M A L M A L 327 England. On his return to India in 1796 lie became military secretary to Sir Alured Clarke, commander-in- cliief at Madras, and afterwards to his successor General Harris ; and in 1798 he was appointed by Lord Wellesley assistant to the resident at Hyderabad. In the last- mentioned capacity he highly distinguished himself by the manner in which he gave effect to the difficult measure of disbanding the French corps in the pay of the nizam. In 1799, under the walls of Seringapatam, began his intimacy with Colonel Arthur Wellesley, which in a short time ripened into a life-long friendship ; in the course of the same year he acted as first secretary to the commission appointed to settle the Mysore government, and before its close he was appointed by Lord Wellesley to proceed as envoy to the court of Persia for the purpose of counteract ing the policy of the French by inducing that country to form a British alliance. Arriving at Teheran in December 1800, he was successful in negotiating favourable treaties, both political and commercial, and returned to Bombay by way of Baghdad in May 1801. He now for some time held the interim post of private secretary to Lord Wellesley, and in 1803 was appointed to the Mysore residency. At the close of the Mahratta war, in 1804, and again in 1805, he negotiated important treaties with Sindhia and Holkar, and in 1806, besides seeing the arrangements arising out of these alliances carried out, he directed the difficult work of reducing the immense body of irregular native troops. In 1808 he was again sent on a mission to Persia, but circumstances prevented him from getting beyond Bushire.; on his reappointment in 1810, he was successful indeed in procuring a favourable reception at court, but otherwise his embassy, if the information which he afterwards incorporated in his works on Persia be left out of account, was (through no fault of his) without any substantial result. He sailed for England in 1811, and shortly after his arrival in the following year was knighted. His intervals of leisure he devoted to literary work, and especially to the composition of a History of Persia, which was published in two quarto volumes in 1815. On his return to India in 1817 he was appointed by Lord Moira his political agent in the Deccan, with eligibility for military command ; as brigadier-general under Sir T. Hislop he served against the Mahrattas and Pindharis, and took a distinguished part in the victory of Mehidpur (December 21, 1817), as also in the subsequent work of following up the fugitives, determining the conditions of peace, and settling the country. In 1821 he returned once more to England, where he remained until 1827, when he was appointed to the Bombay government. His influence in this office v/as directed to the promotion of various economical reforms and useful administrative measures. Leaving India for the last time in 1830, he shortly after his arrival in England entered parliament as member for Launceston, and was an active opponent of the Reform Bill. He died of paralysis on May 30, 1833. Besides tlie work mentioned above, Sir John Malcolm published Sketch of the Political History of India.since . . . 1784, in 1811 and 1826 ; Sketch of the Sikhs, 1812 ; Observations on the Disturbances in the Madras Army in 1809, 1812 ; Persia, a Poem, anonymous, 1814 ; A Memoir of Central India, 2 vols., 1823 ; and Sketches of Persia, anonymous, 1827. A posthumous work, Life of Robert, Lord Clive, appeared in 1836. See Life and Correspondence of Major-General Sir John Malcolm, G.C.B., by J. W. Kayo, 2 vols., 1856. MALDAH, a district in the lieutenant-governorship of Bengal, India, between 24 29 50" and 25 32 30" N. lat., and 87 48 and 88 33 30" E. long., the Ganges river forming the continuous west and south-west boundary. The administrative headquarters are at English Bazar. The district, of which the area is 1813 square miles, is divided into two almost equal parts by the Mahanandii river, flowing from north to south. The western tract between the Mahanandd and the main stream of the Ganges is a low-lying alluvial plain of sandy soil and great fertility. The eastern half is an elevated region broken by the deep valleys of the Tangan and Purnabhaba rivers and their small tributary streams. The soil of this district is a hard red clay ; and the whole is overgrown with thorny tree jungle known as the kdt ll. Agricultural prosperity centres on the Mahananda, where mango orchards and high raised plots of mulberry land extend continuously along both banks of the river. The Ganges nowhere intersects the district, but skirts it from its north-western corner to the extreme south. The Mahananda flows in a deep well- defined channel through the centre of the district, and joins the Ganges at the southern corner. Its tributaries are the Kalindri on the right, and the Tangan and Purnabhaba on the left bank. The population in 1881 was 710,310 (347,055 males and 363,255 females). In 1872 the number of inhabitants was 671,974, 355,276 Hindus, 307,460 Mohammedans, 9195 aborigines, and 43 Christians. The male adult agriculturists numbered 134,358. Only two towns then contained upwards of 5000 inhabitants, viz., English Bazar or Angrazabad, 12,859, and Maldah, 5262. The most important centres of commerce are Haiatpur on the Ganges, and Rohanpur pn the Fuinabhaba, just above the con- iluence of that river with the Mahananda. Rice constitutes the staple crop, and occupies about 53 per cent, of the total cultivated food crop area. The miscellaneous crops include indigo, mulberry, and mangoes. The average rate of rent may be put at over 4s. an acre. There is little that is peculiar in the land tenures of the district, except the existence of several large rent-free estates, granted as endowments to Mohammedan fakirs. Among cultivating tenures, the hal hdsilA deserves notice, under which the annual rent varies according to the nature of the crop raised. This tenure is most common in the backward parts of the district, and one of its incidents is that it allows a certain proportion of the village lands to lie fallow. Maldah is liable to some extent to the calamities of Hood and drought; but the means of com munication by river are sufficiently ample to prevent scarcity from intensifying into acute distress. The two staple manufactures are silk and cotton. Brass ware of excellent quality is manufactured at Nawabganj, and paper in certain villages. The principal exports are rice, silk, indigo, brass ware, and mango fruit. The imports comprise cotton cloth, salt, sugar, spices, and betel-nuts. The net revenue of the district in 1880-81 amounted to 60,674, of which 37,998 was derived from the land tax, and 11,538 from excise. Education was afforded in 1872 by 170 schools, attended by 4207 pupils. The average annual rainfall of the district is returned at 51 56 inches. The chief epidemic diseases are malarious fever, cholera, and small-pox. Maldah supplied two great capitals to the early Mohammedan kings of Bengal ; and the sites of Gaur and Panduah exhibit the most interesting remains to be found in the lower Gangetic valley. See GAUR, vol. x. p. 112 sq. The connexion of the East India Company with Maldah dates from a very early period. As far back as 1686 there was a silk factory there. In 1770 English Bazar was fixed upon for a commercial residency, the buildings of which at the present day form both the public offices and private residence of the collector. MALDEN, a city of the United States, in Middlesex county, Massachusetts, situated on the Maiden river, 5 miles north of Boston. Maiden was settled in 1634, being then known as the village of Mystic Side. It was incor porated as a town under the name of " Mauldon " in 1649, and became a city in 1882. It is a place of considerable industry, producing india-rubber boots and shoes, leather, lasts, sandpaper, &c. There are Turkey red dye-works ; and the U. S. Government has a depot where large quan tities of saltpetre are stored. Judson, the apostle of Burmah, was born in the town in 1788. The population has increased from 7367 in 1870 to 12,017 in 1880. MALDIVE ISLANDS, a remarkable archipelago in the Indian Ocean, the northern extremity of which is 7 west of Ceylon, and which extends in length from north to south, from 7 7 N. lat. to 42 S., a space of 540 British miles (or about as far as from Kirkwall in Orkney
to Dover), and is limited in width by the meridians 72