Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/847

* MONTE KOSA. 75D MONTESQUIEU. taiiiiiig an altitiule of 15,217 feet, 564 feet less than that of -Mont Blane. It is covered with glaciers on all sides, and has an abrupt, almost precipitous slope on the east, while on the ve^t the great Gorner Glacier slopes more gradually toward the base of the Matterhorn. The main structure of the mountain is gneiss, while the upper parts consist of mica-slate. Iron, copper, and gold are found, and several mines are worked, one at an altitude of 11,000 feet. The passes over the chain near ilonte Rosa are among the loftiest and most difficult in the Alps, and the jjeak itself is very difficult of ascent. The feat was first accomplished by the Smith brothers in 1S55. MONTESA, mon-tfi'sa. Order of our Lady OF. An order founded in 1317 by James II. of Aragon to take the place of the Templars after their dissolution. The city and Castle of Jlontesa in Valencia were given to it and it was endowed with the property formerly belonging to the Templars. It acknowledged the Order of Cala- trava as its superior. In 15S7 it was united with the Spanish Crown and is now a Court order with two classes. MONTE SAN GIULIANO, mon'ta san jw- lyii'no. A town in the Province of Trapani, ■ Sicily, situated on a high mountain, four miles northeast of the town of Trapani (Map: Italy, G 9). On the mountain (anciently Eryx) are the remains of a famous temple of Venus. The town has a church dating from the four- teenth century, and remains of numerous ancient buildings. There are oil works and marble pits. Population (commune), in 1881, 21,388; in 1901, 28,939. MONTESANO, mon'tt-sa'no. A town and the county-seat of Chehalis County. Wash., 48 miles west by south of Olympia ; at the head of tide- water navigation on the Chehalis River, and on the Northern Pacific Railroad (llap: Washing- ton, B 2). It is in a lumbering and farming district, and has salmon fisheries, a creamery, and manufactories of furniture, shingles, sash and doors, sawed lumber, etc. There is a salmon hatchery on the Chehalis River, three miles above the town. Population, in 1890, 1632; in 1900, 1194. MONTE SANT'ANGELO, mAn'ta siint-an'- jS-16. A town in, the Province of Foggia, Italy, situated 27 miles nortlic:ist of Foggia, on one of the Gargano group of mountains, at a height of 2765 feet (Map: Italy, L 6). The Church of Saint Michael is a place of pilgrimage. Popula- tion (commune), in 1881, 19,2.34; in 1901, 21,- 870. MONTESINOS, mon'tA-se'nos, Fernando (e. 1593-C.1055). A Spanish historian. In his youth he went to Peru, and eventually became a member of the Supreme Administrative Council at Lima. While employed in this cajiaeity he visited different parts of Peru, studying Peru- vian history. The fruits of his arch;Tnlogieal re- search appeared in two historical works, the ilemoria.'! anfiriuns hif^torinlm del Peru, which Avas translated into French in 1849 by Ternaux- Compans and the Aniiles NverriK del J'eni. MONTESPAN, nioN't'-spiix'. Fraxcoise AtH^NAIS DE RocnECHOUART DF. MORTF.jrART. Marquise de (1641-1707). Mistress of Louis XIV. She was born at the Chateau of Tonnav- Charente, the second daughter of the Duke of !Mortemart. She was the wittiest and most beautiful member of a family renowned for its wit and beauty, and soon became the most popu- lar of the tjueen's ladies-in-waiting at Versailles. She married the -Marcjuis de ilontespan in 1663 and lived unhappily with him ever afterwards. About 1668 she became the King's mistress, sharing her power for some years with La Valli&re (q.v.), whom she finally supplanted. Till 1678 she ruled the King and the Court, dictated matters of policy, and was uncrowned Queen of France. From that time on she was gradually supplanted in the King's aft'eetions by Mnie. de JIaintenon, whom she had hired as governess for the cliildren slie had borne the King. She left Court about 1690, wandered disconso- lately over France, and finally found peace in a convent. Of her children by the King the best known were the Duke de Maine, the Count de Toulouse, Mademoiselle de Nantes, and Made- moiselle de Blois, who married the subsequent Regent Orleans. MONTESQUIEU, nioN't's-kye', Ciiakle.s de Secoxdat, Baron de la Br6de et de (1689-1755). One of the most celebrated politico-philosophical writers of France. He was born Januar}' 18. 1689, at his father's Chateau of Br&de, near Bordeaux, of a distinguished family of Guienne and one noted for the number of eminent lawyers it pro- duced. He was a brilliant, versatile scholar, illu- minating his solid legal attainments by an ardent love of the classics and of science. In 1714 he was ap])ointed a Councilor of the Parlement of Bordeaux, and two years after president of the Parlement. He eareil nothing, how- ever, for the routine of legal practice or for the requirements of official duty, and as his fortune was ample he was enabled to gratify his taste for study, travel, and observa- tion without hindrance. He was a good deal of a skeptic aod free thinker and loose in his morals, but in the field of polities he was the clearest thinker of his time. His first published work was his famous Letlrcs pcrsanes (1721), in which, in the character of a Persian, he ridicules, with exquisite humor and perspicuous criticism, the religious, political, social, and litcrai-y life of his countrymen. Although he did not spare the Academy in these letters, he was made a member of it in"l728. In 1726 Montesquieu resigned his office in the Parlement of Bordeaux, and spent some years in foreign countries. In England he spent two years, during which he was much in the company of Lord Chesterfield and other distinguished personages. He was frankly an admirer of the English political system, a fact which appears in his great contribution to polit- ical science. After his return to France he pub- lished his Consid<H-ntions sur les causes de la f/randeur et de la decadence des Ilomains (1734), a masterly review of Roman history. It was fol- lowed after a long interval by his Dialogues de ,^!llla et d'Eiieratc. et de Lijsimaque (1748), published under an assumed name, in which the motives and feelings of a despot are skillfully analyzed. In the same year appeared his great work, on which he had been engaged for twenty years, the F.xprit des lois. in which he attempted to discover the relation between the laws of different countries and their local and social cir- cumstances. The book proved inunensely popular. The Esprit dcs lois is one of the classics of