ffairs by his advice (1773-1859).

METZ (60), strongest fortress in Lorraine, on the Moselle, 105 m.
SW. of Coblenz, captured in 1870 from the French, who had held it since
1552; has a cathedral, library, museum, and school of music; industries
are unimportant; the trade is in liquor, leather, and preserved fruits.

MEUNG, JEAN DE, mediaeval French satirist; continued the unfinished
"Roman de la Rose," in which he embodied a vivid satiric portraiture of
contemporary life (1250-1305 ?).

MEUSE, river, 500 m. long, rises in Haute-Marne, France, and
becoming navigable flows N. through Belgium, turns E. at Namur, where the
Sambre enters from the left, N. again at Liege, where it receives the
Ourthe from the right; enters Holland at Maastricht, is for a time the
boundary, finally trends westward, and joins the Rhine at the delta.

MEXICO (12,050), a federal republic of 27 States, a district, and
two territories, lying S. of the United States, between the Gulf of
Mexico and the Pacific, and including the peninsulas of Lower California
in the W. and Yucatan in the E.; is nearly half as large as Europe
without Russia; it consists of an immense plateau 3000 to 8000 ft. high,
from which rises the Sierra Nevada, 10,000 ft., running N. and S., and
other parallel ranges, as also single peaks. Toluca (19,340 ft.), Orizaba
(18,000), and Popocatapetl (17,000); the largest lake is Chapala, in the
centre; the rivers are mostly rapid and unnavigable; the chief seaports
are Vera Cruz (29) and Tampico (5) on the E. and Acapulco on the W., but
the coast-line is little indented and affords no good harbours; along the
eastern seaboard runs a strip of low-lying unhealthy country, 60 m.
broad; on the Pacific side the coast land is sometimes broader; these
coast-lines are well watered, with tropical vegetation, tropical and
sub-tropical fruits; the higher ground has a varied climate; in the N.
are great cattle ranches; all over the country the mineral wealth is
enormous, gold, silver, copper, iron, sulphur, zinc, quicksilver, and
platinum are wrought; coal also exists; the bulk of Mexican exports is of
precious metals and ores; there are cotton, paper, glass, and pottery
manufactures; trade is chiefly with the United States and Britain;
imports being textile fabrics, hardware, machinery, and coal; one-fifth
of the population is white, the rest Indian and half-caste; education is
backward, though there are free schools in every town; the