assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as
subjects for future colonization by any European powers.
With this message Great Britain was in hearty agreement. Indeed it was Canning’s policy, summed up three years later by his famous reference to the necessity of calling the New World into existence to restore the balance of the Old.
This announcement of policy, it will be noticed, involved, firstly, a declaration aimed at foreign intervention in the political affairs of independent American states; secondly, a warning against future European colonization on the American continents. The first was avowedly based on the right of self-defence; it was a policy, not a law; it was not to constrain the minor republics, but to protect them. The second, as explained by John Quincy Adams, was intended to state the fact that the American continent was occupied by contiguous states, leaving no room for further colonization and introduction of foreign sovereignty. No legislative sanction was given to Monroe’s statement of policy at the time, and in fact none was needed, for the mere announcement served to prevent foreign action in South America. It has never formed part of the body of International Law, being unilateral. Nor has the United States bound itself by compact with the other republics of the American continent to protect them from European aggression. Thus it hesitated to send delegates to the Panama Congress in 1826, and took no part in any congress with the Latin American states until 1889.
Nevertheless, on several occasions since its conception the Monroe Doctrine has been enforced. Its spirit permeated the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, in which Great Britain and the United States, in 1850, mutually renounced the right of colonizing, fortifying or occupying any porton of Central America. It was enforced against Maximilian, who, by French intervention in Mexico, had been made emperor, and until the close of the American Civil War had perforce been left undisturbed. Its applicability was urged when de Lesseps’s Panama Canal was thought possible of completion. Both Cuba and the Hawaiian Islands at various periods have felt its influence, the general, though not consistent policy of the United States being, while disclaiming the desire of annexation itself, to deny the right of any European power (except Spain in Cuba’s case, until 1898) to control them. And it was applied to the claims of British Guiana to Venezuelan territory by President Cleveland’s message in 1895, which proposed a commission to settle the boundary and threatened war if its line were not accepted. This commission never reported, but the disputants finally agreed to arbitrate, and the British claim was in the main upheld. Between 1823 and 1895 the development and enlargement of this policy on the part of the United States was very striking. To prevent the overthrow of an independent republic is one thing; to interfere in the settlement of a boundary dispute between two states, also on the ground of self-defence, is quite another. Yet Cleveland’s doctrine met with general acceptance, and in fact it had been in a sense anticipated by President Grant, who, in urging the annexation of San Domingo upon the United States Senate in 1870, used this language:—
The Doctrine promulgated by President Monroe has been adhered to by all political parties, and I now deem it proper to assert the equally important principle that hereafter no territory on this continent shall be regarded as subject of transfer to a European power.
Never having been formulated as law or in exact language, the Monroe Doctrine has meant different things to different persons at different times. It has become deeply rooted in the American heart, and a permanent part of the foreign policy of the United States. It tends to change into the principle that every portion of the American continent must be free from European control. It is still coupled, however, with the converse principle that America takes no part in European politics, as the disclaimer of the American delegates to the first Peace Conference at the Hague proved.
See Tucker’s Monroe Doctrine; Gilman’s Life of Monroe; Wharton’s International Law Digest (title, “Monroe Doctrine”); Snow’s American Diplomacy; also an article by Sir Frederick Pollock in the Nineteenth Century and After (1902). (T. S. W.)
MONROSE (1783–1843), French actor, whose real name was
Claude Louis Séraphin Barizain, was born in Besançon on the
6th of December 1783, and was already playing children’s
parts at the time of the Revolution. He was called to the
Comédie Française in 1815, and was received sociétaire in 1817.
A small, active man, with mobile and expressive features and
quick, nervous gestures, he was noted as the rascally servant
in such plays as Le Barbier de Séville and Les Fourberies de
Scapin. His son, Louis Martial Barizain (1809–1883), also
called Monrose, was also an actor. He succeeded Samson as
professor at the Conservatoire in 1866.
MONS (Flemish Bergen), a town of Belgium situated on a
small river called the Trouille in the province of Hainaut of
which it is the capital. Pop. (1904), 27,072. Mons was
the capital of the ancient countdom of Hainaut, well
known in English history from the marriage of Edward III.
with its Countess Philippa. The town was founded by the
Countess Waudru in the 8th century, whereupon Charlemagne
recognized it as the capital of Hainaut, and it has retained the
position ever since. It was only in the 11th century, however,
that it became the fixed residence of the counts, who had
previously occupied the castle of Hornu, leaving Mons to the
abbey and the church of St Waudru. Regnier V. moved to
Mons at the beginning of that century, and his only child—a
daughter—Richilde, married Baldwin VI. of Flanders. The
junction of the two countdoms was only temporary, and they
again separated in the person of Richilde’s sons. In this age
Hainaut was known as “the poor land of a proud people,” and
it was not until the beginning of the 14th century that Mons
was converted into a trading town by the establishment of a
cloth market. At the same time the count transferred his
principal fortress from Valenciennes to Mons. When the
Hainaut title became merged in the duchy of Burgundy, Mons
was a place of considerable importance on account of its being
a stronghold near the French frontier. Its capture, defence
and surrender by Louis of Nassau in 1572 was one of the striking
incidents of the religious troubles. In the long wars of the
17th and 18th centuries Mons underwent several sieges, but
none of the same striking character as those of Namur. Several
times dismantled and refortified, Mons was finally converted
into an open town in 1862.
The most remarkable building in the city is the cathedral of St Waudru, named after the first countess, which was begun in the middle of the 15th century, but not finished for more than a century and a half later. It is a fine specimen of later Gothic, and contains some good glass as well as a few pictures by Van Thudden. The Hôtel de Ville is about the same age as the cathedral, having been commenced in 1458 and finished in 1606. The tower was added a century later. There is also a fine belfry with a peal of bells. Mons is now a flourishing town with a good trade in cloth, lace, sugar refinery, &c.; but its chief importance is derived from its proximity to the Borinage (place of boring), district containing mines of the finest coal in Belgium. The military engineering college for the Belgian army is here, and not far from Mons are the battle-fields of Malplaquet (1709) and Jemappes (1792).
MONSIEUR (Fr., formed from mon, my, and sieur, lord),
the general title of address in France used vocatively in speaking
formally to any male person, like the English “sir” or prefixed
to the name like the English “Mr.” It is, however, in France
also prefixed to nobiliary, official, and other titles, e.g. Monsieur
le president, Monsieur le duc d’E., &c. It is abbreviated M.,
not Mons. As a specific title “Monsieur” (tout court) was
used from the time of Louis XIV. of the eldest brother of the
king, as “Monseigneur” was of the dauphin; as a general
title of address it was given to the princely members of a royal
house.
MONSIGNOR (It. monsignore, my lord), a title of honour granted by the pope to bishops and to high dignitaries and officials of the papal household. It is abbreviated Mgr.
