MARCH, v. n., v. a., & n. s. Sax. meanc; Fr. marcher; as Junius thinks, from Mars, the god of war; others, from the Goth. markga, to go in a measured pace. See MARK. To move in an orderly or military manner: put in military or regular movement: such movement, a soldier's journey; a signal to march; a deliberate or laborious walk. He marched in battle array with his power against Arphaxad. Judges i. 13. Plexirtus finding that, if nothing else, famine would at last bring him to destruction, thought better by humbleness to creep where by pride he could not march. Sidney. The drums presently striking up a march, they make no longer stay, but forward they go directly. Knolles. Pope. In a fortnight or three weeks, added my uncle Toby, smiling, he might march-He will never march, an' please your honour, in this world, said the corporal. He will march, said my uncle Toby, rising up from the side of the bed, with one shoe off:-An' please your honour, said the corporal, he will never march but to his grave. Sterne. Had he continued in that station, I must have marched off to be one of the little underlings about a farm-house. Burns. MARCH, n. s. Lat. martius, of Mars. See below. Fr. Mars; Teut. Mertz. The third month of the year. March is drawn in taway, with a fierce aspect, 1 helmet upon his head, to shew this month was deacated to lars. Peacham MARCH, MARTIUS. Among the Romans, March was the first month; and in some ecclesiastical computations that order is still preserved; particularly in reckoning the number of years from the incarnation of our Saviour, from the 25th of March. Romulus divided the year into months; to the first of which he gave the name of his supposed father, Mars. Ovid, towever, observes, that the people of Italy had the month of March before Romulus's time; but that they placed it very differently, some making it the third, others the fourth, some the fifth, and others the tenth month of the year. In tas month the Romans sacrificed to Anna Perenna; began their comitia; adjudged their public farms and leases; the mistresses served the slaves and servants at table, as the masters did in the Saturnalia; and the vestals renewed the sacred fire. This month was always under the protection of Minerva, and consisted of thirty-one days. The ancients held this an unhappy month for marriage, fearing lest, as in some of our modern dwellings, Mars should intrude himself amongst the household gods. MARCH, in the military art. In the marches of the Jewish armies they made use of trumpets, to the different sounds of which they prepared them by packing up their baggage, putting themselves in readiness, and attending at the standards to wait the signal for marching. The Rabbies suppose that the Israelites marched in the same order they were placed in the camp. The Greeks never marched against their enemies till favorable omens encouraged their enterprise. An eclipse of the moon, or any untoward acci dent, or the intervening of what they esteemed an unlucky day, entirely prevented their march. But of all the Greeks the Lacedemonians were the most nice and scrupulous. The heavenly bodies directed all their motions; and it was an invariable maxim with them never to march before the full moon. The Greeks are particularly remarked by Homer for marching in good order and profound silence; whereas the barbarian forces were all noise, clamor, and confusion. The marches of the Roman armies were per formed with the greatest order and despatch, insomuch that their unexpected presence often damped the spirits of their enemies. man soldiers were inured to the military pace, that is, to walk twenty miles in five hours, though they carried burdens of sixty pounds weight. Of all the mechanical parts of war, in modern times, none is more essential than that of marching. It may be justly called the key which leads to all sublime motions and manœuvres of an army; for they depend entirely on this point. A man can be attacked in four different ways; the front, on both flanks, and in the rear; but he can defend himself, and annoy the enemy, only when placed with his face towards him. Hence it follows that the general object of marching is reduced to three points only; to march forwards, and on both sides, because it is impossible to do it for any time backwards, and by that means face the enemy wherever he pre The Ro in sents himself. The order of march of the troops must be so disposed, that each should arrive at their rendezvous, if possible, on