Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/667

Rh M A T M A U G35 nut palm (Cocos nucifera), and of the screw pine (Pandanus odoratissimus), the munja or munj grass (Saccharum Munja} and allied grasses, and the mat grasses Cyperus textilis and C. Pangorei, from the last of which the well-known Palghat mats of the Madras Presidency are made. Many of these Indian grass mats are admirable examples of elegant design, and the colours in which they are woven are rich, harmonious, and effective in the highest degree. Vast quantities of coarse matting used for packing furniture, heavy and coarse goods, and plants, &c., are made in Russia from the bast or inner bark of the lime tree. This industry centres in the great forest governments of Viatka, Nijni- Novgorod, Kostroma, Kazan, Perm, and Simbirsk. MATTOOX, a city of the United States, in Coles county, Illinois, 172 miles south-south-west of Chicago, on the Central Illinois Railroad, which at that point intersects the Indianapolis and St Louis and the Peoria, Decatur, and Evansville Railroads. It had 5742 inhabitants in 1880, has railway carriage works and repair shops, and is rising rapidly in commercial importance. MATURIN, CHARLES ROBERT (1782-1824), novelist and dramatist, perplexed the serious and served as a butt for the more light-minded critics of the first quarter of the 1 9th century. The bombastic extravagance of his language, the incoherence of his plots, the wild improbability of many of his incidents, the inconsistency of his characters, were obvious and undeniable ; but there were so many passages of extraordinary eloquence in his novels, especially in his descriptions of turbulent passion, that, though some pro nounced him evidently mad, all admitted that it was a madness allied to genius. At first he published only sermons in his own name, being curate of St Peter s, Dublin. His first novels, The Fatal Revenge (1804), The Wild Irish Boy (1808), The Milesian Chief (1811), were issued under the pseudonym of Dennis Jasper Murphy. All these were mercilessly ridiculed by the press and neglected by the public, but the irregular power displayed in them attracted the notice of some social and literary magnates; and through the influence of Byron and Scott Maturin s tragedy of Bertram was produced at Drury Lane in 1816, with a prologue by Hobhouse, an epilogue by the Hon. George Lamb, and with Kean and Miss Kelly in the leading parts. The magnificent scenic situations, and the character of Bertram (like one of Byron s sombre heroes), make this an effective stage play. It was the first and only success of the author ; he returned to &quot; the baffled efforts and the blighted hopes &quot; of which Hobhouse speaks in his prologue. Two more tragedies, Manuel (1817) and Fredolpho (1819), were failures. A poem, The Universe (1821), fell flat. Three novels, Women (1818), Melmoth (1820), and The Albigenses (1824), produced a considerable impression. In the preface to Women he admitted that his previous novels had been justly condemned, being an impossible attempt to revive the exploded style of Mrs Radcliffe, and promised that he would enter on a new vein. But he could not alter his character. The new vein was as wild, fantastic, incoherent, interspersed with passages of really splendid eloquence, as the old. The Albigenses was to be the first of a series of historical romances, illustrating periods of European history, and it was noticed in the Westminster Review as giving, with all its faults, promise of better things; but the author died in the year of its publication. MAUBEUGE, a fortified place of northern France, situated on both banks of the Sambre, 142 miles by rail north-east from Paris, and about 2 miles from the Belgian frontier. Its fortifications were planned by Vauban ; the enceinte is pierced by two gateways, that of France and that of Mons. Maubeuge, besides containing an arsenal and several old convents, is an industrial town, manufac turing swords, files, axles, tools, hardware, machinery, porcelain tiles, and paper ; in the neighbourhood there are numerous forges. The population in 1876 was 14,400, Maubeuge owes its origin to a double monastery for men and women founded in the 7th century by StAldegonde. It was burnt by the Normans, by Louis XL, by Francis I., and by Henry II., and was finally assigned to France by the treaty of Nimeguen. It was fortified by Vauban at the command of Louis XIV., who first saw military service there, under Turenne. Besieged in 1793 by the prince of Coburg, it was relieved by the victory of Wattignies. It was unsuccessfully besieged by the duke of Saxe-Weimar in 1814, but was compelled to capitulate, after a vigorous resistance, in the following year. MAULMAIN, or MOULMEIN, a town in Amherst district, British Burmah, situated on the left bank of the Sal win river, in 16 30 N. lat. and 97 38 E. long. At the time of the cession of this part of the province to the British in 1826, Maulmain was a mere waste. It has now developed into a thriving commercial town, ranking next to Rangoon in importance, with a rapidly increasing population and trade. The population, which in 1857 was 23,683, had increased in 1872 to 46,472, and in 1881 to 53,107 (32,895 males and 20,212 females). The principal buildings are Salwin House, originally a private residence, but now the property of the municipality, the hospital, the jail,* Protestant and Roman Catholic churches, the custom-house, and other public offices, and the barracks for the garrison of Madras native infantry. For many years timber formed the only export, but with the gradual settlement of the country and increase in agriculture rice and cotton began to be also exported ; besides these, the other staple exports are hides, horns, lead, copper, yellow orpiment, and stick-lac. The principal imports are cotton twist and cloth, woollen piece-goods, wines and spirits, sugar, and betel-nuts. In 1880-81 573 vessels (266,010 tons) entered the port, and 536 (265,147 tons) cleared. The value of merchandise imported was 666,810, of treasure 312,190, of merchandise exported 1,389,763, and of treasure 92,817. Shipbuilding forms an important in dustry of the town. MAUNDY THURSDAY, the day preceding Good Friday. The word &quot;maundy&quot; (Middle-English, maundee or mauncle, a command) is identical with the &quot; mandatum &quot; of the rubric and anthem of the Missal for the fifth day in Holy Week, sometimes called &quot; Dies Mandati &quot; (see this shown at length by Skeal in Etym. Diet., and in note to Piers Plowman, xvi. 140). The &quot;mandatum&quot; or &quot;maund&quot; referred to is the &quot; new commandment &quot; of John xiii. 34, but more particularly the precept given to the disciples in the same chapter &quot; to wash one another s feet.&quot; The practice by prelates and others of literally and formally carrying out this injunction in a public manner on a given day has long been established both in the East and in the West. Perhaps an indication of it may be discerned as early as the 4th century in a custom, current in Spain, northern Italy, and elsewhere, of washing the feet of the catechumens towards the end of Lent before their baptism ; it was not, however, universal, and in the 48th canon of the synod of Elvira (306 A.D.) it is expressly prohibited (comp. Corp. Jur. Can., c. 104, caus. i. qu. 1). Be this as it may, the &quot;pedilavium,&quot; or ceremony of wash ing the feet of twelve beggars on this day, has now for centuries been observed by the prelates of the Church of Rome, including the pope himself, according to a ritual minutely prescribed in the Missal ; it is also practised by the Austrian emperor, the king of Bavaria, and other European sovereigns in the Latin obedience, as well as by the emperor of Russia and others at the head of the Greek Church. In England it was continued by the sovereign even after the Reformation ; the last recorded instance of its full performance is in the case of James II., but a dis tribution of royal alms, consisting of money and clothing,