Chapter 15

Besides the report mentioned above, General McClellan wrote aBayonet Exercise(1852);Report on Pacific Railroad Surveys(1854);Report on the Organization, &c., of the Army of the Potomac(1864), a government publication which he himself republished with the addition of a memoir of the West Virginian campaign. He also wrote a series of articles on the Russo-Turkish War forThe North American Review. See memoir prefaced toMcClellan’s Own Story, and Michie,General McClellan(“Great Commanders” series).

McCLERNAND, JOHN ALEXANDER(1812-1900), American soldier and lawyer, was born in Breckinridge county, Kentucky, on the 30th of May 1812. He was admitted to the bar in Shawneetown, Illinois, in 1832; in the same year served as a volunteer in the Black Hawk War, and in 1835 founded theShawneetown Democrat, which he thereafter edited. As a Democrat he served in 1836 and in 1840-1843 in the Illinois House of Representatives, and in 1843-1851 and in 1859-1861 was a representative in Congress, where in his first term he vigorously opposed the Wilmot proviso, but in his second term was a strong Unionist and introduced the resolution of the 15th of July 1861, pledging money and men to the national government. He resigned from congress, raised in Illinois the “McClernand Brigade,” and was commissioned (May 17, 1861) brigadier-general of volunteers. He was second in command at the battle of Belmont (Missouri) in November 1861, and commanded the right wing at Fort Donelson. On the 21st of March he became a major-general of volunteers. At Shiloh he commanded a division, which was practically a reserve to Sherman’s. In October 1861 Stanton, secretary of war, ordered him north to raise troops for the expedition against Vicksburg; and early in January 1864, at Milliken’s Bend, McClernand, who had been placed in command of one of the four corps of Grant’s army, superseded Sherman as the leader of the force that was to move down the Mississippi. On the 11th of January he took Arkansas Post. On the 17th, Grant, after receiving the opinion of Admiral Foote and General Sherman that McClernand was unfit, united a part of his own troops with those of McClernand and assumed command in person, and three days later ordered McClernand back to Milliken’s Bend. During the rest of this Vicksburg campaign there was much friction between McClernand and his colleagues; he undoubtedly intrigued for the removal of Grant; it was Grant’s opinion that at Champion’s Hill (May 16) he was dilatory; and because a congratulatory order to his corps was published in the press (contrary to an order of the department and another of Grant) he was relieved of his command on the 18th of June, and was replaced by General E. O. C. Ord. President Lincoln, who saw the importance of conciliating a leader of the Illinois War-Democrats, restored him to his command in 1864, but McClernand resigned in November of that year. He was district judge of the Sangamon (Illinois) District in 1870-1873, and was president of the National Democratic Convention in 1876. He died in Springfield, Illinois, on the 20th of September 1900.

His son,Edward John Mcclernand(b. 1848), graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1870. He served on the frontier against the Indians, notably in the capture of Chief Joseph in October 1877, became lieutenant-colonel and assistant adjutant-general of volunteers in 1898, and served in Cuba in 1898-99. He was then ordered to the Philippines, where he commanded various districts, and from April 1900 to May 1901, when he was mustered out of the volunteer service, was acting military governor.

MACCLESFIELD, CHARLES GERARD,1st Earl of(c.1618-1694), eldest son of Sir Charles Gerard, was a member of an old Lancashire family, his great-grandfather having been Sir Gilbert Gerard (d. 1593) of Ince, in that county, one of the most distinguished judges in the reign of Elizabeth. His mother was Penelope Fitton of Gawsworth, Cheshire. Charles Gerard was educated abroad, and in the Low Countries learnt soldiering, in which he showed himself proficient when on the outbreak of the Civil War in England he raised a troop of horse for the king’s service. Gerard commanded a brigade with distinction at Edgehill, and gained further honours at the first battle of Newbury and at Newark in 1644, for which service he was appointed to the chief command in South Wales. Here his operations in 1644 and 1645 were completely successful in reducing the Parliamentarians to subjection; but the severity with which he ravaged the country made him personally so unpopular that when, after the defeat at Naseby in June 1645, the king endeavoured to raise fresh forces in Wales, he was compelled to remove Gerard from the local command. Gerard was, however, retained in command of the king’s guard during Charles’s march from Wales to Oxford, and thence to Hereford and Chester in August 1645; and having been severely wounded at Rowton Heath on the 23rd of September, he reached Newark with Charles on the 4th of October. On the 8th of November 1645 he was created Baron Gerard of Brandon in the county of Suffolk; but about the same time he appears to have forfeited Charles’s favour by having attached himself to the party of Prince Rupert, with whom after the surrender of Oxford Gerard probably went abroad. He remained on the Continent throughout the whole period of the Commonwealth, sometimes in personal attendance on Charles II., at others serving in the wars under Turenne, and constantly engaged in plots and intrigues. For one of these, an alleged design on the life of Cromwell, his cousin Colonel John Gerard was executed in the Tower in July 1654. At the Restoration Gerard rode at the head of the king’s life-guards in his triumphal entry into London; his forfeited estates were restored, and he received lucrative offices and pensions. In 1668 he retired from the command of the king’s guard to make room for the duke ofMonmouth, receiving, according to Pepys, the sum of £12,000 as solatium. On the 23rd of July 1679 Gerard was created earl of Macclesfield and Viscount Brandon. A few months later he entered into relations with Monmouth, and co-operated with Shaftesbury in protesting against the rejection of the Exclusion Bill. In September 1685, a proclamation having been issued for his arrest, Macclesfield escaped abroad, and was outlawed. He returned with William of Orange in 1688, and commanded his body-guard in the march from Devonshire to London. By William he was made a privy councillor, and lord lieutenant of Wales and three western counties. Macclesfield died on the 7th of January 1694. By his French wife he left two sons and two daughters.

