Molay.

the Scot's Magazine and to Constable's Edinburgh Magazine, he became a constant contributor in prose and verse to Blackwood's Magazine, which was started about that time. His verse was both comic and serious. Among his clever comic effusions were The Eve of St. Jerry and The Auncient Waggonere. His serious poems had the signature ▲, from which he obtained the literary cognomen of Delta. His connection with Blackwood continued till his death. In 1823 he formed a strong friendship for John Galt, the novelist, who, being suddenly called off to America before finishing his novel The Last of the Lairds, commissioned Moir to write the concluding chapters for him. In 1824 he published the The Legend of Genevieve and other Tales and Poems, comprising selections from his magazine articles, with some original additions. In 1824 he began in Blackwood his novel of The Autobiography of Mansie Wauch, which was continued for nearly three years, and published in a volume. Though urged to remove to the metropolis, where he would have a more lucrative practice and a larger circle of literary friends, he preferred the scenes of his early days and his practice among the poor. His practice was so extensive that for ten successive years he never slept a night out of Musselburgh. In 1829 he published Outlines of the Ancient History of Medicine, being a View of the Healing Art among the Egyptians, Greeks; Romans, and Arabians. In 1832 he greatly exerted himself to check the cholera, and published, as secretary of the board of health, Practical Observations on Malignant Cholera, and Proofs of the Contagion of Malignant Cholera. In 1843 he published Domestic Verses, in which he records with tenderness the loss of his two sons.. In 1846 he was thrown from a carriage and rendered lame for life. In 1851 he delivered a course of six lectures on the poetical literature of the past half century at the Edinburgh philosophical institution, which were afterwards published. In the same year he published Selim, his last contribution to Blackwood's Magazine. His contributions to Blackwood alone number 370. The poems of Moir are graceful and pathetic. A selection of his poetical works in two volumes was published by Thomas Aird with a memoir of the author.

MOIRA, EARL OF. See HASTINGS, FRANCIS RAWDON.

MOIRE, the French name (formerly mohère, and supposed to be taken from the Eng. mohair, which is itself probably of eastern origin) applied to silks figured by the peculiar process called watering. The silks for this purpose must be broad and of a good substantial make; thin and narrow pieces will not do: they are wetted and then folded with particular care to insure the threads of the fabric lying all in the same direction, and not crossing each other except as in the usual way of the web and the warp. The folded pieces of silk are then submitted to an enormous pressure, generally in a hydraulic machine. By this pressure the air is slowly expelled, and in escaping draws the moisture into curious waved lines, which leave the permanent marking called watering. The finest kinds of watered silks are known as moirés antiques.-The same process has been applied to woolen fabrics called moreen, which is only an alteration of the word moire.

MOIREE MÉTALLIQUE, a French term applied to tin-plate upon which a peculiar figuring like that caused by frost on windows is produced by dipping plates, in a heated state, into nitro-muriatic acid, and then washing with water to remove the acid. When dry the plates are varnished or lacquered, and have a pretty effect. The cheapness and ease of the process have made it very common for inferior articles in tin.

MOISSAC, a t. of France, in the department of Tarn-et-Garonne, on the river Tarn, 15 m. n. w. of Montauban. The church of St. Pierre dates from the year 1100, and contains some excellent carvings and curious fantastic sculptures. Moissac is the center of an important trade in grain. Pop. '76, 5,675.

MOKAN'NA, or ATHA-BEN-HAKEM.

See MOHAMMEDAN SECTS.

MO'LA, a city and sea-port of the Italian province of Bari, delightfully situated among gardens and olive groves on the Adriatic, 13 m. from Bari. It contains fine churches and other edifices, and excellent streets. From all accounts it seems to have exceedingly little trade of any kind. Pop. 12,181.

MOLASSE'. See MOLLASSE.

MOLASSES. See SUGAR.

