the observatory of Göttingen, which he held until his death. He there, in the midst of the tumult of war and with a powder magazine beneath him, made a series of observations and calculations of the highest value, and accomplished the great achievement of producing the first set of lunar tables of sufficient precision to serve for the computation of the longitude by the method of lunar distances. These tables were sent to London to compete for the reward offered by the British government for the best method of finding the longitude at sea. Their accuracy was tested by Bradley, and by Mason under the direction of Maskelyne; and the result was that one-half of the reward was given to Mayer's widow after his death, and the other half to Harrison for his chronometer. Mayer also improved the reflecting instruments required in the use of his tables, by proposing the substitution of the complete circle for the quadrant and sextant, and inventing the principle of repetition, afterwards more fully developed by Borda. One of the first persons who used Mayer's lunar tables in practice for finding the longitude, was his pupil and intimate friend, the famous traveller Karsten Niebuhr, who had received from Mayer a manuscript copy of them, and had been instructed in their use previous to his setting out on his expedition to the East. Another monument of the labour and skill of Mayer is his catalogue of ecliptic stars. He died at the early age of thirty-nine, exhausted by excessive labour.—W. J. M. R.
* MAYHEW, Henry, the most notable of the literary fraternity known as "the Brothers Mayhew," was born in the November of 1812 in London, where his father was long a prosperous attorney. Educated at Westminster, where he had the late Gilbert Abbott à Beckett for a schoolfellow, he led on land and sea, during youth and early manhood, a wandering life, which was diversified by some years' drudgery in his father's office. With his friend Mr. À Beckett he engaged in sundry speculations, theatrical, dramatic, and literary, among them the establishment of "Figaro in London," the precursor of Punch, of which Mr. Mayhew was the first editor. He wrote and helped his brothers in writing numerous tales and sketches, and gained meanwhile such a reputation for his knowledge of the lower strata of London life, that he was appointed its commissioner among the London poor when the Morning Chronicle, in 1849, took up "the condition of England question." Hence his well-known work, "London Labour and the London Poor," a repertory of unique information. Through legal controversies it was left uncompleted by its author. A similar fate overtook a work of rather higher pretensions which Mr. Mayhew began to publish in 1856, "The Great World of London." Among his other and multifarious productions may be mentioned two works for boys, "The Story of the Peasant-boy Philosopher, " i.e. James Ferguson; and "The Wonders of Science, or young Humphrey Davy." He has also contributed two volumes of instructive letterpress accompanying engravings of "The Rhine and its Picturesque Scenery," 1856-58.—F. E.
MAYNARD, Sir John, sometime commissioner of the great seal, who during his long life played a part in both the great English revolutions of the seventeenth century, was the son of a Devonshire gentleman, and born at Tavistock in 1602. Educated at Oxford, he studied for the bar at the Middle temple and went the western circuit, of which he rose, and for half a century continued, to be the leader. He sat in the first parliament of Charles I., in the Short parliament, and in the Long parliament its successor, voting and speaking against the policy of the court, and acting as one of the managers of the impeachments both of Strafford and of Laud. He looked upon politics, however, as an "unpaying occupation," and never allowed himself to be led away by enthusiasm for principles. A leading presbyterian, he was a lay member of the assembly of divines at Westminster, and one of the English commissioners who conferred with those from Scotland to establish the presbyterian form of church government through the length and breadth of the kingdom. He was present at the meeting of the commissioners at Essex House, recorded by Whitelocke, and with characteristic caution threw cold water on Loudon's proposal to prosecute as an "incendiary" Oliver Cromwell, who opposes the establishment of presbyterianism. So dexterously did Maynard manage matters, that he was not among the presbyterians "purged" from the Long parliament. After the establishment of the Protectorate, Maynard accepted from Oliver the degree of the coif, and as protector's serjeant, was at the head of the bar. He was among the eminent