MENU MERCANTILE SYSTEM. 



775 



ronverted into a lyceum. The honour of the inven- 

 tion of printing was claimed by John Faust (q. v.), 

 a goldsmith of Mentz, and by John Guttenberg. 

 (q. v.) The archbishopric of Mentz was an extensive 

 electoral principality. The archbishop was also elec- 

 tor, and ranked as the first archbishop in Germany. 

 The archbishopric was suppressed in 1802, and the 

 city of Mentz is now only a bishop's see. See Ger- 

 many. 



MENU. The Hindoo mythology mentions four- 

 teen of these mystical personages, of whom seven 

 have already reigned on the earth. The celebrated 

 code of laws, or the Manava Dherma Sastra, which 

 goes under the name of Menu, is attributed to the 

 first of the name, or Swayambhoura, the son of 

 Brama. The name is derived from men, signifying 

 intelligence (Latin mens, mind), and Sir W. Jones 

 suggests that it is connected with Menes, the name of 

 the first king of Egypt and Minos (q. v.), the Cretan 

 lawgiver. The code, which has been translated into 

 English by Sir W. Jones (Works, vol. iii.), is the basis 

 of the whole civil and religious policy of the Hindoos. 

 Menu appears in it relating the history of the crea- 

 tion of the universe to the RisAis, or holy saints ; he 

 then commands Brigu to repeat the divine laws of 

 Brahma. These laws relate to the divisions into 

 castes, education, marriage, diet, purification, devo- 

 tion, private and criminal law, penances and expia- 

 tions, transmigration, &c. The last Menu, whose 

 reign is not yet over, was Satyavrata, or Vaivaswata, 

 whose history is given as follows, in the Bhagvat : 

 Brahma, being inclined to slumber, the demon Haya- 

 griva stole the Vedas from his lips. Heri, the pre- 

 server of the universe, discovering this deed, assumed 

 the shape of a small fish, and appeared to the holy 

 king Satyavrata, who was so devout that his only 

 sustenance was water. Having grown to an enor- 

 mous size in a few days, he was recognised by the 

 pious king, to whom he declared that in seven days 

 the earth should be plunged in an ocean of death, 

 and promised to send a large vessel for his deliver- 

 ance ; into which continued the god-fish, thou shalt 

 enter with seven saints and pairs of all brute animals; 

 and thou shalt fasten it with a large sea-serpent to 

 my horn, for I will be near thee. Satyavrata com- 

 plied with these directions, and the primeval male, 

 speaking aloud to his own divine essence, pronounced 

 for his instruction a sacred purana, explaining the 

 principle of the soul, the external being. Heri then 

 slew the demon, and recovered the sacred books, and 

 Satyavrata was appointed the seventh Menu ; but 

 the appearance of the horned fish was Maya (or de- 

 lusion). 



MENZABANO ; a town of Italy, on the Mincio. 

 On the 28th of December, 1801 , a bloody battle was 

 fought here between the French and the Austrians : 

 the French conquered, and made 8000 prisoners. 



MENZALEH, or MENZALA ; a large lake in 

 Egypt, running parallel with the Mediterranean, from 

 which it is divided by a narrow slip of land, sixty 

 miles in length, and from two to twelve in breadth, 

 overflowed and filled by the waters of the Nile. It 

 was anciently called Tunis, from the town of that 

 name. Its waters are soft in the time of inundation, 

 and become brackish as the river retreats within its 

 channel. Numerous boats continually fish on the 

 lake. Length of the lake from north-west to south- 

 east 43,000 fathoms, breadth from 12,000 to 26,000. 



MENZEL, FREDERIC WILLIAM ; private secretary 

 in the royal cabinet at Dresden, whose treachery 

 hastened the breaking out of the seven years' war. 

 Frederic II., suspecting that negotiations were going 

 on against him between the courts of Petersburg, 

 Vienna and Dresden, directed his minister at the 

 court of Saxony to procure information on the sub- 



ject. Chance made the ambassador acquainted wii.li 

 Menzel, whose expensive and dissipated habits hud 

 plunged him into embarrassments, to relieve which 

 he had been induced to purloin from the public 

 treasury. The unhappy man hoped to preserve him- 

 self by a greater crime, and, in consideration of a 

 large sum of money, delivered to the Prussian am- 

 bassador copies of the secret correspondence between 

 Saxony, Russia, and Austria, relating to Prussia. His 

 conscience, indeed, was awakened, but he could not 

 turn back without forfeiting the protection of the 

 ambassador in case of detection. During a journey 

 to Warsaw, in the retinue of the king, traces of his 

 guilt were at length discovered. Menzel himself was 

 surprised by the report of the discovery of his 

 treachery in a social party. He attempted to save 

 himself by flight, but was arrested at Prague, on the 

 demand of the court of Saxony, and imprisoned, first 

 at Brunn, but after the conclusion of the peace of 

 Hubertsburg, in the castle of Konigstein. Here lie 

 lived thirty-three years, at first in the strictest 

 custody. During his imprisonment at Brunn, he 

 cherished the hope that Prussia would stipulate for 

 his liberation at the conclusion of peace. Through 

 the favour of king Frederic Augustus I., his con- 

 dition was somewhat alleviated in the latter part of 

 his life ; he received better food, and permission to 

 take the air now and then ; he was also relieved of 

 the heavy chains which he had worn many years. He 

 died in May, 1796, at the age of seventy years. 



MENZIKOFF. See Menschikoff. 



MEPHITIC (from the Latin mephitis, an offensive 

 odour) is used to signify those kinds of air which will 

 not support combustion or animal life, or, more gene- 

 rally, offensive exhalations of any sort. Modern 

 chemistry has given particular names to many of 

 these. (See Carbon, and Sulphur.) There was a 

 Roman goddess called Mephitis, who was worship- 

 ped as a protectress from such exhalations. 



MEQUINEZ ; a city of Morocco, in Fez, situated 

 in a plain surrounded with fertile valleys and emin- 

 ences, watered by a number of rivers ; 35 miles south- 

 west of Fez, 165 north-east of Morocco; Ion. 5 30' 

 W. ; lat. 35 56' N. ; population stated by Jackson 

 at 110,000; by Hassel at only 15,000. It is fre- 

 quently the residence of the emperor. It is sur- 

 rounded with walls, and the palace is fortified with 

 bastions. The Jews have a quarter appropriated to 

 themselves, walled in and guarded. The Moors at 

 Mequinez are much more affable than in the southern 

 provinces. 



MERCANTILE SYSTEM, in political economy, 

 is one that prevails to a greater or less extent in 

 every country of Europe. It was introduced in 

 France by Colbert. As originally understood and 

 acted upon, it embraces some fallacious doctrines, 

 and carries some just ones to excess. The notion, for 

 example, that wealth is derived mostly from foreign 

 commerce, and depends upon an annual importation 

 of specie, called the balance of trade, is erroneous. 

 This balance was understood to be the bullion or coin 

 received by a country in exchange for a part of its 

 exports, and the foreign trade was supposed to be ad- 

 vantageous and promotive of the national wealth in 

 proportion as the returns of trade were made in the 

 precious metals, instead of other merchandise, where- 

 as an exchange for iron, tin, leather, or any other use- 

 ful merchantable commodity, is quite as advanta- 

 geous, as the importation of specie. It will depend 

 upon the wants of the community whether the impor- 

 tation of one or another article will most promote the 

 national wealth. It would be quite absurd, therefore, 

 to attempt, by legislation, to force trade to yield a 

 balance in specie. As far as this was a direct object 

 of the commercial system, it was accordingly mis- 



