MAXIM 



3701 



MAXIMILIAN II 



Professor Mavor was born at Stranraer, Scot- 

 land, and received his schooling at Glasgow, 

 where he completed his education at the uni- 

 versity. In 1888 he was appointed professor of 

 political economy and statistics in Saint Mun- 

 go's College, Glasgow. There he taught for four 

 years, and also found time to act as editor of 

 the Scottish Art Review, and as assistant editor 

 of a technical journal, and to take an active 

 part in university-extension work and in numer- 

 ous schemes for social progress. In 1892 he was 

 appointed one of a committee of four to inves- 

 tigate the operation of labor colonies in Ger- 

 many, and in the same year was called to 

 Canada as professor of political economy in the 

 University of Toronto. In succeeding years his 

 investigations took him to all parts of the earth, 

 but his work as a teacher has continued to take 

 the larger share of his time. 



Professor Mavor is a voluminous writer. Of 

 particular interest to Canadians are the follow- 

 ing: Report to British Board of 'Trade on the 

 Northwest oj Canada; Taxation of Corpora- 

 tions in Canada; Railway Transportation in 

 America; Taxation in Ontario; A Short Eco- 

 nomic History of Canada; and Government 

 Telephones, The Experience of Manitoba. Of 

 more general interest are his Wage Theories and 

 Statistics; An Economic History of Russia; and 

 a general treatise on Economics. 



MAX'IM, SIR HIRAM (1840-1916), an Ameri- 

 can inventor, born in Maine, afterwards becom- 

 ing a naturalized Englishman, receiving knight- 

 hood in 1901. He invented the guns that are 

 known by his name and which are used by 

 nearly every civilized nation. Maxim had a 

 horror of war and hoped his guns would make 

 everybody see how terrible war really is and 

 render conflicts less likely to occur. Maximite, 

 invented by him specially for use with the 

 Maxim gun, was patented in England in 1889 

 and is a mixture of trinitrocellulose, nitro- 

 glycerine and castor oil. He also invented an 

 incandescent light and a searchlight. In 1894 

 he devised a flying machine which met with 

 partial success. 



MAXIMILIAN, maksimil'yan (1832-1867), 

 an Archduke of Austria who is remembered 

 chiefly for his brief rule as emperor of Mexico. 

 Maximilian was a brother of Emperor Fran- 

 cis Joseph of Austria (which see). He became 

 commander of the Austrian navy in 1854, and 

 later governor of Lombardy and Venetia. When 

 French troops interfered in the affairs of 

 Mexico and established an empire there (see 

 MEXICO, subtitle Government and History), 



Maximilian took the throne under protest, but 

 he immediately tried to regenerate the coun- 

 try. However, he did not understand the peo- 

 ple, and his efforts only aroused their hatred; 

 matters were made more hazardous for him by 

 withdrawal, upon the protest of the United 

 States government, of the French troops sent 

 by Napoleon to support the new emperor. 

 Though he made a brave effort to hold his 

 authority, he was betrayed, and after a short 

 confinement was tried by a military court in 

 1867, convicted of treason, and shot. His ex- 

 tensive writings were published after his death. 



MAXIMILIAN I (1459-1519), a Holy Roman 

 emperor, of note chiefly for his success in pro- 

 moting the fortunes of the House of Hapsburg. 

 He was the son of Frederick III, whom he suc- 

 ceeded in 1493. In 1477 he married Mary, 

 daughter of Charles the Bold, and had thus 

 acquired a claim to Burgundy and the Nether- 

 lands. He had to fight for his rights, however, 

 with Louis XI of France, who finally succeeded 

 in wresting from him a portion of the inherit- 

 ance. 



Mary died in 1482; and in the year that he 

 became emperor (1493) he married Bianca, 

 daughter of the Duke of Milan; the alliance 

 brought him long-continued war in Italy but 

 no accession of territory. He caused his son 

 Philip to marry Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand 

 and Isabella of Spain, thus securing that coun- 

 try to the royal house of Austria; and for two 

 of his grandchildren he arranged marriages with 

 the son and daughter of the king of Hungary 

 and Bohemia, and by so doing established a 

 claim on those countries. Though Maximilian 

 placed the interests of his house above those of 

 the empire, he was not neglectful of the lat- 

 ter, and unsuccessfully attemped, in 1495, to 

 allay the constant civil strife which disturbed 

 the empire by the proclamation of a perpetual 

 peace. It was during Maximilian's reign that 

 the Swiss secured their independence from Aus- 

 tria. See HAPSBURG, HOUSE OF. 



MAXIMILIAN II (1527-1576), a Holy Roman 

 emperor whose mild rule gave Germany a 

 chance to recover in a measure from the turbu- 

 lent times through which it had been passing. 

 He was the son of Emperor Ferdinand I, and 

 was brought up among the strictest of Catholic 

 surroundings, but he showed himself favorable 

 to the new religion, and the Protestants hoped 

 for much when he came to power. On his ac- 

 cession to the imperial dignity in 1564, however, 

 he proved himself a man of little spirit, and the 

 Protestants were disappointed in their hopes. 



