When the relief was finished, it was, as a rule, entirely painted over with much minuteness and great variety of colours. More rarely the ground was left the natural tint of the stone or marble, and only the figures and hieroglyphs painted. In the case of sculpture in hard basalt or granite the painting appears often to have been omitted altogether. The utter absence of perspective effects and the severe self-restraint of the sculptors in the matter of composition show a keen sense of artistic fitness in this kind of decoration. That the stern rigidity of these sculptured pictures did not in any way arise from want of skill or observation of nature on the part of the artists is at once apparent when we examine their representations of birds and animals; with the most unerring skill and precision the special characteristics of each creature and species were caught by the ancient Egyptian and reproduced in stone or colour, not literally, but in a half-symbolic way, suggesting exactly those peculiarities of form, plumage, or movement which are the essence and “differentia” of each, all other ideas bearing less directly on the point being carefully eliminated.

The subjects of these great mural sculptures are endless in their variety; almost every possible incident in man’s life here or beyond the grave is reproduced with the closest attention to detail. The tomb of Tih at Sakkarah (about 4500 b.c. ) has some of the finest and earliest specimens of these mural sculptures, especially rich in illustrations of the every-day domestic life and occupations of the Egyptians. The later tombs, as a rule, have sculptures depicting the religious ritual and belief of the people, and the temples combine these hieratic subjects with the history of the reigns and victories of the Egyptian kings.

The above remarks as to style and manner of execution may be applied also to the wall-sculptures from the royal palaces of Nineveh and Babylon, the finest of which are shown by inscriptions to date from the time of Sennacherib to that of Sardanapalus (from 705 to 625 b.c.). These are carved in very low relief with almost gem-like delicacy of detail on enormous slabs of white marble. The sacred subjects, generally representing the king worshipping one of the numerous Assyrian gods, are mostly large, often colossal in scale. The other subjects, illustrating the life and amusements of the king, his prowess in war or hunting, or long processions of prisoners and tribute-bearers coming to do him homage, are generally smaller and in some cases very minute in scale (fig. 1). The arrangement of these reliefs in long horizontal bands, and their reserved conventional treatment are somewhat similar to those of ancient Egypt, but they show a closer attention to anatomical truth and a greater love for strong dramatic effect than any of the Egyptian reliefs. As in the art of Egypt, birds and animals are treated with far greater realism than human figures. The plastic art of no period or country has ever surpassed in skill and life-like truth the Assyrian reliefs of horses, mules, hounds, goats, lions, and many other animals. A relief in the British Museum, representing a lioness wounded by an arrow in her spine and dragging helplessly her paralysed hind legs, affords an example of wonderful truth and pathos. Very remarkable technical skill is shown in all these sculptures by the way in which the sculptors have obtained the utmost amount of effect with the smallest possible amount of relief (see Babylonia, vol. iii. p. 190), in this respect calling strongly to mind a similar peculiarity in the work of the Florentine Donatello.

The palace at Mashita on the hajj road in Moab, built by the Sasanian Chosroes II. (614-627 a.d.), is ornamented on the exterior with very beautiful surface sculpture in stone. The designs of this are of peculiar interest as forming an evident link between Assyrian and Byzantine art, and they are not remotely connected with the decoration on Moslem buildings of comparatively modern date.

Especially in Italy during the Middle Ages a similar treatment of marble in low relief was frequently used for wall-decoration. The most notable example is the beautiful series of reliefs on the west front of Orvieto cathedral, the work of Giovanni P⅛ano and his pupils in the early part of the 14th century. These are small reliefs, illustrative of the Old and New Testaments, of most graceful design and skilful execution. A growth of branching foliage serves to unite and frame the tiers of subjects.

Of a widely different class, but of considerable importance in the history of mural decoration, are the very beautiful reliefs, sculptured in stone and marble, with which Moslem buildings in many parts of the world are ornamented. These are mostly geometrical patterns of great intricacy and beauty, which cover large surfaces, frequently broken up into panels by bands of more flowing ornament or Arabic inscriptions. The mosques of Cairo, India, and Persia, and the domestic Moslem buildings of Spain are extremely rich in this magnificent method of decoration. In western Europe, especially during the 15 th century, stone panelled-work with rich tracery formed a large part of the scheme of decoration in all the more splendid buildings. Akin to this, though without actual relief, is the very sumptuous stone tracery,—inlaid flush into rough flint walls,—which was a mode of ornament largely used for enriching the exteriors of churches in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. It is almost peculiar to that district, and is an admirable example of the skill and taste with which the mediaeval builders adapted their method of ornamentation to the materials which came naturally to hand.

