Part 20

MAIN (from the Aryan root which appears in "may" and "might," and Lat. _magnus_, great), a word meaning properly power or strength, especially physical. This use chiefly survives in the expression "with might and main." The word is more common as a substantival elliptical use of the adjective, which usually has the sense of principal or chief in size, strength, importance, &c. Thus "the main," the high open sea, is for "main sea," cf. "mainland," the principal part of a territory excluding islands and sometimes far-projecting peninsulas. The expression "the Spanish main" properly meant that part of the main land of the N.E. coast of South America stretching from the Orinoco to the Isthmus of Panama, and the former Spanish possessions in Central America bordering on the Caribbean Sea, but it is often loosely used, especially in connexion with the buccaneers, of the Caribbean Sea itself. The term "main" is also thus used of a principal pipe or cable for conducting gas, water, electricity, &c. The elliptical use does not appear, however, in such expressions as main road, line, stream. Another use of the word "main" has a somewhat obscure history. It appears as a term in the game of hazard, and also in cock-fighting. In the last it is used for a match, and for the cocks engaged in a match. In hazard it is the number called by the "caster" before the dice are thrown; this may be any number from five to nine inclusive. The usual derivation is from the French _main_, a hand, but according to the _New English Dictionary_ there is no evidence for this, and the more probable explanation is that it is an adaptation of "main" meaning principal or chief. From this use of the word in hazard the expression "main chance" is derived. "Main," a shortened form of domain or demesne, only now survives in Scotland, usually in the plural "mains" for a home farm.

MAINA (or MANI) and MAINOTES, a district and people of the Peloponnesus, the modern Morea. Maina is the country occupied by the mountain range of Taygetus from Sparta to Cape Matapan, the ancient Taenarum. It is now divided between the modern districts Oetylos and Gythion. Before the organization of the present kingdom of Greece, Maina was subdivided into [Greek: Exô Manê], Outer Maina, from the frontier of Kalamata, on the Gulf of Messenia, to Vitylo (Oetylos) and inland to the summit of Taygetus; [Greek: Katô Manê], Lower Maina, from Vitylo to Cape Matapan; and [Greek: Mesa Manê], or Inner Maina, on the east, and on the Gulf of Laconia as far as the plain of Elos. It contained over a hundred villages. The country is mountainous and inaccessible, a formation to which it owes its historical importance. The Mainotes claim to descend from the Spartans, and probably represent the Eleuthero, or free, Laconians who were delivered by Rome from the power of Sparta, as is suggested by the traces of ancient Greek in their dialect and by their physical type. Their country being a natural fortress, they were able to defend themselves against the Byzantine emperors, the barbarians who broke into the empire, the Latin princes of Achaea of the house of Villehardouin, and the Turks. As their country is also poor and maritime, they were early tempted to take to piratical adventure. Gibbon says that "in the time of Constantine Porphyrogenitus they had acquired the name of Mainotes, under which they dishonour the claim of liberty by the inhuman pillage of all that is shipwrecked on their rocky shore." Their neighbours gave their country the name of "Kakaboulia"--the land of wicked counsels. The passes of their mountains were elaborately fortified and their villages were full of fortified towers (_pyrgoi_) from which they formed their own favourite epithet, Maina Polypyrgos--many-towered Maina. On the western side it also contains the remains of feudal keeps, erected by William II. de Villehardouin (1245-1278) and other Latin princes of Achaea. The Mainotes did not become Christians till the 9th century. From the 15th till the 17th century they recognized a family which claimed to belong to the Comneni of Trebizond as head chiefs. But the real power was in the hands of the chiefs of the different families and villages, who formed a turbulent and martial aristocracy. Enduring and ferocious feuds were common among them. In the course of the 18th century the family of Mavromicheli (Black Michael), which belonged to lower Maina, established a general headship over the Mainotes after much strife and many murders. When Russia endeavoured to promote a rising against the Turks in the Morea in 1770 the Mainotes acted with her, and the strength of their country enabled them to escape the vengeance of the Turks when the Christians were cynically deserted by the Russians. In 1777 their practical independence was recognized by the sultan's officers. During the Greek war of independence the Mainotes were chiefly led by Petros (Petro Bey) Mavromicheli, known to his countrymen as the king of Maina, who undoubtedly cherished the hope of establishing a principality for himself. The freedom of Greece, for which he had fought in his own way, proved the ruin of his ambition. He found the new order less compatible with his schemes than the Turkish dominion. Petro Bey was imprisoned by the Greek president Capodistrias (see CAPO D'ISTRIA, COUNT.), who was in revenge murdered by the Mavromichelis. The family were finally content to become courtiers and officials in the reign of King Otto I. In the 19th century Maina was but little affected by civilization, except in so far as the efficiency of modern navies debarred the Mainotes from their old resource of piracy.

