Glasgow. He entered the house of Dennistoun Brothers, became a partner,
and went to Melbourne to open a branch. In 1854, shortly after his
arrival in Victoria, he was appointed a nominee member of the
Legislative Council, and in the first Legislative Assembly under the new
constitution was returned for the electorate of the Wimmera. In 1857 he
was appointed minister of trade and customs in the second ministry of
Haines, which lasted till 1858, and subsequently he became treasurer in
the Nicholson administration, which held office from October 1859 to
November 1860. In June 1862 the third O'Shanassy ministry was defeated
by a combination between a section of its supporters led by M'Culloch
and the opposition proper under Heales, and M'Culloch became premier and
chief secretary. Hitherto he had been regarded as a supporter of the
landed, squatting and importing interests, but the coalition ministry
introduced a number of measures which at the time were regarded by the
propertied classes in the colony as revolutionary. In addition to
passing a Land Bill, which extended the principle of free selection and
deferred payments, the ministry announced their intention of reducing
the duties on the export of gold and the import duties upon tea and
sugar, and of supplying the deficiency by the imposition of duties
ranging from 5 to 10% upon a number of articles which entered into
competition with the local industries, thus introducing protection. The
mercantile community took alarm at the proposal, and at the general
election of 1864 the ministerial policy was warmly opposed. But a
majority was returned in its favour, and a new tariff was carried
through the popular branch of the legislature. There was no probability
of its being assented to by the Council, which, under the constitution,
had the power of rejecting, although it could not amend, any money Bill.
The government therefore decided upon tacking the tariff to the
Appropriation Bill, and compelling the Council either to agree to the
new fiscal proposals or to refuse to pay the public creditors and the
civil servants. The Council accepted the challenge, and rejected the
Appropriation Bill. But M'Culloch and his colleagues would not give way.
They continued to collect the new duties under the authority of the
Assembly, and took advantage of a clause in the Audit Act which directed
the governor to sign the necessary warrants for the payment of any sum
awarded by verdicts in the supreme court in favour of persons who had
sued the government. M'Culloch borrowed £40,000 from the London
Chartered Bank, of which he was a director, to meet pressing payments,
and the bank at his instigation sued the government for the amount of
the advance. The attorney-general at once accepted judgment, and the
governor, who had placed himself unreservedly in the hands of his
ministers, signed the necessary warrant, and the Treasury repaid to the
bank the amount of its advance, plus interest and costs. In the next
session the tariff was again sent up to the Council, which promptly
rejected it, whereupon the ministry dissolved the assembly and appealed
to the country. The result of the general election was to increase
M'Culloch's majority, and the tariff was again sent to the Council, only
to be again rejected. M'Culloch resigned, but no member of the
opposition was willing to form a ministry, and he resumed office.
Eventually a conference between the two houses was held, and the Council
passed the tariff, after a few modifications in it had been agreed to by
the Assembly. Just at the moment that peace was restored, the governor,
Sir Charles Darling, was recalled by the home government, on the ground
that he had displayed partisanship by assisting M'Culloch's government
and their majority in the Assembly to coerce the Council. In order to
show their gratitude to the dismissed governor, the Assembly decided to
grant a sum of £20,000 to Lady Darling. The home government intimated
that Sir Charles Darling must retire from the Colonial service if this
gift were accepted by his wife, but M'Culloch included the money in the
annual Appropriation Bill, with the result that it was rejected by the
Council. The new governor, Viscount Canterbury, was less complaisant
than his predecessor, but after an unsuccessful attempt to obtain other
advisers, he agreed to recommend the Council to pass the Appropriation
Bill with the £20,000 grant included. The Upper House declined to adopt
this course, and again rejected the Bill. A long and bitter struggle
between the two Chambers ended in another general election in 1868,
which still further increased the ministerial majority; but Lord
Canterbury, in obedience to instructions from the colonial office,
declined to do anything to facilitate the passage of the Darling grant.
M'Culloch resigned, and after protracted negotiations Sir Charles Sladen
formed from the minority in the Assembly a ministry which only lasted
two months. The deadlock seemed likely to become more stringent than
ever, when a communication was received from Sir Charles Darling, that
neither he nor his wife could receive anything like a donation from the
people of Victoria. The attempt to pass the grant was therefore
abandoned, and in July 1868 M'Culloch resumed office with different
colleagues, but resigned in the following year, when he was knighted. He
formed a third ministry in 1870. During this third administration he
passed a measure through both Houses which secured a life annuity of
£1000 per annum to Lady Darling. Additional taxation being necessary,
Sir James M'Culloch was urged by his protectionist supporters to
increase the import duties, but he refused, and proposed to provide for
the deficit by levying a tax upon town, suburban and country property.
This proposal was defeated in the Assembly; Sir James resigned in June
1871, and was appointed agent-general for Victoria in London. He held
that appointment till 1873, was created K.C.M.G. in 1874, returned to
the colony the same year, and in 1875 formed his fourth and last
ministry, which kept power till May 1877, when his party was defeated at
the general election. During his eighteen months of office he had to
encounter a persistent opposition from Berry and his followers, who
systematically obstructed the business of the Assembly, on the ground
that the acting-governor, Sir William Stawell, had improperly refused a
dissolution. Sir James M'Culloch, to counteract this obstruction,
invented the closure, which was afterwards introduced with some
modifications into the house of commons. After his defeat in 1877 Sir
James retired from public life and returned to England, where he died on
the 30th of January 1893 at Ewell, Surrey. He was twice married--first,
in 1841, to Susan, daughter of the Rev. James Renwick, of Muirton,
Scotland; secondly, in 1867, to Margaret, daughter of William Inglis, of
Walflat, Dumbartonshire. He left the house of Dennistoun Brothers in
1862, and founded a new firm at Melbourne in conjunction with Leishman,
Inglis & Co. of London, under the title of M'Culloch, Sellars & Co. He
held several important commercial positions, and was president of the
Melbourne Chamber of Commerce. (G. C. L.)
MACCULLOCH, JOHN (1773-1835), Scottish geologist, descended from the
Maccullochs of Nether Ardwell in Galloway, was born in Guernsey, on the
6th of October 1773, his mother being a native of that island. Having
displayed remarkable powers as a boy, he was sent to study medicine in
the university of Edinburgh, where he qualified as M.D. in 1793, and
then entered the army as assistant surgeon. Attaching himself to the
artillery, he became chemist to the board of ordnance (1803). He still
continued, however, to practise for a time as a physician, and during
the years 1807-1811 he resided at Blackheath. In 1811 he communicated
his first papers to the Geological Society. They were devoted to an
elucidation of the geological structure of Guernsey, of the Channel
Islands, and of Heligoland. The evidence they afforded of his capacity,
and the fact that he already had received a scientific appointment,
probably led to his being selected in the same year to make some
geological and mineralogical investigations in Scotland. He was asked to
report upon stones adapted for use in powder-mills, upon the suitability
of the chief Scottish mountains for a repetition of the pendulum
experiments previously conducted by Maskelyne and Playfair at
Schiehallion, and on the deviations of the plumb-line along the meridian
of the Trigonometrical Survey. In the course of the explorations
necessary for the purposes of these reports he made extensive
observations on the geology and mineralogy of Scotland. He formed also a
collection of the mineral productions and rocks of that country, which
he presented to the Geological Society in 1814. In that year he was
appointed geologist to the Trigonometrical Survey; and in 1816-1817 he
was president of the Geological Society. Comparatively little had been
done in the investigation of Scottish geology, and finding the field so
full of promise, he devoted himself to its cultivation with great
ardour. One of his most important labours was the examination of the
whole range of islands along the west of Scotland, at that time not
easily visited, and presenting many obstacles to a scientific explorer.
