MAC 



MAC 



aompared at .Tata to the fiflions of Baron Muncliaufen, or as 

 a bold attempt to impofe upon the credulity of perfons at a 

 diltance. Foerfch's account, however, was admitted in a note 

 to Darwin's celebrated poem of the Botanic Garden, and this 

 circumftance led Dr. Gillan, and others belonging to Ma- 

 cartney's Embafly to China, to make inquiries into the 

 faift : and the refult was as we have above ftatcd it. It is, 

 indeed, a common opinion at Batavia, that there exills, in 

 that country, a vegetable poifon, which, rubbed on the dag- 

 gers of the Javanefe, renders the flighteil wounds incurable ; 

 though fome European practitioners have of late afTertcd 

 that they had cured perfons ilabbed by thofe weapons ; but 

 not without the precaution of keeping ths wound long 

 open, and procuring a fuppuration. One of the keepers of 

 the medical garden at Batavia, afTured Dr. Gillan, that a 

 tree diflilling a poifonou? juice was in that coUeftion ; but 

 that its quahties were kept fecret from mod people in the 

 fettlement, left the knowledge of them fliould find its way 

 to the flaves, who might be tempted to make an ill ufe of 

 it. Staunton's EmbafTy, vol. i. p. 273. See Poisox. 



MACATES, in Geography, a town of South America, 

 in the province of Carthagena ; 25 miles S.E. of Car- 

 thagcna. 



MACAUEAY, Catharine, in Biography, a diftin- 

 guifhed writer in hiftory and politics, the youngeft daugh- 

 ter of John Sawbridge, efq. of Ollantigh, in the county of 

 Kent, was born in the year 1733. She appears to have 

 imbibed, from a very early period, a zealous attachment 

 to the pi'inciples of liberty, which the hillorians of Greece 

 and Rome had infufed into her heart. The imprefTions made 

 upon her mind in her youth were never obliterated. In 

 1760 (he married Dr. George Macaulay, a phyfician of 

 London. Soon after this, fhe commenced her career in 

 literature, and in 1763 publilhed the firft volume, in quarto, 

 of her " Hiftory of England, from the acceffion of James I. 

 to that of the Brunfwick Line." This work was com- 

 pleted in eight volumes in 1783: it was read with great 

 avidity at the period of its publication, but has fuice fallen 

 into fo much difrepute, as fcarcely ever to be enquired 

 after. It was written in the pure fpirit of republicanifm, 

 but it unqueilionably had too much of party fpirit in it ro 

 admit of that partiahty which ought to be the charafter- 

 iftic of true hiftory. While in the height of her fame, Mrs. 

 Macaulay excited the admiration of Dr. Wilfon, redlor of 

 St. Stephen's, Wallbrook, who conferred on her the un- 

 precedented honour ef placing her ftatue, while living, in 

 the chancel of his church, which his fucceflbr thought him- 

 felf juftified in removing. Having been left a widow, 

 Mrs. Macaulay, in 1778, married Mr. Graham, a ftep, in 

 which the great difpai-ity of years e.xpofed her to fome ri- 

 dicule. In 178J file went to America, for the purpofe of 

 vifiting the illuftrious Waftiington, with whom ftie had before 

 maintained a correfpondence. She died in the year 1791. 

 Her works, befides the hiftory already referred to, which 

 may be regarded as the principal, are " Remarks on 

 Hobbes's Rudiments of Government and Society ;" "Loofe 

 Remarks on' fome of Mr. Hobbes's Pofitions ;'' the latter 

 being an enlarged edition of the former : the objeft of thefe 

 is to {hew the fuperiority of a republican to a monarchical 

 form of government. In 1770, Mrs. Macaulay wrote a re- 

 ply to Mr. Burke's celebrated pamphlet entitled "Thoughts 

 on the Caufes of the Prefent Difcontents :" and in 1775 

 {he pubhftied " An Addrefs to the People of England, 

 Scotland, and Ireland, on the prefent important Crilis of 

 Affairs." She wrote alfo " A Treatife on the Immuta- 

 biUty of Moral Truth :" which fhe afterwards re-pubhfhed, 

 with much other original matter, under the title of " Letters 



on Education." This work was publifhed in 1790, at a 

 period when men's minds were ready to admit bold theories 

 on almoft any fubjed, and it obtained much attention 

 from the public. The author fhewed herfelf an animated 

 writer, and a (hrewd and acute reafoner. It will unquef- 

 tionably repay any one, interefted in the fubjefl, the labour 

 of a careful pertifal. 