2. Marble Veneer.— Another widely-used method of mural decoration has been the application of thin marble linings to wall-surfaces, the decorative effect being produced by the natural beauty of the marble itself and not by sculptured reliefs. One of the oldest buildings in the world, the so-called “Temple of the Sphinx” among the Gizeh pyramids, is built of great blocks of granite, the inside of the rooms being lined with slabs of beautiful semi-transparent African alabaster about 3 inches thick. In the 1st century very thin veneers of richly-coloured marbles were largely used by the Romans to decorate brick and stone walls. Pliny (7/. N., xxxvi. 6) speaks of this practice as being a new and degenerate invention in his time. Many examples exist at Pompeii and in other Roman buildings. Numerous Byzantine churches, such as St Saviour’s at Constantinople, and St George’s, Thessalonica, have the lower part of the internal walls richly ornamented in this way. It was commonly used to form a dado, the upper part of the building being covered with mosaic. The cathedral of Monreale and other Siculo-Norman buildings owe a great deal of their splendour to these linings of richly-variegated marbles. In most cases the main surface is of light-coloured marble or alabaster, inlaid bands of darker tint or coloured mosaic being used to divide the surface into panels. The peculiar Italian-Gothic of northern and central Italy during the 14th and 15th centuries, and at Venice some centuries earlier, relied greatly for its effects on this treatment of marble. St Mark’s at Venice and the cathedral of Florence are magnificent examples of this work used externally. It is in every case a mere skin, and is in no way connected with the stability of the structure. Both inside and out most of the richest examples of Moslem architecture owe much to this method of decoration; the mosques and palaces of India and Persia are in many cases completely lined with the most lustrous and brilliant sorts of marble, of contrasting tints arranged and fitted together with consummate skill and knowledge of harmony.

3. Wall-Linings of Glazed Bricks or Tiles.— This is a very important class of decoration, and from its almost imperishable nature, its richness of colour, and its brilliance of surface is capable of producing a splendour of effect that can only be rivalled by glass mosaics. In the less important form—that of bricks modelled or stamped in relief with figures and inscriptions, and then coated with a brilliant colour in siliceous enamel—it was largely used by the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians as well as by the later Sasanians of Persia. In the 11th and 12th centuries the Moslems of Persia brought this art to great perfection, and used it on a large scale, chiefly, though not invariably, for internal walls. The main surfaces were covered by thick earthenware tiles, overlaid with a white enamel. These were not rectangular, but of various shapes, mostly some form of a star, arranged so as to fit closely together. Very delicate and minute patterns were then painted on the tiles, after the first firing, in a copper-like colour with strong metallic lustre, produced by the deoxidization of a metallic salt in the process of the second firing. Bands and friezes with Arabic inscriptions, modelled boldly in high relief, were used to break up the monotony of the surface. In these, as a rule, the projecting letters were painted blue, and the flat ground enriched with very minute patterns in the lustre-colour. This combination of bold relief and delicate painting produces great vigour and richness of effect, equally telling whether viewed in the mass or closely examined tile by tile. In the 15th century lustre-colours, though still largely employed fσr plates, vases, and other vessels, especially in Spain, were but little used for tiles; and another class of ware, rich in the variety and brilliance of its colours, was extensively used by Moslem builders all over the Mohammedan world. The most sumptuous sorts of tiles used for wall coverings are those of the so-called “Rhodian” and Damascus wares, the work of Persian potters at many places. Those made at Rhodes are coarsely executed in comparison with the produce of the older potteries at Ispahan and Damascus (see Pottery). These are rectangular tiles of earthenware, covered with a white “slip” and painted in the most brilliant colours with slightly conventionalized representations of various flowers, especially the rose, the hyacinth, and the carnation. The red used is a very rich harmonious colour, applied in considerable body, so as to stand out in slight relief. Another class of design is more geometrical, forming regular repeats; but the most beautiful compositions are those in which the natural growth of trees and flowers is imitated, the branches and blossoms spreading freely over a large surface covered by hundreds of tiles without any repetition. One of the finest examples is the “Mecca wall” in the mosque of Ibrâhîm Agha, Cairo; and other Egyptian mosques are adorned in the same magnificent way (fig. 2). Another variety, the special production of Damascus, has the design almost entirely executed iι. blue. It was about the year 1600 a.d., in the reign of Shah Abbas I., that this class of pottery was brought to greatest perfection, and it is in Persia that the most magnificent examples of its use are to be found. Nothing can surpass the splendour of effect produced by these tilecoverings, varieties of which, dating from the 12th to the 17th centuries, were largely used in all the chief buildings of Persia. The most remarkable examples for beauty of design and extent of surface covered by these tiles are the mosque at Tabriz, built by Ali Khoja in the 12th century, the ruined tomb of Sultan Khodabend (1303- 1316 a.d.) at Sultanieh, the palace of Shah Abbas I. and the tomb of Abbas II. (ob. 1666 a.d.) at Ispahan, all of which buildings are covered almost entirely inside and out with this magnificent sort of decoration.

