his first contribution being an article on Ricardo’s Principles of Political Economy in 1818. Within the next few years he gave both public lectures and private instruction in London on political economy. In 1823 he was chosen to fill the lectureship established by subscription in honour of the memory of Ricardo. A movement was set on foot in 1825 by Jeffrey and others to induce the government to found in the university of Edinburgh a chair of political economy, separate from that of moral philosophy, the intention being to obtain the appointment for M‘Culloch. This project fell to the ground; but in 1828 he was made professor of political economy in London University. He then fixed his residence permanently in London, where he continued his literary work, being now one of the regular writers in the Edinburgh Review. In 1838 he was appointed comptroller of the stationery office; the duties of this position, which he held till his death, he discharged with conscientious fidelity, and introduced important reforms in the management of the department. Sir Robert Peel, in recognition of the services he had rendered to political science, conferred on him a literary pension of £200 per annum. He was elected a foreign associate of the Institute of France (Académie des sciences morales et politiques). He died in London, after a short illness, on the 11th of November 1864, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. To his personal character and social qualities very favourable testimony was borne by those who knew him best. In general politics he always remained a Whig pure and simple; though he was in intimate relations with James Mill and his circle, he never shared the Radical opinions of that group.
M‘Culloch cannot be regarded as an original thinker on political economy. He did not contribute any new ideas to that science, or introduce any noteworthy correction of the views, either as to method or doctrine, generally accepted by the dominant school of his day. But the work he did must be pronounced, in relation to the wants of his time, a very valuable one. His name will probably be less permanently associated with anything he has written on economic science, strictly so called, than with his great statistical and other compilations. His Dictionary of Commerce and Commercial Navigation (1832) and his Statistical Account of the British Empire (1837) remain imposing monuments of his extensive and varied knowledge and his indefatigable industry. Another useful work of reference, also the fruit of wide erudition and much labour, is his Literature of Political Economy (1845). Though weak on the side of the foreign literature of the science, it is very valuable as a critical and biographical guide to British writers.
McCULLOUGH, JOHN EDWARD (1837–1885), American
actor, was born in Coleraine, Ireland, on the 2nd of November
1837. He went to America at the age of sixteen, and made his
first appearance on the stage at the Arch Street Theatre, Philadelphia,
in 1857. In support of Edwin Forrest and Edwin
Booth he played second rôles in Shakespearian and other
tragedies, and Forrest left him by will all his prompt books.
Virginius was his greatest success, although even in this part
and as Othello he was coldly received in England (1881). In
1884 he broke down physically and mentally, and he died in
an asylum at Philadelphia on the 8th of November 1885.
MACCUNN, HAMISH (1868– ), Scottish musical composer,
was born at Greenock, the son of a shipowner, and was
educated at the Royal College of Music. His first success was
with the overture Land of the Mountain and Flood in 1887 at
the Crystal Palace, and this was followed by other compositions,
with a characteristic Scottish colouring. From 1888 to
1894 he was a professor at the Royal College of Music, and this
latter year saw both his marriage to a daughter of John Pettie,
R.A., and the production of his opera Jeanie Deans at Edinburgh.
He was for some years conductor to the Carl Rosa
Opera company, and subsequently to other companies. His
opera Diarmid was produced at Covent Garden in 1897, and his
other music includes cantatas, overtures, part-songs, instrumental
pieces, and songs, all markedly Scottish in type.
MACDONALD, FLORA (1722–1790), Jacobite heroine, was
the daughter of Ranald Macdonald of Milton in the island of
South Uist in the Hebrides, and his wife Marion the daughter
of Angus Macdonald, minister of South Uist. Her father died
when she was a child, and her mother was abducted and
married by Hugh Macdonald of Armadale. She was brought
up under the care of the chief of her clan, Macdonald of
Clanranald, and was partly educated in Edinburgh. In June
1746 she was living in Benbecula in the Hebrides when
Prince Charles Edward (q.v.) took refuge there after the
battle of Culloden. The prince’s companion, Captain O’Neill,
sought her help. The island was held for the government by
the local militia, but the secret sympathies of the Macdonalds
were with the Jacobite cause. After some hesitation Flora
promised to help. At a later period she told the duke of Cumberland,
son of George III. and commander-in-chief in
Scotland, that she acted from charity and would have helped
him also if he had been defeated and in distress, a statement
which need not be accepted as quite literally true. The
commander of the militia in the island, a Macdonald, who was
probably admitted into the secret, gave her a pass to the mainland
for herself, a manservant, an Irish spinning maid, Betty
Burke, and a boat’s crew of six men. The prince was disguised
as Betty Burke. After a first repulse at Waternish, the party
landed at Portree. The prince was hidden in a cave while
Flora Macdonald found help for him in the neighbourhood, and
was finally able to escape. He had left Benbecula on the 27th of
June. The talk of the boatmen brought suspicion on Flora
Macdonald, and she was arrested and brought to London.
After a short imprisonment in the Tower, she was allowed to
live outside of it, under the guard of a “messenger” or gaoler.
When the Act of Indemnity was passed in 1747 she was left at
liberty. Her courage and loyalty had gained her general
sympathy, which was increased by her good manners and gentle
character. Dr Johnson, who saw her in 1773, describes her as
“a woman of soft features, gentle manners and elegant presence.”
In 1750 she married Allen Macdonald of Kingsburgh,
and in 1773 they emigrated to America. In the War of Independence
he served the British government and was taken
prisoner. In 1779 his wife returned home in a merchant ship
which was attacked by a privateer. She refused to leave the
deck during the action, and was wounded in the arm. She died
on the 5th of March 1790. There is a statue to her memory
in Inverness. Flora Macdonald had a large family of sons,
who mostly entered the army or navy, and two daughters.
See A. C. Ewald, Life and Times of Prince Charles Edward (1886). The so-called Autobiography of Flora Macdonald, published by her grand-daughter F. F. Walde (1870) is of small value.
MACDONALD, GEORGE (1824–1905), Scottish novelist and
poet, was born at Huntly, Aberdeenshire. His father, a farmer,
was one of the Macdonalds of Glencoe, and a direct descendant
of one of the families that suffered in the massacre.
Macdonald’s youth was passed in his native town, under the
immediate influence of the Congregational Church, and in an
atmosphere strongly impregnated with Calvinism. He took
his degree at Aberdeen University, and migrated thence to
London, studying at Highbury College for the Congregational
ministry. In 1850 he was appointed pastor of Trinity Congregational
Church, Arundel, and, after resigning his cure there,
was engaged in ministerial work in Manchester. His health,
however, was unequal to the strain, and after a short sojourn
in Algiers he settled in London and adopted the profession of
literature. In 1856 he published his first book, Within and
Without, a dramatic poem; following it in 1857 with a volume
of Poems, and in 1858 by the delightful “faerie romance”
Phantastes. His first conspicuous success was achieved in 1862
with David Elginbrod, the forerunner of a number of popular
novels, which include Alec Forbes of Howglen (1865), Annals
of a Quiet Neighbourhood (1866), Robert Falconer (1868), Malcolm
(1875), The Marquis of Lossie (1877), and Donal Grant (1883).
He was for a time editor of Good Words for the Young, and lectured
successfully in America in 1872–1873. He wrote admirable
stories for the young, and published some volumes of sermons.
In 1877 he was given a civil list pension. He died on the 18th
of September 1905.
Both as preacher and as lecturer on literary topics George Macdonald’s sincerity and moral enthusiasm exercised great