the same day. The quarter-master general, or his deputy, with an able engineer, should reconnoitre the country, to obtain a perfect knowledge of it and the enemy, before he forms his routes. Before a march, the army generally receives several days' bread. The quarter-masters, camp color-men, and pioneers, parade according to orders, and march immediately after, commanded by the quarter-master general or his deputy. They are to clear the roads, level the ways, make preparations for the march of the army, &c. The general, for instance, beats at two o'clock, the assembly at three, and the army is to march in twenty minutes after. Upon beating the general, the village and general officers, guards, quarter and rear-guards, join their respective corps; and the army pack up their baggage. Upon heating the assembly, the tents are to be struck, and sent, with the baggage, to the place appointed, &c. The companies draw up in their several streets, and the rolls are called. At the time appointed, the drummers are to beat a march, and fifers play at the head of the line, upon which the companies march out from their several streets form battalions as they advance to the head of the line, and then halt. The several battalions are formed into columns by the adjutant-general, and the order of march, &c., is given to the general officers who lead the columns. The cavalry generally march by regiments or squadrons. The heavy artillery always keep the great roads in the centre of the columns, escorted by a strong party of infantry and cavalry. The field pieces accompany the columns. Each soldier generally marches with thirty-six round of powder and ball, and two good flints; one of which is to be fixed in the cock of his firelock. The routes must be formed so that no columns cross one another on the march. MARCHAND (John Lewis), a native of Lyons, who shares with the celebrated D'Aquin the glory of having carried the art of playing on the organ to the highest perfection. When very young he went to Paris; and, happening to be in the chapel of the college of Louis XIV. when they were waiting for the organist, he offered to supply his place. His playing gave so great satisfaction, that the Jesuits kept him in the college, and supplied him with every facility for improvement. He continued to play the organ of their chapel; and, though many advantageous places were offered him, he refused to accept them. He died in Paris in 1732, aged sixty-three. He composed two books of Pieces for the Harpsichord, much esteemed by the con noisseurs. MARCHAND (Prosper), was brought up in Paris to the profession of a bookseller, and in the knowledge of books. He corresponded with several learned men, among whom was Bernard, the continuator of the Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres, and furnished him with the literary anecdotes of France. Marchand, having embraced the Protestant religion, went to join Bernard in Holland, where, by his knowledge of books, he was so eminently distinguished, that VOL. XIII. he was consulted from all parts of Europe. He was also one of the principal authors of the Journal Literaire, and furnished extracts for the other journals. He died at an advanced age, June 14th, 1756, and left his fortune to a society instituted at the Hague for the education of poor people. His library and MSS. were left by his will to the University of Leyden. He wrote, 1. The History of Printing; a work full of erudition and critical discussions; Hague, 1740, 4to. Abbé Mercier, of Saint-Leger de Soissons, gave, in 1776, 4to., a supplement to this history, which is equally curious and accurate. 2. A Historical Dictionary, or Memoirs Critical and Literary; Hague, 1758, 2 vols. folio. 3. A new edition of Bayle's Dictionary; and, 4. Letters on the Cymbalum Mundi, &c. MARCHAND ISLAND, an island of the South Pacific Ocean, discovered by captain Marchand, and forming one of a group called by him Revolution Islands. It was only seen at a distance, and appeared to be mountainous. Long. 142° 19′ W., lat. 9° 21′ S. MARCHANTIA, in botany, a genus of the natural order of alge, and cryptogamia class of plants: MALE CAL. peltated, and covered below with monopetalous corolla; the antheræ are multifid: FEMALE CAL. sessile, campanulated, and polyspermous. There are eight species, the most remarkable are, 1. M. conica, or conic mushroom merchantia, with warted leaves, grows on moist shady banks by the sides of rivulets. The leaves are broad, flat, about two inches long, dichotomous, obtusely lobed, and lie upon one another. Their surface is of a pale green glossy color, curiously tesseliated with rhomboidal and hexagonal tubercles, each having a white vesicle in the centre, with a puncture on its head. The leaves have a peculiarly strong fragrant smell, and acrid aromatic taste. They are said to possess the same attenuating quality as the polymorpha, but in a higher degree. They are also recommended as antiscorbutic. 