MONITOR 



MONKEY 



273 



Monitor, a name given to a genus of Li/ards 

 somewhat isolated frnin other lizards in structural 

 cliaracters ; in some resects they approach the 

 Crocodilia, which are the highest of existing reptiles. 

 They are the largest of existing lizards ; a specimen 

 acquired hy the College of Surgeons in London 

 measured 6 feet 10 inches. The tail of the greater 

 iminher is laterally compressed, the better to adapt 

 them to a<|iiatic habits. They have received the 

 name Monitor from a notion that they give warn- 

 in" by a hissing sound of the approach of a croco- 

 dile or alligator. There is only one genus, with 

 many species. The Monitor or V T arau of the Nile 



Monitor (Varanui niloticni). 



( Viirnnta niloticiis) is of a rather slender form, 

 and has a long tail. It is olive-gray, mottled with 

 black. It attains a length of five or six feet. 

 Crocodiles' eggs or young crocodiles form the chief 

 part of its food. It is a curious superstition in 

 India, that the young of the monitor is more 

 deadly than the most venomous serpent. 



Monitor. *< NAVY. 



Monitorial System, or MrTr.u. INSTTUT. 

 TIUX. It first occurred to Dr Andrew Hell (<j.v.), 

 when superintendent of the Orphan Hospital, 

 Madras, in 17!'"', to make use of the more advanced 

 boy- in the school to instruct the younger pupils. 

 Tlie-e youthful teachers were called Monitors. 

 The method was eagerly adopted by Joseph Lan- 

 caster, who in the first years of the 19th century 

 diil su much for the extension of popular education ; 

 and, from him and the originator, the system was 

 called indifferently the Madras and the Lancastrian, 

 as well as the Monitorial or Mutual System. See 

 EDUCATION, Vol. IV. p. 210. The monitorial 

 system is not, as is commonly supposed, a method 

 of teaching; it is simply a method of OtganMng 

 schools, and of providing the necessary teaching 

 power. At a time when the whole question of 

 primary education was in its infancy, the state 

 refusing to promote it on the ground that it was 

 dangerous to society, and the public little disposed 

 to contribute towards its extension, it was of great 

 importance that a system should lie adopted which 

 recommended itself as at once effectual and econo- 

 mical. But its value as an educational agency was 

 universally overrated, and in the end broke, down. 



Monk. See MOVACHISM. 



Monk, (iKiiuriK, Duke of Allicmarle, soldier 

 nf fortune and restorer of the English monarchy, 

 "I* the second son of Sir Thomas Monk of 

 Potberidge, near Torrington, North Devon, and 

 A a- horn either there or at Laucross on 8th 

 I>eccrn!icr IlKM. He saw service first in the expe- 

 ditions to Cadiz and Uochelle ( 1625-27 ), and then 

 for nine years in Holland, returning to Eng- 

 land in 1030, in time to take part in the two 

 BUbon*' Wars with the Scots. In 1642-43 he com- 

 330 



manded a regiment against the Irish rebels, in 

 1(144 was taken prisoner at Nantwich by Fairfax. 

 He lay two years in the Tower, where fie solaced 

 himself with frail, ugly Nan Katsford or Clarges 

 (his future duchess), and whence lie freed himself 

 bv taking the Covenant Clarendon hints that lie 

 did so for money. As major-general in LTlster he 

 so commended himself to Cromwell, still more by 

 his brilliant conduct at Dun bar (1650), that next 

 year he was left to complete tbe subjection of 

 Scotland. In 1653 he was associated with Blake 

 and Deane in naval operations against the Dutch, 

 and won two great sea-fights over Tromp (q.v.) ; 

 in 1654 Cromwell sent him back to Scotland as 

 governor, in which difficult office he acquitted him- 

 self with vigour, moderation, and equity. Even 

 the Highlands were reduced to order. His home 

 for five years was Dalkeith, where he 'was ever 

 engaged in business or in planting, which he loved 

 as an amusement and occupation.' After Crom- 

 well's death, seeing even-thing in confusion, and a 

 splendid chance open to him who dared seize it, on 

 Jxew-year's Day 1660 he crossed the Border with 

 6000 men, and live weeks later entered London un- 

 opposed. So far he had kept his intentions pro- 

 foundly secret. Still every one felt that the decision 

 lay with 'Old George;' every party courted him ; 

 the Republicans even offered him the protectorate. 

 But, while he offended noliody, he declined to con- 

 nect himself with any of the sectaries, and waited 

 patiently the course of events. From the first, his 

 own wish, dictated by no high motive, had been to 

 bring back the Stuarts ; and l>cfore long he saw 

 that the nation at large was with him. The freeing 

 of the Hump parliament from the army, the re- 

 mlniission of the excluded members, ami the elec- 

 tion of a new parliament these were his wary 

 steps towards the Restoration ; on 23d May he 

 welcomed Charles II. on the beach at Dover. Monk 

 now was made Duke of Alliemarle, and entrusted 

 with the highest offices in the state. But he soon 

 retired from political affairs. In 1665, when tlie 

 plague ravaged London, and every one fled that 

 could, as governor of the City he stuck bravely to 

 his post, and did his best to allay the panic and 

 confusion. Next year he was employed as second 

 in command of the fleet sent under the Duke of 

 York against the Dutch, and was defeated by I )e 

 Ruyter in a sea-light oil' Dunkirk, but soon after 

 gained a bloody victory over him off the North 

 Foreland. He died, sitting in his chair, at New- 

 hall, his Essex seat, on 3d January 1670, and was 

 buried in Westminster Abbey. 'A man,' says 

 Guizot, 'capable of great things, though possessing 

 no greatness of soul. 



See, besides works cited at CHARLES I., CROMWELL, and 

 CHARLES II., tbe Lives of Monk by Guinble, his chap- 

 lain (1671), Skinner (17231, Guizot (Eng. trans. 1851), 

 and Corbett ( 1889), the last a eulogy. 



Monk, MARIA (c. 1817-50), a woman of bad 

 character who pretended in 1835 to have escaped 

 from the H6tel Dieu nunnery at Montreal, and 

 who, cominjj to New York, found a good many 

 credulous adherents, and published Awful Dis- 

 closures and Further Disclosures, which had an 

 enormous sale. 



Monkey. This term may be conveniently re- 

 stricted only to all the Primates exclusive of the 

 Anthropoid Apes (q.v.). It has been sometimes 

 applied to the tailed forms only, the rest being 

 spoken of as Apes. This use of the words monkey 

 and ape is ill-judged, inasmuch as it implies that 

 the non-anthropoid Primates are divisible into 

 tailed and tailless species. The real distinction is 

 not to be found in this character. The quadru- 

 inana as a whole are divisible into three great 

 groups (1) Anthropoid Apes; (2) Platyrrhini, 

 the New-World monkeys; (3) Catarrhini, the 



