MORRIS
NEWLAND
1794. Ed. Berlin University. In 1817
he became a teacher in a training college
at Berlin. He then took up the study of
astronomy at the University, and in 1824
he induced a banker to build a private
observatory, in which he began his life-long
work. He was one of the best of the early
observers of Mars, and he then commenced
a minute study of the moon. His great
chart of the moon (4 parts, 1834-46) and
work on it (Der Mond, 2 vols., 1837) were
long the standard authorities. In 1836 he
was appointed Observer at the Berlin Royal
Observatory, and in 1840 professor of
astronomy and director of the observatory
at Dorpat. There, for twenty-five years,
he rendered great service to science, until
weakness of the eyes compelled him to
retire in 1865. Madler did much, especially
by his Populare Astronomic (1841), to
popularize astronomy in Germany, and his
chief works (Die Eigenbeweguncj der Fix-
sternc, 1854 ; Beitrdge zur Fixsternkunde,
1855 ; and Die Fixsternhimmel, 1858) were
not less important on the academic side.
He was a Pantheist. Baroness von Suttner
reproduces in her Inventarium einer Seele
(4th ed., pp. 405-406) a poem by Madler,
in which he emphatically rejects Chris
tianity and confines his belief to a Pan
theistic conception of God. D. Mar. 14,
1874.
MORRIS, Gouverneur, American diplo matist. B. Jan. 31, 1752. Ed. King s (later Columbia) College, New York. He was admitted to the Colonial Bar in 1771, and practised in New York. In 1775 he was elected to the Provincial Congress, and he took an active part in fostering the movement for independence. In spite of his youth, he served on various important committees, and had a share in drafting the Constitution of the State of New York. He was, at the age of twenty-five, sent as delegate to the Continental Congress, and he was chairman of several difficult com mittees between 1777 and 1780. His Observations on the American Revolution (1778) was one of the finest short defences 929
of the separation. From 1781 to 1785 he
was Assistant Superintendent of Finance.
In 1787 he represented Philadelphia in the
Constituent Convention. He visited France
in 1789, and witnessed the beginning of the
Revolution ; and in 1790 he was appointed
American agent in London. From 1792 to
1794 he was American Minister to France ;
but the drift of the Revolution disgusted
him, and the French demanded his retire
ment. From 1800 to 1803 he sat in the
American Senate, and from 1810 to 1816
he was Chairman of the Erie Canal Com
mission. Morris s biographer, Jared Sparks,
does not discuss his views on religion ; but
Jefferson (Memoir, Correspondence, etc., of
Thomas Jefferson, iv, 512), who was a close
friend of his, says : " Morris often told
me that General Washington believed no
more of that system [Christianity] than he
himself did." Morris was an enemy of
Thomas Paine, and is partly responsible for
Roosevelt s foolish vituperation of Paine,
but he was himself a Deist. D. Nov. 6,
1816.
NEWLAND, H. Osman, F.R.A.S., sociologist. Newland was a lecturer in English literature, history, and sociology to the London County Council when the War broke out in 1914. He had written several useful sociological works (A Short History of Citizenship, 1904 ; The Model Citizen, 1908 ; etc.), and was regarded as showing great promise. He joined the army, and rose to the rank of Captain. At the conclusion of the War he was sent to organize commercial and higher educa tion in Mesopotamia. He was President of the Baghdad Literary Society, and was doing valuable work when he succumbed to dysentery. Captain Newland had pre viously made a thorough study of life in West Africa, and had written, besides his Sierre Leone (1916) and West Africa (1920), some interesting articles on religion in the Literary Guide. He founded the British West African Association. He was an Agnostic (personal knowledge). D. June 27, 1920.
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