leading
minister of one of the Dissenting churches of Scotland. His _Life of
Knox_ (1813) ranks high among biographies for the ability and learning
which it displays, and was the means of vindicating the great Reformer
from a cloud of prejudice and misunderstanding in which he had been
enveloped. It was followed by a _Life of Andrew Melville_ (1819), Knox's
successor as the leader of the Reformers in Scotland, also a work of
great merit. M'C. also _pub._ histories of the Reformation in Italy and
Spain. He received the degree of D.D. in 1813.

MACDONALD, GEORGE (1824-1905).--Poet and novelist, _s._ of a farmer, was
_b._ at Huntly, Aberdeenshire, and _ed._ at the Univ. of Aberdeen, and at
the Independent Coll., Highbury. He became minister of a congregation at
Arundel, but after a few years retired, on account partly of theological
considerations, partly of a threatened, breakdown of health. He then took
to literature, and _pub._ his first book, _Within and Without_ (1856), a
dramatic poem, _Poems_ followed in 1857, and _Phantasies, a Faerie
Romance_, in 1858. He then turned to fiction, and produced numerous
novels, of which _David Elginbrod_ (1862), _Alec Forbes_ (1865), _Robert
Falconer_ (1868), _The Marquis of Lossie_ (1877), and _Sir Gibbie_
(1879), are perhaps the best. He also wrote stories for children of great
charm and originality, including _The Princess and the Goblin_, _At the
Back of the North Wind_, and _Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood_. As a novelist
he had considerable narrative and dramatic power, humour, tenderness, a
genial view of life and character, tinged with mysticism, and within his
limits was a true poet. On retiring from the ministry he attached himself
to the Church of England, but frequently preached as a layman, never
accepting any remuneration for his sermons.

MACKAY, CHARLES (1814-1889).--Poet and journalist, _s._ of a naval
officer, was _b._ at Perth, and _ed._ at the Royal Caledonian Asylum,
London, and at Brussels, but much of his early life was spent in France.
Coming to London in 1834, he engaged in journalism, _pub._ _Songs and
Poems_ (1834), wrote a _History of London_, _Popular Delusions_, and a
romance, _Longbeard_. His fame, however, chiefly rests upon his songs,
some of which, including _Cheer, Boys, Cheer_, were in 1846 set to music
by Henry Russell, and had an astonishing popularity. In 1852 he became
ed. of the _Illustrated London News_, in the musical supplement to which
ot