The results of this survey appeared (1819) in the form of his
_Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, including the Isle of
Man_ (2 vols. 8vo, with an atlas of plates in 4to), which forms one of
the classical treatises on British geology. He was elected F.R.S. in
1820. He continued to write papers, chiefly on the rocks and minerals of
Scotland, and had at last gathered so large an amount of information
that the government was prevailed upon in the year 1826 to employ him in
the preparation of a geological map of Scotland. From that date up to
the time of his death he returned each summer to Scotland and traversed
every district of the kingdom, inserting the geological features upon
Arrowsmith's map, the only one then available for his purpose. He
completed the field-work in 1832, and in 1834 his map and memoir were
ready for publication, but these were not issued until 1836, the year
after he died. Among his other works the following may be mentioned: _A
Geological Classification of Rocks with Descriptive Synopses of the
Species and Varieties, comprising the Elements of Practical Geology_
(1821); _The Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland_, in a series of
letters to Sir Walter Scott (4 vols. 1824); _A System of Geology, with a
Theory of the Earth and an Examination of its Connexion with the Sacred
Records_ (2 vols. 1831). During a visit to Cornwall he was killed by
being dragged along in the wheel of his carriage, on the 21st of August
1835.
In penning an obituary notice, C. Lyell in 1836 (_Proc. Geol. Soc._
ii. 357) acknowledged "with gratitude" that he had "received more
instruction from Macculloch's labours in geology than from those of
any living writer."
M'CULLOCH, JOHN RAMSAY (1789-1864), British economist and statistician,
was born on the 1st of March 1789 at Whithorn in Wigtownshire. His
family belonged to the class of "statesmen," or small landed
proprietors. He was for some time employed at Edinburgh as a clerk in
the office of a writer to the signet. But, the _Scotsman_ newspaper
having been established at the beginning of 1817, M'Culloch sent a
contribution to the fourth number, the merit of which was at once
recognized; he soon became connected with the management of the paper,
and during 1818 and 1819 acted as editor. Most of his articles related
to questions of political economy, and he delivered lectures in
Edinburgh on that science. He now also began to write on subjects of the
same class in the _Edinburgh Review_, his first contribution being an
article on Ricardo's _Principles of Political Economy_ in 1818. Within
the next few years he gave both public lectures and private instruction
in London on political economy. In 1823 he was chosen to fill the
lectureship established by subscription in honour of the memory of
Ricardo. A movement was set on foot in 1825 by Jeffrey and others to
induce the government to found in the university of Edinburgh a chair of
political economy, separate from that of moral philosophy, the intention
being to obtain the appointment for M'Culloch. This project fell to the
ground; but in 1828 he was made professor of political economy in London
University. He then fixed his residence permanently in London, where he
continued his literary work, being now one of the regular writers in the
_Edinburgh Review_. In 1838 he was appointed comptroller of the
stationery office; the duties of this position, which he held till his
death, he discharged with conscientious fidelity, and introduced
important reforms in the management of the department. Sir Robert Peel,
in recognition of the services he had rendered to political science,
conferred on him a literary pension of £200 per annum. He was elected a
foreign associate of the Institute of France (_Académie des sciences
morales et politiques_). He died in London, after a short illness, on
the 11th of November 1864, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. To his
personal character and social qualities very favourable testimony was
borne by those who knew him best. In general politics he always remained
a Whig pure and simple; though he was in intimate relations with James
Mill and his circle, he never shared the Radical opinions of that group.
M'Culloch cannot be regarded as an original thinker on political
economy. He did not contribute any new ideas to that science, or
introduce any noteworthy correction of the views, either as to method
or doctrine, generally accepted by the dominant school of his day. But
the work he did must be pronounced, in relation to the wants of his
time, a very valuable one. His name will probably be less permanently
associated with anything he has written on economic science, strictly
so called, than with his great statistical and other compilations. His
_Dictionary of Commerce and Commercial Navigation_ (1832) and his
_Statistical Account of the British Empire_ (1837) remain imposing
monuments of his extensive and varied knowledge and his indefatigable
industry. Another useful work of reference, also the fruit of wide
erudition and much labour, is his _Literature of Political Economy_
(1845). Though weak on the side of the foreign literature of the
science, it is very valuable as a critical and biographical guide to
British writers.
McCULLOUGH, JOHN EDWARD (1837-1885), American actor, was born in
Coleraine, Ireland, on the 2nd of November 1837. He went to America at
the age of sixteen, and made his first appearance on the stage at the
Arch Street Theatre, Philadelphia, in 1857. In support of Edwin Forrest
and Edwin Booth he played second roles in Shakespearian and other
tragedies, and Forrest left him by will all his prompt books. Virginius
was his greatest success, although even in this part and as Othello he
was coldly received in England (1881). In 1884 he broke down physically
and mentally, and he died in an asylum at Philadelphia on the 8th of
November 1885.
MACCUNN, HAMISH (1868- ), Scottish musical composer, was born at
Greenock, the son of a shipowner, and was educated at the Royal College
of Music. His first success was with the overture _Land of the Mountain
and Flood_ in 1887 at the Crystal Palace, and this was followed by other
compositions, with a characteristic Scottish colouring. From 1888 to
1894 he was a professor at the Royal College of Music, and this latter
year saw both his marriage to a daughter of John Pettie, R.A., and the
production of his opera _Jeanie Deans_ at Edinburgh. He was for some
years conductor to the Carl Rosa Opera company, and subsequently to
other companies. His opera _Diarmid_ was produced at Covent Garden in
1897, and his other music includes cantatas, overtures, part-songs,
instrumental pieces, and songs, all markedly Scottish in type.
MACDONALD, FLORA (1722-1790), Jacobite heroine, was the daughter of
Ranald Macdonald of Milton in the island of South Uist in the Hebrides,
and his wife Marion the daughter of Angus Macdonald, minister of South
Uist. Her father died when she was a child, and her mother was abducted
and married by Hugh Macdonald of Armadale. She was brought up under the
care of the chief of her clan, Macdonald of Clanranald, and was partly
educated in Edinburgh. In June 1746 she was living in Benbecula in the
Hebrides when Prince Charles Edward (q.v.) took refuge there after the
battle of Culloden. The prince's companion, Captain O'Neill, sought her
help. The island was held for the government by the local militia, but
the secret sympathies of the Macdonalds were with the Jacobite cause.
After some hesitation Flora promised to help. At a later period she told
the duke of Cumberland, son of George III. and commander-in-chief in
Scotland, that she acted from charity and would have helped him also if
he had been defeated and in distress, a statement which need not be
accepted as quite literally true. The commander of the militia in the
island, a Macdonald, who was probably admitted into the secret, gave her
a pass to the mainland for herself, a manservant, an Irish spinning
maid, Betty Burke, and a boat's crew of six men. The prince was
disguised as Betty Burke. After a first repulse at Waternish, the party
landed at Portree. The prince was hidden in a cave while Flora Macdonald
found help for him in the neighbourhood, and was finally able to escape.
