MARS 



MARSEILLES 



61 



more vivid, yet nothing could well be simpler and 

 more reserved in stvle, than such a passage as the 

 club-hauling of the Diometle ( in Peter Simple ), where 

 as is usual in Marrytit the excitement and peril 

 of the moment are brought home to you in the 

 tersest phrase, by dramatic Bashes and apt touches 

 of dialogue. His sea-lights, his chases and cutting- 

 out expeditions, are told with irresistible gusto. 

 The writing is as unpretentious as it is spirited 

 and truth-like. You have only to compare the 

 action between the Rattlesnake and the three 

 schooners ( in Peter Simple ), or the fight between the 

 Aurora and the Trident (in Midshipman Easy), 

 with Fenimore Cooper's attempts in the same line 

 to be convinced of Marryat's immense superiority as 

 an artist. His books have been the delight of boy- 

 hood since they first appeared ; and you can turn 

 to them in after years confident of a renewal of past 

 enjoyment. The sailors of the Great War live in 

 hi- pages as vividly as certain ranks and classes of 

 Londoners live in the pages of Dickens. 



See Life and Lettert of Captain Marryat (1872), by 

 his daughter Florence Marryat, heraelf a prolific novelist ; 

 and the Lift of Captain Marryat, by David Hannay 

 ('Great Writers ' genes, 1889). 



(archaic and poetic Mavors ; in the song 

 of the Ar/al Brothers, Murmur ; the Oscan form is 

 Mamers), an ancient Italian divinity of war and of 

 husbandry, identified by the Griecising Romans 

 with Ares (q.v.). Afl the father of Romulus he 

 was specially the progenitor of the Roman race, and 

 he shared with Jupiter the honour of being styled 

 Pater, the forms Marspiter and Maspiter being 

 common for Man Pater. Other titles were Mars 

 Oradivus, as the warlike god ; Silvanus, as the 

 rustic god ; and Quirinus, from his relation to the 

 state, and his especial care for Roman citizens in 

 their civil capacity as Quiritet. His priests, the 

 Salii, danced in complete armour. The wolf and 

 the woodpecker were sacred to him. He had many 

 temples at Rome, the most celebrated of which was 

 that outside the Porta Citpena, on the Appian 

 Road, and that of Mars Ultor built by Augustus 

 in the forum. The Campus Martius, where the 

 Romans practised athletic and military exercises, 

 was named in honour of Mars ; so was the month 

 of March ( Marti IM), the first month of the Roman 

 year. The Lvdi Martiales were celebrated every 

 year in the circus on 1st August. See PLANETS. 



Mars, MADEMOISELLE. Anne Francoise Boutet- 

 Mouvel, a great favourite at the Theatre Francais 

 during the tirst forty years of the 19th century, 

 was born in Paris on 5th February 1779, the 

 illegitimate daughter, of an actor Moutet and an 

 actress Mars. She began to act before she was 

 thirteen, joined the Thefttre Francais in 1799, and 

 died at Paris on 20th March 1K47. She was equally 

 mistress of naive parta as of those of the coquette, 

 and was especially successful in Moliere's master- 

 pieces. Her Mfmnirt* were published in 2 vols. in 

 1849, and her Confidences in 3 vols. in 1855. 



Marsa la. a seaport on the westernmost point 

 of Sicily, 102 miles by rail and 55 as the crow flies 

 S\V. of Palermo. Pop. of town ( 1881 ) 19,750 ; of 

 commune, 40,250 (45,000 in 1893). It is defended 

 by a citadel, has a cathedral and an academy of 

 sciences, and carries on a large trade in wine, the 

 well-known Marsala, which Iwcame popular from 

 having l>een supplied to the British fleet in 1802. 

