GS, EARL OF, son of the Earl of Moira;
entered the army 1771, and served against the Americans in the War of
Independence; created Baron Rawdon in 1783; succeeded to his father's
title 1793; entered political life under Fox, and was Governor-General of
India 1813-23, in which period fell the Goorkha War, for the successful
negotiations subsequent on which he was created Marquis of Hastings; his
administration encouraged native education and freedom of the press; from
1824 he was Governor of Malta till his death at Naples (1754-1826).

MOKANNA, AL, "the veiled one," a name given to Hakim ben Allah, who
wore a veil to hide the loss of an eye; he professed to be an incarnation
of the Deity and to work miracles; found followers; founded a sect at
Khorassan; seized some fortresses, but was overthrown at Kash A.D. 780,
whereupon he took poison.

MOLDAU, largest river in Bohemia, rises on the N. of the Boehmerwald
Mountains, flows SE. along their base, then turns northward through
Bohemia, passes Budweis, becomes navigable, is 100 yards broad at Prague,
and joins the Elbe at Melnik after flowing 278 m.

MOLDAVIA, once independent, now the northern division of Roumania,
lies between the Carpathians and the Pruth River, and is well watered by
the Sereth; its chief town is Jassy, in the NE.

MOLE, LOUIS MATTHIEU, COMTE, French statesman, born in Paris;
published in 1805 an essay on politics which, defending Napoleon, won for
its author a series of minor offices, and in 1813 a peerage and a seat in
the Cabinet; retaining power under Louis XVIII. and Louis Philippe, he
was Minister of Marine 1817, Foreign Minister 1830, and Premier 1837, but
retired from politics two years later (1781-1855).

MOLECULE, the smallest particle of which an element or a compound
body is composed, and that retains all the properties in a free state.

MOLESWORTH, SIR WILLIAM, British statesman, born in London; was an
advanced Liberal; editor and proprietor of the _Westminster Review_;
edited the works of Hobbes (1810-1855).

MOLIERE, JEAN BAPTISTE POQUELIN, great French comic dramatist, born
in Paris; studied law and passed for the bar, but evinced from the first
a proclivity for the theatre, and soon associated with actors, and found
his vocation as a writer of plays, which procured him the friendship of
Lafontaine, Boileau, and other distinguished men, though he incurred the
animosity of many classes of society by the ridicule which