pose. In the motion of these rings, about the pictures figured on the drum, they fancy to themselves some prediction in regard to the subject of their enquiries. MAGINDANAO, or MINDANAO. The name is a compound of Mag, related to-in, countryand danao, a lake, signifying Relations living in a country round a lake. It is the third division of the Philippine Islands, being next to Luconia in extent: it has nearly 300 leagues of circuit, but very irregular, being deeply indented by a gulf, enclosed by a peninsula on the west. The interior is occupied by lofty ridges of mountains, separated by plains and covered with forests of teak and poon. Its minerals are little known, but some gold dust is brought to market and tale is abundant. The island is profusely watered, containing more than twenty navigable rivers, and near the south is a lake sixty leagues in circuit which discharges its waters by a large river. The soil is extremely fertile, producing rice and sago in abundance, and a species of cinnamon, but inferior to that of Ceylon, is indigenous. The forests swarm with wild horses, bullocks, buffaloes, goats, and hogs. The seacoasts are occupied by Malay Mahommedans, who speak the Bissayan dialect as well as the Malay. In the interior is a race of negroes named Haraforas, who have little communication with the Malays. The island is politically divided into three sovereignties. The first, under the sultan, is the most considerable, and occupies the south-east portion of the island; his residence is at Selangan, on the east shore of the Great Illano Bay, and on the large river Pelangy, which empties itself by two branches, whose mouths are crossed by bars with two and three fathoms at high water. The town consists of about 100 houses, with a fortified palace of the sultan, and several wooden castles of the datoos or nobles. The passage of the river is also defended by a large pallisaded fort with many cannon and swivels. A number of Chinese are settled here. This is one of the chief residences of the pirates, and where they build their vessels. The second sovereignty of the island is the Illano country, and is of a feudal nature, being under many chiefs. The third and smallest portion, chiefly comprehending the sea coasts of the western peninsula, is subject to the Spaniards, whose principal establishment is Samboangan, on the south-west extremity of the peninsula. It consists of a fort of masonry surrounded by a rampart of earth; its ordinary garrison is about 150 men: it seems to be of little other use to the Spaniards than as a place of transportation of their convicts from the other islands. Misamis, the second Spanish establishment, is on the north side of the island, and has a garrison of 300 men. Correga, the third and last, is an insignificant post on the east. Hindostan cloths sell well here, especially long cloth; white, blue, and red handkerchiefs, of all kinds; chintz with dark grourds; Surat goods of most sorts, particularly pittolies; and all kinds of European cutlery. Chinese articles, carried from Sooloo to Magindanao, are kangans, Leads, gongs, china basins with red edges, deep brass plates five in a set, deep saucers three and four inches diameter, brass wire, and iron. Gold is produced in many parts; besides which wax, rice, cassia, rattans, tobacco, and pepper, are exported. The sultan is the head of the state, and next to him is his successor. There are various other state functionaries, with extensive powers; six judges named by the sultan; and six amba rajahs, or assertors of the people's rights. Their office is hereditary. The sultan's vassals possess great estates. They are sometimes Mahommedans, though they are mostly native inhabitants. The latter only may be sold with the lands. They are more oppressed than the Mahommedans, who are bound to accompany their lords; but the Haraforas, being in a great measure excused from such attendance, pay certain yearly taxes which are not expected from the Mahommedan vassals. The inhabitants of Magindanao are all addicted to piracy, and frequently extend their depredations to Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and Celebes. When the prow is large they strike the mast and hide among the rocks or up a creek. Canoes are then detached to plunder, and the proceeds are brought to the large vessel. When they attack the Dutch possessions they will make slaves even of persons of their own religion. Their intercourse with Europeans has given the inhabitants a knowledge of some of the European arts: in others they are remarkably deficient, their blacksmiths being incapable of making any thing more complicated than a common nail. Their culinary utensils they procure from China. The male inhabitants pluck their beards out with pincers. They are remarkably fond of cock-fighting. The women, who are of stately appearance and