His eldest sonCharles, 2nd earl of Macclesfield (c.1659-1701), was born in France and was naturalized in England by act of parliament in 1677. Like his father he was concerned in the intrigues of the duke of Monmouth; in 1685 he was sentenced to death for being a party to the Rye House plot, but was pardoned by the king. In 1689 he was elected member of parliament for Lancashire, which he represented till 1694, when he succeeded to his father’s peerage. Having become a major-general in the same year, Macclesfield saw some service abroad; and in 1701 he was selected first commissioner for the investiture of the elector of Hanover (afterwards King George I.) with the order of the Garter, on which occasion he also was charged to present a copy of the Act of Settlement to the dowager electress Sophia. He died on the 5th of November 1701, leaving no legitimate children.

In March 1698 Macclesfield was divorced from his wife Anna, daughter of Sir Richard Mason of Sutton, by act of parliament, the first occasion on which a divorce was so granted without a previous decree of an ecclesiastical court. The countess was the mother of two children, who were known by the name of Savage, and whose reputed father was Richard Savage, 4th Earl Rivers (d. 1712). The poet Richard Savage (q.v.) claimed that he was the younger of these children. The divorced countess married Colonel Henry Brett about the year 1700, and died at the age of eighty-five in 1753. Her daughter Anna Margaretta Brett was a mistress of George I. The 2nd earl of Macclesfield was succeeded by his brother Fitton Gerard, 3rd earl (c.1665-1702), on whose death without heirs the title became extinct in December 1702.

In 1721 the title of earl of Macclesfield was revived in favour ofThomas Parker(c.1666-1732). The son of Thomas Parker, an attorney at Leek, young Parker was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, and became a barrister in 1691. In 1705 he was elected member of parliament for Derby, and having gained some reputation in his profession, he took a leading part in the proceedings against Sacheverell in 1710. In the same year he was appointed lord chief justice of the queen’s bench, but he refused to become lord chancellor in the following year; however he accepted this office in 1718, two years after he had been made Baron Parker of Macclesfield by George I., who held him in high esteem. In 1721 he was created Viscount Parker and earl of Macclesfield, but when serious charges of corruption were brought against him he resigned his position as lord chancellor in 1725. In the same year Macclesfield was impeached, and although he made a very able defence he was found guilty by the House of Lords. His sentence was a fine of £30,000 and imprisonment until this was paid. He was confined in the Tower of London for six weeks, and after his release he took no further part in public affairs. The earl, who built a grammar school at Leek, died in London on the 28th of April 1732.

Macclesfield’s only son,George, (c.1697-1764) 2nd earl of Macclesfield of this line, was celebrated as an astronomer. As Viscount Parker he was member of parliament for Wallingford from 1722 to 1727, but his interests were not in politics. In 1722 he became a fellow of the Royal Society, and he spent most of his time in astronomical observations at his Oxfordshire seat, Shirburn Castle, which had been bought by his father in 1716; here he built an observatory and a chemical laboratory. The earl was very prominent in effecting the change from the old to the new style of dates, which came into operation in 1752. His action in this matter, however, was somewhat unpopular, as the opinion was fairly general that he had robbed the people of eleven days. From 1752 until his death on the 17th of March 1764 Macclesfield was president of the Royal Society, and he made some observations on the great earthquake of 1755. His successor was his son Thomas (1723-1795), from whom the present earl is descended.

For the earls of the Gerard family see Lord Clarendon,History of the Rebellion, ed. by W. D. Macray; E. B. G. Warburton,Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers(3 vols., 1849);State Papers of John Thurloe(7 vols., 1742); J. R. Phillips,Memoirs of the Civil War in Wales and the Marches, 1642-49(2 vols., 1874); and the duke of Manchester,Court and Society from Elizabeth to Anne(2 vols., 1864). For Lord Chancellor Macclesfield, see Lord Campbell,Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal(1845-1869).

