seventy of his knights was made a prisoner of the king of France on pretext of worshiping "Baphomet." Many conjectures have been made regarding the origin of this figure, statue, or idol, that stood in the Temple at Paris. We may hazard a conjecture based on the customs of the times. During the crusades the infidels exposed on their walls figures of the cross, to which they offered extreme indignities. During the long residence of the templars in the Holy Land, they may naturally have replied by framing a figure of Mahomet. One of these figures may have reached Paris, and in the superstition of the age, what was a mere satire may have been converted into a heresy. On pretext of worshiping this figure, the knights were put to the torture; and meeting with hostile priests and a hostile monarch, we need not wonder that they were condemned. Jacques de Molay and Guy d'Auvergne were burnt to death on the 18th March, 1314, in front of Nôtre Dame, and the order of the Temple was virtually extinguished. A tradition has always been preserved, that certain knights took refuge in Scotland, and were preserved. There, indeed, the order is still maintained as a sort of adjunct to freemasonry.—P. E. D.
MOLBECH, Christian, a distinguished Danish scholar and author, was born at Sorö—in the celebrated academy of which place his father was professor of philosophy and mathematics—on the 8th October, 1783. Young Molbech was originally intended for the sea; but an illness occurring just at the time of his preparation for his first voyage, the idea was abandoned, and it was resolved that he should remain at home and devote himself to the study of law. With this view he entered the university of Copenhagen in 1802, and the following year he passed a creditable examination. It was not, however, on the legal arena that he was destined to achieve renown. From his boyhood passionately fond of books and all matters appertaining thereto, he found in the capital full scope for the development and gratification of his ruling tendency. In 1804 he was admitted as a "volunteer" to serve in the royal library of Copenhagen, in connection with which great institution he remained until his death, successively rising to its highest offices. Henceforth his life presents no striking incident; it was purely, emphatically, one of literature. Endowed with rich intellectual gifts, and animated by a spirit of the most untiring industry, Molbech has written on a vast variety of themes; so numerous, indeed, that in Erslew's Forfatterlexicon the list of writings under his name actually occupies twelve closely printed pages, and that only down to the year 1844! They include books of travels, works on bibliography, literary biography and history, philology, criticism, and many other subjects. His "Dansk Ordbog" (Danish dictionary) and his "Danish Dialect-Lexicon," will ever remain noble monuments of his labours, his talent, and his learning. Leaving behind him an honoured name in his country's literature, Molbech died at Copenhagen in 1857.—J. J.
* MOLBECH, Christian Knud Frederik, son of the preceding, was born at Copenhagen on the 20th July, 1821. Since 1853 he has held the chair of northern languages and literature in the university of Kiel. His tragedy of "Dante," and his fine lyric pieces, have raised him to high eminence among the younger poets of Denmark. He is also the author of an admirable translation of the Divina Commedia.—J. J.
MOLÉ, Louis Matthieu, Count, a French statesman, born at Paris on the 24th January, 1781; died on the 23rd November, 1855. He belonged to an old and distinguished family, which from the fifteenth century had devoted itself to the profession of law. As soon as he had completed his education—and such as he had was due to his own efforts—he entered the salon life of Paris, being a frequent visitor at the assemblies of Madame de Beaumont, where Chateaubriand, Michaud, Joubert, De Fontanes, and Pasquier were also often present. His taste and talents soon directed him to politics. He studied and knew men much more than abstract principles, and in 1805 made his first literary appearance in a volume of essays on morals and politics. A monarchy limited by constitutional safeguards was the object of the young author; and in the peculiar circumstances of France his work made a sensation. He then visited England, and studied the institutions of Britain. On his return Napoleon, who had read his "Essays," resolved to attach him to the government, and named him auditor of the first class to the council of state, which was soon after followed by his appointment as master of the "requêtes"—the pleas or petitions presented to the emperor. In 1807 he was appointed prefect of the Côte d'Or; but in 1809 was recalled to Paris as councillor of state and director-general of "ponts et chaussées." From this time till 1812 he was almost in daily communication with the emperor. In the disasters of 1813 Count Molé was entirely faithful to Napoleon; and Napoleon gave frequent expression to the high estimation in which he held his minister. On the fall of the empire Count Molé took service with the Bourbons, and was named minister of marine, in which office he distinguished himself by opposing the British right of search, and by using every effort in his power to put down the African slave trade. At the revolution of 1830 he was called by Louis Philippe to the ministry of foreign affairs, but retired for a time in presence of the disturbed state of France. In 1836, however, he was again appointed foreign minister, succeeding M. Thiers, and again retired in 1839. In 1848 he was a member of the legislative assembly; but when the republic gave way to the empire he declared his political career terminated. He was a man of moderate opinions, upright principles, and would if possible have established a constitutional monarchy with a strong government. He spoke much both in the chamber of peers and in the Academy, of which he was a member.—P. E. D.
MOLÉ, Matthieu, an eminent French statesman, born in 1584. At the early age of twenty-two he was admitted a counsellor of the parliament of Paris, and soon attained to great influence. He was appointed procurator-general in 1614, and enjoyed the favour and confidence both of King Louis XIII. and of Cardinal Richelieu. About the end of 1641 he was appointed first president of the parliament. He distinguished himself greatly by his firm and honest, yet temperate and prudent conduct, ever being ready to support the legitimate authority of the crown, as well as to defend the privileges of parliament. The unpopularity of Mazarin, and the wretched state to which the civil wars had reduced the finances of the kingdom, rendered the position of Molé extremely difficult, and ultimately led to the outbreak of the Fronde. But Molé discharged the duties of his office with fidelity and courage, and secured to himself universal esteem. He was appointed keeper of the seals in 1651. He died 3d January, 1656.—D. W. R.
MOLESWORTH, Robert, first viscount, was born in 1655, of an ancient English family settled in Ireland. He was educated in Dublin. In the revolution of 1688 he was a warm partisan of William of Orange and the protestant succession. He was attainted by James' parliament, and his estate sequestrated. On the accession of William he was reinstated, and made a privy councillor. He was afterwards sent as envoy to the Danish court; and on his return to England wrote a "History of Denmark," the publication of which gave rise to an angry controversy. In Queen Anne's reign he was removed from the privy council, but was restored by George I., who made him a commissioner of trade, and raised him to the peerage in 1719. Shortly after this Lord Molesworth retired into private life, and to the enjoyment of his literary tastes. He died in 1725, and was buried at Swords in Ireland. His second son, Richard, was instrumental in saving the life of the duke of Marlborough at the battle of Ramilies.—R. H.
MOLESWORTH, Sir William, Bart., a statesman of the school of "philosophical radicalism," was born in London in 1810. He was of an old Cornish family, the eighth inheritor of a baronetcy first conferred by William III. on an ancestor who became governor of Jamaica. On the death of his father, while he himself was a minor. Sir William Molesworth succeeded to large and valuable landed estates. His mother was an Edinburgh lady, and Sir William received his education partly in the Modern Athens and partly at Cambridge, afterwards studying in Germany, and making the tour of the continent. He returned to England with his opinions formed, and entered the house of commons in 1832 as member for East Cornwall. He joined at once the little party of philosophical radicals, which numbered among its members Mr. Grote and the late Charles Buller. While voting and speaking in favour of the general programme of that political section, Sir William specially addressed himself to the condition of the colonies question, and to the advocacy of their claims to self-government. Exchanging the representation of East Cornwall for that of Leeds in 1837, he obtained in the same year from the house of commons the appointment of a select committee on transportation, of which he was chairman, and the report of which was chiefly drawn up by himself. Its denunciation of the
