code. He defined almost every principle that governed commercial transactions in such a manner that his successors had only to apply the rules he had laid down. His knowledge of Roman and foreign law, and the general width of his education, freed him from the danger of relying too exclusively upon narrow precedents, and afforded him a storehouse of principles and illustrations, while the grasp and acuteness of his intellect enabled him to put his judgments in a form which almost always commanded assent. A similar influence was exerted by him in other branches of the common law; and although, after his retirement, a reaction took place, and he was regarded for a while as one who had corrupted the ancient principles of English law, these prejudices passed rapidly away, and the value of his work in bringing the older law into harmony with the needs of modern society has long been fully recognized.
See Holliday’s Life (1797); Campbell’s Chief Justices; Foss’s Judges; Greville’s Memoirs, passim; Horace Walpole’s Letters; and other memoirs and works on the period.
MANSFIELD, a market town and municipal borough in the
Mansfield parliamentary division of Nottinghamshire, England,
on the small river Mann or Maun; the junction of several
branches of the Midland railway, by which it is 142 m. N.N.W.
from London. Pop. (1891), 13,094; (1901), 15,250. Area,
7068 acres. The church of St Peter is partly Early Norman,
and partly Perpendicular. There is a grammar school founded
by Queen Elizabeth in 1561, occupying modern buildings.
Twelve almshouses were founded by Elizabeth Heath in 1693,
and to these six were afterwards added. There are a number
of other charities. The industries are the manufacture of lace,
thread, boots and machinery, iron-founding and brewing.
In the neighbourhood, as at Mansfield Woodhouse to the north,
there are quarries of limestone, sandstone and freestone. The
town is governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors.
During the heptarchy Mansfield was occasionally the residence
of the Mercian kings, and it was afterwards a favourite resort of
Norman sovereigns, lying as it does on the western outskirts
of Sherwood Forest. By Henry VIII. the manor was granted
to the earl of Surrey. Afterwards it went by exchange to the
duke of Newcastle, and thence to the Portland family. The
town obtained a fair from Richard II. in 1377. It became a
municipal borough in 1891.
MANSFIELD, a city and the county-seat of Richland county,
Ohio, U.S.A., about 65 m. S.W. of Cleveland. Pop. (1890),
13,473; (1900), 17,640, of whom 1781 were foreign-born; (1910
census), 20,768. It is served by the Pennsylvania (Pittsburg,
Ft Wayne & Chicago division), the Erie, and the Baltimore &
Ohio railways. It is built on an eminence (1150 ft.), and has
two public parks, a substantial court-house, a soldiers’ and
sailors’ memorial building, a public library, a hospital and many
fine residences. It is the seat of the Ohio state reformatory.
Mansfield has an extensive trade with the surrounding agricultural
country, but its largest interests are in manufactures.
The total factory product in 1905 was valued at $7,353,578.
There are natural gas wells in the vicinity. The waterworks
and the sewage disposal plant are owned and operated by the
municipality. Mansfield was laid out in 1808, and was named
in honour of Lieut.-Colonel Jared Mansfield (1759–1830), United
States surveyor of Ohio and the North-west Territory in 1803–1812,
and professor of natural and experimental philosophy at
West Point from 1812 to 1828. Mansfield was incorporated as
a village in 1828 and was first chartered as a city in 1857. It
was the home of John Sherman from 1840 until his death.
MANSION (through O. Fr. mansion, mod. maison, from Lat.
mansio, dwelling-place, stage on a journey; manere, to remain),
a term applied in early English use to the principal house of the
lord of a manor. By the Settled Land Act 1890, § 10, subsec.
2, repealing § 15 of the act of 1882, “the principal mansion house
. . . on any settled land shall not be sold or exchanged or leased
by the tenant for life without the consent of the trustees of the
settlement or an order of the court.” The principles guiding
an English court of law for making or refusing such an order
are laid down in In re the Marquess of Ailesbury’s Settled Estate
(1892), 1 Ch. 506, 546; A.C. 356. In general usage, the term
“mansion” is given to any large and important house in town
or country; and “mansion house” to the official residence, when
provided, of the mayor of a borough, particularly to that of the
lord mayors of London and Dublin. From the general meaning
of a conspicuously large dwelling-place comes the modern
employment of the term “mansions,” in London and elsewhere,
for large buildings composed of “flats.”
