[1] Maryland and Delaware together began the construction of the
Chesapeake and Delaware canal (13½ m. long) across the north part of
the state of Delaware, between the Delaware river and Chesapeake Bay;
this canal received Federal aid in 1828, was completed in 1829, and
in 1907 was chosen as the most practicable route for a proposed ship
waterway between the Chesapeake and the Delaware.
[2] The population at previous censuses was as follows: 319,728 in
1790; 341,548 in 1800; 380,546 in 1810; 407,350 in 1820; 447,040 in
1830; 470,019 in 1840; 583,034 in 1850; 687,049 in 1860; and 780,894
in 1870.
[3] The General Assembly regularly elected the governor during the
period 1776-1838.
[4] Died in office.
[5] Resigned on the 6th of May 1808.
[6] Resigned in 1874 to become (March 4, 1875) U.S. senator from
Maryland.
MARYPORT, a market town and seaport in the Cockermouth parliamentary
division of Cumberland, England, 25 m. W.S.W. of Carlisle, on the
Maryport & Carlisle railway. Pop. of urban district (1901), 11,897. It
is irregularly built on the shore of the Irish Sea and on the cliffs
above, at the mouth of the river Ellen. Until 1750 there were only a few
huts here, the spot being called Ellenfoot, but at this time the harbour
was built by Humphrey Senhouse. In 1892 Maryport became an independent
port with Workington, Whitehaven and Millom subordinate to it. Coal and
pig-iron are exported from the mining district inland, and shipbuilding
is carried on. There are also rope and sail works, iron-foundries,
saw-mills, breweries and tanneries. On the hill north of the town there
is a Roman fort which guarded the coast, and many remains of this period
have been discovered. The fort was called Uxellodunum.
MARZABOTTO, a village of Emilia, Italy, in the province of Bologna, 17
m. S.S.W. of Bologna by rail. Pop. (1901), 617 (village); 5272
(commune). It lies in the valley of the Reno, 443 ft. above sea-level.
In and below the grounds of the Villa Aria, close to it, are the remains
of an Etruscan town of the 5th century B.C., protected on the west by
the mountains, on the east and south by the river, which by a change of
course has destroyed about half of it. The acropolis was just below the
villa: here remains of temples were found. The town lay below the modern
high-road and was laid out on a rectangular plan divided by main streets
into eight quarters, and these in turn into blocks or _insulae_.
Cemeteries were found on the east and north of the site. The name of the
place is unknown: it was partially inhabited later by the Gauls, but was
not occupied by the Romans.
The discoveries of 1888-1889 (with references to previous works) are
described by E. Brizio in _Monumenti dei Lincei_ (1891), i. 249 sqq.
(T. As.)
MASACCIO (1402-1429), Italian painter. Tommaso Guidi, son of a notary,
Ser Giovanni di Simone Guidi, of the family of the Scheggia, who had
property in Castel S. Giovanni di Val d'Arno, was born in 1402
(according to Milanesi, on the 21st of December 1401), and acquired the
nickname of Masaccio, which may be translated "Lubberly Tom," in
consequence of his slovenly dressing and deportment. From childhood he
showed a great inclination for the arts of design, and he is said to
have studied under his contemporary Masolino da Panicale. In 1421, or
perhaps 1423, he was enrolled in the gild of the speziali (druggists) in
Florence, in 1424 in the gild of painters. His first attempts in
painting were made in Florence, and then in Pisa. Next he went to Rome,
still no doubt very young; although the statement that he returned from
Rome to Florence, in 1420, when only eighteen or nineteen, seems
incredible, considering the works he undertook in the papal city. These
included a series of frescoes still extant in a chapel of the church of
S. Clemente, a Crucifixion, and scenes from the life of St Catherine and
of St Clement, or perhaps some other saint. Though much inferior to his
later productions, these paintings are, for naturalism and propriety of
representation, in advance of their time. Some critics, however,
consider that the design only, if even that, was furnished by Masaccio,
and the execution left to an inferior hand; this appears highly
improbable, as Masaccio, at his early age, can scarcely have held the
position of a master laying out work for subordinates; indeed Vasari
says that Lubberly Tom was held in small esteem at all times of his
brief life. In the Crucifixion subject the group of the Marys is
remarkable; the picture most generally admired is that of Catherine, in
the presence of Maxentius, arguing against and converting eight learned
doctors. After returning to Florence, Masaccio was chiefly occupied in
painting in the church of the Carmine, and especially in that "Brancacci
Chapel" which he has rendered famous almost beyond rivalry in the annals
of painting.
The chapel, had been built early in the 15th century by Felice Michele
di Piuvichese Brancacci, a noble Florentine. Masaccio's work in it
began probably in 1423, and continued at intervals until he finally
quitted Florence in 1428. There is a whole library-shelf of discussion
as to what particular things were done by Masaccio and what by
Masolino, and long afterwards by Filippino Lippi, in the Brancacci
Chapel, and also as to certain other paintings by Masaccio in the
Carmine. He began with a trial piece, a majestic figure of St Paul,
not in the chapel; this has perished. A monochrome of the Procession
for the Consecration of the Chapel, regarded as a wonderful example,
for that early period, of perspective and of grouping, has also
disappeared; it contains portraits of Brunelleschi, Donatello and many
others. In the cloister of the Carmine was discovered in recent years
a portion of a fresco by Masaccio representing a procession; but this,
being in colours and not in monochrome, does not appear to be the
Brancacci procession. As regards the works in the Brancacci chapel
itself, the prevalent opinion now is that Masolino, who used to be
credited with a considerable portion of them, did either nothing, or
at most the solitary compartment which represents St Peter restoring
Tabitha to life, and the same saint healing a cripple. The share which
Filippino Lippi bore in the work admits of little doubt; to him are
due various items on which the fame of Masaccio used principally to be
based--as for instance the figure of St Paul addressing Peter in
prison, which Raphael partly appropriated; and hence it may be
observed that an eloquent and often-quoted outpouring of Sir Joshua
Reynolds in praise of Masaccio ought in great part to be transferred
to Filippino. What Masaccio really painted in the chapel appears with
tolerable certainty to be as follows, and is ample enough to sustain
the high reputation he has always enjoyed:--(1) The "Temptation of
Adam and Eve"; (2) "Peter and the Tribute-Money"; (3) The "Expulsion
from Eden"; (4) "Peter Preaching"; (5) "Peter Baptizing"; (6) "Peter
Almsgiving"; (7) "Peter and John curing the Sick"; (8) "Peter
restoring to Life the Son of King Theophilus of Antioch" was begun by
Masaccio, including the separate incident of "Peter Enthroned," but a
large proportion is by Filippino; (9) the double subject already
allotted to Masolino may perhaps be by Masaccio, and in that case it
must have been one of the first in order of execution. A few words may
be given to these pictures individually. (1) The "Temptation" shows a
degree of appreciation of nude form, corresponding to the feeling of
the antique, such as was at that date unexampled in painting. (2) The
"Tribute-Money," a full, harmonious and expressive composition,
contains a head reputed to be the portrait of Masaccio himself--one of
the apostles, with full locks, a solid resolute countenance and a
pointed beard. (3) The "Expulsion" was so much admired by Raphael
that, with comparatively slight modifications, he adopted it as his
own in one of the subjects of the Logge of the Vatican. (5) "Peter
Baptizing" contains some nude figures of strong naturalistic design;
that of the young man, prepared for the baptismal ceremony, who stands
half-shivering in the raw air, has always been a popular favourite and
an object of artistic study. (8) The restoration of the young man to
life has been open to much discussion as to what precise subject was
in view, but the most probable opinion is that the legend of King
Theophilus was intended.
In 1427 Masaccio was living in Florence with his mother, then for the
second time a widow, and with his younger brother Giovanni, a painter of
no distinction; he possessed nothing but debts. In 1428 he was working,
as we have seen, in the Brancacci chapel. Before the end of that year he
disappeared from Florence, going, as it would appear, to Rome, to evade
the importunities of creditors. Immediately afterwards, in 1429, when
his age was twenty-seven or twenty-eight, he was reported dead.
Poisoning by jealous rivals in art was rumoured, but of this nothing is
known. The statement that several years afterwards, in 1443, he was
buried in the Florentine Church of the Carmine, without any monument,
seems to be improbable, and to depend upon a confused account of the
dates, which have now, after long causing much bewilderment, been
satisfactorily cleared up from extant documents.