He had left Benbecula on the 27th of June. The talk of the boatmen
brought suspicion on Flora Macdonald, and she was arrested and brought
to London. After a short imprisonment in the Tower, she was allowed to
live outside of it, under the guard of a "messenger" or gaoler. When the
Act of Indemnity was passed in 1747 she was left at liberty. Her courage
and loyalty had gained her general sympathy, which was increased by her
good manners and gentle character. Dr Johnson, who saw her in 1773,
describes her as "a woman of soft features, gentle manners and elegant
presence." In 1750 she married Allen Macdonald of Kingsburgh, and in
1773 they emigrated to America. In the War of Independence he served the
British government and was taken prisoner. In 1779 his wife returned
home in a merchant ship which was attacked by a privateer. She refused
to leave the deck during the action, and was wounded in the arm. She
died on the 5th of March 1790. There is a statue to her memory in
Inverness. Flora Macdonald had a large family of sons, who mostly
entered the army or navy, and two daughters.
See A. C. Ewald, _Life and Times of Prince Charles Edward_ (1886). The
so-called _Autobiography_ of Flora Macdonald, published by her
grand-daughter F. F. Walde (1870) is of small value.
MACDONALD, GEORGE (1824-1905), Scottish novelist and poet, was born at
Huntly, Aberdeenshire. His father, a farmer, was one of the Macdonalds
of Glencoe, and a direct descendant of one of the families that suffered
in the massacre. Macdonald's youth was passed in his native town, under
the immediate influence of the Congregational Church, and in an
atmosphere strongly impregnated with Calvinism. He took his degree at
Aberdeen University, and migrated thence to London, studying at Highbury
College for the Congregational ministry. In 1850 he was appointed pastor
of Trinity Congregational Church, Arundel, and, after resigning his cure
there, was engaged in ministerial work in Manchester. His health,
however, was unequal to the strain, and after a short sojourn in Algiers
he settled in London and adopted the profession of literature. In 1856
he published his first book, _Within and Without_, a dramatic poem;
following it in 1857 with a volume of _Poems_, and in 1858 by the
delightful "faerie romance" _Phantastes_. His first conspicuous success
was achieved in 1862 with _David Elginbrod_, the forerunner of a number
of popular novels, which include _Alec Forbes of Howglen_ (1865),
_Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood_ (1866), _Robert Falconer_ (1868),
_Malcolm_ (1875), _The Marquis of Lossie_ (1877), and _Donal Grant_
(1883). He was for a time editor of _Good Words for the Young_, and
lectured successfully in America in 1872-1873. He wrote admirable
stories for the young, and published some volumes of sermons. In 1877 he
was given a civil list pension. He died on the 18th of September 1905.
Both as preacher and as lecturer on literary topics George Macdonald's
sincerity and moral enthusiasm exercised great influence upon
thoughtful minds. His verse is homely and direct, and marked by
religious fervour and simplicity. As a portrayer of Scottish
peasant-life in fiction he was the precursor of a large school, which
has benefited by his example and surpassed its original leader in
popularity. The religious tone of his novels is relieved by tolerance
and a broad spirit of humour, and the simpler emotions of humble life
are sympathetically treated.
MACDONALD, SIR HECTOR ARCHIBALD (1852-1903), British soldier, was born
of humble parentage at Muir of Allan-Grange, Ross-shire, Scotland, in
1852. As a boy he was employed in a draper's shop at Dingwall, but in
1870 he enlisted in the 92nd (Gordon) Highlanders. He rose rapidly
through the non-commissioned ranks, and had already been a
colour-sergeant for some years when, in the Afghan War of 1879, he
distinguished himself in the presence of the enemy so much as to be
promoted to commissioned rank, his advancement being equally acceptable
to his brother officers and popular with the rank and file. As a
subaltern he served in the first Boer War of 1880-81, and at Majuba,
where he was made prisoner, his bravery was so conspicuous that General
Joubert gave him back his sword. In 1885 he served under Sir Evelyn Wood
in the reorganization of the Egyptian army, and he took part in the Nile
Expedition of that year. In 1888 he became a regimental captain in the
British service, but continued to serve in the Egyptian army, being
particularly occupied with the training of the Sudanese battalions. In
1889 he received the D.S.O. for his conduct at Toski and in 1891, after
the action at Tokar, he was promoted substantive major. In 1896 he
commanded a brigade of the Egyptian army in the Dongola Expedition, and
during the following campaigns he distinguished himself in every
engagement, above all in the final battle of Omdurman (1898) at the
crisis of which Macdonald's Sudanese brigade, manoeuvring as a unit with
the coolness and precision of the parade ground, repulsed the most
determined attack of the Mahdists. After this great service Macdonald's
name became famous in England and Scotland, the popular sobriquet of
"Fighting Mac" testifying the interest aroused in the public mind by his
career and his soldierly personality. He was promoted colonel in the
army and appointed an aide-de-camp to the queen, and in 1899 he was
promoted major-general and appointed to a command in India. In December
1899 he was called to South Africa to command the Highland Brigade,
which had just suffered very heavily and had lost its commander,
Major-General A. G. Wauchope, in the battle of Magersfontein. He
commanded the brigade throughout Lord Roberts's Paardeberg, Bloemfontein
and Pretoria operations, and in 1901 he was made a K.C.B. In 1902 he was
appointed to command the troops in Ceylon, but early in the following
year (March 25, 1903) he committed suicide in Paris. A memorial to this
brilliant soldier, in the form of a tower 100 ft. high, was erected at
Dingwall and completed in 1907.
MACDONALD, JACQUES ÉTIENNE JOSEPH ALEXANDRE (1765-1840), duke of Taranto
and marshal of France, was born at Sedan on the 17th of November 1765.
His father came of an old Jacobite family, which had followed James II.
to France, and was a near relative of the celebrated Flora Macdonald. In
1785 Macdonald joined the legion raised to support the revolutionary
party in Holland against the Prussians, and after it was disbanded he
received a commission in the regiment of Dillon. On the breaking out of
the Revolution, the regiment of Dillon remained eminently loyal, with
the exception of Macdonald, who was in love with Mlle Jacob, whose
father was enthusiastic for the doctrines of the Revolution. Directly
after his marriage he was appointed aide-de-camp to General Dumouriez.
He distinguished himself at Jemmapes, and was promoted colonel in 1793.
