86 



MULGRAVE MULLER. 



Cruise in the Pacific, and I'isit to the Mulgrave 

 Islands. New York, 1831.) The islands are low, of 

 a curai formation, and producing the cocoa and bread- 

 fruit trees. The inhabitants are lively, intelligent, 

 timid, and gentle. The group forms a circular chain 

 of narrow strips of land, about half a mile wide, en- 

 closing an inland sea 140 miles in circumference. 



MULGRAVE, CONSTANTINE JOHN PHIPPS, lord, 

 Iwrn in 1744, early entered the naval service. In 

 1773, the British government having determined to 

 M-nd out an expedition to reach the north pole, cap- 

 tain i'hipps received the command of the two bomb- 

 vessels, Racehorse and Carcass, destined for the 

 voyage. The latter was commanded by lieutenant 

 Lutwidge, under whom Nelson was cockswain. The 

 expedition left the Nore June 4th, and on the 29th 

 arrived off Spitzbergen. It returned in September of 

 the same year, after having reached 80 48' of north 

 latitude, beyond which an unbroken and impenetrable 

 field seemed to stretch to the pole. Lord Mulgrave 

 inherited his title (Irish) on the death of his father, 

 in 1775, and was afterwards commissioner of the 

 admiralty. He died in 1792. See his Journal of a 

 I'oyage towards the North Pole (London, 1774). 

 His brother Henry was born in 1755, entered the 

 army in 1775, served in North America, as aid to 

 general Knypliausen, and returned with the rank of 

 Reutenant-colonel. In 1781, he was elected mem- 

 ber of parliament, and entered fully into Pitt's system 

 of politics. In 1792, by the death of his elder 

 brother, Constantine John, he succeeded to the title 

 and family estate. On the breaking out of the French 

 war, he was employed in some confidential mission 

 by Mr Pitt. Mr Pitt, in 1804, made him chancellor 

 of the duchy of Lancaster, and in 1807 he was nomi- 

 nated first lord of the admiralty. In 1812, he was 

 removed from the admiralty to be master-general of 

 the ordnance, and was raised to the rank of viscount 

 and earl, by the title of viscount Normunby and earl 

 of Mulgrave, In 1818, he resigned the place of 

 master-general of the ordnance to the duke of Wel- 

 lington, but was, by a special agreement, to hold a 

 seat in the cabinet. He died in 1831. His son suc- 

 ceeded to his titles. 



MULL ; an island of the Hebrides, considered to 

 belong to Argyleshire. Its extreme length is thirty- 

 five miles, and its greatest breadth is thirty ; super- 

 ficial area, 420 square miles. The island is, for the 

 most part, rugged and mountainous ; and Benmore, 

 the highest mountain, is supposed to be elevated three 

 thousand feet above the level of the sea. Agriculture, 

 of recent years, has been greatly improved. The 

 land is more peculiarly adapted for grazing, and there 

 is a very hardy race of black cattle, of small size. 

 The principal village is Tobermory. Population, 

 about 10,000. Lon. 6 W. ; lat. 56 30' N. Between 

 it and the main land of Argyle and Inverness shires, 

 is the sound of Mull. See Hebrides. 



MULLEIN. The common European mullein 

 (verbascum thapsus] grows in old fields, road-sides, 

 &c., in barren soil, and is a conspicuous plant. The 

 root is biennial ; the stem simple, cylindrical, two or 

 three feet high, and, together with the leaves, is 

 covered with a very thick down. The flowers are 

 yellow, almost sessile, and are disposed in a long 

 cylindrical spike. It is of very little utility, and is 

 avoided by all animals except goats. About eighty 

 species of mullein are known, most of them natives 

 of the regions about the Mediterranean. 



MULLER, JOHN. See Reglomontanus. 



MULLER, JOHN VON, a celebrated historian, born 

 at Schaffhausen, in 1752, was the son of a preacher 

 stud schoolmaster there, and was indebted to his ma- 

 ternal grandfather for the future bent of his mind. 