It has been said that Masaccio introduced into painting the plastic
boldness of Donatello, and carried out the linear perspective of Paolo
Uccello and Brunelleschi (who had given him practical instruction), and
he was also the first painter who made some considerable advance in
atmospheric perspective. He was the first to make the architectural
framework of his pictures correspond in a reasonable way to the
proportions of the figures. In the Brancacci chapel he painted with
extraordinary swiftness. The contours of the feet and articulations in
his pictures are imperfect; and his most prominent device for giving
roundness to the figures (a point in which he made a great advance upon
his predecessors) was a somewhat mannered way of putting the high lights
upon the edges. His draperies were broad and easy, and his landscape
details natural, and superior to his age. In fact, he led the way in
representing the objects of nature correctly, with action, liveliness
and relief. Soon after his death, his work was recognized at its right
value, and led to notable advances; and all the greatest artists of
Italy, through studying the Brancacci chapel, became his champions and
disciples.
Of the works attributed to Masaccio in public or private galleries
hardly any are authentic. The one in the Florentine Academy, the
"Virgin and Child in the Lap of St Anna," is an exception. The
so-called portrait of Masaccio in the Uffizi Gallery is more probably
Filippino Lippi; and Filippino, or Botticelli, may be the real author
of the head, at first termed a Masaccio, in the National Gallery,
London.
An early work on Masaccio was that of T. Patch, _Life with Engravings_
(Florence, 1770-1772). See Layard, _The Brancacci Chapel_, &c. (1868);
H. Eckstein, _Life of Masaccio, Giotto_, &c. (1882); Charles Yriarte,
_Tommaso dei Guidi_ (1894). (W. M. R.)
MASAI, an Eastern Equatorial African people of Negro-Hamitic stock,
speaking a Nilotic language. The Hamitic element, which is not great,
has probably been derived from the Galla. The Masai were probably
isolated in the high mountains or plateaus which lie between the Nile
and the Karamojo country. There they originally had their home, and
there to-day the Latuka, who show affinities with them, still live.
Famine or inter-tribal wars drove the Masai in the direction of Mount
Elgon and Lake Rudolf. After a long settlement there they split into two
groups, the Masai proper and the Wa-Kuafi or agricultural Masai, and
this at no very remote date, as the two tribes speak practically the
same language. The more powerful Masai were purely nomadic and pastoral,
their wealth consisting in enormous herds. The Wa-Kuafi, losing their
cattle to their stronger kinsmen, split up again into the Burkeneji, the
Gwas Ngishu, and the Nyarusi (Enjamusi) and settled as agriculturists.
Meantime the Masai became masters of the greater part of inner East
Africa from Ugogo and the Unyamwezi countries on the south and west to
Mount Kenya and Galla-land on the north, and eastward to the
hundred-mile strip of more or less settled Bantu country on the coast of
the Indian Ocean.
The Masai physical type is slender, but among the finest in Africa. A
tall, well-made people, the men are often well over six feet, with slim
wiry figures, chocolate-coloured, with eyes often slightly oblique like
the Mongolians, but the nose especially being often almost Caucasian in
type, with well formed bridge and finely cut nostrils. Almost all the
men and women knock out the two lower incisor teeth. For this custom
they give the curious explanation that lockjaw was once very common in
Masai-land, and that it was found to be easy to feed the sufferer
through the gap thus made. All the hair on the body of both sexes is
pulled out with iron tweezers; a Masai with a moustache or beard is
unknown. The hair of the head is shaved in women and married men; but
the hair of a youth at puberty is allowed to grow till it is long enough
to have thin strips of leather plaited into it. In this way the hair,
after a coating of red clay and mutton fat, is made into pigtails, the
largest of which hangs down the back, another over the forehead, and one
on each side. The warriors smear their whole bodies with the clay and
fat, mixed in equal proportion.
No tattooing or scarring is performed on the men, but Sir Harry
Johnston noticed women with parallel lines burnt into the skin round
the eyes. In both sexes the lobes of the ears are distended into great
loops, through holes in which large disks of wood are thrust. Bead
necklaces, bead and wood armlets are worn by men, and before marriage
the Masai girl has thick iron wire wound round her legs so tightly as
to check the calf development. The women wear dressed hides or calico;
the old men wear a skin or cloth cape. The warriors wind red calico
round their waists, a circle of ostrich feathers round their face (or
a cap of lion or colobus skin) and fringes of long white fur round the
knee. Masai houses are of two kinds. The agricultural tribes build
round huts with walls of reeds or sticks, and conical, grass-thatched
roofs. The true Masai nomads, however, have houses unlike those of any
other neighbouring negro tribe. Long, low (not more than 6 ft. high),
flat-roofed, they are built on a framework of sticks with strong
partitions dividing the structure into separate compartments, each a
dwelling, with low, oblong door. Mud and cow-dung are plastered on to
the brushwood used in the roofing. Beds are made of brushwood neatly
stacked and covered with hides. The fireplace is a circle of stones.
The only furniture, besides cooking-pots, consists of long gourds used
as milkcans, half-gourds as cups, and small three-legged stools cut
out of a single block of wood and used by the elder men to sit on.
The Masai are not hunters of big game except lions, but they eat the
eland and kudu. The domestic animals are cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys
and dogs. Only women and the married men smoke. The dead are
ordinarily not buried, but the bodies are carried a short distance
from the village and left on the ground to be devoured by hyenas,
jackals and vultures. Important chiefs are buried, however, and a year
later the eldest son or successor recovers the skull, which is
treasured as a charm. The medicine men of Masai are often the chiefs,
and the supreme chief is almost always a medicine man.
The Masai believe in a nature-god as a supreme being--Ngai
("sky")--and his aid is invoked in cases of drought by a ceremonial
chant of the children, standing in a circle after sunset, each with a
bunch of grass in its hand. They have creation-myths involving four
gods, the black, white, grey and red deities. They believe there is no
future for women or common people, but that such distinction is
reserved for chiefs. Pythons and a species of snake are revered as the
reincarnated forms of their more celebrated ancestors. A kind of
worship is paid to the hyena in some districts: the whole tribe going
into mourning if the beast crosses their path. The Masai also have a
vague tree-worship, and grass is a sacred symbol. When making peace a
tuft is held in the right hand, and when the warriors start out on a
raid their sweethearts throw grass after them or lay it in the forks
of trees. But the oddest of their superstitious customs is the
importance attached to spitting. To spit upon a person or thing is
regarded as a sign of reverence and goodwill, as among other Nilotic
tribes. Newly born children are spat on by every one who sees them.
Johnston states that every Masai before extending his hand to him spat
on it first. They spit when they meet and when they part, and bargains
are sealed in this way. Joseph Thomson writes, "being regarded as a
wizard of the first water, the Masai flocked to me ... and the more
copiously I spat on them the greater was their delight." The Masai has
no love for work, and practises no industries. The women attend to his
personal needs; and trades such as smelting and forging are left to
enslaved tribes such as the Dorobo (Wandorobo). These manufacture
spears with long blades and butts and the peculiar swords or _simés_
like long slender leaves, very narrow towards the hilt and broad at
the point. Most of the Masai live in the British East Africa
Protectorate.
See A. C. Hollis, _The Masai, their Language and Folklore_ (1905); M.
Merker, _Die Nasai_ (1904); Sir H. H. Johnston, _Kilimanjaro
Expedition_ (1886) and _Uganda Protectorate_ (1902); Joseph Thomson,
_Through Masai-land_ (1885); O. Baumann, _Durch Massai-land zur
Nilquelle_ (1894); F. Kallenberg, _Auf dem Kriegspfad gegen die
Massai_ (1892).