2. M. polymorpha, or great star-handed marchantia, is a native of Britain, growing on the banks of rivulets, on shady moist rocks, the sides of wells, and sometimes bogs. The leaves are about three inches long; from half an inch to an inch broad, lying flat on the ground, and adhering closely to it by numerous downy radicles, which grow out of the middle and base of the leaf on the under side. These leaves are situated on their edges, their upper surface of a dark, shining, green color, reticulated with numerous, minute, rhomboidal, or lozenge-like scales; variously divided into obtuse lobes, and in the middle by a blackish purple vein; their under side is paler, and their substance coriaceous, and nearly opaque. There are three varieties, from one of which is produced a yellow powder, showing a most curious mechanism by the microscope. The leaves have a strong aromatic smell, and acrid taste; and are recommended, in a decoction of skimmed milk, for the jaundice and disorders of the liver. MARCHE, a town of the Netherlands, in the province of Liege. Population 1400. Thirty miles south of Namur. 2N MARCHERS, or LORDS MARCHERS, were noblemen who lived on the marches of Wales or Scotland, and, according to Camden, had their laws and potestatem vitæ, &c., like petty kings, which are abolished by the stat. 27 Hen. VIII., c. 26, and 1 Edw. VI. c. 10. In old records the lords marchers of Wales were styled Marchiones de Marchia Walliæ. MARCH'ES, n.s. Sax. meaɲc, Fr. marche ; MARCH'ER, N. s. SGoth. marcu. Borders; limits; confines: the marcher was the ruler or president of the marches. MARCHES (marchia, from the German march, i. e. lines, or from the French marque, a sign), the notorious distinction between two countries or territories. Marches, in British geography, are the limits between England and Wales, or between England and Scotland, which last are divided into west and middle marches; by 4 Hen. V. c. 7; 22 Ed. IV. c. 8; 24 Hen. VIII. c. 9. There was formerly a court called the court of the marches of Wales, where pleas of debt or damages, not above the value of £50, were tried and determined; and if the council of the marches held pleas for debts above that sum, &c., a prohibition might be awarded. MARCHET, or MARCHETTA, a pecuniary fine, anciently paid by the tenant to his lord, for the marriage of one of the tenant's daughters. This custom obtained, with some difference, throughout all England and Wales, as also in Scotland; and it still continues to obtain in some places. According to the custom of the manor of Dinover, in Caermarthenshire, every tenant at the marriage of his daughter pays 10s. to the lord; which, in the British language, is called gwahrmercned, i. e. maid's fee. In Scotland, and the north of England, the custom was for the lord to pass the first night with the bride of his tenant; but this abominable usage was abrogated by king Malcolm III., at the instance of his queen; and instead thereof a mark was paid by the bridegroom to the lord; whence it was called marchetta mulieris. See BOROUGH, ENG LISH. MARCH'IONESS, n. s. From Lat. marchio. The lady of a marquis. I thought I wol with other maidens stond, The king's majesty Shakspeare. Henry VIII. From a private gentlewoman he made me a march. ioness, and from a marchioness a queen, and now he intends to crown my innocency, with the glory of martyrdom. Bacon's Apophthegms. MARCIANUS I., emperor of Constantinople, a native of Thrace, born of an obscure family. After he had for some time served in the army, as a common soldier, he was made private secretary to one of the officers of Theodosius. His address and talents raised him, and on the death of Theodosius II., A. D. 450, he was invested with the imperial purple. He showed himself active and resolute; and when Attila, the barbarous king of the Huns, demanded the annual tribute, which his cowardly predecessors had regularly paid, he firmly said, that 'he kept his gold for his friends, but that iron was the metal which he had prepared