MOLAY, JACQUES DE, 1244-1314; b. Burgundy; of the families of Longvic and Raon. Nothing is known of his early life but that he was admitted to the order of knights templars at Baune, in the diocese of Autun, and was promoted to be grandmaster about 1298. This was in the reign of Philip IV., who was endeavoring to replace the feudal system in France by a powerful monarchy, and who viewed with fear and distrust the growing influence of the knights templars, The success which had characterized the crusades, and which had been largely the work of this and the other Christian orders, had now deserted them. Syria had again fallen a prey to the Mohammedans, and the knights templars and hospitalers had retired to Cyprus, whence they sent forth a cry for help to the Catholic hierarchy and the Christian powers throughout

Europe. But Europe was itself torn by the dissensions of petty potentates. De Molay, however, determined to effect by strategy what he could not control by force; and, taking advantage of the movement of the Mogul Tartars against Syria and Egypt, ingra tiated himself with the grand khan, and actually received command of one wing of his army, with which he invaded Syria in the spring of 1299. With the troops under his control he recovered Jerusalem from the infidels, and so awakened enthusiasm that a new crusade was urged upon the pope and the kings of France and England. But the unexpected success which had been achieved by Tartar aid was short-lived. In the following year the army of the grand khan was destroyed and Jerusalem again lost to the Christians. The templars returned to the island of Tortosa near Tripoli, with Jacques de Molay still at their head. They were attacked and defeated in 1302, and obliged to flee to Cyprus. It was now that Philip IV. undertook to carry out the proj ect which he had formed to destroy the order whose supremacy he feared. The order was at this time powerful, well-organized-comprising most of the great nobles of Europe --and wealthy to a degree to excite the cupidity of so greedy a monarch as Philip. In the grasp of a mind so broad and a temperament so energetic as those of De Molay, its possible future might well occasion dread to the ambitious and envious. With a design to impose upon the credulity of De Molay, Philip pretended to be anxious for a new crusade, and at his instigation Clement V. called the grand-masters of the templars and hospitalers to Europe. The call was answered by De Molay, among the rest, who appeared in Paris in Aug., 1306, accompanied by a chosen band of distinguished knights of the order, and loaded with treasure. He made a triumphal entry into the capital, a fact which did not tend to allay the suspicions or alter the determination of the king, though he received his visitors with due hospitality. Repairing to Poictiers to render his allegiance to the pope, De Molay took the opportunity to ask an investigation of sinister rumors which had been spread abroad by the enemies of the order. The pope, under the influence of Philip, directed that such an investigation should be undertaken; when the latter, assuming the order to be permission for active proceedings against the order, procured the arrest of every templar in France, and Oct. 13, 1307, Jacques de Molay was seized in the house of the temple and summoned before the inquisition. Although the pope was indignant at this liberty on the part of Philip, and took action to suspend the power of the inquisition in the premises, the king persisted in his determination, and in May, 1310, caused 54 of the templars to be burned at the stake. De Molay was now put under examination by a papal commission, and was condemned to death. He was dragged to the stake, loaded with fetters, "a feeble old man, bent and whitened by age and captivity," and died protesting to the end the innocence of the order of which he was the last grand-master.

MOLD (anciently Monte Alto; Welsh, Wyddgrug), a parliamentary borough in the county of Flint, situated on the Alun, 12 m. w.s. w. of Chester. Though Flint is the county town, the assizes and quarter-sessions for the county are held here. The town possesses a good market, a fine old church, and several dissenting chapels. It is connected with England by a branch of the Chester and Holyhead railway. The neighborhood abounds with mineral wealth, coal and lead being the principal produce; it has also numerous interesting relics of antiquity-e. g., so-called Druidic circles, Roman roads and encampments, Saxon earthworks, an eminence called Bryn Beili (formerly surmounted by a castle), and a castellated building known as the tower of Rheinallt ab Gruffydd, the two latter having been scenes of frequent contentions between the English and Welsh. Many old families have mansions in the neighborhood, whose pleasing variety of scenery renders it attractive. Pop. of parliamentary borough (1881), 4,320.