inanners, do not suffer the same strict confinement as in other Indian countries, being frequently present at audiences and public exhibitions. At the age of thirteen they have their teeth filed thin, and stript of the enamel, that they may be stained with black. The ladies visit each other with great ceremony on this occasion, and with a numerous train of attendants, who, as they approach the house, notify their approach by a disagreeable howl. They amuse themselves with playing at draughts, dancing, &c., on which occasion they move slowly round in a circle. The dress of the women consists of a jacket, common to both sexes, and a kind of petticoat. The men wear, besides the jacket, a cloth bound about the middle, coming up between the thighs. They tie up their hair in a singular manner, fixing it round a piece of wood five or six inches in diameter. The women tie their hair behind, and plait it like the Gentoo dancing girls. They also wear brass rings round the wrist, knee, and on each arm and leg. They are fond of wearing beads about their necks, and brass rings or beads dangling at their ears, which in both sexes are very wide and long. Magellan first touched at this island on Easter day, in 1521, and took possession of it in the name of Charles V. of Spain. The Spaniards afterwards made settlements here, and subdued the northern coast, but never made any farther progress: they now with difficulty retain the feeble colonies they planted. It was visited by the Portuguese about 1537, and by the Dutch in 1607, 1616, and 1627. In 1689 an envoy was sent by the Dutch East India Company, for permission to build a fort, which was refused. The Dutch made a sort of survey of it in 1693, and it was much frequented by English piratical vessels, which swarmed at this period in the Indian seas. The intercourse of the British here has not been frequent, and generally not very amicable. In 1758 the pirates from this island had the temerity to attack the settlement at Prince of Wales's Island, but were repulsed with loss; and in 1798 the sultan seized a boat's crew belonging to the La Sybylle frigate, which had been sent on shore: They were afterwards liberated, but not until a ransom of 4000 dollars had been paid. In 1803 they fitted out a fleet of forty prows, with the intention of invading the India Company's settlements in Celebes, but were met by the Swift cruizer, and defeated. Long. 119° 30′ to 125° E., lat. 5° 40′ to 9° 55′ N. MAGISTE'RIAL, adj. Latin magister, MAGISTE RIALLY, adv. magistratus; Fr. MAGISTE RIALNESS, n. s. magistrat ; Ital. maMAG'ISTRACY, gistrato. Befitting MAGISTRALLY, adv. or appertaining to MAGISTRATE, N.S. a magistrate; hence lofty; arrogant: magistracy, the office or dignity of a public administrator of the law: magistrate, the officer so administering the law: magistrally is an abbreviation of magisterially. They chuse their magistrate! And such a one as he, who puts his shall, Shakspeare. Coriolanus. I treat here of those legal punishments which magistrates inflict upon their disobedient subjects. Decay of Piety Ye that are magistrates, not for God's sake only, but for your king's sake, whose deputies ye are, as he is God's ;-rouse up your spirits, awaken your Christian courage, and set yourselves heartily against the traitorly sins of the times. Bp. Hall. What a presumption is this for one, who will not allow liberty to others, to assume to himself such a licence to controul so magisterially! Bramhall against Hobbes. We are not magisterial in opinions, nor, dictatorlike, obtrude our notions on any man. Browne's Vulgar Errours. He had no other intention but to dissuade men from magistracy, or undertaking the publick offices of Browne. state. The magistery of vegetables consists but of the more soluble and coloured parts of the plants that afford it. Boyle. Of corals are chiefly prepared the powder ground upon a marble, and the magisterial salt, to good purpose in some fevers: the tincture is no more than a solution of the magisterial salt. Grew. Magistery is a term made use of by chemists to sigaify sometimes a very fine powder, made by solution and precipitation; as of bismuth, lead, &c., and sometimes resin and resinous substances; as those of jalap, scamony, &c.; but the most genuine acceptation is to express that preparation of any body, wherein the whole, or most part, is, by the addition of somewhat, changed into a body of quite another kind; as when iron or copper is turned into crystals of Mars or Venus. Quincy. This precipitate, washed and dried, is what has been called magistery of bismuth, or pearl-white. Parkes's Chemical Catechism. MAGLIABECHI (Anthony), was born at Florence in 1633. His father died when he was only seven years old, and his mother placed him as an apprentice with one of the best goldsmiths in Florence. When about sixteen years of age his passion