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magistrate. But the word is more particularly applied to subordinate officers, as governors, intendants, prefects, mayors, justices of the peace, and the like. In Athens, Sparta, and Rome, the chief magistrates were as follows: From Cecrops to Codrus, Athens had 17 kings; from Medon to Alemæon, 13 archons for life: from Charops to Eryxias, 13 decennial, and from that time, annual archons. The democracy established by Solon was changed into a monarchy by Pisistratus, who was succeeded by his sons Hippias and Hipparchus. The ancient democraey was then restored, but was interrupted for a year, after the unhappy issue of the Peloponnesian war, by the domination of the 30 tyrants, and, for a short time, by that of the decemviri. Under the Macedonian kings, and afterwards under the Romans, except at intervals, the freedom of Athens was only a name. Antipater decreed that 9000 of the principal citizens should administer the government, and Cassander made Demetrius Phalereus prefect of the city. In Sparta, the magistrates were kings, senators, ephori, &c. Chosen by a majority of suffrages, they held their offices, some, as the kings and senators, for life, others for a limited time. Among the Romans, there were different magistrates at different times. The first rulers were elective kings. After the expulsion of Tarquin the Proud (in the year of the city 244, B. C. 510), two consuls were elected annually to administer the government. In cases of pressing danger, a dictator was appointed, with unlimited power, and in case of a failure of all the magistrates, an interrex succeeded. This course continued, with occasional interruptions, till the year of the city 672, or B. C. 81, when Sylla assumed the supreme power, as perpetual dictator. After three years, however, he voluntarily laid aside his authority, and the consular government lasted till Julius Cæsar caused himself to be declared perpetual dictator, B. C. 49. From this time, the consular power was never entirely restored. Soon after the assassination of Cæsar, the triumvirs, Octavius, Lepidus and Antony, assumed a still more absolute sway; and Octavius finally became chief ruler of the Roman empire, under the title of princeps or imperator. He retained the magistrates of the republic only in name. In the beginning of the republic, the consuls seem to have been the only regular magistrates. But, on account of the constant wars, which required their presence in the army, various other magistrates were ap

pointed, as pretors, censors, tribunes of the people, &c. Under the emperors, still different officers arose. The Roman magistrates were divided into ordinary and extraordinary, higher and lower, curule and not curule, patrician and plebeian, civic and provincial. A distinction between patrician and plebeian magistrates was first made in the year of Rome 260 (B. C. 494); that between civic and provincial, when the Romans extended their conquests beyond the limits of Italy. The ordinary magistrates were divided into higher and lower; to the former belonged the consuls, pretors and censors; to the latter, the tribunes of the people, ediles, questors (q. v.), &c. The most important extraordinary magistrates were the dictator, with his master of horse, and the interrex. The difference between curule and not curule magistrates depended on the right of using the curule chair, which belonged only to the dictator, consuls, pretors, censors and curule ediles. During the republic, magistrates were chosen at the comitia, particularly in the centuriata and tributa; in the former, the higher ordinary authorities were chosen, and in the latter, the lower ordinary authorities. Under the emperors, the mode of the election of magistrates is uncertain.

MAGLIABECCHI, Antonio; a learned critic, who was librarian to the duke of Tuscany, celebrated alike for the variety of his knowledge and the strength of his memory. He was born at Florence, in 1633, and, in the early part of his life, was engaged in the employment of a goldsmith, which he relinquished to devote himself to literary pursuits. He was assisted in his studies by Michael Ermini, librarian to cardinal Leopold de' Medici, and other literati residing at Florence. Through unremitting application, he acquired a multifarious stock of erudition, which made him the wonder of his age. Duke Cosmo III made Magliabecchi keeper of the library which he had collected, and gave him free access to the Laurentian library, and the Oriental MSS.; of the latter collection he published a catalogue. His habits were very eccentric. His attention was wholly absorbed by his books; among which he took his rest and his meals, dividing his time between the ducal library and his private collection, interrupted only by the visits of persons of rank or learning, attracted towards him by the report of his extraordinary endowments. He left no literary work deserv ing of particular notice; but he freely afforded information to those authors who