MOLDAU (Bohemian, Vitava), the chief river of Bohemia, and an important tributary of the Elbe, rises in the Böhmerwald mountains, on the s. w. frontier, at an elevation of 3,750 ft. above the level of the sea, and flows s.e, to Hohenfurth, where it bends northward, and pursues that direction to its confluence with the Elbe opposite Melnik, after a course of 276 miles. Its course to the point of confluence is longer than that of the Elbe, and the navigation of that river is greatly facilitated by the body of water which it contributes. It receives on the left, the Wotawa and the Beraun; and on the right, the Luschnitz and the Sazawa. The chief towns on its banks are Krumau, Budweis, and Prague. It becomes navigable from Budweis.

MOLDA VIA AND WALLA CHIA, two states forming the so-called Danubian Principal ities, which, since Dec. 23, 1861, have been united under one prince and one administration, and officially bear the single name of ROUMANIA or RUMANIA. Formerly subject to the Porte, Roumania proclaimed its own absolute independence in 1877, and had its claim recognized at the Berlin Congress of 1878. It was proclaimed a kingdom in 1881. Roumania obtained the Dobrudscha (q.v.) in 1878, and Roumanian Bessarabia (q.v.) was ceded to Russia.

1. MOLDAVIA (Ger. Moldau, Turk. Bogdan) is bounded on the n. and e. by Russia, on the s. by Wallachia, and on the w. by Hungary. Area, since the cession of Bessarabia, about 15,000 sq. miles. The country forms, geographically, part of the great plain of south Russia, except towards the w., where there are spurs from the Carpathians. It is watered by the Pruth, the Sereth, and the Danube, and is almost everywhere fertile, pro

Moldavia.

ducing considerable quantities of grain, fruit, and wine. But the riches of the country consist mainly in its cattle and horses, of which immense numbers are reared on its splendid and far-stretching pastures; swine and sheep are also numerous; and the rearing of bees, owing to the multitude of lime-trees, is extensively carried on. The great plagues of the land are locusts and earthquakes. Minerals and precious metals are said to be abundant, but they have not as yet been worked. There are only a few salt-pits near Okna, in the Carpathian mountains. Trade is almost exclusively in the hands of the numerous Jews, Germans, Greeks, and Russians who have settled in the country. The capital of Moldavia is Jassy (q.v.); but the great center of trade is Galacz (q.v.), where, of late, several British merchants have established houses. The principal exports are grain, wool, lambs' skins, hides, feathers, maize, tar, tallow, honey, leeches, cattle, and salt (in blocks); the imports are chiefly the manufactured products of western Europe. Moldavia is divided into 13 districts, each of which has a prefect or governor, a receivergeneral of taxes, and a civil tribunal consisting of a president and two other judges.

2. WALLACHIA, the larger of the united Danubian principalities, is bounded on the n. by the Austrian empire and Moldavia, on the e. and s. by the Danube, and on the w. by the Austrian empire and the Danube. Length from the western frontier to cape Kaliakra on the Black sea, 305 m.; greatest breadth, 130 m.; area, 27,500 sq. miles. The greater part of Wallachia is quite flat; but in the n., where it borders on Hungary and Transylvania, it gradually rises up into a great mountain-wall, impassable save in five places. It is destitute of wood throughout almost its whole extent; and especially along the banks of the Danube, is covered with marshy swamps, miles upon miles in breadth. The principal river flowing through the country is the Aluta, which joins the Danube at Nikopol. The climate is extreme: the summer heats are intense; while in winter, the land lies under deep snow for four months. The principal products are corn, maize, millet, wine, flax, tobacco, and olive-oil. The vast treeless heaths afford sustenance to great herds of cattle, sheep, and horses. As in Moldavia, agriculture is an important branch of industry; and the swampy districts of the south are haunted by immense numbers of wild water-fowl. In minerals-especially gold, silver, copper, and rock-saltthe soil is rich, but only the last of these is extensively worked. Bucharest is the capital of Wallachia and of Roumania. The pop. of Roumania, though the loss of Bessarabia was not balanced by the gain of the Dobrudscha, was still estimated in 1880 at 5.376,000,

