253 



MILNES, RICHARD MONCKTON, M.P. 



MILTIADES. 



different gets of facts, but each professing to be a ' History of the 

 Church of Christ.' Thoueh, for these reasons, Milner's work cannot be 

 called a complete church history, its value as a contribution to church 

 history is very considerable ; but that even as a contribution it must be 

 read with much caution may be seen by a reference to Dr. Maitland's 

 ' Strictures on Milner's Church History,' and hia ' Notes on Milner's 

 History," ftc. The Church History is written in that spirit of piety, 

 and of deep interest in what the author believes to be true religion, 

 which is not always found in our celebrated church historians ; and 

 for the very reasons which prevent its being complete, it contains 

 many facts which had previously been little attended to. It surpasses 

 most other church histories in the use made of the writings of the 

 Fathers, though the reverence which the author professes for those 

 venerable men hag led him to trust them too much. 



The other works of Milnerare, 1, 'Gibbon's account of Christianity 

 considered ; together with some Strictures on Hume's Dialogues con- 

 cerning Natural Religion.' 2, ' Some Passages in the Life of William 

 Howard.' 3, ' Essays on the Influence of the Holy Spirit.' 4. 'Tracts 

 and Essays, Theological and Historical.' 5, ' Practical Sermons ; with 

 an Account of his Life, by the Dean of Carlisle,' 2 vols. A complete 

 collection of his works was edited by the Dean of Carlisle, 8 vols., 1810. 



MILNKS, RICHARD MONCKTON, M.P., was born in 1809, and 

 is the eldest son of Robert Pemberton Milne, Esq., of Frystone Hall 

 and Bawtry, Yorkshire, by the Hon. Henrietta Morin, daughter of the 

 fourth Viscount Ga'.way, from whom Mr. Milnes derives the name of 

 Monckton. Mr. Milnes was educated at Cambridge, where he graduated 

 M.A. in 1831. He has secured an honourable position alike in the 

 world of politics and of literature. From his first election in 1837, 

 as member for Pontefract which place he still represents Mr. Milnes 

 has pursued an independent course as a member of the lower house. 

 Ranking among the party commonly known as liberal Conservatives, 

 he ha* never hesitated about quitting them on particular questions 

 when he thought a different line of policy preferable to that which 

 they supported; while, "outside the house," hia exertions in various 

 mntters of public policy and benevolence have led him to co-operate 

 actively with many prominent men in politics and literature belonging 

 to widely different parties to that of which he calls himself a member. 

 Mr. Milneg haa always been a steady and earnest supporter of popular 

 education, and of perfect religious equality ; and he has taken a great 

 interest in all sanitary and other measures which seemed likely to 

 improve the health and comfort of the masses. Recently he has 

 rtrongly advocated measures for tho reformation of the criminal 

 population. Mr. Milnes has also taken an active interest in questions 

 relating to continental politics, and particularly in those which have 

 reference to the Italian states and people ; and he has both spoken 

 and written with much effect on most of these subject*. 



As an author he first made himself known by his ' Memorials of a 

 Tour in Orcec ,' but he is now chiefly recognised as a poet, and the 

 biographer of a poet. His 'Poems' have been published in four 

 volumes ' Poems of Many Years,' ' Memorials of Many Scenes," 

 ' Poems Legendary and 1 1 Utarical," and ' Palm Leaves.' They are 

 contemplative in character ; marked by grace and fluency of diction ; 

 considerable imagination ; and a high moral tone. His ' Life, Letters, 

 n<i Literary Remains of John Keats,' published in 1848, is a worthy 

 commemoration of the brief career of a man of genius : written with 

 no 6tint"d appreciation of the genius of the poet and the worth of the 

 man, but at the Fame time in a spirit of frank though kindly discri- 

 mination. Besides these Mr. Milnes has published several speeches 

 and pamphlets (among others 'Thoughts on Party Politics," 'Real 

 Union of England and Ireland" and ' Events of 1848, especially in 

 their Relation to Great Britain ') ; and he bag contributed some articles 

 to the ' Westminster Review," &c. Mr.tMilnti married in 1851 the 

 Hon. Annabel, youngest daughter of the second Baron Crewe. 



MILONOV, MICHAEL, a Russian poet of considerable talent, and 

 who, but for hia premature death, would probably have risen to 

 greater literary eminence, wan born in 1792, and received his educa- 

 tion at tin; University of Moscow, where he distinguished himself by 

 hi* application and abilities. His poems, which were first published in a 

 collective form in 1819, consist chiefly of satires, epistles, and various 

 lyrical pieces, and dispUy elevation of mind, acute thinking, and 

 tender feeling. Among them are some translations and imitations 

 from Horace. Schiller, and others. He died October 29, 1821. 



MI'LTIADKS (MiATiaSrjt) .was the younger son of Cimon (who was 

 iprung from a noble Athenian family), and nephew of the elder 

 Miltiaden, who, during the life of Pisistratus, had founded a tyranny, 

 or arbitrary government, in the Chersonese. The elder Miltiades had 

 been succeeded by Stesagoras, the elder eon of Cimon, on whose death 

 the youn? Miltiades succeeded to big place. The first important affair 

 in which Miltiades appears is at that juncture, during the Scythian 

 expedition of Dariui, ac. 513, when the Greek commanders who 

 guarded the raft over the Danube debated whether they should not 

 cut off the Persian king's retreat by breaking up the passage. Mil- 

 tiadfg advised the destruction of the bridge, and although his opinion 

 wa over-ruled, it is not too much to suppose that his reason for 

 advocating it was exactly that on which it was afterwards rejected. 

