The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 316

MOORE, SIR JOHN, general, eldest son of above, born at Glasgow; served in Corsica, the West Indies, Ireland, Holland, Egypt, Sicily, and Sweden; his famous and last expedition was to Spain in 1808, when with 10,000 men he was sent to co-operate in expelling the French; Spanish apathy and other causes weakened his hands, and in December he found himself with 25,000 men at Astorga, a French force of 70,000 advancing against him; retreat was necessary, but disastrous; he was overtaken by Soult at Coruna in the act of embarking; the victory lay with the English, but Moore was killed (1761-1808).

MOORE, THOMAS, the Bard of Erin, born in Dublin, the son of a grocer, studied at Trinity College; went to London with a translation of "Anacreon," which gained him favour and a valuable appointment in the Bermudas in 1803; fought a duel with Jeffrey in 1806, began his "Irish Melodies" in 1807, and published "The Twopenny Postbag" in 1812; in 1817 appeared "Lalla Rookh," a collection of Oriental tales, and in 1818 a satiric piece "The Fudge Family," and published a Life of Byron in 1830; Moore's songs were written to Irish airs, and they contributed much to ensure Catholic emanc.i.p.ation (1779-1852).

MOORS, a general term for tribes in North Africa descended from Arab and Berber stock; they were Christians for several centuries, but on their conquest by Arabs in 647 embraced Mohammedanism; the town Moors do not hold before European settlers, but the nomad tribes show more vitality; Moorish peoples seized and settled in Spain early in the 8th century, and, introducing a civilisation further advanced than that in Europe generally with respect to science, art, and industry alike, maintained a strong rule till the 11th century; then the Spaniards gradually recovered the peninsula; Toledo was taken in 1085, Saragossa in 1118, Valencia in 1238, Seville in 1248, Murcia in 1260, and Granada in 1492; Turkish successes in the East came too late to save the Moors, and the last were banished from the country in 1609.

MORAINES, ma.s.ses of rock which become detached from the hill-side and find lodgment on a glacier are so called, and are further described as lateral, medial, terminal, or ground moraines, according as they lie along its edges, its middle, are piled up in mounds at its end, or falling down creva.s.ses, are ground against the rock underneath.

MORALITIES, didactic dramas, following in order of time the miracle plays and mysteries, in which the places of saints and biblical personages in them were taken by characters representing different virtues and vices, and the story was of an allegorical nature; were the immediate precursors of the secular drama.

MORAVIA (2,277), a crownland in the N. of Austria, lying between the Moravian and the Carpathian Mountains, with Silesia on the N., Hungary on the E., Lower Austria on the S., and Bohemia on the W.; is mountainous, with lofty plains in the S., and is watered by the March, a tributary of the Danube; the valleys and plains are fertile; grain, beetroot, flax, hemp, and vines are grown; cattle and poultry rearing and bee-keeping occupy the peasantry; sugar, textiles, and tobacco are the chief manufactures; there are coal and iron mines, graphite and meerschaum are found; the capital is Brunn (94), which has woollen and leather industries; a.s.sociated with Bohemia in 1029, Moravia pa.s.sed with that country to Austria in 1526, its a.s.sociation with Bohemia terminating in 1849; the inhabitants are two-thirds Slavs and one-third German, and are mostly Roman Catholic.

MORAVIANS, a sect of Protestant Christians who, followers of John Huss, formed themselves into a separate community in Bohemia in 1467 on the model of the primitive Church, in which the members regarded each other as brethren, and were hence called the United Brethren; like other heretics they suffered much persecution at the hands of the orthodox Church; they are known also as Herrnhuters.

MORAY, JAMES STUART, EARL OF, illegitimate son of James V. of Scotland, and so half-brother of Mary, Queen of Scots; was from 1556 the leader of the Reformation party, and on Mary's arrival in her kingdom in 1561 became her chief adviser; on her marriage with Darnley he made an unsuccessful attempt to raise a Protestant rebellion, and had to escape to England 1565, and after a visit to Edinburgh, when he connived at Rizzio's murder, to France in 1567; he was almost immediately recalled by the n.o.bles, who had imprisoned Mary in Lochleven, and appointed regent; next year he defeated at Langside the forces which, on her escape, had rallied round her, and in the subsequent management of the kingdom secured both civil and ecclesiastical peace, and earned the t.i.tle of "the Good Regent"; he was shot by a partisan of the queen's, James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, when riding through Linlithgow (1531-1570).