MACCLESFIELD,a market town and municipal borough in the Macclesfield parliamentary division of Cheshire, England, 166 m. N.W. by N. of London, on the London & North-Western, North Staffordshire and Great Central railways. Pop. (1901), 34,624. It lies on and above the small river Bollin, the valley of which is flanked by high ground to east and west, the eastern hills rising sharply to heights above 1000 ft. The bleak upland country retains its ancient name of Macclesfield Forest. The church of St Michael, standing high, was founded by Eleanor, queen of Edward I., in 1278, and in 1740 was partly rebuilt and greatly enlarged. The lofty steeple by which its massive tower was formerly surmounted was battered down by the Parliamentary forces during the Civil War. Connected with the Church there are two chapels, one of which, Rivers Chapel, belonged to a college of secular priests founded in 1501 by Thomas Savage, afterwards archbishop of York. Both the church and chapels contain several ancient monuments. The free grammar school, originally founded in 1502 by Sir John Percival, was refounded in 1552 by Edward VI., and a commercial school was erected in 1840 out of its funds. The county lunatic asylum is situated here. The town-hall is a handsome modern building with a Grecian frontage on two sides. Originally the trade of Macclesfield was principally in twist and silk buttons, but this has developed into the manufacture of all kinds of silk. Besides this staple trade, there are various textile manufactures and extensive breweries; while stone and slate quarries, as well as coal-mines, are worked in the neighbourhood. Recreation grounds include Victoria Park and Peel Park, in which are preserved the old market cross and stocks. Water communication is provided by the Macclesfield canal. The borough is under a mayor, 12 aldermen and 36 councillors. Area, 3214 acres. The populous suburb ofSutton, extending S.S.E. of the town, is partly included in the borough.

Previous to the Conquest, Macclesfield (Makesfeld, Mackerfeld, Macclesfeld, Meulefeld, Maxfield) was held by Edwin, earl of Mercia, and at the time of the Domesday Survey it formed a part of the lands of the earl of Chester. The entry speaks of seven hedged enclosures, and there is evidence of fortification in the 13th century, to which the names Jordangate, Chestergate and Wallgate still bear witness. In the 15th century Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham, had a fortified manor-house here, traces of which remain. There is a tradition, supported by a reference on a plea roll, that Randle, earl of Chester (1181-1232) made Macclesfield a free borough, but the earliest charter extant is that granted by Edward, prince of Wales and earl of Chester, in 1261, constituting Macclesfield a free borough with a merchant gild, and according certain privileges in the royal forest of Macclesfield to the burgesses. This charter was confirmed by Edward III. in 1334, by Richard II. in 1389, by Edward IV. in 1466 and by Elizabeth in 1564. In 1595 Elizabeth issued a new charter to the town, confirmed by James I. in 1605 and Charles II. in 1666, laying down a formal borough constitution under a mayor, 2 aldermen, 24 capital burgesses and a high steward. In 1684 Charles II. issued a new charter, under which the borough was governed until the Municipal Reform Act 1835. The earliest mention of a market is in a grant by James I. to Charles, prince of Wales and earl of Chester, in 1617. In the charter of 1666 amarket is included among the privileges confirmed to the borough as those which had been granted in 1605, or by any previous kings and queens of England. The charter of Elizabeth in 1595 granted an annual fair in June, and this was supplemented by Charles II. in 1684 by a grant of fairs in April and September. Except during the three winter months fairs are now held monthly, the chief being “Barnaby” in June, when the town keeps a week’s holiday. Macclesfield borough sent two members to parliament in 1832 for the first time. In 1880 it was disfranchised for bribery, and in 1885 the borough was merged in the county division of Macclesfield. The manufacture of silk-covered buttons began in the 16th century, and flourished until the early 18th. The first silk mill was erected about 1755, and silk manufacture on a large scale was introduced about 1790. The manufacture of cotton began in Macclesfield about 1785.

See J. Corry,History of Macclesfield(1817).

