him, he went to the Haymarket, but he returned in 1734 to Drury Lane and acted there almost continuously until 1748. Then for two seasons he and his wife (d. c. 1758), an excellent actress, were in Dublin under Sheridan, then back in London at Covent Garden. He played a great number of characters, principally in comedy, although Shylock was his greatest part, and Iago and the Ghost in Hamlet were in his repertory. At the end of 1753 Macklin bade farewell to the stage to open a tavern, near the theatre, where he personally supervised the serving of dinner. He also delivered an evening lecture, followed by a debate, which was soon a hopeless subject of ridicule. The tavern failed, and Macklin returned to the stage, and played for a number of years in London and Dublin. His quick temper got him into constant trouble. In a foolish quarrel over a wig in 1735 he killed a fellow actor in the green-room at Drury Lane, and he was constantly at law over his various contracts and quarrels. The bitterest of these arose on account of his appearing as Macbeth at Covent Garden in 1772. The part was usually played there by William Smith, and the public would not brook a change. A few nights later the audience refused to hear Macklin as Shylock, and shouted their wish, in response to the manager’s question, to have him discharged. This was done in order to quell the riot. His lawsuit, well conducted by himself, against the leaders of the disturbance resulted in an award of £600 and costs, but Macklin magnanimously elected instead that the defendants should take £100 in tickets at three benefits—for himself, his daughter and the management. He returned to Covent Garden, but his appearances thereafter were less frequent, ending in 1789, when as Shylock, at his benefit, he was only able to begin the play, apologize for his wandering memory, and retire. He lived until the 11th of July 1797, and his last years were provided for by a subscription edition of two of his best plays, The Man of the World and Love in a Maze. Macklin’s daughter, Mary Macklin (c. 1734–1781), was a well-known actress in her day.
See Edward A. Parry, Charles Macklin (1891).
MACK VON LEIBERICH, KARL, Freiherr (1752–1828),
Austrian soldier, was born at Nenslingen, in Bavaria, on the
25th of August 1752. In 1770 he joined an Austrian cavalry
regiment, in which his uncle, Leiberich, was a squadron commander,
becoming an officer seven years later. During the
brief war of the Bavarian Succession he was selected for service
on the staff of Count Kinsky, under whom, and subsequently
under the commander-in-chief Field Marshal Count Lacy, he
did excellent work. He was promoted first lieutenant in 1778,
and captain on the quartermaster-general’s staff in 1783.
Count Lacy, then the foremost soldier of the Austrian army,
had the highest opinion of his young assistant. In 1785 Mack
married Katherine Gabrieul, and was ennobled under the
name of Mack von Leiberich. In the Turkish war he was
employed on the headquarter staff, becoming in 1788 major and
personal aide-de-camp to the emperor, and in 1789 lieutenant-colonel.
He distinguished himself greatly in the storming of
Belgrade. Shortly after this, disagreements between Mack and
Loudon, now commander-in-chief, led to the former’s demanding
a court-martial and leaving the front. He was, however, given
a colonelcy (1789) and the order of Maria Theresa, and in 1790
Loudon and Mack, having become reconciled, were again on the
field together. During these campaigns Mack received a severe
injury to his head, from which he never fully recovered. In
1793 he was made quartermaster-general (chief of staff) to Prince
Josias of Saxe-Coburg, commanding in the Netherlands; and
he enhanced his reputation by the ensuing campaign. The
young Archduke Charles, who won his own first laurels in the
action of the 1st of March 1793, wrote after the battle, “Above
all we have to thank Colonel Mack for these successes.” Mack
distinguished himself again on the field of Neerwinden; and
had a leading part in the negotiations between Coburg and
Dumouriez. He continued to serve as quartermaster-general,
and was now made titular chief (Inhaber) of a cuirassier regiment.
