumbled away; Richmond was taken; Lee surrendered; Jefferson Davis was a prisoner. Then the United States returned to the Mexican Question, and the American Government informed Louis Napoleon that it would be inconvenient, gravely inconvenient, if he were not to withdraw his soldiers from Mexico. A significant movement of American troops under a renowned General, then flushed with success, was made in the direction of the Mexican frontier. There was nothing for Louis Napoleon but to withdraw [March, 1867]. … The Mexican Empire lasted two months and a week after the last of the French troops had been withdrawn. Maximilian endeavoured to raise an army of his own, and to defend himself against the daily increasing strength of Juarez. He showed all the courage which might have been expected from his race, and from his own previous history. But in an evil hour for himself, and yielding, it is stated, to the persuasion of a French officer, he had issued a decree that all who resisted his authority in arms should be shot. By virtue of this monstrous ordinance, Mexican officers of the regular army, taken prisoners while resisting, as they were bound to do, the invasion of a European prince, were shot like brigands. The Mexican general, Ortega, was one of those thus shamefully done to death. When Juarez conquered, and Maximilian, in his turn, was made a prisoner, he was tried by court-martial, condemned and shot. … The French Empire never recovered the shock of this Mexican failure."

J. McCarthy, History of Our Own Times, chapter 44.

ALSO IN: H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, volume 9 (Mexico, volume 6), chapters 1-14.

_H. M. Flint, Mexico under Maximilian._

_F. Salm-Balm, My Diary in Mexico (1867)._

_S. Schroeder, The Fall of Maximilian's Empire._

_Count E. de Keratry, The Rise and Fall of the Emperor Maximilian._

_J. M. Taylor, Maximilian and Carlotta._

_U. R. Burke, Life of Benito Juarez._

MEXICO: A. D. 1867-1892. The restored Republic.

"On the 15th of July [1867] Juarez made a solemn entry into the capital. Many good citizens of Mexico, who had watched gloomily the whole episode of the French intervention, now emerged to light and rejoiced conspicuously in the return of their legitimate chief. … He was received with genuine acclamations by the populace, while high society remained within doors, curtains close-drawn, except that the women took pride in showing their deep mourning for the death of the Emperor. … Peace now came back to the country. A general election established Juarez as President, and order and progress once more consented to test the good resolutions of the Republic." Santa Anna made one feeble and futile attempt to disturb the quiet of his country, but was arrested without difficulty and sent into exile again. But Juarez had many opponents and enemies to contend with. "As the period of election approached, in 1871, party lines became sharply divided, and the question of his return to power was warmly contested. A large body still advocated the re-election of Juarez, as of the greatest importance to the consolidation of the Constitution and reform, but the admirers of military glory claimed the honors of President for General Diaz, who had done so much, at the head of the army, to restore the Republic. A third party represented the interests of Lerdo, minister of Juarez all through the epoch of the intervention, a man of great strength of character and capacity for government. … The campaign was vigorous throughout the country. … The election took place; the Juaristas were triumphant. Their party had a fair majority and Juarez was re-elected. But the Mexicans not yet had learned to accept the ballot, and a rebellion followed. The two defeated parties combined, and civil war began again. Government defended itself with vigor and resolution, and, in spite of the popularity of General Diaz as a commander, held its own during a campaign of more than a year. Its opponents were still undaunted, and the struggle might have long continued but for the sudden death of Juarez, on the 19th of July, 1872. … Don Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, then President of the Supreme Court, assumed the government, was elected President, and the late agitation of parties was at an end. For three years peace reigned in Mexico, and then began another revolution. Towards the end of 1875, rumors of dissatisfaction were afloat. … Early in the next year, a 'Plan' was started, one of those fatal propositions for change which have always spread like wildfire through the Mexican community. By midsummer, the Republic was once more plunged in civil war. Although he had apparently no hand in the 'Plan' of Tuxtepec, General Porfirio Diaz appeared at the head of the army of the revolutionists. … During the summer there was fighting and much confusion, in the midst of which the election took place for the choice of President for another term of four years. {2179} The result was in favor of Lerdo de Tejada, but he was so unpopular that he was obliged soon after to leave the capital, on the 20th of November, accompanied by his ministers and a few other persons. The other Lerdistas hid themselves, Congress dissolved, and the opposition triumphed. Thus ended the government of the Lerdistas, but a few days before the expiration of its legal term. On the 24th of November, General Porfirio Diaz made his solemn entry into the capital, and was proclaimed Provisional President. After a good deal of fighting all over the country, Congress declared him, in May, 1877, to be Constitutional President for a term to last until November 30, 1880. … President Diaz was able to consolidate his power, and to retain his seat without civil war, although this has been imminent at times, especially towards the end of his term. In 1880, General Manuel Gonsalez was elected, and on the 1st of December of that year, for the second time only in the history of the Republic, the retiring President gave over his office to his legally elected successor. … The administration of Gonsalez passed through its four years without any important outbreak. … At the end of that term General Diaz was re-elected and became President December 1, 1884. The treasury of the country was empty, the Republic without credit, yet he has [1888] … succeeded in placing his government upon a tolerably stable financial basis, and done much to restore the foreign credit of the Republic."

S. Hale, The Story of Mexico, chapter 41-42.

"At the close of Maximilian's empire Mexico had but one railroad, with 260 miles of track. To-day she has them running in all directions, with an [aggregate] of 10,025 kilometers (about 6,300 miles), and is building more. Of telegraph lines in 1867 she had but a few short connections, under 3,000 kilometers; now she has telephone and telegraph lines which aggregate between 60,000 and 70,000 kilometers. … In his … message to Congress (1891) President Diaz said: 'It is gratifying to me to be able to inform Congress that the financial situation of the republic continues to improve. … Without increasing the tariff, the custom-houses now collect $9,000,000 more than they did four years ago.' … The revenues of the republic have more than doubled in the past twenty years. In 1870 they were $16,000,000; they are estimated now at over $36,000,000." The third term of President Diaz, "now [1892] drawing to a close, has been one of great prosperity. … As we write popular demonstrations are being made in favor of another term."

W. Butler, Mexico in Transition, pages 284-287.

President Diaz was re-elected for a fourth term, which began December 1, 1892, and will expire in 1896.

ALSO IN: H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, volume 9 (Mexico volume 6), chapter 19.

----------MEXICO: End----------

MIAMIS, The. See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY, ILLINOIS, and SACS, &c.

MICESLAUS I., King of Poland, A. D. 964-1000.

Miceslaus II., King of Poland, 1025-1037.

Miceslaus III., Duke of Poland, 1173-1177.

MICHAEL The first of the Romanoffs, Czar of Russia, A. D. 1613-1645.

Michael I., Emperor in the East (Byzantine, or Greek), 811-813.

Michael II. (called the Armorian), Emperor in the East, 820-829.

Michael III., Emperor in the East, 842-867.

Michael IV., Emperor in the East, 1034-1041.

Michael V., Emperor in the East, 1041-1042.

Michael VI., Emperor in the East, 1056-1057.

Michael VII., Emperor in the East, 1071-1078.

Michael VIII. (Palæologus), Greek Emperor of Nicæa, 1260-1261; Greek Emperor of Constantinople, 1261-1282.

Michael Wiecnowiecki, King of Poland, 1670-1674.

----------MICHIGAN: Start----------

MICHIGAN: The aboriginal inhabitants.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: HURONS, and OJIBWAYS.

MICHIGAN: A. D. 1680. Traversed by La Salle.

See CANADA: A. D. 1669-1687.

MICHIGAN: A. D. 1686-1701. The founding of the French post at Detroit.

See DETROIT: A. D. 1686-1701.

MICHIGAN: A. D. 1760. The surrender to the English.

See CANADA: A. D. 1760.

MICHIGAN: A. D. 1763. Cession to Great Britain.

See SEVEN YEARS WAR: THE TREATIES.

MICHIGAN: A. D. 1763. The King's proclamation excluding settlers.

See NORTHWEST TERRITORY: A. D. 1763.

MICHIGAN: A. D. 1763-1764. Pontiac's War.

See PONTIAC'S WAR.

MICHIGAN: A. D. 1774. Embraced in the Province of Quebec.

See CANADA: A. D. 1763-1774.

MICHIGAN: A. D. 1775-1783. Held by the British throughout the War of Independence.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778-1779, CLARK'S CONQUESTS.

MICHIGAN: A. D. 1784. Included in the proposed states of Cherronesus and Sylvania.

See NORTHWEST TERRITORY: A. D. 1784.

MICHIGAN: A. D. 1785-1786. Partially covered by the western land claims of Massachusetts and Connecticut, ceded to the United States.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781-1786.

MICHIGAN: A. D. 1787. The Ordinance for the government of the Northwest Territory. Perpetual exclusion of Slavery.

See NORTHWEST TERRITORY: A. D. 1787.

MICHIGAN: A. D. 1805. Detached from Indiana Territory and distinctly named and organized.

See INDIANA: A. D. 1800-1818.

MICHIGAN: A. D. 1811. Tecumseh and his League. Battle of Tippecanoe.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1811.

MICHIGAN: A. D. 1812. The surrender of Detroit and the whole territory to the British arms by General Hull.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812 (JUNE-OCTOBER).

MICHIGAN: A. D. 1813. Recovery by the Americans.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812-1813, HARRISON'S NORTHWESTERN CAMPAIGN.

MICHIGAN: A. D. 1817. The founding of the University of Michigan.

See EDUCATION, MODERN: AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1837.

MICHIGAN: A. D. 1818-1836. Extension of Territorial limits to the Mississippi, and then beyond.

See WISCONSIN: A. D. 1805-1848.

MICHIGAN: A. D. 1837. Admission into the Union as a State. Settlement of Boundaries.

A conflict between the terms of the constitution under which the state of Ohio was admitted into the Union in 1803 and the Act of Congress which, in 1805, erected the Territory of Michigan, gave rise to a serious boundary dispute between the two. The Michigan claim rested not only upon the Act of 1805, but primarily upon the great Ordinance of 1787. {2180} It involved the possession of a wedge-shaped strip of territory, which "averaged six miles in width, across Ohio, embraced some 468 square miles, and included the lake-port of Toledo and the mouth of the Maumee river." In 1834, Michigan began to urge her claims to statehood. "Without waiting for an enabling act, a convention held at Detroit in May and June, 1835, adopted a state constitution for submission to congress, demanding entry into the Union, 'in conformity to the fifth article of the ordinance' of 1787—of course the boundaries sought being those established by the article in question. That summer, there were popular disturbances in the disputed territory, and some gunpowder harmlessly wasted. In December, President Jackson laid the matter before congress in a special message. Congress quietly determined to 'arbitrate' the quarrel by giving to Ohio the disputed tract, and offering Michigan, by way of partial recompense, the whole of what is to-day her upper peninsula. Michigan did not want the supposedly barren and worthless country to her northwest, protested long and loud against what she deemed to be an outrage, declared that she had no community of interest with the north peninsula, and was separated from it by insurmountable natural barriers for one-half of the year, while it rightfully belonged to the fifth state, to be formed out of the Northwest Territory. But congress persisted in making this settlement of the quarrel one of the conditions precedent to the admission of Michigan into the Union. In September, 1836, a state convention, called for the sole purpose of deciding the question, rejected the proposition on the ground that congress had no right to annex such a condition, according to the terms of the ordinance; a second convention, however, approved of it on the 15th of December following, and congress at once accepted this decision as final. Thus Michigan came into the sisterhood of states, January 26, 1837, with the territorial limits which she possesses to-day."

R. G. Thwaites, The Boundaries of Wisconsin (Wisconsin Historical Society Collections, volume 11, pages 456-460).

ALSO IN: B. A. Hinsdale, The Old Northwest, chapter 17.

MICHIGAN: A. D. 1854. Early organization and victory of the Republican Party.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1854-1855.

----------MICHIGAN: End----------

----------MICHIGAN, Lake: Start----------

MICHIGAN, Lake: The Discovery.

See CANADA: A. D. 1634-1673.

MICHIGAN, Lake: Navigated by La Salle.

See CANADA: A. D. 1669-1687.

----------MICHIGAN, Lake: End----------

MICHIGANIA, The proposed State of.

See NORTHWEST TERRITORY: A. D. 1784.

MICHILLIMACKINAC.

See MACKINAW.

MICHMASH, War of.

One of Saul's campaigns against the Philistines received this name from Jonathan's exploit in scaling the height of Michmash and driving the garrison in panic from their stronghold.

I. Samuel XIV.

Dean Stanley, Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church, lecture 21 (volume 2).

MICKLEGARTH.

"Constantine had transplanted the Roman name, the centre of Roman power, and much of what was Roman in ideas and habits, to Byzantium, the New Rome.

See CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 330.

The result was that remarkable empire [see BYZANTINE EMPIRE] which, though since its fall it has become a by-word, was, when it was standing, the wonder and the envy of the barbarian world, the mysterious 'Micklegarth,' 'the Great City, the Town of towns,' of the northern legends."

R. W. Church, The Beginning of the Middle Ages, chapter 6.

MICMACS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

MICROSCOPE IN MEDICINE, The.

See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 17-18TH CENTURIES, and after.

MIDDLE AGES.

"The term Middle Ages is applied to the time which elapsed between the fall of the Roman Empire and the formation of the great modern monarchies, between the first permanent invasion of the Germans, at the beginning of the 5th century of our era [see GAUL: A. D. 406-409], and the last invasion, made by the Turks, ten centuries later, in 1453."

_V. Duruy, History of the Middle Ages, author's preface._

"It is not possible to fix accurate limits to the Middle Ages; … though the ten centuries from the 5th to the 15th seem, in a general point of view, to constitute that period."

_H. Hallam, The Middle Ages, preface to first edition._

"We commonly say that ancient history closed with the year 476 A. D. The great fact which marks the close of that age and the beginning of a new one is the conquest of the Western Roman Empire by the German tribes, a process which occupied the whole of the fifth century and more. But if we are to select any special date to mark the change, the year 476 is the best for the purpose. … When we turn to the close of medieval history we find no such general agreement as to the specific date which shall be selected to stand for that fact. For one author it is 1453, the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire through the capture of Constantinople by the Turks; for another, 1492, the discovery of America; for another, 1520, the full opening of the Reformation. This variety of date is in itself very significant. It unconsciously marks the extremely important fact that the middle ages come to an end at different dates in the different lines of advance—manifestly earlier in politics and economics than upon the intellectual side. … It is a transition age. Lying, as it does, between two ages, in each of which there is an especially rapid advance of civilization, it is not itself primarily an age of progress. As compared with either ancient or modern history, the additions which were made during the middle ages to the common stock of civilization are few and unimportant. Absolutely, perhaps, they are not so. … But the most important of them fall within the last part of the period, and they are really indications that the age is drawing to a close, and a new and different one coming on. Progress, however much there may have been, is not its distinctive characteristic. There is a popular recognition of this fact in the general opinion that the medieval is a very barren and uninteresting period of history—the 'dark ages'—so confused and without evident plan that its facts are a mere disorganized jumble, impossible to reduce to system or to hold in mind. This must be emphatically true for every one, unless there can be found running through all its confusion some single line of evolution which will give it meaning and organization. … Most certainly there must be some such general meaning of the age. {2181} The orderly and regular progress of history makes it impossible that it should be otherwise. Whether that meaning can be correctly stated or not is much more uncertain. It is the difficulty of doing this which makes medieval history seem so comparatively barren a period. The most evident general meaning of the age is … assimilation. The greatest work which had to be done was to bring the German barbarian, who had taken possession of the ancient world and become everywhere the ruling race, up to such a level of attainment and understanding that he would be able to take up the work of civilization where antiquity had been forced to suspend it and go on with it from that point. … Here, then, is the work of the middle ages. To the results of ancient history were to be added the ideas and institutions of the Germans; to the enfeebled Roman race was to be added the youthful energy and vigor of the German. Under the conditions which existed this union could not be made—a harmonious and homogeneous Christendom could not be formed, except through centuries of time, through anarchy, and ignorance, and superstition."

G. B. Adams, Civilization During the Middle Ages, introduction.

"We speak, sometimes, of the 'Dark Ages,' and in matters of the exact sciences perhaps they were dark enough. Yet we must deduct something from our youthful ideas of their obscurity when we find that our truest lovers of beauty fix the building age of the world between the years 500 and 1500 of our era. Architecture, more than any other art, is an index to the happiness and freedom of the people; and during this period of 1,000 years, 'an architecture, pure in its principles, reasonable in its practice, and beautiful to the eyes of all men, even the simplest,' covered Europe with beautiful buildings from Constantinople to the north of Britain. In presence of this manifestation of free and productive intelligence, unmatched even in ancient Greece and Rome, and utterly unmatchable to-day, we may usefully reflect upon the expressive and constructive force of the spirit of Christendom, even in its darkest hours. The more closely we examine the question, the less ground we shall find for the conception of the Middle Ages as a long sleep followed by a sudden awakening. Rather we should consider that ancient Greece was the root, and ancient Rome the stem and branches of our life; that the Dark Ages, as we call them, represent its flower, and the modern world of science and political freedom the slowly-matured fruit. If we consider carefully that the Christian humanistic spirit held itself as charged from the first with the destinies of the illiterate and half-heathen masses of the European peoples, whereas, neither in Greece nor in the Roman Empire was civilisation intended for more than a third or a fourth part of the inhabitants of their territories, we shall not be surprised at an apparent fall of intellectual level, which really meant the beginning of a universal rise hitherto unknown in the history of the world. Ideas of this kind may help us to understand what must remain after all a paradox, that we have been taught to apply the term 'Dark Ages' to the period of what were in some respects the greatest achievements of the human mind, for example, the Cathedral of Florence and the writings of Dante. … It is perfectly obvious now to all who look carefully at these questions, that the instinct of our physical science and naturalistic art, of our evolutionist philosophy and democratic politics, is not antagonistic to, but is essentially one with the instinct which, in the Middle Ages, regarded all beauty and truth and power as the working of the Divine reason in the mind of man and in nature. What a genuine though grotesque anticipation of Charles Darwin is there in Francis of Assisi preaching to the birds!"

B. Bosanquet, The Civilization of Christendom, chapter 3.

"'I know nothing of those ages which knew nothing.' I really forget to which of two eminent wits this saying belongs; but I have often thought that I should have liked to ask him how he came to know so curious and important a fact respecting ages of which he knew nothing. Was it merely by hearsay? Everybody allows, however, that they were dark ages. Certainly; but what do we mean by darkness? Is not the term, as it is generally used, comparative? Suppose I were to say that I am writing 'in a little dark room,' would you understand me to mean that I could not see the paper before me? Or if I should say that I was writing 'on a dark day,' would you think I meant that the sun had not risen by noon? Well, then, let me beg you to remember this, when you and I use the term, dark ages. … Many causes … have concurred to render those ages very dark to us; but, for the present, I feel it sufficient to remind the reader, that darkness is quite a different thing from shutting the eyes: and that we have no right to complain that we can see but little until we have used due diligence to see what we can. As to the other point—that is, as to the degree of darkness in which those ages were really involved, and as to the mode and degree in which it affected those who lived in them, I must express my belief, that it has been a good deal exaggerated. There is no doubt that those who lived in what are generally called the 'middle' or the 'dark' ages, knew nothing of many things which are familiar to us, and which we deem essential to our comfort, and almost to our existence; but still I doubt whether, even in this point of view, they were so entirely dark as some would have us suppose."

S. R. Maitland, The Dark Ages, introduction.

"In the Middle Ages both sides of human consciousness—that which was turned within as that which was turned without—lay dreaming or half-awake beneath a common veil. The veil was woven of faith, illusion, and childish prepossession, through which the world and history were seen clad in strange hues. Man was conscious of himself only as a member of a race, people, party, family, or corporation—only through some general category. In Italy this veil first melted into air; an objective treatment and consideration of the state and of all the things of this world became possible. The subjective side at the same time asserted itself with corresponding emphasis; man became a spiritual individual, and recognised himself as such."

J. Burckhardt, The Renaissance in Italy, part 2, chapter 1 (volume 1).

See, also, EUROPE (page 1010-1048): EDUCATION, MEDIÆVAL; LIBRARIES, MEDIÆVAL; MEDICAL SCIENCE, MEDIÆVAL; MONEY AND BANKING, MEDIÆVAL.

MIDDLEBURG: Taken by the Gueux of Holland (1574).

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1573-1574.

MIDDLESEX, Origin of.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 477-527.

{2182}

MIDDLESEX ELECTIONS, John Wilkes and the.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1768-1774.

MIDIANITES, The.

"The name of Midian, though sometimes given peculiarly to the tribe on the south-east shores of the Gulf of Akaba, was extended to all Arabian tribes on the east of the Jordan,—'the Amalekites, and all the children of the East.'"

Dean Stanley, Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church, lecture 15 (volume 1).

MIGDOL.

See JEWS: THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS.

MIGHTY HOST, Knights of the.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (OCTOBER).

MIGNONS OF HENRY III., The.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1573-1576.

MIKADO.

"Though this is the name by which the whole outer world knows the sovereign of Japan, it is not that now used in Japan itself, except in poetry and on great occasions. The Japanese have got into the habit of calling their sovereign by such alien Chinese titles as Tenshi, 'the Son of Heaven'; Ten-o, or Tenno, 'the Heavenly Emperor'; Shujo, 'the Supreme Master.' His designation in the official translations of modern public documents into English is 'Emperor.' … The etymology of the word Mikado is not quite clear. Some—and theirs is the current opinion—trace it to 'mi,' 'august,' and 'kado,' a 'gate,' reminding one of the 'Sublime Porte' of Turkey. … The word Mikado is often employed to denote the monarch's Court as well as the monarch himself."

B. H. Chamberlain, Things Japanese, page 229.

MIKASUKIS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MUSKHOGEAN FAMILY.

MILAN, King, Abdication of.

See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: A. D. 1879-1889.

----------MILAN: Start--------

MILAN: B. C. 223-222. The capital of the Insubrian Gauls (Mediolanum). Taken by the Romans.

See ROME: B. C. 295-191.

MILAN: A. D. 268. Aureolus besieged.

During the miserable and calamitous reign of the Roman emperor Gallienus, the army on the Upper Danube invested their leader, Aureolus, with the imperial purple, and crossed the Alps to place him on the throne. Defeated by Gallienus in a battle fought near Milan, Aureolus and his army took refuge in that city and were there besieged. During the progress of the siege a conspiracy against Gallienus was formed in his own camp, and he was assassinated. The crown was then offered to the soldier Claudius—afterwards called Claudius Gothicus—and he accepted it. The siege of Milan was continued by Claudius, the city was forced to surrender and Aureolus was put to death.

E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 11.

MILAN: A. D. 286. The Roman imperial court.

"Diocletian and Maximian were the first Roman princes who fixed, in time of peace, their ordinary residence in the provinces. … The court of the emperor of the west [Maximian] was, for the most part, established at Milan, whose situation, at the foot of the Alps, appeared far more convenient than that of Rome, for the important purpose of watching the motions of the barbarians of Germany. Milan soon assumed the splendour of an imperial city. The houses are described as numerous and well-built; the manners of the people as polished and liberal."

E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 13.

MILAN: A. D. 313. Constantine's Edict of Toleration.

See ROME: A. D. 313.

MILAN: A. D. 374-397. The Ambrosian Church.

The greatness of the Milanese, in later times, "was chiefly originated and promoted by the prerogatives of their Archbishop, amongst which that of crowning, and so in a manner constituting, the King of Italy, raised him in wealth and splendour above every other prelate of the Roman Church, and his city above every other city of Lombardy in power and pride. … It is said that the Church of Milan was founded by St. Barnabas; it is certain that it owed its chief aggrandisement, and the splendour which distinguished it from all other churches, to St. Ambrose [Archbishop from 374 to 397], who, having come to Milan in the time of Valentinian as a magistrate, was by the people made Bishop also, and as such was able to exalt it by the ordination of many inferior dignitaries, and by obtaining supremacy for it over all the Bishops of Lombardy. … This church received from St. Ambrose a peculiar liturgy, which was always much loved and venerated by the Milanese, and continued longer in use than any of those which anciently prevailed in other churches of the West. To the singing in divine service, which was then artless and rude, St. Ambrose, taking for models the ancient melodies still current in his time, the last echoes of the civilisation of distant ages, imparted a more regular rhythm [known as 'the Ambrosian Chant']; which, when reduced by St. Gregory to the grave simplicity of tone that best accords with the majesty of worship, obtained the name of 'Canto fermo'; and afterwards becoming richer, more elaborate, and easier to learn through the many ingenious inventions of Guido d' Arezzo, … was brought by degrees to the perfection of modern counterpoint. … St. Ambrose also composed prayers for his church, and hymns; amongst others, according to popular belief, that most sublime and majestic one, the Te Deum, which is now familiar and dear to the whole of Western Christendom. It is said that his clergy were not forbidden to marry. Hence an opinion prevailed that this church, according to the ancient statutes, ought not to be entirely subject to that of Rome."

G. B. Testa, History of the War of Frederick I. against the Communes of Lombardy, pages 23-24.

MILAN: A. D. 404. Removal of the Imperial Court.

See ROME: A. D.404-408.

MILAN: A. D. 452. Capture by the Huns.

See HUNS: A. D. 452.

MILAN: A. D. 539. Destroyed by the Goths.

When Belisarius, in his first campaign for the recovery of Italy from the Goths, had secured possession of Rome, A. D. 538, he sent a small force northward to Milan, and that city, hating its Gothic rulers, was gladly surrendered to him. It was occupied by a small Roman garrison and unwisely left to the attacks upon it that were inevitable. Very soon the Goths appeared before its walls, and with them 10,000 Burgundians who had crossed the Alps to their assistance. Belisarius despatched an army to the relief of the city, but the generals in command of it were cowardly and did nothing. After stoutly resisting for six months, suffering the last extremes of starvation and misery, Milan fell, and a terrible vengeance was wreaked upon it. "All the men were slain, and these, if the information given to Procopius was correct, amounted to 300,000. The women were made slaves, and handed over by the Goths to their Burgundian allies in payment of their services. The city itself was rased to the ground: not the only time that signal destruction has overtaken the fair capital of Lombardy."

T. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, book 5, chapter 11.

See, also, ROME: A. D. 535-553.

{2183}

"The Goths, in their last moments, were revenged by the destruction of a city second only to Rome in size and opulence."

E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 41.

MILAN: 11th Century. Acquisition of Republican independence.

See ITALY: A. D. 1056-1152.

MILAN: A. D. 1162. Total destruction by Frederick Barbarossa.

See ITALY: A. D. 1154-1162.

MILAN: A. D. 1167. The rebuilding of the city.

See ITALY: A. D. 1166-1167.

MILAN: A. D. 1277-1447. The rise and the reign of the Visconti. Extension of their Tyranny over Lombardy. The downfall of their House.

"The power of the Visconti in Milan was founded upon that of the Della Torre family, who preceded them as Captains General of the people at the end of the 13th century. Otho, Archbishop of Milan, first laid a substantial basis for the dominion of his house by imprisoning Napoleone Della Torre and five of his relatives in three iron cages in 1277, and by causing his nephew Matteo Visconti to be nominated both by the Emperor and by the people of Milan as imperial Vicar. Matteo, who headed the Ghibelline party in Lombardy, was the model of a prudent Italian despot. From the date 1311, when he finally succeeded in his attempts upon the sovereignty of Milan [see ITALY: A. D. 1310-1313], to 1322, when he abdicated in favour of his son Galeazzo, he ruled his states by force of character, craft, and insight, more than by violence or cruelty. Excellent as a general, he was still better as a diplomatist, winning more cities by money than by the sword. All through his life, as became a Ghibelline chief at that time, he persisted in fierce enmity against the Church. … Galeazzo, his son, was less fortunate than Matteo, surnamed Il Grande by the Lombards. The Emperor Louis of Bavaria threw him into prison on the occasion of his visit to Milan in 1327 [see ITALY: A. D. 1313-1330], and only released him at the intercession of his friend Castruccio Castracane. To such an extent was the growing tyranny of the Visconti still dependent upon their office delegated from the Empire. … Azzo [the son of Galeazzo] bought the city, together with the title of Imperial Vicar, from the same Louis who had imprisoned his father. When he was thus seated in the tyranny of his grandfather, he proceeded to fortify it further by the addition of ten Lombard towns, which he reduced beneath the supremacy of Milan. At the same time he consolidated his own power by the murder of his uncle Marco in 1329, who had grown too mighty as a general. … Azzo died in 1339, and was succeeded by his uncle Lucchino," who was poisoned by his wife in 1349. "Lucchino was potent as a general and governor. He bought Parma from Obizzo d' Este, and made the town of Pisa dependent upon Milan. … Lucchino left sons, but none of proved legitimacy. Consequently he was succeeded by his brother Giovanni, son of old Matteo il Grande and Archbishop of Milan. This man, the friend of Petrarch, was one of the most notable characters of the 14th century. Finding himself at the head of 16 cities, he added Bologna to the tyranny of the Visconti, in 1350, and made himself strong enough to defy the Pope. … In 1353 Giovanni annexed Genoa to the Milanese principality, and died in 1354, having established the rule of the Visconti over the whole of the north of Italy, with the exception of Piedmont, Verona, Mantua, Ferrara, and Venice. The reign of the Archbishop Giovanni marks a new epoch in the despotism of the Visconti. They are now no longer the successful rivals of the Della Torre family, or dependents on imperial caprice, but self-made sovereigns, with a well-established power in Milan and a wide extent of subject territory. Their dynasty, though based on force and maintained by violence, has come to be acknowledged; and we shall soon see them allying themselves with the royal houses of Europe. After the death of Giovanni, Matteo's sons were extinct. But Stefano, the last of his family, had left three children, who now succeeded to the lands and cities of the house. They were named Matteo, Bernabo, and Galeazzo. Between these three princes a partition of the heritage of Giovanni Visconti was effected. … Milan and Genoa were to be ruled by the three in common." Matteo was put out of the way by his two brothers in 1355. Bernabo reigned brutally at Milan, and Galeazzo with great splendor at Pavia. The latter married his daughter to the Duke of Clarence, son of Edward III. of England, and his son to Princess Isabella, of France. "Galeazzo died in 1378, and was succeeded in his own portion of the Visconti domain by his son Gian Galeazzo," who was able, seven years afterwards, by singular refinements of treachery, to put his uncle to death and take possession of his territories. "The reign of Gian Galeazzo, which began with this coup-de-main (1385-1402), forms a very important chapter in Italian history. … At the time of his accession the Visconti had already rooted out the Correggi and Rossi of Parma, the Scotti of Piacenza, the Pelavicini of San Donnino, the Tornielli of Novara, the Ponzoni and Cavalcabò of Cremona, the Beccaria and Languschi of Pavia, the Fisiraghi of Lodi, the Brusati of Brescia. … But the Carrara family still ruled at Padua, the Gonzaga at Mantua, the Este at Ferrara, while the great house of Scala was in possession of Verona. Gian Galeazzo's schemes were at first directed against the Scala dynasty. Founded, like that of the Visconti, upon the imperial authority, it rose to its greatest height under the Ghibelline general Can Grande and his nephew Mastino in the first half of the 14th century (1312-1351). Mastino had himself cherished the project of an Italian Kingdom; but he died before approaching its accomplishment. The degeneracy of his house began with his three sons. The two younger killed the eldest; of the survivors the stronger slew the weaker and then died in 1374, leaving his domains to two of his bastards. One of these, named Antonio, killed the other in 1381, and afterwards fell a prey to the Visconti in 1387. In his subjugation of Verona Gian Galeazzo contrived to make use of the Carrara family, although these princes were allied by marriage to the Scaligers, and had everything to lose by their downfall. {2184} He next proceeded to attack Padua, and gained the co-operation of Venice. In 1388 Francesco da Carrara had to cede his territory to Visconti's generals, who in the same year possessed themselves for him of the Trevisan Marches. It was then that the Venetians saw too late the error they had committed in suffering Verona and Padua to be annexed by the Visconti. … Having now made himself master of the north of Italy with the exception of Mantua, Ferrara, and Bologna, Gian Galeazzo turned his attention to these cities." By intrigues of devilish subtlety and malignity, he drew the Marquis of Ferrara and the Marquis of Mantua into crimes which were their ruin, and made his conquest of those cities easy. "The whole of Lombardy was now prostrate before the Milanese viper. His next move was to set foot in Tuscany. For this purpose Pisa had to be acquired; and here again he resorted to his devilish policy of inciting other men to crimes by which he alone would profit in the long run. Pisa was ruled at that time by the Gambacorta family, with an old merchant named Pietro at their head." Gian Galeazzo caused Pietro to be assassinated, and then bought the city from the assassins (1399). "In 1399 the Duke laid hands on Siena; and in the next two years the plague came to his assistance by enfeebling the ruling families of Lucca and Bologna, the Guinizzi and the Bentivogli, so that he was now able to take possession of those cities. There remained no power in Italy, except the Republic of Florence and the exiled but invincible Francesco da Carrara, to withstand his further progress. Florence [see FLORENCE: A. D. 1390-1402] delayed his conquests in Tuscany. Francesco managed to return to Padua. Still the peril which threatened the whole of Italy was imminent. … At last, when all other hope of independence for Italy had failed, the plague broke out with fury in Lombardy," and Gian Galeazzo died of it in 1402, aged 55. "At his death his two sons were still mere boys. … The generals refused to act with them, and each seized upon such portions of the Visconti inheritance as he could most easily acquire. The vast tyranny of the first Duke of Milan fell to pieces in a day." The dominion which his elder son lost (see ITALY: A. D. 1402-1406) and which his younger son regained (see ITALY: A. D. 1412-1447) slipped from the family on the death of the last of them, in 1447.

