Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/877

Rh M E M M E M Swart s Journal, 1846)i On his return to Holland Melvill was attached to the naval department with the special charge of studying the history of the hydrography of the Dutch Indies. He also undertook, in connexion with Von Siebold, the publication of the Moniteur des Indes, a valuable series of scientific papers, mainly from his own pen, on the foreign possessions of Holland, which was continued for three years. In 1850 Melvill returned to India as lieu tenant of the first class and adjutant to Vice-Admiral Van den Bosch ; and after the premature death of this com mander he was again appointed keeper of the charts at Batavia. He was one of the founders and for a time the president of the new society for natural science (1850). In 1853 he obtained exemption from active naval service that he might devote himself to a general atlas of the Dutch Indies ; and under the most unfavourable circumstances he prosecuted the task with incredible energy. But he was not to see its completion. Just after he had lost his young wife and new-born son he was called in 185G to be director of the marine establishment of Onrust; and there he soon fell a victim to climate, dying after much suffering in the hospital of Weltevreden, only forty years of age. In spite of delays caused by the engraving of the maps^in Holland, no fewer than twenty-five sheets were already finished, but it was not till 1862 that the whole plan, embracing sixty sheets, was ably brought to a close by Lieutenant-Colonel W. F. Versteeg. The premature loss of Melvill was severely felt not only in Holland but in foreign countries, where, as shown by his connexion with the geographical societies of Paris, London, Berlin, and Bsrgen, his labours were highly esteemed. His industry and energy were equalled only by the benevolence and warmth of his heart. In 1843 he received the decoration of the Netherlands Lion, in 1849 that of the Legion of Honour. MEMEL, the most northerly town in Germany, and the principal seat of the Baltic timber trade, is situated in the district of Konigsberg, Prussia, at the mouth of the Dange, and on the bank of a sound connecting the Kurische Haff with the Baltic Sea. On the side next the sea the town is defended by a citadel and other forti fications, and the entrance to the large and fine harbour is protected by a lighthouse. Largely rebuilt since a destructive fire in 1854, Memel contains several churches, a gymnasium, a school of navigation, an exchange, and various judicial and official establishments. It also possesses large iron-foundries, shipbuilding yards, breweries, distilleries, and manufactories of chemicals, soap, and amber wares. By far the most important interest of the town, however, is its trade, the chief items in which are timber and the graiu and other agricultural products of Lithuania. The timber is brought by river from the forests of Russia, and is prepared for exportation by about thirty saw-mills. The annual value of timber exported is about 600,000. In 1880 the port of Memel was entered by 898 ships with an aggregate burden of 164,374 tons, and cleared by 932 vessels with a burden of 164,441 tons. The population of Memel in 1880 was 19,660. Memel was founded in 1252 by Poppo von Osterna, grand master of the Teutonic order, and was at first called New Dortmund and afterwards Memmelburg. It soon acquired a considerable trade, and joined the Hanseatic League. During the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries it was repeatedly burned down by its hostile neighbours, the Lithuanians and Poles, and in the 17th century it remained for some time in the possession of Sweden. In 1757, and again in 1813, it was occupied by Russian troops. After the battle of Jena, King Frederick William III. retired to Memel; and there, in 1807, a treaty was concluded between England and Prussia. The poet Simon Dach and the astronomer Argelander were natives of Memel. MEMLING, HANS, a painter of the 15th century, whose art gave a passing lustre to Bruges in the period of its political and commercial decline. Though much has been written respecting the rise and fall of the school vrhich made this city famous, it still remains a moot question whether that school ever truly existed. . Like Rome or Naples, Bruges absorbed the talents which were formed and developed in humbler centres. John Van Eyck first gained repute at Ghent and the Hague before he acquired a domicile elsewhere, and Memling, we have reason to think, was a skilled artist before he settled at Bruges. Yet if the question should be asked where the manner of Memling was shaped, and where he acquired the skill which he displayed at Bruges, we shall be greatly at a loss to reply. The annals of the city are silent as to the birth and education of a painter whoso name was inaccu rately spelt by different authors, and whose identity was lost under the various appellations of Hans and Hausse, or Hemling and Memling. But no other city of the Nether lands has vindicated the right which Bruges had no means of proving. Travellers who came to Bruges were only told that Memling s masterpieces were preserved in the hospital of St John. In one of these pictures it was said a portrait of the artist might be discovered; on the sculptured orna ments of a porch enframing one of its subjects an incident of the master s life might be traced, his danger as he lay senseless in the street, his rescue as charitable people carried his body to th6 hospital. The legend grew too. It came to be told how the great artist began life as a soldier who went to the wars under Charles the Bold, and came back riddled with wounds from the field of Nancy. Wandering homeward in a disabled state in 1477, he fainted in the streets of Bruges, and was cured by the Hospitallers. Unknown to them, and a stranger to Bruges, he gave tangible proofs of his skill to the brethren of St John, and showed his, gratitude by refusing payment for a picture he had painted. Unhappily the legend refutes itself. The portrait of Memling is a myth ; the carvings of the capitals of the porch represent the ordinary incidents attending the reception of patients at an hospital. Memling did indeed paint for the Hospitallers, but he painted not one but many pictures, and he did so in 1479 and 1480, being probably known to his patrons of St John by many masterpieces even before the battle of Nancy. Memling is only connected with military operations in a mediate and distant sense. His name appears on a list of subscribers to the loan which was raised by Maximilian of Austria to push hostilities against France in the year 1480. When he signed this list his position was that of a resident at Bruges who had probably lived there long enough to acquire a large practice and its advantages in the form of lands and tenements. In 1477, when he is said to have fallen, and when Charles the Bold was killed, he was under contract to furnish an altarpiece for the guild chapel of the booksellers of Bruges; and this altarpiece, now preserved, under the name of the Seven Griefs of Mary, in the gallery of Turin, is one of the fine creations of his riper age, and not inferior in any way to those of 1479 in the hospital of St John, which for their part are hardly less interesting as illustrative of the master s power than the Last Judgment in the cathedral of Dantzic. Critical opinion has been unanimous in assigning the altarpiece of Dantzic to Memling, and by this it affirms that Memling was a resident and a skilled artist at Bruges in 1473 ; for there is no doubt that the Last Judgment was painted and sold to a merchant at Bruges, who shipped it there on board of a vessel bound to the Mediterranean, which was captured by a Dantzic privateer in that very year. But, m order that Memling s repute should be so fair as to make his pictures purchasable, as this had been, by an agent of the Medici at Bruges, it is incumbent on us to acknowledge that he had furnished sufficient proofs before that time of the skill which excited the wonder of such highly cultivated