Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/860

Rh 830 M O R M O R of view, and would not have denied it ; but he was shrewd enough to perceive that the empire rested on the prestige it maintained for France not only in war but in fashion, and in assisting the empress to make Paris the centre of fashion for the whole civilized world he knew he was not only pleasing himself but doing a service to the empire. He was a thorough man of the world, and was witty as such, but the wit does not appear at its brightest in his plays, published under the name of Saint-Remy, of which perhaps the most readable is M. Choufleury restcra chez lui. He had great influence over the emperor, but could lay no claim to personal fidelity, as could his less able but equally unscrupulous colleague, M. de Persigny. . For his life consult H. Castille, M. de Morny, 1859, and De la Gueronniere, Etudes et portraits politiques (1856); also Alton-Shee sMemoires(1808-69). His char acter is admirably sketched as the due de Mora in A. Daudet s novel Le Nabab. MORO, ATTONI (&amp;lt;-. 1512-1581), otherwise known as SIR ANTHONY MORE, an eminent portrait-painter, was born at Utrecht, in 1512 according to some, but in 1525 according to Van Mander in his Het Leven der Schilders. He studied his art under Jan Schoorel ; and after making a professional visit to Italy he commenced to paint por traits in the style of Hans Holbein. His rise to eminence was rapid. In 1552 he was invited to Madrid by the emperor Charles V. to execute a likeness of Prince Philip. Two years afterwards he was in London painting the portrait of Queen Mary. For this picture an annual salary and, as some suppose, the honour of knighthood were conferred upon him. He was also employed to sketch the likenesses of several of the English nobility. On the death of Mary in 1558 Moro returned to Spain, and lived there for two years in great honour with Philip II., executing, in addition to portraits, several copies after Titian. Having compromised himself with the Inquisition, he repaired to the Netherlands and was received into the service of the duke of Alva. His death took place at Antwerp about 1581. Among his figure-pictures Van Mander specifies the Circumcision of Christ, executed for Antwerp cathedral, as one of the most notable. His portraits are full of individuality, and characterized by firm and solid rendering of flesh. Several admirable examples are preserved in Madrid ; among the rest the portrait of Queen Mary of England, which has been excellently etched by Milius (L Art, 8th December 1878). &quot; Moro s style,&quot; says Stanley in his Dutch and Flemish Painters, &quot; so much resembles that of Holbein as to fre quently create a doubt to which of them a portrait is to be attributed ; but he is not so clear and delicate in his colouring (perhaps from having painted so much in Spain) as that master.&quot; Plate X. MOROCCO, or MAROCCO, the term (corrupted from the name of the city Marrakush) used in English to designate the Maghrib al-Aksa or extreme west of the Arabs, is the country at the north-western corner of the African continent, with the Mediterranean on the north and the Atlantic on the west. Its landward limits can only be vaguely defined. The eastern frontier towards Algeria, determined by the treaty of 1844, is a purely conventional line starting from the mouth of a small stream called the Skis and running across country in a general south -south -east direction. The southern boundaries expand and contract according to the power and activity of the central authorities. Behm and Wagner (1882), who include Tafilelt, Kenatsa, Figig, Twat, Gurara, Tidikelt, the plateau of Tedmaid, &c., estimate the total area of the sultanate at 305,548 square miles; and this, which is about twice the size of Algeria, or five times that of England and Wales, may be taken as a maximum. The allegiance of many of the tribes within this compass is questionable and intermittent. Morocco is still the portion of Northern Africa about which European information is most defective, and the ordinary maps are composed to a large extent of most unscientific material eked out by probabilities and conjecture. Since the middle of the present century a good deal has been done in the way of exploration, mainly in the lowlands and steppes sloping towards the Atlantic the country of the great historical cities of Tangiers, Fez, Meknes (Mequinez), and Morocco ; but even there what lies but a few miles east or west of some track traversed by Europeans for centuries remains matter of question. Since the publication of Arlett s survey from Cape Spartel to Cape Bojador (1840-44) and of Vincendon- Dumoulin and Kerhallet s surveys from the Strait of Gib raltar to the Algerian frontier (1853-57) the seaward aspect of Morocco has been known in detail. To the Mediter ranean it presents for a distance of about 200 miles the rugged profile of the Rif hills (still unexplored), which generally end in lines of cliff broken at intervals by narrow sweeps of sandy beach, but occasionally open up into beau tiful and fertile valleys, with abundant evidence of human occupancy and tillage. About 6 miles west of the Skis lies the mouth of the great river Muluya ; and 1 miles farther on, opposite Cape del Agua (Ras Sidi Beshir), is a group of dry and barren islands known as the Zafarines, which form the best roadstead on the Rif coast. 1 Be tween Point Quiviana and Melilla runs a low and sandy shore in front of a great salt marsh, the Puerto Nuevo of the Spaniards. Melilla (Malila) is a fortified town, held by the Spaniards since 1653, built on a rocky peninsula and connected by lines of rampart with Fort Rosario on the heights behind. Near the village of Azanen is a wide open shore with the only sand-dunes on all this coast. The fine semicircular bay of Alhucemas is the seaward end of one of the most beautiful valleys in the Rif, clothed with verdure and dotted with hamlets. A Spanish presidio occupies one of the larger of the Alhucemas islands (Al- Mazemma), which are identified with the Ad Sex Insulas of the itineraries. Another Spanish fortress crowns the rocky island of San Antonio or Penon de Velez ; and in the valley off which it lies stood a town known to the Spaniards as Velez de Gomera, to the Arabs as Badis, which continued to be a place of importance in the 16th century. The so-called Bay of Tetuan (Tettdwin) the town is just visible from the sea is little more than the straight stretch of coast between Cape Mazari on the south and Cape Negro or Negrete on the north ; but the prominence of these two headlands gives it an appearance of depth. From Cape Negro northwards to Ceuta the most notable object on the horizon is the summit of Jebel Musa, which, though situated on the Strait of Gibraltar, towers above the inter vening hills. Ceuta (Sebta), the most important and flourishing of the Spanish settlements in Morocco, occupies a peninsula, the head, Mt. Acho, standing about 4 miles out to sea, and the neck being low and narrow. It marks the eastern end of the strait. Westwards, the first point of interest is again Jebel Musa, the Elephas of Strabo, and the Apes Hill of English charts ; the truncated top is usually hid in clouds. About 20 miles farther along the coast lies the Bay of Tangiers (Tanja), by far the finest harbour in Morocco. West from Tangiers runs the Jebel Kebir (880 feet at its highest), the seaward extremity of which forms the celebrated Cape Spartel, the north-west angle of the African continent, known to the ancients as Ampelusia or Cotes Promontorium. The lighthouse, built in 1864 at the cost of the sultan of Morocco, and main tained at the joint expense of England, France, Italy, and Spain, is the only one on the western coast. The Atlantic coast of Morocco is remarkable for its regularity and sameness ; not a single gulf or noteworthy estuary occurs throughout its whole length ; the capes 1 The name is derived from the Arab tribe of the Beni Ja far, who settled on the neighbouring mainland at the conquest. Since 1848 the islands have belonged to Spain. They are identified with the Ad Tres Insulas of the Roman itineraries.