ever, with a heavy fine. On Peter's death in 1725, Menschikoff anticipated the intrigues of powerful rivals by proclaiming Catherine, his former mistress and Peter's widow, as czarina. In her name he reigned over Russia for more than two years, and endeavoured to secure for himself a more durable sovereignty by competing with Marshal Saxe for the duchy of Courland. Towards the end of 1727, four months after the accession of Peter II., who was engaged to marry Menschikoff's daughter, the boy emperor, under the influence of the Dolgoroukys, suddenly condemned his most powerful subject to exile in Siberia, and confiscated his enormous wealth. The humbled prince bore this bitter reverse with dignified resignation, and died in Siberia on the 22nd October, 1729.—R. H.
* MENSCHIKOFF, Alexander Sergeivitch, Prince, great-grandson of the preceding, and a Russian admiral, was born in 1789. He entered the civil service in 1806, and for a short time was attached to the Russian embassy at Vienna. When war broke out he obtained a commission, and was made aid-de-camp to the emperor, whom he accompanied through the campaigns of 1812-16. In 1823 he took a prominent part in the attempt to restore in Greece a simulacrum of the old Byzantine empire, and quitted office with other leading men, because his views were rejected. On the accession of the Emperor Nicholas he was again employed, and went to the shah of Persia on a mission, which led to an immediate war. In the war with Turkey in 1828, he commanded the expedition to Anapa, and took the place. He also conducted the siege of Varna, but being dangerously wounded, was obliged to rest for some time. His next important office was the command of the Russian fleet, which he endeavoured with small success to restore to some efficiency. In March, 1853, he was sent to Constantinople to extort from the sultan an admission of the czar's right to protect all members of the Greek church residing in the Ottoman dominions. The refusal of this demand brought on the Crimean war, in which Prince Menschikoff was a principal actor till March, 1855, when he quitted Sebastopol for St. Petersburg. He was subsequently made governor of Cronstadt. In private society he is celebrated for his witty and caustic sayings.—R. H.
MENTEL or MENTELN, John, the earliest printer of Strasburg, born at Schelestadt, about 1410; died at Strasburg in 1478. Mentel had fixed his residence in Strasburg as early as 1447, for he figures in the civic registers of that year as an illuminator, and also as having been admitted into the corporation of painters. The first trace of him as a typographer which wo meet with is in 1458, when he is said by an old chronicler to have had an establishment like that of Fust and Gutenberg at Mayence. Mentel was ennobled by the emperor in 1466. His first productions were sold as manuscripts. His chief work is the Specula of Vincent de Beauvais which bears the date of 1473.—W. B.
* MENZEL, Wolfgang, a German historian and critic of note, was born at Waldenburg in Silesia on 21st June, 1798. In 1815 he served as a volunteer in the war of liberation, and after the restoration of peace completed his studies in the universities of Jena and Bonn. At this time he was one of the most enthusiastic followers of Fr. L. Jahn, the "turnvater." In 1825 he settled at Stuttgart, where he entered upon a literary career, and where in 1830 he was elected a member of the Wurtemberg diet. For a long time he was the dreaded editor of the Literaturblatt, which was discontinued in 1848, but was revived in 1852 as an organ of the reactionary party in church and state. Menzel not only attacked Joh. Heinr. Voss in a pamphlet, "Voss un die Symbolik," but also waged war against Göthe and his followers. Not content, however, with a critical sway, he did not even shrink from denouncing the political opinions of liberal authors, although he had formerly himself belonged to their party. He particularly directed his missiles against the so-called Young Germany and against Börne, who at length silenced him by his famous Menzel der Franzosenfresser, 1837.—(See Börne and Gutzkow.) Among Menzel's historical works, his "History of Germany," 1824-25, takes the highest rank; it was followed by his "Taschenbuch der neuesten Geschichte;" his "History of Europe from 1789 to 1815," &c. Among his literary writings, his "Die Deutsche Literatur," 1828, is the most important.—K. E.