MANSLAUGHTER (O. Eng., mannslaeht, from mann, man, and slaeht, act of slaying, sleán, to slay, properly to smite; cf. Ger.
schlagen, Schlacht, battle), a term in English law signifying
“unlawful homicide without malice aforethought” (Stephen,
Digest of the Criminal Law, Art. 223). The distinction between
manslaughter and murder and other forms of homicide is treated
under Homicide.
MANSON, GEORGE (1850–1876), Scottish water-colour
painter, was born in Edinburgh on the 3rd of December 1850. When about fifteen he was apprenticed as a woodcutter with
W. & R. Chambers, with whom he remained for over five years,
diligently employing all his spare time in the study and practice
of art, and producing in his morning and evening hours water-colours
of much delicacy and beauty. In 1871 he devoted
himself exclusively to painting. His subjects were derived from
humble Scottish life—especially child-life, varied occasionally
by portraiture, by landscape, and by views of picturesque architecture.
In 1873 he visited Normandy, Belgium and Holland;
in the following year he spent several months in Sark; and in
1875 he resided at St Lô, and in Paris, where he mastered the
processes of etching. Meanwhile in his water-colour work he
had been adding more of breadth and power to the tenderness
and richness of colour which distinguished his early pictures,
and he was planning more complex and important subjects.
But his health had been gradually failing, and he was ordered
to Lympstone in Devonshire, where he died on the 27th of
February 1876.
A volume of photographs from his water-colours and sketches, with a memoir by J. M. Gray, was published in 1880. For an account of Manson’s technical method as a wood engraver see P. G. Hamerton’s Graphic Arts, p. 311.
MANṢŪR (Arab. “victorious”), a surname (laqab) assumed by a large number of Mahommedan princes. The best known
are: (1) Abū Ja’far ibn Mahommed, second caliph of the
Abbasid house, who reigned A.D. 754–775 (see Caliphate: § C,
§2); (2) Abū Tāhir Isma’il ibn al-Qāim, the third Fatimite
caliph of Africa (946-953) (see Fatimites); (3) Abū Yūsuf
Ya ʽqūb ibn Yūsuf, often described as Jacob Almanzor, of the
Moorish dynasty of the Almohades, conqueror of Alfonso III. in the battle of Alarcos (1195); (4) Ibn Abī ʽĀmir Mahommed, commonly called Almanzor by European writers, of an ancient but not illustrious Arab family, which had its seat at Torrox near Algeciras. The last-named was born A.D. 939, and began life as a lawyer at Cordova. In 967 he obtained a place at the court of Ḥakam II., the Andalusian caliph, and by an unusual combination of the talents of a courtier with administrative ability rapidly rose to distinction, enjoying the powerful support of Ṣubḥ, the favourite of the caliph and mother of his heir Hishām. The death of Ḥakam (976) and the accession of a minor gave fresh scope to his genius, and in 978 he became chief minister. The weak young caliph was absorbed in exercises of piety, but at first Manṣūr had to share the power with his father-in-law Ghālib, the best general of Andalusia, and with the mother of Hishām. At last a rupture took place between the two ministers. Ghālib professed himself the champion of the caliph and called in the aid of the Christians of Leon; but Manṣūr, anticipating the struggle, had long before remodelled the army and secured its support. Ghālib fell in battle (981); a victorious campaign chastised the Leonese; and on his return to Cordova the victor assumed his regal surname of al-Manṣūr billah, and became practically sovereign of Andalusia. The caliph was a mere prisoner of state, and Manṣūr ultimately assumed the title as well as the prerogatives of king (996). Unscrupulous in the means by which he rose to power, he wielded the sovereignty