MASANIELLO, an abbreviation of TOMMASO ANIELLO (1622-1647), an Amalfi
fisherman, who became leader of the revolt against Spanish rule in
Naples in 1647. Misgovernment and fiscal oppression having aroused much
discontent throughout the two Sicilies, a revolt broke out at Palermo in
May 1647, and the people of Naples followed the example of the
Sicilians. The immediate occasion of the latter rising was a new tax on
fruit, the ordinary food of the poor, and the chief instigator of the
movement was Masaniello, who took command of the malcontents. The
outbreak began on the 7th of July 1647 with a riot at the city gates
between the fruit-vendors of the environs and the customs officers; the
latter were forced to flee, and the customs office was burnt. The
rioters then poured into Naples and forced their way into the palace of
the viceroy, the hated Count d'Arcos, who had to take refuge first in a
neighbouring convent, then in Castel Sant' Elmo, and finally in
Castelnuovo. Masaniello attempted to discipline the mob and restrain its
vandalic instincts, and to some extent he succeeded; attired in his
fisherman's garb, he gave audiences and administered justice from a
wooden scaffolding outside his house. Several rioters, including the
duke of Maddaloni, an opponent of the viceroy, and his brother Giuseppe
Caraffa, who had come to Naples to make trouble, were condemned to death
by him and executed. The mob, which every day obtained more arms and was
becoming more intractable, terrorized the city, drove off the troops
summoned from outside, and elected Masaniello "captain-general"; the
revolt was even spreading to the provinces. Finally, the viceroy, whose
negotiations with Masaniello had been frequently interrupted by fresh
tumults, ended by granting all the concessions demanded of him. On the
13th of July, through the mediation of Cardinal Filomarino, archbishop
of Naples, a convention was signed between D'Arcos and Masaniello as
"leader of the most faithful people of Naples," by which the rebels were
pardoned, the more oppressive taxes removed, and the citizens granted
certain rights, including that of remaining in arms until the treaty
should have been ratified by the king of Spain. The astute D'Arcos then
invited Masaniello to the palace, confirmed his title of
"captain-general of the Neapolitan people," gave him a gold chain of
office, and offered him a pension. Masaniello refused the pension and
laid down his dignities, saying that he wished to return to his old life
as a fisherman; but he was entertained by the viceroy and, partly owing
to the strain and excitement of the past days, partly because he was
made dizzy by his astonishing change of fortune, or perhaps, as it was
believed, because he was poisoned, he lost his head and behaved like a
frenzied maniac. The people continued to obey him for some days, until,
abandoned by his best friends, who went over to the Spanish party, he
was murdered while haranguing a mob on the market-place on the 16th of
July 1647; his head was cut off and brought by a band of roughs to the
viceroy and the body buried outside the city. But the next day the
populace, angered by the alteration of the measures for weighing bread,
repented of its insane fury; the body of Masaniello was dug up and given
a splendid funeral, at which the viceroy himself was represented.
Masaniello's insurrection appealed to the imagination of poets and
composers, and formed the subject of several operas, of which the most
famous is Auber's La Muelle de Portici (1828).
See Saavedra, _Insurreccion de Napoli en 1647_ (2 vols., Madrid,
1849); A. von Reumont, _Die Caraffa von Maddaloni_ (2 vols., Berlin,
1849); Capasso, _La Casa e famiglia di Masaniello_ (Naples, 1893); V.
Spinazzola, _Masaniello e la sua famiglia, secondo un codice bolognese
del sec. xvi_. (in the review Flegrea, 1900); A. G. Meissner,
_Masaniello_ (in German); E. Bourg, _Masaniello_ (in French); F.
Palermo, _Documenti diversi sulle novità accadute in Napoli l'anno
1647_ (in the _Archivio storico italiano_, 1st series, vol. ix.). See
also NAPLES.
MASAYA, the capital of the department of Masaya, Nicaragua, 13 m. W.N.W.
of Lake Nicaragua and the city of Granada, on the eastern shore of Lake
Masaya, and on the Granada-Managua railway. Pop. (1905), about 20,000.
The city is built in the midst of a very fertile lowland region, which
yields large quantities of tobacco. The majority of the inhabitants are
Indians or half-castes. Lake Masaya occupies an extinct crater; the
isolated volcano of Masaya (3000 ft.) on the opposite side of the lake
was active at the time of the conquest of Nicaragua in 1522, and the
conquerors, thinking the lava they saw was gold, had themselves lowered
into the crater at the risk of their lives. The volcano was in eruption
in 1670, 1782, 1857 and 1902.
MASCAGNI, PIETRO (1863- ), Italian operatic composer, was born at
Leghorn, the son of a baker, and educated for the law; but he neglected
his legal studies for music, taking secret lessons at the Instituto
Luigi Cherubini. There a symphony by him was performed in 1879, and
various other compositions attracted attention, so that money was
provided by a wealthy amateur for him to study at the Milan
Conservatoire. But Mascagni chafed at the teaching, and soon left Milan
to become conductor to a touring operatic company. After a somewhat
chequered period he suddenly leapt into fame by the production at Rome
in 1890 of his one-act opera _Cavalleria Rusticana_, containing a
tuneful "intermezzo," which became wildly popular. Mascagni was the
musical hero of the hour, and _Cavalleria Rusticana_ was performed
everywhere. But his later work failed to repeat this success. _L'Amico
Fritz_ (1891), _I Rantzau_ (1892), _Guglielmo Ratcliff_ (1895),
_Silvano_ (1895), _Zanetto_ (1896), _Iris_ (1898), _Le Maschere_ (1901),
and _Amica_ (1905), were coldly or adversely received; and though
_Cavalleria Rusticana_, with its catchy melodies, still held the stage,
this succession of failures involved a steady decline in the composer's
reputation. From 1895 to 1903 Mascagni was director of the Pesaro
Conservatoire, but in the latter year, having left his post in order to
tour through the United States, he was dismissed from the appointment.
MASCARA, chief town of an arrondissement in the department of Oran,
Algeria, 60 m. S.E. of Oran. It lies 1800 ft. above the sea, on the
southern slope of a range forming part of the Little Atlas Mountains,
and occupies two small hills separated by the Wad Tudman, which is
crossed by three stone bridges. The walls, upwards of two miles in
circuit, and strengthened by bastions and towers, give the place a
somewhat imposing appearance. Mascara is a town of the French colonial
type, few vestiges of the Moorish period remaining. Among the public
buildings are two mosques, in one of which Abd-el-Kader preached the
_jihad_. The town also contains the usual establishments attaching to
the seat of a sub-prefect and the centre of a military subdivision. The
principal industry is the making of wine, the white wines of Mascara
being held in high repute. There is also a considerable trade in grains
and oil. A branch railway eight miles long connects Mascara with the
line from the seaport of Arzeu to Ain Sefra. Access is also gained by
this line to Oran, Algiers, &c. Pop. (1906) of the town, 18,989; of the
commune, which includes several villages, 22,934; of the arrondissement,
comprising eleven communes, 190,154.
Mascara (i.e. "mother of soldiers") was the capital of a Turkish
beylik during the Spanish occupation of Oran from the 16th to the
close of the 18th century; but for the most of that period it occupied
a site about two miles distant from the present position. On the
removal of the bey to Oran its importance rapidly declined; and it was
an insignificant place when in 1832 Abd-el-Kader, who was born in the
neighbourhood, chose it as the seat of his power. It was laid in ruins
by the French under Marshal Clausel and the duke of Orleans in 1835,
the amir retreating south. Being reoccupied by Abd-el-Kader in 1838,
Mascara was again captured in 1841 by Marshal Bugeaud and General
Lamoricière.
MASCARENE ISLANDS (occasionally MASCARENHAS), the collective title of a
group in the Indian Ocean cast of Madagascar, viz. Mauritius, Réunion
and Rodriguez (q.v.). The collective title is derived from the
Portuguese navigator Mascarenhas, by whom Réunion, at first called
Mascarenhas, was discovered.
MASCARON, JULES (1634-1703), French preacher, was the son of a barrister
at Aix. Born at Marseilles in 1634, he early entered the French Oratory,
and obtained great reputation as a preacher. Paris confirmed the
judgment of the provinces; in 1666 he was asked to preach before the
court, and became a great favourite with Louis XIV., who said that his
eloquence was one of the few things that never grew old. In 1671 he was
appointed bishop of Tulle; eight years later he was transferred to the
larger diocese of Agen. He still continued, however, to preach regularly
at court, being especially in request for funeral orations. A panegyric
on Turenne, delivered in 1675, is considered his masterpiece. His style
is strongly tinged with _préciosité_; and his chief surviving interest
is as a glaring example of the evils from which Bossuet delivered the
French pulpit. During his later years he devoted himself entirely to his
pastoral duties at Agen, where he died in 1703.
