[Military Orders] were in crusading times associations of knights sworn to chastity and devoted to religious service; the Hospitallers, the earliest, tended sick pilgrims at Jerusalem; the Templars protected pilgrims and guarded the Temple; the Knights of St. John were also celibate, but the orders of Alcantara and others in Spain, of St. Bennet in Portugal, and others elsewhere, with different objects, were permitted to marry.
[Militia], a body of troops in the British service for home defence, the members of which have as a rule never served in the regular army, nor have, except for a short period each year, any proper military training.
[Milky Way]. See [Galaxy].
[Mill, James], economist, born in Logie Pert, near Montrose, the son of a shoemaker, bred for the Church; was a disciple of Locke and Jeremy Bentham; wrote a "History of British India," "Elements of Political Economy," and an "Analysis of the Human Mind"; held an important lucrative post in the East India Company's service (1773-1836).
[Mill, John Stuart], logician and economist, born in London, son of the preceding; was educated pedantically by his father; began to learn Greek at 3, could read it and Latin at 14, "never was a boy," he says, and was debarred from all imaginative literature, so that in after years the poetry of Wordsworth came to him as a revelation; entered the service of the East India Company in 1823, but devoted himself to philosophic discussion; contributed to the Westminster Review, of which he was for some time editor; published his "System of Logic" in 1843, and in 1848 his "Political Economy"; entered Parliament in 1865, but lost his seat in 1868, on which he retired to Avignon, where he died; he wrote a book on "Liberty" in 1859, on "Utilitarianism" in 1863, on "Comte" in 1865, and on "Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy" the same year, and left an "Autobiography"; he was a calm thinker and an impartial critic; he befriended Carlyle when he went to London, and Carlyle rather took to him, but divergences soon appeared, which, as it could not fail, ended in total estrangement; he had an Egeria in a Mrs. Taylor, whom he married when she became a widow; it was she, it would almost seem, who was responsible for the fate of Carlyle's MS. (1806-1873).
[Millais, Sir John Everett], painter, born of Jersey parentage, at Southampton; studied at the Royal Academy, and at 17 exhibited a notable historical work; early associated with Rossetti and Holman Hunt, he remained for over 20 years under their influence; to this period belong "The Carpenter's Shop," 1851, "Autumn Leaves," 1856, and "The Minuet," 1866; "The Gambler's Wife" marks the transition from Pre-Raphaelitism; his chief subsequent work, in which technical interest predominates, was portraiture, including Gladstone and Beaconsfield; he was a profuse illustrator, and wrought some etchings; he was made R.A. 1864, a baronet in 1885, and P.R.A. February 1896 (1829-1896).
[Millbank Prison], Westminster, constructed 1812-21 on the plans of Howard and Bentham, so that each of its 1100 cells were visible from the governor's room, was used for solitary confinement preparatory to penal servitude, and as a convict prison until 1886, and demolished 1890.
[Miller, Hugh], journalist and geologist, self-taught, born in Cromarty, of sailor ancestry; began life as a stone-mason; editor of the Witness newspaper from 1839 till his death; wrote the "Old Red Sandstone," "Footprints of the Creator," and the "Testimony of the Rocks," books which awakened an interest in geological subjects, besides being the author of an account of his life, "My Schools and Schoolmasters"; died by his own hand at Portobello; he was a writer of considerable literary ability, and "nothing," says Prof. Saintsbury, "can be more hopelessly unliterary than to undervalue Hugh Miller" (1802-1856).
[Miller, William], line-engraver, lived at Millerfield, Edinburgh; famed for his engravings of Turner; was a member of the Society of Friends, and stood high in his art as an engraver (1797-1882).
[Millet, Jean François], French painter of French peasant life, born near Greville, of a peasant family; sent to Paris, studied under Paul Delaroche, withdrew into rustic life, and took up his abode at the village of Barbizon, near the Forest of Fontainebleau, where he spent as a peasant the rest of his life, honoured though poor by all his neighbours, and produced inimitable pictures of French country life, completing his famous "Sower," and treating such subjects as the "Gleaners," the "Sheep-Shearers," "Shepherdess and Flock," &c., with an evident appreciation on his part of the life they depicted so faithfully (1814-1875).