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MIRANDOLA again gave umbrage to the revolutionists, and was compelled to seek refuge in England. In 1803 he returned to France, but was again expelled from the country by the first consul. In 1806 he fitted out an expedition in the United States, enlisting many Americans, and returned to South America, with the view of establishing a republic at Caracas, but was not successful. Toward the close of 1810 he again went to South America, during the disorder of the Spanish government, and maintained him- self at the head of an army of insurgents ; but he was delivered by Bolivar (July 81, 1812) into the hands of the Spaniards, and carried to Cadiz, where he died after four years' im- prisonment. See " History of Miranda's At- tempt to effect a Revolution in South Amer- ica" (New York, 1808). MIKMDOLA, Giovanni Pieo delta, count and prince of Concordia, an Italian scholar, born at Mirandola, Modena, Feb. 24, 14t : 3, died in Flor- ence, Nov. 17, 1494. Almost from childhood he displayed an extraordinary memory. At the age of 14 he was sent to Bologna to study canon law ; but he soon went to Ferrara and applied himself to philosophy, theology, and languages, acquiring a knowledge of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabic, and the different systems of philosophy. After master- ing all the learning of the time, he went to Rome in 1486, and propounded there 900 theses as subjects of controversy. His challenge was not accepted, but some of his theses were de- nounced to Pope Innocent VIII. as heretical ; and though he ultimately proved their ortho- doxy, he suffered much persecution. These trials induced him to give up the study of profane literature and to devote his attention to reli- gion and philosophy. Resigning his principal- ity in favor of his nephew, he lived at Florence until his death, a year before which Pope Alexander VI. absolved him of all heresy. A collective edition of his works was published at Bologna in 1496, Venice in 1498, Strasburg in 1504, and Basel in 1557-1601. MIRBEL, Charles Francois Brisseau de, a French naturalist, born in Paris, March 27, 1776, died near there, Sept. 12, 1854. In 1794 he en- tered the topographical bureau, but in 1796 fled to the south of France for political rea- sons. He studied botany at Tarbes under Ra- mond, and made several botanical tours across the Pyrenees. In 1798 he returned to Paris, and became connected with the museum of natural history. He published some essays in the Bulletin de la societe philomathique, and in 1800 began a course of botanical lectures at the Athenaeum. In 1803 he became superin- tendent of the gardens and conservatories of Malmaison. In 1806 he went to Holland, when Louis Bonaparte appointed him his pri- vate secretary and counsellor of state. He soon returned to Paris, and in 1808 became a member of the institute, and assistant profes- sor of botany and vegetable physiology to the faculty of sciences, and in 1828 professor of MIRIAM 631 culture in the jardin des plantes. His works comprise Traite d'anatomie et de physiologie vegetale (2 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1802) ; Exposition de la theorie de V organisation vegetale (8vo, Amsterdam, 1808); Elements de physiologic vegetale et de botanique (3 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1815). He also wrote 5 of the 18 volumes de- voted to the history of plants in Sonnini's Cours d'histoire naturelle. His second wife, LIZINSKA AIMEE ZOE RUE, born in Cherbourg, July 26, 1796, was one of the best miniature portrait painters of her day. She died in Paris, Aug. 31, 1849. MIKKCOl KT, a town of France, in the de- partment of Vosges, on the Madon, a tributary of the Moselle, 17 m. N. W. of Epinal; pop. in 1866, 5,735. Nearly the entire male popula- tion are engaged in the manufacure of musical instruments, principally violins, guitars, and barrel organs. The town has a communal college, a tribunal of commerce, and a public library of about 7,000 volumes. MIKES, Jnles, a French speculator, born of Jewish parentage in Bordeaux, Dec. 9, 1809, died near Marseilles, June 6, 1871. He settled in Paris as a broker, and became director of a gas company. In conjunction with his towns- man Moi'se Millaud, also a Jew, he purchased in 1848 the Journal des Chemins de Fer, which gave them considerable control over railway enterprise ; and they increased their influence by purchasing an interest in the Conseiller du Peuple, the Constitutional, and other journals. They next founded the railway bank (la caisse des chemins defer), by which they made seve- ral millions. Mires remained the sole director of this establishment in 1853, and thencefor- ward was prominent in many loans and in- dustrial enterprises. In 1860 he negotiated a Turkish loan. In February, 1861, he was ar- rested for maladministration, and sentenced to five years' imprisonment and a fine of 3,000 francs. The imperial tribunal confirmed the sentence, but the court of cassation set it aside and ordered a new trial at Douai, which ended in a reversal of the judgment, and his escaping with one month's imprisonment for an inci- dental misdemeanor. But when the case was again brought before the court of cassation, the Douai decision was reversed, and Mires served out his term of imprisonment till 1866. On gaining his liberty, he came forward as a nego- tiator of loans, and attempted to reorganize his bank ; and though the bank of France declined to deal with him, he recovered his influence among his old followers. In 1869 he was in- volved in a libel suit with Pereire, and in 1870 he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment and 3,000 francs fine for attacking his former judges in his pamphlet Un crime judiciaire. MIRIAM, the sister of Moses, the Hebrew lawgiver. She was present on the bank of the Nile, watching the fate of the infant child Moses, when he was found by the daughter of Pharaoh, and she called her mother Joche- bed, the wife of Amram, to nurse him for