Six of his most famous sermons were edited, with a biographical sketch
of their author, by the Oratorian Borde in 1704.
MASCHERONI, LORENZO (1750-1800), Italian geometer, was professor of
mathematics at the university of Pavia, and published a variety of
mathematical works, the best known of which is his _Geometria del
compasso_ (Pavia, 1797), a collection of geometrical constructions in
which the use of the circle alone is postulated. Many of the solutions
are most ingenious, and some of the constructions of considerable
practical importance.
There is a French translation by A. M. Carette (Paris, 1798), who also
wrote a biography of Mascheroni. See Poggendorff, _Biog. Lit.
Handwörterbuch_.
MASCOT (Fr. slang: perhaps from Port. _mascotto_, "witchcraft"), the
term for any person, animal, or thing supposed to bring luck. The word
was first popularized by Edmond Audran through his comic opera _La
Mascotte_ (1880), but it had been common in France long before among
gamblers. It has been traced back to a dialectic use in Provence and
Gascony, where it meant something which brought luck to a household. The
suggestion that it is from _masqué_ (masked or concealed), the
provincial French for a child born with a caul, in allusion to the lucky
destiny of such children, is improbable.
MASDEU, JUAN FRANCISCO (1744-1817), Spanish historian, was born at
Palermo on the 4th of October 1744. He joined the Company of Jesus on
the 19th of December 1759, and became professor in the Jesuit seminaries
at Ferrara and Ascoli. He visited Spain in 1799, was exiled, and
returned in 1815, dying at Valencia on the 11th of April 1817. His
_Storia critica di Spagna e della cultura spagnuola in ogni genere_ (2
vols., 1781-1784) was finally expanded into the _Historia critica de
España y de la cultura española_ (1783-1805), which, though it consists
of twenty volumes, was left unfinished; had it been continued on the
same scale, the work would have consisted of fifty volumes. Masdeu wrote
in a critical spirit and with a regard for accuracy rare in his time;
but he is more concerned with small details than with the philosophy of
history. Still, his narrative is lucid, and later researches have not
yet rendered his work obsolete.
MASERU, the capital of Basutoland, British South Africa. It is
pleasantly situated on the left bank of the Caledon river, 90 m. by rail
E. by S. of Bloemfontein, and 40 m. N.E. of Wepener. It is in the centre
of a fertile grain-growing district. Pop. (1904), 862, of whom 99 were
Europeans. The principal buildings are Government House, the church of
the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society, the hospital, and the railway
station. (See BASUTOLAND.)
MASHAM, ABIGAIL, LADY (d. 1734), favourite of Anne, queen of England,
was the daughter of Francis Hill, a London merchant, her mother being an
aunt of Sarah Jennings, duchess of Marlborough. The family being reduced
to poor circumstances through Hill's speculations, Lady Churchill (as
she then was), lady of the bedchamber to the Princess Anne, befriended
her cousin Abigail, whom she took into her own household at St Albans,
and for whom after the accession of the princess to the throne she
procured an appointment in the queen's household about the year 1704. It
was not long before Abigail Hill began to supplant her powerful and
imperious kinswoman in the favour of Queen Anne. Whether she was guilty
of the deliberate ingratitude charged against her by the duchess of
Marlborough is uncertain. It is not unlikely that, in the first instance
at all events, Abigail's influence over the queen was not so much due to
subtle scheming on her part as to the pleasing contrast between her
gentle and genial character and the dictatorial temper of the duchess,
which after many years of undisputed sway had at last become intolerable
to Anne. The first intimation of her protégé's growing favour with the
queen came to the duchess in the summer of 1707, when she learned that
Abigail Hill had been privately married to a gentleman of the queen's
household named Samuel Masham, and that the queen herself had been
present at the marriage. Inquiry then elicited the information that
Abigail had for some time enjoyed considerable intimacy with her royal
mistress, no hint of which had previously reached the duchess. Abigail
was said to be a cousin of Robert Harley, earl of Oxford, and after the
latter's dismissal from office in February 1708 she assisted him in
maintaining confidential relations with the queen. The completeness of
her ascendancy was seen in 1710 when the queen compelled Marlborough,
much against his will, to give an important command to Colonel John
Hill, Abigail's brother; and when Sunderland, Godolphin, and the other
Whig ministers were dismissed from office, largely owing to her
influence, to make way for Oxford and Bolingbroke. In the following year
the duchess of Marlborough was also dismissed from her appointment at
court, Mrs Masham taking her place as keeper of the privy purse. In 1711
the ministers, intent on bringing about the disgrace of Marlborough and
arranging the Peace of Utrecht, found it necessary to secure their
position in the House of Lords by creating twelve new peers; one of
these was Samuel Masham, the favourite's husband, though Anne showed
some reluctance to raise her bedchamber woman to a position in which she
might show herself less ready to give her personal services to the
queen. Lady Masham soon quarrelled with Oxford, and set herself to
foster by all the means in her power the queen's growing personal
distaste for her minister. Oxford's vacillation between the Jacobites
and the adherents of the Hanoverian succession to the Crown probably
strengthened the opposition of Lady Masham, who now warmly favoured the
Jacobite party led by Bolingbroke and Atterbury. Altercations took place
in the queen's presence between Lady Masham and the minister; and
finally, on the 27th of July 1714, Anne dismissed Oxford from his office
of lord high treasurer, and three days later gave the staff to the duke
of Shrewsbury. Anne died on the 1st of August, and Lady Masham then
retired into private life. She died on the 6th of December 1734.
Lady Masham was by no means the vulgar, ill-educated person she was
represented to have been by her defeated rival, the duchess of
Marlborough; her extant letters, showing not a little refinement of
literary style, prove the reverse. Swift, with whom both she and her
husband were intimate, describes Lady Masham as "a person of a plain
sound understanding, of great truth and sincerity, without the least
mixture of falsehood or disguise." The barony of Masham became extinct
when Lady Masham's son, Samuel, the 2nd baron, died in June 1776.
AUTHORITIES.--Gilbert Burnet, _History of My Own Time_, vol. vi. (2nd
ed., 6 vols., Oxford, 1833); F. W. Wyon, _History of Great Britain
during the Reign of Queen Anne_ (2 vols., London, 1876); Earl
Stanhope, _History of England, comprising the Reign of Queen Anne
until the Peace of Utrecht_ (London, 1870), and _History of England
from the Peace of Utrecht_, vol. i. (7 vols., London, 1836-1854);
Justin McCarthy, _The Reign of Queen Anne_ (2 vols., London, 1902);
_An Account of the Conduct of the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough from
first coming to Court to 1710_, edited by Nathaniel Hooke, with an
anonymous reply entitled _A Review of a Late Treatise_ (London, 1842);
_Private Correspondence of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough_ (2 vols.,
London, 1838); _Letters of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough_ (London,
1875); Mrs Arthur Colville, _Duchess Sarah_ (London, 1904). Numerous
references to Lady Masham will also be found scattered through Swift's
_Works_ (2nd ed., 19 vols., Edinburgh, 1824). (R. J. M.)
