MABCY. 49 MABE CLAUSUM. and after a service of six years as Comptroller of tile .Stale, lie was made an associate justice of the Xew Vork .Supreme C'uurt in 1829. In 1831 he was elected Senator of the United States by the Demo- cratic Partj', but resigned the office u])on being chosen tiovernor of Xcw York in 1832. In the iSetiate ho 'served as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and gained distinction by his defense of Martin 'an Buren against the attacks of Henry Claj'. In the course of a speech on the question of ap]iointnient to office, he upheld the right of the President to bestow the offices upon his political supporters, sijying, '"We can see nothing wrong in the ma.xim that to the victors belong the spoils," thus associating his name in history with the spoils system. He served as Governor for three terms, and was nominated for a fourth term in 1838, but was defeated by William H. Seward (q.v.). He was appointed a commissioner on claims against the ilexican Government in the same year, and served in that capacity until 1842. In 1845 he became the Secretary of Var in President Polk's Cabinet. His ability in this position was severely tested by the Mexican ar. In the Presidential campaign of 1848 he supported General Cass. The last and most im- ])ortant public station in which he served was that of Secretary of State during Pierce's admin- istration (1853-57). Among the foreign compli- cations or treaties which demanded action on his part in this capacity were the settling of the ilexican boundary, the Canadian reciprocity treaty. Commodore Perry's negotiations with Japan, the British fishery dispute, the Ostend Con- ference, and the so-called 'Koszta Afl'air' (q.v.), which added much to his popularity. In these and in other matters Marcy successfully defended the interests of his country, and displayed the qualities of a trained statesman and accomplished diplomat. One of his notable diplomatic papers was his instructions to the American ministers abroad to appear at Court in the simple dress of an American citizen when this could be done without detriment to the interests of the United States. Marcy's death occurred at Ballston Spa, X. Y., but a few months after the expiration of his term of office. He is entitled to high rank as a statesman, while as a shrewd politician he was at his time almost unsurpassed. A short and incomplete biography was printed in the Lives nf the Governors of yew York, bv .Jenkins (Au- burn, 1851). MARDI GRAS, mar'de' gra'. See Cabnival. MABDIN, miir-den'. The capital of a san- Jak in the Vilayet of Diarbekir, in Xorthern Mesopotamia, Asiatic Turkey (ilap: Turkey in Asia, J 4). It is strikingly situated on the steep slopes of a conical hill, crowned by the ruins of an old castle. It has a number of mosques, bazaars, and baths, as well as Chris- tian churches and monasteries, and is the seat of an important American mission with a church and a school. Population, about 15.000, of whom over one-half are ^Moslem Kurds; the rest are Christians of various Eastern sects. MABDO'NITJS (Lat., from Gk. MapMvto^, Murdonios, from OPers, Marduniya) . A Persian general, son of Gobryas, and son-in-law of Darius Hystaspes. In B.C. 492 he commanded an expedi- tion sent out by Darius to punish the Eretrians and Athenians for the aid they had given to the lonians. Near Jlount Athos. however, his lleet was destroyed by a storm, and when, shortly afterwards, his land forces were cut to pieces, he letuiiied to Asia, and was relieved of his com- mand by Darius. On the accession of Xerxes he was restored to favor, and was appointed one of the generals of the expedition against Greece. After the battle of Salamis (B.C. 480), he was left by Xerxes with 300,000 men to conquer Greece. In the following year, B.C. 479, he was defeated and probably slain in the battle of Platsa, by the Greeks under Pausanias. (Herodo- tus, vi. 43-45, 94 ; vii. 5, 9, 82 ; viii. 100 et seq., 113 et seq., l:i3-44; ix, 1-4, 12-15, 38-65.) MAB'DUK. See Merodacii. MARE AU DIABLE, miir 6 de'ilT)!', La ( the devil's pool). A romance by George Sand (1846). The story of a young farmer who seeks another wife for the sake of his children, and finds her in a young girl who accompanies him part way on his visit to a rich widow recom- mended to him as a suitable spouse. The story is written with much charm and naturalness. IVTAR^CHAL, ma'ra'shal', PiERRE Sylvain (1750-1803). A French atheistical writer, born in Paris. He studied law, but became sub-libra- rian at the Coll&ge Mazarin. and held that position until 1784. His parody on the Psalms (1784) caused his dismissal, and four years afterwards his Almaitach des }wn7ictes gens, a sort of cal- endar, in which the names of celebrated men wei-e substituted for those of saints, earned him four months in prison. His other works include: Les voi/ages de Pytliagore (1799) and a Diction- naire des athees nnciens et modernes (1800), in which he was assisted by Lalande, the astrono- mer. MABE CLAUSUM, ma'rg kla'stim or mii'rj klou'siim (Lat., closed sea), A sea or portion of a sea under the jurisdiction of one nation as dis- tinguished from the liigli or open sea ( mare lihc- iiini]. The two terms were used in contra,dis- tinction by Grotius and Selden in the seventeenth century as the titles of their respective works, the former attacking the pretensions of Spain
- uid Portugal to universal sovereignt}-, the latter
in his reply (J/are Clausum) defending England's claim to control over her adjacent waters. Though as a doctrine of international law mare clausum has practically disappeared, it formed the text for the controversy finally deter- mining the modern principles of maritime territo- rial jurisdiction. 'The conditions of the ancient world rendered the sea "open to all for depreda- tion;" but during the Middle Ages the mari- time [lowers of Europe asserted a claim to sov- ereignty over those portions of the high seas ad- jacent to their territories or by any assumption under their control. Thus England claimed do- minion over the Channel. Xorth Sea. the seas westward from Ireland, and more vaguely the Bay of Biscay and the ocean north of .Scotland. Denmark and Sweden held the Baltic jointly, and the former disputed England's pretensions to the Icelandic fisheries, while Venice enforced strict sovereignty over the Adriatic. This claim was not deemed to carry with it the right of ex- cluding the ships of other nations from these waters, and was supposed to involve the duty of keeping the seas free from pirates, though under the pretext of providing funds for this purpose it was sought to impose tolls on passing ships, and compensation was required for fishing privl-