sought his assistance in their own undertakings. Notwithstanding his sedentary mode of life, he was 81 years old when he died, in July, 1714. (See Spence's Parallel between R. Hill and Magliabecchi.) MAGNA CHARTA LIBERTATUM; the Great Charter of Liberties, extorted from king John, in 1215. (See John.) The barons who composed the Army of God and the Holy Church, were the whole nobility of England; their followers comprehended all the yeomanry and free peasantry, and the accession of the capital was a pledge of the adherence of the citizens and burgesses. John had been obliged to yield to this general union, and, June 15, both encamped on the plain called Runnymede, on the banks of the Thames, and conferences were opened, which were concluded on the 19th. The preliminaries being agreed on, the barons presented heads of their grievances and means of redress, in the nature of the bills now offered by both houses for the royal assent. The king, according to the custom which then and long after prevailed, directed that the articles should be reduced to the form of a charter, in which state it issued as a royal grant. Copies were immediately sent to every county or diocese, two of which are yet preserved in the Cottonian library in the British museum. To secure the execution of the charter, John was compelled to surrender the city and Tower of London, to be held by the barons till August 15, or until he had completely executed the charter. A more rigorous provision for securing this object is that by which the king consented that the barons should choose 25 of their number, to be guardians of the liberties of the kingdom, with power, in case of any breach of the charter, and the delay or denial of redress, to make war on the king, to seize his castles and lands, and to distress and annoy him in every possible way (saving only the persons of the royal family), till justice was done. Many parts of the charter were pointed against the abuses of the power of the king as lord paramount; the tyrannical exercise of the provisions of the forest laws was checked, and many grievances incident to feudal tenures were mitigated or abolished. But beside these provisions, it contains many for the benefit of the people at large, and a few maxims of just government,applicable to all places and times, of which it is hardly possible to overrate the importance of the first promulgation by the supreme authority. "No scutage or aid shall be raised in our kingdom (except in three given cases) but

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by the general council of the kingdom." This principle, that the consent of the community is essential to just taxation, has been the life of the British constitution. The 39th article contains the celebrated clause which forbids arbitrary imprisonment and punishment without lawful trial: "Let no freeman (nullus liber homo) be imprisoned or disseized, or outlawed, or in any manner injured or proceeded against by us, otherwise than by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. We shall sell, delay or deny right or justice to none." This article contains the writ of habeas corpus (q. v.) and the trial by jury, the most effectual securities against oppression, which the wisdom of man has devised, and the principle that justice is the debt of every government, which cannot be paid without rendering law cheap, prompt and equal. The 20th section is hardly less remarkable:-"A freeman shall be amerced in proportion to his offence, saving his contenement, a merchant saving his merchandise, and the villain saving his wagonage." The provision which directs that the supreme civil court shall be stationary, instead of following the king's person, is an important safeguard of the regularity, accessibility, independence and dignity of public justice. Blackstone has given an edition of the Charter, with an introduction in his Law Tracts. (See also the histories of Hume and Mackintosh.)

MAGNEAN INSTITUTE; founded by professor Arnus Magnæus, for the publication of Icelandic manuscripts at Copenhagen.

MAGNA GRECIA; the southern part of Italy, which was inhabited by Greek colonists. D'Anville bounds it, on the north, by the river Silar or Selo, which empties into the gulf of Pæstum. But it seems more natural to annex Campania to it, and to take for the boundaries on the one side, the Vulturnus, where the territory of Cuma ceased, and on the other, the Frento or Fortore, which forms the boundary of Apulia, and flows into the Adriatic, as the Grecian colonies reached to that point. The tribes, indeed, which had emigrated into Italy from the north, in the earliest times, spread through all Italy, but always confined by the Apennines, and in the interior of the country. Several centuries after, Greeks came hither, began to build cities on the unoccupied coasts, and intermingled by degrees with the inhabitants of the interior. The foundation of these Grecian colonies was unquestionably after the destruction of Troy. Athenians, Achæans, Eubœans, &c., with some Tro

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jans, repaired hither. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the followers of Æneas were scattered through the different parts of Italy. Some landed in Iapygia, others retired to both sides of the Apennines, and founded colonies. Subsequently the Romans sent colonies to Calabria, and partly in that way, partly by conquest, became (272 B. C.) masters of all the Greek colonies. The Greek was no longer the sole language in Calabria; the Latin was also spoken; and an intermixture of the Grecian and Roman manners and usages took place, which is yet perceptible. Magna Grecia comprised the provinces of Campania, Apulia, Iapygia, Lucania and Bruttii. The most celebrated republics were Tarentum, Sybaris, Crotona, Posidonia, Locris and Rhegium.