J. A. Symonds, Renaissance in Italy: The Age of the Despots, chapter 2.

"At the end of the fourteenth century their [the Visconti's] informal lordship passed by a royal grant [from the Emperor Wenceslaus to Gian-Galeazzo; A. D. 1395] into an acknowledged duchy of the Empire. The dominion which they had gradually gained, and which was thus in a manner legalized, took in all the great cities of Lombardy, those especially which had formed the Lombard League against the Swabian Emperors. Pavia indeed, the ancient rival of Milan, kept a kind of separate being, and was formed into a distinct county. But the duchy granted by Wenceslaus to Gian-Galeazzo stretched far on both sides of the lake of Garda."

E. A. Freeman, Historical Geography of Europe, chapter 8, section 3.

ALSO IN: J. C. L. de Sismondi, History of the Italian Republics, chapter 4.

G. Procter (G. Perceval, pseudonym), History of Italy, chapters 4-5 (volume 1).

T. A. Trollope, History of the Commonwealth of Florence, book 4, chapters 4-6 (volume 2).

MILAN: A. D. 1360-1391. Wars with Florence and with the Pope. Dealings with the Free Companies.

See ITALY: A. D. 1343-1393.

MILAN: A. D. 1422. The sovereignty of Genoa surrendered to the Duke.

See GENOA: A. D. 1381-1422.

MILAN: A. D. 1447-1454. Competitors for the ducal succession to the Visconti. The prize carried off by Francesco Sforza. War of Milan and Florence with Venice, Naples, Savoy, and other states.

John Galeazzo Visconti had married (as stated above) a daughter of King John of France. "Valentine Visconti, one of the children of this marriage, married her cousin, Louis, duke of Orleans, the only brother of Charles VI. In their marriage contract, which the pope confirmed, it was stipulated that, upon failure of heirs male in the family of Visconti; the duchy of Milan should descend to the posterity of Valentine and the duke of Orleans. That event took place. In the year 1447, Philip Maria, the last prince of the ducal family of Visconti, died. Various competitors claimed the succession. Charles, duke of Orleans, pleaded his right to it, founded on the marriage contract of his mother, Valentine Visconti. Alfonso, king of Naples, claimed it in consequence of a will made by Philip Maria in his favor. The emperor contended that, upon the extinction of male issue in the family of Visconti, the fief returned to the superior lord, and ought to be re-annexed to the empire. The people of Milan, smitten with the love of liberty which in that age prevailed among the Italian states, declared against the dominion of any master, and established a republican form of government. But during the struggle among so many competitors, the prize for which they contended was seized by one from whom none of them apprehended any danger. Francis Sforza, the natural son of Jacomuzzo Sforza, whom his courage and abilities had elevated from the rank of a peasant to be one of the most eminent and powerful of the Italian condottieri, having succeeded his father in the command of the adventurers who followed his standard, had married a natural daughter of the last duke of Milan [see ITALY: A. D. 1412-1447]. Upon this shadow of a title Francis founded his pretensions to the duchy, which he supported with such talents and valor as placed him at last on the ducal throne."

W. Robertson, History of Charles the Fifth: View of the Progress of Society, section 3.

"Francesco Sforza possessed himself of the supreme power by treachery and force of arms, but he saved for half a century the independence of a State which, after 170 years of tyranny, was no longer capable of life as a commonwealth, and furthered its prosperity, while he powerfully contributed to the formation of a political system which, however great its weakness, was the most reasonable under existing circumstances. Without the aid of Florence and Cosimo de' Medici, he would not have attained his ends. Cosimo had recognised his ability in the war with Visconti, and made a close alliance with him. … It was necessary to choose between Sforza and Venice, for there was only one alternative: either the condottiere would make himself Duke of Milan, or the Republic of San Marco would extend its rule over all Lombardy. In Florence several voices declared in favour of the old ally on the Adriatic. … Cosimo de' Medici gave the casting-vote in Sforza's favour. … {2185} Without Florentine money; Sforza would never have been able to maintain the double contest—on the one side against Milan, which he blockaded and starved out; and on the other against the Venetians, who sought to relieve it, and whom he repulsed. And when, on March 25, 1450, he made his entry into the city which proclaimed him ruler, he was obliged to maintain himself with Florentine money till he had established his position and re-organised the State. … Common animosity to Florence and Sforza drew Venice and the king [Alfonso, of Naples] nearer to one another, and at the end of 1451 an alliance, offensive and defensive, was concluded against them, which Siena, Savoy, and Montferrat joined. … On May 16, 1452, the Republic, and, four weeks later, King Alfonso, declared war, which the Emperor Frederick III., then in Italy, and Pope Nicholas V., successor to Eugenius IV. since 1447, in vain endeavoured to prevent." The next year "a foreign event contributed more than all to terminate this miserable war. … On May 29, 1453, Mohammed II. stormed Constantinople. The West was threatened, more especially Venice, which had such great and wealthy possessions in the Levant, and Naples. This time the excellent Pope Nicholas V. did not exert himself in vain. On April 9, 1454, Venice concluded a tolerably favourable peace with Francesco Sforza at Lodi, in which King Alfonso, Florence, Savoy, Montferrat, Mantua, and Siena, were to be included. The king, who had made considerable preparations for war, did not ratify the compact till January 26 of the following year. The States of Northern and Central Italy then joined in an alliance, and a succession of peaceful years followed."

A. von Reumont, Lorenzo de' Medici, book 1, chapter 7 (volume 1).

ALSO IN: _W. P. Urquhart, Life and Times of Francesco Sforza._

_A. M. F. Robinson, The End of the Middle Ages: Valentine Visconti._

The French Claim to Milan.

MILAN: A. D. 1464. Renewed surrender of Genoa to the Duke.

See GENOA: A. D. 1458-1464.

MILAN: A. D. 1492-1496. The usurpation of Ludovico, the Moor. His invitation to Charles VIII. of France. The French invasion of Italy.

See ITALY: A. D. 1492-1494; and 1494-1496.

MILAN: A. D. 1499-1500. Conquest by Louis XII. of France. His claim by right of Valentine Visconti.

See ITALY: A. D. 1499-1500.

MILAN: A. D. 1501. Treaty for the investiture of Louis XII. as Duke, by the Emperor Maximilian.

See ITALY: A. D. 1501-1504.

MILAN: A. D. 1512. Expulsion of the French and restoration of the Sforzas.

Notwithstanding the success of the French at Ravenna, in their struggle with the Holy League formed against them by Pope Julius II. (see ITALY: A. D. 1510-1513), they could not hold their ground in Italy. "Cremona shook off the yoke of France, and city after city followed her example. Nor did it seem possible longer to hold Milan in subjection. That versatile state, after twice bending the neck to Louis, a second time grew weary of his government; and greedily listened to the proposal of the Pope to set upon the throne Massimiliano Sforza, son of their late Duke Ludovico. Full of this project the people of Milan rose simultaneously to avenge the cruelties of the French; the soldiers and merchants remaining in the city were plundered, and about 1,500 put to the sword. The retreating army was harassed by the Lombards, and severely galled by the Swiss; and after encountering the greatest difficulties, the French crossed the Alps, having preserved none of their conquests in Lombardy except the citadel of Milan, and a few other fortresses. … At the close of the year, Massimiliano Sforza made his triumphal entry into Milan, with the most extravagant ebullitions of delight on the part of the people."

Sir R. Comyn, History of the Western Empire, chapter 37 (volume 2).

MILAN: A. D. 1515. French reconquest by Francis I. Final overthrow of the Sforzas.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1515; and 1515-1518.

MILAN: A. D. 1517. Abortive attempt of the Emperor Maximilian against the French.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1516-1517.

MILAN: A. D. 1521-1522. The French again expelled.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1520-1523.

MILAN: A. D. 1524-1525. Recaptured and lost again by Francis I. of France.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1523-1525.

MILAN: A. D. 1527-1529. Renewed attack of the French king. Its disastrous end. Renunciation of the French claim.

See ITALY: A. D. 1527-1529.

MILAN: A. D. 1544. Repeated renunciation of the claims of Francis I. The duchy becomes a dependency of the Spanish crown.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1532-1547.

MILAN: A. D. 1635-1638. Invasion of the duchy by French and Italian armies.

See ITALY: A. D. 1635-1659.

MILAN: A. D. 1713. Cession of the duchy to Austria.

See UTRECHT: A. D. 1712-1714.

MILAN: A. D. 1745. Occupied by the Spaniards and French.

See ITALY: A. D. 1745.

MILAN: A. D. 1746. Recovered by the Austrians.

See ITALY: A. D. 1746-1747.

MILAN: A. D. 1749-1792. Under Austrian rule after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle.

See ITALY: A. D. 1749-1792.

MILAN: A. D. 1796. Occupation by the French. Bonaparte's pillage of the Art-galleries and Churches.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1796 (APRIL-OCTOBER).

MILAN: A. D. 1799. Evacuation by the French.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1799 (APRIL-SEPTEMBER).

MILAN: A. D. 1800. Recovery by the French.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1800-1801 (MAY-FEBRUARY).

MILAN: A. D. 1805. Coronation of Napoleon as king of Italy.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1804-1805.

MILAN: A. D. 1807-1808. Napoleon's adornment of the city and its cathedral.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1807-1808 (NOVEMBER-FEBRUARY).

MILAN: A. D. 1814-1815. Restored to Austria.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (APRIL-JUNE); and VIENNA, THE CONGRESS OF.

MILAN: A. D. 1848-1849. Insurrection. Expulsion of the Austrians. Failure of the struggle.

See ITALY: A. D. 1848-1849.

MILAN: A. D. 1859. Liberation from the Austrians.

See ITALY: A. D. 1856-1859; and 1859-1861.

----------MILAN: End----------

MILAN DECREE, The.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1806-1810; also, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1809.

MILANESE, MILANESS, The.

The district or duchy of Milan.

MILESIANS, Irish.

In Irish legendary history, the followers of Miled, who came from the north of Spain and were the last of the four races which colonized Ireland.

T. Wright, History of Ireland, book 1, chapter 2 (volume 1).

See IRELAND: THE PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS.

----------MILETUS: Start----------

{2186}

MILETUS.

Miletus, on the coast of Asia Minor, near its southwestern extremity, "with her four harbours, had been the earliest anchorage on the entire coast. Phœnicians, Cretans, and Carians, had inaugurated her world-wide importance, and Attic families, endowed with eminent energy, had founded the city anew.

See ASIA MINOR: THE GREEK COLONIES.

True, Miletus also had a rich territory of her own in her rear, viz., the broad valley of the Mæander, where among other rural pursuits particularly the breeding of sheep flourished. Miletus became the principal market for the finer sorts of wool; and the manufacture of this article into variegated tapestry and coloured stuffs for clothing employed a large multitude of human beings. But this industry also continued in an increasing measure to demand importation from without of all kinds of materials of art, articles of food, and slaves.

See ASIA MINOR: B. C. 724-539.

In no city was agriculture made a consideration so secondary to industry and trade as here. At Miletus, the maritime trade even came to form a particular party among the citizens, the so-called 'Aeinautæ,' the 'men never off the water.'"

E. Curtius, History of Greece, book. 2, chapter 3 (volume 1).

Miletus took an early leading part in the great Ionian enterprises of colonization and trade, particularly in the Pontus, or Black Sea, where the Milesians succeeded the Phœnicians, establishing important commercial settlements at Sinope, Cyzicus and elsewhere. They were among the last of the Asiatic Ionians to succumb to the Lydian monarchy, and they were the first to revolt against the Persian domination, when that had taken the place of the Lydian. The great revolt failed and Miletus was practically destroyed.

See PERSIA: B. C. 521-493.

Recovering some importance it was destroyed again by Alexander. Once more rising under the Roman empire, it was destroyed finally by the Turks and its very ruins have not been identified with certainty;

MILETUS: B. C. 412. Revolt from Athens.

See GREECE: B. C. 413-412.

----------MILETUS: End----------

MILITARY-RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

See HOSPITALLERS; TEMPLARS; TEUTONIC KNIGHTS; and ST. LAZARUS. KNIGHTS OF.

MILL SPRING, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY: KENTUCKY-TENNESSEE).

MILLENIAL YEAR, The.

"It has often been stated that in the tenth century there was a universal belief that the end of the world was to happen in the year 1000 A. D. This representation has recently been subjected to a critical scrutiny by Eiken, Le Roy, and Orsi, and found to be an unwarrantable exaggeration. It would be still less applicable to any century earlier or later than the tenth. A conviction of the impending destruction of the world, however, was not uncommon at almost any period of the middle age. It is frequently found expressed in the writings of Gregory of Tours, Fredegar, Lambert of Hersfeld, Ekkehard of Aurach, and Otto of Freisingen."

R. Flint, History of the Philosophy of History: France, etc., pages 101-102.

MILOSCH OBRENOVITCH, The career of.

See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: 14-19TH CENTURIES (SERVIA).

MILTIADES: Victory at Marathon. Condemnation and death.

See GREECE: B. C. 490; also, ATHENS: B. C. 501-490, and B. C. 489-480.

MILVIAN BRIDGE, Battle of the (B. C. 78).

See ROME: B. C. 78-68.

MIMS, Fort, The massacre at.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1813-1814 (AUGUST-APRIL).

MINA.

See TALENT; also, SHEKEL.

MINCIO, Battle of the.

See ITALY: A. D. 1814.

MINDEN, Battle of.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1759 (APRIL-AUGUST).

MINE RUN MOVEMENT, The.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (JULY-NOVEMBER: VIRGINIA).

MING DYNASTY, The.

See CHINA: THE ORIGIN OF THE PEOPLE, &c.; and 1294-1882.

MINGELSHEIM, Battle of (1622).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1621-1623.

MINGOES, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MINGOES.

MINIMS.

"Of the orders which arose in the 15th century, the most remarkable was that of Eremites [Hermits] of St. Francis, or Minims, founded … by St. Francis of Paola, and approved by Sixtus IV. in 1474." St. Francis, a Minorite friar of Calabria, was one of the devotees whom Louis XI. of France gathered about himself during his last days, in the hope that their intercessions might prolong his life. To propitiate him, Louis "founded convents at Plessis and at Amboise for the new religious society, the members of which, not content with the name of Minorites, desired to signify their profession of utter insignificance by styling themselves Minims."

J. C. Robertson, History of the Christian Church, volume 8, pages 369 and 224.

MINISTRY. MINISTERIAL GOVERNMENT, The English.

See CABINET, THE ENGLISH.

MINNE.

See GUILDS OF FLANDERS.

----------MINNESOTA: Start--------

MINNESOTA: The aboriginal inhabitants.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY.

MINNESOTA: A. D. 1803. Part of the state, west of the Mississippi, acquired in the Louisiana Purchase.

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1798-1803.

MINNESOTA: A. D. 1834-1838. Joined to Michigan Territory; then to Wisconsin; then to Iowa.

See WISCONSIN: A. D. 1805-1848.

MINNESOTA: A. D. 1849-1858. Territorial and State organizations.

Minnesota was organized as a Territory in 1849, and admitted to the Union as a State in 1858.

----------MINNESOTA: End--------

MINNETAREES, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: HIDATSA, and SIOUAN FAMILY.

----------MINORCA: Start----------

MINORCA: 13th Century. Conquest by King James of Aragon.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1212-1238.

{2187}

MINORCA: A. D. 1708. Acquisition by England.

In 1708, during the War of the Spanish Succession, Port Mahon, and the whole island of Minorca, were taken by an English expedition from Barcelona, under General Stanhope, who afterwards received a title from his conquest, becoming Viscount Stanhope of Mahon. Port Mahon was then considered the best harbor in the Mediterranean and its importance to England was rated above that of Gibraltar.

Earl Stanhope, History of England: Reign of Queen Anne, chapter 10.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1707-1710.

At the Peace of Utrecht Minorca was ceded to Great Britain and remained under the British flag during the greater part of the 18th century.

See UTRECHT: A. D. 1712-1714.

MINORCA: A. D. 1756. Taken by the French.

At the outbreak of the Seven Years War, in 1756, there was great dread in England of an immediate French invasion; and "the Government so thoroughly lost heart as to request the King to garrison England with Hanoverian troops. This dread was kept alive by a simulated collection of French troops in the north. But, under cover of this threat, a fleet was being collected at Toulon, with the real design of capturing Minorca. The ministry were at last roused to this danger, and Byng was despatched with ten sail of the line to prevent it. Three days after he set sail the Duke de Richelieu, with 16,000 men, slipped across into the island, and compelled General Blakeney, who was somewhat old and infirm, to withdraw into the castle of St. Philip, which was at once besieged. On the 19th of May—much too late to prevent the landing of Richelieu—Byng arrived within view of St. Philip, which was still in the possession of the English. The French Admiral, La Galissonnière, sailed out to cover the siege, and Byng, who apparently felt himself unequally matched—although West, his second in command, behaved with gallantry and success—called a council of war, and withdrew. Blakeney, who had defended his position with great bravery, had to surrender. The failure of Byng, and the general weakness and incapacity of the ministry, roused the temper of the people to rage; and Newcastle, trembling for himself, threw all the blame upon the Admiral, hoping by this means to satisfy the popular cry. … A court martial held upon that officer had been bound by strict instructions, and had found itself obliged to bring in a verdict of guilty, though without casting any imputation on the personal courage of the Admiral. On his accession to power Pitt was courageous enough, although he rested on the popular favour, to do his best to get Byng pardoned, and urged on the King that the House of Commons seemed to wish the sentence to be mitigated. The King is said to have answered in words that fairly describe Pitt's position, 'Sir, you have taught me to look for the sense of my subjects in another place than the House of Commons.' The sentence was carried out, and Byng was shot on the quarter-deck of the 'Monarque' at Portsmouth (March 14, 1757)."

J. F. Bright, History of England, period 3, pages 1021-1022.

MINORCA: A. D. 1763. Restored to England by the Treaty of Paris.

See SEVEN YEARS WAR: THE TREATIES.

MINORCA: A. D. 1782. Captured by the Spaniards.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1780-1782.

MINORCA: A. D. 1802. Ceded to Spain by the Treaty of Amiens.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1801-1802.

----------MINORCA: End----------

MINORITES, The.

The Franciscan friars, called by their founder "Fratri Minori," bore very commonly the name of the Minorites.

See MENDICANT ORDERS.

MINQUAS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY, and SUSQUEHANNAS.

MINSIS, MUNSEES, MINISINKS.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY, and DELAWARES; and, also, MANHATTAN ISLAND.

MINTO, Lord, The Indian administration of.

See INDIA: A. D. 1805-1816.

MINUTE-MEN.

See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1774.

MINYI, The.

"The race [among the Greeks] which … first issues forth with a history of its own from the dark background of the Pelasgian people is that of the Minyi. The cycle of their heroes includes Iason and Euneus, his son, who trades with Phœnicians and with Greeks. … The myths of the Argo were developed in the greatest completeness on the Pagasæan gulf, in the seats of the Minyi; and they are the first with whom a perceptible movement of the Pelasgean tribes beyond the sea—in other words, a Greek history in Europe—begins. The Minyi spread both by land and sea. They migrated southwards into the fertile fields of Bœotia, and settled on the southern side of the Copæic valley by the sea. … After leaving the low southern coast they founded a new city at the western extremity of the Bœotian valley. There a long mountain ridge juts out from the direction of Parnassus, and round its farthest projection flows in a semicircle the Cephissus. At the lower edge of the height lies the village of Skripu. Ascending from its huts, one passes over primitive lines of wall to the peak of the mountain, only approachable by a rocky staircase of a hundred steps, and forming the summit of a castle. This is the second city of the Minyi in Bœotia, called Orchomenus: like the first, the most ancient walled royal seat which can be proved to have existed in Hellas, occupying a proud and commanding position over the valley by the sea. Only a little above the dirty huts of clay rises out of the depths of the soil the mighty block of marble, more than twenty feet high, which covered the entrance of a round building. The ancients called it the treasury of Minyas, in the vaults of which the ancient kings were believed to have hoarded the superfluity of their treasures of gold and silver, and in these remains endeavoured to recall to themselves the glory of Orchomenus sung by Homer."

E. Curtius, History of Greece, book 1, chapter 3 (volume 1).

See, also, BŒOTIA; and GREECE: THE MIGRATIONS.

MIR, The Russian.

"The 'mir' is a commune, whose bond is unity of autonomy and of possession of land. Sometimes the mir is a single village. In this case the economic administration adapts itself exactly to the civil. Again, it may happen that a large village is divided into many rural communes. Then each commune has its special economic administration, whilst the civil and police administration is common to all. Sometimes, lastly, a number of villages only have one mir. Thus the size of the mir may vary from 20 or 30 to some thousands of 'dvors.' … The 'dvor,' or court, is the economic unit: it contains one or several houses, and one or several married couples lodge in it. The 'dvor' has only one hedge and one gate in common for its inmates. … With the Great Russians the mir regulates even the ground that the houses stand on; the mir has the right to shift about the 'dvors.' … {2188} Besides land, the communes have property of another kind: fish-lakes, communal mills, a communal herd for the improvement of oxen and horses; finally, storehouses, intended for the distribution to the peasants of seeds for their fields or food for their families. The enjoyment of all these various things must be distributed among the members of the commune, must be distributed regularly, equally, equitably. Thus, a fair distribution today will not be fair five or six years hence, because in some families the number of members will have increased, in others diminished. A new distribution, therefore, will be necessary to make the shares equal. For a long time this equalization can be brought about by partial sharings-up, by exchange of lots of ground between the private persons concerned, without upsetting everybody by a general redistribution. … The Russian mir is not an elementary unit. It is made up of several primordial cells—of small circles that form in perfect freedom. The mir only asks that the circles (osmaks) are equal as to labour-power. This condition fulfilled, I am free to choose my companions in accordance with my friendships or my interests. When the village has any work to do, any property to distribute, the administration or the assembly of the commune generally does not concern itself with individuals, but with the 'osmak' … Each village has an administration; it is represented by a mayor (selskï starosta), chosen by the mir. But this administration has to do only with affairs determined upon in principle by the communal assembly. The starosta has no right of initiating any measures of importance. Such questions (partition of the land, new taxes, leases of communal property, etc.) are only adjudicated and decided by the assembly of the mir. All the peasants living in the village come to the assembly, even the women. If, for example, the wife, by the death of her husband, is the head of the family, at the assembly she has the right to vote. … The peasants meet very frequently. … The assemblies are very lively, … courageous, independent."

L. Tikhomirov, Russia, Political and Social, book 3, chapter 2, with foot-note, chapter 1 (volume 1).

ALSO IN: D. M. Wallace, Russia, volume 1, chapter 8.

W. T. Stead, The Truth about Russia, book 4, chapter 2.

A. Leroy-Beaulieu, The Empire of the Tsars, part 1, book 8.

MIRABEAU, and the French Revolution.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1789 (MAY). to 1790-1791.

MIRACULOUS VICTORY, The.

See THUNDERING LEGION.

MIRAFLORES, Battle of (1881).

See CHILE: A. D. 1833-1884.

MIRANDA, Revolutionary undertakings of.

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1785-1800; and COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1810-1819.

MIRANHA, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: GUCK OR COCO GROUP.

MIRISZLO, Battle of (1600).

See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: 14TH-18TH CENTURIES.

MISCHIANZA, The.

See PHILADELPHIA: A. D. 1777-1778.

MISCHNA, The.

Rabbi Jehuda, the Patriarch at Tiberius, was the author (about A. D. 194) of "a new constitution to the Jewish people. He embodied in the celebrated Mischna, or Code of Traditional Law, all the authorized interpretations of the Mosaic Law, the traditions, the decisions of the learned, and the precedents of the courts or schools. … The sources from which the Mischna was derived may give a fair view of the nature of the Rabbinical authority, and the manner in which it had superseded the original Mosaic Constitution. The Mischna was grounded, 1. On the Written Law of Moses. 2. On the Oral Law, received by Moses on Mount Sinai, and handed down, it was said, by uninterrupted tradition. 3. The decisions or maxims of the Wise Men. 4. Opinions of particular individuals, on which the schools were divided, and which still remained open. 5. Ancient usages and customs.

The distribution of the Mischna affords a curious exemplification of the intimate manner in which the religious and civil duties of the Jews were interwoven, and of the authority assumed by the Law over every transaction of life. The Mischna commenced with rules for prayer, thanksgiving, ablutions; it is impossible to conceive the minuteness or subtlety of these rules, and the fine distinctions drawn by the Rabbins. It was a question whether a man who ate figs, grapes, and pomegranates, was to say one or three graces; … whether he should sweep the house and then wash his hands, or wash his hands and then sweep the house. But there are nobler words."

H. H. Milman, History of the Jews, book 19.

See, also, TALMUD.

MISE OF AMIENS, The.

See OXFORD, PROVISIONS OF.

MISE OF LEWES, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1216-1274.

MISENUM, Treaty of.

The arrangement by which Sextus Pompeius was virtually admitted (B. C. 40) for a time into partnership with the triumvirate of Antony, Octavius and Lepidus, was so called.

See ROME: B. C. 44-42.

MISR.

See EGYPT: ITS NAMES.

MISSI DOMINICI.

"Nothing was more novel or peculiar in the legislation of Karl [Charlemagne] than his institution of imperial deputies, called Missi Dominici, who were regularly sent forth from the palace to oversee and inspect the various local administrations. Consisting of a body of two or three officers each, one of whom was always a prelate, they visited the counties every three months, and held there the local assizes, or 'placita minores.' … Even religion and morals were not exempted from this scrutiny."

P. Godwin, History of France: Ancient Gaul, chapter 17.

See, also, PALATINE, COUNTS.

MISSIONARY RIDGE: Its position, and the battle fought on it.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER: TENNESSEE); and (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER: TENNESSEE).

----------MISSISSIPPI: Start--------

MISSISSIPPI: The aboriginal inhabitants.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MUSKHOGEAN FAMILY, and CHEROKEES.

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1629. Embraced in the Carolina grant to Sir Robert Heath.

See AMERICA: A. D. 1629.

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1663. Embraced in the Carolina grant to Monk, Chesterfield, and others.

See NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1663-1670.

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1732. Mostly embraced in the new province of Georgia.

See GEORGIA: A. D. 1732-1739.

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1763. Partly embraced in West Florida, ceded to Great Britain.

See SEVEN YEARS WAR: THE TREATIES; FLORIDA: A. D. 1763; and NORTHWEST TERRITORY: A. D. 1763.

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1779-1781. Reconquest of West Florida by the Spaniards.

See FLORIDA: A. D. 1779-1781.

{2189}

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1783. Mostly covered by the English cession to the United States.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1783 (SEPTEMBER).

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1783-1787. Partly in dispute with Spain.

See FLORIDA: A. D. 1783-1787.

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1798-1804. The Territory constituted and organized.

"The territory heretofore surrendered by the Spanish authorities, and lying north of the 31st degree of latitude, with the consent and approbation of the State of Georgia, was erected into a territory of the United States by act of Congress, approved April 7th, 1798, entitled 'an act for the amicable settlement of limits with the State of Georgia, and authorizing the establishment of a government in the Mississippi Territory. The territory comprised in the new organization, or the original Mississippi Territory, embraced that portion of country between the Spanish line of demarkation and a line drawn due east from the mouth of the Yazoo to the Chattahoochy River. The Mississippi River was its western limit and the Chattahoochy its eastern. The organization of a territorial government by the United States was in no wise to impair the rights of Georgia to the soil, which was left open for future negotiation between the State of Georgia and the United States." In 1802 the State of Georgia ceded to the United States all her claim to lands south of the State of Tennessee, stipulating to receive $1,250,000" out of the first nett proceeds of lands lying in said ceded territory." In 1804 "the whole of the extensive territory ceded by Georgia, lying north of the Mississippi Territory, and south of Tennessee, was … annexed to the Mississippi Territory, and was subsequently included within its limits and jurisdiction. The boundaries of the Mississippi Territory, consequently, were the 31st degree on the south, and the 35th degree on the north, extending from the Mississippi River to the western limits of Georgia, and comprised the whole territory now embraced in the States of Alabama and Mississippi, excepting the small Florida District between the Pearl and Perdido Rivers. Four fifths of this extensive territory were in the possession of the four great southern Indian confederacies, the Choctâs, the Chickasâs, the Creeks, and the Cherokees, comprising an aggregate of about 75,000 souls, and at least 10,000 warriors. The only portions of this territory to which the Indian title had been extinguished was a narrow strip from 15 to 50 miles in width, on the east side of the Mississippi, and about 70 miles in length, and a small district on the Tombigby."

J. W. Monette, Discovery and Settlement of the Valley of the Mississippi, book 5, chapter 13 (volume 2).

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1803. Portion acquired by the Louisiana Purchase.

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1798-1803.

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1812-1813. Spanish West Florida annexed to Mississippi Territory and possession taken.

See FLORIDA: A. D. 1810-1813.

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1813-1814. The Creek War.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1813-1814 (AUGUST-APRIL).

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1817. Constitution as a State and admission into the Union.

The sixth and seventh of the new States added to the original Union of thirteen were Indiana and Mississippi. "These last almost simultaneously found representation in the Fifteenth Congress; and of them Indiana, not without an internal struggle, held steadfastly to the fundamental Ordinance of 1787 under which it was settled, having adopted its free State constitution in June, 1816; Mississippi, which followed on the slave side, agreeing upon a constitution, in August, 1817, which the new Congress, at its earliest opportunity [December 10, 1817] after assembling, pronounced republican in form, and satisfactory."

J. Schouler, History of the United States, volume 3, page 100.

At the same time, the part of Mississippi Territory which forms the present State of Alabama was detached and erected into the Territory of Alabama.

See ALABAMA: A. D. 1817-1819.

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1861 (January). Secession from the Union.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1862 (April-May). The taking of Corinth by the Union forces.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (APRIL-MAY: TENNESSEE-MISSISSIPPI).

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1862 (May-July). First Union attempts against Vicksburg.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (MAY-JULY: ON THE MISSISSIPPI).

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1862 (September-October). The battles of Iuka and Corinth.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER: MISSISSIPPI).

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1863 (April-May). Grierson's raid.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (APRIL-MAY: MISSISSIPPI).

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1863 (April-July). Federal siege and capture of Vicksburg.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (APRIL-JULY).

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1863 (July). Capture and destruction of Jackson.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (JULY: MISSISSIPPI).

