MOSES, the great Hebrew law-giver, under whose leadership the Jews achieved their emancipation from the bondage of Egypt, and began to assert themselves as an independent people among the nations of the earth; in requiring of the people the fear of God and the observance of His commandments, he laid the national life on a sure basis, and he was succeeded by a race of prophets who from age to age reminded the people that in regard or disregard for what he required of them depended their prosperity or their ruin as a nation, of which from their extreme obduracy they had again and again to be admonished.

MOSHEIM, a Protestant Church historian, born at Luebeck, was professor at Goettingen; his principal work a History of the Church, written in Latin, and translated into English and other languages (1694-1755).

MOSS-TROOPERS, maurauders who formerly raided the moss-grown borderland of England and Scotland.

MOTHERWELL, WILLIAM, Scottish poet, born in Glasgow, educated in Edinburgh; entered a lawyer’s office in Paisley in 1811 and became Sheriff-Clerk Depute of Renfrewshire 1818; he was editor of the Paisley Advertiser in 1828, and of the Glasgow Courier in 1830; he wrote biographical notices of local poets, and edited “Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern,” in 1827; but his own fame was established by “Poems, Narrative and Lyrical,” 1832, the gem of the collection being “Jeanie Morison”; he died in Glasgow (1797-1835).

MOTLEY, JOHN LOTHROP, historian and diplomatist, born in Massachusetts; commenced his literary career as a novelist, but soon turned all his thoughts to the study of history; spent years in the study of Dutch history; wrote the “History of the Dutch Republic,” which was published in 1856, the “History of the United Netherlands,” publishing the first part in 1860 and the second in 1868, and the “Life and Death of John Barnevelde” in 1874; was appointed the United States minister at Vienna in 1861, and at St. James’s in 1869; he ranks high as a historian, being both faithful and graphic (1814-1877).

MOTOR CAR, a vehicle propelled by petroleum, electricity, &c.

MOUNTAIN, THE, the name given to the Jacobins, or the extreme democratic party, at the French Revolution, from their occupying the highest benches in the hall of the National Convention, and included such men as Marat, Danton, Robespierre, and the men of the Reign of Terror.

MOVABLE FEASTS, festivals of the Church, the date of which varies with the date of Easter.

MOZAMBIQUE (1,000), the general name for Portuguese East Africa, lies between Cape Delgado and Delagoa Bay on the mainland, opposite Madagascar; the Rovuma River separates it from German territory in the N.; in the S. it touches British Maputaland, while inland it borders on British Central and South Africa and the Transvaal; the Zambesi divides it into two; the coast is low and wet, inland are richly wooded plateaux; the soil is fertile, and minerals abound, but the government is bad, and industry does not develop; 52 miles of railway connect Lorenzo Marques with the Transvaal; other chief towns are Quilimane (6), and the capital MOZAMBIQUE (7), on an island.