for learning began to show itself; and becoming acquainted with Michael Ermini, librarian to the cardinal de Medicis, he soon perfected himself, by his assistance, in the Latin tongue, and, in a short time, became master of the Hebrew. His memory was very tenacious. A gentleman lent him a MS. he was going to print, and, some time after it was returned, the gentleman, coming to him with a melancholy countenance, pretended it was lost, and requested Magliabechi to recollect what he could of it; upon which he wrote out the whole without a single omission. He generally shut himself up the whole day, and in the evening received literary men who came to converse with him. Cosmo III., grand duke of Florence, made him his librarian; but he still continued negligent in his dress, and simple in his manners: an old cloak served him for a morning gown in the day, and for bed-clothes at night. The duke, however, provided for him a commodious apartment in his palace, which he was with difficulty persuaded to take possession of; but which he quitted four months after, and returned to his house. His dinner was commonly three hard boiled eggs, with a draught of water. He spent some hours in each day at the palace library, but is said never in his life to have gone farther from Florence than to Pratz, whither he once accompanied cardinal Norris to see a MS. He had a small window in his door, through which he could see all those who approached him, and if he did not wish for their company he would not admit them. He patronised men of learning; assisted them with his advice and information, and furnished them with books and MSS. Though he lived a most sedentary life, he reached the eighty-first year of his age; enjoying, during the latter part of his life, such affluence as few have ever procured by their learning. He left a very fine library to the public, with a fund for its support. MAGLOIRE (St.), a native of Wales. He embraced a monastic life, and went into France, where he was made abbot of Dol, and after that a provincial bishop of Brittany. He afterwards founded a monastery in the island of Jersey, where he died October 14th 575, aged eighty. His remains were transported to the suburbs of St. Jaques, and deposited in a monastery of Benedictines, which was ceded to the fathers of the oratory in 1628. This saint cultivated poetry with considerable success: the hymn which is sung at the feast of All Saints was composed by him; Cœlo quos eadem gloria consecrat, &c. MAGNA CHARTA, the great charter of the liberties of England, signed and sealed by king John at Runnemede, between Windsor and Staines, June 19th, 1215; and confirmed by Henry III. and Edward I. This charter may be said to derive its origin from king Edward the Confessor, who granted several privileges to the church and state by charter: these liberties and privileges were also granted and confirmed by king Henry I. by a celebrated great charter. By this charter he restored the Saxon laws which were in use under Edward the Confessor, but with such emendations as had been made in them by his father, with the advice of his parliament,' at the same time annulling all evil customs and illegal exactions, by which the realm had been unjustly oppressed. Some of these grievances were specified in the charter, and the redress of them expressly enacted. According to one of our greatest antiquaries, Sir Henry Spelman, this was the original of king John's Magna Charta, containing most of the articles of it, either particularly expressed, or in general, under the confirmation it gives to the laws of Edward the Confessor.' So mistaken are they, says lord Lyttleton, who have supposed that all the privileges granted in magna charta were 'innovations' extorted by the arms of rebels from king John! Matthew Paris also tells us, that, in the year 1215, the barons came in arms to king John at London, and demanded of him that certain liberties and laws of king Edward, with other liberties granted to them, and to the kingdom and church of England, should be confirmed, as they were contained and set down in the charter of king Henry I., and in the laws abovementioned.' And the same historian, where he mentions the capitula,' or rough draught of the great charter, delivered to John by the barons, says, that the articles thereof 'were partly written before, in the charter of king Henry I. and partly taken out of the ancient laws of king Edward.' These passages, and also what he says before, of the barons having sworn at St Edmund's Bury, to make war on the king, till he should confirm to them, by a charter under his seal, the laws and liberties granted in the charter of Henry I., sufficiently show, that they understood and intended this charter to be the original and foundation of that which they demanded and obtained from John. Besides, the first charter of Stephen 