Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/29

M U L M U L 19 Dominican convent founded in 1239, but both were dis solved by Elizabeth. The town was the headquarters of William III. before the siege of Athlone. It formerly returned two members to parliament, but was disfranchised at the Union. MULREADY, WILLIAM (1786-1 863), subject painter, was born at Ennis, county Clare, on 30th April 1 786. When he was about five years old his father, a leather-breeches maker by trade, removed to London, where the son received a tolerable education, chiefly under Catholic priests. He was fond of reading, furtively studying Pope s Homer and other works at the book-stalls, and fonder still of drawing. 1 When eleven years old Mulready was employed by an artist named Graham as the model for a figure in his picture of Solomon Blessed by his Father David. The painter s interest in the lad did much to confirm his artistic proclivities ; and, having studied at home for two years, Mulready applied for advice to Banks the sculptor, who sent him to a drawing-school and permitted him to work in his own studio. In 1800 he was admitted a student of the Academy, and two years later he gained the silver palette of the Society of Arts. About this time he was associated with John Varley, the eccentric water-colour painter and drawing-master, whom he assisted in the tuition of his band of talented pupils, which included Cox, Fielding, Linnell, William Hunt, and Turner of Oxford. At eighteen he married a sister of Varley s, and at twenty-four he was the father of four sons. The marriage was a singularly unhappy one, and the pair separated before many years. With all these " hostages to fortune " he had a hard struggle, but he was blessed with unfailing energy and the power of steady application. He "tried his hand at everything," as he said, "from a miniature to a panorama." He painted portraits, taught drawing, and up till 1809 designed illustrations to a long series of children s penny books. His first pictures were classical and religious subjects of no great merit, and the early works which he sent to the Academy were mainly landscapes ; but he soon discovered his special aptitude for genre-painting, and in 1809 produced the Carpenter s Shop, and in 1811 the Barber s Shop, pictures influenced by the example of Wilkie and the Dutch painters. In 1813 he exhibited his Punch, a work more original and spontaneous in treatment, which brought the artist into notice, and two years later his Idle Boys procured his election as associate. Next year he received full academic honours, and the election was fully justified by the Fight Interrupted which he then exhibited. It was followed by the Wolf and the Lamb (1820), the Convalescent (1822), Interior of an English Cottage (1828), Dogs of Two Minds (1830), the Seven Ages (1838), and in 1839 and 1840 by the Sonnet and First Love, two of the most perfect and poetical of the artist s works. In 1840 he designed the well-known postal envelope for Rowland Hill, and a set of illustrations to the Vicar of Wakefield, which were succeeded by his paintings of the Whistonian Con troversy (1844), Choosing the Wedding Gown (1846), and Sophia and Burchell Haymaking (1849). His later works, like the Bathers (1849), Mother teaching her Children (1859), and the Toy Seller (1862) show declining powers, mainly attributable to failing health. The last evening of his life Avas spent at a meeting of the Academy, of which, for nearly fifty years, he had been a most active and effi cient member. He died of heart-disease on the 7th July 1863. In his way of work Mulready was most painstaking and con scientious, executing for each picture very elaborate studies for the 1 Some reproductions of his early attempts in this direction are given, along with details of his life, in a scarce volume for the young, entitled The Looking Glass, written by William Godwin under the nom-de- plume of Theophilus Marcliffe, and published in 1S05. several parts, and many sketches for colour and effect. His pro ductions are characterized by accuracy of drawing and richness of colouring ; but they want something of the force and fire which come of less considered and elaborate, but more instinctive and inspired, workmanship. MULTAN, or MOOLTAN, a district in the lieutenant- governorship of the Punjab, lying between 29 22 and 30 45 N. lat. and 71 4 and 72 54 E. long., is bounded on the N. by the Jhang district, on the E. by that of Montgomery, on the S. by the Sutlej, and on the N.W. by the Chenab, and has an area of 5880 square miles. Along the banks of the Chenab, Sutlej, and Ravi extend fringes of cultivation varying in width from 3 to 20 miles, but the interior uplands have the same barren character as the district of MONTGOMERY (q.v.). Midway between the boundary rivers, a high dorsal ridge enters from Montgomery, forming a part of the sterile region known as the bar. It dips into the lower plateau on either side by abrupt banks, which mark the ancient beds of the Ravi and the Beas (Bias). These two rivers once flowed much farther southward before joining the Chenab and the Sutlej, and their original course may still be distinctly traced, not only by the signs of former fluvial action, but also by the existence of dried-up canals. At the present day the Beas (Bids) is totally lost to the district, the Ravi merely waters a small corner, and the only rich cultivation is that which stretches along the Chenab and the Sutlej. The soil, though naturally good, requires abundant irrigation to bring it under efficient tillage. Numerous canals supply water from the Sutlej to the surrounding country, and pools or jhils collect during the rainy weather in the hollows formed by the old watercourses. The census of 1881 returned the population at 551,964 persons (males 304,517, females 247,447), Mohammedans numbering 435,901, Hindus 112,001, Sikhs 2085, Europeans 1709, Eurasians 110, native Christians 42, and "others" 116. Only one town had a population exceeding 10,000 Multan, 68,674. Most of the people are grouped together in villages on the irrigated lowlands, only a scattered nomad population being found on the sterile up land tract. In 1878-79 the area under Government assessment was 3,763,200 acres, of which 799,360 were cultivated, 245,760 uncul- tivable waste, 2,618,080 cultivable, and 100,000 grazing lands. Cultivation is, however, spreading steadily, though the character of the agriculture remains slovenly, as the Jat tribes who comprise the mass of the rural population have not yet lost their predatory and pastoral propensities. Near the city, however, capitalist farmers have brought their land into a high state of cultivation. The areas under crop in 1881-82 were as follows : rice 15,998, wheat 209,183, great millet 53,605, spiked millet 13,254, Italian millet 724, barley 7460, gram 8303, peas 24,443, and tobacco 1624. Indigo forms the most important commercial staple. The chief articles of trade are sugar and indigo from the lowlands, and wool and ghi from the pasture lands of the Mr. Silk and fine cotton fabrics are produced at Multan ; coarse cotton cloth for home con sumption is woven in every village. The Sind, Punjab, and Delhi Railway connects the city with the Northern Punjab and with the East Indian line at Delhi, and the Indus Valley State Railway runs through a portion of the district. The total length of roads is 907 miles and of railways 130. The total imperial revenue of the district in 1880-81 was 953,408 rupees, of which 561,052 were derived from the land revenue. A small provincial and local revenue is also raised. Education, especially among the Mohammedans, is in a backward state, and in 1872-73 only 3062 children attended school, of whom the Hindus contributed 46 per cent., although they only form 18 per cent, of the whole population. The climate is proverbial even among the hot and dusty Punjab plains for its- heat and dust. The mean temperature in the shade for the six years ending 1876 was in January 54 70 Fahr., in June 95 73, in October 76 68, the average annual rainfall for the same years being 7 "27 inches ; in 1881 it was only 37. At the time of Alexander s invasion Multan appears as the chief seat of the Malli ; but the Greek power soon came to an end, and the country passed under the rule of the Gupta dynasty of Magadha. The early Arab geographers mention Multan as forming part of the kingdom of Sind, which was conquered for the caliphate by Mohammed Kasi m in the middle of the 8th century. The whole province was conquered by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1005 A.D. It afterwards formed a part of the Mughal empire of Babar, and con tinued so till the extinction of that power. The history of the