OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Smith, Charlotte

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​SMITH, CHARLOTTE (1749–1806), English novelist and poet, eldest daughter of Nicholas Turner of Stoke House, Surrey, was born in London on the 4th of May 1749. She left school when she was twelve years old to enter society. She married in 1765 Benjamin Smith, son of a merchant who was a director of the East India Company. They lived at first with her father-in-law, who thought highly of her business abilities, and wished to keep her with him; but in 1774 Charlotte and her husband went to live in Hampshire. The elder Smith died in 1776, leaving a complicated will, and six years later Benjamin Smith was imprisoned for debt. Charlotte Smith's first publication was Elegiac Sonnets ​and other Essays (1784), dedicated by permission to William Hayley, and printed at her own expense. For some months Mrs Smith and her family lived in a tumble-down château near Dieppe, where she produced a translation of Manon Lescaut (1785) and a Romance of Real Life (1786), borrowed from Les Causes Célèbres. On her return to England Mrs Smith carried out a friendly separation between herself and her husband, and thenceforward devoted herself to novel writing. Her chief works are: — Emmeline, or the Orphan of the Castle (1788); Celestina (1792); Desmond (1792); The Old Manor House (1793); The Young Philosopher (1798); and Conversations introducing Poetry (1804). She died at Tilford, near Farnham, Surrey, on the 28th of October 1806. She had twelve children, one of whom, Lionel (1778-1842), rose to the rank of lieutenant-general in the army. He became K.C.B. in 1832 and from 1833 to 1839 was governor of the Windward and Leeward Islands.
Charlotte Smith's novels were highly praised by her contemporaries and are still noticeable for their ease and grace of style. Hayley said that Emmeline, considering the situation of the author, was the most wonderful production he had ever seen, and not inferior to any book in that fascinating species of composition (Nichols, Illustrations of Literature, vii. 708). The best account of Mrs Smith is by Sir Walter Scott, and is based on material supplied by her sister, Mrs Dorset, with a detailed criticism of her work by Scott (Misc. Prose Works, 1841, i. 348-359). Charlotte Smith is best remembered by her charming poems for children.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Smith, Andrew Jackson

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​SMITH, ANDREW JACKSON (1815–1897), American soldier, was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, on the 28th of April 1815 and graduated at West Point in 1838. He was engaged on active service on the south-west frontier and in Mexico, and afterwards in Indian warfare in Washington and Oregon territories, becoming first lieutenant in 1845, captain in 1847, and major in 1861. In the latter year, on the outbreak of the Civil War, he became a colonel of volunteer cavalry in the Federal army, rising early in 1862 to the rank of brigadier-general U.S.V., and to the chief command of the cavalry in the Missouri department. Assigned afterwards to the Army of the Tennessee, he took part in the first attack on Vicksburg and the capture of Arkansas Post, and commanded a division of the XIII. corps in the final Vicksburg campaign. Later he led a division of the XVI. corps in the Red River expedition of Gen. N. P. Banks, and received the brevet of colonel for his services at the action of Pleasant Hill. In May 1864 he became lieutenant-colonel U.S.A. and major-general U.S.V., and during the greater part of the year was employed in Missouri against the Confederate general Sterling Price. Thence he was summoned to join forces with G. H. Thomas at Nashville, then threatened by the advance of Gen. J. B. Hood. He bore a conspicuous share in the crowning victory of Nashville (q.v.), after which he commanded the XVI. corps in the final campaign in the South. Just before the close of the war he was breveted brigadier-general U.S.A. for his services at the action of Tupelo, Mississippi, and major-general U.S.A. for Nashville. He resigned his volunteer commission in 1866 and became colonel of the 7th U.S. Cavalry. In 1869, however, he resigned in order to become postmaster of St Louis, where he died on the 30th of January 1897.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Smith, Alexander

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​SMITH, ALEXANDER (1830–1867), Scottish poet, son of a lace-designer, was born at Kilmarnock on the 31st of December 1830. His parents being too poor to send him to college, he was placed in a linen factory to follow his father's trade of a pattern designer. His early poems appeared in the Glasgow Citizen, in whose editor, James Hedderwick, he found a sympathizing and appreciative friend. A Life Drama and other Poems (1853) was a work of promise, ran through several editions, and gained Smith the appointment of secretary to Edinburgh University in 1854. As a poet he was one of the leading representatives of what was called the “Spasmodic” School, now fallen into oblivion. Smith, P. J. Bailey and Sydney Dobell were satirized by W. E. Aytoun in 1854 in Firmilian: a Spasmodic Tragedy. In the same year Sydney Dobell came to Edinburgh, and an acquaintanceship at once sprang up between the two, which resulted in their collaboration in a book of War Sonnets (1855), inspired by the Crimean War. After publishing City Poems (1857) and Edwin of Deira (1861), a Northumbrian epic poem, Smith turned his attention to prose, and published Dreamthorp: Essays written in the Country (1863) and A Summer in Skye. His last work was an experiment in fiction, Alfred Hagart's Household (1866), which ran first through Good Words. He died on the 5th of January 1867.
A memoir of Smith by P. P. Alexander was prefixed to a volume entitled Last Leaves.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Smith, Colvin

