Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3a.pdf/407

MEL however, in his zeal against the tyrants, ordered the figure of Aristratus to be defaced, and only spared the rest of the picture by the intercession of the painter Nealces, who substituted a palm tree for the figure of the tyrant. Melanthius left writings on art, and he is one of the painters enumerated by Pliny as having used four colours only. What these colours were we cannot say; but if black and white are not comprised, four colours are quite as many as are needed. The Greeks had a complete acquaintance with colours of every kind, and if some of their painters restricted themselves in the use of them, it must have been on theoretical principles only.—R. N. W.  MELAS,, Baron von, a German general, born 1730; died in Bohemia on the 31st May, 1806. His first employment was in the Seven Years' war in the service of Austria. He was major-general in 1793, and served on the Rhine and in Italy. In 1799 when Suwarrow had command of the combined armies, Melas led the Austrians and distinguished himself in the actions at Cassano, Novi, and Coni. In 1800 he was before Genoa, where Massena was conducting his admirable defence. Trusting to his numerical superiority, he sent some of his troops to the Var, when to his surprise Bonaparte crossed the Alps and met Melas at Marengo, 14th June, 1800. At first the fortune of war seemed all on the side of the Austrians; but the arrival of Desaix changed the aspect of the battle; the Austrians were routed, and Melas was obliged to sign a capitulation. After Marengo he left the army, and was made military commandant of Bohemia—P. E. D.  MELBOURNE,, second viscount, a distinguished English statesman, was born in 1779, and was the second son of Peniston, first viscount, and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Ralph Melbanke, a lady celebrated in her day for the charm of her manners and the strength of her understanding. He was educated at Eton, Glasgow, and Trinity college, Cambridge, and was distinguished among his fellow-students for his classical and historical knowledge, grace of composition, vigorous sense, and refined wit. Having been originally intended for the legal profession, he entered as a student at Lincoln's inn in 1797, and was called to the bar in 1804. The death of his elder brother, however, in 1805, led to his immediate abandonment of the legal profession, and was followed in the course of a few months by his marriage—(see )—and his election as one of the members for Leominster. He took his seat among the followers of Mr. Fox, but continued during many years ta follow an independent course in parliament. He mingled a good deal at the same time in gay society, and apparently led a careless and fashionable life, though he was in reality far from idle, and his talents and attainments were neither unknown to nor undervalued by his contemporaries. He represented in succession the Haddington district of burghs, Portarlington, Peterborough, Hertfordshire, and Staffordshire. But he had resigned his seat and retired from parliament when Mr. Canning became prime minister in 1827, and offered Mr. Lamb the office of lieutenancy for Ireland, which he accepted, and continued to hold under Lord Goderich and the duke of Wellington. When Mr. Huskisson was ejected from the administration in 1828, on account of his vote on the question of East Retford, Mr. Lamb retired along with his friends. Lord Palmerston and Charles Grant, although informed that the king himself was very anxious that he should remain in office, and that in the event of his compliance he would of course be elevated to a seat in the cabinet. About the same time, on the death of his father, he entered that branch of the legislature with which his political career is chiefly associated. For upwards of a year, however, he does not appear to have taken any prominent part in public affairs until the downfall of the duke of Wellington's ministry, and the accession to office of Earl Grey and the whigs, when Lord Melbourne became secretary of state for the home department. The country was at that time in an alarming state—the mob in the metropolis had shown unequivocal indications of a tendency to open violence, mysterious incendiary fires were ravaging the agricultural districts, and symptoms appeared of a general agrarian insurrection. But by a judicious combination of firmness and conciliation. Lord Melbourne suppressed the agricultural and political disturbances, and maintained the peace of the country. His sagacious treatment of the trades' unions in 1834, when their petition was carried to the home office by a threatening assemblage of thirty thousand persons in military array, was the theme of universal praise. On the resignation of Earl Grey in July, 1834, and the reconstruction of the whig cabinet. Lord Melbourne succeeded to the premiership. But the king had become alarmed at the progress of reform, and apprehensive that it would degenerate into revolution. He had for some time cherished a wish for a new administration composed of the conservative party, and in November, 1834, on Lord Althorp's removal to the house of lords his majesty availed himself of the opportunity to dismiss his ministry, and place Sir Robert at the head of the government. The king, however, had mistaken the extent of the reaction in the public mind; and after a fierce but brief struggle Sir Robert Peel was driven from office, and Lord Melbourne became once more the first lord of the treasury. His position, however, was now surrounded with formidable difficulties. In a minority in the house of lords, opposed by a powerful and increasing party in the commons, under the direction of experienced statesmen and accomplished orators, the whig government was compelled to lean on the support of O'Connell and his followers, and to follow a course of policy which, though attended with most beneficial results in Ireland, was not unfrequently distasteful to the people of England. The opposition in consequence steadily increased in numbers and power, while the strength of the government gradually diminished. The death of King William and the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 gave Lord Melbourne a new lease of office, while it imposed upon him the arduous and responsible duty of instructing the youthful sovereign in the knowledge of the British constitution, and training her to perform the various duties of her important office. The concurrent testimony of all observers, hostile as well as friendly, and the evidence of facts, have shown that Lord Melbourne accomplished his difficult task with consummate address and most praiseworthy disregard of party prejudices and interests. Meanwhile, however, his government continued to lose ground in the country, and in 1839, having only a majority of five on the question of a bill proposing to suspend the constitution of the island of Jamaica, he sent in his resignation. Sir Robert Peel was immediately authorized to form a new administration, but a misunderstanding having arisen between her majesty and him respecting the appointment of the ladies of the bedchamber, Sir Robert declined the task imposed upon him, and the whig ministry was recalled. Lord Melbourne's return to office under these circumstances was loudly blamed at the time, and in the long ran was probably injurious to the interests of his party. But it was dictated by a sense of the duty which he owed to his sovereign, and by his unselfish reluctance to blight the prospects of his followers. For two years longer he was enabled to maintain his ground, but at length in 1841, after a strenuous but unsuccessful effort to effect some modification of the corn laws, he had recourse to a dissolution. The constituencies by a large majority confirmed the verdict of the house of commons, and Lord Melbourne finally retired from office. In the following year he was attacked by a partial paralysis arising mainly from over exertion of the brain. He rallied, however, from this attack, and continued for several years to enjoy his books and the society of his friends. He took little or no part in public affairs, though he lived to see and to mark with satisfaction that, as he had predicted, his adversaries were obliged to adopt and carry those measures which had overthrown his ministry. He died at his family seat. Brocket hall, 24th November, 1848, in the seventieth year of his age. Lord Melbourne possessed many eminent qualifications for public life, an intellect of a high order which had been improved by careful cultivation, "a temperament cool and courageous, a mind dispassionate and unprejudiced, frankness, manliness, sterling good sense, independent tone of thought, chivalrous honour, and consummate knowledge of his countrymen." His principal defects as a statesman were a disposition to underrate distinctions and differences between opinions, and an occasional affectation of ignorance and of carelessness in the treatment of public questions. Lord Melbourne's speeches had no pretensions to eloquence or even rhetoric, but they expressed in terse, familiar, and idiomatic language philosophical and statesmanlike views and common sense conclusions, mingled with ready wit and good-humoured railliery, and recommended by his handsome and noble countenance, melodious voice, and spirited, frank, and friendly manner. He was an excellent classical scholar, was well versed in French and Italian literature, was familiar with all the best English authors, and took peculiar pleasure in the study of church history and controversial divinity. He was eminently 