The Nuttall Encyclopaedia eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 2,685 pages of information about The Nuttall Encyclopaedia.

The Nuttall Encyclopaedia eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 2,685 pages of information about The Nuttall Encyclopaedia.

MAXWELL, SIR WILLIAM STIRLING, of Keir, Perthshire, a man of refined scholarship; travelled in Italy and Spain; wrote on subjects connected with the history and the artists of Spain (1818-1878).

MAY, the fifth month of the year, so called from a Sanskrit word signifying to grow, as being the shooting or growing month.

MAY, ISLE OF, island at the mouth of the Firth of Forth, 51/2 m.  SE. of Crail on the Fife coast; has a lighthouse with an electric light, flashing out at intervals to a distance of 22 nautical miles.

MAY, SIR THOMAS ERSKINE, English barrister; became Clerk of the House of Commons in 1871; wrote a parliamentary text-book, “Democracy in Europe,” and a “Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George III.,” in continuation of the works of Hallam and Stubbs (1815-1886).

MAYER, JULIUS ROBERT VON, German physicist, born in Heilbronn; made a special study of the phenomena of heat, established the numerical relation between heat and work, and propounded the theory of the production and maintenance of the sun’s temperature; he had a controversy as to the priority of his discoveries with Joule, who claimed to have anticipated them (1814-1878).

MAYHEW, HENRY, litterateur and first editor of Punch, born in London, and articled to his father, a solicitor; chose journalism as a profession, and in conjunction with Gilbert a Beckett started The Thief in 1832, the first of the “Bits” type of papers; he joined the first Punch staff in 1841, in which year his farce “The Wandering Minstrel” was produced; collaborating with his brother Augustus, he wrote “Whom to Marry” and many other novels between 1847 and 1855, thereafter works on various subjects; his principal book, “London Labour and the London Poor,” appeared in 1851 (1812-1887).

MAYNOOTH, village in co.  Kildare, 15 m.  W. of Dublin; is the seat of a Roman Catholic seminary founded by the Irish Parliament in 1795 on the abolition of the French colleges during the Revolution; an annual grant of L9000 was made, increased to L26,000 in 1846, but commuted in 1869 for a sum of L1,100,000, when State connection ceased; the college trains 500 students for the priesthood.

MAYO (245), maritime county in Counaught, west of Ireland, between Sligo and Galway; has many indentations, the largest Broadhaven, Blacksod, and Clew Bays, and islands Achil and Clare, with a remarkable peninsula The Mullet; mountainous in the W., the E. is more level, and has Lough Conn and the Moy River; much of the county is barren and bog, but crops of cereals and potatoes are raised; cattle are reared on pasture lands; there are valuable slate quarries and manganese mines; Castlebar (4), in the centre, is the county town; Westport (4), on Clew Bay, has some shipping.

MAYO, RICHARD SOUTHWARK BOURKE, EARL OF, statesman, born and educated in Dublin; entered Parliament 1847, and was Chief Secretary for Ireland in Conservative Governments 1852, 1858, and 1866, opposing Gladstone’s Irish Church resolutions; in 1868 he succeeded Lord Lawrence as Viceroy of India, in which office he proved himself a prudent statesman, a sound financier, and a just and wise administrator; he was murdered by a fanatic in the Andaman Islands, and universally mourned (1822-1872).

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