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MALMAISON MALMAISON, La, a village of France, in the department of Seine-et-Oise, about 7 m. W. of the enceinte of Paris, noted for a palace which became celebrated through Josephine, the first wife of Napoleon I. The Norman pirates com- mitted ravages in this vicinity in the 9th cen- tury, and the locality was thence called mala mansio ("evil spot"). In the 17th century it was owned by Christophe Perrot, councillor of the parliament of Paris, styling himself lord of Malmaison. Afterward it had various propri- etors; and from Mme. Harenc, who received here many literary and scientific notabilities, it passed into the possession of M. Le Couteulx, who in 1798 sold the domain to Josephine for 160,000 francs. She made it a brilliant centre of fashionable and intellectual society, enlarg- ing and embellishing the grounds after the model of Marie Antoinette's Trianon, furnish- ing it with a good library, and adding many fine pictures and other works of art to the collections. The chateau itself, however, re- tained a rather unseemly appearance. Bona- parte often resided here previous to his removal to St. Cloud, and Malmaison preserved great prestige until the establishment of the empire in 1804. After her divorce (Dec. 16, 1809) Jose- phine kept up here the semblance of a court, and she was frequently visited by Napoleon, who also spent several days here with Hortense after the battle of Waterloo. The emperor Alexander, as well as the king of Prussia and his son, visited Josephine at Malmaison, on the first occupation, of Paris. After her death here (May 29, 1814) the property reverted to her son, Eugene de Beauharnais. The Swedish banker Haguerman purchased it in 1826, reducing the grounds to their original small dimensions. He sold it in 1842 to the dowager queen Maria Christina of Spain for 500,000 francs, and she resold it in 1861 for 1,500,000 francs to Napo- leon III., who had it restored. Among the works which he collected here are Isabey's painting of "Bonaparte at La Malmaison," Hortense's portrait of herself, and a portrait of Josephine. The room which Napoleon used to occupy contains the bed on which he died at St. Helena. MAUIESBIRY, a parliamentary borough of Wiltshire, England, on the Avon, which is here crossed by six bridges, 82 m. W. of London ; pop. in 1871, 6,880. Formerly the manufacture of woollen cloth was the chief branch of indus- try, but it has given way to wool-stapling. The parish church is a portion of a famous old Saxon nunnery, and contains a tomb reputed to be that of King Athelstane. The town is the birthplace of the philosopher Hobbes. MALMESBCRY. I. James Harris, first earl of, an English diplomatist, born in Salisbury, April 21, 1746, died in London, Nov. 20, 1820. He was the eldest son of James Harris, secretary and comptroller to Queen Charlotte, and author of "Hermes," studied at Oxford and Leyden, and was appointed in 1767 secretary of lega- tion at Madrid. He was for four years Eng- MALMO 67 lish ambassador in Berlin, and from 1777 to 1784 in St. Petersburg. In the house of com- mons he was the follower of Fox, after whose withdrawal from the cabinet he received from Pitt the appointment of ambassador at the Hague, and in September, 1788, was raised to the peerage as Baron Malmesbury, having been knighted in 1780. In 1793 he joined the party of Pitt, who again appointed him to a mission to Berlin. In 1794 he negotiated the marriage between the prince of Wales and Caroline of Brunswick, and accompanied the bride to Eng- land. In 1796 and 1797 he was employed in fruitless negotiations for peace with the French republic. Becoming deaf, he spent the rest of his life in retirement. In 1800 he was created Viscount Fitz-Harris and earl of Malmesbury. II. James Howard Harris, third earl of, grand- son of the preceding, born in London, March 25, 1807. He studied at Eton and at Oxford, where he graduated in 1828. He was returned to the house of commons for the family bor- ough of Wilton in June, 1841, and in Sep- tember succeeded his father in the house of lords. He was secretary of state for foreign affairs in the Derby administration from March to December, 1852; and being a personal friend of Louis Napoleon, he was among the first to urge the recognition of the second em- pire. He was reappointed foreign secretary in March, 1858, but resigned in April, 1859. He was lord keeper of the privy seal from 1866 to the end of 1868, when he retired on account of failing health. Besides editing the " Diaries and Correspondence " of his grand- father (4 vols., London, 1844), he has published " The First Lord Malmesbury, his Family and Friends : a Series of Letters from 1745 to 1820 " (2 vols., 1870). MALMESBURY, William of, an English histo- rian, born in Somersetshire about 1095, died at Malmesbury about 1143. He was destined for the church, and early entered the monastery of Malmesbury, of which he became librarian. Several of his numerous works were published by Sir Henry Savile in 1596, in his Scriptores post Bedam. His " History of the Kings of England " and " Modern History " (De Gestis JRegum and Histories Novellce), the former translated by the Kev. John Sharpe (London, 1815), were reprinted in 1847 in Bohn's "An- tiquarian Library." MALMO (Swedish, MalmoJius). I. A Ian or province of Sweden, bordering on Christian- stad, the Baltic, and the Sound; area, 1,852 sq. m. ; pop. in 1873, 322,175. It is one of the most fertile portions of Sweden, rears the best horses and cattle, and produces excellent cheese and great quantities of grain. It con- tains several lakes, of which the largest is Lake Ring. II. A city, capital of the Ian, on the Sound, 16 m. S. E. of Copenhagen; pop. in 1873, 27,485. It consists of the town proper and two suburbs, Oster and Wester Warn, connected with it by a canal. The streets are spacious, and the market place is planted