Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/817

Rh M O N M N 787 years passed before the settlement was declared a port ; but by 1781 it had 6460 inhabitants, and by 1792 was importing to the value of 2,993,267 dollars, and exporting to the value of 4,150,523. In 1808 the governor of Montevideo was the first to revolt against the Spanish authorities, and to establish an independent junta ; twenty years later, after much disastrous confusion and conflict, the city became the recognized capital of the newly-formed republic of Banda Oriental. Its population, which had been about 36,000 at the opening of the century, was reduced to 9000 by 1829 ; and it had hardly recovered its ground in this respect (31,189) when, in 1843, Rosas, dictator of Buenos Ayres, wishing to compel annexa tion to Buenos Ayres, commenced the siege which was irregularly maintained till 1852, and left the city and the country exhausted and almost ruined. By 1860, however, the population had in creased to 49,548 ; and though the Brazilians blockaded the port in 1864-5 and reinstated ex-president Flores the prosperity of the place was but little impaired. During the Paraguayan war, which lasted till 1864, Montevideo grew rapidly rich, attracting a large share of the trade diverted from Buenos Ayres. Immigrants flocked from all quarters, and excessive investments were made in all kinds of real property. The valuation of the city and suburbs, which was 14,156,000 dollars in 1860, reached the sum of 74,000,000 dollars in 1872. Reckless speculation, political dis sension, and the financial mismanagement of the Government have told heavily ; the value of house property has greatly diminished, and commercial activity has been grievously restricted. Since 1881, however, Montevideo has been rapidly recovering, and its natural advantages are so great that, with better political circumstances, Mulhall, Handbook of the River Plate Republics, 1874; and Gallenga, South America, 1881. See also Brignardello, Delle vicende dell America merid. e sprcialm. di Montevideo nell Uruguay, Genoa, 1879 ; The Republic of Uruguay, 1883 ; the reports of the municipal junta, and Vaillant s statistical publications. MONTEZUMA. See CORTES and MEXICO. MONTFAUCON, BERNARD DE (1655-1741), critic and scholar, was born of a noble and ancient family at the chateau of Soulage (now Soulatge, in the department of Aube, France), on 1 3th January 1 G55. Though destined for the army, he passed most of his time in the library of the castle of Roquetaillade (the usual residence of his family), devouring books in different languages and on almost every variety of subject, his studies being directed by a learned friend of his father, Pavilion, bishop of Aleth. In 1672 he entered the army, and in the two following years served as a volunteer in Germany under Turenne. But ill-health and the death of his parents brought him back to his studious life, and in 1675 he entered the cloister of the Congregation of St Maur, at La Daurade, Toulouse, taking the vows there on 13th May 1676. Apart from his vast literary labours, the remainder of his life presents little to record. He lived successively at various abbeys at Soreze, where he specially studied Greek and examined the numerous MSS. of the convent library, at La Grasse, and at Bordeaux; and in 1687 he was removed to Saint Germain des Pres. From 1698 to 1701 he lived in Italy, chiefly in Rome. Returning to Saint Germain, he was made a member of the Academic des Inscriptions et Belles- Lettres in 1719. He died on 21st December 1741. His first publication, in which he was assisted by Lopin and Pouget, was the first volume of a never completed series of previously unpublished Analeda Grasca (1688). In 1690 appeared his defence of the literally historical character of the book of Judith. Athanasii opera omnia, still the best edition of that father, was issued with a biography and critical notes in 1698. The first-fruits of his visit to Italy were seen in his copious Diarium Italicum, sivc monumen- tonun vetcrum, bibliothccarum, miisseorum, &amp;lt;L-c., notifies singulares in itinerario Italico collects (1702). The Palieographia Gr&ca, sive de ortu et progrcssu literarum Grxcarum, et de variis omnium sxculorum scriptionis Greecse gcneribus (1708) is a standard work, which has not yet been superseded ; in its own field it is as original as the DC re diplomatica of Mabillon. In 1713 Montfaucon edited Hcxaplorum Origcnis quse, supcrsunt (2 vols. fol. ), only recently superseded by the work of Field ; and between 1718 and 1738 he completed his edition of Joannis Chrysostomi opera omnia (13 vols. fol.), which is hardly an improvement upon that of II. Saville. His L Antiquite cxpliquee et rcpresenUe en figures (10 vols. fol., 1719) would of itself suffice to establish a reputation for colossal dili gence. It was continued by him in Les Monumens de la Monarchic Franqoise (5 vols. fol., 1729-1733). A complete list of his literary labours, including his numerous contributions to the Memoires of the Academy of Inscriptions, will be found in the Nouvclle Biographic Generate, s.v. &quot;Montfaucon.