Another important class of wall-tiles are those manufactured by the Spanish Moors, called “azulejos,” especially during the 14th century. These are in a very different style, being designed to suggest or imitate mosaic. They have intricate interlacing geometrical patterns marked out by lines in slight relief; brilliant enamel colours were then burned into the tile, the projecting lines forming boundaries for the pigments. A very rich effect is produced by this combination of relief and colour. They are mainly used for dados about 4 feet high, often surmounted by a band of tiles with painted inscriptions. The Alhambra and Generalife palaces at Granada, begun in the 13th century, but mainly built and decorated by Yùsuf I. and Mohammed V. (1333-1391 a.d.), and the Alcazar at Seville have the most beautiful examples of these “azulejos.” The latter building chiefly owes its decorations to Pedro the Cruel (1364 a.d.), who employed Moorish workmen for its tile-coverings and other ornaments. Many other buildings in southern Spain are enriched in the same way, some as late as the 16th century.

Almost peculiar to Spain are a variety of wall-tile the work of Italians in the 16th and 17th centuries. These are effective, though rather coarsely painted, and have a rich yellow as the predominant colour. The Casa de Pilatos and Isabel’s chapel in the Alcazar palace, both at Seville, have the best specimens of these, dating about the year 1500. In other Western countries tiles have been used more for pavements than for wall-decoration.

4. Wall-Coverings of Hard Stucco, frequently enriched with Reliefs.— The Greeks and Romans possessed the secret of making a very beautiful hard kind of stucco, creamy in colour, and capable of receiving a polish like that of marble; it would stand exposure to the weather. Those of the early Greek temples which were built, not of marble, but of stone, such as the Doric temples at Aegina, Phigaleia, Paestum, and Agrigentum, were all entirely coated inside and out with this beautiful material—itself pleasant both in texture and hue, and an admirable surface for the further polychromatic decoration with which all Greek buildings seem to have been ornamented. Another highly artistic use of stucco among the Greeks and Romans for the interiors of buildings consisted in covering the walls and vaults with a smooth coat, on which while still wet the outlines of figures, groups, and other ornaments were sketched with a point; more stucco was then applied in lumps and rapidly modelled into delicate reliefs before it had time to set. Some tombs in Magna Graecia of the 4th century b.c. are decorated in this way with figures of nymphs, cupids, animals, and wreaths, all of which are models of grace and elegance, both in form and action, and extremely remarkable for the dexterous way in which a few rapid touches of the modelling tool or thumb have produced a work of the highest artistic beauty and spirit (fig. 3). Roman specimens of this sort of decoration are very common, fine examples have been found in the baths of Titus and numerous tombs near Rome, as well as in many of the houses of Pompeii. These are mostly executed with great skill and frequently with good taste, though in some cases, especially at Pompeii, elaborate architectural compositions with awkward attempts at effects of violent perspective, modelled in slight relief on flat wall-surfaces, produce a very unpleasing effect. Other Pompeian examples, where the surface is divided into flat panels, each containing a figure or group, have great merit for their delicate richness of effect, without offending against the canons of wall - decoration, one of the first conditions of which is that no attempt should be made to disguise the fact of its being a solid wall and a flat surface.

The Moslem architects of the Middle Ages, who excelled in almost all possible methods of mural decoration, made great use of stucco ornament in the most elaborate and magnificent way, both for external and internal walls. The stucco is modelled in high or low relief in great variety of geometrical patterns, of wonderful beauty and richness, alternating with bands of more flowing ornament, or long Arabic inscriptions. Many of their buildings, such as the mosque of Tuhin at Cairo (879 a,d.), owe nearly all their beauty to this fine stucco work, the purely architectural shell of the structure being often quite simple and devoid of ornament. These stucco reliefs were, as a rule, further decorated with delicate painting in gold and colours, producing an effect of indescribable beauty and splendour. The Moorish tower at Segovia in Spain is a good example of this class of ornament used externally. With the exception of a few bands of brick and the stone quoins at the angles, the whole exterior of the tower is covered with a network of stucco reliefs in simple geometrical patterns. The Alhambra at Granada and the Alcazar at Seville have the richest examples of this work, both in the delicate intricacy of the designs and in the brilliant colours with which they are painted. The lower part of the walls is lined with marble or tiles to a height of about 4 feet, and above that in many cases the whole surface is encrusted with these reliefs, the varied surface of which, by producing endless gradations of shadow, takes away any possible harshness or over-gaudiness from the brilliance of the gold and colours (fig. 4).

During the 16th century, and even earlier, stucco wall-reliefs were used with considerable skill and decorative effect in Italy, England, and other Western countries. Perhaps the most graceful examples are the reliefs with which Vasari in the 16th century encrusted pillars and other parts of the court in the Florentine Palazzo Vecchio, built of plain stone by Michelozzi in 1454. These are very beautiful reliefs, some of flowing vines and other plants winding spirally round the columns. The English examples of this work are very effectively designed, though coarser in execution. The outside of an old half-timbered house in the market-place at Newark-upon-Trent has high reliefs in stucco of canopied figures, dating from the end of the 15th century. The counties of Essex and Suffolk are very rich in examples of this work used externally; and many 16th-century houses in England have fine internal stucco decoration, especially Hardwicke Hall (Derbyshire), one of the rooms of which has the upper part of the wall enriched with life-sized stucco figures in high relief, forming a deep frieze all round. The best English stucco work of this sort is very remarkable for its freedom and spirit of design, as well as for certain grace of line, which is a survival of the old mediaeval sense of beauty, then rapidly passing away.