 So shrewd a politician could hardly have failed to observe, that to 

 annihilate the Persian power wan, ag Histixus suggested, tantamount 

 to giving all the tynnts of individual cities their dismissal 



Twenty years afterwards, Miltiades was called upon to act a more 

 important part. Hipparchus, one of the sons of Pisistratus, had fallen 

 by the hands of Harmodius aud Aristogiton ; and Hippias, the other 

 son, who had been driven from Athens chiefly by the aid of the 

 Spartans, had retired, as Greeks both then and subsequently ofteu did 

 under similar circumstances, to the Persian court. In Ionia, the 

 burning of Sardis was followed by a war which lasted for six years, 

 in which each party seemed to have learned a lesson : the Persians, 

 that their enemy was not altogether despicable ; and the Greeks, that 

 without unity of plan there was no hope of success. 



In B.C. 492, Mardonius led the first Persian armament, which was 

 dispersed by a storm in doubling the peninsula of Athos. In B.c. 490 

 a second armament, under Datis aud Artaphernes, wag sent against 

 Greece. This force crossed to Naxos, and thence to Delos and Eubcea. 

 A few days sufficed to sweep through the island of Eubcea, and the 

 whole armament made for the coast of Attica. Guided by Hippias, 

 who knew the capabilities of every spot of ground in his country, the 

 army landed at Marathon. The plain of Marathon extends inwards 

 from the sea to the mountains, where it is contracted into a narrow 

 glen by the spurs of two hills, but spreads out beyond the base of 

 these spurs and between them and the sea. It is roughly in the form 

 of a T, the top stroke representing that part which borders on the sea, 

 and the leg of the letter corresponding to the glen, which is divided 

 lengthwise by a mountain stream. Through this glen lay the road 

 to Athens, and on the eastern side of the hill the Athenian army 

 posted itself. 



According to custom, tha army was under the direction of ten 

 generals, each of whom took the command for one day in turn. One 

 of the ten was Miltiades, who had just been acquitted on a charge of 

 tyranny, more perhaps owing to the politic way in which he had used 

 his power in the Chersonesus than to the real merits of his conduct. 

 He had a powerful ally in the poiemarch Callimachus, who by virtue 

 of his office commanded tha right wing, and had an equal vote with 

 the ten generals. The votes of the generals being divided on the 

 question of an engagement, Callimachus by his vote decided for 

 fighting ; and when the day of command came round to Miltiades, the 

 battle took place. 



The Persian army was much more numerous than that of the 

 Greeks, who are generally reckoned at 10,000. In the centre of the 

 Persian host were stationed their best soldiers, a precaution necessary 

 in order to give some stability to an army composed of forty or fifty 

 different tribes, but injurious inasmuch as it exposed them to the very 

 manoeuvre which Miltiades practised, and with a view to which he 

 apparently arranged his forces, so that the centre might be weak and 

 the wings strong. The Persian centre broke that of the Greeks, and 

 pursued them towards the hills ; but in each wing tho Athenians, who 

 had charged at double-quick time, dispersed those who were opposed 

 to them, wheeled round and routed the victorious Persians. This 

 decided the battle. The vanquished perished in thousands, by the 

 sword, in the marshes, and in attempting to embark on board their 

 ships ; and the Athenians aud their allies, the Plattoaus, were left 

 completely masters of the field. Herodotus states 6100 as the number 

 of the Persian dead, and 192 the number of the Athenians who fell. 

 The tactics practised at this battle are worthy of remark, as being so 

 completely oppoged to the Dorian plan of preserving a close aud 

 impenetrable phalanx, and much more nearly allied to those of modern 

 warfare. Perhaps no battle ever reflected more lustre on the successful 

 commander than that of Marathon on Miltiades ; though it should be 

 observed that he, whom all ages have regarded as the defender of 

 liberty, began his career as an arbitrary ruler, aud on only one occasion 

 in his whole life was engaged on the side of freedom ; but for the siime 

 man to be the liberator of his own country and a despot in another ia 

 no inconsistency, as the course of human events has often shown. 



The battle of Marathon pufrau end to the expedition headed by 

 Datis and Artaphernes, and the career of Miltiades closed soon aftt-r. 

 He appears next at Paros, to which he laid siege with seventy 

 Athenian slips. The Parians defended themselves bravely, and, if 

 we may believe Herodotus, Miltiades had recourse to magic, in the 

 practice of which he received a wound, which, with general ill success, 

 compelled a retreat. On his return, while yet suffering from a 

 gangrene in the wound, he was accused, tried, and condemned for 

 deceiving the people. The punishment was commuted for a finu; 

 but being unable to pay it, he died in prison. 



The character of Miltiades is one on which, with the few materials 

 which history has left, we should not judge too exactly. The outline 

 which remains is one that, if filled up, would seem fittest to contain 

 the very model of a successful statesman in an age when the prime 

 minister of Athens was likewise tlie leader of her armies. Heereu 

 has briefly noticed the transition which took place iu the character of 

 Athenian statesmen from the warrior like Themistocles and Miltiades 

 to the warlike rhetorician like Pericles, and thence to the orator, who 

 to his rhetorical skill united no military prowess. Miltiades with 

 great generalship showed great power as a statesman, and some, but 

 not much, as an orator. This is agreeable to his age. Whether he 

 was a true patriot, governed by high principle, it is now perhaps 

 impossible to determine. He achieved oue great action, which for his 

 country produced a most decisive result. Tho unfortunate close of 

 his career may be considered by some as showing the ingratitude of 



