MAIR. See Major.
MAIRE, James le. See Lemaire.
MAISON, Nicolas Joseph, Marquis, a marshal of France, born 19th December, 1771; died at Paris 13th February, 1840. His parents were of humble origin. When the country was declared in danger the young Nicolas hastened to the frontier, and in passing the Crou at St. Denis said to a comrade—"Do you see that bridge? I shall cross it again as a marshal." He was soon made captain, but his rank was withheld by the representatives of the people. His personal bravery was too conspicuous, however, to be passed over, and General Jourdan, at the siege of Mons, called him to the front of his regiment, bleeding and nearly blind, and appointed him chef de bataillon. He served afterwards in Germany, Italy, and Holland, and was one of the most distinguished of the many gallant French officers in the field at that period. He served in the Russian campaign as general of division, was made Baron by Napoleon, then Count, and at last attained the chief command of the army of the North for the defence of Belgium. He there performed his duties with a heroism worthy of the highest admiration. Nothing could induce him to forsake Napoleon until the empire was finally closed. He was then made peer of France and governor of Paris, and to the Bourbons he maintained the same honourable fidelity that had characterized his service of the emperor. In 1830 he was still employed and had high offices in charge. His retirement took place in 1836. Maison was one of the generals who shed lustre on the history of his country.—P. E D.
MAISTRE. See Le Maistre.
MAISTRE, Joseph, Count de, whom Ballanche called "the prophet of the past," was born at Chambery in 1754, of a noble family which had emigrated from France and settled in Savoy a century before. His father was president of the senate of Savoy, and brought up his children in habits of antique submissiveness and obedience, which, doubtless, contributed to form the absolutist theories of De Maistre, the political thinker. The young De Maistre was educated for the magistracy, in which he held a distinguished position when the French revolution of 1787 broke out, and in its course swept over Savoy. After various trials and perils, he took refuge with his wife and family at Lausanne, where in 1796 he published the first of his remarkable books, the "Considérations sur la France." The work, prohibited by the French directory, went through three editions in a year, and at once established the reputation of its author as a powerful writer, a daring and original thinker. The advocate of a theocratic absolutism, utterly opposed not merely to revolution or republicanism, but even to constitutional government, De Maistre, instead of simply execrating the French revolution after the fashion of Burke, proclaimed it a divine judgment. In 1797 he quitted Switzerland and returned to Turin. With his sovereign, stripped of all territory on the Italian mainland, he took refuge in Sardinia, and after having filled the first legal post in the island, he was sent in 1802 as envoy from the little court of Cagliari to St. Petersburg, where Alexander had begun to reign. There for fourteen years, separated from his family, with scanty pay, the representative of a mutilated and abased monarchy, and not even supported at home, he pleaded the cause of his sovereign with perseverance, but with indifferent success. At last came the fall of Napoleon, but not with it the realization of De Maistre's hopes. From the parcelling out of kingdoms and distribution of populations at Vienna, he turned away in disgust at what he considered the infraction of the rights both of kings and peoples, and resolved to remain in Russia. But even in Russia things went ill with him. When the Jesuits were expelled, and he himself began to be regarded with disfavour as suspected of encouraging conversions from the Greek to the Roman Catholic church, he asked to be recalled. On returning to his native country, he was received as befitted his trials and patriotic efforts. He was appointed to one of the chief offices of the kingdom, with the title of minister of state. Some of the works which he had matured in his diplomatic exile were completed and published; among them two of the most remarkable of his books, the "Soireés de St. Petersburg" and "Le Pape." In the former, he developed in striking fashion his favourite theory, that political order can only be realized by an absolutism as complete as that of the Creator; in the latter, he proclaimed "the Pope" as the rightful representative of the Deity upon earth, the only hope of the nations, who were to look to him as their supreme political and ecclesiastical regulator. If the vanity of the author had been a characteristic of De Maistre, he might have been abundantly satisfied, for the success of his books was great. But the state of Europe after the fall of Napoleon, saddened him. Instead of a lofty monarch swaying France with absolute power, he saw a king fettered by a charter, by one of those "paper-constitutions" which he despised. The concessions of kings to their subjects he looked on as more dangerous than revolution itself, because revolution brought its own cure with it. Protesting to the last, he died at Turin of the effects of slow paralysis in February, 1821; and a few days after his death broke out the revolution in Piedmont, which he had long predicted. As a thinker De Maistre claims a high place; he is bold, original, at once subtly and vigorously logical in form. As a writer, he combats scepticism and the contrat social with something of the eloquence of Rousseau, and something of the wit of Voltaire. Differ from him as we may, we must respect the ethical elevation of his mind, and recognize among his paradoxes here and there a precious truth. De Maistre the philosopher and politician, is amply revealed in his elaborate works; but De Maistre the man, tender, playful, in adversity cheerful and serene, must be sought for in his letters, of which more than one collection has been published of late years in France.—F. E.