He refused to desert to the Austrians with Dumouriez, and as a reward
was made general of brigade, and appointed to command the leading
brigade in Pichegru's invasion of Holland. His knowledge of the country
proved most useful, and he was instrumental in the capture of the Dutch
fleet by French hussars. In 1797, having been made general of division,
he served first in the army of the Rhine and then in that of Italy. When
he reached Italy, the peace of Campo Formio had been signed, and
Bonaparte had returned to France; but, under the direction of Berthier,
Macdonald first occupied Rome, of which he was made governor, and then
in conjunction with Championnet he defeated General Mack, and
revolutionized the kingdom of Naples under the title of the
Parthenopaean Republic. When Suvarov invaded northern Italy, and was
winning back the conquests of Bonaparte, Macdonald collected all the
troops in the peninsula and moved northwards. With but 30,000 men he
attacked, at the Trebbia, Suvarov with 50,000, and after three days'
fighting, during which he held the Russians at bay, and gave time for
Moreau to come up, he retired in good order to Genoa. After this gallant
behaviour he was made governor of Versailles, and acquiesced, if he did
not co-operate, in the events of the 18th Brumaire. In 1800 he received
the command of the army in Switzerland which was to maintain the
communications between the armies of Germany and of Italy. He carried
out his orders to the letter, and at last, in the winter of 1800-1, he
was ordered to march over the Splügen Pass. This achievement is fully
described by Mathieu Dumas, who was chief of his staff, and is at least
as noteworthy as Bonaparte's famous passage of the St Bernard before
Marengo, though followed by no such successful battle. On his return to
Paris Macdonald married the widow of General Joubert, and was appointed
French plenipotentiary in Denmark. Returning in 1805 he associated
himself with Moreau and incurred the dislike of Napoleon, who did not
include him in his first creation of marshals. Till 1809 he remained
without employment, but in that year Napoleon gave him the command of a
corps and the duties of military adviser to the young prince Eugène
Beauharnais, viceroy of Italy. He led the army from Italy till its
junction with Napoleon, and at Wagram commanded the celebrated column of
attack which broke the Austrian centre and won the victory. Napoleon
made him marshal of France on the field of battle, and presently created
him duke of Taranto. In 1810 he served in Spain, and in 1812 he
commanded the left wing of the grand army for the invasion of Russia. In
1813, after sharing in the battles of Lützen and Bautzen, he was ordered
to invade Silesia, where Blücher defeated him with great loss at the
Katzbach (see NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS). After the terrible battle of
Leipzig he was ordered with Prince Poniatowski to cover the evacuation
of Leipzig; after the blowing up of the bridge, he managed to swim the
Elster, while Poniatowski was drowned. During the defensive campaign of
1814 Macdonald again distinguished himself; he was one of the marshals
sent by Napoleon to take his abdication in favour of his son to Paris.
When all were deserting their old master, Macdonald remained faithful to
him. He was directed by Napoleon to give in his adherence to the new
regime, and was presented by him with the sabre of Murad Bey for his
fidelity. At the Restoration he was made a peer of France and knight
grand cross of the order of St Louis; he remained faithful to the new
order of things during the Hundred Days. In 1815 he became chancellor of
the Legion of Honour (a post he held till 1831), in 1816 major-general
of the royal bodyguard, and he took a great part in the discussions in
the House of Peers, voting consistently as a moderate Liberal. In 1823
he married Mlle de Bourgony, by whom he had a son, Alexander, who
succeeded on his death in 1840 as duke of Taranto. From 1830 his life
was spent in retirement at his country place Courcelles-le-Roi (Seine et
Oise), where he died on the 7th of September 1840.
Macdonald had none of that military genius which distinguished Davout,
Masséna and Lannes, nor of that military science conspicuous in Marmont
and St Cyr, but nevertheless his campaign in Switzerland gives him a
rank far superior to such mere generals of division as Oudinot and
Dupont. This capacity for independent command made Napoleon, in spite of
his defeats at the Trebbia and the Katzbach, trust him with large
commands till the end of his career. As a man, his character cannot be
spoken of too highly; no stain of cruelty or faithlessness rests on him.
Macdonald was especially fortunate in the accounts of his military
exploits, Mathieu Dumas and Ségur having been on his staff in
Switzerland. See Dumas, _Événements militaires_; and Ségur's rare
tract, _Lettre sur la campagne du Général Macdonald dans les Grisons
en 1800 et 1801_ (1802), and _Éloge_ (1842). His memoirs were
published in 1892 (Eng. trans., _Recollections of Marshal Macdonald_),
but are brief and wanting in balance.
MACDONALD, SIR JOHN ALEXANDER (1815-1891), first premier of the dominion
of Canada, was born in Glasgow on the 11th of January 1815, the third
child of Hugh Macdonald (d. 1841), a native of Sutherlandshire. The
family emigrated to Canada in 1820, settling first at Kingston, Ontario.
At the age of fifteen Macdonald entered a law office; he was called to
the bar in 1836, and began practice in Kingston, with immediate success.
Macdonald entered upon his active career at a critical period in the
history of Canada, and the circumstances of the time were calculated to
stimulate political thought. It was the year before the rebellion of
1837; the condition of the whole country was very unsettled; and it
seemed well-nigh impossible to reconcile differences arising from racial
and political antagonisms. During the rebellion young Macdonald
volunteered for active service, but his military career never went
farther than drilling and marching. The mission of Lord Durham; the
publication of his famous report; the union of the two Canadas; the
administrations of Lord Sydenham, Sir Charles Bagot, and Sir Charles
Metcalfe, filled the years immediately succeeding 1837 with intense
political interest, and in their results have profoundly influenced the
constitution of the British Empire.
Macdonald made his first acquaintance with public business as an
alderman of Kingston. In 1844 Sir Charles Metcalfe, in his contest with
the Reform party led by Baldwin and Lafontaine, appealed to the
electors, and Macdonald was elected to the provincial assembly as
Conservative member for Kingston. A sentence in his first address to the
electors strikes the dominant note of his public career: "I therefore
need scarcely state my firm belief that the prosperity of Canada depends
upon its permanent connexion with the mother country, and that I shall
resist to the utmost any attempt (from whatever quarter it may come)
which may tend to weaken that union." He took his seat on the 28th of
November as a supporter of the Draper government. During the first three
or four years he spoke little, but devoted himself with assiduity to
mastering parliamentary forms and the business of the house. His
capacity soon attracted attention, and in 1847 he was made
receiver-general with a seat in the executive council, an office soon
exchanged for the more important one of commissioner of Crown-lands.
Although the government of which he thus became a member held office for
only ten months, being placed in a hopeless minority on making an appeal
to the country, Macdonald from this time forward took a position of
constantly increasing weight in his party.
One of the first acts of the Reform government which succeeded that of
which Macdonald was a member was to pass the Rebellion Losses Bill, made
famous in colonial history by the fact that it brought to a crucial test
the principle of responsible government. The assent of Lord Elgin to the
bill provoked in Montreal a riot which ended in the burning of the
houses of parliament, and so great was the indignation of the hitherto
ultra-loyal Conservative party that many of its most prominent members
signed a document favouring annexation to the United States; Macdonald
on the other hand took steps, in conjunction with others, to form a
British-American league, having for its object the confederation of all
the provinces, the strengthening of the connexion with the mother
country, and the adoption of a national commercial policy. He remained
in opposition from 1848 till 1854, holding together under difficult
circumstances an unpopular party with which he was not entirely in
sympathy. The two great political issues of the time were the
secularization of the clergy reserves in Ontario, and the abolition of
seigniorial tenure in Quebec. Both of these reforms Macdonald long
opposed, but when successive elections had proved that they were
supported by public opinion, he brought about a coalition of
Conservatives and moderate reformers for the purpose of carrying them.