MASHAM, SAMUEL CUNLIFFE LISTER, 1ST BARON (1815-1906), English inventor,
born at Calverley Hall, near Bradford, on the 1st of January 1815, was
the fourth son of Ellis Cunliffe (1774-1853), who successively took the
names of Lister and Lister-Kay, and was the first member of parliament
elected for Bradford after the Reform Act of 1832. It was at first
proposed that he should take orders, but he preferred a business career
and became a clerk at Liverpool. In 1838 he and his elder brother John
started as worsted spinners and manufacturers in a new mill which their
father built for them at Manningham, and about five years later he
turned his attention to the problem of mechanical wool-combing, which,
in spite of the efforts of E. Cartwright and numerous other inventors,
still awaited a satisfactory solution. Two years of hard work spent in
modifying and improving existing devices enabled him to produce a
machine which worked well, and subsequently he consolidated his position
by buying up rival patents, as well as by taking out additional ones of
his own. His combing machines came into such demand that though they
were made for only £200 apiece he was able to sell them for £1200, and
the saving they effected in the cost of production not only brought
about a reduction in the price of clothing, but in consequence of the
increase in the sales created the necessity for new supplies of wool,
and thus contributed to the development of Australian sheep-farming. In
1855 he was sent a sample of silk waste (the refuse left in reeling silk
from the cocoons) and asked whether he could find a way of utilizing the
fibre it contained. The task occupied his time for many years and
brought him to the verge of bankruptcy, but at last he succeeded in
perfecting silk-combing appliances which enabled him to make yarn that
in one year sold for 23s. a pound, though produced from raw material
costing only 6d. or 1s. a pound. Another important and lucrative
invention in connexion with silk manufacture was his velvet loom for
piled fabrics; and this, with the silk comb worked at his Manningham
mill, yielded him an annual income of £200,000 for many years. But the
business was seriously affected by the prohibitory duties imposed by
America, and this was one reason why he was an early and determined
critic of the British policy of free imports. In 1891 he was made a
peer; he took his title from the little Yorkshire town of Masham, close
to which is Swinton Park, purchased by him in 1888. In 1886 an Albert
medal was awarded him for his inventions, which were mostly related to
the textile industries, though he occasionally diverged to other
subjects, such as an air-brake for railways. He was fond of outdoor
sports, especially coursing and shooting, and was a keen patron of the
fine arts. He died at Swinton Park on the 2nd of February 1906, and was
succeeded in the title by his son.
MASHONA, a Bantu-negro people, inhabitants of Mashonaland, Southern
Rhodesia. The name Mashona has been derived from the contemptuous term
_Amashuina_ applied by the Matabele to the aborigines owing to the habit
of the latter of taking refuge in the rocky hills with which the country
abounds. Before the Matabele invasion about 1840 most of Southern
Rhodesia was occupied by the Makalanga, the Makorikori and the Banyai,
all closely related. Most of them became subject to the Matabele, but
although they suffered severely from their attacks, the Mashona
preserved a certain national unity. In 1890 the Mashona came under
British protection (see RHODESIA). They are in general a peaceful,
mild-mannered people, industrious and successful farmers, skilful
potters, and weavers of bark cloth.
The crafts, however, in which they excel are the smelting and forging of
iron and wood-carving. They are also great hunters; and they are very
fond of music, the most usual instrument being the "piano" with iron
keys. Bows and arrows, assegais and axes are the native weapons, but all
who can get them now use guns. Up to their conquest by the Matabele the
Mashona worked the gold diggings which are scattered over their country;
indeed as late as 1870 certain Mashona were still extracting gold from
quartz (_Geog. Jour._ April 1906).
For the possible connexion of these people with the builders of the
ruins at Zimbabwe and elsewhere, see RHODESIA: _Archaeology_; and
ZIMBABWE.
MASK (Fr. _masque_, apparently from med. Lat. _mascus, masca_, spectre,
through Ital. _maschera_, Span. _mascara_), a covering for the face,
taking various forms, used either as a protective screen or as a
disguise. In the latter sense masks are mostly associated with the
artificial faces worn by actors in dramatic representations, or assumed
for exciting terror (e.g. in savage rites). The spelling "masque,"
representing the same word, is now in English used more specially for
certain varieties of drama in which masks were originally worn (see
DRAMA); so also "masquerade," particularly in the sense of a masked ball
or an entertainment where the personages arc disguised. Both "mask" and
"masquerade" have naturally passed into figurative and technical
meanings, the former especially for various senses of face and head
(head of a fox, grotesque faces in sculpture), or as equivalent to
"cloak" or "screen" (as in fortification or other military uses,
fencing, &c.). And in the case of "death-masks" the term is employed for
the portrait-casts, generally of plaster or metallic foil, taken from
the face of a dead person (also similarly from the living), an ancient
practice of considerable interest in art. An interesting collection made
by Laurence Hutton (see his _Portraits in Plaster_, 1894), is at
Princeton University in the United States. (For the historical mystery
of the "man in the iron mask," see IRON MASK.)
The ancient Greek and Roman masks worn by their actors--hollow figures
of heads--had the double object of identifying the performers with the
characters assumed, and of increasing the power of the voice by means of
metallic mouthpieces. They were derived like the drama from the rural
religious festivities, the wearing of mock faces or beards being a
primitive custom, connected no doubt with many early types of folk-lore
and religion. The use of the dramatic mask was evolved in the later
theatre through the mimes and the Italian popular comedy into pantomime;
and the masquerade similarly came from Italy, where the _domino_ was
introduced from Venice. The _domino_ (originally apparently an
ecclesiastical garment) was a loose cloak with a small half-mask worn at
masquerades and costume-balls by persons not otherwise dressed in
character; and the word is applied also to the person wearing it.
See generally Altmann, _Die Masken der Schauspieler_ (1875; new ed.,
1896); and Dale, _Masks, Labrets and Certain Aboriginal Customs_
(1885); also DRAMA.
MASKELYNE, NEVIL (1732-1811), English astronomer-royal, was born in
London on the 6th of October 1732. The solar eclipse of 1748 made a
deep impression upon him; and having graduated as seventh wrangler from
Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1754, he determined to devote himself
wholly to astronomy. He became intimate with James Bradley in 1755, and
in 1761 was deputed by the Royal Society to make observations of the
transit of Venus at St Helena. During the voyage he experimented upon
the determination of longitude by lunar distances, and ultimately
effected the introduction of the method into navigation (q.v.). In 1765
he succeeded Nathaniel Bliss as astronomer-royal. Having energetically
discharged the duties of his office during forty-six years, he died on
the 9th of February 1811.
Maskelyne's first contribution to astronomical literature was "A
Proposal for Discovering the Annual Parallax of Sirius," published in
1760 (_Phil. Trans._ li. 889). Subsequent volumes of the same series
contained his observations of the transits of Venus (1761 and 1769),
on the tides at St Helena (1762), and on various astronomical
phenomena at St Helena (1764) and at Barbados (1764). In 1763 he
published the _British Mariner's Guide_, which includes the suggestion
that in order to facilitate the finding of longitude at sea lunar
distances should be calculated beforehand for each year and published
in a form accessible to navigators. This important proposal, the germ
of the _Nautical Almanac_, was approved of by the government, and
under the care of Maskelyne the _Nautical Almanac_ for 1767 was
published in 1766. He continued during the remainder of his life the
superintendence of this invaluable annual. He further induced the
government to print his observations annually, thereby securing the
prompt dissemination of a large mass of data inestimable from their
continuity and accuracy. Maskelyne had but one assistant, yet the work
of the observatory was perfectly organized and methodically executed.
He introduced several practical improvements, such as the measurement
of time to tenths of a second; and he prevailed upon the government to
replace Bird's mural quadrant by a repeating circle 6 ft. in diameter.
The new instrument was constructed by E. Troughton; but Maskelyne did
not live to see it completed. In 1772 he suggested to the Royal
Society the famous Schehallion experiment for the determination of the
earth's density and carried out his plan in 1774 (_Phil. Trans._ 1.
495), the apparent difference of latitude between two stations on
opposite sides of the mountain being compared with the real difference
of latitude obtained by triangulation. From Maskelyne's observations
Charles Hutton deduced a density for the earth 4.5 times that of water
(ib. lxviii. 782). Maskelyne also took a great interest in various
geodetical operations, notably the measurement of the length of a
degree of latitude in Maryland and Pennsylvania (ibid. lviii. 323),
executed by Mason and Dixon in 1766-1768, and later the determination
of the relative longitude of Greenwich and Paris (ib. lxxvii. 151). On
the French side the work was conducted by Count Cassini, Legendre, and
Méchain; on the English side by General Roy. This triangulation was
the beginning of the great trigonometrical survey which has since been
extended all over the country. His observations appeared in four large
folio volumes (1776-1811). Some of them were reprinted in S. Vince's
_Astronomy_ (vol. iii.). (A. M. C.)
MASOLINO DA PANICALE (1383-c. 1445), Florentine painter, was said to
have been born at Panicale di Valdelsa, near Florence. It is more
probable, however, that he was born in Florence itself, his father,
Cristoforo Fini, who was an "imbiancatore," or whitewasher, having been
domiciled in the Florentine quarter of S. Croce. There is reason to
believe that Tommaso, nicknamed Masolino, was a pupil of the painter
Starnina, and was principally influenced in style by Antonio Veneziano;
he may probably enough have become in the sequel the master of Masaccio.
