M O N 
Roman-catholic worfhip, particularly in the niches for 
faints, the receptacles for holy water, and fometimes in 
the veftiges of the confeffional chair 
Monmoutiiftiire lends three members to parliament, 
viz. two for the county, and one lor the borough of Mon¬ 
mouth. This county has lent members to parliament 
from the 27th of Henry VIII. to the prelent time. The 
anceftors of Mr. Hanbury Leigh, of Pontypool, repre- 
fented the county from 1722 to 1790; iince which time 
the duke of Beaufort, and the family of fir Charles Morgan 
of Tredegar, have each nominated a member. The earl 
of Abergavenny, and Mr. Lewes of St. Pierre, have confi- 
derable property in this county; but the influence of the 
firfl-named two opulent families is never oppofed ; and 
accordingly, the member nominated by fir Charles Morgan 
is himfelf ; and that by the duke of Beaufort is lord 
Granville Charles Henry Somerfet, his grace’s fecondfon; 
the eldeft l'on being member for the town of Monmouth, 
as already noticed. 
Though Monmouthlhire is an Englilh county, the in¬ 
habitants more generally fpeak the Wellh than the Eng¬ 
lilh language, particularly in the weftern diftridls. Their 
manners and culloms bear a very ftrong refemblance in 
every refpeCi to thole of the principality : they difplay the 
fame antipathy to the language and manners of the Eng¬ 
lilh, and an attachment to their own ancient pradfices. 
Catholics are very numerous in this county; and not only 
they, but the Proteftants alfo, retain many veftiges of 
Romilli fuperftition. Thus the cuftom of begging bread 
for the fouls of the departed, Hill continues to be pradlifed, 
on All-Souls’ day, among the lower orders. Coxes HiJ- 
torical Tour in Monmouthjhire, 4-to. 1801. Smith's Great 
Met]) of the Eng-. Counties. Oldjield's Reprejentative Hijl. 
1816. 
MONNERON', a fmall illand in the channel of Tartary, 
between the illand of Saghalien and the continent. Lat. 
46. 20. N. Ion. 142. 21. E. 
MON'NOW, or Mun'now, a river of England, which 
runs into the Wye at Monmouth. 
MONNI'ER (Peter le), an eminent French profelfor of 
philofophy, was born at Vire in Normandy, about the 
year 1675. We are furnilhed with no other particulars 
of his life, than that by his talents he recommended him¬ 
felf to the chair of philofophy in the College of Harcourt 
at Paris ; and that he had the honour of being elected a 
member of the Royal Academy of Sciences. He died in 
1757, when he was about eighty-two years of age. He 
was the author of CurJ'us Philojbphicus, in 6 vols. 121110. 
which met with a favourable reception from the public, 
and was made life of as a text-book in 1110ft of the colleges 
in that province. Monnier alfo contributed a variety of 
papers, which form a part of the Memoirs of the academy 
of which he was a member. He left behind him two foils, 
inheritors of his abilities, and both of them admitted to 
feats in the Academy of Sciences : of whom the eldeft is 
the lubjecl of the next article; and the youngeft, Louis- 
William, was made phylician in ordinary to the king. 
Nouv. Diet. HiJ't. 
MONNI'ER (Peter-Charles le), a celebrated French 
aftronomer, was the eldeft foil of the preceding, and born 
at Paris in 1715. From his earlieft years he devoted him¬ 
felf to the ftudy of altronomy ; and when only lixteen he 
made his firft obfervation, which was on the oppoiition 
of Saturn. At the age of twenty, he had the honour of 
being nominated a member of the Royal Academy of 
Sciences at Paris. In the year 1735, he accompanied 
Maupertuis in his celebrated expedition to Lapland, for 
the purpofe of meafuring a degree of latitude. In 1741, 
he read in the Academy the plan of a new catalogue of 
the ftars, and prefented to it a new map of the zodiac, 
which he caufed .to be engraved. He was the firft French 
aftronomer who determined the changes of refraction 
in winter and funimer; who undertook to reform the 
tables of the fun, and to correH the catalogue of the ftars. 
He endeavoured to difftpate the prejudice which prevailed 
MON 683 
iii regard to comets; and announced that the comet, 
which then appeared, was in retrograde movement. He 
gave alfo a tranflation of Halley’s work on comets, with a. 
method of calculating the orbit from three obfervations. 