M‘CLINTOCK, SIR FRANCIS LEOPOLD(1819-1907), British naval officer and Arctic explorer, was born at Dundalk, Ireland, on the 8th of July 1819, of a family of Scottish origin. In 1831 he entered the royal navy, joining the “Samarang” frigate, Captain Charles Paget. In 1843 he passed his examination for lieutenancy and joined the “Gorgon” steamship, Captain Charles Hotham, which was driven ashore at Montevideo and salved, a feat of seamanship on the part of her captain and officers which attracted much attention. Hitherto, and until 1847, M‘Clintock’s service was almost wholly on the American coasts, but in 1848 he joined the Arctic expedition under Sir James Ross in search of Sir John Franklin’s ships, as second lieutenant of the “Enterprise.” In the second search expedition (1850) he was first lieutenant of the “Assistance,” and in the third (1854) he commanded the “Intrepid.” On all these expeditions M‘Clintock carried out brilliant sleigh journeys, and gained recognition as one of the highest authorities on Arctic travel. The direction which the search should follow had at last been learnt from the Eskimo, and M‘Clintock accepted the command of the expedition on board the “Fox,” fitted out by Lady Franklin in 1857, which succeeded in its object in 1859 (seeFranklin, Sir John). For this expedition M‘Clintock had obtained leave of absence, but the time occupied was afterwards counted in his service. He was knighted and received many other honours on his return. Active service now occupied him in various tasks, including the important one of sounding in the north Atlantic, in connexion with a scheme for a north Atlantic cable route, until 1868. In that year he became naval aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria. In 1865 he had been elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He unsuccessfully contested a seat in parliament for the borough of Drogheda, where he made the acquaintance of Annette Elizabeth, daughter of R. F. Dunlop of Monasterboice; he married her in 1870. He became vice-admiral in 1877, and commander-in-chief on the West Indian and North American station in 1879. In 1882 he was elected an Elder Brother of Trinity House, and served actively in that capacity. In 1891 he was created K.C.B. He was one of the principal advisers in the preparations for the Antarctic voyage of the “Discovery” under Captain Scott. His book,The Voyage of the “Fox” in the Arctic Seas, was first published in 1859, and passed through several editions. He died on the 17th of November 1907.

See Sir C. R. Markham,Life of Admiral Sir Leopold M‘Clintock(1909).

McCLINTOCK, JOHN(1814-1870), American Methodist Episcopal theologian and educationalist, was born in Philadelphia on the 27th of October 1814. He graduated at the university of Pennsylvania in 1835, and was assistant professor of mathematics (1836-1837), professor of mathematics (1837-1840), and professor of Latin and Greek (1840-1848) in Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He opposed the Mexican War and slavery, and in 1847 was arrested on the charge of instigating a riot, which resulted in the rescue of several fugitive slaves; his trial, in which he was acquitted, attracted wide attention. In 1848-1856 he editedThe Methodist Quarterly Review(after 1885The Methodist Review); from 1857 to 1860 he was pastor of St Paul’s (Methodist Episcopal) Church, New York City; and in 1860-1864 he had charge of the American chapel in Paris, and there and in London did much to turn public opinion in favour of the Northern States. In 1865-1866 he was chairman of the central committee for the celebration of the centenary of American Methodism. He retired from the regular ministry in 1865, but preached in New Brunswick, New Jersey, until the spring of 1867, and in that year, at the wish of its founder, Daniel Drew, became president of the newly established Drew theological seminary at Madison, New Jersey, where he died on the 4th of March 1870. A great preacher, orator and teacher, and a remarkably versatile scholar, McClintock by his editorial and educational work probably did more than any other man to raise the intellectual tone of American Methodism, and, particularly, of the American Methodist clergy. He introduced to his denomination the scholarly methods of the new German theology of the day—not alone by his translation with Charles E. Blumenthal of Neander’sLife of Christ(1847), and of Bungener’sHistory of the Council of Trent(1855), but by his great project, McClintock and Strong’sCyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature(10 vols., 1867-1881; Supplement, 2 vols., 1885-1887), in the editing of which he was associated with Dr James Strong (1822-1894), professor of exegetical theology in the Drew Theological Seminary from 1868 to 1893, and the sole editor of the last six volumes of theCyclopaediaand of the supplement. With George Richard Crooks (1822-1897), his colleague at Dickinson College and in 1880-1897 professor of historical theology at Drew Seminary, McClintock edited several elementary textbooks in Latin and Greek (of which some were republished in Spanish), based on the pedagogical principle of “imitation and constant repetition.” Among McClintock’s other publications are:Sketches of Eminent Methodist Ministers(1863); an edition of Richard Watson’sTheological Institutes(1851); andThe Life and Letters of Rev. Stephen Olin(1854).

See G. R. Crooks,Life and Letters of the Rev. Dr John McClintock(New York, 1876).