for his enemies.' In the midst of universal popularity Marcianus died, after a reign of six years, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, as he was making preparations against the barbarians that had invaded Africa. His death was long lamented; and his reign has been called the golden age. He married Pulcheria the sister of Theodosius. In the years of his obscurity he found a man who had been murdered, and had the humanity to give him a private burial: from which circumstance he was accused of the homicide, imprisoned, and condemned to death; and the sentence would have been executed had not the real murderer been discovered. MAR'CID, adj. Lat. marcidus. Lean; pining; withered. A burning colliquative fever, the softer parts being melted away, the heat continuing its adustion upon the drier and fleshy parts, changes into a marcid fever. Harvey. He on his own fish pours the noblest oil; That to your marcid dying herbs assigned, By the rank smell and taste betrays its kind. Dryden. MARCION, the founder of the Marcionites, a native of Pontus, and son of a bishop. He at first made profession of the monastic life, but was excommunicated by his father, who would never admit him again into the communion of the church. On this he abandoned his own country, and retired to Rome, where he began to preach. He laid down two principles, the one good, the other evil; between these he imagined an intermediate kind of deity of a mixed nature, who was the creator of this inferior world, and the god and legislator of the Jewish nation. The other nations, who worshipped a variety of gods, he supposed to be under the empire of the evil principle. These two conflicting powers exercise oppressions upon rational and immortal souls; and therefore the supreme God, to deliver them from bondage, sent to the Jews a being more like unto himself, his son Jesus Christ, clothed with a certain shadowy resemblance of a body: this celestial messenger was attacked by the prince of darkness, and by the god of the Jews, but without effect. Those who follow the directions of this celestial conductor, mortify the body by fastings and austerities, and renounce the precepts of the god of the Jews, and of the prince of darkness, shall after death ascend to the mansions of felicity and perfection. The rules which Marcion prescribed to his followers were excessively austere, expressly prohibiting wedlock, wine, flesh, and all the external comforts of life. Marcion denied the real birth, incarnation, and passion of Jesus Christ, and held them to be all apparent only. He denied the resurrection of the body; and allowed none to be baptised but those who preserved their continence; but these might be baptised three times. In many things he followed the sentiments of Cerdon, and rejected the law and the prophets. He pretended the gospel had been corrupted by false prophets, and allowed none of the evangelists but St. Luke, whom also he altered in many places, as well as the epistles of St. Paul. MARCIONISTE, MARCIONISTS, or MARCIONITES, a very ancient and popular sect of heretics, who, in the time of St. Epiphanius, spread over Italy, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Arabia, Persia, and other countries: so named from their author Marcion. MARCOMANNI, an ancient people of Germany, who seem to have taken their name from their situation on the marches, east of the Upper Rhine, and north of the Danube. Cluverius allots to them the duchy of Wurtemburg, a part of the palatinate between the Rhine and the Neckar, the Brisgau, and a part of Suabia, lying between the springs of the Danube and the Bregentz: they afterwards removed to the country of the Boii, whom they drove more to the east, occupying what is now called Bohemia.-Strabo, Villeius. A marcour is either imperfect, tending to a lesser withering, which is curable; or perfect, that is, an entire wasting of the body, excluding all means of Harvey. cure. MARE, n.s. Sax. mane; Dan. mar; Goth, mer (while, oddly enough, Goth, mare is a horse). The female of a horse. A pair of coursers born of heavenly breed, Whom Circe stole from her celestial sire, By substituting mares, produced on earth, Whose wombs conceived a more than mortal birth. Dryden. MARE, n. s. Sax. mæne; Goth. mar; Dan. and Teut. mare. Also designated as the night mare, or incubus; an oppression felt on the stomach in sleep. The northern nations called any female elf or phantom by the name of mare. Minsheu says 'because they that