5. Sgraffito.— This is a variety of stucco work used chiefly in Italy from the 16th century downwards, and employed only for exteriors of buildings, especially the palaces of Tuscany and northern Italy. The process is this. The wall is covered with a coat of stucco made black by an admixture of charcoal; over this a second very thin coat of white stucco is laid. When it is all hard the design is produced by cutting and scratching away the white skin, so as to show the black under-coat. Thus the drawing appears in black on a white ground. This work is effective at a distance, as it requires a bold style of handling, in which the shadows are indicated by cross-hatched lines more or less near together. Flowing arabesques mixed with grotesque figures occur most frequently in sgraffito. It is still largely practised in northern Italy, and has been used with success in the external decoration of the South Kensington Academy of Music.

6. Stamped Leather.— This was...

The town is built upon one broad main canal, where the tidal current runs with great force, and upon several smaller ones. The cathedral, S. Donato, is a fine basilica, probably of the 11th century. The pavement is as richly inlaid as that of St Mark’s, and the mosaics of the tribune are remarkable. The exterior of the tribune is very beautiful, and has been successfully restored. The 15th-century church of St Peter the Martyr contains a fine picture by Gentile Bellini. Murano has from ancient times been celebrated for its glass manufactories. When and how the art was introduced is wrapped in great obscurity, but there are notices of it as early as the 11th century; and in 1250 Cristoforo Briani, encouraged by the accounts of the gems of Guinea which the traveller Marco Polo brought to Venice, attempted the imitation of agate and chalcedony. From the labours of his pupil Miotto sprang the whole of that branch of the glass trade which is concerned with the imitation of gems. In the 15th century the first crystals were made, and in the 17th the various gradations of coloured and iridescent glass were invented, together with the composition called “aventurine”; the manufacture of .beads is now a main branch of the trade. The art of the glass-workers was taken under the protection of the Government in 1275, and regulated by a special code of laws and privileges; two fairs were held annually, and the export of all materials, such as alum and sand, which enter into the composition of glass was absolutely forbidden. With the decay of Venice the importance of the Murano glass-works declined; but at the present time there are signs of renewed activity. As many as eight firms, employing 2500 hands, are engaged in the trade,—the most renowned being “The Venezia Murano Company” and Salviati. The municipal museum contains a collection of glass illustrating the history and progress of the art.

The island of Murano was first peopled by the inhabitants of Altino, when they fled before their barbarian invaders. It originally enjoyed independence under the rule of its tribunes and judges, and was one of the twelve confederate islands of the lagoons. In the 12th century the doge Vital Micheli II. incorporated Murano in Venice and attached it to the Sestiere of S. Croce. From that date it was governed by a Venetian nobleman with the title of podestà, whose office lasted sixteen months. Murano, however, still retained its original constitution of a greater and a lesser council for the transaction of municipal business, and also the right to coin gold and silver, as well as its judicial powers civil and criminal. The interests of the town were watched at the ducal palace by a nuncio and a solicitor; and this constitution remained in force till the fall of the republic.

Books.—Venezia e le Sue Lagune; Paoletti, Il Fiore di Venezia; Bussolin, Guida alle Fabbrwħe vetrarie di Murano ; Romanin, Storia Documentât/! di Venezia, vol. i. p. 41.

King Joachim Napoleon, as he called himself, entered Naples in September 1808, and soon won great popularity by his handsome presence and his gaiety of manner. He took Capri from the English, and organized a Neapolitan army of 80,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry. But his attention was not confined to military matters; he effected other great reforms in finally abolishing all relics of feudalism and putting down brigandism. Unfortunately much injustice was done by General Manhès in this last reform, which seriously affected Murat’s popularity in Calabria. He was not present at Aspern or Wagram, but once more commanded the cavalry of the grand army in the Russian campaign of 1812. He manifested his usual headlong valour in the disastrous retreat, but, being offended by Napoleon, he suddenly threw up. his command and left for Naples. He then began an intrigue with Austria. Whether it was that he hoped to escape from a doubtful cause or that he was really offended by Napoleon’s preference for Eugène Beauharnais is not known, but in March 1813 he sent Prince Cariati to Vienna to declare that he would surrender his claims to Sicily if Austria would guarantee Naples to him. In January 1814 the alliance with Austria was declared by Murat’s seizing the principality of Benevento, while Austria promised him Ancona for a force of 30,000 men. At the congress of Vienna his independence was attacked by Talleyrand, who was his personal enemy, and it was as much from distrust of Austria as anything else that he declared in March 1815 that he intended to restore the unity and independence of Italy. He had hoped that Lord William Bentinck, the English general, would have supported him, but in vain. The Austrians steadily advanced, and on 2d May he suffered a disastrous defeat at the battle of Tolentino. With difficulty he escaped, and reached France on 27th May. He offered his sword to Napoleon, who indignantly refused his offer, and he then hid in seclusion near Toulon with a price upon hi ’ s head. After Waterloo he was refused an asylum in England, and went to Corsica, where he was joined by a few rash spirits, who urged him to strike another blow for his kingdom of Naples. He refused an offer of asylum from Metternich, and started with six ships. By a great mistake he landed in Calabria, where he was hated for the cruelty of Manhès, on 6th October; his ships deserted him, and he was taken prisoner by a captain named Trenta-Capilli, whose brother had been executed by Manhès. He was imprisoned in the fort of Pizzo, and on 13th October 1815 was tried by court-martial, under a law of his own, for disturbing the public peace and was sentenced to be shot in half an hour. After writing a touching letter of farewell to his wife and children, he bravely met his fate, and was buried at Pizzo.

