1812. About the time of his leaving college he published "The bombardment of Algiers, and other poems." Soon after the establishment of Blackwood's Magazine he became one of its most frequent and popular contributors, under the signature of Δ, from which he acquired the literary cognomen of Delta. The best of his poetical contributions were collected and published in 1824 under the title of "The Legend of Genevieve, with other tales and poems." This was followed by his amusing "Autobiography of Mansie Wauch," which was originally published in the pages of Blackwood. The quaint sly humour displayed in this work, together with its quiet, powerful, and subtle delineation of Scotch character, gained for it a wide circulation, and greatly increased the reputation of its author. Dr. Moir meanwhile discharged his laborious professional duties with unremitting assiduity. He exerted himself with extraordinary diligence and zeal to check the progress of cholera in 1832, and published two able pamphlets on the nature of that virulent disease. In 1837 he edited a collection of the fugitive pieces of his friend Dr. M'Nish, to which he prefixed a memoir; and a few years later he performed a similar service to the memory of the lamented Galt. In 1843 he published his "Domestic Verses," which he had previously circulated among his friends. In 1851 he delivered at the Edinburgh philosophical institution, and afterwards published, a course of six lectures "On the Poetical Literature of the past half century;" and "The Lament of Selim," his last contribution to Blackwood's Magazine, appeared in the summer of the same year. Dr. Moir's health had been seriously injured by his laborious duties and by a severe illness in 1844, and finally by an injury received in consequence of the upsetting of his carriage in 1846, which made him lame for life. In 1851 besought relief in rest and change of scene, but it was too late. He died at Dumfries on the 6th July of the same year, at the age of fifty-three, leaving a widow and eight children to lament his loss. Moir's serious verses are distinguished by sweetness and tenderness, rather than by original power. His humour was grave, quiet, and "pawkie"—in a word, thoroughly Scotch. His amiable and benevolent character gained him the love and esteem of all who knew him. A complete edition of his works, edited by Thomas Aird, appeared in 1857.—J. T.
MOIRA, Francis Rawdon Hastings, second Lord Rawdon, Earl of Moira, and first Marquis of Hastings, a distinguished soldier and statesman, was born in 1754. He was educated at Oxford; and having made choice of the military profession, entered as ensign in the 15th foot in 1771. Two years later he was made lieutenant in the 5th, and embarked for America, where, in 1775, he distinguished himself at the battle of Bunker's Hill. He was second in command under Lord Cornwallis at the battle of Camden in 1780, where he played a prominent part; but was blamed for the severe measures which he subsequently adopted against deserters. On the 25th of April, 1781, at the head of only nine hundred men. Lord Rawdon attacked and defeated the American general. Green, who had nearly two thousand troops under him, at Hobkirk's Hill; but his lordship's health having been greatly impaired by his exertions, he was obliged soon after to return to England. The Charleston packet, however, in which he embarked, was captured on its voyage by the French squadron under Comte de Grasse and carried into Brest. He very soon obtained his release, and on his arrival in England was received with great distinction, appointed one of the royal aides-de-camp, and created a British peer, March 5, 1783. Lord Rawdon was an intimate friend of the prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., as well as a leading member of the whig party; and took a prominent part in the discussions respecting the famous regency question arising out of the illness of George III. in 1788-89. At this period he inherited the estates of his maternal uncle, Francis, tenth earl of Huntingdon, and in 1793 succeeded his father as earl of Moira. He was now advanced to the rank of major-general, and appointed to the command of a force intended to co-operate with the French royalists in Brittany and La Vendée; but before they could take the field the insurgents had been completely crushed by the republican armies. In the summer of 1794 Lord Moira marched with ten thousand British troops to the assistance of the duke of York, who was then retreating through Brabant to Flanders, and was nearly surrounded by the greatly superior forces of the enemy. His lordship made a rapid march across the country from Ostend and by his skilful movements in the face of much danger and under great hardships, effected