Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/524

Rh 500 M A N M A N with the needs of modern society has long been fully recognized. The chief defect of Lord Mansfield s character was a certain coldness and want of moral courage. He had HO very warm attachment either to persons or opinions, although invariably kindly and considerate in his de meanour. Even his greatest speeches owe their impres- siveness to a certain intellectual nobleness and breadth of view. His attachment to justice was not impassioned, but of the type which is bred from highest professional custom, and from the kind of intellectual taste which led him so frequently to the ethical writings of Cicero. He could not always face the enthusiasm of Chatham, and we cannot feel certain that his courage would have sustained him through any very perilous stand for righteousness. But in the sphere in which he was chiefly famous these defects were scarcely disadvantages. His sense of duty and of personal dignity was amply sufficient to bear him perfectly unstained through life. No suitor had ever to complain of delay or neglect. His want of strong feeling only per mitted him to use his magnificent intellect with greater impartiality ; and, if at any time he was affectedly personal prejudice, no trace of it was ever allowed to appear. ITothing ever disturbed the perfect dignity and propriety of his judicial conduct, which is apparent in every trial at which he presided. He impressed himself on the mind of his contemporaries as one of the best examples of what a great judge ought to be ; and from that estimate a closer examination of his claims will scarcely lead us to differ. (A. GI.) MANSLAUGHTER. See MURDER. HANSON, GEORGE (1850-1876), a Scottish water- colour painter, was born in Edinburgh on the 3d of December 1850. When about fifteen he was apprenticed as a woodcutter with Messrs W. & R. Chambers, with whom he remained for over five years, designing and engraving vignettes distinguished by singular Tightness and directness of technical method, diligently employing all his spare time in the study and practice of art, and pro ducing in his morning and evening hours water-colours of much delicacy and beauty, like the Milking Time and the Cottage Door. In 1871 he left the Messrs Chambers, and devoted himself exclusively to painting. His subjects ware derived from humble Scottish life especially child life, varied occasionally by portraiture, by landscape, and by views of picturesque architecture. In 1873 he visited Xormandy, Belgium, and Holland ; in the following year he spent several months in Sark; and in 1875 he resided at St L6, and in Paris, where he mastered the processes of etching. He afterwards produced a series of plates which promised excellence in the art. Meanwhile in his water-colour work he had been adding more of breadth and power to the tenderness and richness of colour which distinguished his early pictures, and he was planning more complex and important subjects. But his health had been gradually failing, and he was ordered to Lympstone in Devonshire, where he died on the 27th of February 1876. Among his chief productions are the High School Wynd ; the Companions a gipsy girl and her donkey Waiting for the Boats ; What is It ? a child examining an antique clock ; and his own portrait as a Sark fisherman. Since his death several exhibitions of his works have been held in London and Edinburgh, and a volume of photographs from his water-colours and sketches, with a memoir by J. M. Gray, was published in 1880. For an account of Manson s technical method as a wood engraver see P. G. Hamerton s Graphic Arts, p. 311. MANSUR, MANSOOR, or more properly, with the article, AL-MANSUR, &quot; the victorious,&quot; a surname (lakah} assumed by not a few Mohammedan princes. Among the person ages commonly referred to by this title the following may be noticed. 1. Abu Ja far ibn Mohammed, second caliph of the house of Abbas, who reigned 754-775 A.D. See MOHAMMEDAN EMPIRE. 2. Abu Tahir Isma i l ibn Al-Kdim, third Fatimite caliph of Africa (946-953). Under Al-Kdim, his father, the Fatim- ites, already weakened by their conflict with the Omayyads of Spain, were threatened with utter ruin by a Berber rising under Abii Yezid, a poor nonconformist ( Ibadi) school master, who appeared as a religious reformer, and gathered round him the Sunnites, who detested the Fatimites. In 944 Abu Yezid conquered the capital Kairawan, and recognized the spiritual headship of the Spanish caliph. While the Spanish caliph and his vassals stripped the Fatimite of his remoter possessions, Abu Yezid pressed him at home, and during the siege of Siisa Al-Kdim died, and was succeeded by Al-Mansur. Then the fortunes of war rapidly turned, Abii Yezid alienated many of his followers by lapsing into habits of arrogant luxury and by treachery towards the Sunnites. At length he lost all he had won, fell into the hands of Al-Mansur, and va&amp;gt; put to death (947). The caliph built tho city of Man- suriyah on the field of the decisive battle and made it his residence; the empire was rapidly restored, and the Spanish vassals driven from Africa. Al-Mansur died at Mansuii- yah, and was succeeded by Al-Mo izz, the conqueror of Egypt (see vol. vii. p. 750 sq.). 3. Ibn Abi Amir Mohammed, commonly called Almanzor by European writers, of an ancient but not illustrious Arab family, which had its seat at Torrox near Algeciras, was bcrn 939 A.D., and began life as a lawyer at Cordova. In 967 he obtained a place at the court of Hakam. II., the Andalusian caliph, and by an unusual combination of the talents of a courtier with, administrative ability and address in dealing with men, rapidly rose to distinction, enjoying in particular the powerful support of Subh, the favourite of the caliph and mother of his heir Hisham. On the death of Hakam (976) the accession of a minor gave fresh scope to the genius of Ibn Abi Amir, who threaded his way with consummate but unscrupulous talent through the intrigues of the court, and in 978 became prime minister. He now aimed at absolute do minion. The weak young caliph, absorbed in exercises of piety, was easily reduced to a cipher, but at first Ibn Abi Amir had to share the power with his father-in-law Ghdlib, the best general of Andalusia, and his chief aid, along with the mother of Hisham, in the steps that had raised him to power. At last a rupture took place be tween the two ministers, and ended in a var in which Ghdlib professed himself the champion of the caliph and called in the aid of the Christians of Leon. But his rival had anticipated the struggle ; he had long before found means to add military to administrative reputation, and since he rose to the direction of affairs had remodelled the army so as to make it more formidable and more devoted to his cause. Ghalib fell in battle (981); a vic torious campaign chastised the Leone.se ; and on his return to Cordova the victor assumed the regal surname of Al- Mansur billah, and became practically sovereign of Anda lusia. The caliph was a mere prisoner of state, holding a nominal dignity, and Al-Mansur ultimately assumed the title as well as the prerogatives of king (996). Unscrupu lous in the means by which he rose to power, he wielded the sovereignty nobly. His strict justice and the en lightened excellence of his internal administration were not less notable than his military prowess. But it is by the latter that he is best known. His arms were the terror of the Christians, and raised the Moslem power in Spain to a pitch it had never before attained. He fought more than