be troubled with this disease in the night are so pressed that they seem to have a whole horse laid on them; or that horses, or chiefly mares, are troubled herewith, that in the morning you shall find them all in a sweat.' Mab, his merry queen by night, Bestrides young folks that lie upright, In elder times the mare that hight, Which plagues them out of measure. Drayton. Mushrooms cause the incubus, or the mare in the stomach. Bacon's Natural History. MARE. See EQUUS, and HORSE. Before a mare is covered, she should be in the house about six weeks, during which time she should be well fed with good hay, and oats well sifted; and, to render her conception the more certain, nearly a quart of blood may be taken from each side of her neck, about five or six days before covering. Another method to bring a mare in season and make her retain is to give her, for eight days before you bring her to the horse, about two quarts of hemp seed in the morning, and as much at night; and, if she refuses to eat it, to mingle it with a little bran or oats, or else to let her fast for a while. After covering, let her, for three or four weeks have the same diet as before, and be kept clean in the stable, with her feet well pared and thin shod. If the mare has but little milk, boil as much as you can get from her with the leaves of lavender and spike, and bathe the udder with it warm, till the knobs and knots are dissolved. She should now drink only white water, which is bran put into water; give her also sweet mashes, and, a month after foaling, let her have a mash with some brimstone or savin in it. MARECHAL (Peter Sylvanus), a miscellaneous French writer, born at Paris in 1750, was brought up to the bar. He was librarian to the Mazarin College, but towards the close of his life retired into the country, and died at Montrouge in 1805. His principal works are, Livre echappé au Deluge, a collection of Psalms, which was the pretext of his dismissal from his office of librarian to the Mazarin College; Prophetie d'Arlamek; Fragmens d'un Poeme Moral sur Dieu, ou la Nouvelle Lucrece; Tombeau de J. J. Rousseau; De Bergeries; Le Temple de l'Hymen; Bibliotheque des Amans; Le Livre de tous les Ages; L'Age d'Or; Paris, et la Province: ou Choix des plus beaux Monumens d'Architecture en France; Le Pantheon, ou les Figures de la Fable avec leurs Histoires; Almanac des Honnêtes Gens, a publication for which he was imprisoned; Dictionnaire d'Amour; Tableau de la Fable; Costumes civils actuels de tous les Peuples; Recueil des Poetes moralistes Français; Catechisme du Curé Meslier; Dictionnaire des Athées; Voyage de Pythagore; Decades du Cultivateur; &c. MAREMMA LA, a long tract of country in Italy, extending from Leghorn on the north along the south-west coast as far as Terracina on the Neapolitan frontier. It is marshy, and much affected with the malaria. MARENGO, a village now belonging to the Sardinian states, in the Milanese, on the Bor mida. It stands at the entrance of a great plain, on which was fought, on the 14th of June 1800, the important battle of Marengo, between the French under the command of Buonaparte and the Austrians under general Melus. The battle was contested until noon, when the French began to retreat, and continued till six P. M. At this hour they were joined by Dessaix, when they rallied, and drove the Austrians from their position with great slaughter. Dessaix was mortally wounded, but an armistice followed, which terminated in the peace of Luneville. Population 2200. Five miles south-east of Alessandria, and fifty east by south of Turin. MARENNES, a trading town of France, in the department of the Lower Charente, at the mouth of the Seudre. It carries on a brisk traffic in brandy, wine, and salt. Population 4700. Twenty-five miles south of Rochelle. MAREOTIS, a lake of Egypt, to the south of Alexandria, running parallel to the Mediterranean, on a narrow strip of land near which that city stands. On the east it is separated by a neck of land equally narrow from the lake of Aboukir; and through this space flows the canal of Alexandria, which the British army, during the siege of that city, united with the lake so as to cause the waters of the one to flow into the other, and prevent them from reaching Alexandria. This cut was open at a recent period. MAR'ESCHAL, n.s. Fr. mareschal. Derived by Junius from mare, the female of a horse. But see MARSHAL. A chief commander of an army. O William, may thy arms advance, Prior. And so be mareschal