Out of this coalition was gradually developed the Liberal-conservative
party, of which until his death Macdonald continued to be the most
considerable figure, and which for more than forty years largely moulded
the history of Canada. From 1854 to 1857 he was attorney-general of
Upper Canada, and then, on the retirement of Colonel Taché, he became
prime minister. This first coalition had now accomplished its temporary
purpose, but so closely were parties divided at this period, that the
defeat and reinstatement of governments followed each other in rapid
succession.
The experiment of applying responsible government on party lines to the
two Canadian provinces at last seemed to have come to a deadlock. Two
general elections and the defeat of four ministries within three years
had done nothing to solve the difficulties of the situation. At this
critical period a proposal was made for a coalition of parties in order
to carry out a broad scheme of British-American confederation. The
immediate proposal is said to have come from George Brown; the large
political idea had long been advocated by Macdonald and Alexander Galt
in Upper Canada--by Joseph Howe and others in the maritime provinces.
The close of the American Civil War, the Fenian raids across the
American border, and the dangers incident to the international
situation, gave a decisive impulse to the movement. Macdonald, at the
head of a representative delegation from Ontario and Quebec, met the
public men of the maritime provinces in conference at Charlottetown in
1864, and the outline of confederation then agreed upon was filled out
in detail at a conference held at Quebec soon afterwards. The actual
framing of the British North America Act, into which the resolutions of
these two conferences were consolidated, was carried out at the
Westminster Palace Hôtel in London, during December 1866 and January
1867, by delegates from all the provinces working in co-operation with
the law officers of the Crown, under the presidency of Lord Carnarvon,
then secretary of state for the colonies. Macdonald took the leading
part in all these discussions, and he thus naturally became the first
premier of the Dominion. He was made a K.C.B. in recognition of his
services to the empire.
The difficulties of organizing the new Dominion, the questions arising
from diverse claims and the various conditions of the country, called
for infinite tact and resource on the part of the premier. Federal
rights were to be safeguarded against the provincial governments, always
jealous of their privileges. The people of Nova Scotia in particular,
dissatisfied with the way in which their province had been drawn into
the Union, maintained a fierce opposition to the Ottawa government,
until their leader, Joseph Howe, fearing an armed rising, came to an
agreement with Macdonald and accepted a seat in his cabinet. The
establishment of a supreme court also occupied the attention of Sir
John, who had a strong sense of the necessity of maintaining the purity
and dignity of the judicial office. The act creating this court was
finally passed during the administration of Alexander Mackenzie. The
pledge made at confederation with regard to the building of the
Intercolonial railway to connect the maritime provinces with those of
the St Lawrence was fulfilled. The North-West Territories were secured
as a part of confederated Canada by the purchase of the rights of the
Hudson's Bay Company, and the establishment of Manitoba as a province in
1870. Canada's interests were protected during the negotiations which
ended in the treaty of Washington in 1871, and in which Sir John took a
leading part as one of the British delegates. In this year British
Columbia entered the confederation, one of the provisions of union being
that a transcontinental railroad should be built within ten years. This
was declared by the opposition to be impossible. It was possible only to
a leader of indomitable will. Charges of bribery against the government
in connexion with the contract for the building of this line led to the
resignation of the cabinet in 1874, and for four years Sir John was in
opposition. But he was by no means inactive. During the summer of 1876
he travelled through Ontario addressing the people on the subject of a
commercial system looking to the protection of native industries. This
was the celebrated "National Policy," which had been in his thoughts as
long ago as the formation of the British-American League in 1850. The
government of Alexander Mackenzie refused to consider a protection
policy, and determined to adhere to Free Trade, with a tariff for
revenue only. On these strongly defined issues the two parties appealed
to the people in 1878. The Liberal party was almost swept away, and Sir
John, on his return to power, put his policy into effect with a
thoroughness that commanded the admiration even of his opponents, who,
after long resistance, adopted it on their accession to office in 1896.
He also undertook the immediate construction of the Canadian Pacific
railway, which had been postponed by the former government. The line was
begun late in 1880, and finished in November 1885--an achievement which
Sir John ranked among his greatest triumphs. "The faith of Sir John,"
says one of his biographers, "did more to build the road than the money
of Mount-Stephen."
During the remaining years of his life his efforts at administration
were directed mainly towards the organization and development of the
great North-West. From 1878 until his death in 1891 Sir John retained
his position as premier of Canada, and his history is practically that
of Canada (q.v.). For forty-six years of a stormy political life he
remained true to the cardinal policy that he had announced to the
electors of Kingston in 1844. "A British subject I was born; a British
subject I will die," says his last political manifesto to the people of
the Dominion. At his advanced age the anxiety and excitement of the
contested election of 1891 proved too great. On the 29th of May he
suffered a stroke of paralysis, which caused his death eight days later
(June 6).
The career of Sir John Macdonald must be considered in connexion with
the political history of Canada and the conditions of its government
during the latter half of the 19th century. Trained in a school where
the principles of responsible government were still in an embryonic
state, where the adroit management of coalitions and cabals was
essential to the life of a political party, and where plots and
counterplots were looked upon as a regular part of the political game,
he acquired a dexterity and skill in managing men that finally gave him
an almost autocratic power among his political followers. But great
personal qualities supplemented his political dexterity and sagacity. A
strong will enabled him to overcome the passionate temper which marked
his youth, and later in his career a habit of intemperance, which he at
first shared with many public men of his time. He was a man of strong
ambitions, but these were curbed by a shrewd foresight, which led him
for a long time to submit to the nominal leadership of other and smaller
men. Politics he made his business, and to this he devoted all his
energies. He had the gift of living for the work in hand without feeling
the distraction of other interests. He had a singular faculty for
reading the minds and the motives of men, and to this insight he perhaps
owed the power of adaptability (called by his opponents shiftiness)
which characterized his whole career. To this power the successful
guidance of the Dominion through its critical formative period must be
ascribed. Few political leaders have ever had such a number of
antagonistic elements to reconcile as presented themselves in the first
Canadian parliament after confederation. The man who could manage to
rule a congeries of jealous factions, including Irish Catholics and
Orangemen, French and English anti-federationists and agitators for
independence, Conservatives and Reformers, careful economists and
prodigal expansionists, was manifestly a man of unusual power, superior
to small prejudices, and without strong bias towards any creed or
section. Such a man Macdonald proved himself to be. His personality
stands out at this period as the central power in which each faction
chiefly reposed trust, and under which it could join hands with the
others in the service of the state. His singleness of purpose, personal
independence and indomitable energy enabled him to achieve triumphs
that to others seemed impossible. His methods cannot always be defended,
and were explained by himself only on grounds of necessity and the
character of the electorate with which he had to deal. After the
"Pacific scandal" of 1874 the leader of the opposite party declared that
"John A." (as he was generally called) "has fallen, never to rise
again." Yet he not only cleared his own character from the charges laid
against him, but succeeded four years later in achieving his most signal
party triumph. His natural urbanity allowed him to rule without seeming
to rule. When baffled in minor objects he gave way with a good-natured
flexibility which brought upon him at times charges of inconsistency.
