His son William Hugh, the 3rd earl (1814–1891), was the father of the 4th earl, Gilbert John Elliot-Murray-Kynynmond (1845–), who joined the Scots Guards in 1867. In 1874, in the capacity of a newspaper correspondent, he witnessed the operations of the Carlists in Spain; he took service with the Turkish army in the war with Russia in 1877 and served under Lord Roberts in the second Afghan War (1878–79), having narrowly escaped accompanying Sir Louis Cavagnari Kabul. He acted as private secretary to Lord Roberts during his mission to the Cape in 1881; as military secretary to Lord Lansdowne during his governor-generalship of Canada from 1883 to 1885; and as chief of the staff to General Middleton in the Riel Rebellion in Canada (1885). Having succeeded to the earldom in 1891 he was appointed governor-general of Canada in 1898. His term of office (1898–1904) was distinguished by a visit of the prince and princess of Wales to the colonies. In 1905, on the resignation of Lord Curzon, Lord Minto was appointed Viceroy and governor-general of India, retiring in 1910.
The 4th earl’s brother, the Hon. Arthur Ralph Douglas Elliot (b. 1846), editor of the Edinburgh Review, was a member of parliament from 1880 to 1892 and again from 1898 to 1906, and from 1903 to 1906 he was financial secretary to the treasury. Sir Francis Edmund Hugh Elliot (b. 1851), a grandson of the 2nd earl, became British minister at Athens in 1903.
See Hon. G. F. S. Elliot, The Border Elliots and the Family of Minto (Edinburgh, 1897); the article India; History; also the Life and Letters of the first Earl of Minto, 1751–1806 (1874) and Lord Minto in India, 1807–1814 (1880), both edited by the countess of Minto; and Sir J. F. Stephen, The Story of Nuncomar and the Impeachment of Sir E. Impey (1885).
MINTO, WILLIAM (1845–1893), Scottish man of letters,
was born at Auchintoul, Aberdeenshire, on the 10th of October
1845. He was educated at Aberdeen University, and spent
a year at Merton College, Oxford. He was assistant professor
under Alexander Bain at Aberdeen for some years; from 1874
to 1878 he edited the Examiner, and in 1880 he was made full
professor of logic and English at Aberdeen. In 1872 he published
a Manual of English Prose Literature, which was distinguished
by sound judgment and sympathetic appreciation; and his
Characteristics of English Poets from Chaucer to Shirley (1874)
showed the same high qualities. His other works include:
The Literature of the Georgian Era (1894) edited with a biographical
introduction by W. Knight a monograph on Defoe
in the English Men of Letters series (1879); three novels of small
importance, and numerous articles on literary subjects in the
9th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He died on the
1st of March 1893.
MINTURNAE, an ancient city of the Aurunci, in Italy,
situated on the N.W. bank of the Liris with a suburb on the
opposite bank 112 m. from its mouth, at the point where the
Via Appia crossed it by the Pons Tiretius. It was one of the
three towns of the Aurunci which made war against Rome
in 314 B.C., the other two being Ausona (see Sessa Aurunca)
and Vescia; and the Via Appia was made two years later.
It became a colony in 295 B.C. In 88 B.C. Marius in his
flight from Sulla hid himself in the marshes of Minturnae.
The ruins consist of an amphitheatre (now almost entirely
demolished, but better preserved in the 18th century), a theatre,
and a very fine aqueduct in opus reticulatum, the quoins of which
are of various colours arranged in patterns to produce a decorative
effect. Close to the mouth of the river was the sacred grove of
the Italic goddess Marica. It is still mentioned in the 6th
century, but was probably destroyed by the Saracens, and its
low site, which had become unhealthy, was abandoned in favour
of that of the modern town of Minturno (known as Traetto
until the 19th century), 459 ft. above sea-level. A tower at
the mouth of the river, erected between 961 and 981, commemorates
a victory gained by Pope John X. and his allies over the
Saracens in 915. It is built of Roman materials from Minturnae,
including several inscriptions and sculptures.
See T. Ashby in Mélanges de l’École française de Rome (1903), 413; R. Laurent-Vibert and A. Piganol, ibid. (1907), p. 495; G. Q. Giglioli, Notizie degli Scavi (1908) p. 396. (T. As.)
