Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/668

Rh (&amp;gt;36 M A U M A U is still continued. It is on Maundy Thursday also that in the Church of Home the sacred oil is blessed, and the chrism prepared, according to an elaborate ritual which is given in the Pontificate. MAUPERTUIS, PETER Louis MOEEAU DE (1698-1759), a mathematician and astronomer of considerable reputation in his day, was born at St Malo, July 17, 1698. When twenty years of age he entered the army, becoming lieu tenant in a regiment of cav,alry, and employing his leisure on mathematical studies. After five years he quitted the army and was admitted in 1723 a member of the academy of sciences. In 1728 he visited London, and was elected a fellow of the Iloyal Society. In 1736 he acted as chief of the expedition sent by Louis XV. into Lapland to measure the length of a degree of the meridian within the polar circle, in order to settle the then much disputed question of the oblate figure of the earth, and, on his return home, he became a member of almost all the scientific societies of Europe. In 1740 Maupertuis went to Berlin on the invitation of the king of Prussia, and took part in the battle of Mollwitz, where he was taken prisoner by the Austrians. On his release he returned to Berlin, and thence to Paris, where he was elected director of the academy of sciences in 1742, and in the following year was admitted into the Academy. Returning to Berlin in 1744, Maupertuis married a lady of rank and great beauty, and in 1746 was chosen president of the royal academy of sciences. Finding his health declining, he repaired in 1757 to the south of France, but went iu 1758 to Basel, where he died July 27, 1759. Maupertuis was unquestionably a man of considerable ability as a mathe matician, but his restless, gloomy disposition involved him in constant quarrels, of which his controversies with Kunig and Voltaire during the latter part of his life furnish examples. The following are his most important works : Essay on Cos mology ; Discourse on the Different Figures of the Stars ; Essay on Moral Philosophy ; Philosophical Reflexions, &c. ; Animal Physics; System of Nature ; Elements of Geography ; Account of the Expedi tion to the Polar Circle, &c. ; Laws of Motion Laivs of Rest ; Parallax of the Moon ; The Comet of 1742 ; On the Progress of the Sciences. He also contributed a large number of interesting papers to the Memoirs of the academies of Paris and Berlin. MAU RANfPUR, a town in Jhausi district, in the North- Western Provinces &amp;lt;3f India, in 25 15 N. lat., 79 11 E. long. The population in 1872 was 16,428. Although now a large trading centre, the town is of quite modern commercial importance, having risen from the position of a small agricultural village through the influx of merchants seeking relief from extortionate demands made by the raj& of a neighbouring native state. It con tains a large community of wealthy merchants andl&amp;gt;ankers. A special variety of cloth, known as Mtarna, is manu factured and exported to all parts of India. The principal imports are sugar, English piece-goods, silk, metals, and coffee. Trees line many of the streets, and handsome temples ornament the town. MAURER, GEORG LUDWIG VON (1790-1872), a distin guished German jurist and statesman, was born at Erpolsheim in the Bavarian Palatinate, November 2, 1790. He was the son of a Protestant pastor. He received his education at the university of Heidelberg, and afterwards followed for some time the profession of an advocate. In 1812 he went to reside in Paris, where, with the aid of the great libraries of that city, he entered on a systematic study of the ancient legal institutions of Germany. On his return to Bavaria he was appointed substitute for the attorney-general in the district of Spires and Landau. In 1824 he published at Heidelberg his first work, Geschichte des alt-germaniscken und namentlich alt-lairischcn offentlich- mundlichen Gtrichtsverfahren, which obtained the first prize of the academy of Munich. In 1826 he was made one of the professors of law in the university of Munich. In 1832, Otho, son of King Louis of Bavaria, having been chosen to fill the throne of Greece, a council of regency was nominated to conduct the government of that country during his minority. Of this council Von Maurer was appointed a member, the others being the Count von Armansperg, who was president, Major-General K. W. von Heideck, and K. von Abel. They applied themselves energetically, and at first apparently in a spirit of concord, to the task of creating for the new kingdom institutions adapted to the requirements of a modern civilized com munity. But grave differences soon made themselves felt, Maurer being at variance with the president on important administrative questions. These being referred to King Louis, he decided in favour of the president, and Maurer and Abel were suddenly recalled in 1834. The loss of Maurer was a serious one for Greece ; he was the ablest, most energetic, and most liberal-minded member of the regency, and had already done important work iu the juridical and educational organization of the kingdom. It was through his enlightened efforts that Greece had obtained a revised penal code, regular tribunals, and an improved system of civil procedure. Soon after his recall, he published his work entitled Das griechische Volk in ofentlicher, kircldicher, und privatrechtlicher Beziehung vor und nacli dem Freilieitskampfe bis zum 31 Jidi 1834 (3 vols., Heidelberg, 1835-36). This book is a valuable source of information on the history of Greece during the preceding years, its condition before the call of Otho to the throne, and the labours of the council of regency down to the time of the author s recall. Notwithstanding his removal from office, he does not appear to have forfeited the esteem or goodwill of King Louis. After the fall of the ultramontane ministry of Abel in 1847, he became minister of foreign affairs and of justice, but on attempting to carry out reforms he was overthrown ; retiring then from political life, he devoted himself altogether to his torical and juristic studies, the fruits of which he gave to the world in successive publications. He died at Munich, May 9, 1872. The following is believed to be a complete list of such of his writings as have not been already mentioned : Grundriss dcs deut- schen Privatrcchts, 1828 ; Ueber die bairischcn Stadte und ihre Vcrfassung untcr dcr romischen und frankischcn HerrscJwft, 1829 ; Ucber die dcutsche Rcichsterritorial- und Rcclitsgcschichtc, 1830 ; Das Stadt- und das Landrechtsbuch Riqjrechts von Frcisiny nach 5 miinchcner Handschriftcn, ein Beitrag zur Geschichte dcs Schwabcnspiegcls, 1839 ; Ucbcr die Freipflege (plegium liberale), und die Entstehung der grossen und klcincn Jury in England, 1848 ; Einleitung zur Geschichte dcr Mark-, Hof-, Dor/-, und Siadt- Ver- fassung und dcr offentlichen Gcwalt, 1854 ; Geschichte dcr Markcr- Vcrfassung in Deutschland, 1856; Rede bei dcr 100-jdhrigcn Stif- tungsfeier dcr K. Akadcmie dcr Wisscnsclwften am 28 Mdrz, 1859 ; Geschichte dcr Dorf-Verfassung in Deutschland, 2 vols., 1865-66 ; Geschichte dcr Fronhdfc, dcr Baucrnhofe, und dcr Hofverfassung in Deutschland, 4 vols., 1862-63 ; Geschichte dcr Stddtercrfassung in Deutschland, 4 vols., 1869-71. He also superintended the prepara tion of a part of the continuation of Jacob Grimm s Wcisthumer, published under the auspices of the academy of Munich, 1866. His researches on the ancient village communities of Germany are of special interest and importance. MAURETANIA, or MAURITANIA (the former is the more correct form of the name, according to coins and inscriptions), was the name given in ancient geography to the district which canstituted the north-western angle of the African continent. It comprised a considerable part of the modern empire of Morocco, together with the western portion of Algeria. But its limits varied much at different times. When it first appears in history the river Mrlucha constituted its eastern limit, which separated it from the Numidian tribe of the Massyli, who held all the country from that river to the Ampsaga ; but at a later period the kingdom of Mauretania was extended to the