a short but decisive campaign, the Servians were utterly routed at the battles of Slivinska. and Pirot, and Milan’s throne was only saved by the direct intervention of Austria. Domestic difficulties now arose which rapidly assumed a political significance. In October 1875 King Milan had married Natalie, the sixteen-years-old daughter of Peter Ivanovich Ketchko, a Moldavian Boyar, who was a colonel in the Russian army, and whose wife, Pulcheria, was by birth Princess Sturdza. A son, Alexander, was born in 1876, but the king and queen showed signs of friction. Milan was anything but a faithful husband. Queen Natalie was greatly influenced by Russian sympathies; and the couple, ill-assorted both personally and politically, separated in 1886, when the queen withdrew from the kingdom, taking with her the young prince, Alexander, afterwards king, then ten years of age. While she was residing at Wiesbaden in 1888, King Milan succeeded in recovering the crown prince, whom he undertook to educate; and in reply to the queen’s remonstrances, he exerted considerable pressure upon the metropolitan, and procured a divorce, which was afterwards annulled as illegal. King Milan now seemed master of the situation, and on the 3rd of January 1889 promulgated a new constitution much more liberal than the existing one of 1869. Two months later (March 6) he suddenly abdicated in favour of his son, a step for which no satisfactory reason was assigned, and settled as a private individual in Paris. In February 1891 a Radical ministry was formed, Queen Natalie and the ex-metropolitan Michael returned to Belgrade, and Austrian influence began to give way to Russian. Fear of a revolution and of King Milan’s return led to a compromise, by which in May 1891 the queen was expelled, and Milan was allowed a million francs from the civil list, on condition of not returning to Servia during his son’s minority. Milan in March 1892 renounced all his rights, and even his Servian nationality. The situation altered, however, after the young King Alexander in April 1893 had effected his coup d’état and taken the reins of government into his hands. Servian politics began to grow more complicated, and Russian intrigue was rife. In January 1894 Milan suddenly appeared at Belgrade, and his son gladly availed himself of his experience and advice. On the 29th of April a royal decree reinstated Milan and Natalie, who in the meantime had become ostensibly reconciled, in their position as members of the royal family. On the 21st of May the constitution of 1869 was restored, and Milan continued to exercise considerable influence over his son. The queen, who had been residing chiefly at Biarritz, returned to Belgrade in May 1895, after four years’ absence, and was greeted by the populace with great enthusiasm. In 1897 Milan was appointed commander-in-chief of the Servian army. In this capacity he did some of the best' work of his life, and his success in improving the Servian military system was very marked. His relations with the young king also remained good, and for a time it seemed as though all Russian intrigues were being checked. The good relations between father and son were interrupted, however, by the latter’s marriage in July 1900. Milan violently opposed the match, and resigned his post as commander-in-chief;. and the young king banished him from Servia and threw himself into the arms of Russia. Milan retired to Vienna, and there he died unexpectedly on the 11th of February 1901. Milan was an able, though headstrong man, but he lived a scandalously irregular life, and was devoid of moral principle. In considering his relations with his young son, it must be remembered that in the dynastic and political condition of Servia natural feeling was inevitably subordinated in Milan to other considerations. (H. Ch.)
MILÁ Y FONTANALS, MANUEL (1818–1884), Spanish
scholar, born at Villafranca del Panadés, near Barcelona, on the
4th of May 1818, was educated first at Barcelona, and afterwards
at the university of Cervera. In 1845 he became professor of
literature at the university of Barcelona, and held this post till
his death at Villafranca del Panadés on the 16th of July 1884.
The type of the scholarly recluse, Milá y Fontanals was almost
unknown outside the walls of the university till 1859, when he
was appointed president of the juegos florales at Barcelona.
On the publication of his treatise, De Los trovadores en España
(1866), his merits became more generally recognized, and his
monograph, De La poesía heróico-popular castellana (1873)
revealed him to foreign scholars as a master of scientific method.
MILAZZO, a seaport on the north coast of Sicily, in the
province of Messina, 22 m. W. of Messina by rail. Pop. (1901),
16,422. It is mainly built on the low isthmus of a peninsula,
which stretches some 3 m. farther north and forms a good harbour:
but the old town, which contains a castle, mainly the
work of Charles V., lies on a hill above. Milazzo is the ancient
Mylae, an outpost of Zancle, occupied before 648 B.C., perhaps
as early as 716 B.C. (E. A. Freeman, History of Sicily, I., pp. 395,
587). It was taken by the Athenians in 426 B.C. The people of
Rhegium planted here the exiles from Naxos and Catana in 395 B.C.
as a counterpoise to Dionysius’ foundation of Tyndaris;
but Dionysius soon took it. In the bay Duilius won the first
Roman naval victory over the Carthaginians (260 B.C.).
MILDENHALL, a market town in the Stowmarket parliamentary division of Suffolk, England, 7612 m.. N.N.E. from London
by a branch of the Great Eastern railway from Cambridge.
Pop. (1901), 3567. It lies on the edge of Mildenhall Fen, the
great Fen district stretching northward and westward from here.
The church of St Andrew has an Early English chancel with fine
east window and chancel arch. The remainder is principally
Perpendicular with a magnificent carved oak roof, ornate north
porch and lofty tower with fan tracery within. There is a
wooden market cross of the 15th century; the manor house is
a picturesque gabled building of the 17th century, and there
is a modern public hall. Flour milling is an industry. The
discovery of Roman remains indicates a small settlement.
MILDEW (O. Eng. meledéaw or mildeaw, explained as “mealdew,” cf. Ger. Mehlthau, with more probability, as “honeydew,”
Goth. melith, honey, cf. Lat. mel, Gr. μέλι), a popular
name given to various minute fungi from their appearance, and
from the sudden, dew-like manner of their occurrence. Like
many other popular names of plants, it is used to denote different
species which possess very small botanical affinity. The term is
applied, not only to species belonging to various systematic
groups, but also to such as follow different modes of life. The
corn-mildew, the hop-mildew and the vine-mildew are, for
example, parasitic upon living plants, and the mildews of damp
linen and of paper are saprophytes (Gr. σαπρός, rotten), that is,
they subsist on matter which is already dead. As regards mildews
in general, the conditions of life and growth are mainly
suitable nutrition and dampness accompanied by a high temperature.
The life history of the same species of mildew frequently
covers two or more generations, and these are often passed on
hosts of different kinds. In some cases again the same generation
confines its attack to the same kind of host, while in others
the same generation grows on various hosts (see Fungi; Hop;
and Wheat).
MILES, NELSON APPLETON (1839–), American soldier, was born in Westminster, Massachusetts, on the 8th of August 1839. He was engaged in mercantile pursuits in Boston when the Civil War began, and he entered the army in September 1861 as a lieutenant in the 22nd Massachusetts volunteer infantry. He served with distinction in the Peninsular campaign, and at Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, where he received a wound which incapacitated him up to the opening of Grant’s Virginia campaign of 1864. He had been commissioned in September 1862 colonel of the 61st New York volunteers, commanded a brigade at the Wilderness and Spottsylvania, and in May 1864 was rewarded for his gallant leadership by the grade of brigadier-general of volunteers. He fought in the Cold Harbor and Petersburg operations in 186465, was brevetted major-general of volunteers for his conduct at Reams Station, and at the close of the war was in temporary command of an army corps. In July 1866 he was made colonel of a regular infantry regiment, and in 1867 he was brevetted brigadier-general in the regular army for his services at Chancellorsville and major-general for his services at Spottsylvania. He was promoted to be brigadier-general U.S.A. (Dec. 1880), and to be–
