278 



MONROE 



MONSOON 



of Scottish extraction which lm<l emigrated to 

 Virginia a century before. He entered William 

 anil Mary College nt the aye of eighteen, hut Boon 

 threw aside his hooks, with a nuniU-r of his fellow. 

 st udeiit-. to join the army nmler Washington. Ha 

 was present at several battles, and wax wounded 

 at Trenton ; lie afterwards attained the rank of 

 lieutenant-colonel as an aide-do riunii and military 

 commissioner, but was disap|>ointeu in his dlons 

 to obtain a commission in a Virginia regiment, 

 and attached himself to Jefferson, with whom he 

 studied law. In 1782 he was elected to the 

 assembly of Virginia and appointed one of the 

 executive council. Next year he was returned to 

 congress, where he sat for three years, and in 1785 

 was chairman of a coi it tec whose report ulti- 

 mately led to the conventions at Annapolis and 

 Philadelphia in 1786 and 1787, at which the con- 

 stitution of the United States was framed. Monroe 

 himself was a member of the Virginia convention 

 held to consider the ratification of the proposed 

 constitution, which, along with Patrick Henry and 

 other States' Rights men, he opposed, fearing the 

 ]>ower and encroachment of the Federal govern- 

 ment. He was a member of the United States 

 senate from 1700 to 1794, ami offered a determined 

 opposition to Washington and the Federalists ; yet 

 the government appointed him to succeed (iouver- 

 neur Morris as minister to France, where he made 

 himself very popular with the revolutionary govern- 

 ment, until he was recalled in 1796 for displaying 

 ioo decided French sympathies. On his return he 

 published (1797) an attack on the executive for 

 their treatment of him, and, although Washington 

 himself, who had then retired, took no notice of 

 it. the I >ook brought on a bitter controversy and 

 made Monroe the darling of the Democrats. He 

 was governor of Virginia from 1799 to 1802, and 

 (hen Jefferson sent him as an extra plenipoten- 

 tiary to France, where in 1803 he and Roliert R 

 Livingston effected the purchase of Louisiana 

 (<[.v.). The next four years were spent in less 

 successful diplomacy at London and Madrid ; he 

 failed in his negotiations with Spain for the 

 cession of Florida, whilst a treaty which he finally 

 concluded with Great Britain provided neither 

 against the impressment of American seamen nor 

 for an indemnity for American losses by seizures 

 at sea, and Jefferson refused to refer it to the 

 senate. Monroe promptly returned home and 

 drew nil another defence, and the Virginians 

 endorse<l his conduct and policy by a thin! time 

 electing him to the assembly. In 1811 he was 

 again chosen governor of Virginia. In the same 

 year Madison made him secretary of state; this 

 post he retained till 1817, and during 1814-15 he 

 acted also as secretary of war. 



In 1816 Monroe was elected president of the 

 1'nited States, and four years later he was re- 

 elected almost unanimously ; the acquisition of 

 Florida from Spain (1819), and the settlement of 

 tin- vexed question resjiecting the extension of 

 slavery by the Missouri Compromise, by which, 

 after the reception of Missouri its a slave-state, 

 the institution was prohibited al>ove the line of 

 latitude 36 30'. he'pcd to secure this result. Hi- 

 most popular acts, perhaps, were the recognition 

 of the independence of the Spanish American re- 

 publics, and the 'iromnlgation in a message to 

 congresn (1823) of _vhat has since been called the 

 Monroe Doctrine.' This utterance emlxidied tin; 

