descended from the ancient family of D'Aubigné, was born in 1635 in the prison of Niort in Poitou, where her profligate father was then confined. Her parents by misfortune being unable to support Mairwarra her, she was intrusted to the care of her mother's relations; and, to escape this state of dependence, she was induced, in 1651, to marry the Abbé Scarron, a celebrated burlesque writer, who was deformed, infirm, and, as she insinuates in one of her letters, impotent, with no other means of support than a small pension allowed him by the court. When Scarron died in 1660, she found herself as indigent as she had been before her marriage. But Louis XIV., afterwards made choice of her to take charge of the education of the young Duke of Maine, his son by Madame de Montespan, and he was so charmed with the letters she wrote on this occasion, that he bought her the lands of Maintenon; and finding that she was pleased with the acquisition, called her publicly Mademoiselle de Maintenon. About the close of the year 1685, Louis XIV., being then in his forty-eighth, whilst she was in her fiftieth year, raised her from the condition of a mistress to that of a wife. By consummate art and address, concealed under a mask of affected simplicity and piety, she attained the grand object of her ambition; and though not publicly acknowledged, became in reality the second person in the state, and took part in some of the most disgraceful acts of that reign. She prevailed on Louis to found a religious community at St Cyr, for the education of 300 young ladies of quality; and on the death of Louis in 1715, she retired thither, where she spent the rest of her days in acts of devotion. It appears that her husband left no fixed provision for her, contenting himself with recommending her to the Duke of Orleans. She accepted a pension of 80,000 livres, which was punctually paid her till her death, which took place in 1719. A collection of her letters has been published, and translated into English.

Mairwarra, or Realms of the Mairs, in Hindustan, a mountainous tract, consisting of a number of parallel ridges extending in a direction from N.E. to S.W., and constituting that portion of the Aravalli range which lies between Komulmer and Ajmere, a space of about 90 miles in length, and varying in breadth from 6 to 20. The tract is interspersed between the Rajpoot states of Oodeypore and Joudpore. Its north-eastern extremity is in Lat. 26° 10', Long. 74° 30'; its south-western in Lat. 25° 25', Long. 73° 50'. Mairwarra was ceded to the British in 1818 by Scindia, but the states of Oodeypore and Joudpore having urged claims to a portion of the country, their validity was hastily and unadvisedly recognised. The inconvenience of three independent states claiming to exercise the powers of government in a country so circumstanced was, however, subsequently mitigated by arrangements under which the whole was placed under British management. The principal place in the district is the newly-established town of Nya Nugga, which promises to be the seat of considerable trade. British Mairwarra contains an area of 282 square miles, with a population of 37,715. The portion allotted to Oodeypore has an area of 305 square miles, and that belonging to Joudpore a superficial extent of about 67 square miles.

Maistre, Louis Isaac Le. (See Sacy.)

Maistre, Count Joseph Maire de, a statesman and philosopher, was born at Chambery in Piedmont, on the 1st April 1753. His father, who held the honourable office of president of the senate of Savoy, directed his education with much care; and the industry and success of the son amply rewarded the solicitude of the parent. Having completed his education at the university of Turin with great distinction at the age of twenty, the following year saw him elevated to the rank of a magistrate, and in 1788 he was promoted to the dignity of a senator. On the French invasion in 1792 he was compelled to take refuge in Lausanne, where he remained till 1797, when he returned to Piedmont, only to leave it again for Venice. He remained in the latter city till 1800, when a call from Maitland, the King of Sardinia to occupy an important political position in connection with the government of that kingdom, induced him to embark again in public life. Count de Maistre was sent as an ambassador to St Petersburg in 1803, where he remained till 1817. He died on the 26th February 1821, in his sixty-eighth year.

The writings of Count de Maistre are of a twofold character. The Soirées de Saint Petersburg, and the Examen de la Philosophie de Bacon, belong more properly to philosophy; while the Essai sur le Principe Générateur des Constitutions Politiques; Le Pepe; the Considerations sur la France, &c., are devoted to an exposition and defence of the political and social views of the author. The Soirées—which, by its popular form, its nervous and picturesque style, and the vigorous talent and pleasant wit which pervade it, exerted great influence—runs through a series of subtle metaphysical questions, handled with the apparent ease of a man of the world, and with all the grace of unstudied conversation. But his philosophy is more the reflex of his social ideas and political feelings than the product of calm reflection and steady adherence to the phenomena of observation. The principal design of De Maistre's philosophy is to justify or explain the temporal government of Providence; to show that the sufferings to which mankind are subjected are in no wise contradictory of the attributes of the Deity. He maintains that the good and the bad are alike subject to calamities, but that the good have less to suffer than the bad; that the good man suffers not as good, but as man; that man suffers in consequence of original sin; and that our only deliverance consists in personal prayer and the intercession and merits of the good employed in our behalf. He sums up his scheme of moral government by alleging, that "sovereignty and punishment are the two poles upon which God has poised the world." As for his religious and political sentiments, he advocates the divine right of legitimate sovereigns, passive obedience, the authority of the church in matters of faith, the supremacy of the pope, and the superiority of ecclesiastical over temporary authority. His system betrays two peculiar tendencies,—the one towards asceticism, the other towards mysticism. A complete edition of De Maistre's works was published at Paris 1821-36.