See W. Martin Leake, _Travels in the Morea_ (1830); M. E. Yemeniz, "La Maina," in _Revue des deux mondes_ (March 1, 1865); and Philipson, "Zur Ethnographie des Peloponnes," in _Petermanns Mittheilungen_, vol. 36 (Gotha).

MAINE, ANNE LOUISE BÉNÉDICTE DE BOURBON, DUCHESSE DU (1676-1753), daughter of Henri Jules de Bourbon, prince de Condé and Anne of Bavaria, was born on the 8th of November 1676. On the 19th of March 1692 she married Louis Auguste de Bourbon, duc du Maine, son of Louis XIV. and Mme de Montespan. The duchesse du Maine held a little court at Sceaux, where she gave brilliant entertainments and immersed herself in political intrigues. Displeased with the action of the regent Orleans in degrading the illegitimate children of Louis XIV. from their precedence above the peers of France, she induced her husband to join in the Cellamare conspiracy for the transference of the regency to the king of Spain. The plot, however, was discovered, and she was imprisoned in 1719. The following year she returned to Sceaux, where she resumed her salon and gathered round her a brilliant company of wits and poets. She died in Paris on the 23rd of January 1753.

See Général de Piépape, _La Duchesse du Maine_ (1910).

MAINE, SIR HENRY JAMES SUMNER (1822-1888), English comparative jurist and historian, son of Dr James Maine, of Kelso, Roxburghshire, was born on the 15th of August 1822. He was at school at Christ's Hospital, and thence went up to Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1840. At Cambridge he was one of the most brilliant classical scholars of his time. He won a Craven scholarship and graduated as senior classic in 1844, being also senior chancellor's medallist in classics. Shortly afterwards he accepted a tutorship at Trinity Hall. In 1847 he was appointed regius professor of civil law, and he was called to the bar three years later; he held this chair till 1854. Even the rudiments of Roman law were not then included in the ordinary training of English lawyers; it was assumed at the universities that any good Latin scholar could qualify himself at short notice for keeping up such tradition of civilian studies as survived. Maine cannot have known much Roman law in 1847, but in 1856 he contributed to the _Cambridge Essays_ the essay on Roman law and legal education, republished in the later editions of _Village Communities_, which was the first characteristic evidence of his genius. Meanwhile he had become one of the readers appointed by the Inns of Court, in the first of their many half-hearted attempts at legal education, in 1852. Lectures delivered by Maine in this capacity were the groundwork of _Ancient Law_ (1861), the book by which his reputation was made at one stroke. Its object, as modestly stated in the preface, was "to indicate some of the earliest ideas of mankind, as they are reflected in ancient law, and to point out the relation of those ideas to modern thought." Within a year of its publication the post of legal member of council in India was offered to Maine, then a junior member of the bar with little practice, few advantages of connexion, and no political or official claims. He declined once, on grounds of health; the very next year the office was again vacant. This time Maine was persuaded to accept, not that his health had improved, but that he thought India might not make it much worse. It turned out that India suited him much better than Cambridge or London. His work, like most of the work done by Englishmen in India in time of peace, was not of a showy kind--its value is shown by the fact that he was asked to prolong his services beyond the regular term of five years, and returned to England only in 1869. The subjects on which it was his duty to advise the government of India were as much political as legal. They ranged from such problems as the land settlement of the Punjab, or the introduction of civil marriage to provide for the needs of unorthodox Hindus, to the question how far the study of Persian should be required or encouraged among European civil servants. On the civil marriage question in particular, and some years earlier on the still more troublesome one of allowing the remarriage of native converts to Christianity, his guidance, being not only learned but statesmanlike, was of the greatest value. Plans of codification, moreover, were prepared, and largely shaped, under Maine's direction, which were carried into effect by his successors, Sir J. Fitzjames Stephen and Dr Whitley Stokes. The results are open to criticism in details, but form on the whole a remarkable achievement in the conversion of unwritten and highly technical law into a body of written law sufficiently clear to be administered by officers to many of whom its ideas and language are foreign. All this was in addition to the routine of legislative and consulting work and the establishment of the legislative department of the government of India on substantially its present footing.