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1864 (February). Sherman's raid to Meridian.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863-1864 (DECEMBER-APRIL: TENNESSEE—MISSISSIPPI).

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1865 (March-April). Wilson's raid. The end of the Rebellion.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (APRIL-MAY).

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1865 (June). Provisional government set up under President Johnson's plan of Reconstruction.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (MAY-JULY).

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1865-1870. State reconstruction.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (MAY-JULY), to 1868-1870.

----------MISSISSIPPI: End--------

----------MISSISSIPPI RIVER: Start--------

MISSISSIPPI RIVER: A. D. 1519. Discovery of the mouth by Pineda, for Garay.

See AMERICA: A. D. 1519-1525.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER: A. D. 1528-1542. Crossed by Cabeça de Vaca, and by Hernando de Soto. Descended by the survivors of De Soto's company.

See FLORIDA: A. D. 1528-1542.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER: A. D. 1673. Discovery by Joliet and Marquette.

See CANADA: A. D. 1634-1673.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER: A. D. 1682. Exploration to the mouth by La Salle. See CANADA: A. D. 1669-1687.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER: A. D. 1712. Called the River St. Louis by the French.

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1698-1712.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER: A. D. 1783-1803. The question of the Right of Navigation disputed between Spain and the United States.

See FLORIDA: A. D. 1783-1787; and LOUISIANA: A. D. 1785-1800, and 1798-1803.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER: A. D. 1861-1863. Battles and Sieges of the Civil War.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER: ON THE MISSISSIPPI), Belmont; 1862 (MARCH-APRIL), NEW

Madrid and Island No. 10; 1862 (APRIL), New Orleans; 1862 (MAY-JULY), First Vicksburg attack; 1862 (JUNE), Memphis; 1862 (DECEMBER), Second Vicksburg attack; 1863 (JANUARY-APRIL), and (APRIL-JULY);

Siege and capture of Vicksburg; 1863 (MAY-JULY), Port Hudson and the clear opening of the River.

----------MISSISSIPPI RIVER: End--------

{2190}

MISSISSIPPI SCHEME, John Law's.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1717-1720; and LOUISIANA: A. D. 1717-1718.

----------MISSISSIPPI VALLEY: Start--------

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY: A. D. 1763. Cession of the eastern side of the river to Great Britain.

See SEVEN YEARS WAR: THE TREATIES.

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY: A. D. 1803. Purchase of the western side by the United States.

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1798-1803.

----------MISSISSIPPI VALLEY: End--------

MISSOLONGHI, Siege and capture of (1825-1826).

See GREECE: A. D. 1821-1829.

----------MISSOURI: Start--------

MISSOURI: A. D. 1719-1732. First development of lead mines by the French.

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1719-1750.

MISSOURI: A. D. 1763-1765. French withdrawal to the West of the Mississippi. The founding of St. Louis.

See ILLINOIS: A. D. 1765.

MISSOURI: A. D. 1803. Embraced in the Louisiana Purchase.

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1798-1803.

MISSOURI: A. D. 1804-1812. Upper Louisiana organized as the Territory of Louisiana. The changing of its name to Missouri.

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1804-1812.

MISSOURI: A. D. 1819. Arkansas detached.

See ARKANSAS: A. D. 1819-1836.

MISSOURI: A. D. 1821. Admission to the Union. The Compromise concerning Slavery.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1818-1821.

MISSOURI: A. D. 1854-1859. The Kansas Struggle.

See KANSAS: A. D. 1854-1859.

MISSOURI: A. D. 1861 (February-July). The baffling of the Secessionists. Blair, Lyon and the Home Guards of St. Louis. The capture of Camp Jackson. Battle of Boonville. A loyal State Government organized.

The seizure of arsenals and arms by the secessionists of the Atlantic and Gulf States "naturally, directed the attention of the leaders of the different political parties in Missouri to the arsenal in St. Louis, and set them to work planning how they might get control of the 40,000 muskets and other munitions of war which it was known to contain. … Satisfied that movements were on foot among irresponsible parties, Unionist as well as Secessionist, to take possession of this post, General D. M. Frost, of the Missouri state militia, a graduate of West Point and a thorough soldier, is said to have called Governor Jackson's attention to the necessity of 'looking after' it. … Jackson, however, needed no prompting. … He did not hesitate to give Frost authority to seize the arsenal, whenever in his judgment it might become necessary to do so. Meanwhile he was to assist in protecting it against mob violence of any kind or from any source. … Frost, however, was not the only person in St. Louis who had his eyes fixed upon the arsenal and its contents. Frank Blair was looking longingly in the same direction, and was already busily engaged in organizing the bands which, supplied with guns from this very storehouse, enabled him, some four months later, to lay such a heavy hand upon Missouri. Just then, it is true, he could not arm them, … but he did not permit this to interfere with the work of recruiting and drilling. That went on steadily, and as a consequence, when the moment came for action, Blair was able to appear at the decisive point with a well-armed force, ten times as numerous as that which his opponents could bring against him. In the mean time, whilst these two, or rather three, parties (for Frost can hardly be termed a secessionist, though as an officer in the service of the State he was willing to obey the orders of his commander) were watching each other, the federal government awoke from its lethargy, and began to concentrate troops in St. Louis for the protection of its property. … By the 18th of February, the day of the election of delegates to the convention which pronounced so decidedly against secession, there were between four and five hundred men behind the arsenal walls. … General Harney, who was in command of the department and presumably familiar with its condition, under date of February 19, notified the authorities at Washington that there was no danger of an attack, and never had been. … Such was not the opinion of Captain Nathaniel Lyon, who had arrived at the arsenal on the 6th of February, and who was destined, in the short space of the coming six months, to write his name indelibly in the history of the State. … Under the stimulating influence of two such spirits as Blair and … [Lyon] the work of preparation went bravely on. By the middle of April, four regiments had been enlisted, and Lyon, who was now in command of the arsenal, though not of the department, proceeded to arm them in accordance with an order which Blair had procured from Washington. Backed by this force, Blair felt strong enough to set up an opposition to the state government, and accordingly, when Jackson refused to furnish the quota of troops assigned to Missouri under President Lincoln's call of April 15, 1861 [see UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (APRIL)], he telegraphed to Washington that if an order to muster the men into the service was sent to Captain Lyon 'the requisition would be filled in two days.' The order was duly forwarded, and five regiments having been sworn in instead of four, as called for, Blair was offered the command. This he declined, and, on his recommendation, Lyon was elected in his place. On the 7th and 8th of May another brigade was organized. … This made ten regiments of volunteers, besides several companies of regulars and a battery of artillery, that were now ready for service; and as General Harney, whose relatives and associates were suspected of disloyalty, had been ordered to Washington to explain his position, Lyon was virtually in command of the department. … Jackson, … though possessed of but little actual power, was unwilling to give up the contest without an effort. He did not accept the decision of the February election as final. … Repairing to St. Louis, as soon as the adjournment of the General Assembly had left him free, he began at once, in conjunction with certain leading secessionists, to concert measures for arming the militia of the State. … {2191} To this end, the seizure of the arsenal was held to be a prerequisite, and General Frost was preparing a memorial showing how this could best be done, when the surrender of Fort Sumter and the President's consequent call for troops hurried Jackson into a position of antagonism to the federal government. … He sent messengers to the Confederate authorities at Montgomery, Alabama, asking them to supply him with the guns that were needed for the proposed attack on the arsenal; and he summoned the General Assembly to meet at Jefferson City on the 2d of May, to deliberate upon such measures as might be deemed necessary for placing the State in a position to defend herself. He also ordered, as he was authorized to do under the law, the commanders of the several military districts to hold the regular yearly encampments for the purpose of instructing their men in drill and discipline. … Practically its effect was limited to the first or Frost's brigade, as that was the only one that had been organized under the law. On the 3d of May, this little band, numbering less than 700 men, pitched their tents in a wooded valley in the outskirts of the city of St. Louis, and named it Camp Jackson, in honor of the governor. It is described as being surrounded on all sides, at short range, by commanding hills; it was, moreover, open to a charge of cavalry in any and every direction, and the men were supplied with but five rounds of ammunition each, hardly enough for guard purposes. In a word, it was defenseless, and this fact is believed to be conclusive in regard to the peaceful character of the camp as it was organized. … Lyon … announced his intention of seizing the entire force at the camp, without any ceremony other than a demand for its surrender. … Putting his troops in motion early in the morning of the 10th of May; he surrounded Camp Jackson and demanded its surrender. As Frost could make no defense against the overwhelming odds brought against him, he was of course obliged to comply; and his men, having been disarmed, were marched to the arsenal, where they were paroled. … After the surrender, and whilst the prisoners were standing in line, waiting for the order to march, a crowd of men, women and children collected and began to abuse the home guards, attacking them with stones and other missiles. It is even said that several shots were fired at them, but this lacks confirmation. According to Frost, who was at the head of the column of prisoners, the first intimation of firing was given by a single shot, followed almost immediately by volley firing, which is said to have been executed with precision considering the rawness of the troops. When the fusillade was checked, it was found that 28 persons had been killed or mortally wounded, among whom were three of the prisoners, two women, and one child. … Judging this action by the reasons assigned for it, and by its effect throughout the State, it must be pronounced a blunder. So far from intimidating the secessionists, it served only to exasperate them; and it drove not a few Union men, among them General Sterling Price, into the ranks of the opposition and ultimately into the Confederate army."

L. Carr, Missouri, chapter 14.

When news of the capture of Camp Jackson reached Jefferson City, where the legislature was in session, Governor Jackson at once ordered a bridge on the railroad from St. Louis to be destroyed, and the legislature made haste to pass several bills in the interest of the rebellion, including one which placed the whole military power of the State in the hands of the Governor. Armed with this authority, Jackson proceeded to organize the Militia of Missouri as a secession army. Meantime Captain Lyon had been superseded in command by the arrival at St. Louis of General Harney, and the latter introduced a total change of policy at once. He was trapped into an agreement with Governor Jackson and Sterling Price, now general-in-chief of the Missouri forces, which tied his hands, while the cunning rebel leaders were rapidly placing the State in active insurrection. But the eyes of the authorities at Washington were opened by Blair; Harney was soon displaced and Lyon restored to command. This occurred May 30th. On the 15th of June Lyon took possession of the capital of the State, Jefferson City, the Governor and other State officers taking flight to Boonville, where their forces were being gathered. Lyon promptly followed, routing and dispersing them at Boonville on the 17th. The State Convention which had taken a recess in March was now called together by a committee that had been empowered to do so before the convention separated, and a provisional State government was organized (July 31) with a loyal governor, Hamilton R. Gamble, at its head.

J. G. Nicolay, The Outbreak of the Rebellion, chapter 10.

ALSO IN: _T. L. Snead, The Fight for Missouri._

_J. Peckham, General Nathaniel Lyon and Missouri in 1861._

MISSOURI: A. D. 1861 (July-September). Sigel's retreat from Carthage. Death of Lyon at Wilson's Creek. Siege of Lexington. Fremont in command.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (JULY-SEPTEMBER: MISSOURI).

A. D. 1861 (August-October). Fremont in command. His premature proclamation of freedom to the Slaves of rebels. His quarrel with Frank P. Blair. The change in command.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (AUGUST-OCTOBER: MISSOURI).

MISSOURI: A. D. 1862 (January-March). Price and the Rebel forces driven into Arkansas. Battle of Pea Ridge.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (JANUARY-MARCH: MISSOURI-ARKANSAS).

MISSOURI: A. D. 1862 (July-September). Organization of the loyal Militia of the state. Warfare with Rebel guerrillas.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (JULY-SEPTEMBER: MISSOURI-ARKANSAS).

MISSOURI: A. D. 1862 (September-December). Social effects of the Civil War. The Battle of Prairie Grove.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER: MISSOURI-ARKANSAS).

MISSOURI: A. D. 1863 (August). Quantrell's guerrilla raid to Lawrence, Kansas.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (AUGUST: MISSOURI-KANSAS).

MISSOURI: A. D. 1863 (October). Cabell's invasion.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (AUGUST-OCTOBER: ARKANSAS-MISSOURI).

MISSOURI: A. D. 1864 (September-October). Price's raid.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (MARCH-OCTOBER: ARKANSAS-MISSOURI).

----------MISSOURI: End--------

MISSOURI COMPROMISE, The. Its Repeal, and the decision of the Supreme Court against it.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1818-1821; 1854; and 1857.

{2192}

MISSOURI RIVER: Called the River St. Philip by the French (1712).

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1698-1712.

MISSOURIS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY.

MITCHELL, General Ormsby M.: Expedition into Alabama.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862(APRIL-MAY: ALABAMA); and (JUNE-OCTOBER: TENNESSEE-KENTUCKY).

MITHRIDATIC WARS, The.

A somewhat vaguely defined part of eastern Asia Minor, between Armenia, Phrygia, Cilicia and the Euxine, was called Cappadocia in times anterior to 363 B. C. Like its neighbors, it had fallen under the rule of the Persians and formed a province of their empire, ruled by hereditary satraps. In the year above named, the then reigning satrap, Ariobarzanes, rebelled and made himself king of the northern coast district of Cappadocia, while the southern and inland part was retained under Persian rule. The kingdom founded by Ariobarzanes took the name of Pontus, from the sea on which it bordered. It was reduced to submission by Alexander the Great, but regained independence during the wars between Alexander's successors (see MACEDONIA: B. C. 310-301; and SELEUCIDÆ: B. C. 281-224), and extended its limits towards the west and south. The kingdom of Pontus, however, only rose to importance in history under the powerful sovereignty of Mithridates V. who took the title of Eupator and is often called Mithridates the Great. He ascended the throne while a child, B. C. 120, but received, notwithstanding, a wonderful education and training. At the age of twenty (B. C. 112) he entered upon a career of conquest, which was intended to strengthen his power for the struggle with Rome, which he saw to be inevitable. Within a period of about seven years he extended his dominions around the nearly complete circuit of the Euxine, through Armenia, Colchis, and along the northern coasts westward to the Crimea and the Dniester; while at the same time he formed alliances with the barbarous tribes on the Danube, with which he hoped to threaten Italy.

G. Rawlinson, Manual of Ancient History, book 4, period 3, part 4.

"He [Mithridates] rivalled Hannibal in his unquenchable hatred to Rome. This hatred had its origin in the revocation of a district of Phrygia which the Senate had granted to his father. … To his banner clustered a quarter of a million of the fierce warriors of the Caucasus and the Scythian steppes and of his own Hellenized Pontic soldiers; Greek captains, in whom he had a confidence unshaken by disaster—Archelaus, Neoptolemus, Dorilaus—gave tactical strength to his forces. He was allied, too, with the Armenian king, Tigranes; and he now turned his thoughts to Numidia, Syria, and Egypt with the intention of forming a coalition against his foe on the Tiber. A coin has been found which commemorated an alliance proposed between the Pontic king and the Italian rebels. … The imperious folly of M'. Aquillius, the Roman envoy in the East, precipitated the intentions of the king; instead of contending for the princedom of Bithynia and Cappadocia, he suddenly appealed to the disaffected in the Roman province. The fierce white fire of Asiatic hate shot out simultaneously through the length and breadth of the country [B. C. 88]; and the awful news came to distracted Rome that 80,000 Italians had fallen victims to the vengeance of the provincials. Terror-stricken publicani were chased from Adramyttium and Ephesus into the sea, their only refuge, and there cut down by their pursuers; the Mæander was rolling along the corpses of the Italians of Tralles; in Caria the refined cruelty of the oppressed people was butchering the children before the eyes of father and mother, then the mother before the eyes of her husband, and giving to the man death as the crown and the relief of his torture. … Asia was lost to Rome; only Rhodes, which had retained her independence, remained faithful to her great ally. The Pontic fleet, under Archelaus, appeared at Delos, and carried thence 2,000 talents to Athens, offering to that imperial city the government of her ancient tributary. This politic measure awaked hopes of independence in Greece. Aristion, an Epicurean philosopher, seized the reins of power in Athens, and Archelaus repaired the crumbling battlements of the Piræus. The wave of eastern conquest was rolling on towards Italy itself. The proconsul Sulla marched to Brundisium, and, undeterred by the ominous news that his consular colleague, Q. Rufus, had been murdered in Picenum, or by the sinister attitude of the new consul Cinna, he crossed over to Greece with five legions to stem the advancing wave. History knows no more magnificent illustration of cool, self-restrained determination than the action of Sulla during these three years." He left Rome to his enemies, the fierce faction of Marius, who were prompt to seize the city and to fill it with "wailing for the dead, or with the more terrible silence which followed a complete massacre" [see ROME: B. C. 88-78]. "The news of this carnival of democracy reached the camp of Sulla along with innumerable noble fugitives who had escaped the Marian terror. The proconsul was unmoved; with unexampled self-confidence he began to assume that he and his constituted Rome, while the Forum and Curia were filled with lawless anarchists, who would soon have to be dealt with. He carried Athens by assault, and slew the whole population, with their tyrant Aristion [see ATHENS: B. C. 87-86], but he counted it among the favours of the goddess of Fortune that he, man of culture as he was, was able to save the immemorial buildings of the city from the fate of Syracuse or Corinth. Archelaus, in Piræus, offered the most heroic resistance. … With the spring Sulla heard of the approach of the main army from Pontus, under the command of Taxiles. 120,000 men, and ninety scythed chariots, were pouring over Mount Œta to overwhelm him. With wonderful rapidity he marched northwards through friendly Thebes, and drew up his little army on a slope near Chæronea, digging trenches on his left and right to save his flank from being turned. He showed himself every inch a general, he compelled the enemy to meet him on this ground of his own choice, and the day did not close before 110,000 of the enemy were captured or slain, and the camp of Archelaus, who had hastened from Athens to take the command, was carried by assault. We have before us still, in the pages of Plutarch, Sulla's own memoirs. If we may believe him, he lost only fifteen men in the battle. By this brilliant engagement he had restored Greece to her allegiance, and, what was even better, the disaster aroused an the savagery of Mithradates, the Greek vanished in the oriental despot. {2193} Suspicious and ruthless, he ordered his nearest friends to be assassinated; he transported all the population of Chios to the mainland, and by his violence and exaction stirred Ephesus, Sardes, Tralles, and many other cities, to renounce his control, and to return to the Roman government. Still, he did not suspect Archelaus, but appointed him, together with Dorilaus, to lead a new army into Greece. The new army appeared in Bœotia, and encamped by the Copaic Lake, near Orchomenos. Before the raw levies could become familiar with the sight of the legions, Sulla assaulted the camp [B. C. 85], and rallied his wavering men by leading them in person with the cry, 'Go, tell them in Rome that you left your general in the trenches of Orchomenos;' the self-consciousness was sublime, for nothing would have pleased the people in Rome better; his victory was complete, and Archelaus escaped alone in a boat to Calchis. As the conqueror returned from the battle-field to reorganize Greece, he learnt that the Senate had deposed him from command, declared him an outlaw, and appointed as his successor the consul L. Valerius Flaccus. The disorganization of the republic seemed to have reached a climax. Flaccus conducted his army straight to the Bosphorus without venturing to approach the rebel proconsul Sulla; while Mithradates, who began to wish for peace, preferred to negotiate with his conqueror rather than with the consul of the republic. To complete this complication of anarchy, Flaccus was murdered, and superseded in the command by his own legate, C. Flavius Fimbria; this choice of their general by the legions themselves might seem significant if anything could be significant or connected in such a chaos. But Sulla now crossed into Asia, and concluded peace with Mithradates on these conditions: The king was to relinquish all his conquests, surrender deserters, restore the people of Chios, pay 2,000 talents, and give up seventy of his ships. Fimbria … remained to be dealt with. It was not a difficult matter: the two Roman armies confronted one another at Thyatira, and the Fimbrians streamed over to Sulla. After all, the legionaries, who had long ceased to be citizens, were soldiers first and politicians after; they worshipped the felicity of the great general; and the democratic general had not yet appeared who could bind his men to him by a spell stronger than Sulla's. Fimbria persuaded a slave to thrust him through with his sword. His enemies were vanquished in Asia, but in Rome Cinna was again consul (85 B. C.), and his colleague, Cn. Papirius Carbo, out-Cinnaed Cinna. Yet Sulla was in no hurry. He spent more than a year in reorganizing the disordered province. … He even allowed Cinna and Carbo, who began to prepare for war with him (84 B. C.), to be re-elected to the consulship; but when the more cautious party in the Senate entered into negotiations with him, and offered him a safe conduct to Italy, he showed in a word what he took to be the nature of the situation by saying that he was not in need of their safe conduct, but he was coming to secure them."

R. F. Horton, History of the Romans, chapter 26.

_Plutarch, Sulla._

After a second and a third war with Rome (see ROME: B. C. 78-68, and 69-63), Mithridates was finally (B. C. 65) driven from his old dominions into the Crimean kingdom of Bosporus, where he ended his life in despair two years later. The kingdom of Pontus was absorbed in the Roman empire. The southern part of Cappadocia held some rank as an independent kingdom until A. D. 17, when it was likewise reduced to the state of a Roman province.

MITLA, The Ruins of.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ZAPOTECS, ETC.

----------MITYLENE: Start--------

MITYLENE.

The chief city in ancient times of the island of Lesbos, to which it ultimately gave its name.

See LESBOS.

MITYLENE: B. C. 428-427. Revolt from Athenian rule. Siege and surrender. The tender mercies of Athens.

See GREECE: B. C. 429-427.

MITYLENE: B. C. 406. Blockade of the Athenian fleet. Battle of Arginusæ.

See GREECE: B. C. 406.

----------MITYLENE: End--------

MIXES, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ZAPOTECS, ETC.

MIXTECS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ZAPOTECS, ETC.

MIZRAIM.

See EGYPT: ITS NAMES.

MOABITES, The. The Moabite Stone.

As related in the Bible (Genesis xix. 37), Moab was the son of Lot's eldest daughter and the ancient people called Moabites were descended from him. They occupied at an early time the rich tableland or highlands on the east side of the Dead Sea; but the Amorites drove them out of the richer northern part of this territory into its southern half, where they occupied a very narrow domain, but one easily defended. This occurred shortly before the coming of the Israelites into Canaan. Between the Moabites and the Israelites, after the settlement of the latter, there was frequent war, but sometimes relations both peaceful and friendly. David finally subjugated their nation, in a war of peculiar atrocity. After the division of the kingdoms, Moab was subject to Israel, but revolted on the death of Ahab and was nearly destroyed in the horrible war which followed. The Biblical account of this war is given in 2 Kings III. It is strangely supplemented and filled out by a Moabite record—the famous Moabite Stone—found and deciphered within quite recent times, under the following circumstance. Dr. Klein, a German missionary, travelling in 1869 in what was formerly the "Land of Moab," discovered a stone of black basalt bearing a long inscription in Phœnician characters. He copied a small part of it and made his discovery known. The Prussian government opened negotiations for the purchase of the stone, and M. Clermont-Ganneau, of the French consulate at Jerusalem, made efforts likewise to secure it for his own country. Meantime, very fortunately, the latter sent men to take impressions—squeezes, as they are called—of the inscription, which was imperfectly done. But these imperfect squeezes proved invaluable; for the Arabs, finding the stone to be a covetable thing, and fearing that it was to be taken from them, crumbled it into fragments with the aid of fire and water. Most of the pieces were subsequently recovered, and were put together by the help of M. Clermont-Ganneau's squeezes, so that an important part of the inscription was deciphered in the end. It was found to be a record by Mesha, king of Moab, of the war with Israel referred to above.

A. H. Sayce, Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments, chapter 4.

{2194}

The Moabites appear to have recovered from the blow, but not much of their subsequent history is known.

_G. Grove, Dictionary of the Bible._

ALSO IN: _J. King, Moab's Patriarchal Stone._

See, also, JEWS: THE EARLY HEBREW HISTORY, and JEWS: UNDER THE JUDGES.

MOAWIYAH, Caliph (founder of the Omeyyad dynasty), A. D. 661-679.

Moawiyah II., Caliph, A. D. 683.

----------MOBILE: Start--------

MOBILE: A. D. 1702-1711. The founding of the city by the French.

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1698-1712.

MOBILE: A. D. 1763. Surrendered to the English.

See FLORIDA: A. D. 1763 (JULY).

MOBILE: A. D. 1781. Retaken by the Spaniards.

See FLORIDA: A. D. 1779-1781.

MOBILE: A. D. 1813. Possession taken from the Spaniards by the United States.

See FLORIDA: A. D. 1810-1813.

MOBILE: A. D. 1864. The Battle in the Bay. Farragut's naval victory.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (AUGUST: ALABAMA).

MOBILE: A. D. 1865 (March-April). Siege and capture by the National forces.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (APRIL-MAY).

----------MOBILE: End--------

MOBILIANS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MUSKHOGEAN FAMILY.

MOCOVIS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: PAMPAS TRIBES.

----------MODENA: Start--------

MODENA, Founding of.

See MUTINA.

MODENA: A. D. 1288-1453. Acquired by the Marquess of Este. Created a Duchy.

See ESTE, THE HOUSE OF.

MODENA: A. D. 1767. Expulsion of the Jesuits.

See JESUITS: A. D. 1761-1769.

MODENA: A. D. 1796. Dethronement of the Duke by Bonaparte. Formation of the Cispadane Republic.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1796-1797 (OCTOBER-APRIL).

MODENA: A. D. 1801. Annexation to the Cisalpine Republic.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1801-1803.

MODENA: A. D. 1803. The duchy acquired by the House of Austria.

See ESTE, HOUSE OF.

MODENA: A. D. 1815. Given to an Austrian Prince.

See VIENNA, THE CONGRESS OF.

MODENA: A. D. 1831. Revolt and expulsion of the Duke. His restoration by Austrian troops.

See ITALY: A. D. 1830-1832.

MODENA: A. D. 1848-1849. Abortive revolution.

See ITALY: A. D. 1848-1849.

MODENA: A. D. 1859-1861. End of the dukedom. Absorption in the new Kingdom of Italy.

See ITALY: A. D. 1856-1859; and 1859-1861.

----------MODENA: End--------

MODIUS, The.

See AMPHORA.

MODOCS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MODOCS.

MOERIS, Lake.

"On the west of Egypt there is an oasis of cultivable land, the Fayum, buried in the midst of the desert, and attached by a sort of isthmus to the country watered by the Nile. In the centre of this oasis is a large plateau about the same level as the valley of the Nile; to the west, however, a considerable depression of the land produces a valley occupied by a natural lake more than ten leagues in length, the 'Birket Kerun.' In the centre of this plateau Amenemhe [twelfth dynasty] undertook the formation of an artificial lake with an area of ten millions of square metres. If the rise of the Nile was insufficient, the water was led into the lake and stored up for use, not only in the Fayum, but over the whole of the left bank of the Nile as far as the sea. If too large an inundation threatened the dykes, the vast reservoir of the artificial lake remained open, and when the lake itself overflowed, the surplus waters were led by a canal into the Birket Kerun. The two names given in Egypt to this admirable work of Amenemhe III. deserve to be recorded. Of one, Meri, that is 'the Lake,' par excellence, the Greeks have made Moeris, a name erroneously applied by them to a king; whilst the other, P-iom, 'the Sea,' has become, in the mouth of the Arabs, the name of the entire province, Fayum."

M. Mariette, quoted in Lenormant's Manual of Ancient History of the East, book 3, chapter 2.

MŒSIA, MÆSIA.

"After the Danube had received the waters of the Teyss [Theiss] and the Save, it acquired, at least among the Greeks, the name of Ister. It formerly divided Mœsia and Dacia, the latter of which, as we have already seen, was a conquest of Trajan, and the only province beyond the river. … On the right hand of the Danube, Mœsia, … during the middle ages, was broken into the barbarian kingdoms of Servia and Bulgaria."

E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 1.

Mœsia was occupied by the Goths in the 4th century.

See GOTHS: A. D. 341-381; and 376.

MOESKIRCH, Battle of (1800).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1800-1801 (MAY-FEBRUARY).

MŒSO-GOTHIC.

See GOTHS: A. D. 341-381.

MOGONTIACUM.

"The two headquarters of the [Roman] army of the Rhine were always Vetera, near Wesel, and Mogontiacum, the modern Mentz. … Mogontiacum or Mentz, [was] from the time of Drusus down to the end of Rome the stronghold out of which the Romans sallied to attack Germany from Gaul, as it is at the present day the true barrier of Germany against France. Here the Romans, even after they had abandoned their rule in the region of the upper Rhine generally, retained not merely the tête-de-pont on the other bank, the 'castellum Mogontiacense' (Castel), but also that plain of the Main itself, in their possession; and in this region a Roman civilisation might establish itself. The land originally belonged to the Chatti, and a Chattan tribe, the Mattiaci, remained settled here even under Roman rule."

T. Mommsen, History of Rome, book 8, chapter 4 (The Provinces, volume 1).

MOGUL EMPIRE. THE GREAT MOGUL.

See INDIA: A. D. 1399-1605.

MOHACS, Battle of (1526).

See HUNGARY: A. D. 1487-1526.

MOHACS, Second Battle of (1687).

See HUNGARY: A. D. 1683-1699.

MOHAMMED, The Prophet of Islam.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST AND EMPIRE.

Mohammed, Turkish Sultan, A. D. 1104-1116.

Mohammed I., Turkish Sultan, 1413-1421.

Mohammed II., Turkish Sultan, 1451-1481.

Mohammed III., Turkish Sultan, 1595-1603.

Mohammed IV., Turkish Sultan, 1649-1687.

Mohammed Mirza, Shah of Persia, 1577-1582.

Mohammed Shah, sovereign of Persia, 1834-1848.

MOHARRAM FESTIVAL, The.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 680.

MOHAVES, MOJAVES, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: APACHE GROUP.

{2195}

MOHAWKS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY.

MOHAWKS, The, of Boston and New York.

See BOSTON: A. D. 1773; and NEW YORK: A. D. 1773-1774.

MOHAWKS, MOHOCKS, of London.

See MOHOCKS. [Third item below.]

MOHEGANS, MAHICANS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY, HORIKANS, and STOCKBRIDGE INDIANS; also, NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1637.

MOHILEF, Battle of.

See RUSSIA: A. D. 1812 (JUNE-SEPTEMBER).

MOHOCKS, The.

"This nocturnal fraternity met in the days of Queen Anne: [1707] but it had been for many previous years the favourite amusement of dissolute young men to form themselves into Clubs and Associations for committing all sorts of excesses in the public streets, and alike attacking orderly pedestrians, and even defenceless women. These Clubs took various slang designations. At the Restoration they were 'Mums,' and 'Tityre-tus.' They were succeeded by the 'Hectors' and 'Scourers,' when, says Shadwell, 'a man could not go from the Rose Tavern to the Piazza once, but he must venture his life twice.' Then came the 'Nickers,' whose delight it was to smash windows with showers of halfpence; next were the 'Hawkabites'; and lastly the 'Mohocks.' These last are described in the 'Spectator,' No. 324, as a set of men who have borrowed their name from a sort of cannibals, in India, who subsist by plundering and devouring all the nations about them. … Their avowed design was mischief, and upon this foundation all their rules and orders were framed. They took care to drink themselves to a pitch beyond reason or humanity, and then made a general sally, and attacked all who were in the streets. Some were knocked down, others stabbed, and others cut and carbonadoed. … They had special barbarities which they executed upon their prisoners. 'Tipping the lion' was squeezing the nose flat to the face and boring out the eyes with their fingers. 'Dancing-masters' were those who taught their scholars to cut capers by running swords through their legs. The 'Tumblers' set women on their heads. The 'Sweaters' worked in parties of half-a-dozen, surrounding their victims with the points of their swords. … Another savage diversion of the Mohocks was their thrusting women into barrels, and rolling them down Snow or Ludgate Hill. … At length the villanies of the Mohocks were attempted to be put down by a Royal proclamation, issued on the 18th of March, 1712: this, however, had very little effect, for we soon find Swift exclaiming: 'They go on still and cut people's faces every night!' … The Mohocks held together until nearly the end of the reign of George I." [1727]

J. Timbs, Clubs and Club Life in London, pages 33-38.

MOIRA, Lord (Marquis of Hastings), The Indian administration of.