McCLOSKEY, JOHN(1810-1885), American cardinal, was born in Brooklyn, New York, on the 20th of March 1810. He graduated at Mt St Mary’s College, Emmitsburg, Maryland, in 1827, studied theology there, was ordained a priest in 1834, and in 1837, after two years in the college of the Propaganda at Rome, became rector of St Joseph’s, New York City, a charge to which he returned in 1842 after one year’s presidency of St John’s College (afterwards Fordham University), Fordham, New York, then just opened. In 1844 he was consecrated bishop of Axierenin partibus, and was made coadjutor to Bishop Hughes of New York with the right of succession; in 1847 he became bishop of the newly created see of Albany; and in 1864 he succeeded to the archdiocese of New York, then including New York, New Jersey, and New England. In April 1875 he was invested as a cardinal, with the title of Sancta Maria supra Minervam, being the first American citizen to receive this dignity. He attended the conclave of 1878, but was too late to vote for the new pope. In May 1879 he dedicated St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, whose corner-stone had been laid by Archbishop Hughes in 1858. Archbishop Corrigan became his coadjutor in 1880 because of the failure of McCloskey’s always delicate health. The fiftieth anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood was celebrated in 1884. He died in New York City on the 10th of October 1885. He was a scholar, a preacher, and a man of affairs, temperamentally quiet and dignified; and his administration differed radically from that of Archbishop Hughes; he was conciliatory rather than polemic and controversial, and not only built up the Roman Catholic Church materially, but greatly changed the tone of public opinion in his diocese toward the Church.

M‘CLURE, SIR ROBERT JOHN LE MESURIER(1807-1873), English Arctic explorer, born at Wexford, in Ireland, on the 28th of January 1807, was the posthumous son of one of Abercrombie’s captains and spent his childhood under the care of his godfather, General Le Mesurier, governor of Alderney, bywhom he was educated for the army. He entered the navy, however, in 1824, and twelve years later gained his first experience of Arctic exploration as mate of the “Terror” in the expedition (1836-1837) commanded by Captain (afterwards Sir) George Back. On his return he obtained his commission as lieutenant, and from 1838 to 1839 served on the Canadian lakes, being subsequently attached to the North American and West Indian naval stations, where he remained till 1846. Two years later he joined the Franklin search expedition (1848-1849) under Sir J. C. Ross as first lieutenant of the “Enterprise,” and on the return of this expedition was given the command of the “Investigator” in the new search expedition (1850-1854) which was sent out by way of Bering Strait to co-operate with another from the north-west. In the course of this voyage he achieved the distinction of completing (1830) the work connected with the discovery of a North-West Passage (see Polar Regions). On his return to England, M‘Clure was awarded gold medals by the English and French geographical societies, was knighted and promoted to post-rank, his commission being dated back four years in recognition of his special services. From 1856 to 1861 he served in Eastern waters, commanding the division of the naval brigade before Canton in 1858, for which he received a C.B. in the following year. His latter years were spent in a quiet country life; he attained the rank of rear-admiral in 1867, and of vice-admiral in 1873.

See Admiral Sherard Osborn,The Discovery of a North-West Passage(1856).

MacCOLL, MALCOLM(c.1838-1907), British clergyman and publicist, was the son of a Scottish farmer. He was educated at Trinity College, Glenalmond, for the Scotch Episcopal ministry, and after further study at the university of Naples was ordained in 1859, and entered on a succession of curacies in the Church of England, in London and at Addington, Bucks. He quickly became known as a political and ecclesiastical controversialist, wielding an active pen in support of W. E. Gladstone, who rewarded him with the living of St George’s, Botolph Lane, in 1871, and with a canonry of Ripon in 1884. The living was practically a sinecure, and he devoted himself to political pamphleteering and newspaper correspondence, the result of extensive European travel, a wide acquaintance with the leading personages of the day, strong views on ecclesiastical subjects from a high-church standpoint, and particularly on the politics of the Eastern Question and Mahommedanism. He took a leading part in ventilating the Bulgarian and Armenian “atrocities,” and his combative personality was constantly to the fore in support of the campaigns of Gladstonian Liberalism. He died in London on the 5th of April 1907.

McCOMBIE, WILLIAM(1805-1880), Scottish agriculturist, was born at Tillyfour, Aberdeenshire, where he founded the herd of black-polled cattle with which his name is associated. He was the first tenant farmer to represent a Scottish constituency, and was returned to parliament, unopposed, as Liberal member for the western division of Aberdeen in 1868. He died unmarried in February 1880. His workCattle and Cattle-breeders(1867) passed into a fourth edition in 1886.

McCOOK, ALEXANDER McDOWELL(1831-1903), American soldier, was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, on the 22nd of April 1831. He graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1852, served against the Apaches and Utes in New Mexico in 1853-57, was assistant instructor of infantry tactics at the military academy in 1858-1861, and in April 1861 became colonel of the 1st Ohio Volunteers. He served in the first battle of Bull Run; commanded a brigade in Kentucky in the winter of 1861, a division in Tennessee and Mississippi early in 1862, and the 1st Corps in Kentucky in October of the same year; was in command of Nashville in November and December of that year; and was then engaged in Tennessee until after the battle of Chickamauga, after which he saw no active service at the front during the Civil War. He was promoted to be brigadier-general of volunteers in September 1861, and to be major-general of volunteers in July 1862, earned the brevet of lieutenant-colonel in the regular army at the capture of Nashville, Tennessee, that of colonel at Shiloh, and that of brigadier-general at Perryville, and in March 1865 was breveted major-general for his services during the war. In February-May 1865 he commanded the district of Eastern Arkansas. He resigned from the volunteer service in October 1865, was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 26th Infantry in March 1867, served in Texas, mostly in garrison duty, until 1874, and in 1886-1890 (except for brief terms of absence) commanded Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and the infantry and cavalry school there. He became a brigadier-general in 1890, and a major-general in 1894; retired in 1895; and in 1898-1899 served on a commission to investigate the United States department of war as administered during the war with Spain.

