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* MEREDITH. 339 MERGER. though it was reaclieii, is justified (if there were nothing else) l>y his umiuestioned intellectual eminence, by the constant distinctiou of his thouglit. Consult : Le Gallienne, licoryc Mere- dith: Hume Vhayaclcristics, with a full bibliog- raphy (3d ed., London, 1900) ; Lynch, George Meredith (ib., 18i)l); and essays by Henley, in Fieirs and Rei-iars (ib., 1890) : by Brownell, in Victorian Prose Masters (New York. 1901); also Cross, The Development of the Enylish Xoiel (New York, 1899). MEREDITH, Louisa Anxe (maiden name, Tv.j[i,KY) ( l)Sl'2-95). An Australian writer, born at Birmingham, England. She studied art, and was thus able to illustrate many of her books, both in verse and in prose, as the Romance of Nature^ or the Floucr tieasons^ (1830). In 1839 she married Charles Meredith and went with hiiu to Australia. After living for five years at Sydney, they settled in Tasmania, where ilrs. Meredith wrote several delightful volumes of de- scription. T^otes and Sketches of New South Wales (1844) was followed by Mi/ Home in Tas- mania (1852); Home of My Bush Friends in Tasmania (18.59) ; Orcr the Straits, a Visit to Victoria (1801); and later, Our Island Home (1879); Tasmania, Friends and Foes, Feathered and Furred, etc. (1880). Her first volume of verse appeared in 1835 and her last, Grand- mama's Verse-Book for Young Australia, in 1878. Mrs. Meredith died at her island home in 1895. MEREDITH, OwEx. The pseudonym of Lord Lyttuii. Sci- Lytto.x, Emv.iRu Kobekx Bul- WKK. MEREDITH, Solomon (1810-75). An Amer- ican soldier and politician, born in C4uilford Coimty, N. C. He removed to Indiana in 1830, and at the outbreak of the Civil War was made colonel of the Sixty-ninth Indiana Volunteers. He participated in many of the most desperate bat- tles fought by the Army of the Potomac and be- came the commander of the famous Iron Brigade. At the close of the war he was retired with the brevet rank of major-general of volunteers. MEREDITH, Sir William (1840—). A Canadian jurist and politician, born in Middle- sex County, Ontario, of Irish descent. He was educated in London. Ont.. and at the Toronto University, was admitted to the bar in 1861. was made Chief .Justice of Couunon Pleas in 1894. and was knijihted two years afterwards. His political career liegan in 1872. when he was elected a member for London of the Provincial House, and in six years he became leader of the Liberal- Conservative opposition. Equally noted as a judge and a parliamentary orator. Sir William was also a member of the Toronto University Senate (1895). as well as honorary lecturer to its law faculty. MERES, mOrz, Frantis ( 1505-1647 ). An Eng- lish author and teacher. He was educated at Pembroke College. Cambridge, graduating P.. A. in 1587, and M.A.' in 1591. By 1597 he was living in London, where he gainecl an intimate knowl- edge of contemporary literature. In 1002 he be- I came rector of Wing in Rutland, and subse-
 * quently opened a school. He died at Wing, ,Tan-

iuary 29. 1647. His Palladis Tnmia. Wits Trens- I tiry (1598), gives an account of Marlowe's death I and an estimate of Shakespeare. After mention- I mg twelve of Shakespeare's plays and the "sugred I sonnets among his private friends," Meres says, "The muses v^ould speak Shakespeare's fine filed phrase, if they could speak English." Tlie im- portant sections dealing with Elizabethan litera- ture were reprinted in Hhaksjure Allusion Books, New Shakspere Society (London, 1874) ; and by Arber in the English Garner, vol. ii. (London, 1879). MERGAN'SER (Neo-Lat., from Lat. mergus, diver + unser, goose). A small subfamily of ducks, Merginic, having a slender, straight, much compressed bill, hooked at the tip, and notched at the edges, almost as if furnished with teeth. Their other anatomical peculiarities are like those of the sea-ducks. Thej' feed largely upon fish, which they are said to pursue and capture luider water. Jlost of the species have little food value, but the hooded merganser {Lojihodytes eu- cullatus)is said to feed upon roots and seeds, and is thus a palatable table duck. The males are black and white, with a large, circular crest, giv- ing them a peculiar and striking apijearance; the adult female also has a crest, but it is small, grayish-brown, tinged with cinnamon. I See Plate of North American Wild Ducks.) The hooded merganser is the smallest of the North American species, only a foot and a half in length. The other two species, the goosander ( Merganser Americanus) and the red-breasted merganser or shelldrake ( Merganser serrator), are much larger, nearly or quite two feet long, and have no true crest, though the feathers of the crown may be somewhat lengthened. The hooded and red- breasted mergansers are found in nearly all parts of the Northern Hemisphere, while the goosander is replaced in Europe by a very closely allied species {Merganser merganser). All of these species breed in the northern portions of their range and winter southward almost to the tropics. About half a dozen other mergansers are known, one or two of which are South American. MERGER. ( I ) In the law of real property, the union of a lesser with a greater estate in the same property in the same person, with the re- sult that the lesser estate is obliterated by the larger estate. Thus, if one is a tenant for years or for life of real estate, and the estate of his land- lord or the reversioner in fee comes to him either by descent or purchase, the tenancy is extin- guished in the larger estate, and the tenant be- comes owner in fee. If, however, there be an intermediate estate, merger is prevented. Thus, if one be in possession of property as tenant for years, with remainder to another for life, and remainder to a third in fee, there will be no merger if the fee remainderman convey his estate to the tenant for years ; but if the owner of the life estate convey to the tenant for years, or vice versa, the tenancy for years will merge in the life estate. Courts of equity will in many cases, where justice requires it, in efl'ect prevent merger by compelling the owner of the estate to hold the property as though the two estates were distinct. Thus, for example, if a tenant of real estate in his own right purchased the reversion as trustee for another, a court of equity would compel him to continue to collect the rents from himself as tenant and to account to the bene- ficiary for them as trustee of the re-ersion. In the same manner when the legal estate in prop- erty becomes vested in one having an equitable claim with reference to the property, or an equitable estate as it is sometimes called, the