He was born in 1383; he died later than 1429, perhaps as late as 1440 or
even 1447. Towards 1423 he entered the service of Filippo Scolari, the
Florentine-born _obergespann_ of Temeswar in Hungary, and stayed some
time in that country, returning towards 1427 to Italy. The only works
which can with certainty be assigned to him are a series of wall
paintings executed towards 1428, commissioned by Cardinal Branda
Castiglione, in the church of Castiglione d'Olona, not far from Milan,
and another series in the adjoining baptistery. The first set is signed
as painted by "Masolinus de Florentia." It was recovered in 1843 from a
coating of whitewash, considerably damaged; its subject matter is taken
from the lives of the Virgin and of SS Lawrence and Stephen. The series
in the baptistery relates to the life and death of John the Baptist. The
reputation of Masolino had previously rested almost entirely upon the
considerable share which he was supposed to have had in the celebrated
frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel, in the Church of the Carmine in
Florence; he was regarded as the precursor of Masaccio, and by many
years the predecessor of Filippino Lippi, in the execution of a large
proportion of these works. But from a comparison of the Castiglione with
the Brancacci frescoes, and from other data, it is very doubtful whether
Masolino had any hand at all in the latter series. Possibly he painted
in the Brancacci Chapel certain specified subjects which are now either
destroyed or worked over. Several paintings assigned to Masolino on the
authority of Vasari are now ascribed to Masaccio. (W. M. R.)
MASON, FRANCIS (1799-1874), American missionary, was born in York,
England, on the 2nd of April 1799. His grandfather, Francis Mason, was
the founder of the Baptist Society in York, and his father, a shoemaker
by trade, was a Baptist lay preacher there. After working with his
father as a shoemaker for several years, he emigrated in 1818 to the
United States, and in Massachusetts was licensed to preach as a Baptist
in 1827. In 1830 he was sent by the American Baptist Missionary
Convention to labour among the Karens in Burma. Besides conducting a
training college for native preachers and teachers at Tavoy, he
translated the Bible into the two principal dialects of the Karens, the
Sgaw and the Pwo (his translation being published in 1853), and Matthew,
Genesis, and the Psalms into the Bghai dialect. He also published _A
Pali Grammar on the Basis of Kachchayano, with Chrestomathy and
Vocabulary_ (1868). In 1852 he published a book of great value on the
fauna and flora of British Burma, of which an improved edition appeared
in 1860 under the title _Burmah, its People and Natural Productions_,
and a third edition (2 vols.) revised and enlarged by W. Theobald in
1882-1883. He died at Rangoon on the 3rd of March 1874.
See his autobiography, _The Story of a Working Man's Life, with
Sketches of Travel in Europe, Asia, Africa and America_ (New York,
1870).
MASON, GEORGE (1725-1792), American statesman, was born in Stafford
county (the part which is now Fairfax county), Virginia, in 1725. His
family was of Royalist descent and emigrated to America after the
execution of Charles I. His colonial ancestors held official positions
in the civil and military service of Virginia. Mason was a near
neighbour and a lifelong friend of George Washington, though in later
years they disagreed in politics. His large estates and high social
standing, together with his personal ability, gave Mason great influence
among the Virginia planters, and he became identified with many
enterprises, such as the organization of the Ohio Company and the
founding of Alexandria (1749). He was a member of the Virginia House of
Burgesses in 1759-1760. In 1769 he drew up for Washington a series of
non-importation resolutions, which were adopted by the Virginia
legislature. In July 1774 he wrote for a convention in Fairfax county a
series of resolutions known as the Fairfax Resolves, in which he
advocated a congress of the colonies and suggested non-intercourse with
Great Britain, a policy subsequently adopted by Virginia and later by
the Continental Congress. He was a member of the Virginia Committee of
Safety from August to December 1775, and of the Virginia Convention in
1775 and 1776; and in 1776 he drew up the Virginia Constitution and the
famous Bill of Rights, a radically democratic document which had great
influence on American political institutions. In 1780 he outlined the
plan which was subsequently adopted by Virginia for ceding to the
Federal government her claim to the "back lands," i.e. to territory
north and north-west of the Ohio river. From 1776 to 1788 he represented
Fairfax county in the Virginia Assembly. He was a member of the Virginia
House of Delegates in 1776-1780 and again in 1787-1788, and in 1787 was
a member of the convention that framed the Federal Constitution, and as
one of its ablest debaters took an active part in the work. Particularly
notable was his opposition to the compromises in regard to slavery and
the slave-trade. Indeed, like most of the prominent Virginians of the
time, Mason was strongly in favour of the gradual abolition of slavery.
He objected to the large and indefinite powers given by the completed
Constitution to Congress, so he joined with Patrick Henry in opposing
its ratification in the Virginia Convention (1788). Failing in this he
suggested amendments, the substance of several of which was afterwards
embodied in the present Bill of Rights. Declining an appointment as a
United States Senator from Virginia, he retired to his home, Gunston
Hall (built by him about 1758 and named after the family home in
Staffordshire, England), where he died on the 7th of October 1792. With
James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, Mason carried through the Virginia
legislature measures disestablishing the Episcopal Church and protecting
all forms of worship. In politics he was a radical republican, who
believed that local government should be kept strong and central
government weak; his democratic theories had much influence in Virginia
and other southern and western states.
See Kate Mason Rowland, _Life and Writings of George Mason_ (2 vols.,
New York, 1892).
MASON, GEORGE HEMMING (1818-1872), English painter, was born at Wetley
Abbey, the eldest son of a Staffordshire county gentleman. He was
educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, and studied for the
medical profession for five years under Dr Watt of that city. But all
his thoughts being given to art, he abandoned medicine in 1844 and
travelled for a time on the Continent, finally settling in Rome, where
he remained for some years and sought to make a living as an artist.
During this period he underwent many privations which permanently
affected his health; but he continued to labour assiduously, making
studies of the picturesque scenery that surrounded him, and with hardly
any instruction except that received from Nature and from the Italian
pictures he gradually acquired the painter's skill. At least two
important works are referable to this period: "Ploughing in the
Campagna," shown in the Royal Academy of 1857, and "In the Salt Marshes,
Campagna," exhibited in the following year. After Mason's return from
the continent, in 1858, when he settled at Wetley Abbey, he continued
for a while to paint Italian subjects from studies made during his stay
abroad, and then his art began to touch in a wonderfully tender and
poetic way the peasant life of England, especially of his native
Staffordshire, and the homely landscape in the midst of which that life
was set. The first picture of this class was "Wind on the Wold," and it
was followed--along with much else of admirable quality--by the
painter's three greatest works: The "Evening Hymn" (1868), a band of
Staffordshire mill-girls returning from their work; "Girls dancing by
the Sea" (1869); and the "Harvest Moon" (1872). He left Staffordshire in
1865 and went to live at Hammersmith; and he was elected an associate of
the Royal Academy in 1869. By that time he had fully established his
position as an artist of unusual power and individuality. Mason died on
the 22nd of October 1872. In his work he laboured under the double
disadvantage of feeble and uncertain health, and a want of thorough
art-training, so that his pictures were never produced easily, or
without strenuous and long-continued effort. His art is great in virtue
of the solemn pathos which pervades it, of the dignity and beauty in
rustic life which it reveals, of its keen perception of noble form and
graceful motion, and of rich effects of colour and subdued light. In
_motif_ and treatment it has something in common with the art of Millet
and Jules Breton, as with that of Frederick Walker among Englishmen;
though he had neither the occasional uncouth robustness of Millet nor
the firm actuality of Jules Breton. His pictures "Wind on the Wold" and
"The Cast Shoe" are in the National Gallery of British Art.