His father,Daniel McCook(1798-1863), killed at Buffington’s Island during General John H. Morgan’s raid in Ohio, and seven of his eight brothers (three of whom were killed in battle) all served in the Civil War; this family and that of John McCook (1806-1865), Daniel’s brother, a physician, who served as a volunteer surgeon in the Civil War, are known as the “fighting McCooks”—four of John’s sons served in the Union army and one in the Union navy.

John James McCook(b. 1845), the youngest brother of Alexander McDowell McCook, served in the West and afterwards in the army of the Potomac, was wounded at Shady Grove, Virginia, in 1864, and in 1865 was breveted lieutenant-colonel of volunteers; he graduated at Kenyon College in 1866, subsequently practised law in New York City, where he became head of the firm Alexander & Green; was a prominent member of the Presbyterian Church, and was a member of the prosecuting committee in the Briggs heresy trial in 1892-1893.

His cousin,Anson George McCook(b. 1835), a son of John, was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1861, served throughout the Civil War in the Union Army, and was breveted brigadier-general of volunteers; he was a Republican representative in Congress from New York in 1877-1883; and in 1884-1893 was secretary of the United States Senate.

Another son of John McCook,Edward Moody McCook(1833-1909), was an efficient cavalry officer in the Union army, was breveted brigadier-general in the regular army and major-general of volunteers in 1865, was United States minister to Hawaii in 1866-1869, and was governor of Colorado Territory in 1869-1873, and in 1874-1875.

His brother,Henry Christopher McCook(b. 1837), was first lieutenant and afterwards chaplain of the 41st Illinois, was long pastor of the Tabernacle Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, and was president of the American Presbyterian Historical Society, but is best known for his popular and excellent works on entomology, which include:The Mound-making Ants of the Alleghanies(1877);The Natural History of the Agricultural Ants of Texas(1879);Tenants of an Old Farm(1884);American Spiders and their Spinning-work(3 vols., 1889-1893),Nature’s Craftsmen(1907) andAnt Communities(1909).

Another brother,John James McCook(b. 1843), a cousin of the lawyer of the same name, was a 2nd lieutenant of volunteers in the Union army in 1861; graduated at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, in 1863, and at the Berkeley divinity school in 1866; entered the Protestant Episcopal ministry in 1867, and in 1869 became rector of St John’s, East Hartford, Connecticut; became professor of modern languages in Trinity College, Hartford, in 1883; in 1895-1897 was president of the board of directors of the Connecticut reformatory; and wrote on prison reform and kindred topics.

MacCORMAC, SIR WILLIAM,Bart.(1836-1901), Irish surgeon, was born at Belfast on the 17th of January 1836, being the son of Dr Henry MacCormac. He studied medicine and surgery at Belfast, Dublin and Paris, and graduated in arts, medicine and surgery at the Queen’s University of Ireland, in which he afterwards became an examiner in surgery. He began practice in Belfast, where he became surgeon to the General Hospital, but left it for London on his marriage in 1861 to Miss Katherine M. Charters. In the Franco-German War of 1870 he was surgeon-in-chief to the Anglo-American Ambulance,and was present at Sedan; and he also went through the Turco-Servian War of 1876. He became in this way an authority on gun-shot wounds, and besides being highly successful as a surgeon was very popular in society, his magnificent physique and Irish temperament making him a notable and attractive personality. In 1881 he was appointed assistant-surgeon at St Thomas’s Hospital, London, and for twenty years continued his work there as surgeon, lecturer and consulting surgeon. In 1881 he acted as honorary secretary-general of the International Medical Congress in London, and was knighted for his services. In 1883 he was elected member of the council of the College of Surgeons, and in 1887 a member of the court of examiners; in 1893 he delivered the Bradshaw lecture, and in 1896 was elected president, being re-elected to this office in 1897, 1898, 1899, and 1900 (the centenary year of the college), an unprecedented record. In 1897 he was created a baronet, and appointed surgeon-in-ordinary to the prince of Wales. In 1899 he was Hunterian Orator. In the same year he volunteered to go out to South Africa as consulting surgeon to the forces, and from November 1899 to April 1900 he saw much active service both in Cape Colony and Natal, his assistance being cordially acknowledged on his return. In 1901 he was appointed honorary serjeant-surgeon to the king. But during 1898 he had suffered from a prolonged illness, and he had perhaps put too much strain on his strength, for on the 4th of December 1901 he died somewhat suddenly at Bath. Besides treatises onSurgical OperationsandAntiseptic Surgery, and numerous contributions to the medical journals, MacCormac was the author ofWork under the Red Crossand of an interesting volume commemorating the centenary of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1900. The latter contains biographical notices of all the masters and presidents up to that date.

