a seaport-town of France, in the department of Hérault, is situated on the lagoon of Thau, 19 miles S.E. of Montpellier, and 5 N.W. of Cette. The harbour, which is protected by mole, is capable of receiving vessels of 60 tons. The inhabitants are employed to a considerable extent in the manufacture of brandy and salt; and the trade in these and in corn, wine, &c., is of some importance. In the neighbourhood of Meze is the old abbey of Vallemagne, of which the church and cloisters, built in the thirteenth century, are still in perfect preservation, and are considered equal to any similar edifice in France. Pop. 4986.

MÉZERAI, François Eudes de, an eminent French historian, the son of Isaac Eudes, a surgeon, was born at Rye in Lower Normandy in 1610, and took the surname of Mézerai from a hamlet near Rye. After completing his studies at Caen he proceeded to Paris, where he procured the place of commissary at war, which he held during two campaigns. He then shut himself up in the college of St Barbe, in the midst of books and manuscripts; and in 1643 published the first volume of the Histoire de France, which he completed in 1651. This work surpassed all previous histories of France, and its author was rewarded by the king with a pension of four thousand livres. In 1668 he published an abridgment of his History of France in 3 vols. quarto, which was well received by the public; but he inserted in that work the origin of most of the taxes, with very free reflections, which led to the withdrawal of his pension. Annoyed at this treatment, he resolved to write on subjects which could not expose him to such disappointments; and accordingly he composed his treatise on the origin of the French, which added greatly to his fame. He was elected perpetual secretary to the French Academy; and died in the year 1683. He is said to have been so extremely negligent of his person, that one morning he was actually seized by the archers des pauvres, or parish officers, a mistake at which he was highly diverted. He used to study and write by candle-light at noonday in summer; and even lighted his visitors to the door. Having during his life affected a sort of religious scepticism, he recanted on his deathbed, and told his friends to "remember that Mézerai dying was more to be believed than Mézerai living." His merits as a writer are not of the highest order; but his works, whilst often coarse in style, are generally clear, direct, and forcible. In addition to the works already referred to, Mézerai published:—Une Traduction de l'Histoire des Turcs de Chalcondyle, Paris, 1662; Une Traduction Française du Traité de Jean de Salisbury, intitulé "La Vanité de la Cour," Paris, 1640; Traité de la Verté de la Religion Chrétienne, translated from the Latin of Grotius, Paris, 1644; Histoire de la Mère et du Fils, that is, of Mary of Medicis and Louis XIII., Amsterdam, 1780.