(formed of *manu cufus*), in antiquity, an Anglo-Saxon gold coin, equal in value to 2½ solidi, or 30 pence; and in weight to 5½ Troy grains. The first account of this coin that occurs in the history of our country, is about the close of the 8th century, in an embassy of Cenwulf king of Mercia to Leo III., requesting the restoration of the jurisdiction of the see of Canterbury: this embassy was enforced by a present of 120 mancuses. Ethelwolf also sent yearly to Rome 300 mancuses: and these coins are said to have continued in some form or other till towards the conclusion of the Saxon government. The heriots of the nobility are chiefly estimated by this standard in Canute's laws. It came originally from Italy, where it was called *ducat,* and is supposed to have been the same with the drachma or *miliarenis* current in the Byzantine empire.

**MANDAMUS,** in law, a writ that issues out of the court of king's-bench, sent to a corporation, commanding them to admit or restore a person to his office. This writ also lies where justices of the peace refuse to admit a person to take the oaths in order to qualify himself for enjoying any post or office; or where a bishop or archdeacon refuses to grant a probate of a will, to admit an executor to prove it, or to swear a church-warden, &c.

**MANDANES,** an Indian prince and philosopher, who for the renown of his wisdom was invited by the ambassadors of Alexander the Great to the banquet of the son of Jupiter. A reward was promised him if he obeyed, but he was threatened with punishment in case of a refusal. Unmoved by promises and threatenings, the philosopher dismissed them with observing, that though Alexander ruled over a great part of the universe, he was not the son of Jupiter; and that he gave himself no trouble about the pretents of a man who possessed not wherewithal to content himself. "I despise his threats (added he): if I live, India is sufficient for my subsistence; and to me death has no terrors, for it will only be an exchange of old age and infirmity for the happiness of a better life."

**MANDARINS,** a name given to the magistrates and governors of provinces in China, who are chosen out of the most learned men, and whose government is always at a great distance from the place of their birth.—Mandarin is also a name given by the Chinese to the learned language of the country; for besides the language peculiar to every province, there is one common to all the learned in the empire, which is in China what Latin is in Europe; this is called the mandarin tongue, or the language of the court.

**MANDATE,** in law, a judicial commandment to do something. See the article Mandamus.

**MANDATE,** in the canon law, a rescript of the pope commanding an ordinary collator to put the person therein named in possession of the first vacant benefice in his collation.

**MANDATUM,** was a fee or retainer given by the Romans to the procuratores and advocati. The mandatum was a necessary condition, without which they had not the liberty of pleading. Thus the legal eloquence of Rome, like that of our own country, could not be unlocked without a golden key.

**MANDERSCHEIT,** a town of Germany in the circle