Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/22

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McCulloch
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McCulloch

blishment of William Home Lizars [q. v.] the engraver. There MacCulloch remained about two years, colouring plates for Dr. Lizars's ‘Anatomy’ and Selby's ‘Ornithology.’ Returning to Glasgow, he commenced sketching out of doors at the Campsie Hills, on the banks of the Clyde, and in Cadzow Forest. In 1829 he began to exhibit at the Royal Scottish Academy, sending a ‘View on the Clyde,’ which was followed by other landscapes until 1834, when he was elected an associate. A large picture of ‘Cadzow Forest,’ which he exhibited in 1835, attracted much notice, and was highly praised by Professor Wilson. He became an academician in 1838, and then removed to Edinburgh, but many of his summers were spent in Skye, and he often lived for months at Oban. He was the first Scottish artist who carried his colours with him and worked his pictures into life and effect on the spot. He ranged over wide tracts of the highlands, penetrating into the wildest recesses of the mountains, but from time to time returning to the quieter inland lakes of Perthshire and Inverness-shire, or to the lowland rivers, fields, and woods. He became the most popular landscape painter of his day in Scotland, but his works are little known south of the Tweed, possibly because he exhibited once only, in 1844, at the Royal Academy in London. Among his larger works, some of the best are ‘A Scottish Strath,’ ‘Loch an Eilan,’ engraved by William Miller, ‘Loch Katrine,’ ‘Loch Achray,’ ‘Loch Corrinsk,’ ‘Kilchurn Castle,’ ‘Edinburgh from Dalmeny,’ ‘A Dream of the Highlands,’ ‘Misty Corries,’ ‘Glencoe,’ ‘Lord Macdonald's Deer Forest in Skye,’ and ‘Loch Maree.’ His ‘Inverlochy Castle,’ ‘Evening,’ and ‘A Lowland River’ are in the National Gallery of Scotland. The last named picture has been engraved by William Forrest.

MacCulloch died at St. Colm's, Trinity, Edinburgh, on 24 June 1867, and was buried in Warriston cemetery. Two portraits of him by Sir Daniel Macnee are in the National Gallery of Scotland.

[Scotsman, 25 June 1867; Art Journal, 1867, p. 187; Chambers's Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, 1875, iii. 11–13; Exhibition Catalogues of the Royal Scottish Academy, 1829–1867.]

R. E. G.

McCULLOCH, Sir JAMES (1819–1893), Australian politician, son of George McCulloch of Glasgow, was born there in 1819. He entered early the office of Messrs. Dennistoun & Co., who in 1853 sent him to Melbourne to open a branch of their business. The Adelaide, in which he sailed, took fire in the Bay of Biscay, and the passengers were exposed to great peril.

In 1854 McCulloch entered the then single chamber of Victoria as a nominee-member, and early in 1857 was elected for Wimmera to the first elective legislative assembly, where he took his seat at first on the cross benches. In April 1857 Sir John O'Shanassy's ministry fell, and McCulloch was invited to form a government—in which he did not take the position of premier, but the portfolio of trade and customs. In March 1858 he resigned. After a visit to England he was elected in the autumn of the same year for East Melbourne; and in October 1859 he accepted the post of treasurer in Sir W. Nicholson's administration, which held office for a year. He visited England again at the end of 1860, and was absent for most of the next two sessions. In 1862 he joined Mr. Sellar in founding, in succession to Dennistoun & Co., the business which bears their joint names, and the same year on his return to the colony he was again elected to the assembly for Mornington.

In June 1863 he formed a coalition with his old opponent Heales, and became for the first time premier of the colony, being chief secretary for a short time, and then for four sessions postmaster-general. This ministry was considered the strongest ever formed in Victoria up to that time; and it held office during times of peculiar excitement. It adopted the proposals of Mr. Treasurer Verdon for a moderate protective tariff, and came into collision with the free-trade legislative council, which threw out the supplies. In the next session the collision was repeated, and McCulloch appealed to the country. Coming back with a large majority in February 1866, he again came to a deadlock with the council and again resigned in May. The governor could get no one else to form a ministry, and on McCulloch's return to power a conference between the houses adjusted the difference for a time. The dispute was renewed owing to the intervention of the home government in the interest of the council. Sir Charles Darling was recalled on the ground of alleged partisanship with McCulloch's ministry, and McCulloch proposed to vote him 20,000l. as a compensation. The legislative council took the side of the crown, and a fierce struggle ensued. The dissolution of the house only sent back the government stronger than before; but the fresh intervention of the home government caused the resignation of McCulloch's ministry, and matters were only settled by the refusal of Sir C. Darling to accept the proffered grant.