As a king much good can be said of him; by his valour he had risen from nothing to royalty, and instead of being careless of the good of his adopted country he showed himself a truly wise king. As a general he was the most dashing cavalry leader of the age, and, as he himself said, his presence at Waterloo would have given more concentrated power to the French cavalry charges, and possibly success. As a man he was rash, hot-tempered, and impetuously brave; he was adored by his troopers, who followed their idol, the “golden eagle,” into the most terrible fire and against the most terrible odds.

For the life of Murat and his rule in Naples consult Vie de Joachim Murat, by Μ* * *, 1815; Memorie sulla condotta politica e militare tenuta da Gioacchino Murat, 1815; Gioacchino Murat, o Storia del Reame di Napoli dal 1800 al 1815, Milan, 1839; Campagnes des Aιdrichiens contre Murat en 1815, by V* * C* * de Br., Brussels, 1821; and particularly Freiherr von Helfert, Joachim Murat, seine letzten Kämpfe und seine Ende, Vienna, 1878. For his daring attempt in 1815 and his death see A. de Beauchamp, Catastrophe de Murat, 1815; Francis Macirone, Interesting^ facts relating to the fall and death of Joachim Murat, King of Naples, London, 1817; P. Colletta, Pochi fatti su Gioacchino Murat, Naples, 1820, correcting Macirone, and translated by I.. Gallois, Paris, 1823; Galvani, Mémoires sur les Événements gui out précédé la· mort de Joachim, roi des Deux Sidles, Paris, 1843; and Jean de la Rocca, Le Roi Murat et ses derniers jours, from the papers of Multedo, who accompanied the king, Paris, 1868. (H. Μ. S.)

The most important of the works of Muratori, which amounted altogether to upwards of sixty-four, are: Anecdota ex Ambrosianae Bibliothecae Godd., Milan, 1697, 1698; Padua, 1713, 2 vols. 4to; Anecdota Graeca, Padua, 1709, 3 vols. 4 to; Antichitd Estensi, Modena, 1717, 2 vols, folio; Rerum Italicarum Scriptores prae- cipui ab anno 500 ad 1500, Milan, 1723-1751, 25 vols, folio; Antiquitates Italicae medii aevi, Milan, 1738-1742, 6 vols, folio; Novus Thesaurus Veterum Inscriptionum, Milan, 1739-1742, 6 vols, folio; Annali d'Italia, Venice, 1744-1749, 12 vols. 4to. His Letters, with a Life prefixed, were published by Lazzari, in 1783, Venice, 2 vols. His nephew, G. F. Muratori, also wrote a Vita del celebre Ludov. Ant. Muratori, Venice, 1756. Muratori’s Latin and Italian works were published at Arezzo, 1767-1780, 36 vols. 4to. See further Tiraboschi, Biblioteca Modenese, vols, iii., iv.; Fabroni, Vitae Italorum, vol. x.; Tipaldo, Biogr. degli Itdliani illustri, vol. vii.

Returning to England in 1818, he sold his paternal property in Ross-shire and settled in England, where, finding art studies no longer practicable, he took heart and soul to field-sports. He soon became one of the greatest fox-hunters in the northern counties; but at last, getting weary of such pursuits and meeting Sir Humphrey Davy, who urged him to turn his energy to science, he was induced to attend lectures at the Royal Institution. This change in the current of his occupations was much helped by the sympathy of his wife, who, besides her artistic acquirements, took much interest in some branches of natural history. Eager and enthusiastic in whatever he undertook, he was soon fascinated by the young science of geology, and threw himself heartily into its prosecution. He joined the Geological Society of London and soon showed himself one of its most active members, having as his colleagues there such men as Sedgwick, Lyell, Buckland, Herschel, Whewell, and Babbage. Exploring with his wife the geology of the south of England, he devoted special attention to the rocks of the north-west of Sussex and the adjoining parts of Hants and Surrey, on which he wrote his first scientific paper, read to the Society towards the close of 1825. From that early period on to the end of his long life his industry and enthusiasm remained preeminent. Though he had reached the age of thirty-two before he took any interest in science, he developed his taste and increased his knowledge so rapidly by unwearied diligence that in the first three years of his scientific career he had explored large parts of England and Scotland, had obtained materials for three important memoirs, as well as for two more written in conjunction with Sedgwick, and from the position of a mere beginner had risen to be a prominent member of the Geological Society and one of its two secretaries.