'confirms the liberties and good laws, which his uncle king Henry gave and granted, and all good laws and good customs, which the nation had enjoyed in the time of Edward the Confessor,' words which evidently refer to the charter. It was also confirmed more expressly by king Henry II. Henry III., after having caused twelve men to make enquiry into the liberties of England in the reign of Henry I., granted a new charter; which was the same as the present magna charta. This he several times confirmed, and as often broke; till, in the thirty-seventh year of his reign, he went to Westminster Hall, and there, in the presence of the nobility and bishops, who held lighted candles in their hands, magna charta was read, the king all the time holding his hand to his breast, and finally swearing solemnly faithfully and inviolably to observe all the things therein contained, &c. Then the bishops extinguishing the candles, and throwing them on the ground, they all cried out, 'Thus let him be extinguished, and stink in hell, who violates this charter.' It is observed that, notwithstanding the solemnity of this confirmation, king Henry, the very next year, again invaded the rights of his people, till the barons entered into a war against him; when, after various success, he confirmed this charter, and the charter of the forest, in the fifty-second year of his reign. This charter confirmed many liberties of the church, and redressed many grievances incident to feudal tenures, of no small moment at the time; though now, unless considered attentively and with this retrospect, they seem but of trifling concern. But, besides these feudal provisions, care was also taken therein to protect the subject against other oppressions, then frequently arising from unreasonable amercements, from illegal distresses or other process for debts or services due to the crown, and from the tyrannical abuse of the prerogative of purveyance and pre-emption. It fixed the forfeiture of lands for felony in the same manner as it still remains; prohibited for the future the grants of exclusive fisheries, and the erection of new bridges so as to oppress the neighbourhood. With respect to private rights, it established the testamentary power of the subject over part of his personal estate, the rest being distributed among his wife and children; it laid down the law of dower, as it has continued ever since; and prohibited the appeals of women, unless after the death of their husbands. In matters of public police, and national concern, it enjoined a uniformity of weights and measures; gave new encouragements to commerce, by the protection of merchant strangers; and forbade the alienation of lands in mortmain. With regard to the administration of justice, besides prohibiting all denials or delays of it, it fixed the court of common pleas at Westminster, that the suitors might no longer be harassed with following the king's person in all his progresses; and at the same time brought the trial of issues home to the very doors of the freeholders, by directing assizes to be taken in the proper counties, and establishing annual circuits; it also corrected some abuses then incident to the trials by wager of law and of battle; directed the regular awarding of inquest for life or member; prohibited the king's inferior ministers from holding pleas of the crown, or trying any criminal charge, whereby many forfeitures might otherwise have unjustly accrued to the exchequer; and regulated the time and place of holding the inferior tribunals of justice, the county court, sheriff's torn, and court-leet. It confirmed and established the liberties of the city of London, and all other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports of the kingdom. And lastly (which alone would have merited the title that it bears of the great charter), it protected every individual of the nation in the free enjoyment of his life, his liberty, and his property, unless declared to be forfeited by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land. This excellent charter, so equitable and beneficial to the subject, is the most ancient written law in the kingdom. By the 25th Edward I. it is ordained, that it shall be taken as the common law; and by the 43d Edward III. all statutes made against it are declared to be void. MAGNAL'ITY, n. s. Lat. magnalia. A great thing; something above the common rate: a word now happily out of common use. Too greedy of magnalities, we make but favourable experiments concerning welcome truths. Browne. Fr. magnanimité, Lat. magnanimus. Greatness or eleadjective and ad MAG VANIM'ITY, n. s. MAGNAN'IMOUs, adj. MAGNAN'IMOUSLY, adv. vation of mind; bravery: the verb corresponding. Confidence in one's self is the chief nurse of magSir P. Sidney. nanimity. With deadly hue, an armed corse did lye, In whose dead face he read great