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brought him into close relations with the Kothschilds, Mr Goschen, 
Sir Moses Montefiore, and other well-known financiers. His 
acquaintanceship with Sir Moses soon ripened into intimate and 
lasting friendship. Mr Maclagan returned to Edinburgh in 1866, 
and entered on the managership of the Edinburgh Life Assurance 
Company, an office which he retained till his death on the 30th of 
March 1883, at Mentone, whither, for health’s sake, he had gone to 
spend the winter. In 1848 Mr Maclagan married Miss Jane Finlay, 
who, with five sons, still survives. 
On his return to his native city he threw himself with great 
heartiness and zeal into religious and philanthropic work. He was 
one of the most earnest promoters of the Apprentice School Associa- 
tion, a society which at the time did much good, both by supplying 
the means of education to a much neglected class, and also by leading 
the way to better arrangements for the same purpose. Mr Maclagan 
was elected a Fellow of this Society in 1872. 
A man of academic tastes, fond of literature, the intimate friend 
of many engaged in literary and scientific work, and himself earnestly 
interested in the growth of knowledge, he yet found himself, in a 
great measure, precluded from practical literary effort by the onerous 
duties of his business position, and the devotion to work necessary 
to success in his profession. He had, however, as a relaxation and a 
delight, early cultivated the habit of the pen, and he has left good 
evidence of his scholarly accomplishments, intellectual vigour, and 
fine taste. From boyhood almost Mr Maclagan had taken great 
interest in Scottish religious and ecclesiastical movements. The 
stirring events which preceded and immediately followed the Scottish 
Church crisis of 1843 greatly influenced him. He entered into them 
with an earnestness and fervour in strong contrast with his wonted 
quiet and placid habits of thought. And though some rough points 
of his churchism may have afterwards been a good deal smoothed 
down, there was not, through life, any abatement of his early 
enthusiasm and zeal. Yet few men were freer from sectarian nar- 
rowness. His toleration for the views of others was as characteristic 
of him as the firmness with which he held his own. The writer, as 
Secretary of the Free Church College Committee, was associated for 
more than ten years with Mr Maclagan in work in which he had 
good opportunity to observe the breadth and the balance of his well- 
