Monson
SIR EDMUND JOHN, British diplomat, born at Charter Lodge, Kent, 1834. Educated at Eton and Balliol, Oxford. Connected with British legations at Paris, Florence, Washington, Hanover, and Brussels, until he resigned in 1865. Re-entered diplomatic service and was appointed consul at the Azores, 1869.
Consul-general Hungary, 1871.
Special agent in Dalmatia and Monte- Afterward Minister to Uruguay, Argentine, Paraguay, Denmark, Greece, Bel gium, and ambassador to Austria 1893- 1896.' To France 1896-1904. Made a baronet in 1905. Died 1909. negro during Turkish War, 1876-1877.
MONSOONS (-sönz'), a modification of the trade winds, operative from the Tropic of Cancer to lat. 7° S., and from the coast of Africa through the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal to Japan and the western Pacific. There are two monsoons, the southwestern and the northeastern. The latter prevails from October to April, and the former from April to October. The bursting of the monsoon commences the rainy season in India, the southwestern bringing that of Bombay and central India, and the northeastern that of Madras and other parts of the coast of the country.
The monsoons are caused by the unequal heating of the land and water and of the several land masses themselves in the regions which they affect. They bring rain to countries which would degenerate into deserts. Also any similar wind blowing half the year in one direction and half in the other.
MONTAGNARDS (mông-tä-nyär'), or simply MONTAGNE (mông-tä-nyuh') ("the Mountain"), the name given to the extreme democratic politicians in the first French Revolution, because they seated themselves on the highest benches of the hall in which the National Convention met. The body included both Jacobins and Cordeliers; its principal members were Danton, Marat, Robespierre, St.
Just, and Collot d'Herbois, the men of "the Reign of Terror." The antagonistic party were "the Plain," the GIRONDIST (q. v.), who sat on the lowest benches, on the floor of the house.