McCORMICK, CYRUS HALL(1809-1884), American inventor of grain-harvesting machinery, was born at Walnut Grove, in what is now Roane county, W. Va., U.S.A., on the 15th of February 1809. His father was a farmer who had invented numerous labour-saving devices for farmwork, but after repeated efforts had failed in his attempts to construct a successful grain-cutting machine. In 1831, Cyrus, then twenty-two years old, took up the problem, and after careful study constructed a machine which was successfully employed in the late harvest of 1831 and patented in 1834. The McCormick reaper after further improvements proved a complete success; and in 1847 the inventor removed to Chicago, where he established large works for manufacturing his agricultural machines. William H. Seward has said of McCormick’s invention, that owing to it “the line of civilization moves westward thirty miles each year.” Numerous prizes and medals were awarded for his reaper, and he was elected a corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences, “as having done more for the cause of agriculture than any other living man.” He died in Chicago on the 13th of May 1884.

See Herbert N. Casson,Cyrus Hall McCormick: his Life and Work(Chicago, 1909).

McCOSH, JAMES(1811-1894), Scottish philosophical writer, was born of a Covenanting family in Ayrshire, on the 1st of April 1811. He studied at Glasgow and Edinburgh, receiving at the latter university his M.A., at the suggestion of Sir William Hamilton, for an essay on the Stoic philosophy. He became a minister of the Established Church of Scotland, first at Arbroath and then at Brechin, and took part in the Free Church movement of 1843. In 1852 he was appointed professor of logic and metaphysics in Queen’s College, Belfast; and in 1868 was chosen president and professor of philosophy of the college of New Jersey, at Princeton. He resigned the presidency in 1888, but continued as lecturer on philosophy till his death on the 16th of November 1894. He was most successful in college administration, a good lecturer and an effective preacher. His general philosophical attitude and method were Hamiltonian; he insisted on severing religious and philosophical data from merely physical, and though he added little to original thought, he clearly restated and vigorously used the conclusions of others. In his controversial writings he often failed to understand the real significance of the views which he attacked, and much of his criticism is superficial.

His chief works are:Method of Divine Government, Physical and Moral(Edinburgh, 1850, 5th ed., 1856, and frequently republished in New York);The Typical Forms and Special Ends in Creation(Edinburgh, 1855; new editions, New York, 1867-1880);Intuitions of the Mind inductively investigated(London and New York, 1860; 3rd rev. ed., 1872);An Examination of Mr J. S. Mill’s Philosophy(London and New York, 1866; enlarged 1871, several eds.);Philosophical Paperscontaining (1) “Examination of Sir W. Hamilton’s Logic,” (2) “Reply to Mr Mill’s third edition,” and (3) “Present State of Moral Philosophy in Britain;”Religious Aspects of Evolution(New York, 1888, 2nd ed., 1890). For a complete list of his writings see J. H. Dulles,McCosh Bibliography(Princeton, 1895).

McCOY, SIR FREDERICK(1823-1899), British palaeontologist, the son of Dr Simon McCoy, was born in Dublin in 1823, and was educated in that city for the medical profession. His interests, however, became early centred in natural history, and especially in geology, and at the age of eighteen he published aCatalogue of Organic Remainscompiled from specimens exhibited in the Rotunda at Dublin (1841). He assisted Sir R. J. Griffith (q.v.) by studying the fossils of the carboniferous and silurian rocks of Ireland, and they prepared a jointSynopsis of the Silurian Fossils of Ireland(1846). In 1846 Sedgwick secured his services, and for at least four years he devoted himself to the determination and arrangement of the fossils in the Woodwardian Museum at Cambridge. Sedgwick wrote of him as “an excellent naturalist, an incomparable and most philosophical palaeontologist, and one of the steadiest and quickest workmen that ever undertook the arrangement of a museum” (Life and Letters of Sedgwick, ii. 194). Together they prepared the important and now classic work entitledA Synopsis of the Classification of the British Palaeozoic Rocks, with a Systematic Description of the British Palaeozoic Fossils in the Geological Museum of the University of Cambridge(1855). Meanwhile McCoy in 1850 had been appointed professor of geology in Queen’s College, Belfast, and in 1854 he accepted the newly founded professorship of natural science in the university of Melbourne. There he lectured for upwards of thirty years; he established the National Museum of Natural History and Geology in Melbourne, of which he was director; and becoming associated with the geological survey of Victoria as palaeontologist, he issued a series of decades entitledProdromus of the Palaeontology of Victoria. He also issued theProdromus of the Zoology of Victoria. To local societies he contributed many papers, and he continued his active scientific work for fifty-eight years—his last contribution, “Note on a new Australian Pterygotus,” being printed in theGeological Magazinefor May 1899. He was elected F.R.S. in 1880, and was one of the first to receive the Hon. D.Sc. from the university of Cambridge. In 1886 he was made C.M.G., and in 1891 K.C.M.G. He died in Melbourne on the 16th of May 1899.