Administration.-The king of Roumania-till of late styled by the Roumans domnu or domnitor; officially called by the sublime porte woiwod (prince); by the Turks generally, ijauer-effendi (lord of the unbelievers); and by the Russians, hospodar or gospodarj (prince) is now the head of an independent, constitutional and hereditary monarchy. By the treaty of Paris (1856) and the convention (1858), Moldavia and Wallachia were politically united under one prince, with a special ministry for each country, two elective assemblies, and a central commission, which had its seat at Fokshani. But in Nov., 1861, the sultan sanctioned the admistrative union of the two states; and in the following month it was publicly proclaimed at Bucharest and Jassy. The first ruler of Roumania, prince Alexander John Couza, was forced to abdicate in 1866, when Karl I., son of the prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was chosen his successor. At the same time a new and more popular constitution was adopted by a constitutent assembly elected by universal suffrage. The legislative power is vested in two houses, a senate and a chamber of deputies. The former consists of 76 and the latter of 157 members, of whom 82 are for Wallachia and 75 for Moldavia. The members of both houses are chosen by indirect election-i. e., the first voters nominate electors, who choose the members. All citizens who have reached their 25th year, and who can read and write, are voters in the first instance, and every Rouman who possesses a small yearly income is eligible for a seat in parliament. The prince has a suspensive veto over all laws passed by both chambers. He is also chief of the executive, which is composed of a council of seven ministers, heads of the departments of the interior, of foreign affairs, of war, of finance, of justice, of commerce and agriculture, and of religion and public instruction. Judges are removable at the pleasure of the superior authorities. The legal codes are founded upon the civil law and the customs of the principalities; but though the system of jurisprudence has been much amended, many reforms remain to be effected, especially in the administration of the laws, which is said to be most corrupt.

Religion. The established religion of Roumania is that of the Greek church, to which nearly the whole population belong; but all forms of Christianity are tolerated, and their professors enjoy equal political rights. At the head of the Greek clergy stand the metropolitan archbishops of Moldavia and Wallachia, the latter of whom is primate of Roumania. Every bishop is assisted by a council of clergy, and has a seminary for priests; the superintendent of the preaching clergy is the proto-papa of the diocese. The ecclesiastical wealth of the country was formerly very great, but the increased expenditure that followed the union of the two states rendered a scheme of spoliation the only means left to the government to extricate itself from its difficulties-in a word, the convent-properties were wrested from the hands of the Greek monks, and placed under the administration of the state. It had been the fashion to establish such convents in Turkey as supports to the orthodox faith, and the institutions in the principality itself were richly endowed in land and other ways: it was resolved to apply the revenues

to the relief of national needs, such as schools, hospitals, the support of the poor, etc., and to give only the overplus to the clergy. This has considerably increased the revenue of the state. The administration, however, is now put upon a better footing.

Education.-There are upwards of 2,000 elementary schools, besides normal schools, gymnasia, private schools, etc., in all about 2,500 schools. There are two universitles. Education is gratuitous and compulsory. There are numerous French boarding-schools, and French is now the language of the educated circles, especially ladies (as Greek used to be), but the state language and the proper national tongue is the Romanic.

Army.—The military forces are divided thus: (1) the active army, divided into the permanent army and the territorial army, with the reserve of each; (2) the militia; (3) the civic guard of the towns, and the levée en masse of the country districts. All Roumanians are bound to serve in the active army and its reserve 8 years. It depends on the lot in which army one shall serve. The militia is composed of all those who, for legal reasons, have not gone into the active army, and of those who have served in the active army and the reserve, but are not yet 36 years of age. The permanent (peace) army is about 20,000 men; in war, 140,000 (if needed). The navy consists of 4 steamers and 6 small gunboats.

Commerce. The total value of the imports of Roumania from the United Kingdom in 1884 amounted to about £1,402,441; and of the exports, about £3,316,442. The principal article of export is grain, especially wheat and maize. Roumanian industry has largely profited by the construction in recent years of several lines of railway. In 1869 the first line, 42 English miles in length, was opened from Bucharest to Giurgevo on the Danube, and in subsequent years, a network of railways was completed, connecting the capital with western Europe through the towns of Pivesti, Buzeo, Braila, Tekutch, Roman, and Suceava, and from thence to Lemberg in Austria. In 1881 there were 890 m. of railroad. In 1884 there were also 5106 miles of telegraph in the principalities. The estimated revenue in 1884 was £5,257,823, just balanced by the expenditure; the public debt was about £56,563,212.