MORE, HANNAH, English auth.o.r.ess, born near Bristol; wrote dramas, a novel ent.i.tled "Coelebs in Search of a Wife," and a tract "The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain" (1745-1833).

MORE, HENRY, a Platonist, born at Grantham, a Fellow of Christ College, Cambridge, and author of a poem "Song of the Soul"; he was a mystic who exercised a great influence among the young men of Cambridge (1614-1687).

MORE, SIR THOMAS, Chancellor of England, born in London; was the lifelong friend of Erasmus, and the author of "Utopia," an imaginary commonwealth; succeeded Wolsey as Chancellor, but resigned the seals of office because he could not sanction the king's action in the matter of the divorce, and was committed to the Tower for refusing to take the oath of supremacy, whence after 12 months he was brought to trial and sentenced to be beheaded; he ascended the scaffold, and laid his head on the block in the spirit of a philosopher; was one of the wisest and best of men (1478-1535).

MOREA is the modern name of the ancient Peloponnesus, that remarkable peninsula, larger than Wales, which const.i.tutes the southern half of Greece, and is joined to the mainland by the Isthmus of Corinth, less than 4 m. broad.

MOREAU, JEAN VICTOR, French general, born at Morlaix; served with distinction under the Republic and the Empire; was suspected of plotting against the latter with George Cadoudal, and banished on conviction; went to America, but returning to Europe, joined the ranks of the Russians against his country, and was mortally wounded by a cannon ball at Dresden (1763-1813).

MORGANATIC MARRIAGE, is a union permitted to German princes who, forbidden to marry except with one of equal rank, may ally themselves with a woman of inferior status, their children being legitimate but not eligible for the succession; the marriages of British princes contracted before the age of 25 without consent of the sovereign, or after that age without consent of Parliament, are of a morganatic nature.

MORGARTEN, a mountain slope in the canton of Zug, Switzerland, where 1400 Swiss, on Nov. 15, 1315, in a.s.sertion of their independence, defeated an Austrian army of 15,000.

MORGHEN, RAPHAEL SANZIO CAVALIERE, engraver, born in Naples, of German parentage; studied in Rome, and by genius and industry became one of the foremost engravers; his works include engravings of Raphael's "Transfiguration," the result of 16 years' labour, and Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper," his masterpiece (1758-1833).

MORGUE, a house in which bodies found dead are placed for identification.

MORISONIANISM, the principles of the Evangelical Union, a Scottish denomination founded by the Rev. James Morison of Kilmarnock on his expulsion from the United Secession Church in 1843, and united with the Scottish Congregational Union in 1897; differed from the older Presbyterianism in affirming the freedom of the human will to accept or reject salvation, and the universal scope of the offer of salvation as made by G.o.d to all men; in polity the Morisonians observed a modified independency.

MORLEY, JOHN, politician and man of letters, born in Blackburn; is an advanced Liberal in both capacities; besides essays and journalistic work, has written biographies, particularly on men a.s.sociated with politics and social movements, such as Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot, as well as Burke, and is editor of "English Men of Letters"; in politics he was a staunch supporter of Mr. Gladstone, though he could have little sympathy with him as a High Churchman; _b_. 1838.

MORMON, BOOK OF, a book which in 1827 fell into the hands of Joseph Smith, the son of a farmer, alleged by him to have been written by a Hebrew prophet who emigrated to America 600 years before Christ, and to have been recorded by him as a direct revelation to himself from heaven, by means of which the interrupted communication between heaven and earth was to be restored.

MORMONISM, the creed of the Mormons, or Latter-day Saints as they are called, who have settlements of their own in the valley of the Salt Lake, generally called Utah, U.S.; they conceive, according to Hepworth Dixon, of G.o.d as a flesh and blood man, of man as of the divine substance, as existing from, and to exist to, all eternity, and without inherited sin, of the earth as only one of many inhabited worlds, of the spirit world as consisting of beings awaiting incarnation, of polygamy as of divine ordination and the relations.h.i.+p eternal, and of their social system as the kingdom of G.o.d on earth.

MORNY, DUC DE, French politician, born in Paris; played a conspicuous part in the _coup d'etat_ of December 1851, and was President of the Corps Legislatif; was believed to have been the son of Queen Hortense, and consequently Louis Napoleon's half-brother (1811-1865).