See INDIA: A. D. 1805-1816.

MOJOS, MOXOS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ANDESIANS; also, BOLIVIA: ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.

MÖKERN, Battle of (1813).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1812-1813.

MOLAI, Jacques de, and the fall of the Templars.

See TEMPLARS: A. D. 1307-1314; and FRANCE: A. D. 1285-1314.

MOLASSES ACT, The.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1763-1764.

MOLDAVIA. MOLDO-WALLACHIA.

See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.

MOLEMES, The Abbey of.

See CISTERCIAN ORDER.

MOLINISTS, The.

See MYSTICISM.

MOLINO DEL REY, Battle of.

See MEXICO: A. D. 1847 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).

MOLINOS DEL REY, Battle of (1808).

See SPAIN: A. D. 1808-1809 (DECEMBER-MARCH).

MOLLWITZ, Battle of (1741).

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1740-1741.

MOLOSSIANS, The.

See HELLAS; and EPIRUS.

MOLTKE'S CAMPAIGNS.

See TURKS: A. D. 1831-1840; GERMANY: A. D. 1866; FRANCE: A. D. 1870, and 1870-1871.

MOLUCCAS: Secured by Spain (1524).

See AMERICA: A. D. 1519-1524.

MONA.

The ancient name of the island of Anglesea. It was the final seat of the Druidical religion in Britain. Taken by the Romans under Suetonius, A. D. 61, the priests were slain, the sacred groves destroyed and Druidism practically exterminated.

C. Merivale, History of the Romans, chapter 51.

See MONAPIA.

MONACANS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: POWHATAN CONFEDERACY, and IROQUOIS TRIBES OF THE SOUTH.

MONAPIA.

"The name of Monapia first occurs in Pliny, and must be unquestionably identified with the Isle of Man; though the name of the latter would dispose us at first to consider it as representing Mona. But the Mona of the Romans, which was attacked by Suetonius Paulinus and Agricola, was certainly Anglesea."

E. H. Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography., chapter 24, section 2, foot-note.

MONASTERY. MONASTICISM. CONVENT. ABBEY. PRIORY.

"Monasticism was not the product of Christianity; it was the inheritance of the Church, not its invention; not the offspring, but the adopted child. The old antagonism between mind and matter, flesh and spirit, self and the world has asserted itself in all ages, especially among the nations of the East. The Essenes, the Therapeutæ, and other Oriental mystics, were as truly the precursors of Christian asceticism in the desert or in the cloister, as Elijah and St. John the Baptist. The Neoplatonism of Alexandria, extolling the passionless man above him who regulates his passions, sanctioned and systematized this craving after a life of utter abstraction from external things, this abhorrence of all contact with what is material as a defilement. Doubtless the cherished remembrance of the martyrs and confessors, who in the preceding centuries of the Christian era had triumphed over many a sanguinary persecution, gave a fresh impulse in the fourth century to this propensity to asceticism, stimulating the devout to vie with their forefathers in the faith by their voluntary endurance of self-inflicted austerities. … The terms monastery, originally the cell or eave of a solitary, laura, an irregular cluster of cells, and cœnobium, an association of monks, few or many, under one roof and under one control, mark the three earliest stages in the development of monasticism. {2196} In Syria and Palestine each monk originally had a separate cell; in Lower Egypt two were together in one cell, whence the term 'syncellita,' or sharer of the cell, came to express this sort of comradeship; in the Thebaid, under Pachomius of Tabenna, each cell contained three monks. At a later period the monks arrogated to themselves by general consent the title of 'the religious,' and admission into a monastery was termed 'conversion' to God. … The history of monasticism, like the history of states and institutions in general, divides itself broadly into three great periods, of growth, of glory, and of decay. … From the beginning of the fourth century to the close of the fifth, from Antony the hermit to Benedict of Monte Casino, is the age of undisciplined impulse of enthusiasm not as yet regulated by experience. … Everything is on a scale of illogical exaggeration, is wanting in balance, in proportion, in symmetry. Because purity, unworldliness, charity, are virtues, therefore a woman is to be regarded as a venomous reptile, gold as a worthless pebble; the deadliest foe and the dearest friend are to be esteemed just alike. Because it is right to be humble, therefore the monk cuts off hand, ear, or tongue, to avoid being made bishop, and feigns idiocy, in order not to be accounted wise. Because it is well to teach people to be patient, therefore a sick monk never speaks a kind word for years to the brother monk who nursed him. Because it is right to keep the lips from idle words, therefore a monk holds a large stone in his mouth for three years. Every precept is to be taken literally, and obeyed unreasoningly. Therefore monks who have been plundered by a robber run after him to give him a something which has escaped his notice. Self-denial is enjoined in the gospel. Therefore the austerities of asceticism are to be simply endless. One ascetic makes his dwelling in a hollow tree, another in a cave, another in a tomb, another on the top of a pillar, another has so lost the very appearance of a man, that he is shot at by shepherds, who mistake him for a wolf. The natural instincts, instead of being trained and cultivated, are to be killed outright, in this abhorrence of things material. … The period which follows, from the first Benedict to Charlemagne, exhibits monasticism in a more mature stage of activity. The social intercourse of the monastery, duly harmonized by a traditional routine, with its subordination of rank and offices, its division of duties, its mutual dependence of all on each other, and on their head, civilized the monastic life; and, as the monk himself became subject to the refining influences of civilization, he went forth into the world to civilize others. … Had it not been for monks and monasteries, the barbarian deluge might have swept away utterly the traces of Roman civilization. The Benedictine monk was the pioneer of civilization and Christianity in England, Germany, Poland, Bohemia, Sweden, Denmark. The schools attached to the Lerinensian monasteries were the precursors of the Benedictine seminaries in France and of the professional chairs filled by learned Benedictines in the universities of mediæval Christendom. With the incessant din of arms around him, it was the monk in his cloister, even in regions beyond the immediate sphere of Benedict's legislation, even in the remote fastnesses, for instance of Mount Athos, who, by preserving and transcribing ancient manuscripts, both Christian and pagan, as well as by recording his observations of contemporaneous events, was handing down the torch of knowledge unquenched to future generations, and hoarding up stores of erudition for the researches of a more enlightened age. The first musicians, painters, farmers, statesmen, in Europe, after the downfall of Imperial Rome under the onslaught of the barbarians, were monks."

I. Gregory Smith, Christian Monasticism, introduction.

"The monastic stream, which had been born in the deserts of Egypt, divided itself into two great arms. The one spread in the East, at first inundated everything, then concentrated and lost itself there. The other escaped into the West, and spread itself by a thousand channels over an entire world which had to be covered and fertilised." Athanasius, who was driven twice by persecution to take refuge among the hermits in the Thebaid, Egypt, and who was three times exiled by an imperial order to the West, "became thus the natural link between the Fathers of the desert and those vast regions which their successors were to conquer and transform. … It was in 340 that he came for the first time to Rome, in order to escape the violence of the Arians, and invoke the protection of Pope Julius. … He spread in Rome the first report of the life led by the monks in the Thebaid, of the marvellous exploits of Anthony, who was still alive, of the immense foundations which Pacome was at that time forming upon the banks of the higher Nile. He had brought with him two of the most austere of these monks. … The narratives of Athanasius … roused the hearts and imaginations of the Romans, and especially of the Roman women. The name of monk, to which popular prejudice seems already to have attached a kind of ignominy, became immediately an honoured and envied title. The impression produced at first by the exhortations of the illustrious exile, was extended and strengthened during the two other visits which he made to the Eternal City. Some time afterwards, on the death of St. Anthony, Athanasius, at the request of his disciples, wrote the life of the patriarch of the Thebaid; and this biography, circulating through all the West, immediately acquired there the popularity of a legend, and the authority of a confession of faith. … Under this narrative form, says St. Gregory of Nazianzus, he promulgated the laws of monastic life. The town and environs of Rome were soon full of monasteries, rapidly occupied by men distinguished alike by birth, fortune and knowledge, who lived there in charity, sanctity, and freedom. From Rome the new institution, already distinguished by the name of religion, or religious life, par excellence, extended itself over all Italy. It was planted at the foot of the Alps by the influence of a great bishop, Eusebius of Vercelli. … From the continent the new institution rapidly gained the isles of the Mediterranean, and even the rugged rocks of the Gargon and of Capraja, where the monks, voluntarily exiled from the world, went to take the place of the criminals and political victims whom the emperors had been accustomed to banish thither. … Most of the great leaders of the cenobitical institution had, since St. Pacome, made out, under the name of Rule, instructions and constitutions for the use of their immediate disciples; but none of these works had acquired an extensive or lasting sway. In the East, it is true, the rule of St. Basil had prevailed in a multitude of monasteries, yet notwithstanding Cassianus, in visiting Egypt, Palestine, and Mesopotamia, found there almost as many different rules as there were monasteries. {2197} In the West the diversity was still more strange. Each man made for himself his own rule and discipline, taking his authority from the writings or example of the Eastern Fathers. The Gauls especially exclaimed against the extreme rigour of the fasts and abstinences, which might be suitable under a fervid sky like that of Egypt or Syria, but which could not be endured by what they already called Gallican weakness; and even in the initial fervour of the monasteries of the Jura, they had succeeded in imposing a necessary medium upon their chiefs. Here it was the changing will of an abbot; there a written rule; elsewhere, the traditions of the elders, which determined the order of conventual life. In some houses various rules were practised at the same time, according to the inclination of the inhabitants of each cell, and were changed according to the times and places. They passed thus from excessive austerity to laxness, and conversely, according to the liking of each. Uncertainty and instability were everywhere. … A general arrangement was precisely what was most wanting in monastic life. There were an immense number of monks; there had been among them saints and illustrious men; but to speak truly, the monastic order had still no existence. Even where the rule of St. Basil had acquired the necessary degree of establishment and authority—that is to say, in a considerable portion of the East—the gift of fertility was denied to it. … In the West also, towards the end of the fifth century, the cenobitical institution seemed to have fallen into the torpor and sterility of the East. After St. Jerome, who died in 420, and St. Augustine, who died in 430, after the Fathers of Lerins, whose splendour paled towards 450, there was a kind of eclipse. … Except in Ireland and Gaul, where, in most of the provinces, some new foundations rose, a general interruption was observable in the extension of the institution. … If this eclipse had lasted, the history of the monks of the West would only have been, like that of the Eastern monks, a sublime but brief passage in the annals of the Church, instead of being their longest and best-filled page. This was not to be: but to keep the promises which the monastic order had made to the Church and to the new-born Christendom, it needed, at the beginning of the sixth century, a new and energetic impulse, such as would concentrate and discipline so many scattered, irregular, and intermittent forces; a uniform and universally accepted rule; a legislator inspired by the fertile and glorious past, to establish and govern the future. God provided for that necessity by sending St. Benedict into the world."

Count de Montalembert, The Monks of the West, volume 1, pages 381-387 and 512-515.

"The very word monastery is a misnomer: the word is a Greek word, and means the dwelling-place of a solitary person, living in seclusion. … In the 13th century … a monastery meant what we now understand it to mean—viz., the abode of a society of men or women who lived together in common—who were supposed to partake of common meals; to sleep together in one common dormitory; to attend certain services together in their common church; to transact certain business or pursue certain employments in the sight and hearing of each other in the common cloister; and, when the end came, to be laid side by side in the common graveyard, where in theory none but members of the order could find a resting-place for their bones. When I say 'societies of men and women' I am again reminded that the other term, 'convent,' has somehow got to be used commonly in a mistaken sense. People use the word as if it signified a religious house tenanted exclusively by women. The truth is that a convent is nothing more than a Latin name for an association of persons who have come together with a view to live for a common object and to submit to certain rules in the ordering of their daily lives. The monastery was the common dwelling-place; the convent was the society of persons inhabiting it; and the ordinary formula used when a body of monks or nuns execute any corporate act—such as buying or selling land—by any legal instrument is, 'The Prior and Convent of the Monastery of the Holy Trinity at Norwich;' 'the Abbot and Convent of the Monastery of St. Peter's, Westminster;' 'the Abbess and Convent of the Monastery of St. Mary and St. Bernard at Lacock,' and so on. … A monastery in theory then was, as it was called, a Religious House. It was supposed to be the home of people whose lives were passed in the worship of God, and in taking care of their own souls, and making themselves fit for a better world than this hereafter. … The church of a monastery was the heart of the place. It was not that the church was built for the monastery, but the monastery existed for the church. … Almost as essential to the idea of a monastery as the church was the cloister or great quadrangle, inclosed on all sides by the high walls of the monastic buildings. … All round this quadrangle ran a covered arcade, whose roof, leaning against the high walls, was supported on the inner side by an open trellis work in stone—often exhibiting great beauty of design and workmanship—through which light and air was admitted into the arcade. … The cloister was really the living place of the monks. Here they pursued their daily avocations, here they taught their school. … 'But surely a monk always lived in a cell, didn't he?' The sooner we get rid of that delusion the better. Be it understood that until Henry II. founded the Carthusian Abbey of Witham, in 1178, there was no such thing known in England as a monk's cell, as we understand the term. It was a peculiarity of the Carthusian order, and when it was first introduced it was regarded as a startling novelty for any privacy or anything approaching solitude to be tolerated in a monastery. The Carthusian system never found much favour in England. … At the time of the Norman Conquest it may be said that all English monks were professedly under one and the same Rule—the famous Benedictine Rule. The Rule of a monastery was the constitution or code of laws, which regulated the discipline of the house, and the Rule of St. Benedict dates back as far as the 6th century, though it was not introduced into England for more than 100 years after it had been adopted elsewhere. … About 150 years before the Conquest, a great reformation had been attempted of the French monasteries, … the reformers breaking away from the old Benedictines and subjecting themselves to a new and improved Rule. {2198} These first reformers were called Cluniac monks, from the great Abbey of Clugni, in Burgundy, in which the new order of things had begun. The first English house of reformed or Cluniac monks was founded at Lewes, in Sussex, 11 years after the Conquest. … The constitution of every convent, great or small, was monarchical. The head of the house was almost an absolute sovereign, and was called the Abbot. His dominions often extended, even in England, over a very wide tract of country, and sometimes over several minor monasteries which were called Cells. … The heads of these cells or subject houses were called Priors. An Abbey was a monastery which was independent. A priory was a monastery which in theory or in fact was subject to an abbey. All the Cluniac monasteries in England were thus said to be alien priories, because they were mere cells of the great Abbey of Clugni in France, to which each priory paid heavy tribute."

A. Jessopp, The Coming of the Friars, chapter 3.

ALSO IN: E. L. Cutts, Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, chapter 6.

J. Bingham, Antiquity of the Christ. Ch., book 7, chapter 3, sections 11-14.

_I. G. Smith, Christian Monasticism, 4-9th Centuries._

See, also, CŒNOBIUM; LAURAS; MENDICANT ORDERS; BENEDICTINE; CISTERCIAN; CARMELITE, and AUSTIN CANONS.

MONASTERIES, The English, Suppression of.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1535-1539.

MONASTIC LIBRARIES.

See LIBRARIES, MEDIÆVAL.

MONASTIC ORDERS.

See AUSTIN CANONS; BENEDICTINE ORDERS; CAPUCHINS; CARMELITE FRIARS; CARTHUSIAN; CISTERCIAN; CLAIRVAUX; CLUGNY; MENDICANT ORDERS; RECOLLECTS; SERVITES; THEATINES; TRAPPISTS.

MONÇON, MONZON, Treaty of (1626).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1624-1626.

MONCONTOUR, Battle of (1569).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1563-1570.

----------MONEY AND BANKING: Start--------

MONEY AND BANKING: Nature and Origin of Money.

"When the division of labour has been once thoroughly established, it is but a very small part of a man's wants which the produce of his own labour can supply. He supplies the far greater part of them by exchanging that surplus part of the produce of his own labour, which is over and above his own consumption, for such parts of the produce of other men's labour us he has occasion for. Every man thus lives by exchanging, or becomes in some measure a merchant, and the society itself grows to be what is properly a commercial society. But when the division of labour first began to take place, this power of exchanging must frequently have been very much clogged and embarrassed in its operations. One man, we shall suppose, has more of a certain commodity than he himself has occasion for, while another has less. The former consequently would be glad to dispose of, and the latter to purchase, a part of this superfluity. But if this latter should chance to have nothing that the former stands in need of, no exchange can be made between them. The butcher has more meat in his shop than he himself can consume, and the brewer and the baker would each of them be willing to purchase a part of it. But they have nothing to offer in exchange, except the different productions of their respective trades, and the butcher is already provided with all the bread and beer which he has immediate occasion for. No exchange can, in this case, be made between them. … In order to avoid the inconveniency of such situations, every prudent man in every period of society, after the first establishment of the division of labour, must naturally have endeavoured to manage his affairs in such a manner, as to have at all times by him, besides the peculiar produce of his own industry, a certain quantity of some one commodity or other, such as he imagined few people would be likely to refuse in exchange for the produce of their industry. Many different commodities, it is probable, were successively both thought of and employed for this purpose. In the rude ages of society, cattle are said to have been the common instrument of commerce; and, though they must have been a most inconvenient one, yet in old times we find things were frequently valued according to the number of cattle which had been given in exchange for them. The armour of Diomede, says Homer, cost only nine oxen; but that of Glaucus cost an hundred oxen. Salt is said to be the common instrument of commerce and exchange in Abyssinia; a species of shells in some parts of the coasts of India; dried cod at Newfoundland; tobacco in Virginia; sugar in some of our West India colonies; hides or dressed leather in some other countries; and there is at this day [1775] a village in Scotland where it is not uncommon, I am told, for a workman to carry nails instead of money to the baker's shop or the alehouse. In all countries, however, men seem at last to have been determined by irresistible reasons to give the preference, for this employment, to metals above every other commodity."

Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, chapter 4, book 1 (volume 1).

"There is … no machine which has saved as much labor as money. … The invention of money has been rightly compared to the invention of writing with letters. We may, however, call the introduction of money as the universal medium of exchange … one of the greatest and most beneficent of advances ever made by the race. … Very different kinds of commodities have, according to circumstances, been used as money; but uniformly only such as possess a universally recognized economic value. On the whole, people in a low stage of civilization are wont to employ, mainly, only ordinary commodities, such as are calculated to satisfy a vulgar and urgent want, as an instrument of exchange. As they advance in civilization, they, at each step, choose a more and more costly object, for this purpose, and one which ministers to the more elevated wants. Races of hunters, at least in non-tropical countries, usually use skins as money; that is the almost exclusive product of their labor, one which can be preserved for a long period of time, which constitutes their principal article of clothing and their principal export in the more highly developed regions. Nomadic races and the lower agricultural races, pass, by a natural gradation, to the use of cattle as money; which supposes rich pasturages at the disposal of all. {2199} If it were otherwise, there would be a great many to whom payments of this kind had been made, who would not know what to do with the cattle given them, on account of the charges for their maintenance. … That metals were used for the purpose of money much later than the commodities above mentioned, and the precious metals in turn later than the non-precious metals, cannot by any means be shown to be universally true. Rather is gold in some countries to be obtained by the exercise of so little skill, and both gold and silver satisfy a want so live and general, and one so early felt, that they are to be met with as an instrument of exchange in very early times. In the case of isolated races, much depends on the nature of the metals with which the geologic constitution of the country has furnished them. In general, however, the above law is found to prevail here. The higher the development of a people becomes, the more frequent is the occurrence of large payments; and to effect these, the more costly a metal is, the better, of course, it is adapted to effect such payments. Besides, only rich nations are able to possess the costly metals in a quantity absolutely great. Among the Jews, gold as money dates only from the time of David. King Pheidon, of Argos, it is said, introduced silver money into Greece, about the middle of the eighth century before Christ. Gold came into use at a much later period. The Romans struck silver money, for the first time, in 209 before Christ, and, in 207, the first gold coins. Among modern nations, Venice (1285) and Florence seem to have been the first to have coined gold in any quantity."

W. Roscher, Principles of Political Economy, book 2, chapter 3, sections 117-119 (volume 1).

MONEY AND BANKING: Ancient Egypt and Babylonia.

"Money seems to us now so obvious a convenience, and so much a necessity of commerce, that it appears almost inconceivable that a people who created the Sphinx and the Pyramids, the temples of Ipsamboul and Karnac, should have been entirely ignorant of coins. Yet it appears from the statements of Herodotus, and the evidence of the monuments themselves, that this was really the case. As regards the commercial and banking systems of ancient Egypt, we are almost entirely without information. Their standard of value seems to have been the 'outen' or 'ten' of copper (94-96 grammes), which circulated like the æs rude of the Romans by weight, and in the form of bricks, being measured by the balance. It was obtained from the mines of Mount Sinai, which were worked as early as the fourth dynasty. Gold and silver appear to have been also used, though less frequently. Like copper, they were sometimes in the form of bricks, but generally in rings, resembling the ring money of the ancient Celts, which is said to have been employed in Ireland down to the 12th century, and still holds its own in the interior of Africa. This approximated very nearly to the possession of money, but it wanted what the Roman lawyers called 'the law' and 'the form.' Neither the weight nor the pureness was guaranteed by any public authority. Such a state of things seems to us very inconvenient, but after all It is not very different from that which prevails in China even at the present day. The first money struck in Egypt, and that for the use rather of the Greek and Phœnician merchants than of the natives, was by the Satrap Aryandes. In ancient Babylonia and Assyria, as in Egypt, the precious metals, and especially silver, circulated as uncoined ingots. They were readily taken indeed, but taken by weight and verified by the balance like any other merchandise. The excavations in Assyria and Babylon, which have thrown so much light upon ancient history, have afforded us some interesting information as to the commercial arrangements of these countries, and we now possess a considerable number of receipts, contracts, and other records relating to loans of silver on personal securities at fixed rates of interest; loans on landed or house property; sales of land, in one case with a plan; sales of slaves, &c. These were engraved on tablets of clay, which were then burnt. M. Lenormant divides these most interesting documents into five principal types:

1. Simple obligations. 2. Obligations with a penal clause in case of non-fulfilment. One he gives which had 79 days to run. 3. Obligations with the guarantee of a third party. 4. Obligations payable to a third person. 5. Drafts drawn upon one place, payable in another. …

These Assyrian drafts were negotiable, but from the nature of things could not pass by endorsement, because, when the clay was once baked, nothing new could be added, and under these circumstances the name of the payee was frequently omitted. It seems to follow that they must have been regularly advised. It is certainly remarkable that such instruments, and especially letters of credit, should have preceded the use of coins. The earliest banking firm of which we have any account is said to be that of Egibi and Company, for our knowledge of whom we are indebted to Mr. Boscawen, Mr. Pinches, and Mr. Hilton Price. Several documents and records belonging to this family are in the British Museum. They are on clay tablets, and were discovered in an earthenware jar found in the neighbourhood of Hillah, a few miles from Babylon. The house is said to have acted as a sort of national bank of Babylon: the founder of the house, Egibi, probably lived in the reign of Sennacherib, about 700 B. C. This family has been traced during a century and a half, and through five generations, down to the reign of Darius. At the same time, the tablets hitherto translated scarcely seem to me to prove that the firm acted as bankers, in our sense of the word."

_Sir J. Lubbock, The History of Money (Nineteenth Century, November, 1879)._

"We have an enormous number of the documents of this firm, beginning with Nebuchadnezzar the Great, and going on for some five generations or so to the time of Darius. The tablets are dated month after month and year after year, and thus they afford us a sure method of fixing the chronology of that very uncertain period of history. There is a small contract tablet in the Museum at Zürich, discovered by Dr. Oppert, dated in the 5th year of Pacorus, king of Persia, who reigned about the time of Domitian. There is a little doubt about the reading of one of the characters in the name, but if it is correct, it will prove that the use of cuneiform did not fall into disuse until after the Christian Era. … Some have tried to show that Egibi is the Babylonian form of Jacob, which would lead one to suspect the family to have been Jews; but this is not certain at present."

E. A. W. Budge, Babylonian Life and History, page 115.

{2200}

"It is in the development of trade, and especially of banking, rather than in manufactures, that Babylonia and Chaldæa were in advance of all the rest of the world. The most cautious Assyriologists are the least confident in their renderings of the numerous contract tablets from which, if they were accurately interpreted, we should certainly be able to reconstruct the laws and usages of the world's first great market place. … The following account of Babylonian usages is derived from the text of M. Revillout's work. … It is confirmed in essentials by the later work of Meissner, who has translated over one hundred deeds of the age of Hammurabi and his successors. In Chaldæa every kind of commodity, from land to money, circulated with a freedom that is unknown to modern commerce; every value was negotiable, and there was no limit to the number and variety of the agreements that might be entered into. … Brick tablets did not lend themselves readily to 'bookkeeping,' as no further entry could be made after baking, while the first entry was not secure unless baked at once. Each brick recorded one transaction, and was kept by the party interested till the contract was completed, and the destruction of the tablet was equivalent to a receipt. Babylonian law allowed debts to be paid by assigning another person's debt to the creditor; a debt was property, and could be assigned without reference to the debtor, so that any formal acknowledgment of indebtedness could be treated like a negotiable bill—a fact which speaks volumes for the commercial honesty of the people. A separate tablet was, of course, required to record the original debt, or rather to say that So-and-so's debt to Such-an-one has been by him sold to a third party. Such third party could again either assign his claim to a bank for a consideration, or if the last debtor had a credit at the bank, the creditor could be paid out of that, a sort of forecast of the modern clearing-house system. The debtor who pays before the term agreed on has to receive a formal surrender of the creditor's claim, or a transfer of it to himself. The Babylonian regarded money and credit as synonymous, and the phrase, 'Money of Such-an-one upon So-and-so,' is used as equivalent to A's credit with B. … In ancient Babylonia, as in modern China, the normal effect of a loan was supposed to be beneficial to the borrower. In Egypt, judging from the form of the deeds, the idea was that the creditor asserted a claim upon the debtor, or the debtor acknowledged a liability to the man from whom he had borrowed. In Babylonia the personal question is scarcely considered; one person owes money to another—that is the commonest thing in the world—such loans are in a chronic state of being incurred and paid off; one man's debt is another man's credit, and credit being the soul of commerce, the loan is considered rather as a part of the floating negotiable capital of the country than as a burden on the shoulders of one particular debtor."

E. J. Simcox, Primitive Civilizations, volume 1, pages 320-322.

MONEY AND BANKING: China.

"Not only did the Chinese possess coins at a very early period, but they were also the inventors of bank notes. Some writers regard bank notes as having originated about 119 B. C., in the reign of the Emperor Ou-ti. At this time the Court was in want of money, and to raise it Klaproth tells us that the prime minister hit upon the following device. When any princess or courtiers entered the imperial presence, it was customary to cover the face with a piece of skin. It was first decreed then, that for this purpose the skin of certain white deer kept in one of the royal parks should alone be permitted, and then these pieces of skin were sold for a high price. But although they appear to have passed from one noble to another, they do not seem ever to have entered into general circulation. It was therefore very different from the Russian skin money. In this case the notes were 'used instead of the skins from which they were cut, the skins themselves being too bulky and heavy to be constantly carried backward and forward. Only a little piece was cut off to figure as a token of possession of the whole skin. The ownership was proved when the piece fitted in the hole.' True bank notes are said to have been invented about 800 A. D., in the reign of Hiantsoung, of the dynasty of Thang, and were called 'feytsien,' or flying money. It is curious, however, though not surprising, to find that the temptation to over-issue led to the same results in China as in the West. The value of the notes fell, until at length it took 11,000 min, or £3,000, to buy a cake of rice, and the use of notes appears to have been abandoned. Subsequently the issue was revived, and Tchang-yang (960-990 A. D.) seems to have been the first private person who issued notes. Somewhat later, under the Emperor 'Tching-tsong (997-1022), this invention was largely extended. Sixteen of the richest firms united to form a bank of issue which emitted paper money in series, some payable every three years. The earliest mention, in European literature, of paper, or rather cotton, money appears to be by Rubruquis, a monk, who was sent by St. Louis, in the year 1252, to the Court of the Mongol Prince Mangu-Khan, but he merely mentions the fact of its existence. Marco Polo, who resided from 1275 to 1284 at the court of Kublai-Khan, … gives us a longer and interesting account of the note system, which he greatly admired, and he concludes by saying, 'Now you have heard the ways and means whereby the great Khan may have, and, in fact, has, more treasure than all the kings in the world. You know all about it, and the reason why.' But this apparent facility of creating money led, in the East, as it has elsewhere, to great abuses. Sir John Mandeville, who was in Tartary shortly afterwards, in 1322, tells us that the 'Emperour may dispenden als moehe as he wile with outen estymacioum. For he despendeth not, ne maketh no money, but of lether emprented, or of papyre. … For there and beyonde hem thei make no money, nouther of gold nor of sylver. And therefore he may despende ynow and outrageously.' The great Khan seems to have been himself of the same opinion. He appears to have 'despent outrageously,' and the value of the paper money again fell to a very small fraction of its nominal amount, causing great discontent and misery, until about the middle of the sixteenth century, under the Mandchu dynasty, it was abolished, and appears to have been so completely forgotten, that the Jesuit father, Gabriel de Magaillans, who resided at Pekin about 1668, observes that there is no recollection of paper money having ever existed in the manner described by Marco Polo; though two centuries later it was again in use. It must be observed, however, that these Chinese bank notes differed from ours in one essential—namely, they were not payable at sight. {2201} Western notes, even when not payable at all, have generally purported to be exchangeable at the will of the holder, but this principle the Chinese did not adopt, and their notes were only payable at certain specified periods."

_Sir J. Lubbock, The History of Money (Nineteenth Century, November, 1879)._

ALSO IN: _W. Vissering, On Chinese Currency._

MONEY AND BANKING: Coinage in its Beginnings.

"Many centuries before the invention of the art of coining, gold and silver in the East, and bronze in the West, in bullion form, had already supplanted barter, the most primitive of all methods of buying and selling, when among pastoral peoples the ox and the sheep were the ordinary mediums of exchange. The very word 'pecunia' is an evidence of this practice in Italy at a period which is probably recent in comparison with the time when values were estimated in cattle in Greece and the East. 'So far as we have any knowledge,' says Herodotus, 'the Lydians were the first nation to introduce the use of gold and silver coin.' This statement of the father of history must not, however, be accepted as finally settling the vexed question as to who were the inventors of coined money, for Strabo, Aelian, and the Parian Chronicle, all agree in adopting the more commonly received tradition, that Pheidon, King of Argos, first struck silver coins in the island of Aegina. These two apparently contradictory assertions modern research tends to reconcile with one another. The one embodies the Asiatic, the other the European tradition; and the truth of the matter is that gold was first coined by the Lydians in Asia Minor, in the seventh century before our era; and that silver was first struck in European Greece about the same time. The earliest coins are simply bullets of metal, oval or bean-shaped, bearing on one side the signet of the state or of the community responsible for the purity of the metal and the exactness of the weight. Coins were at first stamped on one side only, the reverse showing merely the impress of the square-headed spike or anvil on which, after being weighed, the bullet of hot metal was placed with a pair of tongs and there held while a second workman adjusted upon it the engraved die. This done, a third man with a heavy hammer would come down upon it with all his might, and the coin would be produced, bearing on its face or obverse the seal of the issuer, and on the reverse only the mark of the anvil spike, an incuse square. This simple process was after a time improved upon by adding a second engraved die beneath the metal bullet, so that a single blow of the sledge-hammer would provide the coin with a type, as it is called, in relief on both sides. The presence of the unengraved incuse square may therefore be accepted as an indication of high antiquity, and nearly all Greek coins which are later than the age of the Persian wars bear a type on both sides. … Greek coin-types may be divided into two distinct classes:

(a) Mythological or religious representations, and (b) portraits of historical persons.