Maine's power of swiftly assimilating new ideas and appreciating modes of thought and conduct remote from modern Western life came into contact with the facts of Indian society at exactly the right time, and his colleagues and other competent observers expressed the highest opinion of his work. In return Maine brought back from his Indian office a store of knowledge which enriched all his later writings, though he took India by name for his theme only once. This essay on India was his contribution to the composite work entitled _The Reign of Queen Victoria_ (ed. T. H. Ward, 1887). Not having been separately published, it is perhaps the least known of Maine's writings; but its combination of just perception and large grasp with command of detail is not easily matched outside W. Stubbs's prefaces to some of the chronicles in the Rolls series, and (more lately) F. W. Maitland's monographs. As vice-chancellor of the university of Calcutta, Maine commented, with his usual pregnant ingenuity, on the results produced by the contact of Eastern and Western thought. Three of these addresses were published, wholly or in part, in the later editions of _Village Communities_; the substance of others is understood to be embodied in the Cambridge Rede lecture of 1875, which is to be found in the same volume. The practical side of Maine's experience was not long lost to India; he became a member of the secretary of state's council in 1871, and remained so for the rest of his life. In the same year he was gazetted a K.C.S.I. In 1869 Maine was appointed to the chair of historical and comparative jurisprudence newly founded in the university of Oxford by Corpus Christi College. Residence at Oxford was not required, and the election amounted to an invitation to the new professor to resume and continue in his own way the work he had begun in _Ancient Law_. During the succeeding years he published the principal matters of his lectures in a carefully revised literary form: _Village Communities in the East and the West_ (1871); _Early History of Institutions_ (1875); _Early Law and Custom_ (1883). In all these works the phenomena of societies in an archaic stage, whether still capable of observation or surviving in a fragmentary manner among more modern surroundings or preserved in contemporary records, are brought into line, often with singular felicity, to establish and illustrate the normal process of development in legal and political ideas.

In 1877 the mastership of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where Maine had formerly been tutor, became vacant. There were two strong candidates whose claims were so nearly equal that it was difficult to elect either; the difficulty was solved by a unanimous invitation to Maine to accept the post. His acceptance entailed the resignation of the Oxford chair, though not continuous residence at Cambridge. Ten years later considerations of a somewhat similar kind led to his election to succeed Sir William Harcourt as Whewell professor of international law at Cambridge. His all too short performance in this office is represented by a posthumous volume which had not received his own final revision, _International Law_ (1888).

Meanwhile Maine had published in 1885 his one work of speculative politics, a volume of essays on _Popular Government_, designed to show that democracy is not in itself more stable than any other form of government, and that there is no necessary connexion between democracy and progress. The book was deliberately unpopular in tone; it excited much controversial comment and some serious and useful discussion.

