MICHAEL, an eminent classical editor, of a foreign family, was born in 1668. He was educated at Westminster school, where Dr Bashy kept him to the study of Greek and Latin some years longer than usual. He then gained another powerful friend in Dr South, canon of Christ Church, who made him a student of that house, where he took the degree of master of arts early in 1696. From 1695 till 1699, he was second master of Westminster school, which was afterwards indebted to him for Graecae Linguae Dialecti, in usum Scholae Westmonasteriensis, 1706, 8vo, and also for the English Grammar, applied to, and exemplified in, the English Tongue, 1712, 8vo. In 1711, he published Remarks on Whiston's Account of the proceedings of Convocation relative to himself, in a Letter to the Bishop of Bath and Wells, 8vo; and also an Essay against Arianism, and some other Heresies, in reply to Whiston's historical Preface and Appendix to his Primitive Christianity Revived, 8vo. In 1709 he gave the first specimen of his skill in typographical antiquities, by publishing Stephanorum Historia, vitas ipsorum ac libros complectens, 8vo. This was followed in 1717 by Historia Typographorum aliquot Parisiensium, vitas et libros complectens, 8vo; and in 1719 appeared Annales Typographici ab artis invente origine ad annum m.d. 4to. The second volume, divided into two parts, and continued to the year 1536, was published at the Hague in 1702, prefaced by a letter of Toland, under the title of Conjectura verissimilis de prima Typographiae Inventione; the third volume, in two parts, continued to 1557, and (by an appendix) to 1664, issued from the same press in 1725; and in 1733 was published at Amsterdam what was usually considered as the fourth volume, under the title of Annales Typographici ab artis invente origine, ad annum m.d.c.l.xiv. opera Mich. Maittaire, a.m. editio nova, auctior et emendatior tomii primi pars posterior. In 1741 the work was closed at London, by Annalium Typographoricorum tomus quintus et ultimus, indicem in tomos quatuor praecantues complectens, divided, like the two preceding volumes, into two parts. In the intermediate years, Mr Maittaire was diligently employed on various works of importance. In 1713 he published by subscription Opera et Fragmenta Veterum Poëtarum, 1718, in two volumes in folio; but the title of some copies is dated 1721. In 1714, he edited a Greek Testament, in two volumes. The Latin writers, which he published separately, most of them with good indexes, came out in the following order: In 1713, Christus Patiens, Justin, Lucretius, Phaedrus, Sallust, Terence; in 1715, Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, Cornelius Nepos, Florus, Horace, Juvenal, Ovid in three vols., and Virgil; in 1711, Caesar's Commentaries, Martial, and Quintus Curtius; in 1718 and 1725, Velleius Paterculus; in 1719, Lucan; and in 1720, Bononiæ Carmina. In 1721, he published, Batrachomyomachia, Graece, ad veterum exemplarium fidem recusa; glossa Graeca, variabantibus lectionibus, versionibus Latinis, commentariis et indicibus, illustrata, 8vo; and in 1722, Miscellanea Graecorum aliquot Scriptorum Carmina, cum versione Latina et notis, in 4to. In 1724 he compiled, at the request of Dr John Freind, an index to the works of Aretaeus, intended to accompany the folio edition of that author published in 1723. In 1725 he published an edition of Anacreon in 4to, of which only a hundred copies were printed, and the few errata in each copy corrected by his own hand. In 1726 he published Petri Petiti Medici Parisiensis in tres priores Aretæi Cappadoci Libros Commentarii, nunc primum editi, in 4to. This learned commentary was found amongst the papers of Gravius. From 1728 to 1733 he was employed in publishing Marmorum Arundelianorum, Seldenianorum, aliorumque Academiae Oxoniensis donatorum, una cum Commentariis et Indice, editio secunda, folio, to which an appendix was printed in 1733; Major of a Regiment of Foot, the officer next to the lieutenant-colonel. His business is to take care that the regiment be well exercised, to see that it marches in good order, and to rally it in case of its being broken in action.

Major of a Regiment of Horse ought to be a man of 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; he should keep an exact roster of the officers for duty; and he should have a perfect knowledge of all the military evolutions, as he is obliged by his post to instruct others.

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

Brigade-Major is a particular officer appointed for that purpose only in camp. His business is to go every day to head-quarters to receive orders from the adjutant-general; to write exactly what is dictated to him; to 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 that each is to furnish for the duty of the army, and 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 details of 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 has to send 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; and he must also mention 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. 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 good mathematician, and well acquainted with everything belonging to the science of projectiles and the train of artillery.

Major of Engineers 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 sorts of posts, and to conduct the works in a siege.

Aid-Major is on different occasions appointed to act as major, when he has a pre-eminence above others of the same denomination.

Serjeant-Major is a non-commissioned officer, subordinate to the adjutant, as the latter 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, and 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; and 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.

Pipe-Major is he who plays the best on that instrument, and has the same authority over the fifers as the drum-major has over the drummers.

Major, in Law, a person who is of an age to manage his own affairs. By the civil law a man is not a major till the age of twenty-five years; but in England he is a major at twenty-one.

Major, in Logic, is understood of the first proposition. Major 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 Music.

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

Major-Domo, an Italian term frequently used to signify a steward or master of the household. The title of major-domo was formerly given in the courts of princes to three different kinds of officers; first, to him who took care of what related to the prince's table; secondly, to the steward of the household; and, thirdly, to the chief minister, or person to whom the prince deputed the administration of his affairs, foreign and domestic.

