MACKENZIE 



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MACKENZIE 



cially noteworthy were the introduction of the 

 Australian ballot (1874), the establishment of 

 the Dominion Supreme Court (1875) and the 

 organization of a government for the North 

 West Territories. Mackenzie was also instru- 

 mental in securing changes in the Governor- 

 General's instructions from the British govern- 

 ment, so that he is now practically bound to 

 accept the recommendations of the Dominion 

 Cabinet. Mackenzie's five years in office were 

 marked by efficiency and economy in govern- 

 ment, and by industrial depression throughout 

 the country. This depression, combined with 

 the Conservative demand for a protective tar- 

 iff, defeated the Liberals in the general elec- 

 tions of 1878. For two years thereafter Mac- 

 kenzie led the Liberals in opposition, but in 

 1880 ill health led to his retirement from active 

 leadership, although his constituents kept him 

 in the House of Commons until his death, 

 April 17, 1892, at Toronto. G.H.L. 



Consult Buckingham and Ross's Life and Times 

 of Alexander Mackenzie. 



MACKENZIE, SIR ALEXANDER (1755-1820), a 

 Canadian explorer and fur trader, discoverer of 

 the Mackenzie River and the first white man 

 to reach the Pacific coast of Canada from the 

 interior. Mackenzie was bora in Scotland, at 

 Inverness, but emigrated to Canada in 1779. 

 Soon after the organization of the Northwest 

 Company to oppose the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany's monopoly, he entered its service, and in 

 1784 was sent to Detroit with a small party 

 of traders. The traders already established in 

 that section stirred up the Indians against him, 

 and it was only after a long struggle, during 

 which one of his companions was murdered and 

 several were wounded, that the intruders were 

 permitted, in 1787, to share in the trade. 



Two years later, in June, 1789, Mackenzie 

 set out on the first of the exploring trips which 

 made him famous. Leaving Fort Chipewyan 

 with a small party of Canadians and Indian 

 guides, he traversed the region about Great 

 Slave Lake, and discovered a great river, now 

 called the Mackenzie, which he traced to its 

 mouth in the Arctic Ocean. After setting up a 

 post on the shore as evidence of his discovery, 

 Mackenzie returned southward, reaching Fort 

 Chipewyan just 102 days after his departure. 

 Three years later he made a second trip, on 

 which he ascended the Peace River, crossed 

 the Rocky Mountains, and finally reached the 

 Pacific Ocean on July 22, 1793. The very next 

 day a band of Indians treacherously attacked 

 him, and all but murdered him. Thereafter 



Mackenzie devoted his energies to the fur 

 trade, and amassed a considerable fortune. In 

 1801 the honor of knighthood was conferred 

 upon him, and in 1802 he organized a trading 

 company (Alexander Mackenzie & Co.), which 

 threatened serious competition in the fur trade 

 for two years, when it was absorbed by the 

 Northwest Company. Mackenzie's later years 

 were spent in Scotland, where he died. His nar- 

 rative of his travels, entitled Voyages on the 

 River Saint Lawrence and through the Conti- 

 nent of North America to the Frozen and Pa- 

 cific Oceans in the Years 1789 and 1793, is a 

 valuable document in the study of Canadian 

 history. 



MACKENZIE, ARTHUR STANLEY (1865- ), 

 a Canadian educator and scientist, one of the 

 foremost contemporary physicists, and presi- 

 dent of Dalhousie University since 1911. Dr. 

 Mackenzie was born at Pictou, N. S., attended 

 the public schools of Pictou, New Glasgow and 

 Halifax, and finally was graduated with honors 

 from Dalhousie University in 1885. The two 

 years immediately following his graduation 

 were spent as assistant master at Yarmouth 

 (N. S.) Academy. He was from 1887 to 1889 

 tutor in mathematics in Dalhousie University, 

 then spent two years in advanced study at 

 Johns Hopkins University, and from 1891 to 

 1905 taught physics at Bryn Mawr College. 

 Since then, with the exception of the year 1910- 

 1911, during which he was professor of phys- 

 ics at Stevens Institute of Technology, he has 

 been at Dalhousie University, at first as pro- 

 fessor of physics, and since 1911 as president. 

 Dr. Mackenzie is the author of Laws of Gravi- 

 tation and of many scientific pamphlets and 

 papers. Dr. Mackenzie is one of the most con- 

 spicuous examples, perhaps the most conspicu- 

 ous in .Canada, of that rare combination, a 

 scientist who has the gift of being able to teach. 



MACKENZIE, SIR WILLIAM (1849- ), a 

 Canadian -railroad builder, whose ability as a 

 financier, added to the engineering skill and 

 organizing capacity of Sir Donald Mann, is 

 responsible for the construction and successful 

 operation of the Canadian Northern Railway. 

 Mackenzie was born at Kirkfiejd, Ont. He re- 

 ceived a public school education, as a young 

 man taught school, and later entered the lum- 

 ber business. His first contact with railroad 

 work was as contractor for the Midland di- 

 vision of the Grand Trunk Railway. Later he 

 built a part of the Rocky Mountains section of 

 the Canadian Pacific Railway, and since 1886, 

 in partnership with Sir Donald Mann, has been 