In 1886 there appeared in the _Quarterly Review_ (clxii. 181) an article on the posthumous work of J. F. M'Lennan, edited and completed by his brother, entitled "The Patriarchal Theory." The article, though necessarily unsigned (in accordance with the rule of the _Quarterly_ as it then stood), was Maine's reply to the M'Lennan brothers' attack on the historical reconstruction of the Indo-European family system put forward in _Ancient Law_ and supplemented in _Early Law and Custom_. Maine was generally averse from controversy, but showed on this occasion that it was not for want of controversial power. He carried the war back into the invader's country, and charged J. F. M'Lennan's theory of primitive society with owing its plausible appearance of universal validity to general neglect of the Indo-European evidence and misapprehension of such portions of it as M'Lennan did attempt to handle.

Maine's health, which had never been strong, gave way towards the end of 1887. He went to the Riviera under medical advice, and died at Cannes on the 3rd of February 1888. He left a wife and two sons, of whom the elder died soon afterwards.

An excellent summary of Maine's principal writings may be seen in Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff's memoir. The prompt and full recognition of Maine's genius by continental publicists must not pass unmentioned even in the briefest notice. France, Germany, Italy, Russia have all contributed to do him honour; this is the more remarkable as one or two English publicists of an older school signally failed to appreciate him. Maine warned his countrymen against the insularity which results from ignorance of all law and institutions save one's own; his example has shown the benefit of the contrary habit. His prominent use of Roman law and the wide range of his observation have made his works as intelligible abroad as at home, and thereby much valuable information--for example, concerning the nature of British supremacy in India, and the position of native institutions there--has been made the property of the world of letters instead of the peculiar and obscure possession of a limited class of British public servants. Foreign readers of Maine have perhaps understood even better than English ones that he is not the propounder of a system but the pioneer of a method, and that detailed criticism, profitable as it may be and necessary as in time it must be, will not leave the method itself less valid or diminish the worth of the master's lessons in its use. The rather small bulk of Maine's published and avowed work may be explained partly by a fine literary sense which would let nothing go out under his name unfinished, partly by the drawbacks incident to precarious health. Maine's temperament was averse from the labour of minute criticism, and his avoidance of it was no less a matter of prudence. But it has to be remembered that Maine also wrote much which was never publicly acknowledged. Before he went to India he was one of the original contributors to the _Saturday Review_, founded in 1855, and the inventor of its name. Like his intimate friend Fitzjames Stephen, he was an accomplished journalist, enjoyed occasional article-writing as a diversion from official duties, and never quite abandoned it. The practice of such writing probably counted for something in the freedom and clearness of Maine's style and the effectiveness of his dialectic. His books are a model of scientific exposition which never ceases to be literature.

See Sir A. Lyall and others, in _Law Quart. Rev._ iv. 129 seq. (1888); Sir F. Pollock, "Sir Henry Maine and his Work," in _Oxford Lectures, &c._ (1890); "Sir H. Maine as a Jurist," _Edin. Rev._ (July 1893); Introduction and Notes to new ed. of _Ancient Law_ (1906); Sir M. E. Grant Duff, _Sir Henry Maine: a brief Memoir of his Life, &c._ (1892); _Notes from a Diary_, _passim_; L. Stephen, "Maine" in _Dict. Nat. Biog._ (1893); Paul Vinogradoff, _The Teaching of Sir Henry Maine_ (1904). (F. Po.)

