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MAT— MAYER.

in 1841 ; was made a Queen's Coun- sel there in 1865 ; was law adviser to the Crown in Ireland from Feb., 1874, to Nov., 1875 ; and Attorney- General for Ireland from the laiet date to Feb., 1877, when he was appointed to succeed the late Eight Hon. James Whiteside as Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench in Ireland.

MAY, Sib Thomas Ebsxhts, K.C.B., D.C.L., born in 1816, and educated at Bedford School, under Dr. Brereton, entered the public service as Assistant Librarian of the House of Commons in 1831, was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1838, was appointed Examiner of Petitions for Private Bills in 1846, Taxing-Master of the House of Commons in 1847, to the Table of the House, as Clerk- Assis- tant, in 1856, and Clerk of the House of Commons in 1871. His public services were rewarded by the Companionship of the Bath in 1860, and he was promoted Knight Commander in July, 1866. Sir T. E. May has written " A Treatise on the Law, Privileges, Proceedings, and Usage of Parliament," pub- lished in 1844, which being acknow- ledged as the Parliamentary text- book, has passed through six edi- tions, and has been translated into German and Hungarian; a pam- phlet, entitled " Bemarks and Sug- gestions with a view to Facilitate the Dispatch of Public Business in Parliament," published in 1840; another pamphlet, "On the Con- solidation of the Election Laws," in 1850 ; and " Constitutional His- tory of England since the Accession of George III., 1760-1860," in 1861-3, which, commencing where the great work of Hallam concluded, continues the history of our laws and liberties to the present time. The latter work has been reprinted in the United States and translated into French and German ; and a third edition with a new supplementary chapter, was published in London in 3 vols., 1871. Sir T. E. May's

most recent work is "Democracy in Europe; a History," 2 vols., 1877. In 1854 he collected and re- duced to writing, for the first time, the " Rules, Orders, and Forms ot Proceeding of the House of Com- mons," which were adopted and printed by command of the House. He contributed to the, Penny Cydo- pcBdia numerous articles, relating chiefly to political economy and his- toricsJ biography ; and has written for the JEdinburgh Beview, the Law Magazine, and other reviews.

MAYER, Joseph, F.S.A., born at Newcastle - under - Lyme, Feb. 23, 1803, settled as a jeweller at Liver- pool, in 1822, and devoted his labour and fortune to the formation of the Museum of Art recently presented by him to that town. His earliest study was Ghreek coins, his collec- tion of which was sold to the French Government in 1844. Antique gems next attracted his chief attention, and his skill and liberality rendered him famous in Europe, His fa- vourite design was to collect in Liverpool a museum of treasures of artistic excellence, in order to edu- cate students in the true principles of beauty. In this he has succeeded, and his Eygptian, Abyssinian, and Etruscan collections, diosen with a due regard to art, are justly famed ; and he is equally celebrated for his collection of Ivories, of Greek, Bo- man, and Mediaeval gems, and of Wedgwood and of English pottery. With the view of writing " A His- tory of the Rise and Progress of Art in England from 1550 to the Present Tmie," he has collected between four and five thousand original drawings, between fifteen and twenty thousand early engraT- ings, and above fifty thousand autograph letters of English artists. The number of scientific works for which the world is indebted to Mr. Mayer's generous aid is considerable; the " Inventorium Sepulchrale," the "Anglo-Saxon Vocabularies," and the " Diplomatarium Anglicpm iEvi Saxonici," being the most im-