Chronicle' and 'London Packet.' His retentive memory enabled him to faithfully report some of the finest speeches in parliament during Lord North's administration, especially those delivered in the debates on the American war. On the evening of 8 Aug. 1804, during the Brentford election, he was killed by being accidentally thrown under a carriage at Hammersmith (Faulkner, Hammersmith, pp. 297-8).
Marfarlane was engaged by Thomas Evans, the publisher, of Paternoster Row, to write a 'History of the Reign of George III,' the first volume of which was issued in 1770. In consequence, however, of some misunderstanding, Evans employed another writer to continue the work, the second volume of which appeared in 1782, and the third in 1794. On being reconciled to Evans, Macfarlane wrote in 1796 a fourth volume, which was severely handled by the critics. Macfarlane defended himself in an 'Appendix, or the Criticks Criticized,' 8vo, London, 1797.
He was an enthusiastic admirer of the poems of Ossian, and translated them into Latin verse, publishing in 1769 the first book of 'Temora' as a specimen. At the time of his death he had in the press an elaborate edition of the poet, which was afterwards issued under the auspices of the Highland Society of London, with the title 'The Poems of Ossian in Gaelic, with a literal Translation into Latin, with a Dissertation on their authenticity by Sir J. Sinclair, and a Translation from the Italian of the Abbe Cesarette's Dissertation on the Controversy respecting Ossian, with Notes by J. McArthur,' 3 vols. 8vo, London, 1807.
In 1797 Macfarlane published 'An Address to the People of the British Empire on Public Affairs,' and in 1799 a translation of George Buchanan's 'Dialogue concerning the Rights of the Crown of Scotland,' with two dissertations prefixed, one on the pretended identity of the Getes and Scythians, and the Goths and Scots, and the other vindicating the character of Buchanan as an historian.
[Gent. Mag. 1804, ii. 791; Anderson's Scottish Nation, ii. 731-2; Green's Diary of a Lover of Literature, 1810, p. 65.]
MACFARLANE, ROBERT, Lord Ormidale (1802–1880), senator of the College of Justice, born in 1802, was son of Parlane Macfarlane of Lugs, Dumbartonshire. He was educated at Glasgow and Edinburgh, and admitted a writer to the signet in 1827. He afterwards passed some time in Jamaica, but, determining to proceed to the bar, became advocate at Edinburgh in 1838. He was very successful with juries in civil cases, though not an orator, and in 1853 was made sheriff of Renfrewshire. He was made an ordinary lord of session, with the title of Lord Ormidale, on 13 Jan. 1862, and transferred to the second division in 1874. As a judge he was kind to young barristers, and very painstaking. He had a dislike for showy pleading, and did a great deal after Lord Colonsay's death to reform the procedure of the court of session. His speech upon the condition of the court before the Juridical Society in 1867 caused some controversy, but the act of 1868 abolishing many of the technicalities of pleading was largely due to his advocacy. Ormidale died at Hartrigge, Jedburgh, on 3 Nov. 1880. His wife, a Miss Greigh of Eccles, Berwickshire, whom he married in 1845, predeceased him. Ormidale published : 1. 'The Practice of the Court of Session in Jury Causes,' Edinburgh, 1837, 8vo. 2. 'Reports of Jury Trials in the Courts of Session from 12 March 1838 to 27 Dec. 1839,' Edinburgh, 1841, 8vo. 3. Parts i. to viii. of 'Practical Notes on the Structure of Issues in Jury Cases in the Court of Session,' Edinburgh, 1844-5, 8vo.
[Scotsman, 6 Nov. 1880; Irving's Dict. of Eminent Scotsmen, p. 572; Ann. Reg. 1880, p. 219; Book of Dignities.]
MACFARREN, GEORGE (1788–1843), dramatist and theatrical manager, born in London 5 Sept. 1788, was son ofGeorge Macfarren. He was educated chiefly at Archbishop Tenison's school in Castle Street, Leicester Square, and while there he wrote a tragedy which was privately played by his school-fellows, with the support of Edmund Kean, then a boy of their own age. Macfarren was also something of a musician, and according to his son, Sir G. Macfarren, 'he could sustain either of the parts in a violin quartet,' and 'had he not met with a fashionable teacher of dancing, named Bishop, who offered to make him a gentleman instead of a fiddler, he would have adopted music as his profession' (Musical World, lv. 24, 1877). He was the first teacher of Oury the violinist (Dubourg, The Violin, 1878 ed., p. 217), and while still under twenty years of age he opened a dancing academy of his own. In 1816 he visited Paris, where he had lessons in dancing from the best teachers. His natural bent was, however, towards the stage, and on 28 Sept. 1818 his first publicly performed dramatic work, 'Ah ! what a Pity, or the Dark Knight and the Fair Lady,' was given at the English Opera House (for the benefit of John Pritt Harley) [q. v.]; from this date almost every year witnessed the production of some piece or other from his pen.
