Part 294 (1/2)
MACARIUS, ST., a hermit of the Thebad, where he spent 60 years of a life of solitude and austerity (300-390). Festival, January 13.
MACARONI, a fine wheaten paste made into long thin tubes, and manufactured in Italy and the S. of France.
MACa.s.sAR, southern portion and chief town (20) at SW. corner of Celebes; exports coffee, spices, timber, and ”Maca.s.sar” oil.
MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON, LORD, essayist and historian, born at Rothley Temple, Leicesters.h.i.+re, son of Zachary Macaulay the philanthropist, and so of Scottish descent; graduated at Cambridge 1822, proving a brilliant debater in the Union, and became Fellow of Trinity 1824; called to the bar 1826, he preferred to follow literature, having already gained a footing by some poems in _Knight's Quarterly_ and by his essay on ”Milton” in the _Edinburgh Review_ (1825); in 1830 he entered Parliament for a pocket-borough, took an honourable part in the Reform debates, and in the new Parliament sat for Leeds; his family were now in straitened circ.u.mstances, and to be able to help them he went out to India as legal adviser to the Supreme Council; to his credit chiefly belongs the Indian Penal Code; returning in 1838, he represented Edinburgh in the Commons with five years' interval till 1856; the ”Lays of Ancient Rome” appeared in 1842, his collected ”Essays” in 1843, two years later he ceased writing for the _Edinburgh;_ he was now working hard at his ”History,” of which the first two volumes attained a quite unprecedented success in 1848; next year he was chosen Lord Rector of Glasgow University; 1855 saw the third and fourth volumes of his ”History”; in 1857 he was made a peer, and many other honours were showered upon him; with a tendency to too much declamation in style, a point of view not free from bias, and a lack of depth and modesty in his thinking, he yet attained a remarkable amount and variety of knowledge, great intellectual energy, and unrivalled lucidity in narration (1800-1859).
MACBETH, a thane of the north of Scotland who, by a.s.sa.s.sination of King Duncan, became king; reigned 17 years, but his right was disputed by Malcolm, Duncan's son, and he was defeated by him and fell at Lumphanan, December 5, 1056.
MACCABEES, a body of Jewish patriots, followers of Judas Maccabaeus, who in 2nd century B.C. and in the interest of the Jewish faith withstood the oppression of Syria and held their own for a goodly number of years against not only the foreign yoke that oppressed them, but against the h.e.l.lenising corruption of their faith at home.
MACCABEES, BOOKS OF, two books of the Apocrypha which give, the first, an account of the heroic struggle which the Maccabees maintained from 175 to 135 B.C. against the kings of Syria, and the second, of an intercalary period of Jewish history from 175 to 160 B.C., much of it of legendary unreliable matter; besides these two a third and a fourth of a still more apocryphal character are extant.
M'CARTHY, JUSTIN, writer and politician, began life as a journalist; is the author of a ”History of Our Own Times” and a ”History of the Four Georges,” as well as a number of novels; represents North Longford in Parliament; _b_. 1830.
M'CHEYNE, ROBERT MURRAY, the subject of a well-known memoir by Andrew Bonar, was born in Edinburgh, educated at the university there, and was minister of St. Peter's, Dundee, from 1836 till his death; he is esteemed a saint by pious evangelical people, by whom the memoirs of him are much prized (1813-1843).
M'CLELLAN, American general, born in Philadelphia; served in the Mexican War, and in the War of Secession, eventually as commander-in-chief; was author of military engineering works (1826-1882).
MACCLESFIELD (36), Ches.h.i.+re manufacturing town on the Bollin, 15 m.
S. of Manchester; has a 13th-century church, and a grammar-school founded by Edward VI.; its staple industry is silk manufactures; there are breweries, and mining and quarrying near.
MACCLINTOCK, Arctic navigator, born at Dundalk; sent out by Lady Franklin to discover the fate of Sir John and his crew; wrote an account of the voyage (1819-1891).
M'CLURE, Arctic navigator, born in Wexford; went out in search of Franklin, and discovered the North-West Pa.s.sage in 1850 (1807-1873).
M'CRIE, THOMAS, a Scotch seceder, born in Dunse; was minister in Edinburgh; author of the ”Life of John Knox,” published in 1812; defended the Covenanters against Scott; he was a man of dignified military presence (1772-1835).
M'CULLOCH, HORATIO, a Scottish landscape-painter, born in Glasgow; was distinguished for his Highland landscapes (1806-1867).
M'CULLOCH, JOHN RAMSEY, political economist, born in Isle of Whithorn; contributed to the _Scotsman_ and _Edinburgh Review;_ wrote ”Principles of Political Economy,” and edited Dictionaries of Commerce and Geography (1789-1864).
MACCUNN, HAMISH, Scottish composer, born at Greenock; entered the Royal College of Music in 1883, and became junior professor of Harmony at the Royal Academy; his fertility in melody and mastery of the orchestra are devoted to music of strong national characteristics, as his overture ”Land of the Mountain and the Flood,” and his choral work ”The Lay of the Last Minstrel” show; _b_. 1868.