In 1746 he proved that Saturn had confiderable inequali¬ 
ties, occafioned by the attraction of Jupiter ; and the 
Academy propoled tliele inequalities as the lubjecl: of a 
prize, in 1748. I11 that year he accompanied lord Mac¬ 
clesfield to Scotland to oblerve the annular eclipfe of the 
fun, which could be feen with moft advantage in that coun¬ 
try; and he was the firft aftronomer who had the pleafure 
of meafuring the diameter of the moon on the fun’s difk. 
It is well known that Louis XV. was extremely fond 
of aftronomy, and greatly honoured its profeffors. Le 
Monier he loved and efteemed : “ I hake feen the king 
himfelf,” fays Lalande, “ come out of his cabinet, and 
look around for le Monnier; and, when his younger bro¬ 
ther was prefented to him, on his appointment to the of¬ 
fice of phylician, his majefty was pleated to wilh him the 
merit and reputation of his brother, the aftronomer.” All 
the remarkable celeltial phenomena were obferved by the 
king, in company with le Monnier. Thus he oblerved 
with him, at his chateau of St. Hubert, the two celebrated 
tranlits of Venus over the fun’s dilk in the years 1761 and 
1769 ; as appears from the Memoirs of the French Royal 
Academy of Sciences. While thefe important obferva¬ 
tions were making, (at which the famous la Condamine 
was likewife permitted to aftift,) the king was particular¬ 
ly careful not to difturb his aftronomers in their occupa¬ 
tion ; the proper time for which, if fuffered to be neglected, 
could not be recalled. Le Monnier relates, in his Differ- 
tation on the lubjeft, that, “his majefty perceiving that 
w r e judged the laft contacts to be of the greateft import¬ 
ance, a profound filence at that moment reigned around 
us.” In a court fo fcrupuloufly obfervant of etiquette as 
that of Louis XV. thefe will be allowed to have been dif- 
tinguilhed marks of honour, and of royal favour and con- 
defeeniion. In the year 1750, le Monnier was ordered to 
draw a meridian at the royal chateau of Bellevue, where 
the king frequently made obfervations. On this occafion 
his majefty made him a prefent of fifteen thoufand livres j 
which le Monnier, to the honour of his lovereign’s muni¬ 
ficence, and of his own dilinterefted attachment to the 
interefts of aftronomical fcience, expended in procuring 
nice and accurate inftruments, with which he afterwards 
made his beft and moft important obfervations. In the 
year 1742, the king prefented him with a beautiful houfe 
at Paris, where he refided till the revolution, and purl’ued 
his aftronomical labours. On that event, at the inltance 
of Lalande, the French government purchafed forpe of 
his inftruments for the National Obfervatory. 
Le Monnier was the preceptor of Lalande, and worthy 
of fuch afcholar; and he promoted his lfudies by his ad¬ 
vice, and by every other means in his power. Le Mon- 
nier’s penetrating mind, indeed, prefaged in young La¬ 
lande, then only iixteen years old, what in the fequel has 
been fo lplendidly confirmed. The celebrated geometri¬ 
cian and profelfor of the mathematics at Utrecht, Hen- 
nert, may likewife be reckoned among the pupils of our 
aftronomer. Le Monnier was naturally of a very irritable 
temper. Ardently as he loved his friends, trivial caufes 
led him to be offended with them; and his hatred was then 
implacable. Lalande had the misfortune, as he himfelf 
expreffes it, to incur the difplealure of his beloved pre¬ 
ceptor ; and he could never afterwards regain his favour. 
But Lalande’s gratitude and refpeff for him always con¬ 
tinued undiminifhed, and were, on every occafion, with 
unremitting conftancy, publicly declared. In 1797, La¬ 
lande wrote an eulogium on le Monnier, for the “ Con- 
noiffance des Terns,” in the language of a grateful pupil, 
penetrated with fentiments of profound veneration and 
elleem for his beloved mafter ; but le Monnier refufed to 
read it. What the circumftances were that led to their 
quarrel, we are not informed. It feems to have been kept 
up, however, by the difference in their intimate affocia- 
tionsj 
