153 M A I 
there by giving drafts. An crdfr, in T794. extended this 
privilege to the Siberian merchants likewise, under the 
following conditions : The drafts muft be given on lr- 
kutlk, Tobollk, Mofcow, or Peterfburgh, and made pay- 
able there. Nine months’ payment was allowed, but 
so per cent, per annum were claimed by the crown for 
this allowance. The drafts muft be drawn according to 
a particular form, and guaranteed. The moil important 
articles of trade are peltry, partly imported to Peterfburgh 
from North America, particularly Canada; Ruffian manu- 
faftures, viz. hides, leather, coarfe cloth, Ruffian leather, 
Mufcovian woollens and filks, linen, metaland glafs wares, 
and ifinglafsj provifions, viz. ffieep and cattle, fait meat, 
and tallow and glue, foreign manufactures, particularly 
line cloths. The principal articles received from the Chi- 
nefe at Maimatfchin, are fine filver in damped bars; raw 
and wrought filk; raw and manufactured wool; tea; rhu¬ 
barb, porcelain, tobacco, provifions, and .preferved fruits. 
The manner of conducing the commerce is as follows : 
Barter is the grand medium. The Chinefe come to the 
Ruffian warehoufes, where the famples are laid out pre- 
vioufly, to make their affortments. Bargains are often 
/truck on the fpot, but generally the Chinefe go to the 
merchants’ houies to fettle their bulinefs. At firll the 
Ruffians ftate what Chinefe goods they will take in ex¬ 
change'; then the price is accurately fixed by both parties ; 
and, when they are agreed, they return to the warehoufe, 
■where the Chinefe puts his f'eal on the bales, and fome- 
times on the whole dock. Then the Ruffian goes to the 
Chinefe, examines the goods which he is to receive in 
exchange ; and, if they anfwer the contract, the barter is 
concluded. For the conveyance of this merchandife, the 
Chinefe modly ufe camels, but fometimes two-wheeled 
carts. When the caravans crofs the defert in winter; they 
carry with them tents made of felt; but in rummer they 
liave balagans, made of reeds, which fold up and are put 
into a cafe. When the balagans are fixed, and covered 
with fail-cloth, two perfons can deep in one of them very 
commodioufly. All the Chinefe who trade to Kiakta 
underdand the Mogul language, which is alfo fpoken by 
the Ruffian merchants. 
MAI'MBOURG (Louis), a celebrated French ecclefi- 
aftical liidorian and controverfial writer, was defcended 
from a noble and wealthy family, and born at Nancy in 
Lorraine in the year 1610. When fixteen years of age, 
lie was entered of the fociety of Jefuits ; and, when he 
had finiffied the ufual courfe of dudies, was made teacher 
of claflical learning for fix years. Afterwards his fupe- 
riors appointed him to the office of preacher, which he 
difcharged with great popularity in the principal cities of 
the kingdom. His popularity he owed in a confiderable 
degree to the peculiarity of the fubjefts of his fermons, 
the drange defcriptions, and burlefque fallies, unbecoming 
the dignity of the pulpit, which he introduced into them. 
Bayle has preferved a curious account of one of his dif- 
courfes, furnilhed by a writer of Port-Royal, which exhi¬ 
bits an extraordinary pidlure of pulpit-buffoonery. And 
that it is not merely a caricature, though evidently drawn 
by an unfriendly hand, may be concluded from what 
Moliere laid in reply to a perfon who found fault with 
Jiis Tartuffe for being too moral: “ Is it at all furprifing 
that I ffiould introduce fermons into the theatre, after 
father Maimbourg has afted comedies in the pulpit ?” 