MAGNATES (in low Latin, the Great) was formerly in Poland, and is still in Hungary, the name applied to the noble estates, who took part in the administration of the government. In Poland, they were the spiritual and temporal senators, or the counsellors and high nobility. Among the senators were reckoned the archbishop of Gnesen, and formerly the archbishop of Lemberg, the bishops, waywodes, the castellans and royal officers or ministers. In Hungary, the barons of the kingdom are considered as magnates. These are 1. the greater; to wit, the Palatine, royal and court judges, the Ban or governor of Croatia, Sclavonia and Dalmatia, the treasurer and the highest officers of the court; 2. the smaller, or counts and barons. To the prelates, inferior nobles and royal free towns, this denomination does not extend.

MAGNESIA ; one of the earths, having a metallic basis called magnesium. It exists in nature, under various states of combination, with acids, water, and other earths, and is found in various mineral springs, and the water of the ocean, united with sulphuric and muriatic acids. It may be obtained by pouring into a solution of its sulphate a solution of subcarbonate of soda, washing the precipitate, drying it, and exposing it to a red heat. It is usually procured in commerce by acting on magnesian limestone with the impure muriate of magnesia, or bittern of the sea-salt manufactories. The muriatic acid goes to the lime, forming a soluble salt, and leaves behind the magnesia of both the bittern and the limestone; or the bittern is decomposed by a crude subcarbonate of ammonia, obtained from the distillation of bones in iron cylinders. Muriate of ammonia and subcarbonate of magnesia

result. The former is evaporated to dryness, mixed with chalk, and sublimed. Subcarbonate of ammonia is thus recovered, with which a new quantity of bittern may be decomposed. 100 parts of crystallized Epsom salt require, for complete decomposition, 56 of subcarbonate of potash, or 44 dry subcarbonate of soda, and yield 16 of pure magnesia after calcination. Magnesia dissolves very sparingly in water, requiring 5142 times its weight of water at 60°, and 36,000 of boiling water, for solution. The resulting liquid does not change the color of violets; but when pure magnesia is put upon moistened turmeric paper, it causes a brown stain. It possesses the still more essential character of alkalinity in forming neutral salts with acid in an eminent degree. It absorbs both water and carbonic acid, when exposed to the atmosphere. It is infusible, except in the intense heat of the compound blow-pipe. The salts of magnesia are in general very soluble, and crystallizable, and possessed of a bitter taste. The Carbonate is prepared for medicinal use, by dissolving equal weights of sulphate of magnesia and carbonate of potash, separately, in twice their weight of water; mixing them together, and diluting with eight parts of warm water; the magnesia attracts the carbonic acid, and the compound, being insoluble, is precipitated, while the sulphate of potash that remains continues in solution. The mixture is made to boil for a few minutes; after cooling a little, it is poured upon a filtre; the clear fluid runs through, and the precipitate of carbonate of magnesia is washed with water till it is tasteless. When the process is conducted on a large scale, the bittern or liquor remaining after the crystallization of sea-salt, which is principally a solution of muriate and sulphate of magnesia, is substituted for the pure sulphate, and this is precipitated by a solution of pearlash or of carbonate of ammonia. Carbonate of magnesia is perfectly white, friable, and nearly tasteless. It is very sparingly soluble in water, requiring at least 2000 times its weight at 60°. When acted on by water impregnated with carbonic acid, it is dissolved; and from this solution, allowed to evaporate spontaneously, the carbonate of magnesia is deposited in small prismatic crystals, which are transparent and efflorescent.-Nitrate of magnesia has a taste bitter and acrid. Its crystallization exhibits a mass of needlelike crystals, deliquescent, soluble in half their weight of water at 60°.-Sulphate of