MASON, JAMES MURRAY (1798-1871), American political leader, was born in
Fairfax county, Virginia, on the 3rd of November 1798, the grandson of
George Mason (1723-1792). Educated at the university of Pennsylvania and
the college of William and Mary, he was admitted to the bar in 1820. He
was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1826-1827 and
1828-1831, of the state Constitutional Convention of 1829, of the
National House of Representatives (1837-1839), of the United States
Senate from 1847 until July 1861 (when, with other Southern senators he
was formally expelled--he had previously withdrawn), and of the Virginia
Secession Convention in April 1861. Entering politics as a Jacksonian
Democrat, Mason was throughout his career a consistent strict
constructionist, opposing protective tariffs, internal improvements by
the national government, and all attempts to restrict or control the
spread of slavery, which he sincerely believed to be essential to the
social and political welfare of the South. He was the author of the
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and in 1860 was chairman of the Senate
committee which investigated the John Brown raid. After Lincoln's
election as President he was one of the strongest advocates of secession
in Virginia. He was appointed in August 1861 commissioner of the
Confederate States to Great Britain. The British ship "Trent," upon
which he and John Slidell, the commissioner to France, sailed, was
intercepted (Nov. 8, 1861) by a United States ship-of-war (the "San
Jacinto," Captain Charles Wilkes), and the two commissioners were seized
and carried as prisoners to Boston. Great Britain immediately demanded
their release, and war for a time seemed imminent; but owing mainly to
the tactful diplomacy of the prince consort, Lincoln acknowledged that
the seizure of Mason and Slidell was a violation of the rights of Great
Britain as a neutral, and on the 1st of January 1862 released the
commissioners. The incident has become known in history as the "Trent
Affair." Mason at once proceeded to London, where, however, he was
unable to secure official recognition, and his commission to Great
Britain was withdrawn late in 1863. He remained in Europe, spending most
of his time at Paris and holding blank commissions which he was
authorized to fill in at his discretion in case the presence of a
Confederate commissioner should seem desirable at any particular
European court. These commissions, however, he did not use. After the
war he lived for several years in Canada, but returned in 1869 to
Virginia, and on the 28th of April 1871 died at Alexandria.
See _The Public Life and Diplomatic Correspondence of James M. Mason,
with some Personal History_ (Roanoke, Va., 1903), by his daughter,
Virginia Mason; Sir Theodore Martin, _Life of the Prince Consort_.
MASON, SIR JOHN (1503-1566), English diplomatist, was born of humble
parentage at Abingdon in 1503, and was educated at Oxford, where he
became Fellow of All Souls in 1521. He was ordained before 1531. Most of
his early years were spent on the Continent, where he witnessed the
meeting between Henry VIII. and Francis I. at Calais in 1532, and where
he was employed in collecting information for the English government,
gaining in this work the reputation of a capable diplomatist. By his
never-failing caution, moderation and pliancy, Mason succeeded in
keeping himself in favour with four successive sovereigns of the Tudor
monarchy. In 1537 he became secretary to the English ambassador at
Madrid, Sir Thomas Wyat; but when the latter was put on his trial for
treason in 1541 Mason was unmolested, and soon afterwards was appointed
clerk of the privy council, and procured for himself sundry other posts
and privileges. Mason was knighted and made dean of Winchester by Edward
VI. He was one of the commissioners to negotiate the treaty by which
Boulogne was restored to France in 1550, and in the same year he became
English ambassador in Paris, where he helped to arrange the bethrothal
of Edward VI. to the princess Elizabeth of France. He returned to
England at the end of 1551, became clerk of parliament, received
extensive grants of land, and in 1552 was made chancellor of Oxford
University. He was elected member of parliament in the same year. On the
death of Edward VI., he at first joined the party of Northumberland and
the Lady Jane Grey; but quickly perceiving his mistake he took an active
part in procuring the proclamation of Mary as queen. Mason now received
fresh tokens of royal favour, being confirmed in all his secular, though
not in his ecclesiastical, offices; and in 1553 he was appointed English
ambassador at the court of the emperor Charles V., of whose abdication
at Brussels in October 1555 he wrote a vivid account. He took a
prominent share in the administrative business of the government in the
first years of Elizabeth's reign, and largely influenced her foreign
policy until his death, which occurred on the 20th of April 1566. Sir
John Mason married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Isley of Sundridge,
Kent, and widow of Richard Hill. He had no children, and his heir was
Anthony Wyckes, whom he had adopted, and who assumed the name of Mason
and left a large family.
See J. A. Froude, _History of England_ (12 vols., London, 1856-1870);
Charles Wriothesley, _Chronicle of England during the Reigns of the
Tudors_, edited by W. D. Hamilton (Camden Soc., 2 vols., London,
1875); P. F. Tytler, _England under the Reigns of Edward VI. and Mary_
(2 vols., London, 1839); John Strype, _Ecclesiastical Memorials_ (3
vols., Oxford, 1824) and _Memorials of Thomas Cranmer_ (3 vols.,
Oxford, 1848); _Acts of the Privy Council of England_ (new series),
edited by J. R. Dasent, vols. i.-vii.
MASON, JOHN (1586-1635), founder of New Hampshire, U.S.A., was born in
King's Lynn, Norfolk, England. In 1610 he commanded a small naval force
sent by James I. to assist in subduing the Hebrides Islands. From 1615
to 1621 he was governor of the English colony on the north side of
Conception Bay in Newfoundland; he explored the island, made the first
English map of it (published in 1625), and wrote a descriptive tract
entitled _A Briefe Discourse of the Newfoundland_ (Edinburgh, 1620) to
promote the colonization of the island by Scotsmen. Here he was brought
into official relations with Sir Ferdinando Gorges, then a commissioner
to regulate the Newfoundland fisheries. In March 1622 Mason obtained
from the Council for New England, of which Gorges was the most
influential member, a grant of the territory (which he named Mariana)
between the Naumkeag or Salem river and the Merrimac, and in the
following August he and Gorges together received a grant of the region
between the Merrimac and Kennebec rivers, and extending 60 m. inland.
From 1625 to 1629 Mason was engaged as treasurer and paymaster of the
English army in the wars which England was waging against Spain and
France. Towards the close of 1629 Mason and Gorges agreed upon a
division of the territory held jointly by them, and on the 7th of
November 1629 Mason received from the Council a separate grant of the
tract between the Merrimac and the Piscataqua, which he now named New
Hampshire. Thinking that the Piscataqua river had its source in Lake
Champlain, Mason with Gorges and a few other associates secured, on the
17th of November 1629, a grant of a region which was named Laconia
(apparently from the number of lakes it was supposed to contain), and
was described as bordering on Lake Champlain, extending 10 m. east and
south from it and far to the west and north-west, together with 1000
acres to be located along some convenient harbour, presumably near the
mouth of the Piscataqua. In November 1631 Mason and his associates
obtained, under the name of the Pescataway Grant, a tract on both sides
of the Piscataqua river, extending 30 m. inland and including also the
Isles of Shoals. Mason became a member of the Council for New England in
June 1632, and its vice-president in the following November; and in
1635, when the members decided to divide their territory among
themselves and surrender their charter, he was allotted as his share all
the region between the Naumkeag and Piscataqua rivers extending 60 m.
inland, the southern half of the Isles of Shoals, and a ten-thousand
acre tract, called Masonia, on the west side of the Kennebec river. In
October 1635 he was appointed vice-admiral of New England, but he died
early in December, before crossing the Atlantic. He was buried in
Westminster Abbey. Forty-four years after his death New Hampshire was
made a royal province.
See _Captain John Mason, the Founder of New Hampshire_ (Boston, 1887;
published by the Prince Society), which contains a memoir by C. W.
Tuttle and historical papers relating to Mason's career, edited by J.
W. Dean.
MASON, JOHN YOUNG (1799-1859), American political leader and
diplomatist, was born in Greenesville county, Virginia, on the 18th of
April 1799. Graduating at the university of North Carolina in 1816, he
studied law in the famous Litchfield (Connecticut) law school, and in
1819 was admitted to practice in Southampton county, Virginia. He served
in the Virginia house of delegates in 1823-1827, in the state
constitutional convention of 1829-1830, and from 1831 to 1837 in the
National House of Representatives, being chairman of the committee on
foreign affairs in 1835-1836. He was secretary of the navy in President
Tyler's cabinet (1844-1845), and was attorney-general (1845-1846) and
secretary of the navy (1846-1849), succeeding George Bancroft, under
President Polk. He was president of the Virginia constitutional
convention of 1851, and from 1853 until his death at Paris on the 3rd of
October 1859, was United States minister to France. In this capacity he
attracted attention by wearing at the court of Napoleon III. a simple
diplomatic uniform (for this he was rebuked by Secretary of State W. L.