Major or Math, 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 both at Oxford and Cambridge. He went to Paris in 1493, and studied in the college of St Barbe under the celebrated Boulae, after which he removed to that of Montacute, where he began to study divinity under Standouk. In the year 1498, he was entered of the college of Navarre. In 1505, he was created doctor in divinity; in 1519, he returned to Scotland, and taught theology during several years in the university of St Andrews. But, becoming disgusted 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 once more returned to Scotland, and was chosen professor of theology at St Andrews, of which he afterwards became provost, and died there in 1547, aged seventy-eight. His logical treatises form one immense folio, and his commentaries on Aristotle's physics another; whilst his theological works amount to several volumes of the same size. These masses of crude and useless disquisition were the admiration of his contemporaries. A work, less prized in his own age, namely, his book De Gestis Scotorum, first published at Paris by Badius Ascensius, in the year 1521, has alone made him known to posterity. He rejects in it some of the fictions of former historians, and his merit would have been greater if he had rejected more of them. 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. The style in which he wrote does not deserve commendation. Bishop Spottiswood calls it "Sorbonnic" and "barbarous."

Majorca, or, as called by the Spaniards, Mallorca, an island in the Mediterranean Sea, of the group anciently distinguished by the name of the Baleares, on account of the great reputation of the inhabitants as slingers. According to D'Anville, these islands were first settled by a colony of Phoenicians, who transferred them to the Carthaginians, and, after that republic had been conquered, they were subdued by the Romans, under whose dominion they continued till the dissolution of that empire. When the Moors overran Spain, the island came into the possession of that race under one of their chiefs, who assumed the title of king; but afterwards, upon the conquest of Granada by Ferdinand, it formed a province of the kingdom of Spain.

Majorca, the largest island of the group, is situated in north latitude between 39° 15' and 39° 57', and in east longitude between 2° 9' and 3° 20'. It is about 100 miles from the nearest coast of Spain, and 130 from Algiers on the African shore. Its figure is an irregular rhomboid, and its area, according to Toffino, is 1360 square miles. The island is Majorca, in general lofty, with high ranges of mountains covering the whole from the middle to the northern coast, and so closely connected as to leave only a number of deep valleys and gullies between them, bordered by precipices. Of these mountains the most westerly and most remarkable is a high peak, called by the natives Puig de Galatzo, 2000 feet above the level of the sea, which stands in latitude 39° 36'. The highest mountains, however, are those on the northern side, called the Silla de Torrellas, and the Puig Major, or Great Peak. There are several others, but they are less elevated.

From the middle of the island to the south coast, the surface is much lower than on the north; but it presents several hills and agreeable prospects. The land is finely variegated by corn fields, vineyards, olive woods, orchards, and meadows. The soil on the hills and mountains is rich and fertile, in the valleys moist and even marshy, and on the shore are tracts of sand and of morasses. There are no very extensive woods, but sufficient, consisting chiefly of dwarf trees, to supply fuel. There are no considerable rivers, but many small brooks, and a great abundance of springs; so that there is no scarcity of good water. A large lake, or rather a marsh, is formed by two small rivers, called Albufera, on the north coast, near the Bay of Alcudia. It is separated from the sea by a narrow tongue of land; but in summer the heat nearly exhales the water, when the environs are thereby rendered very unhealthy. The climate is mild, agreeable, and healthy in general. The heat of summer is rarely excessive, being cooled by the sea breezes. The winter is temperate, and not excessive in its variations. The thermometer of Reaumur usually stands from 10° to 14°. Snow and ice are almost unknown.

The island has no other division than into communes or parishes; but it contains one city, thirty-four towns, and twenty-six villages, besides many hamlets. The inhabitants are 164,500, all rigidly adhering to the Roman Catholic church, under a bishop, with a cathedral or palma, and eighty churches in various parts of the island, and many monasteries and nunneries. By the accounts of 1797, it appears there were no less than 1326 regular clergy, 1002 members of monastic orders, and 529 females in nunneries; but they are said to have diminished since that period.

The inhabitants resemble the Spaniards of Catalonia, both in their complexion and features. In the towns the Castilian language is generally spoken; but the common people use a tongue which is a medley compounded of Limosin, Greek, Latin, Spanish, and Arabic.

The chief, indeed almost the exclusive occupation, of the inhabitants is agriculture. According to the statistics of Argüelles, the condition of the population is given, viz. 513 nobles, 3826 labouring proprietors, 2283 tenants cultivators, 14,738 agricultural labourers, 3175 artisans and poor labourers, 155 merchants and traders, 413 officers of government, and 2270 domestic and other servants. The value of the whole wealth of the island, by the same minister, is stated to be L.1,664,636, distributed thus: Value of the land and crops, L.1,375,600; of the animals, L.180,844; of the product of those manufactures made of vegetable substances, L.53,884; of those made of animal substances, L.20,965; of those made of mineral substances, L.28,340; and of the products of the arts and of commerce, L.5000.

The produce of corn is barely sufficient for the food of the inhabitants. The average growth of wheat is about 100,000 quarters, of barley 356,000, of oats 25,000, and of pulse 21,000; but neither rye nor maize is cultivated. In wet seasons, the corn harvest sometimes nearly fails, when the scarcity of grain is severely felt. The produce of culinary vegetables is most abundant, consisting of beans, peas, melons, pumpkins, onions, garlic, and the va-