magnesia, generally known by the name of Epsom salt, is made directly by neutralizing dilute sulphuric acid with carbonate of magnesia; but in the large way, by the action of dilute sulphuric acid on magnesian limestone, and the native carbonate of magnesia. It is possessed of a saline, bitter and nauseous taste. It crystallizes readily in small quadrangular prisms, which effloresce in a dry air. It is obtained also in larger six-sided prisms, terminated by six-sided pyramids. Its primary form is a right rhombic prism, the angles of which are 90° 30′ and 89° 30. It is soluble in an equal weight of water at 60°, and in three-fourths of its weight of boiling water. It undergoes the watery fusion when heated. On mixing solutions of sulphate of magnesia and sulphate of potash in atomic proportion, and evaporating, a double salt is formed, which consists of one equivalent of each of the salts, and six equivalents of water. A similar double salt (isomorphous with the preceding) is formed by spontaneous evaporation from the mixed solutions of sulphate of ammonia and sulphate of magnesia.-Phosphate of magnesia, formed from the combination of the acid and the earth, crystallizes in prisms, which are efflorescent, soluble in about 15 parts of cold water, and which, by heat, melt into a glass.-A triple phosphate of magnesia and ammonia exists, which is formed by adding phosphoric acid with ammonia, in excess, to a magnesian salt. It is insoluble, and is precipitated in a soft white powder of shining lustre. It forms one variety of urinary calculus, and its formation affords one of the best tests for the discovery of magnesia.-Muriate of magnesia has such an affinity to water, that it can be obtained in acicular crystals only by exposing its concentrated solution to sudden cold. No chloride of magnesium can be obtained by heating this salt; for the acid is expelled from it undecomposed, by the application of heat.-Chloride of magnesia may be formed in the same manner as chloride of lime. It has the same bleaching power, and it has been proposed to apply it to the same purpose. When the chloride of lime is used, a small quantity of lime is left on the cloth: this, in the last operation of washing the cloth with water acidulated with sulphuric acid, is converted into sulphate of lime, which, being insoluble, remains, and affects the colors, when the cloth is dyed. The advantage of employing the chloride of magnesia is, that, if sulphate of magnesia is formed, it is so soluble as to be easily

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removed by washing. Magnesia is a very useful article of the materia medica. It is used as an antacid and cathartic. It is however, nearly inoperative, unless there is acid in the stomach, or unless acid is taken after it. The carbonate and sulphate are the most frequently used of the preparations of magnesia; but the pure earth, sold under the name of calcined magnesia, is sometimes preferred; it is liable, however, to form large and dangerous accumulations in the bowels, of several pounds weight, when its use has long been persevered in. The Epsom salt consumed in the U. States is principally manufactured at Baltimore, from the magnesite and magnesian limestone, found in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. The annual amount manufactured at this place is given at 1,500,000 pounds.

Magnesian Minerals. Of these, the hydrate of magnesia, or native magnesia, deserves to be mentioned in the first instance. It is a rare substance, having hitherto been met with only at two localities-Swinaness in Unst, one of the Shetland Isles, and Hoboken, in New Jersey; in the latter place, occurring in thin seams, traversing serpentine. It exhibits a lamellar, or broad columnar structure; is but little above talc in hardness, or in the difficulty of its cleavage; sectile; thin laminæ flexible; specific gravity 2.350. Its color is white, inclining to green; lustre pearly; translucent. Before the blowpipe, it loses its transparency and weight, and becomes friable. In acids, it is dissolved without effervescence, and consists of 70 magnesia and 30 water.-The siliceous hydrate, or Deweylite, is a compact, white, or yellowish-white mineral, found in the serpentine of Middlefield, Massachusetts, and near Baltimore, Maryland. It has a hardness between calc-spar and fluor, and is composed of silica 40, magnesia 40, and water 20. It appears to be identical with the kerolite of Breithaupt.Carbonate of magnesia, or magnesite, is found crystallized in radiating and parallel fibres, reniform, tuberose and massive; fracture, when massive, flat conchoidal. It also occurs pulverulent; fracture flat conchoidal, sometimes earthy; dull; color yellowish-gray, cream-yellow, yellowish and grayish-white; streak white; opaque; adheres to the tongue. Some of the compact varieties are very tough, giving fire with the steel, though too soft to impress fluor; specific gravity, 2.808. It is infusible before the blow-pipe; dissolves with a slow effervescence in the dilute nitric and sulphuric acids. It consists of

