became minister of finance, and on the 8th February brought in his celebrated measure for the sale of the national property, including that belonging to the church—a law which was sanctioned after the most virulent opposition. He was compelled to resign June, 1855. He resisted the O'Donnell ministry of 1856, both in the cortes and at the head of a battalion of militia. The resistance failing, he was obliged to escape from the country, but returned in 1858 to take his place among the remnant of the progresista party. He is the author of a valuable "Dictionary of Spain, geographical, statistical, and historical."—F. M. W.
* MADRAZO, Don Federico de, an eminent Spanish painter, son of Don José de Madrazo, was born at Rome in February, 1815. He was taken by his father to Madrid in 1818, and learned painting under his father and D. A. Lista. He painted a "Resurrection" when only fourteen years of age, and when nineteen a huge picture of the deathbed of Ferdinand VII., which, under the title "El Amor conjugal ó Maria Christina," was lithographed and inserted in the great "Colecion" of royal pictures, by express command of the queen. Federico de Madrazo afterwards visited France and Germany, where he became a convert to the "purist" theories of Overbeck and Veit. His principal work in this taste is "Angels at the Sepulchre announcing the Resurrection of Christ." His portraits are much and deservedly admired. He is portrait-painter to the queen.—J. T—e.
MADRAZO Y AGUADO, Don José de, an eminent Spanish painter, was born at Santander, April 22, 1781. He studied in the Madrid academy, under David at Paris, and in Italy. On his appointment in 1818 to the office of court-painter by Ferdinand VII. he returned to Madrid, and was in 1819 made director of the academy. He painted religious, historical, and mythological subjects, and also portraits. His paintings are greatly admired by his countrymen; but they are jejune imitations of the style of David. As director for so many years of the academy, Madrazo has exerted a powerful influence over recent Spanish art. Spain owes to Madrazo the foundation of the Royal Lithographic Establishment of Madrid; from which he issued the magnificent series of lithographs of paintings in the royal galleries, "Colecion lithographica de cuadros del Rey de España," Madrid, 1826-42. He died 8th May, 1859.—J. T—e.
MÆCENAS, Caius Cilnius, was descended from a noble Etruscan family of great antiquity, settled at Arretium. He is supposed to have been born about 68 b.c., but the date is uncertain. Nothing is known of his early life, nor of the commencement of his intimacy with Augustus. The earliest event of importance in which he is known to have taken part, is the treaty of Brundisium between Antony and Augustus, 40 b.c. Subsequently, Augustus on several occasions intrusted him with the supreme control of affairs at Rome during his own absence. For about twenty years after the treaty of Brundisium, Augustus mainly relied for advice in state affairs on Mæcenas and Agrippa. The great power thus intrusted to him was used by Mæcenas wisely and moderately. He advised Augustus to clemency, and interfered with success in the interest of humanity. He is said to have dissuaded Augustus from restoring the republic after Actium, and the imperial administration was probably in great measure founded on his plans. From about 20 b.c. till his death, his influence over Augustus was materially weakened by some unknown cause—possibly arising from the criminal intimacy of Augustus with his wife Terentia. He was of a weak constitution, and, during his latter years at least, suffered much from ill health. He died in Italy, 8 b.c., leaving no children. This statesman is chiefly memorable for his share in the establishment of the empire, and for his munificent and judicious patronage of the great writers of his time. His vast power was disguised from the people by the voluptuous ease of his habits, and even his patronage of the poets had in some degree a political object. It was probably his wish to divert the Romans from too close an attention to their government—by encouraging public shows and amusements of all sorts; by fostering a general taste for every species of luxury; and by encouraging a literature which would inculcate epicurean doctrines and sing the praises of peace and plenty under the benevolent sway of Cæsar. But he was by nature fond of all luxury and pleasure, and his private morals were by no means pure. He acquired immense wealth, and was especially curious in collecting objects of vertu. His memory was held in high esteem by subsequent ages for his humane and liberal policy. No spies and informers, it was said, were employed by him; he enacted no severe laws; and his moderation and clemency were placed in favourable contrast with the jealous tyranny of later times.—G.
