third of Paris (1780) deserve mention. The posthumous works were printed at Vienna, 1795. The collected editions of Genoa (1802) and Padua (1811) will probably be found most useful by the general student. An edition of the letters, by Cardacci, was published at Bologne in 1883. Metastasio’s life was written by Aluigi (Assisi, 1783): by Charles Burney (London, 1796); and by others; but by far the most vivid sketch of his biography will be found in Vernon Lee’s Studies of the 18th Century in Italy (London, 1880) a work which throws a flood of light upon the development of Italian dramatic music, and upon the place occupied by Metastasio in the artistic movement of the last century.
(J. A. S.)
METAURUS (mod. Metauro; the form Mataurus is later, and is more frequent in inscriptions of the imperial period), a river of Italy, which flows into the sea a little south-east of Fanum Fortunae (mod. Fano). On its banks Hasdrubal, while marching to the aid of Hannibal in 207 B.C., was defeated and slain by the Roman army, this being the decisive battle of the Second Punic War. The exact site of the battle is uncertain; tradition places it between Fossombrone and the Furlo Pass, but it is probable that it occurred nearer the sea-coast.
METAXAS, ANDREAS (1786–1860), Greek politician, was
born in the island of Cephalonia. During the latter part of the
War of Independence (1824–1827) he accompanied Capo d’Istria
to Greece, and was appointed by him minister of war. When
Capo d’Istria was murdered in 1831 Metaxas became a member
of the provisional government which held office till the accession
of King Otho in 1833. During the minority of Otho he was
named privy councillor and minister at Madrid and Lisbon. In
1840 he was recalled and appointed minister of war. In 1843–1844
he was president of the council of ministers, and he
subsequently held the post of ambassador at Constantinople
from 1850 to 1854. He died at Athens on the 19th of
September 1860.
MÉTAYAGE SYSTEM, the cultivation of land for a proprietor
by one who receives a proportion of the produce. The system
has never existed in England and has no English name, but in
certain provinces of Italy and France it was once almost universal,
and is still very common. It is also not unusual in Portugal,
in Greece, and in the countries bordering on the Danube. In
Italy and France, respectively, it is called mezzeria and métayage,
or halving—the halving, that is, of the produce of, the soil
between landowner and landholder. These expressions are
not, however, to be understood in a more precise sense than that
in which we sometimes talk of a larger and a smaller half. They
merely signify that the produce is divisible in certain definite
proportions, which must obviously vary with the varying fertility
of the soil and other circumstances, and which do in practice
vary so much that the landlord’s share is sometimes as much
as two-thirds, sometimes as little as one-third. Sometimes the
landlord supplies all the stock, sometimes only part—the cattle
and seed perhaps, while the farmer provides the implements;
or perhaps only half the seed and half the cattle, the farmer
finding the other halves—taxes too being paid wholly by one or
the other, or jointly by both.
English writers were unanimous, until J. S. Mill adopted a different tone, in condemning the métayer system. They judged it by its appearance in France, where it has never worn a very attractive aspect. Under the ancien régime not only were all direct taxes paid by the métayer, the noble landowner being exempt, but these taxes, being assessed according to the visible produce of the soil, operated as penalties upon all endeavours to augment its productiveness. No wonder, then, if the métayer fancied that his interest lay less in exerting himself to augment the total to be divided between himself and his landlord, than in studying how to defraud the latter part of his rightful share; nor if he has not yet got rid of habits so acquired, especially when it is considered that he still is destitute of the fixity of tenure without which métayage cannot prosper. French métayers, in Arthur Young’s time, were “removable at pleasure, and obliged to conform in all things to the will of their landlords,” and so in general they are still. Yet even in France, although métayage and extreme rural poverty usually coincide, there are provinces where the contrary is the fact, as it is also in Italy. Indeed, to every tourist who has passed through the plains of Lombardy with his eyes open, the knowledge that métayage has for ages been there the prevailing form of tenure ought to suffice for the triumphant vindication of métayage in the abstract. An explanation of the contrasts presented by métayage in different regions is not far to seek. Métayage, in order to be in any measure worthy of commendation, must be a genuine partnership, one in which there is no sleeping partner, but in the affairs of which the landlord, as well as the tenant, takes an active part. Wherever this applies, the results of métayage appear to be as eminently satisfactory, as they are decidedly the reverse wherever the landlord holds himself aloof.
In France there is also a system termed métayage par groupes, which consists in letting a considerable farm, not to one métayer, but to an association of several, who work together for the general good, under the supervision either of the landlord himself, or of his bailiff. This arrangement gets over the difficulty of finding tenants possessed of capital enough for any but very small farms.
See further the section Agriculture in the articles France, Greece, Italy, &c.; and consult J. Cruveilhier, Etude sur le métayage (Paris, 1894).
METCALF, WILLARD LEROY (1858–), American artist, was born at Lowell, Massachusetts, on the 1st of July 1858. He was a pupil of the Boston Normal Art School, of the Boston Art Museum School, and of the Académie Julien, Paris. After early figure-painting and illustration, he became prominent as a landscape
painter. He was one of the “Ten American Painters”
who in 1897 seceded from the Society of American Artists. For some years he was an instructor in the Woman’s Art School, Cooper Union, New York, and in the Art Students’ League, New York. In 1893 he became a member of the American Water Colour Society, New York.
METCALFE, CHARLES THEOPHILUS METCALFE, Baron (1785–1846), Indian and colonial administrator, was born at Calcutta on the 30th of January 1785; he was the second son of Thomas Theophilus Metcalfe, then a major in the Bengal army, who afterwards became a director of the East India
Company, and was created a baronet in 1802. Having been
educated at Eton, he in 1800 sailed for India as a writer in the service of the Company. After studying Oriental languages as the first student at Lord Wellesley’s College of Fort William, he, at the age of nineteen, was appointed political assistant to General Lake, who was then conducting the final campaign of the Mahratta war against Holkar. In 1808 he was selected by Lord Minto for the responsible post of envoy to the court of Ranjit Singh at Lahore; here, on the 25th of April 1809, he concluded the important treaty securing the independence of the Sikh states between the Sutlej and the Jumna. Four years afterwards he was made resident at Delhi, and in 1819 he received from Lord Hastings the appointment of secretary in the secret and political department. From 1820 to 1825 Sir Charles (who succeeded his brother in the baronetcy in 1822) was resident at the court of the nizam, and afterwards was summoned in an emergency to his former post at Delhi. In 1827 he obtained a seat in the supreme council, and in March 1835, after he had acted as the first governor of the proposed new presidency of Agra, he provisionally succeeded Lord William Bentinck in the governor-generalship. During his brief tenure of office (it lasted only for one year) he carried out several important measures, including that for the liberation of the press, which, while almost universally popular, complicated his relations with the directors at home to such an extent that he resigned the service of the Company in 1838. In the following year he was appointed by the Melbourne administration to the governorship of Jamaica, where the difficulties created by the recent passing of the Negro Emancipation Act had called for a high degree of tact and ability. Sir Charles Metcalfe’s success in this delicate position, was very marked, but unfortunately his health compelled his resignation and return to England in 1842. Six months afterwards he was appointed by the Peel ministry to the governor-generalship of Canada, and his success in carrying out the policy of the home government was rewarded with a