Obituary (with bibliography) inGeol. Mag.1899, p. 283.

M‘CRIE, THOMAS(1772-1835), Scottish historian and divine, was born at Duns in Berwickshire in November 1772. He studied in Edinburgh University, and in 1796 he was ordained minister of the Second Associate Congregation, Edinburgh. In 1806, however, with some others M‘Crie seceded from the “general associate synod,” and formed the “constitutional associate presbytery,” afterwards merged in the “original seceders.” He was consequently deposed by the associate synod, and his congregation withdrew with him and built another place of worship in which he officiated until his death. M‘Crie devoted himself to investigations into the history, constitution and polity of the churches of the Reformation; and the first-fruits of his study were given to the public in November 1811 asThe Life of John Knox, containing Illustrations of the History of the Reformation in Scotland, which procured for the author the degree of D.D. from Edinburgh University, an honour conferred then for the first time upon a Scottish dissenting minister. This work, of great learning and value, exercised an important influence on public opinion at the time.At the solicitation of his friend Andrew Thomson, M‘Crie became a contributor toThe Edinburgh Christian Instructor, and in 1817 he subjected some of Sir W. Scott’s works to a criticism which took the form of a vindication of the Covenanters. Preserving the continuity of his historical studies, he followed up his first work withThe Life of Andrew Melville(1819). In 1827 he published aHistory of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation in Italy, and in 1829 aHistory of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation in Spain.

His latest literary undertaking was a life of John Calvin. Only three chapters were completed when the writer died on the 5th of August 1835, leaving four sons and one daughter.

See Thomas M‘Crie (1797-1875),Life of T. M‘Crie(1840), and Hugh Miller,My Schools and Schoolmasters(1869).

MACCULLAGH, JAMES(1809-1847), Irish mathematician and physicist, was born in 1809, near Strabane, Ireland. After a brilliant career at Trinity College, Dublin, he was elected fellow in 1832. From 1832 to 1843 he held the chair of mathematics; and during his tenure of this post he improved in a most marked manner the position of his university as a mathematical centre. In 1843 he was transferred to the chair of natural philosophy. Overwork, mainly on subjects beyond the natural range of his powers, induced mental disease; and he died by his own hand in October 1847.

HisWorkswere published in 1880. Their distinguishing feature is the geometry—which has rarely been applied either to pure space problems or to known physical questions such as the rotation of a rigid solid or the properties of Fresnel’s wave-surface with such singular elegance; in this respect his work takes rank with that of Louis Poinsot. One specially remarkable geometrical discovery of MacCullagh’s is that of the “modular generation of surfaces of the second degree”; and a noteworthy contribution to physical optics is his “theorem of the polar plane.” But his methods, which, in less known subjects, were almost entirely tentative, were altogether inadequate to the solution of the more profound physical problems to which his attention was mainly devoted, such as the theory of double refraction, &c. See G. G. Stokes’s “Report on Double Refraction” (B. A. Report, 1862).

MACCULLOCH, HORATIO(1805-1867), Scottish landscape painter, was born in Glasgow. He studied for a year under John Knox, a Glasgow landscapist of some repute, was then engaged at Cumnock, painting the ornamental lids of snuff-boxes, and afterwards employed in Edinburgh by Lizars, the engraver, to colour the illustrations in Selby’sBritish Birdsand similar works. Meanwhile he was working unweariedly from nature, greatly influenced in his early practice by the watercolours of H. W. Williams. Returning to Glasgow in some four or five years, he was employed on several large pictures for the decoration of a public hall in St George’s Place, and he did a little as a theatrical scene-painter. About this time he was greatly impressed with a picture by Thomson of Duddingston. Gradually MacCulloch asserted his individuality, and formed his own style on a close study of nature; his works form an interesting link between the old world of Scottish landscape and the new. In 1829 MacCulloch first figured in the Royal Scottish Academy’s exhibition, and year by year, till his death on the 24th of June 1867, he was a regular exhibitor. In 1838 he was elected a member of the Scottish Academy. The subjects of his numerous landscapes were taken almost exclusively from Scottish scenery.

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