* MAEDLER, Johann Heinrich, an eminent German astronomer, was born at Berlin on the 29th of May, 1794. In 1817 he was appointed a professor in the seminary of primary instruction, which office he held until 1828. He was reappointed to the same post in 1830, and continued to hold it for six years longer. At the end of that interval, having become known for his ability in the cultivation of astronomy, he was employed as an assistant in the observatory of Berlin. In 1840 he was advanced to the post of professor of astronomy and director of the observatory of Dorpat. The most important part of his labours as an astronomical observer is that which he devoted to the investigation (along with an able coadjutor. Professor Beer of Berlin) of "selenotopography," or the configuration of the visible surface of the moon. The surveying and mappings of the surface of the earth's satellite had formed a favourite subject of study with several of the earlier astronomers, amongst whom Hevelius and Schröter may be specially referred to; but it is to Beer and Mädler that the most detailed and accurate survey of the moon is due. The results of their observations are embodied in a splendid map of the moon; which, being three feet in diameter, while the moon's actual diameter is two thousand one hundred and fifty-three miles, is on a scale of very nearly one-sixtieth of an inch to a mile, and presents as minute a representation of the inequalities of the visible hemisphere of the moon as would be given of those of a hemisphere of the earth by a map nearly twelve feet in diameter. In speculative astronomy a curious part of the writings of Professor Mädler is that which relates to a supposed "central sun," a body about which our sun and various other stars revolve in immense orbits, in periods reckoned by tens of millions of years; and whose probable position, according to Mädler, is somewhere near the star Alcyone in the group of the Pleiades. It is certain that our sun and all the stars of the group to which he belongs, must revolve in orbits of some kind about their common centre of gravity; but the question whether any star is situated so near that centre of gravity as to be properly a central sun as regards the rest of the group, although certainly a sublime and interesting speculation, must be regarded as an uncertain one in the present state of astronomy.—R.
MAELZEL, John, an ingenious mechanic, born at Regensburg in 1772. He resided, in 1800, in Vienna, where he constructed an instrument, which, by means of a wheel moved by a weight, performed pieces of Turkish music, as if played by a band of flutes, pipes, trumpets, cymbals, triangle, and double drum. A double bellows furnished the wind. The sound of the trumpets was particularly admired. It was produced by ordinary trumpets blown by the machinery, with a power not to be excelled by any trumpeter. Maelzel sold this instrument, in the year of its invention, to a Hungarian nobleman for three thousand florins. He afterwards constructed another similar instrument, with increased powers, which he called the Panharmonicon. This instrument was sold, as Gerber assures us, for twenty-five thousand dollars. Lastly, he exhibited at Vienna an automaton, which raised, if possible, still greater admiration than his preceding inventions. The following description of it is from the Journal des Modes for 1800, p. 251:—"From a tent M. Maelzel led out a fine manly-looking martial figure, in the uniform of a trumpeter of the Austrian dragoon-regiment Albert, his trumpet being in his mouth. After having pressed the figure on the left shoulder, it played not only the Austrian cavalry march, as also all the signals for all the manœuvres of that army, but also a march and an allegro by Weigl, which was accompanied by the whole orchestra. After this, the dress of the figure was completely changed into that of a French trumpeter of the guard; it then began to play the French cavalry march, also all the French cavalry manœuvres, and lastly a march of Dussek's, and an allegro of Pleyel, accompanied again by the full orchestra. The sound of this trumpet is pure, and more agreeable than even the ablest musician could produce from that instrument, because the breath of a man gives the inside of the trumpet a moisture which is prejudicial to the purity of the tone. Maelzel publicly wound up his instrument only twice, and this was on the left hip." Maelzel was also the inventor of the celebrated automaton chess-player; likewise of the metronome, to determine the time of a piece of music. He died in 1838.—E. F. R.
