in the art of war, the name of several officers of very different ranks and functions.

Major of a regiment of Foot, the next officer to the lieutenant-colonel, generally promoted from the eldest captain; he is to take care that the regiment be well exercised, to see it march in good order, and to rally it in case of being broke in action: he is the only officer among the infantry that is allowed to be on horseback in time of action, that he may the more readily execute the colonel's orders.

Major of a regiment of Horse, as well as foot, ought to be a man of honour, integrity, understanding, courage, activity, experience, and address: he should be master of arithmetic, and keep a detail of the regiment in every particular: he should be skilled in horsemanship, and ever attentive to his business: one of his principal functions is, to keep an exact roster of the officers for duty: he should have a perfect knowledge in all the military evolutions, as he is obliged by his post to instruct others, &c.

Town-Major, the third officer in order in a garrison, and next to the deputy-governor. He should understand fortification, and has a particular charge of the guards, rounds, patrols, and sentinels.

Brigade-Major, is a particular officer appointed for that purpose only in camp: he goes every day to head-quarters to receive orders from the adjutant-general: there they write exactly whatever is dictated to them: from thence they go and give the orders, at the place appointed for that purpose, to the different majors or adjutants of the regiments which compose that brigade, and regulate with them the number of officers and men which each are to furnish for the duty of the army; taking care to keep an exact roster, that one may not give more than another, and that each march in their tour: in short, the major of brigade is charged with the particular detail in his own brigade, in much the same way as the adjutant-general is charged with the general detail of the duty of the army. He sends every morning to the adjutant-general an exact return, by battalion and company, of the men of his brigade missing at the retreat, or a report expressing that none are absent: he also mentions the officers absent with or without leave.

As all orders pass through the hands of the majors of brigade, they have infinite occasions of making known their talents and exactness.

Major of Artillery, is also the next officer to the lieutenant-colonel. His post is very laborious, as the whole detail of the corps particularly rests with him; and for this reason all the non-commissioned officers are subordinate him, as his title of sergeant-major imports: in this quality they must render him an exact account of every thing which comes to their knowledge, either regarding the duty or wants of the artillery and soldiers. He should possess a perfect knowledge of the power of artillery, together with all its evolutions. In the field he goes daily to receive orders from the brigade-major, and communicates them with the parole to his superiors, and then dictates them to the adjutant. He should be a very good mathematician, and be well acquainted with every thing belonging to the train of artillery, &c.

Major of Engineers, commonly with us called sub-director, should be very well skilled in military architecture, fortification, gunnery, and mining. He should know how to fortify in the field, to attack and defend all forts of posts, and to conduct the works in a siege, &c. See Engineer.

Aid-Major, is on sundry occasions appointed to act as major, who has a pre-eminence above others of the same denomination. Our horse and foot-guards have their guidons, or second and third majors.

Serjeant-Major, is a non-commissioned officer, of great merit and capacity, subordinate to the adjutant, as he is to the major. See Serjeant.

Drum-Major, is not only the first drummer in the regiment, but has the same authority over his drummers as the corporal has over his squad. He instructs them in their different beats; is daily at orders with the serjeants, to know the number of drummers for duty. He marches at their head when they beat in a body. In the day of battle, or at exercise, he must be very attentive to the orders given him, that he may regulate his beats according to the movements ordered.

Fife-Major, is he that plays the beat on that instrument, and has the same authority over the fifers as the drum-major has over the drummers. He teaches them their duty, and appoints them for guards, &c.

law, a person who is of age to manage his own affairs. By the civil law a man is not a major till the age of 25 years; in England, he is a major at 21, as in Normandy at 20.

logic, is underfoot of the first proposition of a regular syllogism. It is called major, because it has a more extensive sense than the minor proposition, as containing the principal term. See Logic.

Major and Minor, in music, are applied to concords which differ from each other by a semi-tone. See Concord.

Major tone is the difference between the fifth and fourth; and major semi-tone the difference between the major fourth and the third. The major tone surpasses the minor by a comma.

Major-Domo, an appellation formerly given to the steward or matter of the king's household.

(John), a scholastic divine and historian, was born at Haddington, in the province of East Lothian in Scotland. It appears from some passages in his writings, that he resided a while both at Oxford and Cambridge. He went to Paris in 1493, and studied in the college of St Barbe, under the famous John Bouliac. Thence he removed to that of Montacute, where he began to study divinity under the celebrated Standouk. In the year 1498, he was entered of the college of Navarre. In 1505, he was created doctor divinity; returned to Scotland in 1519, and taught theology. theology during several years in the university of St Andrews. But at length, being disguised with the quarrels of his countrymen, he went back to Paris, and resumed his lectures in the college of Montacute, where he had several pupils, who afterwards became men of great eminence. About the year 1530, he returned once more to Scotland, and was chosen professor of theology at St Andrew's, of which lie afterwards became provost; and there died in 1547, aged 78. His logical treatises form one immense folio; his commentary on Aristotle's physics makes another; and his theological works amount to several volumes of the same size. The masses of crude and useless disquisition, were the admiration of his contemporaries. A work, let's prized in his own age, was to make him known to posterity. His book De Gylis Scotorum, was first published at Paris by Badius Aesculapius, in the year 1521. He rejects in it some of the fictions of former historians; and would have had greater merit if he had rejected more. He intermingles the history of England with that of Scotland; and has incurred the censure of some partial writers, for giving an authority to the authors of the former nation, which he refuses to those of his own. Bede, Caxton, and Froissart, were exceedingly useful to him. What does the greatest honour to this author is, the freedom with which he has censured the rapacity and indolence of ecclesiastics, and the strain of ridicule with which he treats the pope's supremacy. The style in which he wrote does not deserve commendation. Bishop Spotifwood calls it Sorbonic and barbarous.