lder clergy. Miserere,
the Catholic name for the 51st Psalm.

MISHNA, the oral law of the Jews, which is divided into six parts,
and constitutes the text of the Talmud, of which the Gemara is the
commentary.

MISPRISION, a high offence under, but close upon, the degree of a
capital one; misprision of treason being a concealment of a felony
without consenting to it.

MISSAL, a book containing the service of the mass for the entire
year, such as is now in almost universal use throughout the Catholic
world.

MISSISSIPPI (1,290), an American State on the E. bank of the Lower
Mississippi, abutting on the Gulf of Mexico, between Louisiana and
Alabama; has a hilly surface, traversed by numerous rivers, the Yazoo, a
tributary of the Mississippi, forming a great fertile delta; the climate
is free from extremes; the chief industry is agriculture; the best crops
are grown in the N., and on the alluvial bottom lands; in the centre and
NE. are good grazing farms; cotton, corn, oats, and fruits are the chief
crops; virgin forests of hardwood cover much of the delta; valuable
deposits of pipe and ochre clays and of lignite are found; cotton is
manufactured, and there is trade in lumber; more than half the population
is coloured, and the races are kept distinct in the State schools; the
State university is at Oxford, and there are many other colleges; Jackson
(6), the capital, is the chief railway centre, Meridian (10) has iron
manufactures, Vicksburg (13) and Natchez (10) are the chief riverports;
Mississippi was colonised by the French in 1699, ceded to Britain 1763,
admitted to the Union 1817, joined the South in 1861, but was readmitted
to the Union in 1869.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER rises in Lake Itaska, Minnesota, and flowing S.
for 2800 m., enters the Gulf of Mexico by a large delta; its earlier
course is through picturesque country, often in gorges, with rapids such
as the St. Anthony Falls, the Des Moines and Rock Island Rapids. After
receiving the Missouri, 3000 m. long, from the Rocky Mountains, it flows
21/2 m. per hour through great alluvial plains, which are protected from
its overflows by hundreds of miles of earth embankments, and is joined by
the Ohio from the E., the Red and Arkansas Rivers from the W., and many
other navigable streams. The Mississippi is navigable by large steamers
for 2000 m.; St. Louis, Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez, and New Orleans are
among the chief ports on its banks.

MISSISSIPPI SC