MAITLAND. See Lauderdale.
MAITLAND, Sir Frederick Lewis, Vice-admiral, a British naval officer noted in history as the person to whom the Emperor Napoleon surrendered. He was born at Rankeillor in Scotland in 1779, and died on the 30th December, 1839, before Bombay. As commander of the Bellerophon, 74, he was ordered by Admiral Hotham to watch the port of Rochefort after the battle of Waterloo. Napoleon having arrived there with some of his generals, the duke of Rovigo, General Lallemant, and Count Las Cases went on board the Bellerophon to endeavour to obtain permission for the emperor and suite to pass to America. Captain Maitland could not take the responsibility, but stated that his only duty was to convey Napoleon to England. Napoleon embarked with Generals Bertrand, Montholon, and De Rovigo, and the ship came to anchor in Plymouth Sound on the 24th July. The emperor's fate being decided, Captain Maitland was appointed to convey him to St. Helena in the Northumberland. He had the highest regard for the emperor, and always treated him with the utmost respect. He published an account of Napoleon's embarkation. His death took place in the Wellington before Bombay.—P. E. D.
MAITLAND, Sir Richard, of Lethington, a poet and collector of Scottish poetry, belonged to an old and distinguished family, and was born in 1496. He was educated first at the university of St. Andrews, and afterwards in France, where he studied law. On his return to his native country he recommended himself to James V., and in 1534 was nominated an extraordinary lord of session. He subsequently acted on two occasions as commissioner to adjust the differences with England regarding the borders, and discharged this duty with great prudence and sagacity. He had the misfortune to lose his sight about the year 1559, but this melancholy deprivation did not incapacitate him for business; for in 1561 he was admitted an ordinary lord of session, and in the following year was also nominated lord privy seal and a member of the privy council. His declining years were saddened by the death of two of his sons, and by the ravages of the civil war which then raged in Scotland. In 1584 his increasing infirmities compelled him to resign his seat on the bench, and he died full of years and honours in 1586, in the ninetieth year of his age. His wife, to whom he had been united for sixty years, died on his funeral day. Maitland's poems are characterized by shrewdness and good sense, rather than by warmth of fancy and brilliancy of imagination, and are valuable also on account of the light which they cast upon the manners and customs of the age. His memory deserves no less to be cherished, on account of the good service he has rendered to Scottish literature in preserving the best productions of his contemporaries. His collection, which may be regarded as the chief treasure of ancient Scottish poetry, consists of two volumes, containing two hundred and seventy-two different poems. They are now deposited in the Pepysian library in Magdalen college, Cambridge. On account of his eminence as a collector his name has been assumed as the designation of a modern literary club, formed for the publication of ancient MSS.—J. T.
MAITLAND, Samuel Roffey, D.D., F.R.S., and F.S.A., a very learned and lively writer, chiefly on themes ecclesiastical,