&quot; MONTFORT, SIMON DE, EARL OF LEICESTER (c. 1200- 1265), a great political leader, and sometimes even re ferred to as the &quot; founder of the English House of Com mons,&quot; born in France about the beginning of the 13th century, was the fourth and youngest son of Simon IV. de Montfort and of Alice de Montmorency. Of his early life and education nothing is known, the first definitely recorded fact about him being that in April 1230 he was in England and had attached himself to the service of Henry III., who granted him a temporary pension of 400 marks, with a promise of the earldom which his father had held. 1 In the following year he did homage for the honour of Leicester, and in 1232 the king confirmed to him all the land with appurtenances which had belonged to the late earl in England. But, though thus formally admitted to the ranks of the English baronage, he did not for several years succeed in making way against the strong dislike in which &quot;aliens&quot; were now held, and until 1236 most of his time was spent, in considerable poverty, abroad. In that year, however, he attended the king s marriage to Eleanor of Provence as lord high steward, and thenceforward began to take part in the business of the royal council. Handsome, talented, and brave, he gained the love of Eleanor, widow of the earl of Pembroke, and sister of the king, to whom he was privately married at Westminster on 7th January 1238, Henry himself giving away the bride. When the fact became known, the indignation of the baronage and of the people had almost broken out in open rebellion, and, after Simon had with difficulty averted this by propitiating his brother- in-law, Richard, earl of Cornwall, he found it necessary to go to Rome to meet the objections which the church had raised on the ground of an alleged previous vow made by Eleanor. Having succeeded in obtaining (by bribery, it would seem) the papal sanction to his marriage, he re turned to England in October, and early next year, still in the enjoyment of the royal favour, he had the earldom of Leicester formally conferred upon him in presence of the assembled barons. In June (1239) he assisted as god father and high steward at the baptism of Prince Edward ; but the machinations of his enemies were soon afterwards successful in bringing about a change in the fickle humour of Henry, and when Simon came back to Westminster in August to attend the churching of the queen the king met him with the information that he was an excommuni cated person, and ordered him to leave the church. 2 Along with his wife he forthwith went into voluntary exile in France; but in April 1240 he returned to England, and was received by the king on a footing of at least outward friendship. Of his private and public life during the 1 Simon IV. de Montfort, the well-known Albigensian crusader, in right of his mother, Amicia de Beaumont, sister and co-heiress of Robert Fitz-Pernell, earl of Leicester, succeeded to that earldom in 1204, and in 1207 was confirmed in the high stewardship of England, hereditary in connexion with the title. Soon afterwards he was deprived of his English possessions under some pretext, the real reason doubtless being his position as captain-general of the French forces against the Albigenses (1208). He received them again towards the end of John s reign, their custody, however, being committed to his nephew, the earl of Chester. The long hostility between England and France during the early years of Henry III. made it practically impossible for the alien De Montforts to maintain any hold upon their English earldom on the death of Simon IV. in 1218; in 1231, after the peace, the eldest son Ainaury (now constable of France) renounced all claim to it, thus leaving the field clear to his next surviving brother Simon. 2 There is no evidence that Simon actually had been excommuni cated, but it seems clear that certain payments he had agreed to make to the Roman curia had not been punctually attended to, and that some annoyance had been in this way caused to the king. The charge of immoral relations with Eleanor was probably only a conveniently coarse way of restating the ecclesiastical offence for which De Mont- fort had already purchased absolution.