 Before he liad learned to read, he had become familiar 



with the principal events of Swis history, through 

 the conversation of the kind and enthusiastic old 

 man. His diminutive size, shortness of sight, and 

 delicate constitution, prevented him from engaging in 

 the sports of his age, while his studious disposition 

 and warm heart excited the hopes and won thr aflec- 

 tions of his elders. At the age of nine years, he 

 wrote a history of his native city ; and to the ancient 

 classics, which he began to read secretly in his thir 

 teenth year, he was indebted for that love of liberty 

 and 'moral grandeur, that clearness and method of 

 thought, and elegance and energy of expression, 

 which appear even in his school exercises. Being 

 intended for the church, he went to Gottingen in 176, 

 where his teachers were Michaelis, Walch, Less, and 

 Miller, and his favourite studies, exegesis and eccle- 

 siastical history. The influence of Schlozer soon in- 

 duced him to renew his historical studies, the first 

 fruits of which appeared in his Bellum Cimbricinn 

 (1772). On his return to Schaft'hausen, Muller 

 preached with success, and was appointed professor 

 of Greek in the gymnasium. Here he formed an 

 intimacy with Charles Victor von Bonstetten, which 

 gave rise to the admirable Letters of a young Scholar 

 to his Friend (in German, published in 1802). Bon- 

 stetten procured him the place of family tutor, at 

 Geneva ; and the celebrated Bonnet afterwards re- 

 ceived him into his house. The years 1777 and 1778 

 were spent in excursions through Switzerland, in 

 studying the sources of Swiss history, and the ancient 

 classics. During the winter of 1778, he delivered 

 lectures on universal history. The substance of these 

 lectures is given in the Twenty-four Books of Univer- 

 sal History, which form the three first volumes of 

 his works. The first volume of his History of the 

 Swiss was published at Berne (the titlepage said 

 Boston) 1780, and he soon after went to Berlin, where 

 he published his Essais historiques. Although 

 Frederic II. (the Great) received him with distinction, 

 no provision was made for him, and he was disap- 

 pointed in his expectations of obtaining a place in 

 the academy ; he therefore left Berlin, and became 

 professor of history at Cassel (1781). Here he pro- 

 duced his treatises De V Influence des Anciens sur les 

 Modernes, and De I ' Etablissement de la Domination 

 temporelle du souvcrain Pontife au 8tne Sieclc. In 

 1783, Muller returned to Geneva, and renewed his 

 examination of the documents of the history of 

 Switzerland. In 1786, he was invited to Mentz by 

 the elector, with the post of librarian and court 

 counsellor, and here published a new edition of the 

 first volume, with a second volume of his history. 

 Some political treatises, which he published at Mentz, 

 contributed to extend his reputation, and to raise him 

 to higher dignities at the electoral court. In 1791, 

 the emperor created him baron of the empire, with a 

 patent of nobility. When Mentz fell into the hands 

 of the French (1792), Muller, who had no sympathies 

 with the revolution, went to Vienna, and was made a 

 member of the privy chancery of court and state. 

 His pamphlets on the occasion of the separate peace 

 of Prussia, Die Vebereilungen und der Reichsfriede 

 (1795), and those entitled Die Gefahren der Zcit, 

 and Das sichcrste Mittel zum Frieden (1797), are 

 master-pieces of eloquence. In 1800, he was ap- 

 pointed first keeper of the imperial library, and now 

 found time to devote to his historical studies, which 

 had been interrupted by his political duties and the 

 troubled state of the country. In 1804, he left 

 Vienna, and went to Berlin, where he devoted him- 

 self entirely to his studies. Several treatises which 

 he published on the History of Frederic II., on the 

 Decline of Liberty among the Ancients, &c., are 

 contained in the eighth volume of his works. He 

 was preparing materials for writing the history of 



