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 MAUNDY THUKSDAY fountains, spouting continuously from the top of the mountain. In February, 1859, such a fountain played actively for four or five days, throwing up a sheaf of white-hot fluid lava about 200 ft. in diameter, and 200 or 300 ft. high, illuminating the horizon at a distance of 150 m. In April, 1868, the lavas forced their way 20 m. under ground, and appeared near the S. point of the island, bursting forth through a fissure 2 m. long, which ran N. and S. On the 10th Mr. H. M. Whitney observed four enormous lava fountains continuously spouting up from this opening. Two of them occasion- ally united laterally ; and sometimes the whole four joined in one, making a continuous foun- tain a mile long. It boiled with the -most terrific fury, throwing up enormous columns of crimson lava and red-hot rock to the height of 500 or 600 ft. The lava was ejected with a rotary motion, uniformly toward the south. Mauna Loa has been seen at sea from a dis- tance of 53 leagues ; " the most striking ex- ample I have yet known," says Humboldt, " of the visibility of a mountain." MAUNDY THURSDAY. See HOLT WEEK. MAUPERTUIS, Pierre Louis Moreau de, a French astronomer, born in St. Malo, July 17, 1698, died in Basel, July 27, 1759. He was five years in the army, but he resigned in 1723, and was admitted into the academy of sciences. His ability in opposing the physical theory of Des- cartes, and substituting for it that of Newton, gained him admission in 1727 into the royal society of London. The controversy had ex- cited public interest, when the French govern- ment resolved to verify one of the hypotheses of the British philosopher, that of the flattening of the terrestrial globe near the poles. Mau- pertuis was at the head of a commission of academicians, including Clairaut and Lemon- nier, which in 1736-'7 measured an arc of a meridian in Lapland ; and the result, confirm- ing the conjecture of Newton, gave him dis- tinction throughout Europe. He was invited by Frederick the Great to Berlin, where he be- came president of the academy, married a lady of a distinguished family, and received large pensions. In 1750 he became involved in a controversy with Konig, who disputed one of the principles of Maupertuis and maintained that it was a plagiarism from Leibnitz. The latter years of his life were afflicted by illness. MAUR, Congregation of St. See SAINT-MATJR. MAUREPAS, Jean Frederic Phelypeanx, count, a French statesman, born July 9, 1701, died Nov. 21, 1781. He was grandson of the chan- cellor Pontchartrain, and at the age of 14 suc- ceeded his father as secretary of state, the ad- ministration of the office being intrusted to the marquis de La Vrilliere till 1725, when he became the acting minister. He discharged the duties of this office till 1749, embellished the capital, sent La Condamine, Bouguer, and others to measure an arc of the meridian in Peru, near the equator, and Maupertuis, Clai- raut, and others to measure an arc in Lap- 540 VOL. XL 19 MAUEICE 287 land. He also promoted the expeditions of Fourmont to Greece and the Orient, and of Jussieu to Peru. An epigram which he wrote upon Mme. de Pompadour caused his ban- ishment from court for 25 years. He was recalled by Louis XVI., again became pres- ident of the council of state, restored the ex- iled parliaments, called Turgot and Necker successively into the ministry, but by his fickle and frivolous administration hastened the ca- tastrophe of the French revolution. The Me- moires du comte de Maurepas was published by the abb6 Soulavie (4 vols., Paris, 1792). MAURER. I. Georg Lndwig von, a German jurist, born at Erpolsheim, Rhenish Bavaria, Nov. 2, 1790, died in Munich, May 9, 1872. He took his degree at Heidelberg in 1812, and studied in Paris till 1814. He was subsequently assistant attorney general in various places till 1826, when he became professor at the univer- sity of Munich. Having been made councillor of state, he was from 1832 to 1834 a member of the regency in Athens, Greece, and distin- guished himself by drawing up most of the codes of law. In 1847 he was for a short time minister of foreign affairs and of justice. Among his numerous works are Das griechi- sche Voile (3 vols., Heidelberg, 1836), and Oe- schichte der Stadteverfassung in Deutschland (4 vols., Erlangen, 1869-'7l). II. Konrad, a German author, son of the preceding, born at Frankenthal in 1823. In 1847 he became pro- fessor of jurisprudence at Heidelberg. He is a high authority on early Scandinavian his- tory, laws, languages, and literature. His principal works are: Die Entstehung des is- Idndischen Staats und seiner Verfassung (Mu- nich, 1852) ; Die Bekehrung des norwegischen Stammes sum Cnristenthum (2 vols., 1855- '6); an edition of the Icelandic GulltJioris- saga (Leipsic, 1858) ; and Isldndische Vollcs- sagen der Gegenwart (1860). MAURETAMA. See MAUKITANIA. MAURICE, count of Nassau and prince of Orange, stadtholder of the United Dutch Prov- inces, born at Dillenburg, Nov. 14, 1567, died at the Hague, April 23, 1625. He was the second surviving son of William I. of Orange, surnamed the Silent, by Anna, the daughter of Maurice of Saxony. Maurice of Nassau was in his 17th year when his father was assassinated (1584). and was soon after proclaimed governor and captain general by the states of Holland and Zealand, his elder brother Philip William hav- ing been carried by the duke of Alva to Spain. Maurice, though commencing his military ca- reer under the control of the count of Hohen- lohe, was elected by the states in 1587 gov- ernor and commander-in-chief of the republic, during the temporary absence of Leicester; and after the recall of Leicester by Queen Elizabeth he was acknowledged as stadtholder and commander-in-chief by all the provinces, Lord Willoughby commanding the English aux- iliary forces. Opposed to the greatest captain of that period, Alessandro Farnese, Maurice