Race, Language, and Literature. —The great majority of the inhabitants are known in western Europe as Wallachs, but they call themselves Romëni. The Wallachs, however, are not confined to the principalities, but inhabit also the southern part of Bukowina, the greater part of Transylvania, eastern Hungary, a part of the Benat, Bessarabia, some districts in Podolia and Kherson, and portions of eastern Servia. They are also found in Macedonia, Albany, and Thessaly. They are a mixed race, produced by the amalgamation of the emperor Trajan's Roman colonists with the original Dacian population, and subsequently modified by Grecian, Gothic, Slavic and Turkish elements. This mixture is seen in their language, one-half of the words of which are Latin (the Dacian has disappeared), while the remaining fourth is made up of words from the other four languages Roumanian literature is rich in popular songs, a collection of which was translated into German by the Queen of R., 1881; since the 16th c. many works in prose have appeared, and of late years two political journals have been established. For grammatical information, see Diez, Grammatik der Romanischen Sprachen (4th ed., 1877); the Dictionariul (1873) and the Glossaries of the Bucharest academy; and the admirable Dictionnaire d'Etymologie Daco-Romane (1880), by A. de Cihac.

Social Condition.-Very recent statistics on this point are not attainable. In Moldavia there are rather less, in Wallachia considerably more than 3,000 bojars, besides whom there is an extensive inferior nobility. In Wallachia every twenty-eighth man is a nobleman; every one hundred and thirty-third a merchant; and in the capital every twentieth is a merchant. The free peasants, or yeomen, called Reseschs, are not numerous-in all Wallachia there are under 5.000. Gypsy communities are an important element in the population; upwards of 150,000 of this mysterious race are or were serfs belonging to the rich bojars and the monasteries. In 1844 about 30,000 were emancipated, and settled in colonies in different parts of the land; they call themselves Romnitschel or Romni. The common people are on the whole good-humored, frugal, sober, and cleanly; murder and larceny are almost unknown. Their dwellings, however, are, as may be supposed, of the most wretched description; composed chiefly of interlaced willow-withes, covered with mud, cane, and straw.

History.-In ancient times Moldavia and Wallachia formed an important part of Dacia (q.v.), and the two countries have in general experienced the same vicissitudes At the period of the migration of nations, and in the following centuries they were the scene of the struggles between the Gothic, Hunnic, Bulgarian, and Slavic races-the Avari, Chazars, Petschenegi, Uzi, and Magyars, who alternately ruled or were expelled from the country. These peoples all left some traces (more or less) of themselves among the Romanized Dacian inhabitants, and thus helped to form that composite people, the modern Wallachs, who, in the 11th c., were converted to the Christianity of the Eastern or Greek church. Their incursions, however, frightfully devastated the country. In the 11th c., the Kumans, a Turkish race, established in Moldavia a kingdom of their own. Two centuries later the great storm of Mongols broke over the land. It now fell into the hands of the Nogai Tartars, who left it utterly wasted, so that only in the forests and mountains was any trace left of the native Wallachian population. In the latter half of the 13th c., a petty Wallach chief of Transylvania, Radu Negru of Fogarasch, entered

Wallachia, took possession of a portion of the country, divided it among his bojars (noble followers), founded a senate of 12 members, and an elective monarchy; and gradually conquered the whole of Wallachia. Rather less than a century later (1354), a similar attempt, also successful, was made by a Wallach chief of the Hungarian Marmarosh, of the name of Bogdan, to re-people Moldavia. In the beginning of the 16th c., both principalities placed themselves under the protection of the Porte, and gradually the bojars lost the right of electing their own ruler, whose office was bought in Constantinople. After 1711 the Turks governed the countries by Fanariot princes (see FANARIOTS), who in reality only farmed the revenues, enriched themselves, and impoverished the land. In 1802 the Russians wrested from Turkey the right of surveillance over the principalities. A great number of nobles-through family marriages with the Fanariots-were now of Greek descent, the court-tongue was Greek, and the religious and political sympathies of the country were the same. Hence the effort of the principalities in 1821 to emancipate themselves from Turkish authority, which was only the prelude to the greater and more successful struggle in Greece itself. In 1822 Russia forced Turkey to choose the princes or hospodars of Wallachia and Moldavia from natives, and not from the corrupt Greeks of Constantinople; and after 1829, to allow them to hold their dignity for life. The principalities, united under one ruler in 1858, were brought under one administration in 1861, and proclaimed a kingdom, 1881. See ROMANIA.

