machinery; it does a great trade in
grain, timber, metals from the Urals, and furs, hides, &c., from Asia;
besides the great cathedral there are many churches, palaces, and
museums, a university, library, picture-gallery, and observatory; the
enclosure called the Kremlin or citadel is the most sacred spot in
Russia; thrice in the 18th century the city was devastated by fire, and
again in 1812 to compel Napoleon to retire.

MOSELLE, river, rising W. of the Vosges Mountains, flows NW. through
French and German Lorraine, then NE. through Rhenish Prussia to join the
Rhine at Coblenz, 315 m. long, two-thirds of it navigable; it passes in
its tortuous course Metz, Thionville, and Treves.

MOSES, the great Hebrew law-giver, under whose leadership the Jews
achieved their emancipation from the bondage of Egypt, and began to
assert themselves as an independent people among the nations of the
earth; in requiring of the people the fear of God and the observance of
His commandments, he laid the national life on a sure basis, and he was
succeeded by a race of prophets who from age to age reminded the people
that in regard or disregard for what he required of them depended their
prosperity or their ruin as a nation, of which from their extreme
obduracy they had again and again to be admonished.

MOSHEIM, a Protestant Church historian, born at Luebeck, was
professor at Goettingen; his principal work a History of the Church,
written in Latin, and translated into English and other languages
(1694-1755).

MOSS-TROOPERS, maurauders who formerly raided the moss-grown
borderland of England and Scotland.

MOTHERWELL, WILLIAM, Scottish poet, born in Glasgow, educated in
Edinburgh; entered a lawyer's office in Paisley in 1811 and became
Sheriff-Clerk Depute of Renfrewshire 1818; he was editor of the Paisley
Advertiser in 1828, and of the Glasgow Courier in 1830; he wrote
biographical notices of local poets, and edited "Minstrelsy, Ancient and
Modern," in 1827; but his own fame was established by "Poems, Narrative
and Lyrical," 1832, the gem of the collection being "Jeanie Morison"; he
died in Glasgow (1797-1835).

MOTLEY, JOHN LOTHROP, historian and diplomatist, born in
Massachusetts; commenced his literary career as a novelist, but soon
turned all his thoughts to the study of history; spent years in the study
of Dutch history; wrote the "History of the Dutch Republic," which was
published in 1856, the "History of the United