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​ SMITH, COLVIN (1795-1875), Scottish portrait-painter, was born at Brechin, Scotland, in 1795. He studied in London in the schools of the Royal Academy and worked in Nollekens's studio. He then proceeded to Italy, where he executed some fine copies from Titian; and at Antwerp he made studies from the works of Rubens. Returning to Scotland in 1827, he settled in Edinburgh, occupying the house and studio which had formerly belonged to Raeburn. Soon he attained a wide practice as a portrait-painter, and among his sitters were Lord Jeffrey, Henry Mackenzie, author of The Man of Feeling, and many of the most celebrated Scotsmen of the time. His portrait of Sir Walter Scott was so popular that he executed some twenty replicas of it, for seven of which he received fresh sittings. His works are distinguished by excellent draftsmanship, by directness and simplicity of treatment, and by well-marked individuality. He died in Edinburgh on the 21st of July 1875.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Smith, Charles Ferguson

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​SMITH, CHARLES FERGUSON (1807–1862), American soldier, graduated from West Point Academy in 1825, and a few years later became an instructor there, rising eventually to be commandant. As a battalion commander he distinguished himself at the Mexican War, at Palo Alto, Resaca, Monterey and Churubusco. He commanded the Red River expedition of 1856, and served under Albert Sidney Johnston in Utah (1857–1860). On the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 he accepted a commission as brigadier-general of Union volunteers, and found himself under the command of Grant, who had been his pupil at West Point. This difficult situation was made easy by Smith's loyalty to his young chief, and the old soldier led his division of raw volunteers with success at Fort Donelson. His ripe experience, dignity, and unselfish character made him Grant's mainstay in the early days. He went up the Tennessee with the first expedition, but at Savannah, Tennessee, met with a serious accident. His senior brigadier led his division at the battle of Shiloh and he died on April 25, 1862. The early close of his career in high command deprived the Union army of one of its best leaders, and his absence was nowhere more felt than on the battlefield of Shiloh, where the Federals paid heavily for the inexperience of their generals. A month before his death he had been made major-general of volunteers.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Smith

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​SMITH, a worker in metals. The O. Eng. smid, Du. smid, Ger. Schmied, &c., are from an obsolete Teut. verb smeithan, to forge. The root is seen in Gr. σμίλη, a graver’s tool. It is apparently not connected with “smooth,” where an original m has been lost. There is no foundation for the old etymological guess which identifies “smith” with “to smite,” as the one who smites or beats iron. When used without such qualification as appears in “goldsmith,” “silversmith,” &c., the term means a worker in iron, especially as indicating a “blacksmith,” one who forges iron, as opposed to “whitesmith,” the finisher and polisher of iron, or “tinsmith,” a worker in tin. The word has originated one of the commonest of English surnames, sometimes taking various archaic forms (Smyth, Smythe, Smigth, &c.; also German Schmidt).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Smith, Albert Richard

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​SMITH, ALBERT RICHARD (1816–1860), English author and public entertainer, was born at Chertsey, Surrey, on the 24th of May 1816. He studied medicine in Paris, and his first literary effort was an account of his life there, which appeared in the Mirror. He gradually relinquished his medical work for light literature. Though a journalist rather than a literary figure, he was one of the most popular men of his time, and a favourite humorist in the vein of humour then in vogue. He was one of the early contributors to Punch and was also a regular contributor to Bentley's Miscellany, in whose pages his first and best book, The Adventures of Mr Ledbury, appeared in 1842. His other books were, Christopher Tadpole (1848), issued in monthly parts, Pottleton's Legacy (1849), and a series of so-called natural histories, The Gent, The Ballet Girl, The Idler upon Town and The Flirt. Albert Smith also wrote extravaganzas and adapted some of Charles Dickens's stories for the stage. He founded and edited a monthly magazine called The Man in the Moon, from 1847 to 1849. In 1851 he ascended Mont Blanc, and the year after produced at the Egyptian Hall the descriptive entertainment, which he called “Mont Blanc,” describing the ascent of the mountain and the Englishman abroad. This success was followed by other entertainments of the kind, among them “China.” Smith married in 1859 a daughter of Robert Keeley, the comedian. He died in Fulham, London, on the 23rd of May 1860. Smith received great help from his brother, Arthur W. W. Smith (1825–1861), who had also been educated for medicine. He managed the entertainments at the Egyptian Hall from 1852 to 1860. He also planned Charles Dickens's readings in 1858, and made arrangements for a second series, but died before they were completed.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Moulins