MAITLAND, Sir Richard, a cultivator and preserver of Scottish poetry, was the son of William Maitland of Lethington, and of a daughter of George Lord Seaton. He was born in 1496, and after passing through a regular course of study at the university of St Andrews, he repaired to France, in accordance with the custom of that age, to finish his education. There he devoted himself chiefly to the study of law. On his return to Scotland, Maitland successively held office under James V., the Regent Arran, and Mary of Guise. In the government of the last, according to Sir John Scot, he was lord privy seal. He was appointed an extraordinary lord of session in 1551, and was knighted soon afterwards. In 1561 he celebrated the landing of Queen Mary by his ode on The Queen's Arrival in Scotland, and from this poem we learn that its author had already lost his sight. Yet this deprivation, interfering to no great extent with his professional activity, did not retard his promotion. In this same year he was nominated an ordinary lord of session; and in 1562 a member of the privy council and lord privy seal. This last office he resigned in 1567 in favour of his second son, afterwards Lord Thirlstane. The blindness, as well as the peaceful disposition of Sir Richard Maitland, prevented him from mingling in the civil broils that followed the death of Darnley and the marriage of the queen with Bothwell. Yet, on account of the conduct of his eldest son, the famous secretary of Mary, his estate was seized by the king's party, and not till after the fall of the Regent Morton was it restored. In 1583 he received from the lords of session an exemption from regular attendance on his judicial duties, and he retired of his own accord in 1584. He died in 1586, at the age of ninety. Sir Richard Maitland's claim to notice rests on his valuable collection of Scottish poetry, still preserved in manuscript in the Pepysian Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge. It consists of two volumes, the one a folio, containing 176 pieces, and the other a quarto, containing 96. An edition of Maitland's own poems was published in 1830 by the Maitland Club, a society of literary antiquaries who have assumed his name.

MAIZE, or Indian Corn, the Zea Mays of botanists, a monocotyledonous grass of the natural order Graminaceae (see Botany, p. 214), is a native of tropical America, found in its wild state in Paraguay and Chile. Like some others of the same order, its stamens and pistils are in different flowers on the same plant; the staminate flowers are borne on the top of the plant, and the pistilliferous ones proceed from the axils of the leaves. The leaves are broad, and are suspended from large rough sheaths which surround the stem. The ripe grains, which are regularly arranged in rows, the one above the other, are compressed at the sides and flattened at the top. Their colour is for the most part pale yellow; some, however, are white, some blood-red, some purple, and some partly-coloured. A plant generally has two full ears, varying greatly in the number of grains. Some ears have been known to contain the enormous number of 800 grains. The height of the stems varies from 2 feet to 8 or 10. The floral envelope of the pistil flower is extensively used in Southern Europe for packing oranges and lemons; and the Spaniards of South America contrive, by rolling tobacco into small squares, cut from the thin covers of the grain, to fashion for themselves agreeable cigarettes. Paper of a very excellent quality has been manufactured from the perianths of the maize.

The cultivation of maize has, within the last century, increased to an enormous extent over the American continent, and throughout most parts of Asia, Africa, and Southern Europe. It requires but little labour for its cultivation, and forms an exceedingly wholesome and nutritive diet. Although deficient in gluten, it is nevertheless made into cakes in North America, which are very highly esteemed. Some have advocated the introduction of maize as one of our regular crops in this country; but agriculturists have hitherto been of opinion, that none of its varieties could be ripened in the ordinary seasons of these islands. (See Agriculture, p. 313.) This supposition has recently been proved to be without foundation, by an experiment tried in the summer of 1850, by Mr Keene, on a crop of forty-day maize in St James's Park, London. The seed, which he had introduced from the Pyrenees, was put in the ground on the 24th May, and notwithstanding various drawbacks incidental to the locality, the crop was harvested on the 10th October, "the grain perfectly formed, full and ripe, and the cobs much finer than those grown on the Continent." (Year-Book of Facts for 1850, p. 246.) The amount of crop was at the rate of 50 bushels per acre, and the bread formed from it could be had in England at a cost of a halfpenny the pound. It is calculated that 30 acres of average soil, properly drained and sown with maize, would be worth £400. It is supposed, however, that in the present state of things, maize could be purchased in the home market at a less sum than it could be cultivated, seeing that it can be raised in Ohio at 6d. the bushel of 56 lbs., at a good profit. About two-thirds of the maize crop of the Americans are grown for exportation. The quantities of Indian corn or maize entered for home consumption, and chargeable with duty as a British import during the past three years, were as follows:—In 1854, 1,358,380 qrs.; in 1855, 1,224,281 qrs.; in 1856, 1,788,212 qrs. The importation of Indian-corn meal during the same time was as follows:—In 1854, 55,963 cwts.; in 1855, 12,154 cwts.; in