Mountstnart Elphinstone

Mountstnart Elphinstone, an English statesman and historian, 4th son of John, 11th Baron Ephinstone, born in 1779, died Nov. 20, 1859. In 1795 he entered the service of the East India company; in 1808 was ambassador to the Afghan court at Cabool; from 1810 to 1817 was resident at the court of Poonah, and was commissioner to that province from 1817 to 1819, when he was appointed governor of Bombay. He resigned in November, 1827. He was the author of an "Account of the Kingdom of Cabul and its Dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India" (4to, London, 1815), which has been twice reprinted; and "History of India: the Hindoo and Mahometan Periods" (2 vols. 8vo, 1841; 3d ed., 1848).

Mower

Mower, a S. E. county of Minnesota, bordering on lowa, and watered by several streams; area, 720 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 10,447. It has an undulating surface, consisting mostly of prairies, and the soil is fertile. It is traversed by the Milwaukee and St. Paul and the Southern Minnesota railroads. The chief productions in 1870 were 673,017 bushels of wheat, 118,771 of Indian corn, 463,085 of oats, 30,975 of barley, 63,244 of potatoes, 7,670 lbs. of wool, 295,896 of butter, 44,470 of flax, and 18,151 tons of hay. There were 2,821 horses, 3,073 milch cows, 4,543 other cattle, 1,945 sheep, and 2,973 swine; 3 carriage factories, and 3 Hour mills. Capital, Austin.

Moxtmartre

See Paris.

Moytmagyy

Moytmagyy, a S. county of Quebec, Canada, bounded N. W. by the St. Lawrence river below Quebec, and S. E. by Maine; area, 623 sq. m.; pop. in 1871, 13,555, of whom 13,449 were of French origin or descent. It is watered by the Riviere du Sud and by the head streams of the St. John, and is traversed by the Grand Trunk railway. Capital, St. Thomas.

Mozambique Chamel

Mozambique Chamel, the passage between the E. coast of Africa and the island of Madagascar, lat. 12° to 25° S. At its S. entrance it is 550 m. wide, at its N. nearly 600, and in the middle about 250. Its length from N. E. to S. W. is about 1,050 m. The Comoro islands lie at its N. entrance.

Mphixephoria

Mphixephoria(Gr. laurel, and to bear), a Grecian festival celebrated every ninth year at Thebes, in honor of Apollo. A youth was chosen from one of the noble families of the city to be the daphnephorus or bearer of the laurel bough, and the priest of Apollo for that year. Behind him came a troop of maidens bearing boughs and singing hymns. The Delphians also had a custom of sending a boy every ninth year to pluck laurel boughs in the vale of Tempe, in commemoration of the purification of Apollo in that place after he had slain the Python.

Mrs. Hester Mulso (Chapone)

Mrs. Hester Mulso (Chapone), an English authoress, born in Northamptonshire in 1727, died at Hadley in December, 1801. She is said to have written a romance at the age of nine years, and she early studied several languages and treatises on morals and philosophy. Her first publications were the story of "Fidelia" in the "Adventurer," and some verses prefixed to Miss Carter's translation of Epicte-tus. In 1700 she married Mr. Chapone, who died within less than a year. In 1770 she accompanied Mrs. Montague to Scotland, and at her request soon after published her "Letters on the Improvement of the Mind." In a volume of "Miscellanies," which subsequently appeared, are several letters addressed by her to Richardson, controverting some of the maxims put forward by him in "Clarissa Harlowe."