Yet Canada has seen statesmen of more contracted view insist on such
small points, fall, and drag down their party with them. He lived at a
time when the exigencies of state seemed to require the peculiar talents
which he possessed. Entering politics at the dreariest and least
profitable stage in Canadian history, he took the foremost part in the
movement which made of Canada a nation; he guided that nation through
the nebulous stages of its existence, and left it united, strong and
vigorous, a monument to his patriotic and far-sighted statesmanship. His
statue adorns the squares of the principal Canadian towns. In the crypt
of St Paul's Cathedral a memorial has rightly been placed to him as a
statesman, not merely of Canada, but of the empire. In unveiling that
memorial Lord Rosebery fitly epitomized the meaning of his life and work
when he said: "We recognize only this, that Sir John Macdonald had
grasped the central idea that the British Empire is the greatest secular
agency for good now known to mankind; that that was the secret of his
success; and that he determined to die under it, and strove that Canada
should live under it." Macdonald became a member of the Imperial Privy
Council in 1879, and in 1884 he received the Grand Cross of the Bath.
His first wife was his cousin, Miss Isabella Clark, who died in 1858,
leaving one surviving son, the Hon. Hugh John Macdonald, at one time
premier of the province of Manitoba. By his second marriage, to Miss
Bernard in 1867, Macdonald left an only daughter. On his death in 1891
his widow was created Baroness Macdonald of Earnscliffe.
The authorized and fullest biography of Sir John A. Macdonald is one
written by his private secretary, Joseph Pope. Others have been
written by his nephew, Colonel J. Pennington Macpherson, and by J. E.
Collins. A bright and amusing anecdotal life has been compiled by E.
D. Biggar. A condensed biography by G. R. Parkin forms one of the
"Makers of Canada" series (Toronto, 1907; new ed., 1909).
(G. R. P.)
MACDONALD, JOHN SANDFIELD (1812-1872), Canadian statesman, was born at
St Raphael, Glengarry county, Ontario, on the 12th of December 1812. He
was admitted to the bar in 1840, and settled in Cornwall. In the same
year he married Miss Waggaman, the daughter of an American senator from
Louisiana. In 1841 he was elected to the Canadian parliament for
Glengarry, which seat he held for sixteen years. In 1842 he joined the
Reformers in the cry for constitutional government, and from 1852 to
1854 was Speaker of the house. He was always uncertain in his party
allegiance, and often attacked George Brown, the Liberal leader. Indeed,
he well described himself as "the Ishmael of parliament." In 1862 he was
called on by Lord Monck, the governor-general, to form a ministry, which
by manifold shifts held office till February 1864. In the debates on
federation he opposed the measure, but on its passage was in 1867
entrusted by the Conservatives with the task of organizing the
provincial government of Ontario. He ruled the province with economy and
efficiency, but was defeated in December 1871 by the Liberals, resigned
the premiership, and died on the 1st of June 1872.
MACDONALD, LAWRENCE (1799-1878), British sculptor, was born at
Findo-Gask, Perthshire, Scotland. In early life he served as a mason's
apprentice. Having shown an aptitude for stone carving, he became an art
student at the Trustees' Academy, Edinburgh. By the help of friends he
was enabled to visit Rome, where together with other artists he helped
to found the British Academy of Arts. He returned to Edinburgh in 1826.
In 1829 he was elected a member of the Scottish Academy. From 1832 until
his death his home was in Rome. Among his ideal works may be mentioned
"Ulysses and his Dog Argos," "Andromeda chained to the Rock,"
"Eurydice," "Hyacinth," a "Siren," and a "Bacchante."
MACDONELL, JAMES (1841-1879), British journalist, was born at Dyce,
Aberdeenshire. In 1858, after his father's death, he became clerk in a
merchant's office. He began writing in the _Aberdeen Free Press_; in
1862 he was appointed to the staff of the _Daily Review_ at Edinburgh,
and at twenty-two he became editor of the _Northern Daily Express_. In
1865 he went to London to accept a position on the staff of the _Daily
Telegraph_, which he retained until 1875, being special correspondent in
France in 1870 and 1871. In 1873 he became a leader-writer on _The
Times_. He died in London on the 2nd of March 1879. His posthumous
_France since the First Empire_, though incomplete, gave a clever and
accurate account of the French politics of his time.
MACDONNELL (or MACDONELL), ALESTAIR (i.e. Alexander) RUADH (c.
1725-1761), chief of Glengarry, a Scottish Jacobite who has been
identified by Andrew Lang as the secret agent "Pickle," who acted as a
spy on Prince Charles Edward after 1750. The family were a branch of the
clan Macdonald, but spelt their name Macdonnell or Macdonell. His father
was John, 12th chief of Glengarry, a violent and brutal man, who is said
to have starved his first wife, Alestair's mother, to death on an island
in the Hebrides. Alestair ran away to France while a mere boy in 1738,
and there entered the Royal Scots, a regiment in the French service. In
1743 he commanded a company in it, and in 1744 was sent to Scotland as a
Jacobite agent. In January 1745 he was sent back with messages, and was
in France when Prince Charles Edward landed in Scotland. Late in 1745 he
was captured at sea while bringing a picquet of the Royal Scots to help
the prince. He remained a prisoner in the Tower for twenty-two months,
and when released went abroad. In 1744 his father had made a transfer to
him of the family estates, which were ruined. Alestair, who still
affected to be a Jacobite, lived for a time in great poverty. In 1749 he
was in London, and there is good reason to believe that he then offered
his services as a spy to the British government, with which he
communicated under the name of Pickle. His information enabled British
ministers to keep a close watch on the prince and on the Jacobite
conspiracies. Though he was denounced by a Mrs Cameron, whose husband he
betrayed to death in 1752, he never lost the confidence of the Jacobite
leaders. On the death of his father, in 1754, he succeeded to the
estates, and proved himself a greedy landlord. He died on the 23rd of
December 1761.
See Andrew Lang, _Pickle the Spy_ (1897) and _The Companions of
Pickle_ (1898).
MACDONNELL, SORLEY BOY (c. 1505-1590), Scoto-Irish chieftain, son of
Alexander Macdonnell, lord of Islay and Kintyre (Cantire), was born at
Ballycastle, Co. Antrim. From an ancestor who about a hundred years
earlier had married Margaret Bisset, heiress of the district on the
Antrim coast known as the Glynns (or Glens), he inherited a claim to the
lordship of that territory; and he was one of the most powerful of the
Scottish settlers in Ulster whom the English government in the 16th
century found difficulty in bringing into subjection. Many attempts were
made to drive them out of Ireland, in one of which, about 1550, Sorley
Boy Macdonnell was taken prisoner and conveyed to Dublin Castle, where,
however, his confinement was brief. The chief rivals of the Macdonnells
were the Mac Quillins who dominated the northern portion of Antrim,
known as the Route, and whose stronghold was Dunluce Castle, near the
mouth of the Bush. Sorley Boy Macdonnell took an active part in the
tribal warfare between his own clan and the Mac Quillins; and in 1558,
when the latter had been to a great extent overcome, his elder brother
James committed to him the lordship of the Route, his hold on which he
made good by decisively defeating the Mac Quillins in Glenshesk. Sorley
Boy was now too powerful and turbulent to be neglected by Queen
Elizabeth and her ministers, who were also being troubled by his great
contemporary, Shane O'Neill; and the history of Ulster for the next
twenty years consists for the most part of alternating conflict and
alliance between Macdonnells and O'Neills, and attempts on the part of
the English government to subdue them both. With this object Elizabeth
aimed at fomenting the rivalry between the two clans; and she came to
terms sometimes with the one and sometimes with the other. Sorley Boy's
wife was an illegitimate half-sister of Shane O'Neill; but this did not
deter him from leaguing himself with the government against the
O'Neills, if by so doing he could obtain a formal recognition of his
title to the lands of which he was in actual possession. In 1562 Shane
O'Neill paid his celebrated visit to London, where he obtained
recognition by Elizabeth of his claims as head of the O'Neills; and on
his return to Ireland he attacked the Macdonnells, ostensibly in the
English interest. He defeated Sorley Boy near Coleraine in the summer of
1564; in 1565 he invaded the Glynns, and at Ballycastle won a decisive
victory, in which James Macdonnell and Sorley Boy were taken prisoners.