MOROCCO (4,000), an empire in the NW. corner of Africa, three times the size of Great Britain, its coast-line stretching from Algeria to Cape Nun, and its inland confines being vaguely determined by the French hinterlands. Two-thirds of the country is desert; much of the remainder is poor pasture land; the Atlas Mountains stretch from SW. to NE., but there are some expanses of level fertile country; on the seaboard the climate is delightful, with abundance of rain in the season; among the mountains extremes prevail; south of the Atlas it is hot and almost rainless; the mineral wealth is probably great; gold, silver, copper, and iron are known to be plentiful, but bad government hinders development; the exports are maize, pulse, oil, wool, fruit, and cattle; cloth, tea, coffee, and hardware are imported; the chief industries are the making of leather, "Fez" caps, carpets, and the breeding of horses; government is extremely despotic and corrupt, and the Sultan's authority over many of the tribes is merely nominal; there is no education; the religion is Mohammedanism, and slavery prevails; there are no roads, and the country is imperfectly known; telegraph, telephone, and postal service are in European hands; the country was taken from the Romans by the Arabs in the 7th century, and has ever since been in their hands, but Berbers, Spaniards, Moors, Jews, and negroes also go to make up the population.

The chief towns are Fez (25), in the N., a sacred Moslem city, squalid and dirty, but with good European trade, and a depot for the caravans from the interior; and Morocco (60), in the S., near the Tensift River, 240 m. SW. of Fez, well situated for local and transit trade, but a dilapidated city.

MOROCCO, a fine-grained leather of the skin of a goat or sheep, first prepared in Morocco.

MORPHEUS (i. e. the Moulder), the G.o.d of dreams, the son of Night and Sleep.

MORRIS-DANCE, a rustic merrymaking common in England after 1350, and still extant; is of disputed origin; the chief characters, Maid Marian, Robin Hood, the hobby-horse, and the fool, execute fantastic movements and Jingle bells fastened to their feet and dress.

MORRIS, SIR LEWIS, a poet, born in Carmarthen, Wales; the author of "Songs of Two Worlds," "The Epic of Hades," "A Vision of Saints," &c.; often confounded with the succeeding, with whom he has next to nothing in common; _b_. 1833.

MORRIS, WILLIAM, poet, art-worker, and Socialist, born in Walthamstow, near London, son and heir of a wealthy merchant; studied at Oxford, where he became the lifelong bosom friend of Burne-Jones; of an artistic temperament, he devoted his working hours to decorative art, in particular designing wall-papers; produced in 1858 "The Defence of Guenevere and other Poems," in 1867 "The Life and Death of Jason," and from 1868 to 1870 his masterpiece, "THE EARTHLY PARADISE" (q. v.); among other works he translated the "aeneid" and the "Odyssey," and gave a splendid rendering of some of the Norse legends (1834-1896).

MORRISON, ROBERT, first missionary to China, and Chinese scholar, born of Scottish parentage at Morpeth; entered the Independent ministry, and was sent to Macao and Canton by the London Missionary Society in 1807; in 1814 he published a Chinese version of the New Testament, and in 1819 of the Old Testament; in 1823 his great Chinese Dictionary was published at the expense of the East India Company; returning to England in 1824, he went out again 10 years later as interpreter to Lord Napier, and died at Canton (1782-1834).

MORSE, SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE, inventor, born at Charlestown, Ma.s.sachusetts, graduated at Yale in 1810 and adopted art as a profession; he gained some distinction as a sculptor, and in 1835 was appointed professor of Design in New York; electrical studies were his hobby; between 1832 and 1837 he worked out the idea of an electric telegraph--simultaneously conceived by Wheatstone in England--and in 1843 Congress granted funds for an experimental line between Was.h.i.+ngton and Baltimore; honour and fortune crowded on him, his invention was adopted all over the world, and he received an international grant of 16,000; he died in New York (1791-1872).

MORTGAGE, a deed conveying property to a creditor as security for the payment of a debt, the person to whom it is given being called the Mortgagee.

MORTON, JAMES DOUGLAS, EARL OF, regent of Scotland; joined the Reforming party, was made Chancellor, took part in the murder of Rizzio, and was privy to the plot against Darnley, joined the confederacy of the n.o.bles against Mary, fought against her at Langside, and became regent in 1572; became unpopular, was charged with being accessory to Darnley's murder, and beheaded in 1581.

MOSAYLIMA, a rival of Mohammed, posed as equally a prophet, and ent.i.tled to share with Mohammed the sovereignty of the world; two battles followed, in the second of which Mosaylima was killed, to the dispersion of his followers.