*l 



ItACXAB, SIR AI.VX. 



MACPHERSOX. JAMES. 



FUaboroufh'a.' In IMS his chief work was his powerful rendering of 

 UM * Pky-Seaoe in Hamlet 'now a leading attraction in the Veroon 

 r.lliiaie. The Return of the Knight, J the ' Origin of the 

 Harp.' In 1841, 'The Actor* reception of th* Author-Uil Bias;' 

 in 1811. 'Sabrina release* the Lady from the Enchanted Chair 

 Oomos,' which b* repeated in fresco in the .ntnmer-houM at Bucking- 

 baa Pelaee; hi 1844. 'OroVeJ by Touch ; ' in 1847. ' Noahs Sacrifice ;' 

 and in 1848, Chivalry of UM reign of Henry VIII.,' and his fsmoui 

 desk*) of Shakapear.'* Seven Agia,' In 1890 he painted the last he 

 has exhibited of his happy versions of Goldamith -indeed the last, as 

 it wa. perbaaelUbertof hJean-llhmixjroo.piotur.s.-'Thearo*. 

 of Green Spectacle*.' Thi. year he painted hi* very striking fresco 

 ia the BOOM of Lord*. Th* Spirit of Justice.' ' Caxton's Printing- 



, of Lord*. "The Spirit 



_ . ' appeared in 1851 ; in 1853, ' Alfred in the Tent of Guthrum 

 the Dan*;' in ISM. "The Marritge of Strongbow to the Princes. 

 Bva' to b* repeated with alteration* in the New Palace of We*t- 

 smbwtor ; and ia 1855 a Seen* from A* Yon Like It Orlando about 

 to engage with UM Duke's Wrestler : ' 18i6 wa. a blank. 



Both ia hi* choice of eabjecte and his mode of treating them, Mr. 

 afaclis* ha* struck out a path for himself. Without rejecting their 

 Iseaaiaf. he has leant lee* than almost any other of our eminent 

 bsrtanoal painter* upon hi* great predecessors. Neither in compo- 

 sition nor colour can he be charged with imitation. Always he is 

 original and always self-reliant In his earlier picture* be showed 

 the possession of much humour, in hi* later he ha* aimed more and 

 ore after intensity of expression not seldom marring thereby the 

 dignity and repoee of hie conception : but at all time* he has dis- 

 played a teeming, often an exuberant, imagination. His drawing is 

 tree and firm, and all UM details are strongly made out, whence some- 

 time* arises a considerable degree of hardness. So again his colour, 

 whilst generally tree and frequently very beautiful, especially iu 

 parts, ha* aomewbat of an overwrought metallic Itutre : but that it 

 wean well, improving in tone and general effect, may be seen by 

 the ' Play-Scene in Hamlet' in the Veruon Gallery, and even uiore 

 decidedly in some of bis great works in private collection*. 



Beside* his historical and genre pictures, Mr. Maclise has punted a 

 good many portrait*, of which those of Lyttou, Dickens, Forster, and 

 Macrredy are among the brat known. He has also designed 

 illustration, for books, among others Moore's 'Irish 



Melodies,' Bui wers ' Pilgrims of the Rhine,' the ' Keepsake,' and other 



MACNAB, SIR ALAN. Th* name of Sir AUn MaoNab i* well 

 known to English readers, through the pages of Sir Francis Head'* 

 Emigrant' and his 'Narrative of Canadian Affaire,' as one of the 

 ablest and most public-spirited of her Majesty'* Canadian subjects. 

 Sprung from the ancient Scottish family of Mach a Nab, his father 

 omigrat-d to Canada, where Sir Alan himself wa* born in 1798 and 

 reeslviJ bit early education. Having been called to the Canadian 

 bar. be became a member of the Legislative Assembly of Western 

 Canada, and ultimately Speaker of the House and Prime Minister 

 nabVr the last part of the governorship of the Earl of Elgin, and the 

 first few months of that of Sir Edmund Head, who succeeded him. 

 b 1838 Sir Alan MacNab received the honour of knighthood in 

 reeogaMna of hie gallant services sgainst th* insurgeute in the Cana- 

 dian reheflMa. during which b* held the poet of commander on the 

 Vasfan frontier; aad in July 1854 he wa* further rewarded by 

 pruuuUju to a Baronetcy of th* United Kingdom. It was while he 

 keld the cornea* nd at Niagara, that he seized on the Caroline steamer 

 ao-l seat her over the Falls a daring act which wa. fully justified by 

 Lord Pslnenton at th* time, and b stated by Sir Francis Head to 

 have saved this country from a rupture with America. 