James soon afterwards died, but Sorley Boy remained O'Neill's captive
till 1567, when Shane was murdered by the Macdonnells at Cushendun (see
O'NEILL). Sorley Boy then went to Scotland to enlist support, and he
spent the next few years in striving to frustrate the schemes of Sir
Thomas Smith, and later of the earl of Essex, for colonizing Ulster with
English settlers. Sorley Boy was willing to come to terms with the
government provided his claims to his lands were allowed, but Essex
determined to reduce him to unconditional submission. John Norris was
ordered to proceed by sea from Carrickfergus to Rathlin Island, where
Sorley Boy's children and valuables, together with the families of his
principal retainers, had been lodged for safety; and while the chieftain
was himself at Ballycastle, within sight of the island, the women and
children were massacred by the English. Sorley Boy retaliated by a
successful raid on Carrickfergus and by re-establishing his power in the
Glynns and the Route, which the Mac Quillins made ineffectual attempts
to recover. Macdonnell's position was still further strengthened by an
alliance with Turlough Luineach O'Neill, and by a formidable immigration
of followers from the Scottish islands. In 1584 Sir John Perrot
determined to make a further effort to subdue the turbulent chieftain.
After another expedition to Scotland seeking help, Sorley Boy landed at
Cushendun in January 1585, and his followers regained possession of
Dunluce Castle. In these circumstances Sir John Perrot opened
negotiations with Sorley Boy, who in the summer of 1586 repaired to
Dublin and made submission to Elizabeth's representative. He obtained a
grant to himself and his heirs of all the Route country between the
rivers Bann and Bush, with certain other lands to the east, and was made
constable of Dunluce Castle, For the rest of his life Sorley Boy gave no
trouble to the English government. He died in 1590, and was buried in
Bonamairgy Abbey, at Ballycastle. He is said to have married when over
eighty years of age, as his second wife, a daughter of Turlough Luineach
O'Neill, a kinswoman of his first wife; and two of his five daughters
married members of the O'Neill family. Sorley Boy had several sons by
his first marriage, one of whom, Randal, was created earl of Antrim
(q.v.), and was ancestor of the present holder of that title.
See G. Hill, _An Historical Account of the Macdonnells of Antrim_
(London, 1873); Richard Bagwell, _Ireland under the Tudors_ (3 vols.,
London, 1885-1890); _Calendar of State Papers: Carew MSS._ i., ii., (6
vols., 1867-1873); Donald Gregory, _History of the Western Highlands
and Isles of Scotland_ 1493-1625 (London, 1881); Sir J. T. Gilbert,
_History of the Viceroys of Ireland_ (Dublin, 1865). (R. J. M.)
MACDONOUGH, THOMAS (1786-1825), American sailor, was born in the state
of Delaware, his father being an officer of the Continental Army, and
entered the United States navy in 1800. During his long service as a
lieutenant he took part in the bombardment of Tripoli, and on a
subsequent occasion showed great firmness in resisting the seizure of a
seaman as an alleged deserter from the British navy, his ship at the
time lying under the guns of Gibraltar. When war with England broke out,
in 1812, he was ordered to cruise in the lakes between Canada and the
United States, with his headquarters on lake Champlain. He was
instrumental in saving New York and Vermont from invasion by his
brilliant victory of lake Champlain gained, on the 11th of September
1814, with a flotilla of 14 vessels carrying 86 guns, over Captain
George Downie's 16 vessels and 92 guns. For this important achievement
New York and Vermont granted him estates, whilst Congress gave him a
gold medal.
MacDOWELL, EDWARD ALEXANDER (1861-1908), American musical composer, was
born in New York City on the 18th of December 1861. His father, an
Irishman of Belfast, had emigrated to America shortly before the boy's
birth. He had a varied education in music, first under Spanish-American
teachers, and then in Europe, at Paris (Debussy being a fellow pupil),
Stuttgart, Wiesbaden and Weimar, where he was chiefly influenced by
Joachim, Raff and Liszt. From 1879 to 1887 he lived in Germany, teaching
and studying, and also appearing as solo pianist at important concerts.
In 1884 he married Marian Nevins, of New York. In 1888 he returned to
America, and settled in Boston till in 1896 he was made professor of
music at Columbia University, New York. He resigned this post in 1904,
and in 1905 overwork and insomnia resulted in a complete cerebral
collapse. He died on the 24th of January 1908. MacDowell's work gives
him perhaps the highest place among American composers. Deeply
influenced by modern French models and by German romanticism, full of
poetry and "atmosphere," and founded on the "programme," idea of
composition, it is essentially creative in the spirit of a searcher
after delicate truths of artistic expression. His employment of touches
of American folk-song, suggested by Indian themes, is characteristic.
This is notably the case with his orchestral _Indian Suite_ (1896) and
_Woodland Sketches_ for the piano. His first concerto, in A minor, for
piano and orchestra, and first pianoforte suite, were performed at
Weimar in 1882. His works include orchestral suites and "poems," songs,
choruses, and various pieces for pianoforte, his own instrument; they
are numbered from _op._ 9 to _op._ 62, his first eight numbered works
being destroyed by him.
See Lawrence Gilman, _Edward MacDowell_ (1906).
McDOWELL, IRVIN (1818-1885), American soldier, was born in Columbus,
Ohio, on the 15th of October 1818. He was educated in France, and
graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1838. From 1841 to 1845 he
was instructor, and later adjutant, at West Point. He won the brevet of
captain in the Mexican War, at the battle of Buena Vista, and served as
adjutant-general, chiefly at Washington, until 1861, being promoted
major in 1856. In 1858-1859 he visited Europe. Whilst occupied in
mustering volunteers at the capital, he was made brigadier-general in
May 1861, and placed in command during the premature Virginian campaign
of July, which ended in the defeat at Bull Run. Under McClellan he
became a corps commander and major-general of volunteers (March 1862).
When the Peninsular campaign began McDowell's corps was detained against
McClellan's wishes, sent away to join in the fruitless chase of
"Stonewall" Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley, and eventually came under
the command of General Pope, taking part in the disastrous campaign of
Second Bull Run. Involved in Pope's disgrace, McDowell was relieved of
duty in the field (Sept. 1862), and served on the Pacific coast 1864-68.