He received a wound at Famars, but in 1794 was once more
engaged, having at last been made a major-general. But the
failure of the allies, due though it was to political and military
factors and ideas, over which Mack had no control, was ascribed
to him, as their successes of March–April 1793 had been, and he
fell into disfavour in consequence. In 1797 he was promoted
lieutenant field marshal, and in the following year he accepted,
at the personal request of the emperor, the command of the
Neapolitan army. But with the unpromising material of his
new command he could do nothing against the French revolutionary
troops, and before long, being in actual danger of
being murdered by his men, he took refuge in the French camp.
He was promised a free pass to his own country, but Napoleon
ordered that he should be sent to France as a prisoner of war.
Two years later he escaped from Paris in disguise. The allegation
that he broke his parole is false. He was not employed for
some years, but in 1804, when the war party in the Austrian
court needed a general to oppose the peace policy of the Archduke
Charles, Mack was made quartermaster-general of the army,
with instructions to prepare for a war with France. He did all
that was possible within the available time to reform the army,
and on the opening of the war of 1805 he was made quartermaster-general
to the titular commander-in-chief in Germany,
the Archduke Ferdinand. He was the real responsible commander
of the army which opposed Napoleon in Bavaria, but
his position was ill-defined and his authority treated with slight
respect by the other general officers. For the events of the Ulm
campaign and an estimate of Mack’s responsibility for the
disaster, see Napoleonic Campaigns. After Austerlitz, Mack
was tried by a court-martial, sitting from February 1806 to
June 1807, and sentenced to be deprived of his rank, his regiment,
and the order of Maria Theresa, and to be imprisoned for two
years. He was released in 1808, and in 1819, when the ultimate
victory of the allies had obliterated the memory of earlier
disasters, he was, at the request of Prince Schwarzenberg, reinstated
in the army as lieutenant field marshal and a member
of the order of Maria Theresa. He died on the 22nd of October
1828 at S. Pölten.
See Schweigerd, Oesterreichs Helden (Vienna, 1854); Würzbach, Biogr. Lexikon d. Kaiserthums Oesterr. (Vienna, 1867); Ritter von Rittersberg, Biogr. d. ausgezeichneten Feldherren d. oest. Armee (Prague, 1828); Raumer’s Hist. Taschenbuch (1873) contains Mack’s vindication. A short critical memoir will be found in Streffleur for January 1907.
McLANE, LOUIS (1786–1857), American political leader,
was born in Smyrna, Delaware, on the 28th of May 1786, son
of Allan McLane (1746–1829), a well-known Revolutionary
soldier. He was admitted to the bar in 1807. He entered
politics as a Democrat, and served in the Federal House of
Representatives in 1817–1827 and in the Senate in 1827–1829.
He was minister to England in 1829–1831, and secretary of the
treasury in Jackson’s cabinet from 1831 (when in his annual
report he argued for the United States Bank) until May 1833,
when he was transferred to the state department. He retired
from the cabinet in June 1834. He was president of the Baltimore
& Ohio railway in 1837–1847, minister to England in
1845–1846, and delegate to the Maryland constitutional convention
of 1850–1851. He died in Baltimore, Maryland, on the
7th of October 1857.
His son, Robert Milligan McLane (1815–1898), graduated at West Point in 1837, resigned from the army in 1843, and practised law in Baltimore. He was a Democratic representative in Congress in 1847–1851 and again in 1879–1883, governor of Maryland in 1884–1885, U.S. commissioner to China in 1853–1854, and minister to Mexico in 1859–1860 and to France in 1885–1889.
See R. M. McLane’s Reminiscences, 1827–1897 (privately printed, 1897).
MACLAREN, CHARLES (1782–1866), Scottish editor, was born at Ormiston, Haddingtonshire, on the 7th of October 1782, the son of a farmer and cattle-dealer. He was almost entirely self-educated, and when a young man became a clerk in Edinburgh. In 1817, with others, he established the Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh and at first acted as its editor. Offered a post as clerk in the custom house, he resigned his editorial