From the earliest times down to the age of Alexander the Great the types of Greek coins are almost exclusively religious. However strange this may seem at first, it is not difficult to explain. It must be borne in mind that when the enterprising and commercial Lydians first lighted upon the happy idea of stamping metal for general circulation, a guarantee of just weight and purity of metal would be the one condition required. … What more binding guarantee could be found than the invocation of one or other of those divinities most honoured and most dreaded in the district in which the coin was intended to circulate. There is even good reason to think that the earliest coins were actually struck within the precincts of the temples, and under the direct auspices of the priests; for in times of general insecurity by sea and land, the temples alone remained sacred and inviolate."

_B. V. Head, Greek Coins Coins and Medals, edited by S. Lane-Poole, chapter 2._

MONEY AND BANKING: Early Banking.

"The banker's calling is both new and old. As a distinct branch of commerce, and a separate agent in the advancement of civilisation, its history hardly extends over 300 years; but, in a rude and undeveloped sort of way, it has existed during some dozens of centuries. It began almost with the beginning of society. No sooner had men learnt to adopt a portable and artificial equivalent for their commodities, and thus to buy and sell and get gain more easily, than the more careful of them began to gather up their money in little heaps, or in great heaps, if they were fortunate enough. These heaps were, by the Romans, called montes—mounds, or banks,—and henceforth every money-maker was a primitive banker. The prudent farmers and shopkeepers in the out-of-the-way villages, who now lock up their savings in strong boxes, or conceal them in places where they are least likely to be found by thieves, show us how the richest and most enterprising men of far-off times, whether in Anglo-Saxon or mediæval Britain, ancient Greece and Rome, China or Judæa, made banks for themselves before the great advantages of joint-stock heaping up of money were discovered. When and in what precise way that discovery was made antiquarians have yet to decide. … Perhaps Jews and Greeks set the example to the modern world. Every rich Athenian had his treasurer or money-keeper, and whenever any particular treasurer proved himself a good accountant and safe banker, it is easy to understand how, from having one master, he came to have several, until he was able to change his condition of slavery for the humble rank of a freedman, and then to use his freedom to such good purpose that he became an influential member of the community. Having many people's money, entrusted to his care, he received good payment for his responsible duty, and he quickly learned to increase his wealth by lending out his own savings, if not his employers' capital, at the highest rate of interest that he could obtain. The Greek bankers were chiefly famous as money-lenders, and interest at thirty-six per cent. per annum was not considered unusually exorbitant among them. For their charges they were often blamed by spendthrifts, satirists, and others. 'It is said,' complains Plutarch, 'that hares bring forth and nourish their young at the same time that they conceive again; but the debts of these scoundrels and savages bring forth before they conceive, for they give and immediately demand again; they take away their money at the same time as they put it out; they place at interest what they receive as interest. The Messenians have a proverb: "There is a Pylos before Pylos, and yet another Pylos still." {2202} So of the usurers it may be said, "There is a profit before profit, and yet another profit still;" and then, forsooth, they laugh at philosophers, who say that nothing can come out of nothing!' The Greek bankers and money-lenders, those of Delos and Delphi especially, are reported to have used the temples as treasure-houses, and to have taken the priests into partnership in their money-making. Some arrangement of that sort seems to have existed among the Jews, and to have aroused the anger of Jesus when he went into the Temple of Jerusalem, 'and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.' Bankers' or money-changers' tables were famous institutions all over the civilised world of the ancients. Livy tells how, in 308 B. C., if not before, they were to be found in the Roman Forum, and later Latin authors make frequent allusions to banking transactions of all sorts. They talk of deposits and securities, bills of exchange and drafts to order, cheques and bankers' books, as glibly as a modern merchant. But these things were nearly forgotten during the dark ages, until the Jews, true to the money-making propensities that characterised them while they still had a country of their own, set the fashion of money-making and of banking in all the countries of Europe through which they were dispersed."

H. R. Fox Bourne, Romance of Trade, chapter 4.

MONEY AND BANKING: Ancient Greece.

"Oriental contact first stirred the 'auri sacra fames' in the Greek mind. That this was so the Greek language itself tells plainly. For 'chrusos,' gold, is a Semitic loan-word, closely related to the Hebrew 'charuz,' but taken immediately, there can be no reasonable doubt, from the Phœnician. The restless treasure-seekers from Tyre were, indeed, as the Græco-Semitic term metal intimates, the original subterranean explorers of the Balkan peninsula. As early, probably, as the 15th century B. C. they 'digged out ribs of gold' on the islands of Thasos and Siphnos, and on the Thracian mainland at Mount Pangæum; and the fables of the Golden Fleece, and of Arimaspian wars with gold-guarding griffins, prove the hold won by the 'precious bane' over the popular imagination. Asia Minor was, however, the chief source of prehistoric supply, the native mines lying long neglected after the Phœnicians had been driven from the scene. Midas was a typical king in a land where the mountains were gold-granulated, and the rivers ran over sands of gold. And it was in fact from Phrygia that Pelops was traditionally reported to have brought the treasures which made Mycenæ the golden city of the Achæan world. The Epic affluence in gold was not wholly fictitious. From the sepulchres of Mycenæ alone about one hundred pounds Troy weight of the metal have been disinterred; freely at command even in the lowest stratum of the successive habitations at Hissarlik, it was lavishly stored, and highly wrought in the picturesquely-named 'treasure of Priam'; and has been found, in plates and pearls, beneath twenty metres of volcanic debris, in the Cyclatic islands Thera and Therapia. This plentifulness contrasts strangely with the extreme scarcity of gold in historic Greece. It persisted, however, mainly owing to the vicinity of the auriferous Ural Mountains, in the Milesian colony of Panticapæum, near Kertch, where graves have been opened containing corpses shining 'like images' in a complete clothing of gold-leaf, and equipped with ample supplies of golden vessels and ornaments. Silver was, at the outset, a still rarer substance than gold. Not that there is really less of it. … But it occurs less obviously, and is less easy to obtain pure. Accordingly, in some very early Egyptian inscriptions, silver, by heading the list of metals, claims a supremacy over them which proved short-lived. It terminated for ever with the scarcity that had produced it, when the Phœnicians began to pour the flood of Spanish silver into the markets and treasure-chambers of the East. Armenia constituted another tolerably copious source of supply; and it was in this quarter that Homer located the 'birth-place of silver.'"

A. M. Clerke, Familiar Studies in Homer, chapter 10.

"Taken as a whole the Greek money is excellent; pure in metal and exact in weight, its real corresponding to its nominal value. Nothing better has been done in this way among the most civilized and best governed nations of modern times. There is, indeed, always a certain recognized limit, which keeps the actual weight of the money slightly below its theoretical weight; and this fact recurs with such regularity that it may be regarded as a rule. We must conclude, therefore, that it was under this form that Greek civilization allowed to the coiner of money the right of seigniorage, or the benefit legitimately due to him to cover the expenses of the coinage, and in exchange for the service rendered by him to the public in providing them with money, by which they were saved the trouble of perpetual weighing. This allowance, however, is always kept within very narrow limits, and is never more than the excess of the natural value of the coined money over that of the metal in ingots. … Of course, the general and predominant fact of the excellence of the Greek money in the time of Hellenic independence is subject, like all human things, to some exceptions. There were a few cities which yielded to the delusive bait of an unlawful advantage, debasing the quality of their coins without foreseeing that the consequences of this unfair operation would react against themselves. But these exceptions are very rare."

_F. Lenormant, Money in Ancient Greece and Rome (Contemporary Review, February; 1879)._

"The quantity, particularly of gold, … was, in the earlier historical periods, according to unexceptionable testimony, extremely small. In the time of Crœsus, according to Theopompus, gold was not to be found for sale in any of the Greek States. The Spartans, needing some for a votive offering, wished to purchase a quantity from Crœsus; manifestly because he was the nearest person from whom it could be obtained. … Even during the period from the seventieth to the eightieth Olympiads, (B. C. 500-460,) pure gold was a rarity. When Hiero of Syracuse wished to send a tripod and a statue of the Goddess of Victory, made of pure gold, to the Delphian Apollo, he could not procure the requisite quantity of metal until his agents applied to the Corinthian Architiles, who, as was related by the above-mentioned Theopompus and Phanias of Eresus, had long been in the practice of purchasing gold in small quantities, and hoarding it. Greece proper itself did not possess many mines of precious metals. The most important of the few which it possessed were the Attic silver mines of Laurion. {2203} These were at first very productive. … Asia and Africa furnished incomparably a larger quantity of the precious metals than was procured in Greece and the other European countries. … Colchis, Lydia, and Phrygia, were distinguished for their abundance of gold. Some derive the tradition of the golden fleece from the gold washings in Colchis. Who has not heard of the riches of Midas, and Gyges, and Crœsus, the gold mines of the mountains Tmolus and Sipylus, the gold-sand of the Pactolus? … From the very productive gold mines of India, together with its rivers flowing with gold, among which in particular the Ganges may be classed, arose the fable of the gold-digging ants. From these annual revenues the royal treasure was formed. By this a great quantity of precious metal was kept from circulation. It was manifestly their principle to coin only as much gold and silver as was necessary for the purposes of trade, and for the expenditures of the State. In Greece, also, great quantities were kept from circulation, and accumulated in treasuries. There were locked up in the citadel of Athens 9,700 talents of coined silver, besides the gold and silver vessels and utensils. The Delphian god possessed a great number of the most valuable articles. … The magnificent expenditures of Pericles upon public edifices and structures, for works of the plastic arts, for theatrical exhibitions, and in carrying on wars, distributed what Athens had collected, into many hands. The temple-robbing Phocians coined from the treasures at Delphi ten thousand talents in gold and silver; and this large sum was consumed by war. Philip of Macedonia, in fine, carried on his wars as much with gold as with arms. Thus a large amount of money came into circulation in the period between the commencement of the Persian wars and the age of Demosthenes. The precious metals, therefore, must of necessity have depreciated in value, as they did at a later period, when Constantine the Great caused money to be coined from the precious articles found in the heathen temples. But what a quantity of gold and silver flowed through Alexander's conquest of Asia into the western countries! Allowing that his historians exaggerate, the main point, however, remains certain. … Alexander's successors not only collected immense sums, but by their wars again put them into circulation. … The enormous taxes which were raised in the Macedonian kingdoms, the revelry and extravagant liberality of the kings, which passed all bounds, indicate the existence of an immense amount of ready money."

A. Boeckh, The Public Economy of the Athenians, book 1, chapter 3.

MONEY AND BANKING: Phœnicia.

"Nearly all the silver in common use for trade throughout the East was brought into the market by the Phœnicians. The silver mines were few and distant; the trade was thus a monopoly, worth keeping so by the most savage treatment of suspected rivals, and, as a monopoly, so lucrative that, but for the long and costly voyage between Spain and Syria, the merchant would have seemed to get his profit for nothing. … The use of silver money, though it did not originate with the Phœnicians, was no doubt promoted by their widespread dealings. The coins were always of known weight, and standing in a well-known relation to the bars used for large transactions."

E. J. Simcox, Primitive Civilizations, volume 1, page 400.

"It is a curious fact that coinage in Phoenicia, one of the most commercial of ancient countries, should have been late in origin, and apparently not very plentiful. There are, in fact, no coins of earlier period than the third century which we can with certainty attribute to the great cities of Tyre and Sidon. Some modern writers, however, consider that many of the coins generally classed under Persia—notably those bearing the types of a chariot, a galley, and an owl respectively— were issued by those cities in the 5th and 4th centuries B. C. But it is certain, in any case, that the Phoenicians were far behind the Greeks in the art of moneying. With the invasion of Persia by Alexander the Great came a great change; and all the ancient landmarks of Asiatic government and order were swept away. During the life of Alexander the Great the coins bearing his name and his types circulated throughout Asia; and after his death the same range of currency was attained by the money of the early Seleucid Kings of Syria—Seleucis I., Antiochus I., and Antiochus II., who virtually succeeded to the dominions of the Persian Kings, and tried in many respects to carry on their policy. Of these monarchs we possess a splendid series of coins."

S. Lane-Poole, Coins and Medals, chapter 6.

MONEY AND BANKING: The Jews.

"It would seem that, until the middle of the second century B. C., the Jews either weighed out gold and silver for the 'Price of goods, or else used the money usually current in Syria, that of Persia, Phoenicia, Athens, and the Seleucidae. Simon the Maccabee was the first to issue the Jewish shekel as a coin, and we learn from the Book of Maccabees that the privilege of striking was expressly granted him by King Antiochus VII. of Syria. We possess shekels of years 1-5 of the deliverance of Zion; the types are a chalice and a triple flower. The kings who succeeded Simon, down to Antigonus, confined themselves to the issue of copper money, with Hebrew legends and with types calculated not to shock the susceptible feelings of their people, to whom the representation of a living thing was abominable—such types as a lily, a palm, a star, or an anchor. When the Herodian family came in, several violations of this rule appear."

S. Lane-Poole, Coins and Medals, chapter 6.

ALSO IN: _G. C. Williamson, The Money of the Bible._

MONEY AND BANKING: Rome.

"In Rome the generic terms for money seem to have been successively, pecunia, As, nummns, and moneta. … Moneta … is derived from the name of the temple in which, or in a building to or next to which the money of Rome was coined after the defeat of Pyrrhus, B. a. 275, more probably after the capture of Tarentum by the Romans, B. C. 272. It probably did not come into use until after the era of Scipio, and then was only used occasionally until the period of the Empire, when it and its derivatives became more common. Nummus, nevertheless, continued to hold its ground until towards the decline of the Empire, when it went entirely out of use, and moneta and its derivatives usurped its place, which it has continued to hold ever since. Moneta is therefore substantially a term of the Dark Ages. … The idea associated with moneta is coins, whose value was derived mainly from that of the material of which they were composed; whilst the idea associated with nummus is a system of symbols whose value was derived from legal limitation. {2204} From the fact that our language sprang from the Dark Ages, we have no generic word for money other than moneta, which only relates to one kind of money. For a similar reason, the comparative newness of the English tongue, we have no word for a piece of money except coin, which, properly speaking, only relates to one kind of piece, namely, that which is struck by the cuneus."

A. Del Mar, History of Money in Ancient Countries, chapter 28.

The extent and energy of the Roman traffic, in the great age of the Republic, during the third and second centuries before Christ, "may be traced most distinctly by means of coins and monetary relations. The Roman denarius kept pace with the Roman legions. … The Sicilian mints—last of all that of Syracuse in 542—were closed or at any rate restricted to small money in consequence of the Roman conquest, and … in Sicily and Sardinia the denarius obtained legal circulation at least side by side with the older silver currency and probably very soon became the exclusive legal tender. With equal if not greater rapidity the Roman silver coinage penetrated into Spain, where the great silver-mines existed and there was virtually no earlier national coinage; at a very early period the Spanish towns even began to coin after the Roman standard. On the whole, as Carthage coined only to a very limited extent, there existed not a single important mint in addition to that of Rome in the region of the western Mediterranean, with the exception of the mint of Massilia and perhaps also of those of the Illyrian Greeks at Apollonia and Epidamnus. Accordingly, when the Romans began to establish themselves in the region of the Po, these mints were about 225 subjected to the Roman standard in such a way, that, while they retained the right of coining silver, they uniformly—and the Massiliots in particular—were led to adjust their drachma to the weight of the Roman three-quarter denarius, which the Roman government on its part began to coin, primarily for the use of upper Italy, under the name of the 'piece of Victory' (victoriatus). This new system, based on the Roman, prevailed throughout the Massiliot, Upper Italian, and Illyrian territories; and these coins even penetrated into the barbarian lands on the north, those of Massilia, for instance, into the Alpine districts along the whole basin of the Rhone, and those of Illyria as far as the modern Transylvania. The eastern half of the Mediterranean was not yet reached by the Roman money, as it had not yet fallen under the direct sovereignty of Rome; but its place was filled by gold, the true and natural medium for international and transmarine commerce. It is true that the Roman government, in conformity with its strictly conservative character, adhered—with the exception of a temporary coinage of gold occasioned by the financial embarrassment during the Hannibalic war—steadfastly to the rule of coining silver only in addition to the national-Italian copper; but commerce had already assumed such dimensions, that it was able in the absence of money to conduct its transactions with gold by weight. Of the sum in cash, which lay in the Roman treasury in 597, scarcely a sixth was coined or uncoined silver, five-sixths consisted of gold in bars, and beyond doubt the precious metals were found in all the chests of the larger Roman capitalists in substantially similar proportions. Already therefore gold held the first place in great transactions; and, as may be inferred from this fact, the preponderance of traffic was maintained with foreign lands, and particularly with the East, which since the times of Philip and Alexander the Great had adopted a gold currency. The whole gain from these immense transactions of the Roman capitalists flowed in the long run to Rome. … The moneyed superiority of Rome as compared with the rest of the civilized world was, accordingly, quite as decided as its political and military ascendancy. Rome in this respect stood towards other countries somewhat as the England of the present day stands towards the continent."

T. Mommsen, History of Rome, book 3, chapter 12 (volume 2).

In the later years of the Roman Republic the coinage became debased and uncertain. "Cæsar restored the public credit by issuing good money, such as had not been seen in Rome for a length of time, money of pure metal and exact weight; with scarcely any admixture of plated pieces, money which could circulate for its real value, and this measure became one of the principal sources of his popularity. Augustus followed his example, but at the same time took away from the Senate the right of coining gold and silver, reserving this exclusively to the imperial authority, which was to exercise it absolutely without control. From this time we find the theory that the value of money is arbitrary, and depends solely on the will of the sovereign who issues it, more and more widely and tenaciously held. … The faith placed in the official impress fostered the temptation to abuse it. … In less than a century the change of the money of the State into imperial money, and the theory that its value arose from its bearing the effigy of the sovereign, produced a system of adulteration of specie, which went on growing to the very close of the Empire, and which the successors of Augustus utilized largely for the indulgence of their passions and their prodigality."

_F. Lenormant, Money in Ancient Greece and Rome (Contemporary Review, February, 1879)._

MONEY AND BANKING: Mediæval Money and Banking.

As regards the monetary system of the Middle Ages, the precious metals, when uncoined, were weighed by the pound and half pound or mark, for which different standards were in use, the most generally recognised being those of Troyes and Cologne. Of coined money there existed a perplexing variety, which made it almost impossible to ascertain the relative value, not only of different coins, but of the same coin of different issues. This resulted from the emperor or king conferring the right of coinage upon various lords spiritual and temporal, from whom it was ultimately acquired by individual towns. The management was in most cases entrusted to a company, temporary or permanent, inspected by an official, the coin-tester, originally appointed by the sovereign, but afterwards by the company, and confirmed by the king or bishop. The house where the process of coining was performed was called the mint, and the company who held the rights of coinage in fee was known as the Mint House Company, or simply the House Company. Very generally the office was held by the Corporation of Goldsmiths. The want of perfect supervision led to great debasement of the currency, especially in Germany and France; but in England and Italy the standard was tolerably well maintained. {2205} Payments in silver were much more common than in gold. Before the Crusades the only gold coins known in Europe were the Byzantine solides, the Italian tari, and Moorish maurabotini. The solidi, which were originally of 23 to 23½ carat gold, but subsequently very much deteriorated, were reckoned as equal to twelve silver denars. They passed current in Southern and Eastern Europe, Hungary, Germany, Poland, and Prussia. … Solde, sol, and sou are only repeated transformations of the name of the coin, which have been accompanied by still greater changes in its value. The tari or tarentini derived its name from the Italian town where it was originally struck. It was less generally known than the solides, and was equal to one-fourth the latter in value. The maurabotini or sarazens were only of 15 carats gold. The name survives in the Spanish maravedi, which, however, like the sou, is now made of copper instead of gold. In the thirteenth century augustals, florentines, and ducats, or zecchins (sequins), were coined in Italy. The first-mentioned, the weight of which was half an ounce, were named in honour of Frederick II., who was Roman Cæsar and Augustus in 1252. The florentines, also known as gigliati, or lilies, from the arms of Florence, which they bore on one side, with the effigy of John the Baptist on the reverse, were of fine gold and lighter than the solidi, about 64 being reckoned equal to the mark. The ducats or zecchins were of Venetian origin, receiving their first name from the Duca or Doge, and the other from the Zecca or Mint House. They were somewhat less in value than the florentines, 66 or 67 being counted to the fine mark. Nearly equivalent in value to these Italian coins were the gold guilders coined in the fourteenth century in Hungary and the Rhine regions. The Rhenish guilder was of 22½ or 23 carats fine, and in weight 1/66; of a mark of Cologne. The silver guilder was of later production, and the name is now used as equivalent to florin. … In silver payments, the metal being usually nearly pure, it was common to compute by weight, coins and uncoined bullion being alike put into the scale, as is still the case in some Eastern countries. Hence the origin of the pound, livre, or mark. The most widely diffused silver coin was the denarius, which was, as in ancient Roman times, the 11/240 of a pound. The name pending or pennig, by which the denarius was known among the old Teutonic nations, seems to be connected with pendere, to weigh out or pay; as the other ancient Teutonic coin, the sceat, was with sceoton, to pay, a word which is preserved in the modern phrases 'scot free,' 'pay your scot.' … Half-pennies and farthings were not known in the earliest times, but the penny was deeply indented by two cross lines, which enabled it to be broken into quarters or farthings (feordings or fourthings). From the indented cross the denarius was known in Germany as the kreutzer. … With such a diversity of coinage, it was necessary to settle any mercantile transaction in the currency of the place. Not only would sellers have refused to accept money whose value was unknown to them, but in many places they were forbidden to do so by law. Merchants attending foreign markets therefore brought with them a quantity of fine silver and gold in bars, which they exchanged on the spot for the current coin of the place, to be used in settling their transactions; the balance remaining on hand they re-exchanged for bullion before leaving. The business of money-changing, which thus arose, was a very lucrative one, and was originally mostly in the hands of Italian merchants, chiefly Lombards and Florentines. In Italy the money-changers formed a guild, members of which settled in the Netherlands, England, Cologne, and the Mediterranean ports. In these different towns and countries they kept up a close connection with each other and with Italy, and at an early period (before the thirteenth century) commenced the practice of assignments, i. e., receiving money in one place, to be paid by an order upon their correspondents in another, thus saving the merchant who travelled from country to country the expense and risk of transporting specie. In the thirteenth century this branch of business was in extensive use at Barcelona, and in 1307 the tribute of 'Peter's pence' was sent from England to the Pope through the Lombard exchangers. From 5 to 6 per cent., or more, was charged upon the transaction, and the profitable nature of the business soon led many wealthy and even noble Italian families to employ their money in this way. They established a member of their firm in each of the great centres of trade to receive and pay on their account. In Florence alone (about 1350) there are said to have been eighty such houses. Among these the Frescobaldi, Bardi, and Peruzzi are well-known names; but the chief place was taken by the famous Florentine house of the Medici, who had banking houses established in sixteen of the chief cities of Europe and the Levant. In the north of Europe, before long, similar arrangements were established by the merchants of the Hanseatic League. … Assignments of this kind were drawn out in the form of letters, requesting the person by whom the money was due to pay it over to another party, named in the bill, on account of the writer, specifying also the time within which and the form in which the payment was to be made. They were thus known as letters, billets, or bills of exchange, and appear in Italy as early as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Among the earliest examples in existence are a letter of exchange, dated at Milan in 1325, payable within five months at Lucca; one dated at Bruges, 1304, and payable at Barcelona; and another, dated at Bologna, 1381, payable in Venice. … 'The first writers who treat of bills are Italians: the Italian language furnishes the technical terms for drafts, remittances, currency, sight, usance, and discount, used in most of the languages of Europe.' … Of other branches of banking the germs also appeared in the Middle Ages. Venice seems to have been the first city to possess something answering to a deposit bank. The merchants here united in forming a common treasury, where they deposited sums of money, upon which they gave assignments or orders for payment to their creditors, and to which similar assignments due to themselves were paid and added on to the amount at their credit. The taula di cambi (exchange counter) of Barcelona was a similar institution, as also the bank of St. George, at Genoa."

J. Yeats, Growth and Vicissitudes of Commerce, appendix F.

The name "Lombards" was frequently given, during the Middle Ages, to all the Italian merchants and money-lenders—from Florence, Venice, Genoa, and elsewhere—who were engaged throughout Europe in banking and trade.

{2206}

MONEY AND BANKING: Florentine Banking.

"The business of money-changing seemed thoroughly at home here, and it is not surprising that the invention of bills of exchange, which we first meet with in 1199 in the relations between England and Italy, should be ascribed to Florence. The money trade seems to have flourished as early as the twelfth century, towards the end of which a Marquis of Ferrara raised money on his lands from the Florentines. In 1204 we find the money-changers as one of the corporations. In 1228, and probably from the beginning of the century, several Florentines were settled in London as changers to King Henry III.; and here, as in France, they conducted the money transactions of the Papal chair in conjunction with the Sienese. Their oldest known statute, which established rules for the whole conduct of trade (Statuto dell' Università della Mercatanzia) drawn up by a commission consisting of five members of the great guilds, is dated 1280. Their guild-hall was in the Via Calimaruzza, opposite that of the Calimala, and was litter included in the buildings of the post-office, on the site of which, after the post-office had been removed to what was formerly the mint, a building was lately erected, similar in architecture to the Palazzo of the Signoria, which stands opposite. Their coat of arms displayed gold coins laid one beside another on a red field. At the end of the thirteenth century their activity, especially in France and England, was extraordinarily great. But if wealth surpassing all previous conception was attained, it not seldom involved loss of repute, and those who pursued the calling ran the risk of immense losses from fiscal measures to the carrying out of which they themselves contributed, as well as those which were caused by insolvency or dishonesty. … The names of Tuscans and Lombards, and that of Cahorsiens in France, no longer indicated the origin, but the trade of the money-changers, who drew down the ancient hatred upon themselves. … France possessed at this time the greatest attraction for the Florentine money-makers, although they were sometimes severely oppressed, which is sufficient proof that their winnings were still greater than their occasional losses. … The Florentine money market suffered the severest blow from England. At the end of the twelfth century there were already Florentine houses of exchange in London, and if Pisans, Genoese, and Venetians managed the trade by sea in the times of the Crusades, it was the Florentines mostly who looked after financial affairs in connection with the Papal chair, as we have seen. Numerous banks appeared about the middle of the thirteenth century, among which the Frescobaldi, a family of ancient nobility, and as such attainted by the prosecutions against it, took the lead, and were referred to the custom-house of the country for re-imbursement of the loans made to the kings Edward I. and II. Later, the two great trading companies of the Bardi and Peruzzi came into notice, and with their money Edward III. began the French war against Philip of Valois. But even in the first year of this war, which began with an unsuccessful attack upon Flanders, the king suspended the payments to the creditors of the State by a decree of May 6, 1339. The advances made by the Bardi amounted to 180,000 marks sterling, those of the Peruzzi to above 135,000, according to Giovanni Villani, who knew only too well about these things, since he was ruined by them himself to the extent of 'a sum of more than 1,355,000 gold florins, equivalent to the value of a kingdom.' Bonifazio Peruzzi, the head of the house, hastened to London, where he died of grief in the following year. The blow fell on the whole city. … Both houses began at once to liquidate, and the prevailing disturbance contributed not a little to the early success of the ambitious plans of the Duke of Athens. The real bankruptcy ensued, however, in January 1346, when new losses had occurred in Sicily. … The banks of the Acciaiuoli, Bonuccorsi, Cocchi, Antellesi, Corsini, da Uzzano, Perendoli, and many smaller ones, as well as numerous private persons, were involved in the ruin. 'The immense loans to foreign sovereigns,' adds Villani, 'drew down ruin upon our city, the like of which it had never known.' There was a complete lack of cash. Estates in the city found no purchasers at a third of their former value. … The famine and pestilence of 1347 and 1348, the oppressions of the mercenary bands and the heavy expenses caused by them, the cost of the war against Pope Gregory XI., and finally the tumult of the Ciompi, left Florence no peace for a long time. … At the beginning of the fifteenth century industry was again flourishing in all its branches in Florence, financial operations were extended, and foreign countries filled with Florentine banks and mercantile houses. … In London the most important firms had their representatives, Bruges was the chief place for Flanders, and we shall see how these connections lasted to the time of the greatest splendour of the Medici. France is frequently mentioned. The official representatives of the Florentine nation resided in the capital, while numerous houses established themselves in Lyons, in Avignon (since the removal of the Papal chair to this town), in Nismes, Narbonne, Carcassonne, Marseilles, &c. … The house of the Peruzzi alone had sixteen counting-houses in the fourteenth century, from London to Cyprus."

A. van Reumont, Lorenzo de' Medici, book 1, chapter 4 (volume 1).

"The three principal branches of industry which enriched the Florentines were—banking, the manufacture of cloth, and the dyeing of it, and the manufacture of silk. The three most important guilds of the seven 'arti maggiori' were those which represented these three industries. Perhaps the most important in the amount of its gains, as well as that which first rose to a high degree of importance, was the 'Arte del Cambio,' or banking. The earliest banking operations seem to have arisen from the need of the Roman court to find some means of causing the dues to which it laid claim in distant parts of Europe to be collected and transmitted to Rome. When the Papal Court was removed to Avignon, its residence there occasioned a greatly increased sending backwards and forwards of money between Italy and that city. And of all this banking business, the largest and most profitable portion was in the hands of Florentine citizens, whether resident in Florence or in the various commercial cities of Europe. We find Florentines engaged in lending money at interest to sovereign princes as early as the first quarter of the twelfth century."

T. A. Trollope, History of the Commonwealth of Florence, book 4, chapter 1 (volume 2).

{2207}

MONEY AND BANKING: Genoa. The Bank of St. George.