MAINE, an old French province, bounded N. by Normandy, E. by Orléanais, S. by Touraine and Anjou, and W. by Brittany. Before the Roman Conquest the region occupied by this province was inhabited by the Aulerci Cenomanni and the Aulerci Diablintes; under the Roman empire it consisted of two _civitates_ comprised in the Provincia Lugdunensis Tertia--the Civitas Cenomannorum and the Civitas Diablintum, whose chief towns were Le Mans and Jublains. These two _civitates_ were united during the barbarian period and formed a single bishopric, that of Le Mans, suffragan to the metropolitan see of Tours. Under the Merovingians and Carolingians the diocese of Le Mans corresponded to the Pagus Cenomanensis, and in the feudal period to the county of Maine. In the 16th century the county of Maine, with the addition of Perche, formed a military government--the province of Maine. Since 1790 this province has been represented approximately by the departments of Sarthe and Mayenne, the respective capitals of which are Le Mans and Laval. In 1855 the bishopric of Laval was separated from that of Le Mans. Maine was evangelized in the 3rd century by St Julian. After forming part of the kingdom of Syagrius, it was conquered by Clovis at the end of the 5th century. Owing to the scarcity of documents the history of Maine until the end of the 9th century is merged in the history of the bishops of Le Mans, which has come down to us in the _Actus pontificum Cenomannis in urbe degentium_ (ed. Busson-Ledru, Le Mans, 1901), composed under the direction of Bishop Aldric (832-857). Roger (_c._ 892-_c._ 898) was perhaps the first hereditary count of Maine; the counts whose existence is certain are Hugh I. (_c._ 939-before 992), Hugh II. (before 992-1015), Herbert I. (1015-1032 to 1036), Hugh III. (1032 to 1036-1051), Herbert II. (1051-1062), William the Bastard (1063-1087), Robert Curthose (1087-1091), Hugh IV. (1091-1092) and Helias (1092-1110). Maine, which was in the vassalage of Anjou as early as the 9th century, was united to Anjou in 1110 by the marriage of Count Helias's daughter to Fulk V., count of Anjou, and passed to the English crown in 1154, when Henry Plantagenet (who was born at Le Mans) became king of England. In 1204, after the confiscation of the estates of John of England, Maine was united to France; in 1246 it was separated from France by Louis IX., who handed it over to his brother Charles, count of Provence. Again united to France in 1328, it was given in 1356 as an apanage to Louis, second son of King John II., and did not definitely return to the French crown until 1481, after the death of Charles II., count of Maine. During the Hundred Years' War Maine was taken in 1425 by the English, who lost it in 1448.

See _Histoire de l'église du Mans_, by Dom Piolin (Paris, 1851-1858), which is useful but out of date; _Revue historique et archéologique du Maine_ (1876); _La Province du Maine_ (1893); B. Hauréau, _Histoire littéraire du Maine_ (1870-1877).

MAINE, a North Atlantic state of the United States of America, the most north-easterly state in the Union, and the largest of the New England group. It lies between 43° 4´ and 47° 27´ 33´´ N., and between 66° 56´ 48´´ and 71° 6´ 41´´ W. It is bounded N.W. by the Canadian province of Quebec; N. and E. by the Canadian province of New Brunswick, from which it is separated in part by the natural barriers of the Saint John River, the Grand (or Schoodic) Lakes, the Saint Croix River, and Passamaquoddy Bay; S.S.E. by the Atlantic Ocean; and W. by New Hampshire, the Piscataqua and Salmon Falls rivers being the natural boundary lines at the S.W. The area of the state is 33,040 sq. m., 3145 sq. m. being water surface.

Maine attracts more summer visitors than any other state in the Union. This is due to the cool and refreshing summer climate; the picturesque coast and its many islands, which are favourite grounds for camps and summer cottages; the mountains, and the beautiful lakes and rivers, many of which afford opportunities for good fishing and canoeing. Among the more widely known resorts are Mount Desert Island, on which is Bar Harbor, a fashionable summer place of great beauty; Long Island, Orr's and other islands in Casco Bay; Old Orchard, with a gently sloping white sand sea-beach 9 m. long, Rangeley and Moosehead Lakes, favourite resorts of fishermen and hunters; Mt Katahdin, in the heart of the moose country; and Poland Springs (38 m. by rail from Portland) in Androscoggin county, near lake Anasigunticook. About 1870, camps, summer cottages, summer hotels and boarding houses began to multiply throughout the state. The needs of this summer population gave a new impulse and a new turn to agriculture; and the demand for souvenirs revived among the Indians basket-weaving, moccasin-making, and such crafts.