Turning his attention for a little to Continental geology, he explored with Lyell the volcanic region of Auvergne, parts of southern France, northern Italy, Tyrol, and Switzerland. A little later, with Sedgwick as his companion, he attacked the difficult problem of the geological structure of the Alps, and their joint paper giving the results of their study will always be regarded as one of the classics in the literature of Alpine geology.

It was in the year 1831 that Murchison found the field in which the chief work of his life was to be accomplished. Acting on a suggestion made to him by Buckland he betook himself to the borders of Wales, with the view of endeavouring to discover whether the greywacke rocks underlying the Old Red Sandstone could be grouped into a definite order of succession, as the Secondary rocks of England had been made to tell their story by William Smith. For several years he continued to work vigorously in that region. The result was the establishment of the Silurian system,—a definite section of the geological record, bringing into notice for the first time a remarkable series of formations, each replete with distinctive organic remains older than and very different from those of the other rocks of England. The full import of his discoveries was not at first perceived; but as years passed on the types of existence brought to light by him from the rocks of the border counties of England and Wales were ascertained to belong to a geological period of which there are recognizable traces in almost all parts of the globe. Thus the term “Silurian,” derived from the name of the old British tribe Silures, soon passed into the familiar vocabulary of geologists in every country.

The establishment of the Silurian system was followed by that of the Devonian system, an investigation in which Sedgwick and Murchison were fellow-labourers, both in the south-west of England and in the Rhinelands. Soon afterwards Murchison projected an important geological campaign in Russia with the view of extending to that part of the Continent the classification he had succeeded in elaborating for the older rocks of western Europe. He was accompanied by De Verneuil and Keyserling, in conjunction with whom he produced a magnificent work on Russia and the Ural Mountains. The publication of this monograph in 1845 completes the first and most active half of Murchison’s scientific career.

In 1846 he was knighted, and later in the same year he presided over the meeting of the British Association at Southampton. During the later years of his life a large part of his time was devoted to the affairs of the Royal Geographical Society, of which he became president. So constant and active were his exertions on behalf of geographical exploration that to a large section of the contemporary public he was known rather as a geographer than as a geologist. He particularly identified himself with the fortunes of David Livingstone in Africa, and did much to raise and keep alive the sympathy of his fellow-countrymen in the fate of that great explorer. The chief geological investigation of the last decade of his life was devoted to the Highlands of Scotland, where he succeeded in showing that the vast masses of crystalline schists, previously supposed to be part of what used to be termed the Primitive formations, were really not older than the Silurian period, for that underneath them lay beds of limestone and quartzite containing Lower Silurian fossils. By this important discovery he not only changed at once the accepted views of the structure of half a kingdom but furnished a gigantic example of regional metamorphism, the true significance of which in regard to theories of metamorphism is not yet adequately appreciated.

In the year 1855 Murchison was appointed director-general of the geological survey and director of the Royal School of Mines and Geological Museum, Jermyn Street, London, in succession to Sir Henry de la Beche, who had been the first to hold these offices. Official routine now occupied much of his time, but he found opportunity for the Highland researches just alluded to, and also for preparing successive editions of his work Siluria, which was meant to present the main features of the original Silurian System together with a digest of subsequent discoveries, particularly of those which showed the extension of the Silurian classification into other countries. His official position gave him still further opportunity for the exercise of those social functions for which he had always been distinguished, and which a considerable fortune inherited from near relatives on his mother’s side enabled him to display on a greater scale. His house was one of the great centres where science, art, literature, politics, and social eminence were brought together in friendly intercourse. In 1863 he was made a K.C.B., and three years later was raised to the dignity of a baronet. The learned societies of his own country bestowed their highest rewards upon him: the Royal Society gave him the Copley medal, the Geological Society its Wollaston medal, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh its Brisbane medal. There was hardly a foreign scientific society of note which had not his name enrolled among its honorary members. The French Academy of Sciences awarded to him the Prix Cuvier, and elected him one of its eight foreign members in succession to Faraday.

One of the closing public acts of Murchison’s life was the founding of a chair of geology and mineralogy in the university of Edinburgh, for which he gave the sum of £6000, an annual sum of £200 being likewise provided by a vote in parliament for the endowment of the professorship. While the negotiations with the Government in regard to this subject were still in progress, Murchison was seized with a paralytic affection on 21st November 1870. At first his life was in danger, but he eventually rallied, and was able to see his friends, read, and take interest in current affairs until the early autumn of the following year, when his malady began to make rapid progress. At last after a brief attack of bronchitis he died on 22d October 1871.