MACNE1LE, RKV. HUUH, IU), wss born in 1793, at Bally- 

 eaaUe. in the county of Antrim, Ireland. He was educated at Trinity 

 College. Dublin, where be took the degree of M.A. He afterward* 

 reed led UM degree of D.D., and the appointment of canon of Chester. 

 la Ittt he married UM daughter of Dr. Magee, late archbishop of 

 Debtio, in whose family he bad been tator. He ia a popular preacher, 

 eosrgeUe and deebmetoiy, with a powerful voice. He wa* for some 



street 



.,'. -. 



Cbaprl. Kiteroy-eqture. He afterward* became the incumbent 

 Jed.'*, Liverpool, and b now the i 



incumbent of SL Paul'., 



Priam's Park, near Liverpool He ha* published the following work* : 

 The Church and UM Church*.; or UM Church of God in Christ 



Church of Kngland,' 

 ' Uuio ; ' Lecture* on 

 Letter* on Seceding from 

 UM Seeuod Advent,' limo; 'Seven- 

 ISsoo. H* has also published several separate sermon*, 

 controversial pamphlets. 

 C.SKILL, SIK JOHNYO.C.B, third soa of John MaoNeill, Esq., 



The Church and UM Church*.; or UM Churc 

 OMttt bore on Earth.' 8vo ; ' Lecture* on UM 

 Itao; Lecture* on UM Propbeeiea of the Jew.,' 

 UM Sympathies. tUL, of <mr Saviour,' ISmo ; ' Lett 

 the Church,' 12mo; Semaona on UM Seeuod Ad 



Penes, aad afterward* became secretary to the embassy, and was 

 envoy extraordinary and " > "i**Tr 

 ISM to 1641. While thus on 

 babiU, policy, aad retowwe of 



1 ,* ejaww vaMveaoBw.^, nMjvt wet* 



blister plenipotentiary at that court from 

 employed, he gained an insight into the 

 of the Ka*tero nation, which lie between 



Russia and our Indian frontiers, aiid was thus tuablttl to predict the 

 aggressive line of policy adopted by the late Emperor Nicholas, long 

 before he had commenced to put it into execution. On returning to 

 England, be was sppointod head of th* board to superintend tho 

 working of the New Poor- Law Act iu Scotland ; and in 1. >;"! conducted 

 a special inquiry into tho condition of tbo western highland, and the 

 adjoiuing irUuds. The credit which he acquired by these various 

 commissions led to his being sent in the winter of 1S54-55 to the 

 Crimea in comiiany with CoL Tulloch, to inquire into the state of the 

 commissariat department; and they presented to the home govern- 

 ment a report, in which blame was attributed to certain officers, and 

 more especially to tbo quarter-master general's stefC The statemente 

 of this report were however impeached by the officer* most directly 

 alluded to, and were subjected to a formal examination before a board 

 of general officers assembled at Chelsea Hospital, who considered that 

 the amount of censure thrown upon the commissariat and quarter- 

 master general's department was not borne out by the facts. The 

 character and conduct of that court however were such ai to secure 

 little public respect, and their decision was not received as generally 

 satisfactory. 



MACNE1LL, SIR JOHN, was born at Dundalk, in the county of 

 Louth, Ireland. He was educated as a civil engineer, and acquired 

 considerable reputation from the construction of ' Tables for facilitating 

 the Calculation of Earthwork in Railway Cuttings,' io. He was 

 employed as chief engineer on the Dublin and Drogbeda railway, which 

 was completed in 1844, on the opening of which ho was knighted by 

 Earl da Grey, then lord lieutenant of Ireland In 1S42 he was 

 appointed professor of civil engineering in Trinity College, Dublin, au 

 office which he yet holds. 