"The Bank of St. George, its constitution, its building, and its history, forms one of the most interesting relies of mediæval commercial activity. Those old grey walls, as seen still in Genoa, begrimed with dirt and fast falling into decay, are the cradle of modern commerce, modern banking schemes, and modern wealth. … This Bank of St. George is indeed a most singular political phenomenon. Elsewhere than in Genoa we search in vain for a parallel for the existence of a body of citizens distinct from the government—with their own laws, magistrates, and independent authority—a state within a state, a republic within a republic. All dealings with the government were voluntary on the part of the bank. … But, far from working without harmony, we always find the greatest unanimity of feeling between these two forms of republics within the same city walls. The government of Genoa always respected the liberties of the bank, and the bank always did its best to assist the government when in pecuniary distress. … To define an exact origin for the bank is difficult; it owed its existence to the natural development of commercial enterprise rather than to the genius of anyone man, or the shrewdness of any particular period in Genoese history. The Crusades, and the necessary preparation of galleys, brought into Genoa the idea of advancing capital for a term of years as a loan to the government on the security of the taxes and public revenues; but in those cases the profits were quickly realized, and the debts soon cancelled by the monarchs who incurred them. However, the expeditions against the Saracens and the Moors were otherwise, and were undertaken at some risk to Genoa herself. … Now large sums of money were advanced, the profits on which were not spontaneous; it was more an investment of capital for a longer term of years, which was secured by the public revenues, but the profits of which depended on the success of the expedition. In 1148 was the first formal debt incurred by the government, and to meet the occasion the same system was adopted which continued in vogue, subject only to regulations and improvements which were found necessary as time went on, until the days of the French Revolution. The creditors nominated from amongst themselves a council of administration to watch over the common interests, and to them the government conceded a certain number of the custom duties for a term of years until the debt should be extinguished. This council of administration elected their own consuls, after the fashion of the Republic governors. Every hundred francs was termed a share (luogo) and every creditor a shareholder (luogatorio). … Each separate loan was termed a 'compera,' and these loans were collectively known as the 'compere of St. George,' which in later years became the celebrated bank. Each loan generally took the name of the object for which it was raised, or the name of the saint on whose day the contract was signed; and when an advance of money was required, it was done by public auction in the streets, when the auctioneer sold the investment to the ever ready merchants, who collected outside the 'loggia,' or other prominent position chosen for the sale. In a loud voice was proclaimed the name and object of the loan, and the tax which was to be handed over to the purchasers to secure its repayment. So numerous did these loans become by 1252, that it was found necessary to unite them under one head, with a chancellor and other minor officials to watch over them. And as time went on, so great was the credit of Genoa, and so easy was this system found for raising money, that the people began to grow alarmed at the extent of the liabilities. So, in 1302, commissioners were appointed at a great assembly, two hundred and seventy-one articles and regulations were drown up to give additional security to investors, and henceforth no future loan could be effected without the sanction of the consuls and the confirmation of the greater council of the shareholders. … During the days of the first doge, Simone Boccanegra, great changes were to be effected in the working system of the 'compere of St. George.' To this date many have assigned the origin of the Bank of St. George, but it will be seen only to be a further consolidation of the same system, which had already been at work two centuries. … In 1339, … at the popular revolution, all the old books were burnt, and a new commission appointed to regulate the 'compere.' … Instead … of being the origin of the bank, it was only another step in the growing wish for consolidation, which the expanding tendency of the 'compere' rendered necessary; which consolidation took final effect in 1407, when the Bank was thoroughly organized on the same footing which lasted till the end. Every year and every event tended towards this system of blending the loans together, to which fact is due the extensive power which the directors of the bank eventually wielded, when all interests and all petty disputes were merged together in one. … As time went on, and the French governor, Boucicault, weighed on the treasury the burden of fresh fortifications, and an expensive war; when Corsican troubles, and the Turks in the East, caused the advance of money to be frequent, an assembly of all the shareholders in all the loans decided that an entire reorganization of the public debts should take place. Nine men were elected to draw up a new scheme, in 1407, and by their instrumentality all the shares were united; the interest for all was to be seven per cent., and fresh officials were appointed to superintend the now thoroughly constituted and re-named 'Bank of St. George.' And at length we behold this celebrated bank. Its credit never failed, and no anxiety was ever felt by any shareholder about his annual income, until the days of the French Revolution. … This Bank of St. George was essentially one of the times, and not one which could have existed on modern ideas of credit; for it was a bank which would only issue paper for the coin in its actual possession, and would hardly suit the dictates of modern commerce. It was not a bank for borrowers but for capitalists, who required enormous security for immense sums until they could employ them themselves. … One of the most interesting features in connection with the dealings of the bank with the Genoese government, and a conclusive proof of the perfect accord which existed between them, was the cession from time to time of various colonies and provinces to the directors of the bank when the government felt itself too weak and too poor to maintain them. In this manner were the colonies in the Black Sea made over to the bank when the Turkish difficulties arose. {2208} Corsica and Cyprus, also towns on the Riviera, such as Sarzana, Ventimiglia, Levanto, found themselves at various times under the direct sovereignty of the bank. … It is melancholy to have to draw a veil over the career of this illustrious bank with the Revolution of 1798. The new order of things which Genoa had learnt from France deemed it inconsistent with liberty that the taxes, the property of the Republic, should remain in the hands of the directors of St. George; it was voted a tyranny on a small scale, and the directors were compelled to surrender them; and inasmuch as the taxes represented the sole source from which their income was derived, they soon discovered that their bank notes were useless, and the building was closed shortly afterwards. In 1804 and 1814 attempts were made to resuscitate the fallen fortunes of St. George, but without avail; and so this bank, the origin of which was shrouded in the mysteries of bygone centuries, fell under the sweeping scythe of the French Revolution."

J. T. Bent, Genoa, chapter 11.

See, also, GENOA: A. D. 1407-1448.

MONEY AND BANKING: 16-17th Centuries. Monetary effects of the Discovery of America.

"From 1492, the year of the discovery of the New World, to 1500, it is doubtful whether [the mines of Mexico and Peru] … yielded on an average a prey of more than 1,500,000 francs (£60,000) a year. From 1500 to 1545, if we add to the treasure produced from the mines the amount of plunder found in the capital of the Montezumas, Ténochtitlan (now the city of Mexico), as well as in the temples and palaces of the kingdom of the Incas, the gold and silver drawn from America did not exceed an average of sixteen million francs (£640,000) a year. From 1545, the scene changes. In one of the gloomiest deserts on the face of the globe, in the midst of the rugged and inhospitable mountain scenery of Upper Peru, chance revealed to a poor Indian, who was guarding a flock of llamas, a mine of silver of incomparable richness. A crowd of miners was instantly attracted by the report of the rich deposits of ore spread over the sides of this mountain of Potocchi—a name which for euphony the European nations have since changed to Potosi. The exportation of the precious metals from America to Europe now rose rapidly to an amount which equalled, weight for weight, sixty millions of francs (£2,400,000) of our day, and it afterwards rose even to upwards of eighty millions. At that time such a mass of gold and silver represented a far greater amount of riches than at present. Under the influence of so extraordinary a supply, the value of these precious metals declined in Europe, in comparison with every other production of human industry, just as would be the case with iron or lead, if mines were discovered which yielded those metals in superabundance, as compared with their present consumption, and at a much less cost of labour than previously, just in fact as occurs in the case of manufactures of every kind, whenever, by improved processes, or from natural causes of a novel kind, they can be produced in unusual quantities, and at a great reduction of cost. This fall in the value of gold and silver, in comparison with all other productions, revealed itself by the increased quantity of coined metal which it was necessary to give in exchange for the generality of other articles. And it was thus that the working of the mines of America had necessarily for effect a general rise of prices, in other words, it made all other commodities dearer. The fall in the value of the precious metals, or that which means the same thing, the general rise of prices, does not appear to have been very great, out of Spain, till after the middle of the 16th century. Shortly after the commencement of the 17th century, the effects of the productiveness of the new mines and of the diminished cost of working them were realised in all parts of Europe. For the silver, which had been extracted in greater proportion than the gold, and on more favourable terms, the fall in value had been in the proportion of 1 to 3. In transactions where previously one pound of silver, or a coin containing a given quantity of this metal, had sufficed, henceforth three were required. … After having been arrested for awhile in this downward course, and even after having witnessed for a time a tendency to an upward movement, the fall in the value of the precious metals, and the corresponding rise in prices, resumed their course, under the influence of the same causes, until towards the end of the 18th century, without however manifesting their influence so widely or intensely as had been witnessed after the first development of the great American mines. We find, as the result, that during the first half of the 19th century, the value of silver fell to about the sixth of what it was before the discovery of America, when compared with the price of corn."

M. Chevalier, On the Probable Fall in the Value of Gold (translated by Cobden), section 1, chapter 1.

MONEY AND BANKING: 17th Century. The Bank of Amsterdam.

"In 1609, the great Bank of Amsterdam was founded, and its foundation not only testifies to the wealth of the republic, but marks an epoch in the commercial history of Northern Europe. Long before this period, banks had been established in the Italian cities, but, until late in the history of the Bank of England, which was not founded until nearly a century later, nothing was known on such a scale as this. It was established to meet the inconvenience arising from the circulation of currency from all quarters of the globe, and to accommodate merchants in their dealings. Anyone making a deposit of gold or silver received notes for the amount, less a small commission, and these notes commanded a premium in all countries. Before the end of the century its deposits of this character amounted to one hundred and eighty million dollars, an amount of treasure which bewildered financiers in every other part of Europe."

D. Campbell, The Puritan in Holland, England, and America, volume 2, pages 323-324.

MONEY AND BANKING: 17th Century. Indian Money used in the American Colonies.

Sea shells, strung or embroidered on belts and garments, formed the "wampum" which was the money of the North American Indians (see WAMPUM). "Tradition gives to the Narragansetts the honor of inventing these valued articles, valuable both for use and exchange. This tribe was one of the most powerful, and it is asserted that their commercial use of wampum gave them their best opportunities of wealth. The Long Island Indians manufactured the beads in large quantities and then were forced to pay them away in tribute to the Mohawks and the fiercer tribes of the interior. {2209} Furs were readily exchanged for these trinkets, which carried a permanent value, through the constancy of the Indian desire for them. The holder of wampum always compelled trade to come to him. After the use of wampum was established in colonial life, contracts were made payable at will in wampum, beaver, or silver. … The use began in New England in 1627. It was a legal tender until 1661, and for more than three quarters of a century the wampum was current in small transactions. For more than a century, indeed; this currency entered into the intercourse of Indian and colonist. … Labor is a chief factor in civilized society and the labor of the Indian was made available through wampum. As Winthrop shows, 10,000 beaver skins annually came to the Dutch from the Great Lake. The chase was the primitive form of Indian industry and furs were the most conspicuous feature of foreign trade, as gold is to-day, but wampum played a much larger part in the vital trade of the time. Wampum, or the things it represented, carried deer meat and Indian corn to the New England men. Corn and pork went for fish; fish went for West India rum, molasses, and the silver which Europe coveted. West India products, or the direct exchange of fish with the Catholic countries of Europe, brought back the goods needed to replenish and extend colonial industries and trade. … As long as the natives were active and furs were plenty, there appears to have been no difficulty in passing any quantity of wampum in common with other currencies. The Bay annulled its statutes, making the beads a legal tender in 1661. Rhode Island and Connecticut followed this example soon after. … New York continued the beads in circulation longer than the regular use prevailed in New England. In 1693 they were recognized in the definite rates of the Brooklyn ferry. They continued to be circulated in the more remote districts of New England through the century, and even into the beginning of the eighteenth."

W. B. Weeden, Indian Money as a Factor in New England Civilization, pages 5-30.

MONEY AND BANKING: 17th Century. Colonial Coinage in America.

"The earliest coinage for America is said to have been executed in 1612, when the Virginia Company was endeavoring to establish a Colony on the Summer Islands (the Bermudas). This coin was of the denomination of a shilling, and was struck in brass." The "pine-tree" money of Massachusetts" was instituted by the Colonial Assembly in 1652, after the fall of Charles I. … This coinage was not discontinued until 1686; yet they appear to have continued the use of the same date, the shillings, sixpences, and threepences all bearing the date 1652, while the twopenny pieces are all dated 1662. … After the suppression of their mint, the Colony of Massachusetts issued no more coins until after the establishment of the Confederacy. … The silver coins of Lord Baltimore, Lord Proprietor of Maryland, were the shilling, sixpence, and fourpence, or groat."

J. R. Snowden, Description of Ancient and Modern Coins, pages 85-87.

See PINE TREE MONEY.

MONEY AND BANKING: 17-18th Centuries. Banking in Great Britain. Origin and influence of the Bank of England.

"In the reign of William old men were still living who could remember the days when there was not a single banking house in the city of London. So late as the time of the Restoration every trader had his own strong box in his own house, and, when an acceptance was presented to him, told down the crowns and Caroluses on his own counter. But the increase of wealth had produced its natural effect, the subdivision of labour. Before the end of the reign of Charles II. a new mode of paying and receiving money had come into fashion among the merchants of the capital. A class of agents arose, whose office was to keep the cash of the commercial houses. This new branch of business naturally fell into the hands of the goldsmiths, who were accustomed to traffic largely in the precious metals, and who had vaults in which great masses of bullion could lie secure from fire and from robbers. It was at the shops of the goldsmiths of Lombard Street that all the payments in coin were made. Other traders gave and received nothing but paper. This great change did not take place without much opposition and clamour. … No sooner had banking become a separate and important trade, than men began to discuss with earnestness the question whether it would be expedient to erect a national bank. … Two public banks had long been renowned throughout Europe, the Bank of Saint George at Genoa, and the Bank of Amsterdam. … Why should not the Bank of London be as great and as durable as the Banks of Genoa and Amsterdam? Before the end of the reign of Charles II. several plans were proposed, examined, attacked and defended. Some pamphleteers maintained that a national bank ought to be under the direction of the King. Others thought that the management ought to be entrusted to the Lord Mayor, Alderman and Common Council of the capital. After the Revolution the subject was discussed with an animation before unknown. … A crowd of plans, some of which resemble the fancies of a child or the dreams of a man in a fever, were pressed on the government. Pre-eminently conspicuous among the political mountebanks, whose busy faces were seen every day in the lobby of the House of Commons, were John Briscoe and Hugh Chamberlayne, two projectors worthy to have been members of that Academy which Gulliver found at Lagado. These men affirmed that the one cure for every distemper of the State was a Land Bank. A Land Bank would work for England miracles such as had never been wrought for Israel. … These blessed effects the Land Bank was to produce simply by issuing enormous quantities of notes on landed security. The doctrine of the projectors was that every person who had real property ought to have, besides that property, paper money to the full value of that property. Thus, if his estate was worth two thousand pounds, he ought to have his estate and two thousand pounds in paper money. Both Briscoe and Chamberlayne treated with the greatest contempt the notion that there could be an over-issue of paper as long as there was, for every ten pound note, a piece of land in the country worth ten pounds. … All the projectors of this busy time, however, were not so absurd as Chamberlayne. One among them, William Paterson, was an ingenious, though not always a judicious speculator. Of his early life little is known except that he was a native of Scotland, and that he had been in the West Indies. … This man submitted to the government, in 1691, a plan of a national bank; and his plan was favourably received both by statesmen and by merchants. {2210} But years passed away; and nothing was done, till, in the spring of 1694, it became absolutely necessary to find some new mode of defraying the charges of the war. Then at length the scheme devised by the poor and obscure Scottish adventurer was taken up in earnest by Montague [Charles Montague, then one of the lords of the treasury and subsequently Chancellor of the Exchequer]. With Montague was closely allied Michael Godfrey. … Michael was one of the ablest, most upright and most opulent of the merchant princes of London. … By these two distinguished men Paterson's scheme was fathered. Montague undertook to manage the House of Commons, Godfrey to manage the City. An approving vote was obtained from the Committee of Ways and Means; and a bill, the title of which gave occasion to many sarcasms, was laid on the table. It was indeed not easy to guess that a bill, which purported only to impose a new duty on tonnage for the benefit of such persons as should advance money towards carrying on the war, was really a bill creating the greatest commercial institution that the world had ever seen. The plan was that £1,200,000 should be borrowed by the government on what was then considered as the moderate interest of eight per cent. In order to induce capitalists to advance the money promptly on terms so favourable to the public, the subscribers were to be incorporated by the name of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. The corporation was to have no exclusive privilege, and was to be restricted from trading in any thing but bills of exchange, bullion and forfeited pledges. As soon as the plan became generally known, a paper war broke out. … All the goldsmiths and pawnbrokers set up a howl of rage. Some discontented Tories predicted ruin to the monarchy. … Some discontented Whigs, on the other hand, predicted ruin to our liberties. … The power of the purse, the one great security for all the rights of Englishmen, will be transferred from the House of Commons to the Governor and Directors of the new Company. This last consideration was really of some weight, and was allowed to be so by the authors of the bill. A clause was therefore most properly inserted which inhibited the Bank from advancing money to the Crown without authority from Parliament. Every infraction of this salutary rule was to be punished by forfeiture of three times the sum advanced; and it was provided that the King should not have power to remit any part of the penalty. The plan, thus amended, received the sanction of the Commons more easily than might have been expected from the violence of the adverse clamour. In truth, the Parliament was under duress. Money must be had, and could in no other way be had so easily. … The bill, however, was not safe when it had reached the Upper House," but it was passed, and received the royal assent. "In the City the success of Montague's plan was complete. It was then at least as difficult to raise a million at eight per cent. as it would now be to raise forty millions at four per cent. It had been supposed that contributions would drop in very slowly: and a considerable time had therefore been allowed by the Act. This indulgence was not needed. So popular was the new investment that on the day on which the books were opened £300,000 were subscribed; 300,000 more were subscribed during the next 48 hours; and, in ten days, to the delight of all the friends of the government, it was announced that the list was full. The whole sum which the Corporation was bound to lend to the State was paid into the Exchequer before the first instalment was due. Somers gladly put the Great Seal to a charter framed in conformity with the terms prescribed by Parliament; and the Bank of England commenced its operations in the house of the Company of Grocers. … It soon appeared that Montague had, by skilfully availing himself of the financial difficulties of the country, rendered an inestimable service to his party. During several generations the Bank of England was emphatically a Whig body. It was Whig, not accidentally, but necessarily. It must have instantly stopped payment if it had ceased to receive the interest on the sum which it had advanced to the government; and of that, interest James would not have paid one farthing."

Lord Macaulay, History of England, chapter 20.

"For a long time the Bank of England was the focus of London Liberalism, and in that capacity rendered to the State inestimable services. In return for these substantial benefits the Bank of England received from the Government, either at first or afterwards, three most important privileges. First. The Bank of England had the exclusive possession of the Government balances. In its first period … the Bank gave credit to the Government, but afterwards it derived credit from the Government. There is a natural tendency in men to follow the example of the Government under which they live. The Government is the largest, most important, and most conspicuous entity with which the mass of any people are acquainted; its range of knowledge must always lie infinitely greater than the average of their knowledge, and therefore, unless there is a conspicuous warning to the contrary, most men are inclined to think their Government right, and, when they can, to do what it does. Especially in money matters a man might fairly reason—'If the Government is right in trusting the Bank of England with the great balance of the nation, I cannot be wrong in trusting it with my little balance.' Second, The Bank of England had, till lately, the monopoly of limited liability in England. The common law of England knows nothing of any such principle. It is only possible by Royal Charter or Statute Law. And by neither of these was any real bank … permitted with limited liability in England till within these few years. … Thirdly. The Bank of England had the privilege of being the sole joint stock company permitted to issue bank notes in England. Private London bankers did indeed issue notes down to the middle of the last century, but no joint stock company could do so. The explanatory clause of the Act of 1742 sounds most curiously to our modern ears. … 'It is the true intent and meaning of the said Act that no other bank shall be created, established, or allowed by Parliament, and that it shall not be lawful for any body politic or corporate whatsoever created or to be created, or for any other persons whatsoever united or to be united in covenants or partnership exceeding the number of six persons in that part of Great Britain called England, to borrow, owe, or take up any sum or sums of money on their bills or notes payable on demand or at any less time than six months from the borrowing thereof during the continuance of such said privilege to the said governor and company, who are hereby declared to be and remain a corporation with the privilege of exclusive banking, as before recited.' {2211} To our modern ears these words seem to mean more than they did. The term banking was then applied only to the issue of notes and the taking up of money on bills on demand. Our present system of deposit banking, in which no bills or promissory notes are issued, was not then known on a great scale, and was not called banking. But its effect was very important. It in time gave the Bank of England the monopoly of the note issue of the Metropolis. It had at that time no branches, and so it did not compete for the country circulation. But in the Metropolis, where it did compete, it was completely victorious. No company but the Bank of England could issue notes, and unincorporated individuals gradually gave way, and ceased to do so. Up to 1844 London private bankers might have issued notes if they pleased, but almost a hundred years ago they were forced out of the field. The Bank of England had so long had a practical monopoly of the circulation, that it is commonly believed always to have had a legal monopoly. And the practical effect of the clause went further: it was believed to make the Bank of England the only joint stock company that could receive deposits, as well as the only company that could issue notes. The gift of 'exclusive banking' to the Bank of England was read in its most natural modern sense: it was thought to prohibit any other banking company from carrying on our present system of banking. After joint stock banking was permitted in the country, people began to inquire why it should not exist in the Metropolis too? And then it was seen that the words I have quoted only forbid the issue of negotiable instruments, and not the receiving of money when no such instrument is given. Upon this construction, the London and Westminster Bank and all our older joint stock banks were founded. But till they began, the Bank of England had among companies not only the exclusive privilege of note issue, but that of deposit banking too. It was in every sense the only banking company in London. With so many advantages over all competitors, it is quite natural that the Bank of England should have far outstripped them all. … All the other bankers grouped themselves round it, and lodged their reserve with it. Thus our one-reserve system of banking was not deliberately founded upon definite reasons; it was the gradual consequence of many singular events, and of an accumulation of legal privileges on a single bank which has now been altered, and which no one would now defend. … For more than a century after its creation (notwithstanding occasional errors) the Bank of England, in the main, acted with judgment and with caution. Its business was but small as we should now reckon, but for the most part it conducted that business with prudence and discretion. In 1696, it had been involved in the most serious difficulties, and had been obliged to refuse to pay some of its notes. For a long period it was in wholesome dread of public opinion, and the necessity of retaining public confidence made it cautious. But the English Government removed that necessity. In 1797, Mr. Pitt feared that he might not be able to obtain sufficient specie for foreign payments, in consequence of the low state of the Bank reserve, and he therefore required the Bank not to pay in cash. He removed the preservative apprehension which is the best security of all Banks. For this reason the period under which the Bank of England did not pay gold for its notes—the period from 1797 to 1819—is always called the period of the Bank 'restriction.' As the Bank during that period did not perform, and was not compelled by law to perform, its contract of paying its notes in cash, it might apparently have been well called the period of Bank license. But the word 'restriction' was quite right, and was the only proper word as a description of the policy of 1797. Mr. Pitt did not say that the Bank of England need not pay its notes in specie; he 'restricted' them from doing so; he said that they must not. In consequence, from 1797 to 1844 (when a new era begins), there never was a proper caution on the part of the Bank directors. At heart they considered that the Bank of England had a kind of charmed life, and that it was above the ordinary banking anxiety to pay its way. And this feeling was very natural."

W. Bagehot, Lombard Street, chapters 3-4.

ALSO IN: _J. W. Gilbart, History and Principles of Banking._

_H. May, The Bank of England (Fortnightly Review, March, 1885)._

MONEY AND BANKING: 17-18th Centuries. Early Paper issues and Banks in the American Colonies.

"Previous to the Revolutionary War paper money was issued to a greater or less extent by each one of the thirteen colonies. The first issue was by Massachusetts in 1690, to aid in fitting out the expedition against Canada. Similar issues had been made by New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, previous to the year 1711. South Carolina began to emit bills in 1712, Pennsylvania in 1723, Maryland in 1734, Delaware in 1739, Virginia in 1755, and Georgia in 1760. Originally the issues were authorized to meet the necessities of the colonial treasuries. In Massachusetts, in 1715, as a remedy for the prevailing embarrassment of trade, a land bank was proposed with the right to issue circulating notes secured by land. … The plan for the land bank was defeated, but the issue of paper money by the treasury was authorized to the extent of £50,000, to be loaned on good mortgages in sums of not more than £500, nor less than £50, to one person. The rate of interest was five per cent., payable with one-fifth of the principal annually. … In 1733 an issue of bills to the amount of £110,000 was made by the merchants of Boston, which were to be redeemed at the end of ten years, in silver, at the rate of 19 shillings per ounce. In 1739, the commercial and financial embarrassment still continuing, another land bank was started in Massachusetts. … A specie bank was also formed in 1739, by Edward Hutchinson and others, which issued bills to the amount of £120,000, redeemable in fifteen years in silver, at 20 shillings per ounce, or gold pro rata. The payment of these notes was guaranteed by wealthy and responsible merchants. These notes, and those of a similar issue in 1733, were largely hoarded and did not pass generally into circulation. In 1740 Parliament passed a bill to extend the act of 1720, known as the bubble act, to the American colonies, with the intention of breaking up all companies formed for the purpose of issuing paper money. {2212} Under this act both the land bank and the specie bank were forced to liquidate their affairs, though not without some resistance on the part of the former. … The paper money of the colonies, whether issued by them or by the loan banks, depreciated almost without exception as the amounts in circulation increased. … The emission of bills by the colonies and the banks was not regarded with favor by the mother country, and the provincial governors were as a general thing opposed to these issues. They were consequently frequently embroiled with their legislatures."

J. J. Knox, United States Notes, pages 1-5.

MONEY AND BANKING: 17-19th Centuries. Creation of the principal European Banks.

"The Bank of Vienna was founded as a bank of deposit in 1703, and as a bank of issue in 1793; the Banks of Berlin and Breslau in 1765 with state sanction; the Austrian National Bank in 1816. In St. Petersburg three banks were set up; the Loan Bank in 1772, advancing loans on deposits of bullion and jewels; the Assignation Bank in 1768 (and in Moscow, 1770), issuing government paper money; the Aid Bank in 1797, to relieve estates from mortgage and advance money for improvements. The Commercial Bank of Russia was founded in 1818. The Bank of Stockholm was founded in 1688. The Bank of France was founded first in 1803 and reorganised in 1806, when its capital was raised to 90,000,000 francs, held in 90,000 shares of 1,000 francs. It is the only authorised source of paper money in France, and is intimately associated with the government."

H. de B. Gibbins, History of Commerce in Europe, book 3, chapter 4.

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1775-1780. The Continental Currency of the American Revolution.

"The colonies … went into the Revolutionary War, many of them with paper already in circulation, all of them making issues for the expenses of military preparations. The Continental Congress, having no power to tax, and its members being accustomed to paper issues as the ordinary form of public finance, began to issue bills on the faith of the 'Continent,' Franklin earnestly approving. The first issue was for 300,000 Spanish dollars, redeemable in gold or silver, in three years, ordered in May and issued in August, 1775. Paper for nine million dollars was issued before any depreciation began. The issues of the separate colonies must have affected it, but the popular enthusiasm went for something. Pelatiah Webster, almost alone as it seems, insisted on taxation, but a member of Congress indignantly asked if he was to help tax the people when they could go to the printing-office and get a cartload of money. In 1776, when the depreciation began, Congress took harsh measures to try to sustain the bills. Committees of safety also took measures to punish those who 'forestalled' or 'engrossed,' these being the terms for speculators who bought up for a rise."

W. G. Sumner, History of American Currency, pages 43-44.

"During the summer of 1780 this wretched 'Continental' currency fell into contempt. As Washington said, it took a wagon-load of money to buy a wagon-load of provisions. At the end of the year 1778, the paper dollar was worth sixteen cents in the northern states and twelve cents in the south. Early in 1780 its value had fallen to two cents, and before the end of the year it took ten paper dollars to make a cent. In October, Indian corn sold wholesale in Boston for $150 a bushel, butter was $12 a pound, tea $90, sugar $10, beef $8, coffee $12, and a barrel of flour cost $1,575. Samuel Adams paid $2,000 for a hat and suit of clothes. The money soon ceased to circulate, debts could not be collected, and there was a general prostration of credit. To say that a thing was 'worth a Continental' became the strongest possible expression of contempt."

J. Fiske, The American Revolution, chapter 13 (volume 2).

Before the close of the year 1780, the Continental Currency had ceased to circulate. Attempts were subsequently made to have it funded or redeemed, but without success.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780 (JANUARY-APRIL).

ALSO IN: _H. Phillips, Jr., Historical Sketches of American Paper Currency, 2d Series._

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1780-1784. The Pennsylvania Bank and the Bank of North America.

"The Pennsylvania Bank, which was organized in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War, was founded for the purpose of facilitating the operations of the Government in transporting supplies for the army. It began its useful work in 1780, and continued in existence until after the close of the war; finally closing its affairs toward the end of the year 1784. But the need was felt of a national bank which should not only aid the Government on a large scale by its money and credit, but should extend facilities to individuals, and thereby benefit the community as well as the state. Through the influence and exertion of Robert Morris, then Superintendent of Finance for the United States, the Bank of North America, at Philadelphia, was organized with a capital of $400,000. It was incorporated by Congress in December, 1781, and by the State of Pennsylvania a few months afterward. Its success was immediate and complete. It not only rendered valuable and timely aid to the United States Government and to the State of Pennsylvania, but it greatly assisted in restoring confidence and credit to the commercial community, and afforded facilities to private enterprise that were especially welcome. … The success of the Bank of North America, and the advantages which the citizens of Philadelphia enjoyed from the facilities it offered them, naturally suggested the founding of a similar enterprise in the city of New York." The Bank of New York was accordingly founded in 1784.

H. W. Domett, History of the Bank of New York, chapter 1.

ALSO IN: W. G. Sumner, The Financier and the Finances of the American Revolution, chapter 17 (volume 2).

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1789-1796. The Assignats of the French Revolution.

"The financial embarrassments of the government in 1789 were extreme. Many taxes had ceased to be productive; the confiscated estates not only yielded no revenue but caused a large expense, and, as a measure of resource, the finance committee of the Assembly reported in favor of issues based upon the confiscated lands. But the bitter experience of France through the Mississippi schemes of John Law, 1719-21, made the Assembly and the nation hesitate. … Necker, the Minister, stood firm in his opposition to the issue of paper money, even as a measure of resource; but the steady pressure of fiscal exigencies, together with the influence of the fervid orators of the Assembly, gained a continually increasing support to the proposition of the committee. … {2213} The leaders of the Assembly were secretly actuated by a political purpose, viz., by widely distributing the titles to the confiscated lands (for such the paper money in effect was) to commit the thrifty middle class of France to the principles and measures of the revolution. … Oratory, the force of fiscal necessities, the half-confessed political design, prevailed at last over the warnings of experience; and a decree passed the Assembly authorizing an issue of notes to the value of four hundred million francs, on the security of the public lands. To emphasize this security the title of 'assignats' was applied to the paper. … The issue was made; the assignats went into circulation; and soon came the inevitable demand for more. … The decree for a further issue of eight hundred millions passed, September, 1790. Though the opponents of the issue had lost heart and voice, they still polled 423 votes against 508. To conciliate a minority still so large, contraction was provided for by requiring that the paper when paid into the Treasury should be burned, and the decree contained a solemn declaration that in no case should the amount exceed twelve hundred millions. June 19, 1791, the Assembly, against feeble resistance, violated this pledge and authorized a further issue of six hundred millions. Under the operation of Gresham's Law, specie now began to disappear from circulation. … And now came the collapse of French industry. … 'Everything that tariffs and custom-houses could do was done. Still the great manufactories of Normandy were closed; those of the rest of the kingdom speedily followed, and vast numbers of workmen, in all parts of the country, were thrown out of employment. … In the spring of 1791 no one knew whether a piece of paper money, representing 100 francs, would, a month later, have a purchasing power of 100 francs, or 90 francs, or 80, or 60. The result was that capitalists declined to embark their means in business. Enterprise received a mortal blow. Demand for labor was still further diminished. The business of France dwindled into a mere living from hand to mouth.' … Towards the end of 1794 there had been issued 7,000 millions in assignats; by May, 1795, 10,000 millions; by the end of July, 16,000 millions; by the beginning of 1796, 45,000 millions, of which 36,000 millions were in actual circulation. M. Bresson gives the following table of depreciation: 24 livres in coin were worth in assignats April 1, 1795, 238; May 1, 299; June 1, 439; July 1, 808; Aug. 1, 807; Sept. 1, 1,101; Oct. 1, 1,205; Nov. 1, 2,588; Dec. 1, 3,575; Jan. 1, 1796, 4,658; Feb. 1, 5,337.

At the last 'an assignat professing to be worth 100 francs was commonly exchanged for 5 sous 6 deniers: in other words, a paper note professing to be worth £4 sterling passed current for less than 3d. in money.' The downward course of the assignats had unquestionably been accelerated by the extensive counterfeiting of the paper in Belgium, Switzerland, and England. … Now appears that last resort of finance under a depreciating paper: an issue under new names and new devices. … Territorial Mandates were ordered to be issued for assignats at 30:1, the mandates to be directly exchangeable for land, at the will of the holder, on demand. … For a brief time after the first limited emission, the mandates rose as high as 80 per cent. of their nominal value; but soon additional issues sent them down even more rapidly than the assignats had fallen."

F. A. Walker, Money, part 2, chapter 16.

ALSO IN: _Andrew D. White, Paper-money Inflation in France._

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1791-1816. The First Bank of the United States.