of France. MARGARET, countess of Richmond and Derby, the learned and pious mother of Henry VII., was born at Bletsoe, in Bedfordshire, in 1441; and was the sole heiress of John Beaufort duke of Somerset, grandson to John of Gaunt. Her mother was the heiress of lord Beauchamp of Powick. While very young she was solicited by the king for his half-brother Edmund earl of Richmond, to whom she gave her hand. Henry VII. was the sole fruit of this marriage, his father dying when he was but fifteen weeks old. Her second husband was Sir Henry Stafford, Knight, second son to the duke of Buckingham, by whom she had no issue. Soon after his death, in 1482, she married a third husband, Thomas lord Stanley, who was created earl of Derby by her son. He died in 1504 without issue, being then high constable of England. She died at Westminster in June 1509, aged sixty-nine, and was buried in Henry VII.'s chapel; on the south side of which was erected to her memory an altar tomb of black marble, with her statue of brass. Bishop Fisher, her confessor, says, she possessed almost all things that were commendable in a woman.' She understood the French language perfectly, and had some knowledge of the Latin. She was devout even to austerity, in humility romantic, and profuse in the encouragement of learning. She wrote, 1. The Mirroure of Golde for the sinful Soule; translated from the French, London, 4to., with cuts on vellum. 2. Translation of the fourth book of Dr. Gerson's Imitation of our Saviour, 1504. 3. A Letter to the King, in Howard's collection. She also made the orders for great estates of ladies and noble women, for their precedence, and wearing of barbes at funerals, over the chin and under the same. MARGARET, duchess of Newcastle, a lady famous for her voluminous writings, was born about the end of king James I.'s reign. She was the youngest sister of lord Lucas, and married the duke of Newcastle abroad, in 1645. On their return after the Restoration she wrote the life of her husband; with a great number of plays, poems, &c., amounting to about 12 vols. folio. She died in 1673. MARGARET OF ANJOU, daughter of Regnier of Anjou, king of Naples, and wife of Henry VI., king of England; an ambitious, enterprising, courageous woman. Intrepid in the field, she signalised herself by heading her troops in several battles against the house of York; and if she had not been the authoress of her husband's misfortunes, by putting to death the duke of Gloucester his uncle, her name would have been immortalised for the fortitude, activity, and policy with which she supported the rights of her husband and son, till the fatal defeat of Tewksbury; which put an end to all her enterprises. She died at Anjou in 1482. See ENGLAND MARGARET (St.), a celebrated virgin, who is said to have suffered martyrdom at Antioch, A. D. 275. The ancient martyrologists make no mention of her name, and she did not become famous till the eleventh century. There is no more foundation for what is said concerning her relics and girdles, than for the stories which are told of her life. A festival, however, is still held in honor of her memory on the 20th of July. The ori entals pay reverence to her by the name of Saint Pelagia, or Saint Marina, and the western church by that of Saint Geruma, or Saint Margaret. MARGARITA, an island and government of Colombia,separate from that of Cumana, on whose shores it lies. It is dependant on Caraccas, and lies in N. lat. 10° 56′, and in 64° and 65′ W. long. It is sixteen marine leagues in its greatest length; six in its greatest breadth; in some parts only two or three leagues broad; and its surface is thirty-one square leagues. It was first discovered by Columbus in 1498. The pearls found on the coasts of this and the neighbouring isle of Cubagua soon rendered it famous; and the fishery was carried on at the expense of vast numbers of Indians, who lost their lives here. The Dutch at last burnt the town and fort of this island. The island is divided into two parts, which communicate with each other by a natural causeway, that is scarcely more than from eighty to 100 paces broad, and in some parts from ten to twelve feet only above the level of the sea. The mountain of Macanon, the most elevated part of the island, is above 2000 feet high according to Humboldt, who measured it trigonometrically, and is composed of micaceous schistus. It is an important point for navigators to make who go from Europe, or from North or South America, |