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​MOULINS, a town of central France, capital of the department of Allier, 121 m. by rail N.W. of Lyons. Pop. (1906), 18,997. The town is situated on the right bank of the Allier, which is here crossed by a remarkable bridge of the 18th century about 1000 ft. in length. Moulins did not attain any importance till the 14th century, before which it consisted chiefly of some mills belonging to the dukes of Bourbon. The medieval town occupied a small area, the boundaries of which are marked on the N.E. and S. by the central boulevards occupying the site of the old moats. The modern town, expanding from this nucleus, is limited on the east and south by the railway, the southern portion being traversed by agreeable promenades. To the north is the spacious avenue known as the Cours de Bercy, close by the hospital and the lycée. The more interesting buildings lie within the old enceinte. The chief of these is the cathedral, which consists of a huge choir of the 15th and 16th centuries, and a nave in the early Gothic style but modern in construction and terminated by two towers with stone spires rising to a height of 312 ft. The church possesses a fine triptych attributed to Domenico Ghirlandajo (d. 1494), and fine windows of the 15th and 16th centuries. Among the oldest buildings in the town are the square tower of the 14th century (used as a prison) which is the chief relic of the château of the dukes of Bourbon, and a belfry of the 15th century. Part of an old Jesuit college serves as the court-house, which contains an archaeological museum. The library, which possesses a valuable Bible of 1115, is part of the hôtel-de-ville. Numerous mansions of the 15th and 16th centuries border the streets of the ​old quarter of the town. There is a statue of the poet Théodore de Banville, born at Moulins in 1823. The town is the seat of a prefect, a bishop, and a court of assizes, and has tribunals of first instance and commerce, and a branch of the Bank of France. Yzeure, 11/4 m. E. of Moulins, has an interesting Romanesque church (12th century); 71/2 m. W.S.W. of Moulins is Souvigny, formerly famous for its Cluniac priory. Its church, a fine building of the 11th and 12th centuries, restored in the 15th century, contains the splendid tombs of Louis II. and Charles I., dukes of Bourbon in the 15th century, and other tombs of the Bourbon family, now in ruins.
Moulins became the residence of the dukes of Bourbon about the middle of the 14th century, and capital of the duchy towards the end of the 15th century. In 1566, under Charles IX., an important assembly of notables was held in the town, at which the judicial system of France was reorganized.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Moulin

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​MOULIN (Fr. moulin, a mill), in physical geography, the name given to the swirling cascades which are formed by glacier streams pouring into crevasses, and result in the formation of giant’s kettles.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Moulin Quignon

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​MOULIN QUIGNON, a quarry near Abbeville, France, celebrated for the discovery in 1863 by Boucher de Perthes of a human jaw-bone believed to be referable to the Quaternary period. By his collection of flints Boucher de Perthes had been the first to attempt to establish the existence of man in remote ages; but it had been objected that if the flints were indeed the work of man, human remains would have been found in association with them. Considerable excitement therefore was created both in England and France by the “find” of bones at Moulin Quignon, and a commission of inquiry was appointed. The report was favourable to the genuineness of the relics, but latterly doubts have arisen as to whether they can be regarded as earlier than the Neolithic age.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Motto

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​MOTTO (an Italian word, from Late Lat. muttum, a low sound, a mutter or murmur, cf. mutere, to mutter; the Latin word also gives Fr. mot, word), a “legend” consisting of a significant phrase or sentence, sometimes even of a single word attached to an emblem or device, and, in heraldry, placed on a scroll below the achievement or above the crest. Mottoes express sometimes a sentiment, a favourite principle, emphasize the meaning or symbolism of the emblem or device, and, in heraldry, often allude to one or more of the “charges” in the coat of arms, &c.
There are many publications which give lists of some of the best-known mottoes, such as Fairbairn, Book of Family Crests, 1856; Wachbourne, Book of Family Crests (2 vols., 1882); Chassant and Tansin, Dictionnaire des devises historiques et héraldiques, &c. (1878); Dielitz, Die Wahl- und Denksprüche, Feldgeschreie, Losungen, Schlacht- und Volksrufe, besonders des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit (4 vols., 1888). Gatfield’s Guide to Printed Books and MSS. relating to Heraldry (1892) contains a bibliography.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mouchez, Amédée Ernest Barthélémy