MOLE, Talpa, a genus of quadrupeds of the order insectivora, and family talpida. All the talpida live chiefly underground, and their structure is adapted to their mode of life. In their general form, the character of their fur, the shortness of their limbs, the great muscular strength of the fore-parts, and great breadth of the fore-paws, the elongated head, the elongated and flexible snout, the smallness of the eyes, and the complete concealment of the ears, they all resemble the COMMON MOLE (T. Europea), with which also they pretty nearly agree in the nature of their food, their mode of seeking it, their dentition, and the shortness of their alimentary canal.-The common mole is abundant in most parts of Europe, except the utmost n. and the utmost south. In Britain it is very plentiful, except in the n. of Scotland; but is not found in Ireland nor in some of the Scottish islands. Instead of its ordinary uniform black color, it is occasionally found yellowish white, or gray, and even orange. Its silky or velvety fur lies smoothly in every direc tion, the short hairs growing perpendicularly from the skin; a peculiarity which preserves it clean as the animal moves either backwards or forwards in its subterranean galleries. The fore-paws are not only very broad, but are turned outwards, for the better throwing back of the earth in burrowing. They are terminated by five long and strong claws. The phalangeal bones are remarkable for breadth and an elongated bone of the carpus gives additional strength to the lower edge of the paw. The two bones of the forearm are fastened together. The shoulder-blades and the clavicles are very large: and the sternum has an elevated ridge as in birds and bats, for the attachment of powerful muscles. The muscles which move the head are also very powerful, and the cervical ligament is even strengthened by a peculiar bone; the mole making much use of its flexible snout in burrowing. The hinder limbs are comparatively feeble, and the feet small, with five toes. The eyes are black and very small, capable of being partially retracted and exserted. The senses of hearing, taste, and smell are very strongly developed in the mole. The cutting-teeth are very small and sharp; the canines long and sharp; the true molars broad, with many sharp conical elevations. This dentition adapts the animal for feeding not only on worms and grubs, but also on frogs, birds, and small quadrupeds, which accordingly are its occasional prey, although earthworms are its chief food. The mole is an excessively voracious animal; digestion is rapid, and no long interval can be endured between meals, hunger soon ending in death. When pressed by hunger, it will attack and devour even one of its own kind; and its practice is immediately to tear open the belly of any bird or quadruped which it has killed, and inserting its head, to satiate itself with the blood. În eating earthworms, it skins them with remarkable dexterity. In quest of them, it works its way underground, throwing up the earth in mole-hills; more rarely in the fine nights of summer it seeks for them on the surface of the ground, when it is itself apt to be picked up by an owl equally in want of food. The habitation of the mole is of very remarkable construction; a hillock of earth larger than an ordinary mole-hill, and containing two circular galleries, one above the other, with five connecting passages, and a central chamber which has access to the upper gallery by three passages; whilst about nine passages lead away from the lower gallery in different directions. The end of a passage entering a gallery on one side is never opposite to the end of a passage entering on the other. To afford all facility of escape in case of any alarm, a passage leads at first downwards from the central chamber, and then upwards again till it joins one of the high roads which the mole keeps always open, which are formed by pressing the earth till it becomes smooth and compact, and are not marked by any mole-hills thrown up, and which not only serve for escape when necessary, but lead to those parts of the creature's appropriated domain where the ordinary mining for worms is to be prosecuted. The nest in which the female mole produces her young is not this habitation, but is formed generally under a mole-hill rather larger than usual, where two or three runs meet, and is lined with leaves and other warm materials. The mole breeds both in spring and autumn, and generally produces four or five young at a birth. The attachment of the parent moles seems to be strong, but transitory.