On the organization of the government of the United States, under its federal constitution, in 1789 and 1790, the lead in constructive statesmanship was taken, as is well known, by Alexander Hamilton. His plan "included a financial institution to develop the national resources, strengthen the public credit, aid the Treasury Department in its administration, and provide a secure and sound circulating medium for the people. On December 13, 1790, he sent into Congress a report on the subject of a national bank. The Republican party, then in the minority, opposed the plan as unconstitutional, on the ground that the power of creating banks or any corporate body had not been expressly delegated to Congress, and was therefore not possessed by it. Washington's cabinet was divided; Jefferson opposing the measure as not within the implied powers, because it was an expediency and not a paramount necessity. Later he used stronger language, and denounced the institution as 'one of the most deadly hostility existing against the principles and form of our Constitution,' nor did he ever abandon these views. There is the authority of Mr. Gallatin for saying that Jefferson 'died a decided enemy to our banking system generally, and specially to a bank of the United States.' But Hamilton's views prevailed. Washington, who in the weary years of war had seen the imperative necessity of some national organization of the finances, after mature deliberation approved the plan, and on February 25, 1791, the Bank of the United States was incorporated. The capital stock was limited to twenty-five thousand shares of four hundred dollars each, or ten millions of dollars, payable one fourth in gold and silver, and three fourths in public securities bearing an interest of six and three per cent. The stock was immediately subscribed for, the government taking five thousand shares, two millions of dollars, under the right reserved in the charter. The subscription of the United States was paid in ten equal annual instalments. A large proportion of the stock was held abroad, and the shares soon rose above par. … Authority was given the bank to establish offices of discount and deposit within the United States. The chief bank was placed in Philadelphia and branches were established in eight cities, with capitals in proportion to their commercial importance. In 1809 the stockholders of the Bank of the United States memorialized the government for a renewal of their charter, which would expire on March 4, 1811; and on March 9, 1809, Mr. Gallatin sent in a report in which he reviewed the operations of the bank from its organization. Of the government shares, five million dollars at par, two thousand four hundred and ninety-three shares were sold in 1796 and 1797 at an advance of 25 per cent., two hundred and eighty-seven in 1797 at an advance of twenty per cent., and the remaining 2,220 shares in 1802, at an advance of 45 per cent., making together, exclusive of the dividends, a profit of $671,680 to the United States. Eighteen thousand shares of the bank stock were held abroad, and seven thousand shares, or a little more than one fourth part of the capital, in the United States. {2214} A table of all the dividends made by the bank showed that they had on the average been at the rate of 8 3/8 (precisely 8 13/34) per cent. a year, which proved that the bank had not in any considerable degree used the public deposits for the purpose of extending its discounts. From a general view of the debits and credits, as presented, it appeared that the affairs of the Bank of the United States, considered as a moneyed institution, had been wisely and skilfully managed. The advantages derived by the government Mr. Gallatin stated to be, 1, safe-keeping of the public moneys; 2, transmission of the public moneys; 3, collection of the revenue; 4, loans. The strongest objection to the renewal of the charter lay in the great portion of the bank stock held by foreigners. Not on account of any influence over the institution, since they had no vote; but because of the high rate of interest payable by America to foreign countries. … Congress refused to prolong its existence and the institution was dissolved. Fortunately for the country, it wound up its affairs with such deliberation and prudence as to allow of the interposition of other bank credits in lieu of those withdrawn, and thus prevented a serious shock to the interests of the community. In the twenty years of its existence from 1791 to 1811 its management was irreproachable. The immediate effect of the refusal of Congress to recharter the Bank of the United States was to bring the Treasury to the verge of bankruptcy. The interference of Parish, Girard, and Astor alone saved the credit of the government. … Another immediate effect of the dissolution of the bank was the withdrawal from the country of the foreign capital invested in the bank, more than seven millions of dollars. This amount was remitted, in the twelve months preceding the war, in specie. Specie was at that time a product foreign to the United States, and by no means easy to obtain. … The notes of the Bank of the United States, payable on demand in gold and silver at the counters of the bank, or any of its branches, were, by its charter, receivable in all payments to the United States; but this quality was also stripped from them on March 19, 1812, by a repeal of the act according it. To these disturbances of the financial equilibrium of the country was added the necessary withdrawal of fifteen millions of bank credit and its transfer to other institutions. This gave an extraordinary impulse to the establishment of local banks, each eager for a share of the profits. The capital of the country, instead of being concentrated, was dissipated. Between January 1, 1811, and 1815, one hundred and twenty new banks were chartered, and forty millions of dollars were added to the banking capital. To realize profits, the issues of paper were pushed to the extreme of possible circulation. Meanwhile New England kept aloof from the nation. The specie in the vaults of the banks of Massachusetts rose from $1,706,000 on June 1, 1811, to $7,326,000 on June 1, 1814. … The suspension of the banks was precipitated by the capture of Washington. It began in Baltimore, which was threatened by the British, and was at once followed in Philadelphia and New York. Before the end of September all the banks south and west of New England had suspended specie payment. … The depression of the local currencies ranged from seven to twenty-five per cent. … In November the Treasury Department found itself involved in the common disaster. The refusal of the banks, in which the public moneys were deposited, to pay their notes or the drafts upon them in specie deprived the government of its gold and silver; and their refusal, likewise, of credit and circulation to the issues of banks in other States deprived the government also of the only means it possessed for transferring its funds to pay the dividends on the debt and discharge the treasury notes. … On October 14, 1814, Alexander J. Dallas, Mr. Gallatin's old friend, who had been appointed Secretary of the Treasury on the 6th of the same month, in a report of a plan to support the public credit, proposed the incorporation of a national bank. A bill was passed by Congress, but returned to it by Madison with his veto on January 15, 1815. … Mr. Dallas again, as a last resort, insisted on a bank as the only means by which the currency of the country could be restored to a sound condition. In December, 1815, Dallas reported to the Committee of the House of Representatives on the national currency, of which John C. Calhoun was chairman, a plan for a national bank, and on March 3, 1816, the second Bank of the United States was chartered by Congress. The capital was thirty-five millions, of which the government held seven millions in seventy thousand shares of one hundred dollars each. Mr. Madison approved the bill. … The second national bank of the United States was located at Philadelphia, and chartered for twenty years."

J. A. Stevens, Albert Gallatin, chapter 6.

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1817-1833. The Second Bank of the United States and the war upon it.

"On the 1st of January, 1817, the bank opened for business, with the country on the brink of a great monetary crisis, but 'too late to prevent the crash which followed.' The management of the bank during the first two years of its existence was far from satisfactory. It aggravated the troubles of the financial situation instead of relieving them. Specie payments were nominally resumed in 1817, but the insidious canker of inflation had eaten its way into the arteries of business, and in the crisis of 1819 came another suspension that lasted for two years. … It was only by a desperate effort that the bank finally weathered the storm brought on by its own mismanagement and that of the State Banks. After the recovery, a period of several years of prosperity followed, and the management of the bank was thoroughly reorganized and sound. From this time on until the great 'Bank War' its affairs seem to have been conducted with a view to performing its duty to the government as well as to its individual stockholders, and it rendered such aid to the public, directly, and indirectly, as entitled it to respect and fair treatment on the part of the servants of the people. … But the bank controversy was not yet over. It was about to be revived, and to become a prominent issue in a period of our national politics more distinguished for the bitterness of its personal animosities than perhaps any other in our annals. … As already said, the ten years following the revulsion of 1819-25 were years of almost unbroken prosperity. … The question of the continuance of the bank was not under discussion. In fact, scarcely any mention of the subject was made until President Jackson referred to it in his message of December, 1829. {2215} In this message he reopened the question of the constitutionality of the bank, but the committee to which this portion of the message was referred in the House of Representatives made a report favorable to the institution. There seems no reason to doubt the honesty of Jackson's opinion that the bank was unconstitutional, and at first he probably had no feeling in the matter except that which sprang from his convictions on this point. Certain events, however, increased his hostility to the bank, and strengthened his resolution to destroy it. … When President Jackson first attacked the bank, the weapon he chiefly relied on was the alleged unconstitutionality of the charter."

D. Kinley, The Independent Treasury of the United States, chapter 1.

The question of the rechartering of the Bank was made an issue in the presidential campaign of 1832, by Henry Clay. "Its disinterested friends in both parties strongly dissuaded Biddle [president of the Bank] from allowing the question of recharter to be brought into the campaign. Clay's advisers tried to dissuade him. The bank, however, could not oppose the public man on whom it depended most, and the party leaders deferred at last to their chief. Jackson never was more dictatorial and obstinate than Clay was at this juncture." Pending the election, a bill to renew the charter of the Bank was passed through both houses of Congress. The President promptly vetoed it. "The national republican convention met at Baltimore, December 12, 1831. It … issued an address, in which the bank question was put forward. It was declared that the President 'is fully and three times over pledged to the people to negative any bill that may be passed for rechartering the bank, and there is little doubt that the additional influence which he would acquire by a reelection would be employed to carry through Congress the extraordinary substitute which he has repeatedly proposed.' The appeal, therefore, was to defeat Jackson in order to save the bank. … Such a challenge as that could have but one effect on Jackson. It called every faculty he possessed into activity to compass the destruction of the bank. Instead of retiring from the position he had taken, the moment there was a fight to be fought, he did what he did at New Orleans. He moved his lines up to the last point he could command on the side towards the enemy. … The proceedings seemed to prove just what the anti-bank men had asserted: that the bank was a great monster, which aimed to control elections, and to set up and put down Presidents. The campaign of 1832 was a struggle between the popularity of the bank and the popularity of Jackson."

W. G. Sumner, Andrew Jackson, chapter 11.

Jackson was overwhelmingly elected, and feeling convinced that his war upon the Bank had received the approval of the people, he determined to remove the public deposits from its keeping on his own responsibility. "With this view he removed (in the spring of 1833) the Secretary of the Treasury, who would not consent to remove the deposits, and appointed William J. Duane, of Pennsylvania, in his place. He proved to be no more compliant than his predecessor. After many attempts to persuade him, the President announced to the Cabinet his final decision that the deposits must be removed. The Reasons given were that the law gave the Secretary, not Congress, control of the deposits, that it was improper to leave them longer in a bank whose charter would so soon expire, that the Bank's funds had been largely used for political purposes, that its inability to pay all its depositors had been shown by its efforts to procure an extension of time from its creditors in Europe, and that its four government directors had been systematically kept from knowledge of its management. Secretary Duane refused either to remove the deposits or to resign his office, and pronounced the proposed removal unnecessary, unwise, vindictive, arbitrary, and unjust. He was at once removed from office, and Roger B. Taney, of Maryland, appointed in his place. The necessary Orders for Removal were given by Secretary Taney. It was not strictly a removal, for all previous deposits were left in the Bank, to be drawn upon until exhausted. It was rather a cessation. The deposits were afterwards made in various State banks, and the Bank of the United States was compelled to call in its loans. The commercial distress which followed in consequence probably strengthened the President in the end by giving a convincing proof of the Bank's power as an antagonist to the Government."

A. Johnston, History of American Politics, chapter 13.

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1837-1841. The Wild Cat Banks of Michigan.

"Michigan became a State in January, 1837. Almost the first act of her State legislature was the passage of a general banking law under which any ten or more freeholders of any county might organize themselves into a corporation for the transaction of banking business. Of the nominal capital of a bank only ten per cent. in specie was required to be paid when subscriptions to the stock were made, and twenty per cent. additional in specie when the bank began business. For the further security of the notes which were to be issued as currency, the stockholders were to give first mortgages upon real estate, to be estimated at its cash value by at least three county officers, the mortgages to be filed with the auditor-general of the State. A bank commissioner was appointed to superintend the organization of the banks, and to attest the legality of their proceedings to the auditor-general, who, upon receiving such attestation, was to deliver to the banks circulating notes amounting to two and a half times the capital certified to as having been paid in. This law was passed in obedience to a popular cry that the banking business had become an 'odious monopoly' that ought to be broken up. Its design was to 'introduce free competition into what was considered a profitable branch of business heretofore monopolized by a few favored corporations.' Anybody was to be given fair opportunities for entering the business on equal terms with everybody else. The act was passed in March, 1837, and the legislature adjourned till November 9 following. Before the latter date arrived, in fact before any banks had been organized under the law, a financial panic seized the whole country. An era of wild speculation reached a climax, the banks in all the principal cities of the country suspended specie payments, and State legislatures were called together to devise remedies to meet the situation. That of Michigan was convened in special session in June, and its remedy for the case of Michigan was to leave the general banking law in force, and to add to it full authority for banks organized under it to begin the business of issuing bills in a state of suspension—that is, to flood the State with an irredeemable currency, based upon thirty per cent. of specie and seventy per cent. of land mortgage bonds."

Cheap-Money Experiments (from the Century Magazine), pages 75-77.

{2216}

"Wild lands that had been recently bought of the government at one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre were now valued at ten or twenty times that amount, and lots in villages that still existed only on paper had a worth for banking purposes only limited by the conscience of the officer who was to take the securities. Any ten freeholders of a county must be poor indeed if they could not give sufficient security to answer the purpose of the general banking law. The requirement of the payment of thirty per cent. of the capital stock in specie was more difficult to be complied with. But as the payment was to be made to the bank itself, the difficulty was gotten over in various ingenious ways, which the author of the general banking law could hardly have anticipated. In some cases, stock notes in terms payable in specie, or the certificates of individuals which stated—untruly—that the maker held a specified sum of specie for the bank, were counted as specie itself; in others, a small sum of specie was paid in and taken out, and the process repeated over and over until the aggregate of payments equaled the sum required; in still others, the specie with which one bank was organized was passed from town to town and made to answer the purposes of several. By the first day of January, 1838, articles of association for twenty-one banks had been filed, making, with the banks before in existence, an average of one to less than five thousand people. Some of them were absolutely without capital, and some were organized by scheming men in New York and elsewhere, who took the bills away with them to circulate abroad, putting out none at home. For some, locations as inaccessible as possible were selected, that the bills might not come back to plague the managers. The bank commissioners say in their report for 1838, of their journey for inspection: 'The singular spectacle was presented of the officers of the State seeking for banks in situations the most inaccessible and remote from trade, and finding at every step an increase of labor by the discovery of new and unknown organizations. Before they could be arrested the mischief was done: large issues were in circulation and no adequate remedy for the evil.' One bank was found housed in a saw-mill, and it was said with pardonable exaggeration in one of the public papers. 'Every village plat with a house, or even without a house, if it had a hollow stump to serve as a vault, was the site of a bank.' … The governor, when he delivered his annual message in January, 1838, still had confidence in the general banking law, which he said 'offered to all persons the privilege of banking under certain guards and restrictions,' and he declared that 'the principles upon which this law is based are certainly correct, destroying as they do the odious feature of a banking monopoly, and giving equal rights to all classes of the community.' … The aggregate amount of private indebtedness had by this time become enormous, and the pressure for payment was serious and disquieting. … The people must have relief; and what relief could be so certain or so speedy as more banks and more money? More banks therefore continued to be organized, and the paper current flowed out among the people in increasing volume. … At the beginning of 1839 the bank commissioners estimated that there were a million dollars of bills of insolvent banks in the hands of individuals and unavailable. Yet the governor, in his annual message delivered in January, found it a 'source of unfeigned gratification to be able to congratulate [the legislature] on the prosperous condition to which our rising commonwealth has attained.' … Then came stay laws, and laws to compel creditors to take lands at a valuation. They were doubtful in point of utility, and more than doubtful in point of morality and constitutionality. The federal bankrupt act of 1841 first brought substantial relief: it brought almost no dividends to creditors, but it relieved debtors from their crushing burdens and permitted them, sobered and in their right minds, to enter once more the fields of industry and activity. The extraordinary history of the attempt to break up an 'odious monopoly' in banking by making everybody a banker, and to create prosperity by unlimited issues of paper currency, was brought at length to a fit conclusion."

T. M. Cooley, Michigan, chapter 13.

See WILD CAT BANKS.

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1838. Free Banking Law of New York.

"On April 18th, 1838, the monopoly of banking under special charters, was brought to a close in the State of New York, by the passage of the act 'to authorize the business of Banking.' Under this law Associations for Banking purposes and Individual Bankers, were authorized to carry on the business of Banking, by establishing offices of deposit, discount and circulation. Subsequently a separate Department was organized at Albany, called 'The Bank Department,' with a Superintendent, who was charged with the supervision of all the banks in the State. Under this law institutions could be organized simply as banks of 'discount and deposit,' and might also add the issuing of a paper currency to circulate as money. At first the law provided that State and United States stocks for one-half, and bonds and mortgages for the other half, might be deposited as security for the circulating notes to be issued by Banks and individual Bankers. Upon a fair trial, however, it was found that when a bank failed, and the Bank Department was called upon to redeem the circulating notes of such bank, the mortgages could not be made available in time to meet the demand. … By an amendment of the law the receiving of mortgages as security for circulating notes was discontinued."

E. G. Spaulding, One Hundred Years of Progress in the Business of Banking, page 48.

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1844. The English Bank Charter Act.

"By an act of parliament passed in 1838, conferring certain privileges on the Bank of England, it was provided that the charter granted to that body should expire in 1855, but the power was reserved to the legislature, on giving six months' notice, to revise the charter ten years earlier. Availing themselves of this option, the government proposed a measure for regulating the entire monetary system of the country."

W. C. Taylor, Life and Times of Sir Robert Peel, volume 3, chapter 7.

{2217}

"The growth of commerce, and in particular the establishment of numerous joint-stock banks had given a dangerous impulse to issues of paper money, which were not then restricted by law. Even the Bank of England did not observe any fixed proportion between the amount of notes which it issued and the amount of bullion which it kept in reserve. When introducing this subject to the House of Commons, Peel remarked that within the last twenty years there had been four periods when a contraction of issues had been necessary in order to maintain the convertibility of paper, and that in none of these had the Bank of England acted with vigour equal to the emergency. In the latest of these periods, from June of 1838 to June of 1839, the amount of bullion in the Bank had fallen to little more than £4,000,000, whilst the total of paper in circulation had risen to little less than £30,000,000. … Peel was not the first to devise the methods which he adopted. Mr. Jones Loyd, afterwards Lord Overstone, who impressed the learned with his tracts and the vulgar with his riches, had advised the principal changes in the law relating to the issue of paper money which Peel effected by the Bank Charter Act. These changes were three in number. The first was to separate totally the two departments of the Bank of England, the banking department and the issue department. The banking department was left to be managed as best the wisdom of the directors could devise for the profit of the shareholders. The issue department was placed under regulations which deprived the Bank of any discretion in its management, and may almost be said to have made it a department of the State. The second innovation was to limit the issue of paper by the Bank of England to an amount proportioned to the value of its assets. The Bank was allowed to issue notes to the amount of £14,000,000 against Government securities in its possession. The Government owed the Bank a debt of £11,000,000, besides which the Bank held Exchequer Bills. But the amount over £14,000,000 which the Bank could issue was not, henceforwards, to be more than the equivalent of the bullion in its possession. By this means it was made certain that the Bank would be able to give coin for any of its notes which might be presented to it. The third innovation was to limit the issues of the country banks. The power of issuing notes was denied to any private or joint-stock banks founded after the date of the Act. It was recognized in those banks which already possessed it, but limited to a total sum of £8,500,000, the average quantity of such notes which had been in circulation during the years immediately preceding. It was provided that if any of the banks which retained this privilege should cease to exist or to issue notes, the Bank of England should be entitled to increase its note circulation by a sum equal to two-thirds of the amount of the former issues of the bank which ceased to issue paper. The Bank of England was required in this contingency to augment the reserve fund. By Acts passed in the succeeding year, the principles of the English Bank Charter Act were applied to Scotland and Ireland, with such modifications as the peculiar circumstances of those kingdoms required. The Bank Charter Act has ever since been the subject of voluminous and contradictory criticism, both by political economists and by men of business."

F. C. Montague, Life of Sir Robert Peel, chapter 8.

ALSO IN: _Bonamy Price, The Bank Charter Act of 1844 (Fraser's Magazine, June, 1865)._

W. C. Taylor, Life and Times of Sir Robert Peel, volume 3, chapter 7.

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1848-1893. Production of the Precious Metals in the last half-century. The Silver Question in the United States.

"The total (estimated) stock of gold in the world in 1848, was £560,000,000. As for the annual production, it had varied considerably since the beginning of the century [from £3,000,000 to £8,000,000]. Such was the state of things immediately preceding 1848. In that year the Californian discoveries took place, and these were followed by the discoveries in Australia in 1851.

See CALIFORNIA: A. D. 1848-1849; and AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1839-1855.

For these three years the annual average production is set down by the Economist at £9,000,000, but from this date the production suddenly rose to, for 1852, £27,000.000, and continued to rise till 1856, when it attained its maximum of £32,250,000. At this stage a decline in the returns occurred, the lowest point reached being in 1860, when they fell to £18,683,000, but from this they rose again, and for the last ten years [before 1873] have maintained an average of about £20,500,000; the returns for the year 1871 being £20,811,000. The total amount of gold added to the world's stock by this twenty years' production has been about £500,000,000, an amount nearly equal to that existing in the world at the date of the discoveries: in other words, the stock of gold in the world has been nearly doubled since that time."

J. E. Cairnes, Essays in Political Economy, pages 160-161.

"The yearly average of gold production in the twenty-five years from 1851-75 was $127,000,000. The yearly average product of silver for the same period was $51,000,000. The average annual product of gold for the fifteen years from 1876 to 1890 declined to $108,000,000; a minus of 15 per cent. The average annual product of silver for the same period increased to $116,000,000; a plus of 127 per cent. There is the whole silver question."

L. R. Ehrich, The Question of Silver, page 21.

"From 1793—the date of the first issue of silver coin by the United States—to 1834 the silver and the gold dollar were alike authorized to be received as legal tender in payment of debt, but silver alone circulated. Subsequently, however, silver was not used, except in fractional payments, or, since 1853, as a subsidiary coin. The silver coin, as a coin of circulation, had become obsolete. The reason why, prior to 1834, payments were made exclusively in silver, and subsequently to that date in gold, is found in the fact that prior to the legislation of 1834 … the standard silver coins were relatively the cheaper, and consequently circulated to the exclusion of the gold; while during the later period the standard gold coins were the cheaper, circulating to the exclusion of the silver. The Coinage Act of 1873, by which the coinage of the silver dollar was discontinued, became a law on February 12th of that year. The act of February 28, 1878, which passed Congress by a two-thirds vote over the veto of President Hayes, again provided for the coinage of a silver dollar of 412.5 grains, the silver bullion to be purchased at the market price by the Government, and the amount so purchased and coined not to be less than two millions of dollars per month. During the debate on this bill the charge was repeatedly made, in and out of Congress, that the previous act of 1873, discontinuing the free coinage of the silver dollar, was passed surreptitiously. {2218} This statement has no foundation in fact. The report of the writer, who was then Deputy Comptroller of the Currency, transmitted to Congress in 1870 by the Secretary, three times distinctly stated that the bill accompanying it proposed to discontinue the issue of the silver dollar-piece. Various experts, to whom it had been submitted, approved this feature of the bill, and their opinions were printed by order of Congress."

J. J. Knox, United States Notes, chapter 10.

"The bill of 1878, generally spoken of as the 'Bland' bill, directed the secretary of the treasury to purchase not less than two million nor more than four million dollars' worth of silver bullion per month, to coin it into silver dollars, said silver dollars to be full legal tender at 'their nominal value.' Also, that the holder of ten or more of these silver dollars could exchange them for silver certificates, said certificates being 'receivable for customs, taxes, and all public dues.' The bill was pushed and passed by the efforts, principally, of the greenback inflationists and the representatives of the silver States. … Since 1878 [to 1891], 405,000,000 silver dollars have been coined. Of these 348,000,000 are still lying in the treasury vaults. No comment is needed. The Bland-Allison act did not hold up silver. In 1870 it was worth $1.12 an ounce, in 1880 $1.14, '81 $1.13, '82 $1.13, '83 $1.11, '86 99 cents, until in '89 it reached 93½ cents an ounce. That is, in 1880 the commercial ratio was 22:1 and the coin value of the Bland-Allison silver dollar was 72 cents. In March, 1800, a bill was reported to the House by the committee of 'coinage, weights and measures,' based on a plan proposed by Secretary Windom. … The bill passed the House. The Senate passed it with an amendment making provision for free and unlimited coinage. It finally went to a conference committee which reported the bill that became a law, July 14, 1890. This bill directs the secretary of the treasury to purchase four and one-half million ounces of silver a month at the market price, to give legal tender treasury notes therefor, said notes being redeemable in gold or silver coin at the option of the government, 'it being the established policy of the United States to maintain the two metals on a parity with each other upon the present legal ratio.' It was believed that this bill would raise the price of silver. … To-day [December 8, 1891] the silver in our dollar is actually worth 73 cents."

L. R. Ehrich, The Question of Silver, pages 21-25.

See, also, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1873, 1878, and 1890-1893.

In the summer of 1893, a financial crisis, produced in the judgment of the best informed by the operation of the silver-purchase law of 1890 (known commonly as the Sherman Act) became so serious that President Cleveland called a special session of Congress to deal with it. In his Message to Congress, at the opening of its session, the President said: "With plenteous crops, with abundant promise of remunerative production and manufacture, with unusual invitation to safe investment, and with satisfactory assurance to business enterprise, suddenly financial fear and distrust have sprung up on every side. Numerous moneyed institutions have suspended because abundant assets were not immediately available to meet the demands of the frightened depositors. Surviving corporations and individuals are content to keep in hand the money they are usually anxious to loan, and those engaged in legitimate business are surprised to find that the securities they offer for loans, though heretofore satisfactory, are no longer accepted. Values supposed to be fixed are fast becoming conjectural, and loss and failure have involved every branch of business. I believe these things are principally chargeable to congressional legislation touching the purchase and coinage of silver by the General Government. This legislation is embodied in a statute passed on the 14th day of July, 1890, which was the culmination of much agitation on the subject involved, and which may be considered a truce, after a long struggle between the advocates of free silver coinage and those intending to be more conservative." A bill to repeal the act of July 14, 1890 (the Sherman law, so called), was passed by both houses and received the President's signature, Nov. 1, 1893.

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1853-1874. The Latin Union and the Silver Question.

"The gold discoveries of California and Australia were directly the cause of the Latin Union. … In 1853, when the subsidiary silver of the United States had disappeared before the cheapened gold, we reduced the quantity of silver in the small coins sufficiently to keep them dollar for dollar below the value of gold. Switzerland followed this example of the United States in her law of January 31, 1860; but, instead of distinctly reducing the weight of pure silver in her small coins, she accomplished the same end by lowering the fineness of standard for these coins to 800 thousandths fine. … Meanwhile France and Italy had a higher standard for their coins than Switzerland, and as the neighboring states, which had the franc system of coinage in common, found each other's coins in circulation within their own limits, it was clear that the cheaper Swiss coins, according to Gresham's law, must drive out the dearer French and Italian coins, which contained more pure silver, but which passed current at the same nominal value. The Swiss coins of 800 thousandths fine began to pass the French frontier and to displace the French coins of a similar denomination; and the French coins were exported, melted, and recoined in Switzerland at a profit. This, of course, brought forth a decree in France (April 14, 1864), which prohibited the receipt of these Swiss coins at the public offices of France, the customs-offices, etc., and they were consequently refused in common trade among individuals. Belgium also, as well as Switzerland, began to think it necessary to deal with the questions affecting her silver small coins, which were leaving that country for the same reason that they were leaving Switzerland. Belgium then undertook to make overtures to France, in order that some concerted action might be undertaken by the four countries using the franc system—Italy, Belgium, France, and Switzerland—to remedy the evil to which all were exposed by the disappearance of their silver coin needed in every-day transactions. The discoveries of gold had forced a reconsideration of their coinage systems. In consequence of these overtures, a conference of delegates representing the Latin states just mentioned assembled in Paris, November 20, 1865. … The Conference, fully realizing the effects of the fall of gold in driving out their silver coins, agreed to establish a uniform coinage in the four countries, on the essential principles adopted by the United States in 1853. {2219} They lowered the silver pieces of two francs, one franc, fifty centimes, and twenty centimes from a standard of 900 thousandths fine to a uniform fineness of 835 thousandths, reducing these coins to the position of a subsidiary currency. They retained for the countries of the Latin Union, however, the system of bimetallism. Gold pieces of one hundred, fifty, twenty, ten, and five francs were to be coined, together with five-franc pieces of silver, and all at a standard of 900 thousandths fine. Free coinage at a ratio of 15½:1, was thereby granted to any holder of either gold or silver bullion who wanted silver coins of five francs, or gold coins from five francs and upward. … The subsidiary silver coins (below five francs) were made a legal tender between individuals of the state which coined them to the amount of fifty francs. … The treaty was ratified, and went into effect August 1, 1866, to continue until January 1, 1880, or about fifteen years. … The downward tendency of silver in 1873 led the Latin Union to fear that the demonetized silver of Germany would flood their own mints if they continued the free coinage of five-franc silver pieces at a legal ratio of 15½:1. … This condition of things led to the meeting of delegates from the countries of the Latin Union at Paris, January 30, 1874, who there agreed to a treaty supplementary to that originally formed in 1865, and determined on withdrawing from individuals the full power of free coinage by limiting to a moderate sum the amount of silver five-franc pieces which should be coined by each state of the Union during the year 1874. The date of this suspension of coinage by the Latin Union is regarded by all authorities as of great import in regard to the value of silver."

J. L. Laughlin, The History of Bimetallism in the United States, pages 146-155.

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1861-1878. The Legal-tender notes, or Greenbacks, the National Bank System, of the American Civil War.