The chief work for which Murchison will always hold a high place in the annals of geology is the investigation of the older Palaeozoic rocks, which culminated in the establishment and subsequent development of the Silurian system of formations. He added a new chapter to geological history, and one of peculiar interest, because it contains the story of almost the earliest appearance of living things upon this planet. From the year 1825, when his first paper was read, down to the year of his death he continued to augment the literature of his favourite science with papers and memoirs. These, upwards of 150 in number, were published in the transactions of scientific societies at home and abroad. His Silurian System, Russia and the Ural Mountains, and Siluria were the most voluminous and important of his independent works. As a careful original observer, a sympathetic and liberal friend of scientific progress, and a man of wealth and good social position Murchison enjoyed a peculiar eminence among the scientific men of his day, and occupied a place which none of his surviving compeers could wholly fill. See Murchison’s Life by A. Geikie, 1875.

The greater part of the province drains into the Mediterranean, chiefly by the Segura, which enters it in the northwest below Hellin in Albacete, and leaves it a little above Orihuela in Alicante; within the province it receives on the left the Arroyo del Jua, and on the right the Caravaca, Quipar, Mula, and Sangonera. The insignificant “arroyos” of Nogalte and Albujon fall directly into the Mediterranean and the Mar Menor respectively. The climate is hot and dry, and agriculture is largely dependent on irrigation, which, where practicable, has been carried on since the time of the Moors with great success. Besides the usual cereals (wheat, barley, maize), hemp, oil, and wine (the latter somewhat rough in quality) are produced; fruit, especially the orange, is abundant along the course of the Segura; mulberries for sericulture are extensively grown around the capital; and the number of bees kept throughout the province is exceptionally large. Esparto grass is gathered on the sandy tracts suited to its growth. The live stock consists chiefly of asses, mules, goats, and pigs, horses and sheep being relatively few. Apart from agriculture, the principal industry is that of mining, which has its centre near Cartagena; next comes the culture of the silkworm, the greater part of the crop being exported for manufacture in France. Large quantities of lead and esparto, as well as of zinc, iron, and copper ores and sulphur, are exported from Cartagena; from Aguilas the chief exports are esparto and agricultural produce; the port of Mazarron has some trade in alum as well. The province is traversed by a railway line which connects Albacete with Cieza, Archena, Murcia, Orihuela, and Cartagena; the capital is also connected with Lorca and Alicante by good high roads. The communications otherwise are somewhat defective. The canal to connect Huescar in Granada with Cartagena remains only a project. The population of the province in 1877 was 451,611. Besides the cities of Murcia, Cartagena, and Lorca, the following towns in that year had a population exceeding 5000 :— Abanilla, Aguilas, Alhama, Bullas, Caravaca, Cehegin, Cieza, Fortuna, Fuente-Alamo, Jumilla, Mazarron, Molina, Mora-talla, Mula, Torre-Pacheco, Totana, La Union, Yecla.

The province of Murcia was the first Spanish possession of the Carthaginians, by whom Nova Carthago was founded. The Romans included it in Hispania Tarraconensis. Under the Arabs the province was known as Todmir, which included, according to Edrisi, the cities Murcia, Orihuela, Cartagena, Lorca, Mula, and Chinchilla. The kingdom of Murcia, which came into independent existence after the fall of the Omayyads, included the present Albacete as well as Murcia. It became subject to the crown of Castile in the 13th century. Until 1833 the modern province also included Albacete.

Murcia, a city of Spain, capital of the above province, stands on the Segura, nearly in the centre of the beautiful and fertile valley known as the “huerta” or garden of Murcia, which is sheltered on the south by the eastward continuation of the Sierras Alcaraz and Segura, and on the north by the low hills of the Sierras de Molina. The main part of the town stands on the left bank of the river, and is connected with the suburb of San Benito on the right by a very fine stone bridge of two arches. The streets are mostly broad, straight, and well paved; the chief shops are in the narrow Calles de Plateria and Traperia, which are also a favourite resort with loungers, being shaded with awnings of canvas in hot weather. The chief square is the Plaza de la Constitucion, which is planted with orange and other trees; other promenades are the Paseos del Carmen and de Florida Blanca. Of public buildings the most prominent is the cathedral, a late Gothic (1388- 1467) structure with a Corinthian façade in the taste of the 17 th century · the tower is also composite, having been begun in 1521 and completed in 1766. Murcia has been the seat of the bishop of Cartagena since 1261; the present palace was erected in 1748-52. Near it are the colleges of San Fulgencio and San Isidoro. Other conspicuous public buildings are the hospital of San Juan de Dios, the silk and saltpetre factories, and the “alhondiga” or grain warehouse. The bull-ring is in San Benito. The manufactures of the town are not important; the chief articles of commerce are the silk grown on the huerta, fruit, and agricultural produce. The population in 1877 was 91,805.

