MAR

398

MAR

»

Beni-Arax, and kingdom of Trentesen, with one of the best har-bours in Africa . Lon. 0. 10. VV. Lat. 35. 40. N.

MARSEILLES, a strong and rich sea-port town of France , inthe department of tire Mouths of the Rhone, and late province ofProvence. It has a good harbour, where the French galleys wereformerly stationed ; but it will not admit large men of war. Lon.5.22. E. Lat. 43. 18. N.

MARSH, signifies a piece of ground flowed with water, yet sothat the grass and other vegetables rise above the surface of thewater, and, by their decaying, give rise to putrid effluvia, whichare very' pernicious to health. Such land by draining may bemade firm or arable, and thus rendered more wholesome and pro-fitable. See Husbandry.

MARSHAL, orMARESCHAL, [tnarescallux, Lat.] prima-rily denotes an officer who has the care or the command of horses.Nicod derives the word from polemarchus, i. e. master of thecamp; Matthew Paris from Martis senescallus. In the oldGaulish language, march signified horse ; whence merchal mightsignify' him who commanded the cavalry'. Other derivations havebeen given by different authors; and the name itself has been ap-plied to officers of very different employments.

Marshal of England, Earl, is the eighth great officer ofstate. This office, until it was made hereditary, always passed bygrant from the king, and never was held by tenure or serjeanty(by any subject) as the offices of lord high steward and lord highconstable were sometimes held. The title is personal, the officehonorary and officiary. They were formerly styled lord-marshalonly, until King Richard II . )une 20, 1397, granted letrers-patentto Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham, and to the heirs maleof his body lawfully begotten, by the name and style of earl-mar-shal; and further, gave them power to bear in their hand a gold-truncheon, enamelled with black at each end; having at the upperend of it the king’s arms engraven thereon, and at the lower endhis own arms.

Marshal of France , was the highest dignity of prefermentin the French armies, under the old monarchy. It was for life,though at its first institution it was otherwise.

Marshal of Scotland , Earl. His office was to commandthe cavalry, whereas the constable commanded the whole army.They seem, however, to have had a sort of joint command, as ofold all orders were addressed “ to our constable and marischal.”The office of earl-marischal has never been out of the noble familyof Keith. It was reserved at the union ; and when the heritablejurisdictions were bought, it was in the crown, being forfeited bythe rebellion of Geo. Keith, Earl Marischal, in 1713.

Marshal of the Exchequer, an officer mentioned by Fleta,to whom the court commits the custody of the king’s debtors, &c.

Marshal of the King’s Bench, an officer who has custodyof the prison called the King’s Bench, in Southwark.

Marshal of the King’s House, or Knight Marshal, anEnglish officer, whose business, according to Fleta, is to executethe commands and decrees of the lord-steward, and to have thecustody of prisoners committed by the court of verge.

MARSIIALLIA, in botany', a genus of the syngenesis poly-gamia a-qualis class and order. Calyx common, many-leaved,spreading; leaflets linear, lanceolate, blunt, concave, almostequal, permanent; corolla compound, uniform, longer than thecalyx; stamen filaments five, capillary; pistil germ ovate; peri-carpium none ; seeds solitary ; receptacle chaffy.

MARSHALLING a Coat, in heraldry, is the disposal ofseveral coats of arms belonging to distinct families in one and thesame escutcheon or shield, together with their ornaments, parts,and appurtenances. See Heraldry.

MARSHALSEA, The Court of, and the Palace-Court atWestminster , though two distinct courts, are frequently confound-ed together. The former was originally holden before the stewardand marshal of the king’s house, and was instituted to administerjustice between the king’s domestic servants, that they might notbe drawn into other courts, and thereby the king lose their ser-vice. This court being ambulatory, and obliged to follow theking in all his progresses, so that by the removal of the household,actions were frequently discontinued, and doubts having arisen asto the extent of its jurisdiction, King Charles I. in the sixth yearof his reign, by his letters patent, erected a new court of record,called the curia palatii, or palace-court, to be held before the

