des Sciences, 8 Dec. 1834. In the controversy respecting the priority of Watt or of Henry Cavendish [q. v.] in the discovery of the composition of water, Muirhead took infinite pains to sift every particle of evidence. Not satisfied with free access to the Watt and Boulton papers, and to such living authorities as Brewster, Davy, Jeffrey, and Brougham, he visited Paris in 1842 to confer with Arago, Berzelius, and other savants, and in 1846 published a clear vindication of Watt's rights, with introduction, remarks, and appendix, in 'The Correspondence of the late James Watt on his Discovery of the Theory of the Composition of Water.' This was followed in 1854 by three quarto volumes, entitled ' The Mechanical Inventions of James Watt,' a work of great labour which offers a rich mine to the scientific student. The third volume, illustrated by thirty-four admirable engravings of machinery by Lowry, deals with the 'specifications of patents;' the second with 'extracts from correspondence.' But the 'introductory memoir' (vol. i.) was of more general interest, and became the nucleus of the fuller 'Life of James Watt' which Muirhead published in 1858 (2nd edit. 1859). This work, scholarly in style and sympathetic in tone, avoids with careful accuracy the errors of unfounded claim, no less than of unfounded detraction.
Muirhead, though devoted to books, was a keen angler and a good shot. In 1857 he edited the 'Winged Words on Chantrey's Woodcocks,' a collection of epigrams by various writers, inspired by Chantrey's feat in killing at one shot and then immortalising in sculpture two woodcocks flushed at Holkham. To this volume Muirhead contributed an introduction and original verses. Subsequently Muirhead and his wife devoted much time to the education of their children. In 1875 another book saw the light, 'The Vaux de Vire of Maistre Jean le Houx, Advocate, of Vire. Edited and translated into English Verse, with an Introduction.' There Muirhead investigated and rejected the claims of Olivier Basselin, the miller, in favour of Jean le Houx. It won him a delightful letter from the aged poet Longfellow. Between August 1882 and March 1891 Muirhead contributed to 'Blackwood's Magazine' nine original poems and twenty graceful translations from English and old French poems into Latin or English verse compositions which, owing to his signature, 'J. P. M.,' were occasionally attributed in error to Professor J. P. Mahaffy. Until near the end of his life he amused himself with effusions of this kind, some of which he printed privately, as 'Folia Caduca,' 'Iter Johannis Gilpini, auctore R. Scott, with preface by J. P. M.,' 'Domina de Shalott.' Copies of the last a free translation into rhyming Latin of Tennyson's verses arrived from the binder a few hours after the translator had breathed his last, in his eighty-sixth year, on 15 Oct. 1898.
Mrs. Muirhead predeceased her husband in 1890. Their six children survive, the eldest son being Lionel Boulton Campbell Lockhart Muirhead, now residing at Haseley Court. The third son is Colonel Herbert Hugh Muirhead, R.E.
[Personal knowledge; private information; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886; the Snell Exhibitions by W. Innes Addison; Muirhead's works; article on James Watt in Encyclop. Brit, by Swing.]
MOUNT-TEMPLE, Baron. [See Cowper, William Francis, 1811–1888.]
MULHALL, MICHAEL GEORGE (1836–1900), statistical compiler, third son of Thomas Mulhall of St. Stephen's Green, Dublin, was born at 100 Stephen's Green on 29 Sept. 1836. He was educated at the Irish College, Rome, went out to South America, and founded in 1861 the Buenos Ayres ' Standard,' said to be the first daily paper in English to be printed in that continent. As a journalistic venture it was daring, but success was the ultimate reward, and Mulhall did not finally abandon his connection with the enterprise until 1894, making frequent journeys between Buenos Ayres and the British Isles. In 1869 Mulhall issued the first English book printed in Argentina, a 'Handbook of the River Plate,' which went through six editions. In 1873 he published in London 'Rio Grande do Sul and its German Colonies,' which was followed in 1878 by 'The English in South America' (Buenos Ayres, 8vo). For some years previous to this Mulhall, who had a large European correspondence, had been collecting materials with a view to a survey of the whole field of his favourite study, statistics. In 1880 he brought out his 'Progress of the World in Arts, Agriculture, Commerce, Manufactures, Instruction, Railways, and Public Wealth, since the beginning of the Nineteenth Century,' a useful supplement to the invaluable record of George Richardson Porter [q. v.], which had been completed in 1851. It was followed up in 1881 by 'The Balance Sheet of the World, 1870-80,' and in 1883 by his 'Dictionary of Statistics,' a standard work of reference (revised editions, 1886, 1892, 1899). Few modern compilations have been more extensively used or abused. Mulhall has been charged with