Murcia has been identified by some with the Roman Vergilia. In the time of Edrisi it was the populous and strongly-fortified capital of the country of Todmir. It was taken in 1240 by Don Alfonso (afterwards King Alfonso el Sabio), who by his own request lies buried here. The town was plundered by General Sebastiani, and in 1810 and again in 1812 suffered from the attack of a detachment of Soult’s army. In 1829 an earthquake caused considerable injury, especially to the cathedral.

The law of the future is almost certainly to be found in the draft code presented by the Criminal Code Bill Commissioners of 1879, and founded on Mr Justice Stephen’s Digest above cited. The enactment of this measure being a mere question of time some of its provisions may usefully be stated here.

After defining homicide and culpable homicide, the code (sect. 74) declares culpable homicide to be murder in the following cases :—(a) if the offender means to cause the death of the person killed; (5) if the offender means to cause to the person killed any bodily injury which is known to the offender to be likely to cause death, and if the offender, whether he does or does not mean to cause death, is reckless whether death ensues or not; (c) if the offender means to cause death or such bodily injury as aforesaid to one person, so that if that person be killed the offender would be guilty of murder, and by accident or mistake the offender kills another person though he does not mean to hurt the person killed; (<7) if the offender for any unlawful object does an act which he knows or ought to have known to be likely to cause death, and thereby kills any person, though he may have desired that his object should be effected without hurting any one.

Further (sect. 75), it is murder (whether the offender means or not death to ensue, or knows or not that death is likely to ensue) in the following cases :—“ (a) if he means to inflict grievous bodily injury for the purpose of facilitating the commission of any of the offences hereinafter mentioned, or the flight of the offender upon the commission or attempted commission thereof, and death ensues from his violence; (&) if he administers any stupefying thing for either of the purposes aforesaid and death ensues from the effects thereof; (c) if he by any means wilfully stops the breath of any person for either of the purposes aforesaid and death ensues from such stopping of the breath.” The following are the offences referred to: —“high treason and other offences against the queen’s authority, piracy and offences deemed to be piracy, escape or rescue from prison or lawful custody, resisting lawful apprehension, murder, rape, forcible abduction, robbery, burglary, arson.” The code (sect. 76) reduces culpable homicide to manslaughter if the person who causes death does so “in the heat of passion caused by sudden provocation;” and “any wrongful act or insult of such a nature as to be sufficient to deprive any ordinary person of the power of self-control may be provocation if the offender acts upon it on the sudden, and before there has been time for his passion to cool.” Whether any particular wrongful act or insult amounts to provocation and whether the offender was deprived of self-control shall be questions of fact; but no one shall be deemed to give provocation by doing that which he had a legal right to do, or which the offender incited him to do in order to provide an excuse for killing him or doing grievous bodily harm. Further, “an arrest shall not necessarily reduce the offence from murder to manslaughter because an arrest was illegal, but if the illegality was known to the offender it may be evidence of provocation.” The “provocation” clause is not very happily expressed and will doubtless have to be recast.

America.— The most notable difference between England and the United States in regard to the law on this subject is the recognition by recent State legislation of degrees in murder. English law treats all unlawful killing not reducible to manslaughter as of the same degree of guilt. American statutes seek to discriminate between the graver and the less serious forms of the crime. Thus an Act of the legislature of Pennsylvania (22d April 1794) declares all murder which shall be perpetrated by means of poison or by lying in wait or by any other kind of wilful, deliberate, and premeditated killing, or which shall be committed in the perpetration of or attempt to perpetrate any arson, rape, robbery, or burglary shall be deemed murder of the first degree; and all other kinds of murder shall be deemed murder of the second degree. This statute, says Bishop (Commentaries on the Criminal Law, vol. ii. § 745), “is the parent of all the others.” In Michigan it has been enacted in exact words; and in most of the other States which have adopted this line of legislation the departure from the language of the Pennsylvania provision is not such as calls for the application of different principles of interpretation. It is pointed out by Bishop that the language used in these statutes to discriminate the degrees of murder is similar to that by which the common law distinction between murder and manslaughter is usually expressed. Thus in Massachusetts murder committed with “deliberately premeditated malice aforethought” is in the first degree. In Indiana the expression used is “purposely and of deliberate and premeditated malice.” The technical interpretation of “malice aforethought” in English law is of course inapplicable to these phrases. There are also statutory degrees of manslaughter in the legislation of some of the States, but Bishop observes that ‘‘ the books do not contain sufficient adjudications to direct us into a profitable discussion of this subject.”

For some historical account of the law reference should be made to Mr Justice Stephen’s History of the Criminal Law of England (London, 1883), vol. iii. c. 26. Stephen finds in the laws of Alfred the earliest and most important recognition of the properly criminal consequences of homicide as distinguished from the damages to be paid to the family of the deceased and the compensation to be made to the person whose peace had been broken, which are the prominent points of the early law of homicide.