a junction with the duke, and succeeded in extricating him from his perilous situation. When the whigs came into power in 1806, on the death of Pitt, Lord Moira, who was a steady though moderate adherent of that political party, was appointed master-general of the ordnance; but he resigned that post in 1807 on the return of the tories to power. On the assassination of Mr. Perceval in 1812, and the failure of the marquis of Wellesley to form an administration, a similar commission was given to Lord Moira; but the refusal of Lords Grey and Granville to accept office on the terms proposed rendered his efforts abortive. His lordship's dissatisfaction with the demands of these noblemen, and his personal friendship for the prince-regent, caused him now to separate from the whig party. Shortly after, the order of the garter was conferred upon him, and he was appointed governor-general of India. His administration, which lasted upwards of nine years, was distinguished by its combined prudence and vigour. He brought to a successful termination the war with the Nepaulese; repulsed the plundering hordes of the Pindarees and rooted them out of their native haunts; and completely subjugated the Peshwa of Poonah, the Rajah of Nagpore, and the Patans, who had taken advantage of the war with the Pindarees to rise in arms against the British. As a reward for his important services he was created Marquis of Hastings on the 7th of December, 1816, and twice received the thanks of the directors and court of proprietors of the East India Company, and of the two houses of parliament. In consequence of ill health he was obliged to return to England in 1822; and had to defend his administration against several violent attacks made upon it in parliament. In 1824 he was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of Malta; and died on the 26th of November, 1826, on board the Revenge man-of-war in the bay of Baia, near Naples.—J. T.
MOIVRE. See Demoivre.
MOL, Pieter van, a distinguished scholar or imitator of Rubens, was born at Antwerp in 1599, and was admitted master in the Painters' guild in 1622. He established himself in Paris, and became one of the original members of the Royal Academy of Painting, founded there by Louis XIV. in 1648. Van Mol died at Paris in 1650. He painted altarpieces and portraits.— (Catalogue du Musée D'Anvers.)—R. N. W.
MOLA, Pietro Francesco, was born in the neighbourhood of Milan in 1612, and was taken when young by his father, an architect, to Rome, where he entered the studio of the celebrated D'Arpino. He studied afterwards in Venice and Bologna. In the latter place he was much attracted by the combination of landscape and figures displayed in the works of Albain, and Mola henceforth devoted himself to a similar style, but substituting generally religious scenes for the poetic and profane subjects of Albani. His landscape backgrounds are excellent, and are remarkable for their forcible effect of light and shade; he painted large and small figures. Mola settled at Rome in the pontificate of Innocent X., and became president of the academy of St. Luke, and declined an invitation from Louis XIV., to settle in Paris with the dignity of court painter. He died at Rome in 1668.—(Passeri, Vite del Pittori.)—R. N. W.
MOLAY or MOLAI, Jacques de, the last grand-master of the famous order of the knights templars, lived at the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth century. He was probably a Burgundian by birth; the younger son of a good family, or at least of a family possessing landed estates, being represented as the son of Jean de Longvie or Longvy. Molai or Molay was an estate in the diocese of Besançon. Little or nothing is known of his history until he reached the highest dignity of the powerful order, whose destruction was to be one of the great events of the age. He is supposed to have reached the grand-mastership in 1298. At this period the crusading epoch was drawing to a close, the wild hopes of Christendom were disappointed, the holy sepulchre remained in the hands of the infidel, and Europe was disposed to regard with an evil eye the proud templars who had failed to redeem the holy places of the faith. Driven out of Palestine, the knights had taken refuge in Cyprus, and Jacques de Molay came to Europe with sixty knights to claim assistance. He met the pope at Poitiers, reclaimed against the charges made against the templars, appealed to Clement V., and while attempting to leave the town was arrested by Philip IV. of France, who, as Dante terms him, was "the false coiner," and who coveted the templars' treasures and the templars' lands. Jacques was carried before the inquisition of France, October, 1307, made some admissions hostile to his safety, and with