He became, on Meade's death in November 1872, major-general of regulars
(a rank which he already held by brevet), and commanded successively the
department of the east, the division of the south, and the division of
the Pacific until his retirement in 1882. The latter years of his life
were spent in California, and he died at San Francisco on the 4th of May
1885. As a commander he was uniformly unfortunate. Undoubtedly he was a
faithful, unselfish and energetic soldier, in patriotic sympathy with
the administration, and capable of great achievements. It was his
misfortune to be associated with the first great disaster to the Union
cause, to play the part of D'Erlon at Quatre-Bras between the armies of
Banks and McClellan, and finally to be involved in the catastrophe of
Pope's campaign. That he was perhaps too ready to accept great risks at
the instance of his superiors is the only just criticism to which his
military character was open.
MACDUFF, a police burgh and seaport of Banffshire, Scotland. Pop.
(1001), 3431. It lies on the right bank of the mouth of the Deveron, 1
m. E. of Banff and 50¼ m. N.W. of Aberdeen by the Great North of
Scotland railway. The site was originally occupied by the fishing
village of Doune, but after its purchase by the 1st earl of Fife, about
1732, the name was altered to Macduff by the 2nd earl, who also procured
for it in 1783 a royal charter constituting it a burgh. In honour of the
occasion he rebuilt the market cross, in front of the parish church. The
harbour, safer and more accessible than that of Banff, was constructed
by the duke of Fife, and transferred to the burgh in 1808. The
inhabitants are chiefly employed in the herring fishery, but there is
some boat-building, besides rope-and-sail making, manure works,
saw-mills and oilcake mills. A stone bridge across the Deveron
communicates with Banff. Good bathing facilities, a bracing climate and
a mineral well attract numerous visitors to Macduff every summer. The
burgh unites with Banff, Cullen, Elgin, Inverurie, Kintore and Peterhead
(the Elgin burghs) in returning one member to parliament.
McDUFFIE, GEORGE (1788-1851), American political leader, was born in
Columbia county, Georgia. He Was admitted to the bar in 1814, and served
in the South Carolina General Assembly in 1818-1821, and in the national
House of Representatives in 1821-1834. In 1821 he published a pamphlet
in which strict construction and states' rights were strongly denounced;
yet in 1832 there were few more uncompromising nullificationists. The
change seems to have been gradual, and to have been determined in part
by the influence of John C. Calhoun. When, after 1824, the old
Democratic-Republican party split into factions, he followed Andrew
Jackson and Martin Van Buren in opposing the Panama Congress and the
policy of making Federal appropriations for internal improvements. He
did not hesitate, however, to differ from Jackson on the two chief
issues of his administration: the Bank and nullification. In 1832 he was
a prominent member of the South Carolina Nullification Convention, and
drafted its address to the people of the United States. He served as
governor in 1834-1836, during which time he helped to reorganize South
Carolina College. From January 1843 until January 1846 he was a member
of the United States Senate. The leading Democratic measures of those
years all received his hearty support. McDuffie, like Calhoun, became an
eloquent champion of state sovereignty; but while Calhoun emphasized
state action as the only means of redressing a grievance, McDuffie paid
more attention to the grievance itself. Influenced in large measure by
Thomas Cooper, he made it his special work to convince the people of the
South that the downfall of protection was essential to their material
progress. His argument that it is the producer who really pays the duty
of imports has been called the economic basis of nullification. He died
at Cherry Hill, Sumter district, South Carolina, on the 11th of March
1851.
MACE (Fr. _masse_, O. Fr. _mace_, connected with Lat. _mateola_, a
mallet), originally a weapon of offence, made of iron, steel or latten,
capable of breaking through the strongest armour.[1] The earliest
_ceremonial_ maces, as they afterwards became, though at first intended
to protect the king's person, were those borne by the serjeants-at-arms,
a royal body-guard established in France by Philip II., and in England
probably by Richard I. By the 14th century a tendency towards a more
decorative serjeant's mace, encased with precious metals, is noticeable.
The history of the civic mace (carried by the serjeants-at-mace) begins
about the middle of the 13th century, though no examples of that period
are in existence to-day. Ornamented civic maces were considered an
infringement of one of the privileges of the king's serjeants, who,
according to the Commons' petition in 1344, were alone deemed worthy of
having maces enriched with costly metals. This privilege was, however,
granted to the serjeants of London, and later to those of York (in
1396), Norwich (in 1403/4) and Chester (in 1506). Maces covered with
silver are known to have been used at Exeter in 1387/8; two were bought
at Norwich in 1435, and others for Launceston in 1467/8. Several other
cities and towns had silver maces in the next century, and in the 16th
they were almost universally used. Early in the 15th century the flanged
end of the mace, i.e. the head of the war mace, was borne uppermost, and
the small button with the royal arms in the base. By the beginning of
the Tudor period, however, these blade-like flanges, originally made for
offence, degenerated into mere ornaments, while the greater importance
of the end with the royal arms (afterwards enriched with a cresting)
resulted in the reversal of the position. The custom of carrying the
flanged end upward did not die out at once: a few maces were made to
carry both ways, such as the beautiful pair of Winchcombe silver maces,
dating from the end of the 15th century. The Guildford mace is one of
the finest of the fifteen specimens of the 15th century. The flanged
ends of the maces of this period were often beautifully pierced and
decorated. These flanges gradually became smaller, and later (in the
16th and early 17th centuries) developed into pretty projecting
scroll-brackets and other ornaments, which remained in vogue till about
1640. The next development in the embellishment of the shaft was the
reappearance of these small scroll-brackets on the top, immediately
under the head of the mace. They disappear altogether from the foot in
the last half of the 17th century, and are found only under the heads,
or, in rarer instances, on a knob on the shaft. The silver mace-heads
were mostly plain, with a cresting of leaves or flowers in the 15th and
16th centuries. In the reign of James I. they began to be engraved and
decorated with heraldic devices, &c. As the custom of having serjeants'
maces ceased (about 1650), the large maces, borne before the mayor or
bailiffs, came into general use. Thomas Maundy was the chief maker of
maces during the Commonwealth. He made the mace for the House of Commons
in 1649, which is the one at present in use there, though without the
original head with the non-regal symbols, the latter having been
replaced by one with regal symbols at the Restoration. There are two
maces in the House of Lords, the earliest dating from the reign of
William III. The dates of the eight large and massive silver-gilt maces
of the serjeants-at-arms, kept in the jewel-house at the Tower of
London, are as follows: two of Charles II., two of James II., three of
William and Mary, and one of Queen Anne (the cypher of George I. was
subsequently added to the latter). All the foregoing are of the type
which was almost universally adopted, with slight differences, at the
Restoration. The civic maces of the 18th century follow this type, with
some modifications in shape and ornamentation. The historic English
silver maces of the 18th century include the one of 1753 at Norfolk,
Virginia, and that of 1756 of the state of South Carolina, both in the
United States of America; two, made in 1753 and 1787, at Jamaica; that
of 1791 belonging to the colony of Grenada, and the Speaker's mace at
Barbados, dating from 1812; and the silver mace of the old Irish House
of Commons, 1765-1766, now in the possession of Lord Massereene and
Ferrard.
[Illustration: From Jewitt and Hope's _Corporation Plate and Insignia_
(1895), by permission of Bemrose & Co.