Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/222

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Müller
208
Müller

guess-work, but unfairly; for although some of his data are far from being as trustworthy as could be desired, his deductions are all carefully worked out, and the whole volume was most carefully printed, owing to the indefatigable zeal of his proof-corrector, Marion Mulhall (born Murphy), whom he had married at Buenos Ayres in 1878, and to whom he dedicated his chief work. Mulhall further issued a ‘History of Prices since 1850’ (1885), ‘Fifty Years of National Progress’ (1887), ‘Industries and Wealth of Nations’ (1896), and ‘National Progress in the Queen's Reign’ (1897). In 1896, at the instance of the Hon. Horace Plunkett, he travelled extensively in Western Europe, collecting material for the recess committee's report upon the prospect of a department of agriculture for Ireland. Mulhall, who was cameriere segreto of the pope (who sent him his blessing in articulo mortis), died at Kelliney Park, Dublin, on 13 Dec. 1900. He was buried at Glasnevin cemetery, beside his only child who had died at Buenos Ayres in 1886. He is survived by his widow, the writer of a valuable book of travel, ‘Between the Amazon and the Andes’ (1881), for which she received a diploma from the Italian government.

[Times, 14 Dec. 1900; Tablet, 22 Dec. 1900; Illustrated London News, 22 Dec. 1900 (portrait); Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit. Suppl.; Brit. Mus. Cat.; private information.]

T. S.

MÜLLER, FRIEDRICH MAX (1823–1900), philologist. [See Max Müller.]

MÜLLER, GEORGE (1805–1898), preacher and philanthropist, born at Kroppenstadt near Halberstadt on 27 Sept. 1805, was the son of a Prussian exciseman. Though a German by birth, he became a naturalised British subject, and for over sixty years was identified with philanthropic work in England. When four years of age his father received an appointment as collector in the excise at Heimersleben. When ten years of age he was sent to Halberstadt to the cathedral classical school to be prepared for the university. His mother died when he was fourteen, and a year later he left school to reside with his father at Schoenebeck, near Magdeburg, and to study with a tutor. After two and a half years at the gymnasium of Nordhausen he joined the university of Halle. Though he was intended for the ministry, Müller was a profligate youth, but at the end of 1825 a change came over his disposition, and he was thenceforth a man of self-abnegation, devoting himself exclusively to religious work. For a brief period Miiller gave instructions in German to three American professors, Charles Hodge of Princeton being one of them. In 1826 he resolved to dedicate himself to missionary work either in the East Indies or among the Jews in Poland. In June 1828 he was offered an appointment by the London Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews, and he arrived in London in March 1829 to study Hebrew and Chaldee and prepare for missionary service. But in 1830, finding that he could not accept some of the rules of the society, he left, and became pastor of a small congregation at Teignmouth, at a salary of 55l. a year. In the same year he married Mary Groves, sister of a dentist in Exeter, who had resigned his calling and 1,500l. a year to devote himself to mission work in Persia. Towards the close of the same year Müller was led to adopt the principle with which henceforth his name was associated, that trust in God, in the efficacy of sincere prayer, is sufficient for all purposes in temporal as well as in spiritual things. He accordingly abolished pew-rents, refused to take a fixed salary, or to appeal for contributions towards his support—simply placing a box at the door of the church for freewill offerings—and he resolved never to incur debt either for personal expenses or in religious work, and never to lay up money for the future.

After about two years in Teignmouth Müller went to Bristol, where he remained for the rest of his life. There he and others carried on a congregation, schools, a Scriptural Knowledge Institution, and other organisations, but the work among orphans was that by which he was chiefly known. The suggestion and the pattern of the Bristol orphanages were taken from the orphanages which Müller had visited in early life at Halle; these were erected in 1720 by a philanthropist named Francke, whose biography greatly influenced Müller. Beginning with the care of a few orphan children, Müller's work at Bristol gradually grew to immense proportions, latterly no fewer than two thousand orphan children being fed, clothed, educated, cared for, and trained for useful positions in five enormous houses which were erected on Ashley Down. These houses cost 115,000l., all of which, as well as the money needed for carrying on the work—26,000l annually—was voluntarily contributed, mainly as the result of the wide circulation of Müller's autobiographical ‘Narrative of the Lord's Dealings with George Müller’ (London, pt. i. 1837, pt. ii. 1841; 3rd edit. 1845) which was suggested to him by John Newton's ‘Life.’ This book con-