"In January, 1861, the paper currency of the United States was furnished by 1,600 private corporations, organized under thirty-four different State laws. The circulation of the banks amounted to $202,000,000, of which only about $50,000,000 were issued in the States which in April, 1861, undertook to set up an independent government. About $150,000,000 were in circulation in the loyal States, including West Virginia. When Congress met in extraordinary session on the 4th of July, the three-months volunteers, who had hastened to the defence of the capital, were confronting the rebel army on the line of the Potomac, and the first great battle at Bull Run was impending. President Lincoln called upon Congress to provide for the enlistment of 400,000 men, and Secretary Chase submitted estimates for probable expenditures amounting to $318,000,000. The treasury was empty, and the expenses of the government were rapidly approaching a million dollars a day. The ordinary expenses of the government, during the year ending on the 30th of June, 1861, had been $62,000,000, and even this sum had not been supplied by the revenue, which amounted to only $41,000,000. The rest had been borrowed. It was now necessary to provide for an expenditure increased fivefold, and amounting to eight times the income of the country, Secretary Chase advised that $80,000,000 be provided by taxation, and $240,000,000 by loans; and that, in anticipation of revenue, provision be made for the issue of $50,000,000 of treasury notes, redeemable on demand in coin. 'The greatest care will, however, be requisite,' he said, 'to prevent the degradation of such issues into an irredeemable paper currency, than which no more certainly fatal expedient for impoverishing the masses and discrediting the government of any country can well be devised.' The desired authority was granted by Congress. The Secretary was authorized to borrow, on the credit of the United States, not exceeding $250,000,000, and, 'as a part of the above loan,' to issue an exchange for coin, or pay for salaries or other dues from the United States, not over $50,000,000 of treasury notes, bearing no interest, but payable on demand at Philadelphia, New York, or Boston. The act does not say, 'payable in coin,' for nobody had then imagined that any other form of payment was possible. Congress adjourned on the 6th of August, after passing an act to provide an increased revenue from imports, and laying a direct tax of $20,000,000 upon the States, and a tax of 3 per cent. upon the excess of all private incomes above $800. The Secretary immediately invited the banks of Philadelphia, New York, and Boston to assist in the negotiation of the proposed loans, and they loyally responded. On the 19th of August they took $50,000,000 of three years 7-30 bonds at par; on the 1st of October, $50,000,000 more of the same securities at par; and on the 16th of November, $50,000,000 of twenty years 6 per cents., at a rate making the interest equivalent to 7 per cent. These advances relieved the temporary necessities of the treasury, and, when Congress reassembled in December, Secretary Chase was prepared to recommend a permanent financial policy. The solid basis of this policy was to be taxation. … It was estimated, a revenue of $90,000,000 would be needed; and to secure that sum, the Secretary advised that the duties on tea, coffee, and sugar be increased; that a direct tax of $20,000,000 be assessed on the States; that the income tax be modified so as to produce $10,000,000, and that duties be laid on liquors, tobacco, carriages, legacies, bank-notes, bills payable, and conveyances. For the extraordinary expenses of the war it was necessary to depend upon loans, and the authority to be granted for this purpose the Secretary left 'to the better judgment of Congress,' only suggesting that the rate of interest should be regulated by law, and that the time had come when the government might properly claim a part, at least, of the advantage of the paper circulation, then constituting a loan without interest from the people to the banks. There were two ways, Secretary Chase said, in which this advantage might be secured: 1. By increasing the issue of United States notes, and taxing the bank-notes out of existence. 2. By providing a national currency, to be issued by the banks but secured by the pledge of United States bonds. The former plan the Secretary did not recommend, regarding the hazard of a depreciating and finally worthless currency as far outweighing the probable benefits of the measure. … Congress had hardly begun to consider these recommendations, when the situation was completely changed by the suspension of specie payments, on the 28th of December, by the banks of New York, followed by the suspension of the other banks in the country, and compelling the treasury also to suspend. {2220} This suspension was the result of a panic occasioned by the shadow of war with England. … To provide for the pressing wants of the treasury, Congress, on the 12th of February, 1862, authorized the issue of $10,000,000 more of demand notes. Before the end of the session further issues were provided for, making the aggregate of United States notes $300,000,000, besides fractional currency. There was a long debate upon the propriety of making these notes a legal tender for private debts, and it seemed for a time that the measure would be defeated by this dispute. [The bill authorizing the issue of legal tender notes known afterwards as 'Greenbacks' was prepared by the Hon. E. G. Spaulding, who subsequently wrote the history of the measure.] Secretary Chase finally advised the concession of this point; nevertheless, 55 votes in the House of Representatives … were recorded against the provision making the notes a tender for private debts. Congress also empowered the Secretary to borrow $500,000,000 on 5-20 year 6 per cent. bonds, besides a temporary loan of $100,000,000, and provided that the interest on the bonds should be paid in coin, and that the customs should be collected in coin for that purpose. Nothing was said about the principal, for it was taken for granted that specie payments would be resumed before the payment of the principal of the debt would be undertaken. … Congress had thus adopted the plan which the Secretary of the Treasury did not recommend, and neglected the proposition which he preferred. … When Congress met in December, 1862, the magnitude of the war had become fully apparent. … The enormous demands upon the treasury … had exhausted the resources provided by Congress. The disbursements in November amounted to $59,847,077—two millions a day. Unpaid requisitions had accumulated amounting to $46,000,000. The total receipts for the year then current, ending June 30, 1863, were estimated at $511,000,000; the expenditures at $788,000,000; leaving $277,000,000 to be provided for. There were only two ways to obtain this sum—by a fresh issue of United States notes, or by new interest-bearing loans. But the gold premium had advanced in October to 34; the notes were already at a discount of 25 per cent. The consequences of an addition of $277,000,000 to the volume of currency, the Secretary said, would be 'inflation of prices, increase of expenditures, augmentation of debt, and, ultimately, disastrous defeat of the very purposes sought to be obtained by it.' He therefore recommended an increase in the amount authorized to be borrowed on the 5-20 bonds. … In order to create a market for the bonds, he again recommended the creation of banking associations under a national law requiring them to secure their circulation by a deposit of government bonds. The suggestion thus renewed was not received with favor by Congress. … On the 7th of January Mr. Hooper offered again his bill to provide a national currency, secured by a pledge of United States bonds, but the next day Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, submitted the bill with an adverse report from the committee on ways and means. On the 14th of January Mr. Stevens reported a resolution authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to issue $100,000,000 more of United States notes for the immediate payment of the army and navy. The resolution passed the House at once, and the Senate the next day. … On the 19th of January President Lincoln sent a special message to the House, announcing that he had signed the joint resolution authorizing a new issue of United States notes, but adding that he considered it his duty to express his sincere regret that it had been found necessary to add such a sum to an already redundant currency, while the suspended banks were still left free to increase their circulation at will. He warned Congress that such a policy must soon produce disastrous consequences, and the warning was effective. On the 25th of January Senator Sherman offered a bill to provide a national currency, differing in some respects from Mr. Hooper's in the House. The bill passed the Senate on the 12th of February, 23 to 21, and the House on the 20th, 78 to 64. … It was signed by the President on the 25th of February, 1863."

H. W. Richardson, The National Banks, chapter 2.

"One immediate effect of the Legal Tender Act was to destroy our credit abroad. Stocks were sent home for sale, and, as Bagebot shows, Lombard Street was closed to a nation which had adopted legal tender paper money. … By August all specie had disappeared from circulation, and postage-stamps and private note-issues took its place. In July a bill was passed for issuing stamps as fractional currency, but in March 1863, another act was passed providing for an issue of 50,000,000 in notes for fractional parts of a dollar—not legal tender. For many years the actual issue was only 30,000,000, the amount of silver fractional coins in circulation in the North, east of the Rocky Mountains, when the war broke out. … Gold rose to 200-220 or above, making the paper worth 45 or 50 cts., at which point the 5 per cent. ten-forties floated. The amount sold up to October 31st, 1865, was $172,770,100. Mr. Spaulding reckons up the paper issues which acted more or less as currency, on January 30th, 1864, at $1,125,877,034; 812,000,000 bore no interest."

W. G. Sumner, History of American Currency, pages 204-208.

The paper-money issues of the Civil War were not brought to parity of value with gold until near the close of the year 1878. The 1st day of January, 1879, had been fixed for resumption by an act passed in 1875; but that date was generally anticipated in practical business by a few months.

A. S. Bolles, Financial History of the United States, 1861-1885, book 1, chapters 4, 5, 8, and 11, and book 2, chapter 2.

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1871-1873. Adoption of the Gold Standard by Germany.

"At the close of the Franco-Prussian war the new German Empire found the opportunity … for the establishment of a uniform coinage throughout its numerous small states, and was essentially aided in its plan at this time by the receipt of the enormous war-indemnity from France, of which $54,600,000 was paid to Germany in French gold coin. Besides this, Germany received from France bills of exchange in payment of the indemnity which gave Germany the title to gold in places, such as London, on which the bills were drawn. Gold in this way left London for Berlin. With a large stock of gold on hand, Germany began a series of measures to change her circulation from silver to gold. {2221} Her circulation in 1870, before the change was made, was composed substantially of silver and paper money, with no more than 4 per cent of the whole circulation in gold. … The substitution of gold instead of silver in a country like Germany which had a single silver medium was carried out by a path which led first to temporary bimetallism and later to gold monometallism. And for this purpose the preparatory measures were passed December 4, 1871. … This law of 1871 created new gold coins, current equally with existing silver coins, at rates of exchange which were based on a ratio between the gold and silver coins of 1:15½. The silver coins were not demonetized by this law; their coinage was for the present only discontinued; but there was no doubt as to the intention of the Government in the future. … The next and decisive step toward a single gold standard was taken by the act of July 9, 1873. … By this measure gold was established as the monetary standard of the country, with the 'mark' as the unit, and silver was used, as in the United States in 1853, in a subsidiary service. … Under the terms of this legislation Germany began to withdraw her old silver coinage, and to sell as bullion whatever silver was not recoined into the new subsidiary currency."

_J. L. Laughlin, History of Bimetallism in the United States, pages 136-140._

MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1893. Stoppage of the free Coinage of Silver in India.

The free coinage of silver in India was stopped by the Government in June, 1893, thus taking the first step toward the establishment of the gold standard in that country.

----------MONEY AND BANKING: End----------

----------MONGOLS: Start--------

MONGOLS: Origin and earliest history.

"The name Mongol (according to Schmidt) is derived from the word Mong, meaning brave, daring, bold, an etymology which is acquiesced in by Dr. Schott. Ssanang Setzen says it was first given to the race in the time of Jingis Khan, but it is of much older date than his time, as we know from the Chinese accounts. … They point further, as the statements of Raschid do, to the Mongols having at first been merely one tribe of a great confederacy, whose name was probably extended to the whole when the prowess of the Imperial House which governed it gained the supremacy. We learn lastly from them that the generic name by which the race was known in early times to the Chinese was Shi wei, the Mongols having, in fact, been a tribe of the Shi wei. … The Shi wei were known to the Chinese from the 7th century; they then consisted of various detached hordes, subject to the Thu kiu, or Turks. … After the fall of the Yuan-Yuan, the Turks, by whom they were overthrown, acquired the supreme control of Eastern Asia. They had, under the name of Hiong nu, been masters of the Mongolian desert and its border land from a very early period, and under their new name of Turks they merely reconquered a position from which they had been driven some centuries before. Everywhere in Mongol history we find evidence of their presence, the titles Khakan, Khan, Bigui or Beg, Terkhan, &c., are common to both races, while the same names occur among Mongol and Turkish chiefs. … This fact of the former predominance of Turkish influence in further Asia supports the traditions collected by Raschid, Abulghazi, &c., … which trace the race of Mongol Khans up to the old royal race of the Turks."

H. H. Howorth, History of the Mongols, volume 1, pages 27-32.

"Here [in the eastern portion of Asia known as the desert of Gobi], from time immemorial, the Mongols, a people nearly akin to the Turks in language and physiognomy, had made their home, leading a miserable nomadic life in the midst of a wild and barren country, unrecognised by their neighbours, and their very name unknown centuries after their kinsmen, the Turks, had been exercising an all-powerful influence over the destinies of Western Asia."

A. Vámbéry, History of Bokhara, chapter 8.

A. Vámbéry, Travels in Central Asia www.gutenberg.org #41751

See also, TARTARS.

MONGOLS: A. D. 1153-1227. Conquests of Jingiz Khan.

"Jingiz-Khan [or Genghis, or Zingis], whose original name was Tamujin, the son of a Tatar chief, was born in the year 1153 A. D. In 1202, at the age of 49, he had defeated or propitiated all his enemies, and in 1205 was proclaimed, by a great assembly, Khakan or Emperor of Tartary. His capital, a vast assemblage of tents, was at Kara-Korum, in a distant part of Chinese Tartary; and from thence he sent forth mighty armies to conquer the world. This extraordinary man, who could neither read nor write, established laws for the regulation of social life and for the chase; and adopted a religion of pure Theism. His army was divided into Tumans of 10,000 men, Hazarehs of 1,000, Sedehs of 100, and Dehehs of 10, each under a Tatar officer, and they were armed with bows and arrows, swords, and iron maces. Having brought the whole of Tartary under his sway, he conquered China, while his sons, Oktai and Jagatai, were sent [A. D. 1218] with a vast army against Khuwarizm [whose prince had provoked the attack by murdering a large number of merchants who were under the protection of Jingiz]. The country was conquered, though bravely defended by the king's son, Jalalu-'d-Din; 100,000 people were put to the sword, the rest sold as slaves. … The sons of Jingiz-Khan then returned in triumph to their father; but the brave young prince, Jalalu-'d-Din, still held out against the conquerors of his country. This opposition roused Jingiz-Khan to fury; Balk was attacked for having harboured the fugitive prince in 1221, and, having surrendered, the people were all put to death. Nishapur shared the same fate, and a horrible massacre of all the inhabitants took place." Jalalu-'d-Din, pursued to the banks of the Indus and defeated in a desperate battle fought there, swam the liver on horseback, in the face of the enemy, and escaped into India. "The Mongol hordes then overran Kandahar and Multan, Azerbaijan and 'Irak; Fars was only saved by the submission of its Ata-beg, and two Mongol generals marched round the Caspian Sea. Jingiz-Khan returned to Tartary in A. D. 1222, but in these terrible campaigns he lost no less than 200,000 men. As soon as the great conqueror had retired out of Persia, the indefatigable Jalalu-'d-Din recrossed the Indus with 4,000 followers, and passing through Shiraz and Isfaham drove the Mongols out of Tubriz. But he was defeated by them in 1226; and though he kept up the war in Azerbaijan for a short time longer, he was at length utterly routed, and flying into Kurdistan was killed in the house of a friend there, four years afterwards. … Jingiz-Khan died in the year 1227."

C. R. Markham, History of Persia, chapter 7.

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In 1224 Jingiz "divided his gigantic empire amongst his sons as follows: China and Mongolia were given to Oktai, whom he nominated as his successor; Tchaghatai received a part of the Uiguric passes as far as Khahrezm, including Turkestan and Transoxania; Djudi had died in the meantime, so Batu was made lord of Kharezm, Desht i-Kiptchak of the pass of Derbend and Tuli was placed over Khorasan, Persia, and India."

A. Vámbéry, History of Bokhara, chapter 8.

"Popularly he [Jingis-Khan] is mentioned with Attila and with Timur as one of the 'Scourges of God.' … But he was far more than a conqueror. … In every detail of social and political economy he was a creator; his laws and his administrative rules are equally admirable and astounding to the student. … He may fairly claim to have conquered the greatest area of the world's surface that was ever subdued by one hand. … Jingis organised a system of intelligence and espionage by which he generally knew well the internal condition of the country he was about to attack. He intrigued with the discontented and seduced them by fair promises. … The Mongols ravaged and laid waste the country all round the bigger towns, and they generally tried to entice a portion of the garrison into an ambuscade. They built regular siege-works armed with catapults; the captives and peasants were forced to take part in the assault; the attack never ceased night or day; relief of troops keeping the garrison in perpetual terror. They employed Chinese and Persians to make their war engines. … They rarely abandoned the siege of a place altogether, and would sometimes continue a blockade for years. They were bound by no oath, and however solemn their promise to the inhabitants who would surrender, it was broken, and a general massacre ensued. It was their policy to leave behind them no body of people, however submissive, who might inconvenience their communications. … His [Jingis'] creed was to sweep away all cities, as the haunts of slaves and of luxury; that his herds might freely feed upon grass whose green was free from dusty feet. It does make one hide one's face in terror to read that from 1211 to 1223, 18,470,000 human beings perished in China and Tangut alone, at the hands of Jingis and his followers."

H. H. Howorth, History of the Mongols, volume 1, pages 49, 108-113.

"He [Jingiz-Khan] was … a military genius of the very first order, and it may be questioned whether either Cæsar or Napoleon can, as commanders, be placed on a par with him. The manner in which he moved large bodies of men over vast distances without an apparent effort, the judgment he showed in the conduct of several wars in countries far apart from each other, his strategy in unknown regions, always on the alert yet never allowing hesitation or over-caution to interfere with his enterprises, the sieges which he brought to a successful termination, his brilliant victories … —all combined, make up the picture of a career to which Europe can offer nothing that will surpass, if indeed she has anything to bear comparison with it."

D. C. Boulger, History of China, volume 1, chapter 21.

See, also, CHINA: A. D. 1205-1234; KHORASSAN; BOKHARA: A. D. 1219; SAMARKAND; MERV; BALKH; KHUAREZM.

MONGOLS: A. D. 1202. Overthrow of the Keraït, or the kingdom of Prester John.

See PRESTER JOHN, THE KINGDOM OF.

MONGOLS: A. D. 1229-1294. Conquests of the successors of Jingiz Khan.

"Okkodai [or Ogotai or Oktai], the son and successor of Chinghiz, followed up the subjugation of China, extinguished the Kin finally in 1234 and consolidated with his empire all the provinces north of the Great Kiang. … After establishing his power over so much of China as we have said, Okkodai raised a vast army and set it in motion towards the west. One portion was directed against Armenia, Georgia, and Asia Minor, whilst another great host under Batu, the nephew of the Great Khan, conquered the countries north of Caucasus, overran Russia making it tributary, and still continued to carry fire and slaughter westward. One great detachment under a lieutenant of Batu's entered Poland, burned Cracow, found Breslaw in ashes and abandoned by its people, and defeated with great slaughter at Wahlstadt near Lignitz (April 12th, 1241) the troops of Poland, Moravia and Silesia, who had gathered under Duke Henry of the latter province to make head against this astounding flood of heathen. Batu himself with the main body of his army was ravaging Hungary. …

See HUNGARY: A. D. 1114-1301].

Pesth was now taken and burnt and all its people put to the sword. The rumours of the Tartars and their frightful devastations had scattered fear through Europe, which the defeat at Lignitz raised to a climax. Indeed weak and disunited Christendom seemed to lie at the foot of the barbarians. The Pope to be sure proclaimed crusade, and wrote circular letters, but the enmity between him and the Emperor Frederic II. was allowed to prevent any co-operation, and neither of them responded by anything better than words to the earnest calls for help which came from the King of Hungary. No human aid merited thanks when Europe was relieved by hearing that the Tartar host had suddenly retreated eastward. The Great Khan Okkodai was dead [A. D. 1241] in the depths of Asia, and a courier had come to recall the army from Europe. In 1255 a new wave of conquest rolled westward from Mongolia, this time directed against the Ismaelians or 'Assassins' on the south of the Caspian, and then successively against the Khalif of Baghdad and Syria. The conclusion of this expedition under Hulagu may be considered to mark the climax of the Mongol power. Mangu Khan, the emperor then reigning, and who died on a campaign in China in 1259, was the last who exercised a sovereignty so nearly universal. His successor Kublai extended indeed largely the frontiers of the Mongol power in China [see CHINA: A. D. 1259-1294], which he brought entirely under the yoke, besides gaining conquests rather nominal than real on its southern and southeastern borders, but he ruled effectively only in the eastern regions of the great empire, which had now broken up into four. (1) The immediate Empire of the Great Khan, seated eventually at Khanbalik or Peking, embraced China, Corea, Mongolia, and Manchuria, Tibet, and claims at least over Tunking and countries on the Ava frontier; (2), the Chagatai Khanate, or Middle Empire of the Tartars, with its capital at Almalik, included the modern Dsungaria, part of Chinese Turkestan, Transoxiana, and Afghanistan; (3), the Empire of Kipchak, or the Northern Tartars, founded on the conquests of Batu, and with its chief seat at Sarai, on the Wolga, covered a large part of Russia, the country north of Caucasus, Khwarizm, and a part of the modern Siberia; (4), Persia, with its capital eventually at Tabriz, embraced Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and part of Asia Minor, all Persia, Arabian Irak, and Khorasan."

H. Yule, Cathay and the way Thither: Preliminary Essay, sections 92-94 (volume 1).

ALSO IN: H. H. Howorth, History of the Mongols, chapters 4-5.

{2223}

[Image: Map of the Mongol Empire, A. D. 1300. ]

{2224}

MONGOLS: A. D. 1238-1391. The Kipchak empire. The Golden Horde.

"It was under Toushi [or Juchi], son of Tschingis, that the great migration of the Moguls effected an abiding settlement in Russia. … Toushi, with half a million of Moguls, entered Europe close by the Sea of Azof. On the banks of the river Kalka he encountered the united forces of the Russian princes. The death of Toushi for awhile arrested the progress of the Tatar arms. But in 1236, Batu, the son of Toushi, took the command, and all the principalities and cities of Russia, with the exception of Novogorod, were desolated by fire and sword and occupied by the enemy. For two centuries Russia was held cabined, cribbed, confined by this encampment or horde. The Golden Horde of the Deshti Kipzak, or Steppe of the Hollow Tree. Between the Volga and the Don, and beyond the Volga, spreads this limitless region the Deshti Kipzak. It was occupied in the first instance, most probably, by Hun-Turks, who first attracted and then were absorbed by fresh immigrants. From this region an empire took its name. By the river Akhtuba, a branch of the lower Volga, at Great Serai, Batu erected his golden tent; and here it was he received the Russian princes whom he had reduced to vassalage. Here he entertained a king of Armenia; and here, too, he received the ambassadors of S. Louis. … With the exception of Novogorod, which had joined the Hanseatic League in 1276, and rose rapidly in commercial prosperity, all Russia continued to endure, till the extinction of the house of Batu, a degrading and hopeless bondage. When the direct race came to an end, the collateral branches became involved in very serious conflicts; and in 1380, Temnik-Mami was overthrown near the river Don by Demetrius IV., who, with the victory, won a title of honour, Donski, which outlasted the benefits of the victory; although it is from this conflict that Russian writers date the commencement of their freedom. … After an existence of more than 250 years the Golden Horde was finally dissolved in 1480. Already, in 1468, the khanate of Kusan [or Kazan] was conquered and absorbed by the Grand Duke Ivan; and, after the extinction of the horde, Europeans for the first time exacted tribute of the Tatar, and ambassadors found their way unobstructed to Moscow. But the breaking up of the Golden Horde did not carry with it the collapse of all Tatar power in Russia. Rather the effect was to create a concentration of all their residuary resources in the Crimea."

C. I. Black, The Proselytes of Ishmael, part 3, chapter 4.

"The Mongol word yurt meant originally the domestic fireplace, and, according to Van Hammer, the word is identical with the German herde and the English hearth, and thence came in a secondary sense to mean house or home, the chief's house being known as Ulugh Yurt or the Great House. An assemblage of several yurts formed an ordu or orda, equivalent to the German hort and the English horde, which really means a camp. The chief camp where the ruler of the nation lived was called the Sir Orda, i. e., the Golden Horde. … It came about that eventually the whole nation was known as the Golden Horde." The power of the Golden Horde was broken by the conquests of Timour (A. D. 1389-1391). It was finally broken into several fragments, the chief of which, the Khanates of Kazan, of Astrakhan, and of Krim, or the Crimea, maintained a long struggle with Russia, and were successively overpowered and absorbed in the empire of the Muscovite.

H. H. Howorth, History of the Mongols, part 2, pages 1 and x.

See, also, above: A. D. 1229-1294;

KIPCHAKS; and RUSSIA: A. D. 1237-1480.

MONGOLS: A. D. 1257-1258. Khulagu's overthrow of the Caliphate.

See BAGDAD: A. D. 1258.

MONGOLS: A. D. 1258-1393. The empire of the Ilkhans.

See PERSIA: A. D. 1258-1393.

MONGOLS: A. D. 1371-1405. The conquests of Timour.

See TIMOUR.

MONGOLS: A. D. 1526-1605. Founding of the Mogul (Mongol) empire in India.

See INDIA.: A. D. 1399-1605.

----------MONGOLS: End----------

MONITOR AND MERRIMAC, Battle of the.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (MARCH).

MONKS.

See AUSTIN CANONS; BENEDICTINE ORDERS; CAPUCHINS; CARMELITE FRIARS; CARTHUSIAN ORDER; CISTERCIAN ORDER; CLAIRVAUX; CLUGNY; MENDICANT ORDERS; RECOLLECTS; SERVITES; THEATINES; TRAPPISTS.

MONMOUTH, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778 (JUNE).

MONMOUTH'S REBELLION.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1685 (MAY-JULY).

MONOCACY, Battle of the.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (JULY: VIRGINIA-MARYLAND).

MONOPHYSITE CONTROVERSY.

See NESTORIAN AND MONOPHYSITE CONTROVERSY; also, JACOBITE CHURCH.

MONOTHELITE CONTROVERSY, The.

"The Council of Chalcedon having decided that our Lord possessed two natures, united but not confused, the Eutychian error condemned by it is supposed to have been virtually reproduced by the Monothelites, who maintained that the two natures were so united as to have but one will. This heresy is ascribed to Heraclius the Greek emperor, who adopted it as a political project for reconciling and reclaiming the Monophysites to the Church, and thus to the empire. The Armenians as a body had held, for a long time, the Monophysite (a form of the Eutychian) heresy, and were then in danger of breaking their allegiance to the emperor, as they had done to the Church; and it was chiefly to prevent the threatened rupture that Heraclius made a secret compromise with some of their principal men. … Neither … the strenuous efforts of the Greek emperors Heraclius and Constans, nor the concession of Honorius the Roman pontiff to the soundness of the Monothelite doctrine, could introduce it into the Church. Heraclius published in A. D. 639 an Ecthesis, or a formula, in which Monotheism was covertly introduced. The sixth general council, held in Constantinople A. D. 680, condemned both the heresy and Honorius, the Roman pontiff who had countenanced it. {2225} 'The doctrine of the Monothelites, thus condemned and exploded by the Council of Constantinople, found a place of refuge among the Mardaites, a people who inhabited the mountains of Libanus and Anti-Libanus, and who, about the conclusion of this century, received the name of Maronites from John Maro, their first bishop-a name which they still retain.' … In the time of the Crusaders, the Maronites united with them in their wars against the Saracens, and subsequently (A. D. 1182) in their faith. After the evacuation of Syria by the Crusaders, the Maronites, as their former allies, had to bear the vengeance of the Saracenic kings; and for a long time they defended themselves as they could, sometimes inflicting serious injury on the Moslem army, and at others suffering the revengeful fury of their enemies. They ultimately submitted to the rule of their Mohammedan masters, and are now good subjects of the sultan. … The Maronites now … are entirely free from the Monothelite heresy, which they doubtless followed in their earlier history; nor, indeed, does there appear a single vestige of it in their histories, theological books, or liturgies. Their faith in the person of Christ and in all the articles of religion is now, as it has been for a long time past, in exact uniformity with the doctrines of the Roman Church."

J. Wortabet, Researches into the Religions of Syria, pages 103-111; with foot-note.

ALSO IN: H. F. Tozer, The Church and the Eastern Empire, chapter 5.

E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 47.

P. Schaff, History of the Christian Church, volume 4, chapter 11, sections 109-111.

MONROE, James, Opposition to the Federal Constitution.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1787-1789.

Presidential election and administration.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1816, to 1825.

MONROE DOCTRINE, The.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1823.

MONROVIA.

See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1816-1847.

----------MONS: Start--------

MONS: A. D. 1572. Capture by Louis of Nassau, recovery by the Spaniards, and massacre.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1572-1573.

MONS: A. D. 1691. Siege and surrender to Louis XIV.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1689-1691.

MONS: A. D. 1697. Restored to Spain.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1697.

MONS: A. D. 1709. Siege and reduction by Marlborough and Prince Eugene.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1708-1709.

MONS: A. D. 1713. Transferred to Holland.

See UTRECHT: A. D. 1712-1714.

MONS: A. D 1746-1748. Taken by the French and restored to Austria.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1746-1747; and AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, THE CONGRESS.

----------MONS: End--------

MONS GRAMPIUS, Battle of.

See GRAMPIANS.

MONS SACER, Secession of the Roman Plebeians to.

See ROME: B. C. 494-492.

MONS TARPEIUS.

See CAPITOLINE HILL.

MONSIEUR.

Under the old regime, in France, this was the special designation of the elder among the king's brothers.

MONT ST. JEAN, Battle of.

The battle of Waterloo— is sometimes so called by the French.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1815 (JUNE).

MONTAGNAIS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY, and ATHAPASCAN FAMILY.

MONTAGNARDS, OR THE MOUNTAIN.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1791 (OCTOBER); 1792 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER); and after, to 1794-1795 (JULY-APRIL).

MONTAGNE NOIRE, Battle of (1794).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1794-1795 (OCTOBER-MAY).

----------MONTANA: Start--------

MONTANA: A. D. 1803, Partly or wholly embraced in the Louisiana Purchase. The question.

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1798-1803.

MONTANA: A. D. 1864-1889. Organization as a Territory and admission as a State.

Montana received its Territorial organization in 1864, and was admitted to the Union as a State in 1889.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1889-1890.

----------MONTANA: End--------

MONTANISTS.

A name given to the followers of Montanus, who appeared in the 2d century, among the Christians of Phrygia, claiming that the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, "had, by divine appointment, descended upon him for the purpose of foretelling things of the greatest moment that were about to happen, and promulgating a better and more perfect discipline of life and morals. … This sect continued to flourish down to the 5th century."

J. L. von Mosheim, Historical Commentaries, 2d Century, section. 66.

MONTAPERTI, Battle of (1260).

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1248-1278.

MONTAUBAN, Siege of (1621).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1620-1622.

MONTAUKS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

MONTBÉLIARD, Battle of (1871).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1870-1871.

MONTCALM, and the defense of Canada.

See CANADA: A. D. 1756, to 1759.

MONTE CASEROS, Battle of (1852).

See ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1819-1874.

MONTE CASINO, The Monastery of.

See BENEDICTINE ORDERS.

MONTE ROTUNDO, Battle of (1867).

See ITALY: A. D. 1867-1870.

MONTE SAN GIOVANNI, Battle and massacre (1495).

See ITALY: A. D. 1494-1496.

MONTEBELLO, Battle of (1800).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1800-1801 (MAY-FEBRUARY).

Battle of (1859.)

See ITALY: A. D. 1856-1859.

MONTECATINI, Battle of (1315).

See ITALY: A. D. 1313-1330.

MONTENEGRO.

See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.

MONTENOTTE, Battles at (1796).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1796 (APRIL-OCTOBER).

MONTEREAU, Battle of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (JANUARY-MARCH).

MONTEREAU, The Bridge of (1419).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1415-1419.

MONTEREY, California: Possession taken by the American fleet (1846).

See CALIFORNIA: A. D. 1846-1847.

MONTEREY, Mexico: Siege by the Americans (1846).

See MEXICO: A. D. 1846-1847.

MONTEREY, Pennsylvania, The Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (JUNE-JULY: PENNSYLVANIA).

MONTEVIDEO: Founding of the city.

See ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1580-1777.

{2226}

MONTEZUMA, The so-called Empire of.

See MEXICO: A. D. 1325-1502.

MONTFORT, Simon de (the elder), The Crusade of.

See CRUSADES: A. D.1201-1203.

MONTFORT, Simon de (the younger), The English Parliament and the Barons' war.

See PARLIAMENT, THE ENGLISH: EARLY STAGES IN ITS EVOLUTION; and ENGLAND: A. D. 1216-1274.

MONTGOMERY, General Richard, and his expedition against Quebec.

See CANADA: A. D. 1775-1776.

MONTGOMERY CONSTITUTION and Government.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (FEBRUARY).

MONTI OF SIENA, The.

See SIENA.

MONTLEHERY, Battle of (1465).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1461-1468.

----------MONTMÉDY: Start--------

MONTMÉDY: A. D. 1657. Siege and capture by the French and English.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1655-1658.

MONTMÉDY: A. D. 1659. Cession to France.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1659-1661.

----------MONTMÉDY: End--------

MONTMIRAIL, Battle of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (JANUARY-MARCH).

MONTPELIER, Treaty of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1620-1622.

MONTPELIER, Second Treaty of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1624-1626.

MONTPENSIER, Mademoiselle, and the Fronde.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1651-1653.

----------MONTREAL: Start--------

MONTREAL: A. D. 1535. The Naming of the Island.

See AMERICA: A. D. 1534-1535.

MONTREAL: A. D. 1611. The founding of the City by Champlain.

See CANADA: A. D. 1611-1616.

MONTREAL: A. D. 1641-1657. Settlement under the seigniory of the Sulpicians.

See CANADA: A.D. 1637-1657.

MONTREAL: A. D. 1689. Destructive attack by the Iroquois.

See CANADA: A. D. 1640-1700.

MONTREAL: A. D. 1690. Threatened by the English Colonists.

See CANADA: A. D. 1689-1690.

MONTREAL: A. D. 1760. The surrender of the city and of all Canada to the English.

See CANADA: A. D. 1760.

MONTREAL: A. D. 1775-1776. Taken by the Americans and recovered by the British.

See CANADA: A. D. 1775-1776.

MONTREAL: A. D. 1813. Abortive expedition of American forces against the city.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1813 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER).

----------MONTREAL: End--------

MONTROSE, and the Covenanters.

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1638-1640; and 1644-1645.

MONZA, Battle of (1412).

See ITALY: A. D. 1412-1447.

MONZON, MONÇON, Treaty of (1626).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1624-1626.

MOODKEE, Battle of (1845).

See INDIA: A. D. 1845-1849.

MOOKERHYDE, Battle of (1574).

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1573-1574.

MOOLTAN, MULTAN: A. D. 1848-1849. Siege and capture by the English.

See INDIA: A. D. 1845-1849.

MOORE, Sir John: Campaign in Spain and death.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1808-1809 (AUGUST-JANUARY).

MOORE'S CREEK, Battle of (1776).

See NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1775-1776.

MOORISH SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES.

See EDUCATION, MEDIÆVAL.

----------MOORS: Start--------

MOORS, OR MAURI, Origin.

See NUMIDIANS.

MOORS: A. D. 698-709. Arab conquest.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 647-709; and MAROCCO.

MOORS: A. D. 711-713. Conquest of Spain.

See SPAIN: A. D. 711-713, and after.

MOORS: 11-13th Centuries. The Almoravides and Almohades in Morocco.

See ALMORAVIDES; and ALMOHADES.

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