MINNESOTA (1,302), one of the United States of America; lies between the Dakotas on the W. and Wisconsin on the E., Canada on the N., and Iowa on the S., round the upper waters of the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, and the Red River of the North; the State is largely prairie, with hundreds of lakes, the largest Red Lake, and is chiefly a wheat-producing area; there are pine forests in the N., iron mines, slate and granite quarries; the climate is dry, equable, and bracing; education is good; the State university is at Minneapolis; the capital is ST. PAUL (133), where the Mississippi is still navigable, a fine city, founded in 1840, the centre of the grocery and dry-goods trade; the largest city is Minneapolis (203), which has great lumber and flour mills; Duluth (33) has a magnificent harbour and good shipping trade.

MINORCA (34), the second of the Balearic Isles, hilly, with stalactite caves and rocky coast; is less fertile than Majorca, from which it is 25 m. distant NE.; it produces oil, wine, and fruits, and makes boots and shoes, but under Spanish misrule is not prosperous; the capital Mahon (17), in the SE., is strongly fortified, and has a good harbour.

MINOS, an ancient king of Crete, celebrated for his administration of justice; was fabled to have been appointed, along with AEacus and Rhadamanthus, one of the judges of the dead on their descent into the nether world.

MINOTAUR, in the Greek mythology a monster, half-man half-bull with a bull’s head, confined in the Labyrinth of Crete, fed by the annual tribute of seven youths and seven maidens of Athenian birth, till he was slain by Theseus with the help of ARIADNE (q. v.).

MINSTRELS, a body of men who during the Middle Ages wandered from place to place, especially from court to court, singing their own compositions to the harp for accompaniment.

MINTO, EARL OF, Governor-General of India; was bred to the bar, served in Parliament and as ambassador, went out to India in 1806, consolidated the British power, captured Java, and opened diplomatic relations with powers around (17501814).

MIRABEAU, GABRIEL HONORE RIQUETTI, COMTE DE, son of the succeeding, born at the mansion-house of Bignon; was a man of massive intellect and strong physical frame, who came to the front in the French Revolution; being expelled from his order by the noblesse of Provence, he ingratiated himself with the Third Estate, and was elected commons-deputy of Aix to the States-General in 1789, where he became, as the incarnation of the whole movement, the ruling spirit of the hour, and gave proof, if he had lived, of being able to change the whole course of the Revolution, for he was already in communication with the court and in hopes of gaining it over to accept the inevitable, when he sickened and died, to the consternation of the entire people, whose affection and confidence he had won (1749-1791).  See CARLYLE’S “FRENCH REVOLUTION” and his Essay in his “MISCELLANIES.”