 It resembles sherry, and is exported principally to 

 England and the West Indies. The town occupies 

 the site of LilybaMim, the ancient capital of the 

 Carthaginian settlements in Sicily, and was selected 

 by (iarihalili as his landing-point for the Sicilian 

 campaign of IxiiO. It obtained its present name 

 from the Saracens, who occupied it in the 9th cen- 

 tury, but were driven out by the Normans in the 



llth. The harbour was filled up by Charles V. in 

 1567 to prevent a Turkish attack ; it was recon- 

 structed during the 19th century. On an average 

 some 1960 vessels of 165,300 tons burden (one-fifth 

 British) enter every year, bringing chiefly staves, 

 grain, and spirits to the annual value of 58,960. 

 The total exports reach an annual value of 434,750, 

 of which 431,720 is for wine. 



Marseillaise, the stirring song or hymn of the 

 French republicans, was composed, six-sevenths of 

 it, in 1792, by a young officer, Rouget de Lisle 

 (q.v.), then stationed at Strasburg. He composed 

 both \yords and music under one inspiration one 

 night in April after dining with the mayor of the 

 city ; Chant de I'Armee du Rliin was the name he ' 

 gave it. The song was speedily carried by enthusi- 

 astic revolutionists to the chief cities of France. It 

 was brought to Paris by the volunteers of Mar- 

 seilles, who sang it as they entered the capital 

 (30th July) and when they marched to the storming 

 of the Tuileries. Hence the Parisians called it Lit 

 Marseillaise, and as such it has become the ofh'cicil 

 hymn of the republicans of France. More than one 

 writer has called in question Rouget de Lisle's 

 claim to have composed the music ; but his origin- 

 ality seems to have been proved. Interdicted under 

 the Restoration and the Second Empire, the Mar- 

 seillaise became again the national song on the 

 outbreak of the Franco-German war. See Le Roy 

 de Sainte-Croix's monograph (1880) and Loth's 

 inquiry into its real author (Paris, 1886). 



Marseilles, in point of population the third 

 city of France, being surpassed by Paris and 

 Lyons only, is the chief town of the depart- 

 ment Bouches-du-Rhflne, and is situated on the 

 south coast, about 27 miles E. of the mouth of the 

 Rhone. The principal commercial port of France, 

 if not of the entire Mediterranean, Marseilles is 

 entered annually by 7500 vessels (average for the 

 period 1885-95) of 4,500,000 tons burden ; of this 

 commerce nearly three-fourths is French, the British 

 being more than one-seventh. The total tonnage 

 of Spain, Italy, Greece, and Holland together is 

 only a little more than the British. The imports 

 ana exports together reach an annual value of 

 65 to 70 millions sterling, three-fifths being for im- 

 ports. Wheat, oil-seeds, coal (300,000 to 345,000 

 tons), wine, spirits, and beer, sugar, maize, oats, 

 barley, coffee, olive, palm, and cotton oils, pepper, 

 (lour, and tallow figure most prominently, in the 

 order named, amongst the imports ; whilst the 

 exports consist chiefly of clay tiles, wheat, oil- 

 cakes, flour, sugar, oil, wine and spirits, soap, and 

 candles. Alaraeilles is the headquarters of the 

 Messageries Maritimes, Gen6rale Transatlantique, 

 Marseillaise, and other great French commercial 

 companies. An average of 29,790 emigrants, of 

 whom only 1500 are French, embark from this port 

 every year. The harbour accommodation consists 

 of the old harbour, a natural basin of nearly 70 

 acres, running into the heart of the city ; a series 

 of new (hicks, quays, and warehouses ( La Joliette, 

 &c.) extending fully a mile along the shore to the 

 west of the old harbour, and covering about a hun- 

 dred acres ; . and an outer roadstead between the 

 dams to these docks and a breakwater constructed 

 in deeper water; besides dry-docks, wet-docks, slips, 

 &c. The industry of the place is very considerable, 

 the first place l>eing taken by soap, vegetable oils, 

 and oil-cake; soda, sugar, macaroni, iron, lead, zinc, 

 tiles, and leather are manufactured. Several hun- 

 dreds of men are employed in the Hour-mills and in 

 the wine-vaults. There is a prosperous fishing fleet. 



The city of Marseilles is built on the slopes that 

 overlook the old harbour, and at the foot, and has 

 of late years extended to the south-east. Although 

 greatly improved since 1853, the sanitary condition 