But as a writer he is principally known by the different 
hiftories he publifhed, of which a lilt is added at the end 
of this article. Several of thefe works drew on hint the 
attacks either of the janfenifts or of proteftant writers; 
but he ma'de no reply to their criticifms. In the year 
168a, having written a treatife againft the pretenfions of 
the church of Rome, and in fupport of the liberties of the 
Gallican church, pope Innocent XI. ordered the general 
of the Jefuits to expel him from their fociety. For this 
difgrace, however, the king made him ample compenfa- 
lion by the grant of a penfion, on which he retired to the 
abbey of St. Victor at Paris, where he died of a ltroke of 
M A I 
apoplexy in i 686, at the age of fevenfy-fix. By the pro- 
teltants he is accufed of grofs errors and mifreprefenta- 
tions in his hiftories of Lutheranifm and Calvinilin ; and 
his catholic critics, while they allow him vivacity and 
fluency, pronounce him extravagant in his colouring, and 
effentially defective in folidity, and a proper difcrimina- 
ticn of fails. The following is the judgment of Bayie, 
when fpeaking of his hiftories : “ I think it may be laid, 
that he had a peculiar talent for Inch works. They are 
very agreeably written, contain many lively lirokes, and 
a great variety of occafional inltruilions. There are few 
hiltorians, even among thofe who write better, and are 
more learned and exact than he, who have the art of en¬ 
gaging the reader fo much as he does. I with that thofe, 
who would exceed him in candour and knowledge, would 
give us all the hiftories which he had undertaken to write, 
if he had lived twenty years longer, and that they would 
let them ofF with the fame attractions that he does ; it 
would be no fmall advantage to the learned world.” His 
hiftorical productions were all originally publifhed in 4to; 
forming an aggregate of fixteen volumes. They were af¬ 
terwards publifhed in iamo. and conhlt of, 1. The Hiftory 
of the Crufades, 4 vols. a The Hiftory of the League, 
a vols, 3. The Hiftory of the Decline of the Empire^af¬ 
ter Charlemagne, a vols. 4. Hiftories of the Pontificates 
of St. Gregory the Great, and of St. Leo, 4 vols. 5. Hif¬ 
tory of the Schifrn of the Greeks, 2 vols. 6. Hiftory of 
the Grand Schifrn in the Eaft, a vols. 7. Hiftory of Ari- 
anifm, 3 vols. 8. Hiftory of the Herefy of the Icono- 
clafts, a vols. 9. Hiftory of Lutheranifm. 10. Hiftory 
of Calvinifm. Bayle. Moreri. 
MA'IMING, f. The act of depriving of fome neceflary 
part. 
MAIMON'IDES, or Ben Maimon (Mofes), a very 
learned rabbi, called by the Jews the Eagle of the Doctors, 
and fometimes, by way of eminence. The Doctor, was 
born at Cordova in Spain, in the year 1131. He was of 
illuftrious defcent, his father and fix of his preceding 
anceftors having fuftained the rank of judges, or been 
diftinguilhed by the title of The Wife. The early part 
of his education appears to have been undertaken by his 
father, who afterwards placed him under the tuition of 
rabbi Jofeph the foil of Megas, a perfon on whofe pro¬ 
found learning he has bellowed the highelt praife ; and, 
according to Leo Africanus, he had alio among his tu¬ 
tors the learned Arabians Ibn Thophail and Averroes. 
As he pofieffed excellent natural abilities, and was inde¬ 
fatigable in his application, he made a molt aftonilhing 
proficiency under luch able inltruitors, both in his know¬ 
ledge of languages, and acquaintance with all the arts and 
iciences. Among other languages, he was perfectly fkilled 
in the Hebrew and Arabic; but, reflecting that, with the 
knowledge of thefe languages only, his intercourle mult 
be chiefly confined to his own people, he alfo made him- 
felf matter of the Chaldee, Turkiffi, Median, and other 
tongues ; and that he underftood the Greek, may be con¬ 
cluded from the quotations which occur in his writings 
from Arittotle, Plato, Galen, Themiltius, &c. and from 
the circumftance that fome of his lateft works, and feve- 
ral of his letters to foreigners, were written in that lan¬ 
guage. With all the branches of philofophy, and the 
mathematics, he was intimately acquainted, as his writ¬ 
ings bear ample teltimony ; and in his More Nevockim he 
has particularly expatiated on the advantages ariling from 
a knowledge of mathematical fcience. He was alio well 
informed in divinity, and zealoufly attached to the reli¬ 
gion of his anceltors, while he rejected the Talmudical 
fables and traditions with which it was encumbered and 
debafed. That he was pre-eminently fkilled in Jewilh 
jurifprudence, he ffiowed, not only by the comments with 
which he iilullrated the whole body of the laws of the 
Hebrews, but by the ability and judgment with which’ 
from a confufed and mod intricate rnafs, clothed in cor¬ 
rupt and varying dialers, he reduced them to a regular 
iyltem, and perlpicuous aphorifnjs, written in pure He- 
1 brew. 