lawyers who pressed on Cromwell the acceptance of the title of king. After Cromwell's death, Maynard swore allegiance to Richard, and had his patent as prime serjeant renewed; but when he saw whither things were tending, he exerted his influence as a leader of the presbyterians in favour of Monk. At the Restoration he was well received by Charles, by whom he was appointed a king's Serjeant, and knighted. He might have been made a judge, but he was reluctant to abandon his lucrative practice at The bar. In parliament he was long considered the father of the house, and spoke with authority on constitutional questions. Although he had supported the exclusion bill, his unfailing dexterity secured him in his position on the accession of James, whom, of course, when falling, he deserted. He sat in the Convention parliament, where he was regarded as an oracle, and supported the celebrated resolution which declared that James had abdicated the throne. At the head of the bar, he waited on William at Whitehall, when the king, referring to his great age, remarked that he must have outlived all the lawyers his contemporaries. "If your highness had not come over," was Maynard's well-known reply, "I should have outlived the law itself." In his eighty-eighth year his practice was still undiminished, and it was with some reluctance that he allowed himself (April, 1689) to be nominated one of the commissioners of the great seal. After a twelvemonth he either resigned or was superseded, and withdrew to his seat of Gunnersbury, near Ealing, where he died on the 9th of October, 1690, in his eighty-ninth year, leaving an immense fortune. His edition of the Year Books was published in 1678. In Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors there is an ample memoir of this successful lawyer, whose career, in its length and continuous prosperity, has no parallel in that age of stormy vicissitude.—F. E.
MAYNE, Jasper, born at Hatherlagh in Devonshire in 1604, educated at Westminster school and at Christ church, Oxford, owed to the favour of the college of which he was student the vicarages of Cassington and Pyrton. He preached before Charles I. at Oxford, and in 1647 published a tractate relating to the civil war, which led to the loss of his studentship. During the Commonwealth he was chaplain to the earl of Devonshire, and consequently the companion of Hobbes. At the Restoration Mayne recovered his livings, was made canon of Christ church and archdeacon of Chichester, and chaplain in ordinary to Charles II. He died in 1672. Besides five sermons and a poem, Mayne published a translation of some of Lucian's Dialogues, 1638; and of Donne's Latin epigrams, 1652.
MAYNE, John, a Scottish poet, was born in 1759, and was educated at the grammar-school of his native town, Dumfries. He learned the trade of a compositor, which he followed first in the office of the Dumfries Journal; afterwards in Glasgow with Messrs. Foulis, of the celebrated university press; and finally in London, to which he removed in 1787. His diligence and perseverance were crowned with success, and he became printer, editor, and joint-proprietor of the Star evening paper, which, under his judicious management, became a prosperous journal. He died in 1836, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. "A better or more warm-hearted man," says Allan Cunningham, "never existed." At a very early period, Mr. Mayne showed a taste and talent for poetry. The "Siller Gun," the poem on which his fame chiefly rests, was published in 1777. At first it consisted of only twelve stanzas, but was enlarged in successive editions, until it expanded into four cantos. The last edition is not only the largest, but the best. Mr. Mayne continued, almost to the close of his long and useful life, to contribute occasional poetical pieces to the journals of the day. His "Halloween" is supposed to have suggested to Burns the subject of one of his happiest productions. His "Logan Braes," a beautiful and touching song first published in 1789, soon became a general favourite, and still retains its hold on the public.—J. T.
MAYNWARING, Arthur, to whom the first volume of the Tatler is dedicated, was born in 1668, in Shropshire. He completed his classical education at Oxford, and afterwards studied law in London. His Jacobite principles prompted the first productions of his pen; but he afterwards gave his adherence to the new dynasty, took office under Godolphin, and sat in parliament for Preston. His writings, which are principally political, display considerable ability. He died in 1712.—W. B.
MAYO, Herbert, MD., F.R.S., an anatomist and physiologist of the present century, commenced his career as a surgeon
