Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/313

Rh M I L M I L 295 breadth of from 1 to 2 miles. In most places it has a depth of from 15 to 19 fathoms, and, as it is completely sheltered by hills, vessels can ride in it at anchor in all kinds of weather. The royal dockyard, founded at Milford in 1790, was removed in 1811, and from that time trade has been in a languishing condition. The town possesses iron-works. The shipping trade is confined chiefly to coasting vessels, but with the completion of new docks, capable of receiving vessels of the largest tonnage, it is supposed that a considerable trade may be carried on with America. The population of the urban sanitary dis trict in 1871 was 3252, and in 1881 it was 3813. MILFORD, a post-village of the United States, in Worcester county, Massachusetts, lies 34 miles south-west of Boston, at the junction of the Milford branch of the Boston and Albany Railroad with the Hopkinton, Milford, and Woonsocket Railroad. It is one of the principal seats of the boot manufacture in New England, and also pro duces large quantities of straw goods. The population was 9310 in 1880. MILICZ, or MILITSCH, of Kremsier, Moravia, was the most influential among those preachers and writers in Moravia and Bohemia who during the 14th century paved the way for the reforming activity of Huss and through him for that of Luther. He was born about 1325, was already in holy orders in 1350, in 1360 was attached to the court of the emperor Charles IV., whom he accompanied ! into Germany in that year, and about the same time also held a canonry in the cathedral of Prague along with the dignity of archdeacon. About 1363 he resigned all his appointments that he might become a preacher pure and simple ; he addressed scholars in Latin, and (an innovation) the laity in their native Czech, or in German, which he acquired for the purpose. The success of his labours in reclaiming the fallen made itself apparent in the reforma tion of a whole quarter of the city of Prague. As he dwelt more and more on ecclesiastical abuses and the corruption of the clergy, and viewed them in the light of Scripture, the conviction grew in his mind that the &quot; abomination of desolation &quot; was now seen in the temple of God, and that antichrist had come, and in 1367 he went to Rome (where Urban V. was expected from Avignon) to expound these views. He affixed to the gate of St Peter s a placard announcing his sermon, but before he could deliver it was thrown into prison by the Inquisition. Urban, however, on his arrival ordered his release, whereupon he returned to Prague, and from 1369 to 1372 preached daily in the Teyn Church there. In the latter year the clergy of the diocese complained of him to the papal court at Avignon, whither he was summoned in Lent 1374, and where he died before his case was decided. He was the author of a LiMlus de Antichristo, written in prison at Rome, a series of Postillse, and Lediones Quadragesimales in Latin, and a similar series of Pastils in Czech. MILITARY FRONTIER (German, Militargrenze ; Slavonic, Granitza), a narrow strip of Austrian-Hungarian territory stretching along the borders of Turkey, which had for centuries a peculiar military organization, and from 1849 to 1873 constituted a crown-land. As a separate division of the monarchy it owed its existence to the necessity of maintaining during the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries a strong line of defence against the invasions of the Turks, and may be said to have had its origin with the establishment of the captaincy of Zengg by Matthias Corviuus and the introduction of Uskoks (fugitives from Turkey) into the Warasdin district by the emperor Ferdinand I. By the close of the 17th century there were three frontier &quot; generalates &quot; Carlstadt, Warasdin, and Petrinia (the last also called the Banal). After the defeat of the Turkish power by Prince Eugene it was proposed to abolish the military constitution of the frontier, but the change was successfully resisted by the inhabitants of the district ; on the other hand, a new Slavonian frontier dis trict was established in 1702, and Maria Theresa extended the organization to the march-lands of Transylvania (the Szekler frontier in 1764, the Wallachian in 1766). J As a reward for the service it rendered the Government in the suppression of the Hungarian insurrection in 1848, the Military Frontier was erected in 1849 into a crown-land, with a total area of 15,182 square miles, and a population of 1,220,503. In 1851 the Transylvanian portion (1177 square miles) was incorporated with the rest of Transyl vania ; and in 1871 effect was given to the imperial decree of 1869 by which the districts of the Warasdin regiments (St George and the Cross) and the towns of Zengg, Belovar, IvaniS, &amp;lt;fcc., were &quot;provincialized&quot; or incorporated with the Croatian-Slavonian crown-land. In 1872 the Banat regiments followed suit; and in 1873 the old military organization was abolished in all the rest of the frontier. Not till 1881, however, were the Croatian-Slavonian march-lands completely merged in the kingdoms to which they naturally belonged. The social aspect of the military frontier regime is interesting. A communal system of land tenure natural to the old Slavonians was artificially kept in existence. The mark or plot of ground assigned to the original family of settlers remained the property of the family as such, and could not be portioned out among tlie several members. In this way the house-community, all under the rule of the same house-father and house-mother (who were not neces sarily man and wife, nor the oldest members of the community), and all living within the same palisade, sometimes came to num ber two or three hundred persons. The &quot;family&quot; dined in a com mon hall, and after dinner discussed and settled matters affecting the common weal. Every man possessing real property in the country, and capable of bearing arms, was liable to military service from his twentieth year. The house-communities are now begin ning to avail themselves of the permissive partition laws, and strangers are free to come and acquire property in land. Watch- towers with wooden clappers and the beacons which flashed the alarm along the whole frontier in a few hours are still features in the landscape. MILITARY LAW consists of the statutes, rules of pro cedure, royal warrants, and orders and regulations which prescribe and enforce the public obligations of the officers, soldiers, and others made subject to its provisions. Its essential purpose is the maintenance of discipline ; but it also includes the administrative government of the military forces of the state, more especially in the matters of enlist ment, service, and billeting. The term &quot; martial law &quot; sometimes applied to it is, as regards modern times at least, a misnomer. For martial law as it is now understood applies not only to military persons but to the civil com munity, and may be described generally as the abrogation of ordinary law and the substitution for it of military force uncontrolled save by what, in the discretion of the commanding general, may be considered the necessity of the case. The military law of England in early times existed, like the forces to which it applied, in a period of war only. 1 By 1848 the following had come to be the division of the Military Frontier : (1) The Carlstadt (Carlowitz), Warasdin, and Jianal Generalate : the Licca Regiment (headquarters at Gospich), the Otto- chaz Regiment (Ottochaz), the Ogulin (Ogulin), the Sluin (Carlstadt), the Cross (Belovar), the St George s (Belovar), the 1st Banal (Glina), the 2d Banal (Petrinia). (2) The Slavonian Generalate: the Gradisku Regiment (Neu Gradiska), the Brood Regiment (Vinkoveze), the Peter- vardein (Mitrovicz), the Tchaikist Battalion (Titel). (3) The Jlanat Generalate : the German Banat Regiment (Pancsova), the Wallachian Banat (Karansebes), the Illyrian Banat (Weisskirchen). (4) The Tran- sylvanian Generalate: The Szekler Regiment No. 14 (Csik Szeredn), the Szekler Regiment No. 15 (Keszdi Vasarhely), the Wallachian No. 16 (Orlath), the Wallachian No. 17 (NaszoJ). Twelve towns, known as &quot;military communities,&quot; had communal constitutions not unlika those of the free towns of Hungary Carlopago, Zengg, Petrinia, Kos- tainicza, Belovar, Ivani?, Brood, Peterwardein, Carlowitz, Semlin, Pancsova, and Weisskirchen.