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magnesia 48.00, carbonic acid 49.00 and water 3.00. It is found in Stiria, Silesia and Spain. A variety of it, possessing an earthy fracture, and containing about four per cent. of silex, is found in the islands of Samos and Negropont, in the Archipelago, and is called, by the Germans, Meerschaum, and by the French, Ecume de Mer. It is soft when first dug, and, in that state, is made into pipes, but hardens by exposure to the air. The most remarkable deposit of this mineral, however, is found at Hoboken, in New Jersey, where it occurs disseminated, in seams, through a serpentine rock; and is sometimes crystallized, at others pulverulent. Sulphate of magnesia is found in crystalline fibres, parallel and divergent, and in the shape of crusts; more rarely, also, it has been found pulverulent. It is easily recognised by its bitter saline taste. Specific gravity, 1.75; color white; lustre vitreous, translucent, or transparent. It dissolves very easily in water, deliquesces before the blow-pipe, but is difficultly fusible, if its water of crystallization has been driven off. It effloresces from several rocks, both in their original repository and in artificial walls, and then it is a product of their decomposition. It forms the principal ingredient of certain mineral waters. It occurs at Freiberg and its vicinity, efflorescing upon gneiss, also at the quicksilver mines of Idria, in Carniola, and various other places in Europe. Its most remarkable depositories, however, are the limestone caves of Kentucky, whose floors are often covered with it, in delicate crystals, to a considerable depth, intermingled with a dry earth, which has come from the decomposition or disintegration of the limestone rock: this earth is leached, in very considerable quantities, by the inhabitants of the country, who obtain from it their supply of Epsom salt. (For a notice of Borate of magnesia, see Boracic Acid.) MAGNET. (For an account of the native magnet, see the article Iron, division Magnetic Iron Ores.) The peculiar power of certain iron ores to attract and hold fast iron, was known, even in ancient times, by Thales. (q. v.) Much later, it was discovered that these iron ores, or magnets, were capable, also, of communicating their power to the iron which they attract. Accordingly, there are both natural and artificial magnets. All the phenomena connected with the magnetic power, and its relations to the other powers of nature, are comprised under the name of magnetism. In recent times, it has been found that pure cobalt and nickel have the same

magnetic qualities as iron, only in a much weaker degree; but how far the magnetic influence may be imparted to still other bodies, totally free from iron, is, as yet, a matter of doubt. Those minerals which are not metallic are nearly all attracted by the magnet, at least after having been exposed to the action of the fire. Almost every part of animal and vegetable matter, after combustion, is more or less attracted by the magnet. In most of these instances, however, the magnetism is probably due to the combination of iron. Natural magnets, as well as artificial, have two points, in opposite directions, where the iron is attracted most strongly: these points or places are called magnetic poles. One mode of discovering them is by putting the magnet in iron filings, which attach themselves to it most at these two points or poles. If a magnet is left with the fewest impediments possible to its motion, by being placed on water, supported by some slight floating substance, or, without support, on mercury, or by suspension from its centre of gravity between the two poles, or by being supported there by a fine point, it will always turn with one pole towards the north, with the other pole towards the south. Strictly speaking, the direction of the poles is, in Europe, at present, north-north-west and southsouth-east. In some parts of the earth, the northern point of the magnet deviates from the meridian to the east; in others, to the west; in others, it coincides with the meridian. Its deviation is called the declination of the needle. The point of the magnet which has a northerly direc tion, is called the north pole; the other, the south pole; the straight line between both is termed the magnetic axis; and the prolongation of this line, curving, however, to correspond to the surface of the globe, is called the magnetic meridian; the line which cuts the middle of the magnetic meridian at a right angle, and in a horizontal plane, is called the magnetic equator. The property of the magnet, to place itself always in the magnetic meridian, is called its polarity. This property is most easily observed in the case of a steel needle, artificially rendered magnetic, and so suspended at its centre of gravity, that it has almost perfect freedom for horizontal motion; this is the magnetic needle of the compass. (q. v.) When two magnets are brought near together, the poles of the same name repel each other: the poles of different names attract each other.-The phenomena of the magnetic needle, together with others to be mentioned in the