something relating to, or bounded by the sea. Thus a maritime province or country is one bounded by the sea; and a maritime kingdom is one that makes a considerable figure, or that is very powerful at sea. Hence, by maritime powers among the European states, are understood Great Britain and formerly Holland.

MARITIME State, in British policy, one of the three general divisions of the laity: (See Laity). This state is nearly connected with the military; though much more agreeable to the principles of our free constitution. The royal navy of England hath ever been its greatest defence and ornament; it is its ancient and natural strength; the floating bulwark of the island; an army from which, however strong and powerful, no danger can ever be apprehended to liberty; and accordingly it has been assiduously cultivated from earliest ages. To so much perfection was our naval reputation arrived in the 12th century, that the code of maritime laws, which are called the laws of Oleron, and are received by all nations in Europe as the ground and substruction of all their marine constitutions, was confessedly compiled by our king Richard I. at the isle of Oleron on the coast of France, then part of the possessions of the crown of England. And yet so vastly inferior were our ancestors in this point to the present age, that even in the maritime reign of Queen Elizabeth, Sir Edward Coke thinks it matter of boast, that the royal navy of England then consisted of three and thirty ships. The present condition of our marine is in great measure owing to the salutary provisions of the statutes called the navigation acts; whereby the constant increase of English shipping and seamen was not only encouraged, but rendered unavoidably necessary. By the statute 5 Richard II. c. 3, in order to augment the navy of England, then greatly diminished, it was ordained, that none of the king's liege people should ship any merchandise out of or into the realm, but only in ships of the king's liegeance, on pain of forfeiture. In the next year, by statute 6 Rich. II. c. 8, this wise provision was enervated, by only obliging the merchants to give English ships (if able and sufficient) the preference. But the most beneficial statute for the trade and commerce of these kingdoms is that navigation act, the rudiments of which were first framed in 1659, with a narrow partial view; being intended to mortify our own sugar islands, which were disaffected to the parliament, and still held out for Charles II. by stopping the gainful trade which they then carried on with the Dutch, and at the same time to clip the wings of those our opulent and aspiring neighbours.

This prohibited all ships of foreign nations from trading with any English plantations, without license from the council of state. In 1651, the prohibition was extended also to the mother country: and no goods were suffered to be imported into England, or any of its dependencies, in any other than English bottoms; or in the ships of that European nation of which the merchandise imported was the genuine growth or manufacture. At the Restoration, the former provisions were continued, by stat. 12 Car. II. c. 18, with this very material improvement, that the master and three-fourths of the mariners shall also be English subjects.

Many laws have been made for the supply of the royal navy with seamen; for their regulation when on board; and to confer privileges and rewards on them during and after their service.

1. For their supply. The principal, but the most odious, though often necessary method for this purpose, is by impressing; see IMPRESSING. But there are other ways that tend to the increase of seamen, and manning the royal navy. Parishes may bind out poor boys apprentices to the masters of merchantmen, who shall be protected from impressing for the first three years; and if they are impressed afterwards, the masters shall be allowed their wages: great advantages in point of wages are given to volunteer seamen, in order to induce them to enter into his majesty's service; and every foreign seaman, who, during a war, shall serve two years in any man of war, merchantmen, or privateer, is naturalized ipso facto. About the middle of King William's reign, a scheme was set on foot for a register of seamen to the number of 30,000, for a constant and regular supply of the king's fleet; with great privileges to the registered men; and, on the other hand, heavy penalties in case of their non-appearance when called for; but this registry, being judged to be rather a badge of slavery, was abolished by stat. 9 Ann. c. 21.

2. The method of ordering seamen in the royal fleet, and keeping up a regular discipline there, is directed by certain express rules, articles, and orders, first enacted by the authority of parliament soon after the Restoration; but since new modelled and altered, after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, to remedy some defects which were of fatal consequences in conducting the preceding war. In these articles of the navy almost every possible offence is set down, and the punishment thereof annexed; in which respect the seamen have much the advantage over their brethren in the land service; whose articles of war are not enacted by parliament, but framed from time to time at the pleasure of the crown. Yet from whence this distinction arose, and why the executive power, which is limited so properly with regard to the navy, should be so extensive with regard to the army, it is hard to assign a reason: unless it proceeded from the perpetual establishment of the navy, which rendered a permanent law for their regulation expedient, and the temporary duration of the army, which subsisted only from year to year, and might therefore with less danger be subjected to discretionary government. But, whatever was apprehended at the first formation of the mutiny act, the regular renewal of our standing force at the entrance of every year has made this distinction idle. For, if from experience past, we may judge of future events, the army is now lastingly ingrafted into the British constitution; with this singularly fortunate circumstance, that any branch of the legislature may annually put an end to its legal existence, by refusing to concure in its continuance.

3. The privileges conferred on sailors, are pretty much the same with those conferred on soldiers, with regard to relief, when maimed, or wounded, or superannuated, either by county-rates, or the royal hospital at Greenwich; with regard also to the exercise of trades, and the power of making noncursive testaments; and farther, no seaman on board his majesty's ships can be arrested for any debt, unless the same be sworn to amount at least to twenty pounds; though, by the annual mutiny acts, a soldier may be arrested for a debt which extends to half that value, but not to a less amount.