magnanimity. Spenser. Let but the acts of the ancient Jews be but indifferently weighed, from whose magnanimity in causes of most extreme hazard those strange and unwonted resolutions have grown which, for all circumstances, no people under the roof of heaven did ever hitherto match. Hooker. They had enough revenged, having reduced Their foe to misery beneath their fears; The rest was magnanimity to remit, If some convenient ransom was proposed. Milton. To give a kingdom hath been thought Greater and nobler done, and to lay down Far more magnanimous, than to assume. Id. A complete and generous education fits a man to perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously, all the offices of peace and war. Id. on Education. Magnanimous industry is a resolved assiduity and care, answerable to any weighty work. Grew's Cosmologia. Exploding many things under the name of trifles is a very false proof either of wisdom or magnanimity, and a great check to virtuous actions with regard to fame. Swift. I have yet found among them, in not a few instances, some of the noblest virtues, magnanimity, generosity, disinterested friendship, and even modesty. Burns. MAGNESIA, in chemistry, one of the primitive earths, having a metallic base called magnesium. It has been found native in the state of hydrate. Magnesia may be obtained by pouring into a solution of its sulphate a solution of subcarbonate of soda, washing the precipitate, drying it, and exposing it to a red heat. It is usually procured, in commerce, by acting on magnesian limestone with the impure muriate of magnesia, or bittern of the sea-salt manufactories. The muriatic acid goes to the lime, forming a soluble salt, and leaves behind the magnesia of both the bittern and limestone. Or the bittern is decomposed by a crude subcarbonate of ammon a, obtained from the distillation of bones in iron cylinders. Muriate of ammonia and subcarbonate of magnesia result. The former is evaporated to dryness, mixed with chalk, and sublimed. Subcarbonate of ammonia is thus recovered, with which a new quantity of bittern may be decomposed; and thus, in ceaseless repetition, forming an elegant and economical process. 100 parts of crystallised Epsom salt require, for complete decomposition, fifty-six of subcarbonate of potash, or forty-four dry subcarbonate of soda; and yield sixteen of pure magnesia after calcination. Magnesia is a white soft powder. Its specific gravity is 2-3 by Kirwan. It renders the syrup of violets, and infusion of red cabbage, green, and reddens turmeric. It is infusible, except by the hydrogen blow-pipe. It has scarcely any taste, and no smell. It is nearly insoluble in water; but it absorbs a quantity of that liquid thrown down from the sulphate by a caustic alwith the production of heat. And, when it is kali, it is combined with water, constituting a hydrate, which, however, separates at a red heat. It contains about one-fourth its weight of water. When magnesia is exposed to the air it very slowly attracts carbonic acid. It combines with sulphur, forming a sulphuret. The metallic basis, or magnesium, may be obtained in the state of amalgam with mercury, by electrisation, as is described under BARIUM; but a much longer time is necessary. Sir H. Davy succeeded also in decomposing magnesia, by passing potassium, in vapor, through it, heated to whiteness in a tube of platinum out of the contact of air. He then introduced a small quantity of mercury, and heated it gently for some time in the tube. An amalgam was obtained, which by distillation, out of the contact of the atmosphere, afforded a darkgray metallic film, infusible at the point at which plate-glass softened, and which in the process of the distillation of the mercury rendered the glass black at its point of contact with it. This film burned with a red light when heated strongly, and became converted into a white powder, which had the character of magnesia. When a portion of magnesium was thrown into water it sunk to the bottom, and effervesced slowly, becoming covered with a white powder. By adding a little muriatic acid to the water the effervescence was violent. The metal rapidly disappeared, and the solution was found to contain magnesia. When magnesia is strongly heated, in contact with two volumes of chlorine, this gas is absorbed, and one volume of oxygen is disengaged. Hence it is evident that there exists a combination of magnesium and chlorine, or a true chloride. The salt called muriate of magnesia is a compound of the chloride and water. When it is acted on by a strong heat, by far the greatest part of the chlorine unites to the hydrogen of the water, and rises in the form of muriatic acid gas; while the oxygen of the decomposed water combines with the magnesium to form magnesia. Magnesia is often associated with lime in minerals, and their perfect separation becomes an