MENZIES, Archibald, a Scotch botanist, was born at Weem in Perthshire on 15th March, 1754, and died at London on 15th February, 1842. He was early placed in the botanic garden at Edinburgh, and through the assistance of Dr. John Hope, professor of botany, he was enabled to prosecute his studies so as to take the diploma of surgeon. In 1778 he made a tour through the north highlands, for the purpose of collecting plants for the botanic garden. He then went to Caernarvon to assist a medical man, and he finally became assistant-surgeon in the navy. He visited Halifax, Staten island. Sandwich islands, China, and North-western America. In 1790 he accompanied Vancouver on his celebrated voyage. He visited King George's island, the south coast of New Holland, and part of New Zealand, Otaheite, and the north-west of America. He returned to England in 1795. He made large collections of plants, as well as of other objects of natural history, during these voyages. Many of these were new, and have been described by Smith, Brown, Hooker, and others. He afterwards served in the West Indies. About the beginning of the century he quitted the navy, and passed the remainder of his days in the vicinity of London. He was a member of the Linnæan Society. His collection of plants was left to the botanic garden at Edinburgh. The collection consists chiefly of cryptogamous plants, grasses, and cyperaceæ. Among his published papers are the following—"Account of an Ascent of Wha-ra-rai and Mowna-roa in the Island of Owhyhee;" "Description of a New Animal found in the Pacific Ocean;" "New Arrangement of the Species of Polytrichum;" "Description of the Anatomy of the Sea Otter."—J. H. B.
* MERCADANTE, Saverio, a celebrated composer, was born at Naples in 1798. He studied music under Zingarelli in the conservatorio San Sebastiano, and was fellow-pupil with the celebrated Bellini. His first compositions were of the instrumental kind; but by the advice of his master he turned his attention to the lyric drama, and his coup d'essai was "L'Apoteosi d'Ercole," produced in 1819 at the theatre San Carlo. In the same year he composed for the theatre Nuovo, the opera buffa, "Violenza e Contanza." Both these works meeting with considerable success, our young composer was induced to visit Rome, where he produced his opera buffa, "Il Geloso raveduto;" and, in the carnival of 1821, the opera seria, "Scipione in Cartagena." In the same year he visited Bologna, and brought out his "Maria Stuart;" and a few months later, what is considered his best work, "Elisa e Claudio." In spite of the flattering reception which this opera received, both at Bologna and Milan, it bespeaks but little of the hand of a master. Mercadante is almost wholly an imitator, and frequently a copyist of the ancient and modern Italian and German music. However, it must be allowed that there is a considerable portion of song about the music; and this, together with a showy accompaniment, may account for the favourable reception it experienced. Another of this composer's operas, which has met with considerable success on the continent, is his "Il Giuramento;" but in spite of the frequent attempts of the Italian singers to familiarize the English public with its numerous beauties, it has never been much liked in this country. Mercadante has written many other operas, and of late years has devoted himself to the composition of sacred music, in which, it is said, he manifests a very superior genius. One of his latest works for the stage, "I Briganti," is replete with beauties. To the majority of English musicians this composer is only known by his "Bella adorata," a melody of which Verdi has shown his estimation by borrowing it for the tenor song in "Luisa Miller."—E. F. R
MERCATOR, the Latinized name assumed by Nicholas Kauffmann, an eminent mathematician and engineer, who was born in Holstein early in the seventeenth century, and died in Paris in February, 1687. He passed much of his life in England, and was one of the earliest fellows of the Royal Society. His most valuable work was one entitled "Logarithmotechnia," in which he explained an improved method of computing logarithms.—W. J. M. R.
MERCATOR, Gerard, a celebrated Belgian geographer, was born at Rupelmonde on the 5th of March, 1512, and died at Duisbourg on the 8th of December, 1594. He was educated at Herzogenbusch and at the university of Louvain. He was for some time in the service of the Emperor Charles V., from which he retired in 1559, and became cosmographer to the duke of Juliers. The maps which he published, and which were the best of their time, were engraved by himself. His name is well known in connection with a "projection" or mode of representing the sphere on a plane surface, which he invented, and which has for its distinguishing properties that all parallels of latitude, meridians, and lines of uniform azimuth on the sphere.
