M M E E 
-the oceafion of his advancement to the degree of doflor 
6f laws, he wrote and defended, at Leyden, in 1774., a 
treatife, Dc Solutions Vinculi, quod olim flit inter S. ft. Impe- 
rium et Fcederati Belgii Re/p ui /teas ; wherein, according to 
the opinion of the moft Ikiiful judges, his extraordinary 
literary acquirements were prematurely developed. At 
the age of thirty-two, he married the widow of Dr. Abra¬ 
ham Perrenot, aSwifs by birth, who had become a citizen 
of Holland ; and is celebrated for his writings on philo- 
fophical fubjedts and on jurifprudence, and for fome Latin 
poems. Mr. Meerman, accompanied by his wife, pro¬ 
ceeded to make the tour of England, Ireland, and Scot¬ 
land ; feven years afterwards they vifited together great 
part of Germany, Italy, Auftria, Carinthia,. Bohemia, 
Naples, Sicily, and Malta : they again travelled a few 
years afterwards througlv Germany, Denmark, Norway, 
Poland, Sweden, and Ruflia, as far as Jaroflaw. Of the 
whole of thefe travels, and of every remarkable circum- 
ftance which came within the fcope of their obfervation 
in the above countries, Meerman printed a circumftan- 
tial and accurate account, in eleven volumes, with notes 
■which would do infinite honour to the molt intelligent 
to u rift, On his return to his native country, he devoted 
his time, at certain intervals, not only to the publication 
of thefe Travels, and the compofition of other works, 
but alfo to the exercife of the tundfions of the various 
important offices which he filled, to the advantage of 
the church, the (fate, and civil fociety. A few years 
prior to his deceafe he was called to Paris, where he re¬ 
mained three years as a fenatorof the French empire; af¬ 
ter which he returned with his wife to his native coun¬ 
try. After his laft return to the Hague, his health re¬ 
ceived a confiderable (hock ; and on the 19th of Auguff, 
1815, death put a period to a life equally precious and 
ufeful, in the fixty-firft year of his age. The following 
is a lilt of his works ; they are written moflly in the 
Dutch language, but are now in the courfe of tranflation 
into Englilh. 
1. Diil'ertatio de Solutione Vinculi, &c. mentioned be¬ 
fore. 2. Supplementum Novi Thefauri Juris Civilis et 
Canonici, ex Colledlione et Mufeo Meermanniano; poll 
Patris obitum edidit et Prasfatione inftruxit Joan L.B. 
De Meerman; Hagae Comit. 1780, fol. 3. Hiftory of 
William count of Holland, King of the Romans ; Hague, 
1783 and 1797, 5 vols. 8vo. 4. Difcourfe which obtained 
the Prize given by the Royal Academy of Infcriptions 
and Belles Lettres, on the following Queltion : To take 
a comparative View of the League formed by the Achaeans, 
with reference to thofe entered into by the Swifs and the 
United Provinces, and to develope the Caufes, See. of 
thofe political Affociations; Hague, 1784, 4to. 5. Dif- 
courfe as to the belt Means of encouraging Patriotifm in 
•a Monarchy; Hague, 1789, 8vo. This was publiflied at 
the fame time as the Treatife written by Monfieur Ma- 
thon de la Cour on the fame fubjeCt, to which the Aca¬ 
demy of Chalons adjudged the Prize. 6. Remarks dur¬ 
ing a Tour in Great Britain and Ireland ; Hague, 1787, 
Svo. 7. Hiltorical Account of the Pruffian, Auftrian, 
and Sicilian, Monarchies; Hague, 1793 and 3794, 4 vols. 
£vo. 8. Hiltorical Account of the North and North-Ealf 
of Europe ; Hague, 1804 and 1806, 6 vols. 8vo. 9. Civil 
and National Liberty confidered, with regard to its Con- 
fequences, but more efpecially with reference to this Re¬ 
public ; Leyden, 1793, 8vo. 30. Hug. Grotii Parallelon 
Rerum publicarum; Liber tertius, de Moribus ingenioque 
Populorum Athenienfium, Romanorum, Batavorum., 
Publilhed from a genuine manufeript, tranflated into 
Dutch, and illuftrated by Notes ; followed by an Appen¬ 
dix ; and Athens under Cleon, or a Treatife on Arifto- 
phanes’s-Dramatic Poem of the Knights; Haarlem, j 8 oi 
and 1803, 4 vols. 8vo. n. Hugonis Grotii Epilfolse ine- 
ditae; Haarlem, 1806, 3 vo. 12. Narrative of the Siege 
and Conquelt of Leyden, by John duke 4>f Bavaria, in 
*420. Read at the firlt public meeting of the Society of 
iter E E 
"Belgian Literature ; 1806. Printed feparately, but ift. 
eluded in the firft: volume of the fubfequent Tranfaftions 
of the above Society. 13. On the Doubling of the vowels 
in the Dutch Language ; Hague, 1806, 8vo. 14. Evidences 
of Divine Wifdom, deduced from Hiftory; Hague, 1806, 
8vo. 15. Speeches delivered in the Proteftant Synods of 
South Holland, 1805 and i'SoS ; Hague, 1806, 8vo. 16. 