interesting problem in analysis. Mr. Longchamp has published a valuable paper on the subject. in the twelfth volume of the Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. Magnesia is chiefly used as an antacid, purgative, and lithontriptic, in medicine. When incautiously used for a long time it may produce very serious evils, of which a remarkable case is narrated by Mr. Brande, in the first volume of his Journal. A lady was recommended to take magnesia, in consequence of some very severe nephritic attacks, accompanied with the passage of gravel. She was desired to take a tea-spoonful every night; and Henry's calcined magnesia was preferred, as that always operated upon the bowels, and carried itself off,' which other magnesia did not, but on the contrary felt heavy and uneasy on the stomach. The dose was gradually increased to two tea-spoonfuls, in order to produce effect upon the bowels, which this quantity never failed to do The symptoms for which it was ordered were soon removed, but the plan was persevered in for two years and a half, with little intermission; so that as the average weight of a tea-spoonful is at least forty grains, and the average dose was a tea-spoonful and a half, it may be presumed that she took, during the above period, between nine and ten pounds troy. 'In the course of the last autumn she became sensible of a tenderness in the left side, just above the groin, connected with a deeply seated tumor, obscurely to be felt upon pressure, and subject to attacks of constipation, with painful spasmodic action of the bowels, tenesmus, and a highly irritable state of stomach. These attacks recurred every two or three weeks, varying in violence, but requiring the use of active remedies. Several irregular lumps, of a soft lightbrown substance, were voided, having the appearance of a large mass broken down, and when dry extremely friable. A part of each was subjected to analysis, and found to consist entirely of subcarbonate of magnesia, concreted by the mucus of the bowels, in the proportion of about forty per cent. She was cured by the use of other purgatives.' Another case is mentioned, in which not only large quantities of a concretion of a similar description were voided, but upon examination after death, which took place perhaps six months after any magnesia had been taken, a collection, supposed to be from four to six pounds, was found imbedded in the head of the colon, which was of course much distended. MAGNESIA, HYDRATE OF, in mineralogy. This mineral was discovered by Dr. Bruce of New York, in small veins in serpentine at Hoboken, in New Jersey. Color white. Massive. Lustre pearly. Fracture foliated or radiated. Semitransparent in the mass; transparent in single folia. Soft, and somewhat elastic. Adheres slightly to the tongue. Specific gravity 2.13. Soluble in acids. Its constituents are magnesia 70, water 30, which approaches to one prime equivalent of each.—Jameson. MAGNESIA, in ancient geography, a maritime district of Thessaly, lying between the south part of the Sinus Thermaicus and the Pegasus on the south, and to the east of the Pelasgiotis. Magnesius and Magnessus, the epithet. Horace. MAGNESIA, a town of Asia Minor, on the Maander, about fifteen miles from Ephesus. Themistocles died there: it was one of the three towns given him by Artaxerxes, to furnish his table with bread.' It is also celebrated for a battle fought there, 190 years before the Christian era, between the Romans and Antiochus king of Syria. The forces of Antiochus amounted to 70,000 men according to Appian, or 70,000 foot and 12,000 horse according to Livy, which has been exaggerated by Florus to 300,000 men; the Roman army consisted of about 28,000 or 30,000 men, 2000 of whom were employed in guarding the camp. The Syrians lost 50,000 foot and 4000 horse; and the Romans only 300 killed, with twenty-five horse. It was founded by a colony from Magnesia in Thessaly. MAGNESIA AD SIPYLUM, a town of Tantalis, the residence of Tantalus, and capital of Mæonia, where now stands the lake Sale'; seated at the foot of mount Sipylus, east of the Hermus. It was adjudged free under the Romans, but was destroyed by an earthquake in the reign of Tiberius. MAGNESITE. Color yellowish-gray, or yellowish-white, and marked with spets. It occurs massive, tuberose, reniform, and vesicular. Surface rough. Dull. Fracture conchoidal. Fragments rather sharp-edged. Opaque. Scratched by fluor spar, but it scratches calcareous spar. It adheres pretty strongly to the tongue. It feels rather meagre. Streak dull. Rather easily Frangible. Specific gravity 2.881. Infusible; but before the blow-pipe it becomes so hard as to scratch glass. Its constituents are, 46 magnesia, 51 carbonic acid, 1 alumina, 0.25 ferruginous manganese, 0.16 lime, 1 water.Bucholz. It is found at Hrubschitz in Moravia, in serpentine rocks. |