MACADAM MACCLESFIELD. 



621 



M 



MACADAM, JOHN LOUDON, the great improver 

 of roads, whose improvements, however, are likely 

 to be to a large extent superseded by the general 

 adoption of railways, was the representative of an 

 old and respectable landed family the Macadams 

 of Waterhead, in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright. 

 He was born, September 21, 1756, in the town of 

 Ayr and received his education at the school of 

 Maybole. On the death of his father in 1770, 

 when he was only fourteen years of age, he was 

 sent to New York, where his uncle William, a 

 younger brother of his father, had been settled for 

 some years as a merchant. Here he remained 

 fourteen years, during which the war of indepen- 

 dence took place. Under the protection of the 

 British forces, who possessed the city, he realized 

 a considerable fortune, as an agent for the sale of 

 prizes. At the conclusion of the war, he returned, 

 with the loss of nearly the whole of his property, 

 to his native country, and resided for some time at 

 DumcriefF, a beautiful place in the neighbourhood 

 of Moffat, subsequently the seat of Dr Currie, the 

 biographer of Burns. He afterwards lived for 

 thirteen years at Sauchrie in Ayrshire, where he 

 was in the commission of the peace and a deputy 

 lieutenant. During this period, he enjoyed the 

 society of his first wife a lady named Nichol, 

 whom he had married at New York, and who 

 brought him three sons and three daughters. He 

 married secondly, in 1827, Miss de Lancey. 



In 1798, Mr Macadam received the government 

 appointment of agent for victualling the navy in 

 the western parts of Great Britain, and removed 

 to Falmotith. He subsequently resided for many 

 years at Bristol, and latterly at Hoddesdon in 

 Hertfordshire. It was while acting as one of the 

 trustees upon certain roads in Ayrshire, that he 

 first turned his attention seriously to the mechani- 

 cal principles involved in that branch of national 

 economy. While engaged in England in duties of 

 an entirely different kind, he continued silently to 

 study the process of road-making in all its details, 

 keeping particularly in view the great desiderata 

 of a compact and durable substance and a smooth 

 surface. By the exertions of various able en- 

 gineers, who had turned their attention to road- 

 making, the highways of Great Britain were already 

 in the course of a rapid improvement ; but Mr 

 Macadam was the first to point out and prove, in 

 practical operation, that a bed, of a few inches in 

 depth, formed of fragments of primitive rock 

 granite, greenstone, or basalt small enough to 

 pass through a ring not larger than two inches and 

 a half in diameter, was the best material for ordi- 

 nary roads, His system, in its leading features, is 

 so conspicuously displayed in the public eye, that 

 any minute account of it would be superfluous. It 

 was not till 1815, when on the borders of sixty, 

 that he began to devote his whole mind to the 

 business of road-making. Being then appointed 

 surveyor-general of the Bristol roads, he had at 

 length full opportunities of exemplifying his system, 

 which he forthwith proceeded to do in a manner 



that attracted general attention, and caused it to 

 be quickly followed throughout the whole king- 

 dom. In 1823, he was examined before a committee 

 of the House of Commons respecting the propriety 

 of converting the ruble granite causeway of the 

 principal thoroughfares, into a smooth pavement 

 resembling those which he had already formed on 

 the principal roads. He expressed himself as de- 

 cidedly of opinion that such a change should be 

 made: " I consider," said he, "that the expenses 

 would be materially reduced ; the convenience of 

 passing over the surface would be generally facili- 

 tated, particularly in the leading streets ; and the 

 same weight of stone, now put upon those streets 

 as pavement, would be obtained at infinitely less 

 expense, in a different form, for the purpose of 

 road-making." The consequence was, that, in 

 London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, some of the prin- 

 cipal lines of street, which had previously been 

 remarkable for solidity of pavement, as well as the 

 large sums that pavement had cost, were to use 

 a phrase already familiar to every ear Macadam- 

 ised. In introducing this improvement into British 

 roads, Mr Macadam had spent several thousand 

 pounds from his own resources. In 1825, he 

 proved this expenditure before a committee of the 

 House of Commons, when an equivalent sum was 

 voted to him, besides an honorary tribute of two 

 thousand pounds, in consideration of the public 

 benefits resulting from his labours. The inadequacy 

 of this remuneration is very striking, when con- 

 trasted with the merit of bringing into operation a 

 mechanical improvement, the consequences of 

 which, in saving animal labour, facilitating com- 

 mercial intercourse, and rendering travelling easy, 

 quiet, and pleasant, are beyond all calculation. Mr 

 Macadam, however, never made money an object, 

 but, on the contrary, rejected on principle many 

 opportunities of gathering wealth, which his office 

 as a superintendant opened up to him, and which 

 many men of by no means blunt feelings as to pro- 

 fessional propriety would have taken advantage of. 

 He therefore died a poor, but, as he expressed him- 

 self, "at least an honest man." His decease took 

 place, November 26, 1836, at Moffat. In private 

 life he was as eminent for his amiable and upright 

 character, as, in the world, for that sagacity and 

 application which became the source of such im- 

 portant benefits to his fellow-creatures. Entirely 

 devoid of selfish feeling, he was the charm of the 

 private circle, by his gentle and polished manners, 

 and the ease and promptitude with which he im- 

 parted the stores of a powerful and well-informed 

 mind. 



MACCLESFIELD; a town of England, in the 

 county palatine of Cheshire, nineteen miles from 

 Manchester, and 167 from London. It is situated 

 at the border of the forest to which it gives name, 

 at a short distance westward of the river Jordan 

 or Bollin, which falls into the Mersey. It was in- 

 corporated by a charter of prince Edward, the son 

 of Henry III., as earl of Chester, in 1261 ; and 

 subsequent charters were bestowed on it by Ed ward 