Marcy, who had ordered American ministers to wear a plain civilian
costume), and by joining with James Buchanan and Pierre Soulé, ministers
to Great Britain and Spain respectively, in drawing up (Oct. 1854) the
famous Ostend Manifesto. Hawthorne called him a "fat-brained,
good-hearted, sensible old man"; and in politics he was a typical
Virginian of the old school, a state's rights Democrat, upholding
slavery and hating abolitionism.
MASON, SIR JOSIAH (1795-1881), English pen-manufacturer, was born in
Kidderminster on the 23rd of February 1795, the son of a carpet-weaver.
He began life as a street hawker of cakes, fruits and vegetables. After
trying his hand in his native town at shoemaking, baking, carpentering,
blacksmithing, house-painting and carpet-weaving, he moved in 1814 to
Birmingham. Here he found employment in the gilt-toy trade. In 1824 he
set up on his own account as a manufacturer of split-rings by machinery,
to which he subsequently added the making of steel pens. Owing to the
circumstance of his pens being supplied through James Perry, the London
stationer whose name they bore, he was less well known than Joseph
Gillott and other makers, although he was really the largest producer in
England. In 1874 the business was converted into a limited liability
company. Besides his steel-pen trade Mason carried on for many years the
business of electro-plating, copper-smelting, and india-rubber ring
making, in conjunction with George R. Elkington. Mason was almost
entirely self-educated, having taught himself to write when a
shoemaker's apprentice, and in later life he felt his deficiencies
keenly. It was this which led him in 1860 to establish his great
orphanage at Erdington, near Birmingham. Upon it he expended about
£300,000, and for this munificent endowment he was knighted in 1872. He
had previously given a dispensary to his native town and an almshouse to
Erdington. In 1880 Mason College, since incorporated in the university
of Birmingham, was opened, the total value of the endowment being about
£250,000. Mason died on the 16th of June 1881.
See J. T. Bunce, _Josiah Mason_ (1882).
MASON, LOWELL (1792-1872), American musician, was born at Medfield,
Massachusetts. For some years he led a business life, but was always
studying music; and in 1827, as the result of his work in forming the
collection of church music published in 1821 at Boston by the Handel and
Haydn Society, he moved to Boston and there first became president of
the society and then founder of the Boston Academy of Music (1832). He
published some successful educational books, and was a pioneer of
musical instruction in the public schools, adopted in 1838. He received
the degree of doctor of music from New York University in 1855. He died
at Orange, New Jersey, on the 11th of August 1872.
His son William Mason (1829-1908), an accomplished pianist and
composer, published an interesting volume of reminiscences, _Memoirs
of a Musical Life_, in 1901.
MASON, WILLIAM (1725-1797), English poet, son of William Mason, vicar of
Holy Trinity, Hull, was born on the 12th of February 1725, was educated
at St John's College, Cambridge, and took holy orders. In 1744 he wrote
_Musaeus_, a lament for Pope in imitation of _Lycidas_, and in 1749
through the influence of Thomas Gray he was elected a fellow of
Pembroke College. He became a devoted friend and admirer of Gray, who
addressed him as "Skroddles," and corrected the worst solecisms in his
verses. In 1748 he published _Isis_, a poem directed against the
supposed Jacobitism of the university of Oxford, which provoked Thomas
Warton's _Triumph of Isis_. Mason conceived the ambition of reconciling
modern drama with ancient forms by strict observance of the unities and
the restoration of the chorus. These ideas were exemplified in _Elfrida_
(1752) and _Caractacus_ (1759), two frigid performances no doubt
intended to be read rather than acted, but produced with some
alterations at Covent Garden in 1772 and 1776 respectively. Horace
Walpole described _Caractacus_ as "laboured, uninteresting, and no more
resembling the manners of Britons than of Japanese"; while Gray declared
he had read the manuscript "not with pleasure only, but with emotion."
In 1754 Mason was presented to the rectory of Aston, near Rotherham,
Yorkshire, and in 1757 through the influence of the duke of Devonshire
he became one of the king's chaplains. He also received the prebend of
Holme in York Minster (1756), was made canon residentiary in 1762, and
in 1763 became precentor and prebendary of Driffield. He married in 1764
Mary Sherman, who died three years later. When Gray died in 1771 he made
Mason his literary executor. In the preparation of the _Life and Letters
of Gray_, which appeared in 1774, he had much help from Horace Walpole,
with whom he corresponded regularly until 1784 when Mason opposed Fox's
India Bill, and offended Walpole by thrusting on him political advice
unasked. Twelve years of silence followed, but in the year before his
death the correspondence was renewed on friendly terms. Mason died at
Aston on the 7th of April 1797.
His correspondence with Gray and Walpole shows him to have been a man
of cultivated tastes. He was something of an antiquarian, a good
musician, and an amateur of painting. He is said to have invented an
instrument called the celestina, a modified pianoforte. Gray rewarded
his faithful admiration with good-humoured kindness. He warned him
against confounding Mona with the Isle of Man, or the Goths with the
Celts, corrected his grammar, pointed out his plagiarisms, and laughed
gently at his superficial learning. His powers show to better
advantage in the unacknowledged satirical poems which he produced
under the pseudonym of Malcolm Macgregor. In editing Gray's letters he
took considerable liberties with his originals, and did not print all
that related to himself.
Mason's other works included _Odes_ (1756); _The English Garden_, a
didactic poem in blank verse, the four books of which appeared in
1772, 1777, 1779 and 1782; _An Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers_
(1774); an _Ode to Mr Pinchbeck_ (1776) and an _Epistle to Dr
Shebbeare_ (1777)--all these by "Malcolm Macgregor"; _Essay,
Historical and Critical, of Church Music_ (1795), and a lyrical drama,
_Sappho_ (1797).
His poems were collected in 1764 and 1774, and an edition of his
_Works_ appeared in 1811. His poems with a _Life_ are included in
Alexander Chalmers's _English Poets_. His correspondence with Walpole
was edited by J. Mitford in 1851; and his correspondence with Gray by
the same editor in 1853. See also the standard editions of the letters
of Gray and of Walpole. There is a very pleasant picture of Mason's
character in Southey's _Doctor_ (ch. cxxvi.).
MASON AND DIXON LINE, in America, the boundary line (lat. 39° 43´ 26.3´´
N.) between Maryland and Pennsylvania, U.S.A.; popularly the line
separating "free" states and "slave" states before the Civil War. The
line derives its name from Charles Mason (1730-1787) and Jeremiah Dixon,
two English astronomers, whose survey of it to a point about 244 m. west
of the Delaware between 1763 and 1767[1] marked the close of the
protracted boundary dispute (arising upon the grant of Pennsylvania to
William Penn in 1681) between the Baltimores and Penns, proprietors
respectively of Maryland and Pennsylvania. The dispute arose from the
designation, in the grant to Penn, of the southern boundary of
Pennsylvania mainly as the parallel marking the "beginning of the
fortieth degree of Northerne Latitude," after the northern boundary of
Maryland had been defined as a line "which lieth under the fortieth
degree of north latitude from the equinoctial." The eastern part of the
line as far as Sideling Hill in the western part of the present
Washington county, was originally marked with milestones brought from
England, every fifth of which bore on one side the arms of Baltimore and
on the opposite side those of Penn; but the difficulties in transporting
them to the westward were so great that many of them were not set up.
Owing to the removal of the stone marking the north-east corner of
Maryland, this point was again determined and marked in 1849-1850 by
Lieut.-Colonel J. D. Graham of the U.S. topographical engineers; and as
the western part of the boundary was not marked by stones, and local
disputes arose, the line was again surveyed between 1901 and 1903 under
the direction of a commission appointed by Pennsylvania and Maryland.
The use of the term "Mason and Dixon Line" to designate the boundary
between the free and the slave states (and in general between the
North and the South) dates from the debates in Congress over the
Missouri Compromise in 1819-1820. As so used it may be defined as not
only the Mason and Dixon Line proper, but also the line formed by the
Ohio River from its intersection with the Pennsylvania boundary to its
mouth, thence the eastern, northern and western boundaries of
Missouri, and thence westward the parallel 36° 30´--the line
established by the Missouri Compromise to separate free and slave
territory in the "Louisiana Purchase," except as regards Missouri. It
is to be noted, however, that the Missouri Compromise did not affect
the territory later acquired from Mexico.