4

steward of the household and knight-marshal, and the steward of'the court, or his deputy ; with jurisdiction to hold plea of all man'ner of personal actions whatsoever, which shall arise between anyparties within twelve miles of his majesty’s palace at Whitehall-The court is now held once a week, together with the anyie*dcourt of marshalsca, in the borough of Southwark: and a writ oferror lies from thence to the court of king’s bench. But if thecause is of any considerable consequence, it is usually removedon its first commencement, together with the custody of the de'fendant, either into the king’s bench or common pleas by a writof habeas corpus cum causa : and the inferior business of the courthath of late years been much reduced, by the new courts of con'science erected in the environs of London ; in consideration 01which the four counsel belonging to these courts had salaries grant'ed them for their lives by stat. 23 Geo. II. c. 27.

MARSHAM, Sir John, a very learned English writer in th®17th century. He studied the law in the Middle Temple , andwas sworn one of the six clerks in the court of chancery in 1638-In the beginning of the civil wars he followed the king to Oxford ifor which lie was deprived of his place by the parliament at West'minster, and plundered. After the declining of the king’s affairs*he returned to London ; compounded among other royalists, f° fhis real estate ; and betook himself wholly to his studies and a rtf'tired life, the fruits of which were some excellent works. B ewrote Diatriba Chronologica; Chronicus Canon, Afgyptiacus,Ebraicus, Gra-cus, &c. He died in 1085.

MARSHELDEIL See Viburnum.

MARSHFIELD, a town of Gloucestershire , 12 miles E. fro 1 ' 1Bristol.

MARSHLAND, a marshy peninsula in Norfolk , and oppositeto King’s Lynn , almost surrounded with the Ouse and other navi'gable rivers, and an arm of the sea. .

Marshland, an island of Yorkshire , several miles long andbroad, formed by the rivers Are, Dun, Ouse, and Trent.

MARSH MALLOW. See Althaia.

MARSI, an ancient nation of Germany , who afterwards settle®in Italy , where they occupied the territory in the environs of fb eFucine Lake .

MARSICO NUOVO, or NEW MARSICO, a town of N a 'pies, in Principato Citra. Lon. 15. 49. E. Lat. 40. 42. N.

MARS1GLI, Lewis Ferdinand, count, an Italian , fatnOTfor letters as well as arms, descended from an ancient and nob 1 ®family, and born at Bologna in 1658. He acquired great knO''"ledge in the art of war and fortification ; served under Leopold Bjagainst the Turks, by whom he was taken prisoner in 1683,redeemed in 1684. In the Spanish succession-war, Marsigli , tl> el Jmarshal, being in the fortress of Brisac, surrendered to the duke 0Burgundy in 1703, though deemed capable of holding outlonger; was stripped of all his commissions, and had his sw° r _broke over him ; and the commander Arco was beheaded. M a ’sigli now sought consolation in the sciences; as, amidst allfatigue of war, he made all the advantages the most philosop*' 1man could do, who had travelled purely in quest of knowledS®’He had a rich collection of every thing proper for such studio jinstruments astronomical and chemical, plans of fortifications, n 1 ®dels of machines, &c. all which he presented to the senate of “logna, in 1712, forming at the same time out of them what heed the Institute of the Arts and Sciences at Bologna . He a *founded a printing-house, and furnished it with the best types 1Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic , which lie presented in 1< jjto the Dominicans at Bologna , on condition of their printing j 1the writings of the institute at prime cost: this was called ‘printing-house of St. Thomas Aquinas . IIis writings on phil° s ^pliical subjects are numerous and valuable, in Latin, Italian , al1French . lie died in 1730.

MARSILEA, a genus of the cryptogamia class of plants. ^lyx common, oval; corolla none; anthers? four, placed on antusc-ly conic body; fruit roundish, four-celled; seeds round 15There are three species.

MARSYAS , in fabulous history, a celebrated musician 01 ^ s ,licnx, in Phrygia , son of Olympus, or of Hyagnis, or QS a S r ,|yHe was so skilful in playing on the flute, that he is genef a ;deemed the inventor of it.

MARI’, a great fairgoods

held

III' 11 #

every year for buying and se jyPublic marts, with the tolls thereunto belonging, can 0 ^