MINUCIUS, FELIX MARCUS, one of the earliest if not the earliest, of the Latin apologists for Christianity. Of his personal history nothing is known, and even the date at which he wrote can be only approximately ascertained. Jerome (De vir. ill 58) speaks of him as “Romae insignis causidicus,” but in this he is probably only improving on the expression of Lactantius (Inst. div. v. 1) who speaks of him as “non ignobilis inter causidicos loci.” He is now exclusively known by his Octavius, a dialogue on Christianity between the pagan Caecilius Natalis[1] and the Christian Octavius Januarius, a provincial lawyer, the friend and fellow-student of the author. The scene is pleasantly and graphically laid on the beach at Ostia on a holiday afternoon, and the discussion is represented as arising out of the homage paid by Caecilius, in passing, to the image of Serapis. His arguments for paganism (possibly modelled on those of Celsus) are taken up seriatim by Octavius, with the result that the assailant is convinced. Minucius himself plays the part of umpire. The form of the dialogue is modelled on the De natura deorum and De divinatione of Cicero and its style is both vigorous and elegant if at times not exempt from something of the affectation of the age. Its latinity is not of the specifically Christian type. If the doctrines of the Divine unity, the resurrection, and future rewards and punishments be left out of account, the work has less the character of an exposition of Christianity than of a philosophical and ethical polemic against the absurdities of polytheism. While it thus has much in common with the Greek Apologies it is full of the strong common sense that marks the Latin mind. Its ultimate appeal is to the fruits of faith.
The Octavius is admittedly earlier than Cyprian’s Quod idola dii non sint, which borrows from it; how much earlier can be determined only by settling the relation in which it stands to Tertullian’s Apologeticum. Since A. Ebert’s exhaustive argument in 1868, repeated in 1889, the priority of Minucius has been generally admitted; the objections are stated in the Dict. Chr. Biog. article by G. Salmon. Editions: F. Sabaeus-Brixianus, as Bk. viii. of Arnobius (Rome, 1543); F. Balduinus, first separate edition (Heidelberg, 1560); Migne, Patrol. Lat. iii. 239; Halm in Corp. Scr. Eccl. Lat. (Vienna, 1867); H. A. Holden. Translations: R. E. Wallis, in Ante-Nic. Fathers, vol. iv.; A. A. Brodribb’s Pagan and Puritan. Literature: In addition to that already cited see H. Boenig’s art. in Hauck-Herzog’s Realencyk. vol. 13, and the various histories of early Christian Literature by A. Harnack, G. Krüger, A. Ehrhard and O. Bardenhewer.
MINUET (adapted, under the influence of the Italian minuetto,
from Fr. menuet, small, pretty, delicate, a diminutive of menu,
from Lat. minutus; the word refers probably to the short steps,
pas menus, taken in the dance), a dance for two persons, in 34
time. At the period when it was most fashionable it was slow,
ceremonious, and graceful (see Dance). The name is also
given to a musical composition written in the same time and
rhythm, but when not accompanying an actual dance the pace
was quicker. An example of the true form of the minuet is
to be found in Don Giovanni. The minuet is frequently found
as one of the movements in the Suites of Handel and Bach.
Haydn introduced it into the symphony, with little trace of
the slow grace and ceremony of the dance. In the hands of
Beethoven it becomes the scherzo.
MINUSINSK, a town of Russia, in East Siberia, and the government of Yeniseisk, 180 m. S.S.W. of Krasnoyarsk railway station, and 5 m. from the right bank of the Yenisei, in a fertile prairie region. Pop. (1897), 10,255. It is a centre for trade with the native populations of the Sayan Mountains and north-western Mongolia. It has an excellent natural history, ethnographical and archaeological museum (1877), with a library and a meteorological station. Coal and iron abound in the vicinity.
- ↑ This name occurs in six inscriptions of the years 211–217 found at Constantine (Cirta), North Africa (C.I.L. vol. viii.). Like the other North African fathers Tertullian, Cyprian, Arnobius and Lactantius, he was a lawyer. Some use may have been made of rhetorical expressions of M. Cornelius Fronto of Cirta (d. c. A.D. 170).