Com.parifon between Jofhua, Antoninus Pius, and Hen¬ 
ry IV. Hague, 1807, Svo. 17. Speech delivered at the 
Diftribution of the Royal Prizes, to the Artifts in Paint¬ 
ing and Sculpture in 1809 ; preceded by the Report pre- 
fented to His Majefty (Louis Bonaparte) on thg Subjefl 
of the Exhibition of the former Year; Amfterdam and 
the Hague, 1809, Svo. 18. Montmartre, a Poem, with 
Hiftorical Notes; Paris, 1812, 4to. accompanied by a 
French Tranflation in Profe. 19. A Difcourfe on the firlt 
Travels of Peter the Great, principally in Holland ; Paris, 
1812, 8vo. 20. Klopftock’s Mefiiah, tranflated into hex¬ 
ameter Verfe, accompanied with an Appendix by the 
Tranflator; Hague, 1803, 4 vols. 4to, with 20 Plates, and 
the Portraits of the Author and Tranflator. 
21. Meerman had alfoa confiderable lhare in the com¬ 
pofition of the firft volume and firft part of thefecond vo¬ 
lume of the Annals of Arts and Sciences in the Kingdom 
of Holland, for the Years 1806 and 1807. He was like- 
wife the author of the following works, which he left ire 
manufeript: 22. Treatife upon the Reign of Chriftian II. 
King of Denmark, and the Connections of that Prince 
with the Netherlands. 23. Remarks on the Life of Joan 
of Arc, the celebrated Maid of Orleans. 24. Obferva- 
tions extracted from Public and State Papers, refpeCting 
Political and other Events, from 1801 to 1811. 25. Ob- 
fervations refpeCting the Events that occurred in France, 
during the Revolution of 1814. 
Laltly, he was employed in the publication of a highly- 
interefting manufeript, entitled, Hiftory of the Travels of 
the Emperor Charles V. from the Year 1514 to the Time 
of his Death, by Jean Vandenefle; and in preparing Notes 
illuftrative thereof; in which he bad advanced as far as 
the Year 1540, when death put a period to a life, equally 
pious, ufeful, and laborious. The emperor of Auftria 
raifed to the dignity of a baron of the empire, his only 
fon, Mr. Johan Meerman, equally celebrated as his father, 
as Lord of Dalem and Vuren. They are both mentioned 
in terms of the higheft commendation bySaxius, profeffoe 
at Utrecht, in the feventh and eighth volumes of his Ono- 
mafticon Literarium. Monthly Mag. April 1816. 
MEERO'AT, a town of Canahar: forty-five miles 
weft of Ghizni. 
MEERPOU'R, a town of Bengal: eleven miles fouth of 
Calcutta : 
MEER'SCHAUM, f. in mineralogy, a fubftance of 
yellowilh-white colour, which occurs in mais, of fine¬ 
grained (IruCiure, earthy, paffing into flat conchojdal, or 
Imall flaty, with indeterminately-angular and moderately 
fharp-edged fragments. This mineral is opaque, foft, ea- 
fily frangible, acquires a polifn by friction, and is unCfuous 
to the touch. Its fpecific gravity is i - 6. In acids it may 
be partly diffiolved without effervefcence, but cannot be 
fufed without addition by the blowpipe. The analyfes of 
Wiegleb and Klaproth give the following relults, in which 
there is a difference, owing to Klaproth’s having analyfed 
the frefh earth, and Wiegleb’s having examined that 
which was formed into a tobacco-pipe, and confequently 
baked, and deprived of its water and carbonic acid. 
Wiegleb. Klaproth. 
Silex 
54-16 
5 °'S 
41 
Magnefia 
51 66 
* 7" 2 5 
18*25 
Lime - - 
- 
o '5 
°' 5 
Water 
- 
%S' 1 
Carbonic acid 
- 
5 $ 
39 0 
105-82 
98-25 
98-75 
Kirwam. 