Marius, the famous Roman general, and seven times consul, who sullied his great military reputation by savage barbarities. He was born at Arpinum, of obscure and illiterate parents. He forsook the meaner occupations of the country for the camp; and signalized himself under Scipio, at the siege of Numantia. The Roman general saw the courage and intrepidity of young Marius, and foretold the era of his future greatness. By his seditions and intrigues at Rome, while he exercised the inferior offices of the state, he rendered himself known; and his marriage with Julia, who was of the family of the Caesars, contributed in some manner to raise him to consequence. He passed into Africa as lieutenant to the consul Metellus against Jugurtha; and after he had there ingratiated himself with the soldiers, and raised enemies to his friend and benefactor, he returned to Rome and canvassed for the consulship. The extravagant promises he made to the people, and his malevolent insinuations about the conduct of Metellus, proved successful. He was elected and appointed to finish the war against Jugurtha. He showed himself capable in every degree to succeed to Metellus. Jugurtha was defeated, and afterwards betrayed into the hands of the Romans by the perfidy of Bocchus. No sooner was Jugurtha conquered, than new honours and fresh trophies awaited Marius. The provinces of Rome were suddenly invaded by an army of 300,000 barbarians, and Marius was the only man whose activity and boldness could resist so powerful an enemy. He was elected consul, and sent against the Teutones. The war was prolonged, and Marius was a third and fourth time invested with the consulship. At last two engagements were fought, and not less than 200,000 of the barbarian forces of the Ambiones and Teutones were slain in the field of battle, and 90,000 made prisoners. The following year, A. U. C. 651, was also marked by a total overthrow of the Cimbri, another horde of barbarians; in which 140,000 were slaughtered by the Romans, and 60,000 taken prisoners. After such honourable victories, Marius with his colleague Catullus entered Rome in triumph; and for his eminent services he received the appellation of the third founder of Rome. He was elected consul a sixth time; and as his intrepidity had delivered his country from its foreign enemies, he sought employment at home, and his restless ambition began to raise seditions, and to oppose the power of Sylla. This was the foundation of a civil war. Sylla refused to deliver up the command of his forces, with which he was empowered to prosecute the Mithridatic war; and he resolved to oppose in person the authors of a demand which he considered as arbitrary and improper. He advanced to Rome, and Marius was obliged to save his life by flight. The unfavourable winds prevented him from seeking a safer retreat in Africa, and he was left on the coast of Campania, where the emissaries of his enemy soon discovered him in a marsh, where he had plunged himself in the mud, and left only his mouth above the surface for respiration. He was violently dragged to the neighbouring town of Minturnae; and the magistrates, all devoted to the interest of Sylla, passed sentence of immediate death on their magnificent prisoner. A Gaul was commanded to cut off his head in the dungeon; but the stern countenance of Marius disarmed the courage of the executioner: and when he heard the exclamation of Tunc, homo, audes occidere Caenum Marium? the dagger dropped from his hand. Such an uncommon adventure moved the compassion of the inhabitants of Minturnae. They released Marius from prison; and favoured his escape to Africa, where he joined his son Marius, who had been arming the princes of that country in his cause. Marius landed near the walls of Carthage, and he received no small consolation at the sight of the venerable ruins of a once powerful city, which like himself had been exposed to calamity, and felt the cruel vicissitude of fortune. This place of his retreat was soon known; and the governor of Africa, to conciliate the favour of Sylla, compelled Marius to fly to a neighbouring island. He soon after learned that Cinna had embraced his cause at Rome, when the Roman senate had stripped him of his consular dignity, and bestowed it upon one of his enemies. This intelligence animated Marius; he set sail to assist his friend only at the head of 1000 men. His army, however, was soon increased, and he entered Rome like a conqueror. His enemies were inhumanly sacrificed to his fury; Rome was filled with blood; and he, who once had been called the father of his country, marched through the streets of the city, attended by a number of assassins, who immediately slaughtered all those whose salutations were not answered by their leader. Such were the signals for bloodshed. When Marius and Cinna had sufficiently gratified their resentment, they made themselves consuls; but Marius, already worn out with old age and infirmities, died sixteen days after he had been honoured with the consular dignity for the seventh time, A. U. C. 666. Such was the end of Marius, who rendered himself conspicuous by his victories and by his cruelty. As he was brought up in poverty and among peasants, it will not appear wonderful that he always betrayed rusticity in his behaviour, and despised in others those polished manners and that studied address, which education had denied him. He hated the conversation of the learned only because he was illiterate; and if he appeared an example of sobriety and temperance, he owed these advantages to the years of obscurity which he passed at Arpinum. His countenance was stern, his voice firm and imperious, and his disposition intractable. He was in the 70th year of his age when he died; and Rome seemed to rejoice at the fall of a man whose ambition had proved so fatal to many of her citizens. His only qualifications were those of a great general; and with these he rendered himself the most illustrious and powerful of the Romans, because he was the only one whose ferocity seemed capable to oppose the barbarians of the north.

Marius, C., the son of the great Marius, was as cruel as his father, and shared his good and his adverse fortune. He made himself consul in the 25th year of his age, and murdered all the senators who opposed his ambitious views. He was defeated by Sylla, and fled to Præneste, where he killed himself.

Marius, M. Aurelius, a native of Gaul; who, from the mean employment of a blacksmith, became one of the generals of Gallienus, and at last caused himself to be saluted emperor. Three days after this elevation, a man who had shared his poverty without partaking of his more prosperous fortune, publicly assassinated him, and he was killed by a sword which he himself had made in the time of his obscurity. Marius has been often celebrated for his great strength; and it is confidently reported, that he could stop, with one of his fingers only, the wheel of a chariot in its most rapid course.

Marius, Maximus, a Latin writer, who published an account of the Roman emperors from Trajan to Alexander, now lost. His compositions were entertaining, and executed with great exactness and fidelity. Some have accused him of inattention, and complain that his writings abounded with many fabulous and insignificant stories.