MACAW, Maccaw, or Macao, in Ornithology, the 

 name of a larg:e fpecies of parrot, diftinguiftied alfo by the 

 length of its tail. See Psittacus. 



Macaw Tree, in Botany. See Coccs. 



MACAY, in Geography, a town of Africa, in the 

 kingdom of Daniel. N. lat. 15' 10'. W. long, ic" cr'. 



MACBETH. This admir&ble tragedy of our matchlefs 

 dramatift, Shakfpearc, from the fongs of the witches, as 

 fet by Matthew Lock in the time of Charles II., was re- 

 garded as a kind of opera. See Duamatic Mufic. 



Macbeth, in Biography, an ufurper and tyrant, whom 

 the immortal Shakfpeare has configncd to cverlafting in- 

 famy, flourifhed in Scotland about the middle of the nth 

 century. At this period Duncan was king, a mild and 

 humane prince, but not at all poftcffcd of the genius and 

 dlfpolition for governing a country fo turbulent, and fo 

 infefted by the intrigues and auimofitici of the great. 

 Macbeth, a powerful nobleman, and nearly allied to the 

 crown, not contented with curbing the king's authority, 

 carried ftill farther his mad ambition : he murdered Duncan 

 at Invernefs, and then feized upon the throne. Fearing left 

 his ill-gotten power (hould be ftripped from him, he chafed 

 Malcolm Kenmore, the fon and heir, into England, and put 

 to death Mac Gill and Banquo, the two moil powerful men 

 in his dominions. Macduft' next becoming the objeft of his 

 fufpicions, heefcaped into England, but the inhuman ufurper 

 wreaked his vengeance on his wife and children, whom he 

 caufed to be cruelly butchered. Si ward, whofe daughter 

 was married to Duncan, embraced, by Edward's orders, the 

 proteftion of this diftrefled family. He marched an army 

 into Scotland, and having defeated and killed Macbeth in 

 battle he reftored Malcolm to the throne of his anceftors. 

 The tragedy founded upon the hiftory of Macbeth, though 

 contrary to the rules of the drama, contains an inlinity of 

 beauties with refpecl to language, character, pailion, and in- 

 cident, and is thought to be one of the beft pieces, of the 

 very beft mafter in this kind of writing, that the world 

 ever produced. " The danger of ambition," fays Dr. 

 Johnfon, " is well defcribed ; and the paffions are directed 

 to their true ends." And the author of the Philofophic Ar- 

 rangements fays, *' it is not only admirable as a poem, but 

 one of the moft moral pieces exifting." Hume's Hift. 

 Biog. Dramatica : Shakfpeare Illuftrated. 



MACBRIDE, David, M.D. a diftinguiftied phy- 

 fician, was born at Ballymony, in the county of Antrim, 

 on the 26th -of April, 1726. He was defcendcd 

 from an ancient family of his name in the ftiire of Gal- 

 loway, in Scotland ; but his grandfather, who was bred to 

 the church, was called to officiate at Belfaft to a congrega- 

 tion of Prcfbyterians, and his father became the miniiter of 

 Ballymony, where David was born. Having received the 

 firft elements of his education at the public fchool of this 

 place, and ferved his apprenticeftiip to a furgeon, he went 

 into the navy, firft in the capacity of mate to an hofpital- 

 ftiip, and fubfequently in the rank of furgeon, in which fta- 

 tion he remained for fome years preceding the peace of Aix- 

 la-Chapelle. At this period he was led, from the frequent 

 opportunities of witncfling the attacks of fcurvy, which a fca- 

 faring life afforded him, jto inveftigate the beft method of 

 cure for that difeafe, upon which he afterwards publilhed a 

 4 Z 2 treatife. 