 principle, 'in which the rights ami interests of the 

 ('nitea States are involved, that the American 

 continents . . . are henceforth not to lie considered 

 as subjects for future colonisation by any European 

 power. . . . With the existing colonies or de- 

 jicniloncie* of any Eurojiean |mwcr we have not 

 interfered, and shall not interfere. Hut with the 



governments who have declared their independ- 

 ence ami maintained it. ami whose independence 

 we have . . . acknowledged, we could not view- 

 any interposition for the purpose of oppressing 

 them, or controlling in any other manner their 

 destiny, by any KurojH-aii |iower, in any other 

 li^'lit than as the manifestation of an unfriendly 

 disposition towards the t'nited Stales.' ] n ivj.l 

 Monroe retired to his seat at Oak Hill, London 

 county, Virginia, where he acted as justice of the 

 peace, a regent of the university of Virginia, nnd 

 memlier of the state convention ; but a profuse 

 generosity and hospitality caused him to lie over- 

 whelmed with debt, and he found refuge with his 

 relations in New York, where lie died in 1831 

 like his predecessors, Adams and Jellerson, on the 

 itli of July. In 1858 his remains were removed 

 to Richmond. Monroe was an upright and con- 

 sistent statesman, and a faithful servant of his 

 country, though he had not the brilliant talents of 

 some of his great contemporaries. 



See the Lives by J. Q. Adama ( 1850 ) and D. C. Oilman 

 (18S3); G. F. Tucker, Hitnrv of the Monroe Doctrine 

 (1885) really formulated by J. Q. Adams (q.v.); \V. 

 F. Kcildaway, The Monroe Doctrine (1898). 



.Monrovia. See LIBERIA. 



Moils ( Klein. Derqen ), the capital of the Belgian 

 province of llainault, on the Trouille, 38 miles 

 SSW. of Brussels. Its fortifications, renewed and 

 strengthened since 1818, were demolished in IMi'J ; 

 but uie country around can be laid under water. 

 The Canal de Conde connects Mons with the 

 Scheldt. The church of St Waudrn (1450-1589) 

 is a masterpiece of Gothic ; and there are a town- 

 hall (1458), a belii.N (1662) 275 feet high, a good 

 library, &c. The manufactures include woollen 

 and cotton goods, cutlery, and sugar ; whilst the 

 vicinity forms an extensive coalfield. Pop. (1875) 

 24,539; (1895) a/i,.Vi<. Mon-, occupying the site 



of one of Civsar's camps, was made il apital of 



Hainault by Charlemagne in 804. France, Spain, 

 and Austria often contended for its possession. 

 See lloiissu's llixtoire de Mons (2 vols. 1868). 



Monsisilioro. a title of honour given to pre- 

 lates of the Roman Catholic Church. Formerly in 

 France the corresj>nding title of JVoMMJffMMr WM 

 allowed to all high dignitaries of the church, to 

 the princes of the Mood-royal, to the higher nobles, 

 and to the presidents of the superior law-courts. 

 But from the time of Louis XIV. Monseignour 

 without further addition was appropriated as the 

 title of the Dauphin. 



Monsoon is derived from the Arabic Minixim, 

 'a set lime, 'season, 'and was for long applied to 

 those winds prevailing in the Indian Ocean which 

 Mow from the south-west from April to Octolier, 

 and from the opimsito direction, or north east, from 

 Octolier to April The monsoons, in common with 

 all winds whether regular or irregular, depend pri- 

 marily on an unequal distribution of temperaum- 

 and moisture over that ]H>rtion of the earth's 

 surface where they occur, which in their turn 

 give rise to an unequal distribution of atmospheric 

 pressure. From this unequal distribution of the 

 mass of the earth's atmosphere winds take their 

 rise winds being simply the How of the air from 

 a region of higher towards a region of lower pres- 

 sure, or from whore there is a surplus to where 

 there is a deficiency of air. The term monsoon 

 has in recent years come to be used with a wider 

 significance than formerly; it is now generally 

 applied to the winds connected with all continents 

 which are of regular occurrence with the peri<nlic.-i! 

 return of the seasons. The winds of Australia are 

 thus strictly monsoonal ; over the greater part of 

 North America the prevailing winds have a well- 

 marked monsoonal character ; similarly, monsoons 



