MINIM MINISTER. 



kinds of painting in being much finer, and therefore 

 must be looked at near, so that it is used to represent 

 subjects on a small scale, commonly on vellum or 

 ivory. Hence the name miniature painting, for the 

 smallest kind. The ground of the vellum or ivory 

 is used for the highest lights, and some artists use 

 no white colouring matter at all, supplying its place 

 entirely by this ground. The best colours are those 

 which liave the least body, as carmine, ultramarine, 

 lac, &c., which are dissolved in water, and then 

 separated and dried. Miniature painting requires 

 much time on account of the paints of which 

 it consists, which must be delicately put on, so near 

 each other that they appear as one continued colour. 

 As early as the ninth and tenth centuries, miniature 

 pictures are found as ornaments of manuscripts in 

 Italy, France and Germany. See Rive's Essai stir 

 VArt de verifier VAge des Miniatures peintes dans 

 les Manuscrits (Paris, 1782). In general this kind 

 of painting was an occupation of the monks ; and as 

 the art was called illuminare, so the artists received 

 the na'mes illuminatores, or miniatores, because they 

 used for the ornaments of the manuscripts the red 

 colour, minium, more than any other; hence the 

 name miniature painting. This species of painting 

 flourished particularly in the fourteenth century, 

 under Charles V. in France, and reached still greater 

 perfection under Charles VIII. and Louis XII., but 

 sank after the invention of printing, and of paper, 

 and the rise of the art of engraving. In modern times, 

 it has been employed chiefly for portrait painting. 

 Among the distinguished miniature painters deceased 

 are Mengs, Chodowiecki, Fiiger,Westermann, Nixon, 

 and Shelly. 



MINIM; a character or note, equal in duration to 

 the sixteenth part of a large, one eighth of a long, 

 one fourth of a breve, and one half of a semibreve. 



MINIM FRIARS (from minimi, Latin, least}; 

 brethren of St Franciscus a Paula (whence they are 

 called also Paulini, or Paulani), an order instituted 

 in the middle of the fifteenth century, who have es- 

 tablished convents in most European countries since 

 1493. They owe their reputation of particular 

 sanctity to their rigorous fasting, as they are not 

 allowed to take any thing but bread, fruits, and water. 

 Their dress is black, and, like that of the Franciscans, 

 provided with a scourge. Their life is dedicated 

 entirely to solitary devotion. They belong to the 

 mendicant orders, and possessed, in the eighteenth 

 century, 450 convents in thirty provinces. In 1815, 

 Ferdinand IV. of Naples restored to them their 

 original convent. (See Francis of Paula.) In the 

 Neapolitan territory, they are called Paolotti. 



MINION (from the French mignon, adjective and 

 substantive); a favourite, on whom benefits are unde- 

 servedly lavished. 



In typography, minion signifies a certain kind of 

 type. " Why," says Johnson, in his Typographia 

 or the Printer's Instructor, " this letter was denomi- 

 nated minion, we have not yet been informed ; pro- 

 bably it was held in great estimation on its first 

 introduction, and consequently received the title 

 minion [darling]." In size, it is between nonpareil 

 and brevier ; as, for instance, a b c. 



MINISTER ; properly a chief servant ; in poli- 

 tical language, one to whom a sovereign intrusts 

 the direction of affairs of state. In modern govern- 

 ments, the heads of the several departments or 

 branches of government are ministers of the chief 

 magistrate. It is also used for the representative of 

 a sovereign at a foreign court. (See Ministers, 

 Foreign.) In Britain, the words ministry and min- 

 isters are used as collective names for the heads 

 of departments, but the individual members are not 

 so designated. In the United States of America, the 



heads of the departments are called secretaries, but 

 are not termed ministers. In most large countries 

 we find a minister for foreign affairs (whose duties 

 are included in those of the secretary of state in the 

 United States), a minister of the interior (in England, 

 secretary for the home department ; in the United 

 States there is no such department, and the secretary 

 of state has charge of the affairs which would fall to 

 such minister). The minister of the interior has the 

 management of all domestic affairs, roads, canals, 

 &c., levying taxes (in many cases); in short, every 

 thing which does not belong to the other depart- 

 ments; and it may easily be imagined how the 

 importance of this department varies, as the govern- 

 ment is more or less absolute, and disposed to 

 exercise a more or less minute control over its sub- 

 jects. In Prussia, where the government interferes 

 in all the concerns of life, the minister of the interior 

 is a most important person. On the continent of 

 Europe, where the judiciary is considered a branch 

 of the executive administration, there is always a 

 minister of justice, whose office is incompatible with 

 the independence of the judiciary and with the whole 

 idea of the administration of justice entertained in 

 Britain and the United States (though in the former 

 country the highest judge, the lord high chancellor, 

 is a member of the ministry). There is, further, a 

 minister of finance (in Britain, the chancellor of the 

 exchequer ; in the United States, the secretary of the 

 treasury). In some states there is, besides the 

 minister of finance, a minister of the treasury. 

 There i& also a minister or secretary of war, and 

 in maritime states, a minister or secretary of the 

 navy, and sometimes a minister for the colonies. 

 There is often* a separate minister of commerce (in 

 Britain, the president of the board of trade); a 

 minister of the police (first established by the direc- 

 tory in France). In many countries on the continent, 

 where the idea of a well regulated government is 

 unhappily confounded with a concentration of all 

 powers in a few individuals, there is, also, a minister of 

 public worship, who has the direction of all ecclesias- 

 tical affairs. This department, though it also exists 

 in Catholic countries, as in France, yet has received 

 the greatest development in Protestant countries, in 

 which the monarchs have declared themselves the 

 heads of the church, and the officers of religion are 

 considered, to a certain degree, servants of the 

 government. We often find a minister of instruc- 

 tion, generally the same with the minister for eccle- 

 siastical affairs. A minister of the household often 

 directs the private affairs of the monarch. Though 

 the name of the ministers in most countries corre- 

 spond, yet their power is very different in a bureau* 

 cracy (q. v.), where it extends in minute ramifica- 

 tions through the whole organization of society, and, 

 in a country like Britain, where the concerns of the 

 particular corporations are independent of their con- 

 trol. In the former class of governments, each 

 minister is a sort of viceroy in his department. 

 One of these ministers is, in many countries, prime- 

 minister, or premier, who, in constitutional monar- 

 chies, is considered as the chief person in the admin- 

 istration. Sometimes he has no particular depart- 

 ment. In France, he is called minister president. 

 In Britain, the prime-minister is the one who 

 receives the king's order to form a ministry, and 

 therefore to appoint men of his own sentiments. 

 He is generally the first lord of the treasury. In 

 some countries, there is, also, a president of the 

 ministry. In the United States of America, then- 

 is no such post as that of premier, because every 

 thing is done in the name of the president, who, in 

 many points, corresponds to the premier of a consti- 

 tutional monarchy. The British king's cabinet 