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​MOUCHEZ, AMÉDÉE ERNEST BARTHÉLÉMY (1821–1892), French astronomer, was born at Madrid of French parents on the 24th of August 1821. At the age of sixteen he entered the naval school at Brest, and after serving with distinction in various ships, was appointed in 1856 to the command of the “Bisson.” Towards the close of the Franco-Prussian War he made an admirable defence of Brest, and his organization of the French expedition to the island of St Paul to observe the transit of Venus in 1874 obtained his election to the Academy of Sciences and his promotion as commander of the Legion of Honour. On the 27th of June 1878 he succeeded Urbain Leverrier as director of the National Observatory of Paris, and was raised to the rank of rear-admiral. The fourteen years of his directorship were marked by a great increase in the activity of the institution. The observatory grounds were enlarged; two powerful instruments of the novel kind known as coudé equatorials were installed; a spectroscopic department was established, and the gigantic task of re-observing all Lalande’s stars was completed. He published twenty-one volumes of Annales, as well as the first two volumes of the great Catalogue de l’observatoire de Paris; founded the Bulletin astronomique, and set on foot two schools of practical astronomy, one at Paris, the other at Montsouris, for the special instruction of naval and military officers, explorers and surveyors. His most memorable work, however, was the inauguration of international operations for charting the heavens. The advances in stellar photography made by Paul and Prosper Henry and others suggested to him the magnificent idea of obtaining, through the collaboration of astronomers in all parts of the world, an ​autographic picture of the entire sphere containing more than fifty million stars, which should faithfully record in future ages the state of the sky at the end of the 19th century. Although he did not live to see its completion, he had the satisfaction of knowing that the ultimate success of this vast scheme was assured. He died suddenly at his country seat at Wissous, near Antony, on the 25th of June 1892.
See Month. Notices Roy. Astr. Society, liii. 226; Observatory, xv. 305 (D. Klumpke); Nature, xlvi. 253; Rapport annuel sur l’observatoire de Paris pour l’année 1892. (A. M. C.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mould

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​MOULD. (1) (O. Eng. molde, from a Teutonic root meaning to grind, reduce to powder, cf. “meal”), loose fine earth, rich in organic matter, on the surface of cultivated ground, especially the made garden soil suitable for the growth of plants. In the sense of a furry growth, consisting of minute fungi found on animal or vegetable substances exposed to damp, the word may be either an extension of “mould,” earth, or an adaptation of an early “moul,” with an additional d due to “mould.” “Moul” is a Scandinavian word, cf. Swed. mögla, to grow musty, and the Eng. colloquial “muggy.” (2) A form or pattern, particularly one by means of which plastic materials may be made into shapes, whence “moulding,” the form which the material so shaped takes. The word comes through the O. Fr. modle, molle, from Lat. modulus, a measure, or standard. The English “model” is another derivative of the same word.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Motya

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​MOTYA, an ancient Phoenician settlement in Sicily, on a low island [mod. S. Pantaleo], 5 m. north of Lilybaeum [mod. Marsala]. It was the centre of the Phoenician trade in Sicily. It was accessible from the mainland by a mole, which is still used as a track for wagons. The line of the city wall, of rough rectangular blocks of stone without mortar, may still be traced all round the coast, with two gates, one on the north towards the mole, which is still in part preserved, and one on the south. The date of its foundation is uncertain. In 398 B.C. it was taken after a desperate struggle (which, owing to the height and strength of the houses, continued even after a breach had been made in the city wall) by Dionysius of Syracuse, but recovered in the next year: it was, however, abandoned by the Carthaginians, and its place taken by Lilybaeum on the mainland. (T. As.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mouflon

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​MOUFLON, or Muflon, the wild sheep (Ovis musimon) of Corsica and Sardinia, where it is now very local. The ewes are either hornless or provided with quite small horns, the hornless form being probably characteristic of one island and the horned of the other. The rams carry good horns, and in summer show a conspicuous light saddle-shaped mark on the otherwise dark-coloured coat. The Armenian mouflon (O. orientalis), of Persia, Armenia, and the Tröodos range of Cyprus, is typically a larger and redder sheep, with the horns curving in the reverse direction; but the Cyprian race is small. (See Sheep.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Moulmein

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​MOULMEIN (or Maulmein), the port and headquarters of Amherst district and Tenasserim division of Lower Burma. The population in 1901 was 58,346, and the increase in the last quarter of a century has been very slight. Ship-building, which formerly was an important industry, has now been given up, but there is still a considerable export of teak and rice, and there are several steam rice- and saw-mills. The total exports average more than a million sterling. Three steamers run weekly to Rangoon. Germany and Siam are represented by consuls; Persia, Denmark, and Norway and Sweden by vice-consuls; and Italy and the United States of America by consular agents. The garrison of Madras native infantry, formerly stationed in the town, was withdrawn in 1898. The town, which has the appearance of being on a river, the Salween, is really on the sea, with the island of Bilugyun in front. It is one of the most picturesque ports in the East. There is a branch of the Bank of Bengal, and two newspapers are published—one in English and one in Burmese.