MACPHERSON, JAMES, was born in 1738, at the village of Ruthven 

 in Inverness nhire, and was sent iu IT.".- to King's College, Aberdeen, 

 with a view to be educated for the Scottish Church. On leaving college 

 he was appointed schoolmaster of his native village ; and it was while 

 holding this situation that he gave to the world what appears to have 

 been hi* first publication, a poem entitled ' The Highlander,' in 1758. 

 Before this date however he had written some other poetical pieces, 

 among which are mentioned one called ' Death,' and another called 

 ' The Hunter,' which last is said to have been only a rude sketch of 

 4 The Highlander.' Soon after he sent to the ' Scots Magazine ' several 

 contributions in verse, which have been preserved from oblivion by 

 the great controversy that afterwards arose about his capacity for 

 manufacturing the poems ascribed to Ossian, which he professed to 

 have only translated. Some attention appears to have been first given to 

 the traditional poetry preserved in their native dialect among the Scotch 

 Highlanders by Dr. Adam Ferguson, tho well-known historian, hium-lf 

 a mountaineer; by him an interest in the subject was communicated 

 to hi* friend* the Rev. Dr. Carlyle, minister of Inveresk, a gentleman 

 of extensive connections among the literary meu of bis day, and John 

 Home, the author of ' Douglas.' The two latter met itli Macpheraon 

 in the autumn of 1759, when he showed them some fragment* of Gaelic 

 verse, of which they prevailed upon him to furnish them with trans- 

 lations. These were shown to Dr. Blair, and the poet* Shenstone and 

 Gray, by all of whom they were greatly admired ; and in 1760 they 

 were published under tho title of ' Fragments of Ancient Poetry, col- 

 lected iu the Highlands of Scotland, and translated from the 

 or Erse Language,' with an anonymous preface by Blair. The frag- 

 ment, are sixteen in number. The effect was to iuduce the faculty of 

 advocates in Edinburgh to raise a subscription for enabling Macj.lier.-ou 

 to make a tour through the Highlands with the object of collecting 

 more poetical treasure of the same kind. What he found, or pretended 

 to have found, he brought to London, and published then ia two 

 suooeuive volumes, the first of which appeared in 17C2, tinder the 

 patronage of Lord Bute, with the title ot ' Kings), an Kj.ic Poem in 

 six books, with other leaser Poems;' the second in 1763, with the title 

 of ' Teuton, an Epic Poem in eight books, with other Poem*.' From 

 the first the genuineness of these Gaelic epics was questioned by many 

 persons, but it wss more xealously asserted by more, aud to Macphersou 

 himself the notoriety which he acquired was the beginning of a long 

 course of good fortune. We shall examine the question of their 

 authenticity presently : it will be mot conveniently discussed after we 

 have run through the leading events of Macphersou's life. In 1764 he 

 obtained th* situation of private secretary to Captain Johuxtoiie, on 

 the ap|K>intmeut of the latter as governor of Pensacola ; and he was 

 also made .urveyor-general of the Florida*, in which capacity he went 

 out to America and the West Indies, aud returned to England iu 1766, 

 retaining his salary of 20ot a year for life. Some of the years that 

 followed be spent chiefly iu literary labour, much of it, from the 

 popularity of hi* name, highly profitable. In 1771 ha published, in 

 one voL 4 to, a ilisquuitiou on the antiquities of the ScuUiau Celtic 

 race, under the title of ' An Introduction to the Hi-t.ry of Great 

 Britain aud Ireland ; ' in 1 773 a prose translation of the Iliad ' of 

 Homer; in 1775 a ' History of Great Britain from the Kentoration to 

 th* Accession of the House of Hanover,' in 2 vols. 4to, together with 

 2 vols. of Original Paper.,' which last work he sold to the booksellers 

 for 3000L During this period of his life he also wrote several 

 pamphlets for the ministry, iu support of the war against the American 

 colonies, which are now all neatly forgotten. At last his appointment 

 to the lucrative office of agent to the Nabob of Arcot turned his 



