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 tory of Ireland whilst performing the onerous duties of that office. In 1865 he visited home, and while sojourning with his father in Wexford, gave much offence to his countrymen in America by descanting upon the generally degraded condition of the Irish population in the United States. In 1867 he was sent to Paris as a Canadian Commissioner to the Great Exhibition, and took the opportunity of making a general tour of the Continent. The same year he met his colleagues of the Canadian cabinet in London, to lay before the Imperial Government their plan of federation. Indeed the grand project which united into the Dominion of Canada the scattered provinces of British North America was largely his own, both in conception and the carrying out of its details. His persistent opposition to the Fenian organization, and his bitter denunciations of the invasions of Canada, led to his assassination at Ottawa on the morning of the 7th April 1868, aged 42, when returning alone from the Legislature. But three weeks before, on St. Patrick's-day, he had been entertained at a public banquet at Ottawa. The assassin was captured, tried, and executed. Mr. McGee will be best remembered in Ireland for his Poems (published in a collected form soon after his death), many of which are very beautiful — his early pieces being almost purely national, his later, purely religious. Besides a Popular History of Ireland (1862), already noticed, he was the author of Lives of Irish Writers (1846), History of the Irish Settlers in North America (1851), Catholic History of North America (1854), and many other works. In the latter part of his life he evinced the most unswerving loyalty to the British Government, and entirely abandoned the revolutionary ideas and projects of his earlier years. 226 241

MacGeoghegan, James, Abbe, an historian, was born in Ireland about 1701, and was sent at an early age to France, where he entered the Church. For the latter part of his life he was attached to the church of St. Mery, Paris. He died 30th March 1764, aged 63. He is worthy of remembrance as the author of a standard history of Ireland — Histoire de l'Irlande Ancienne et Moderne — the first two volumes published in Paris in 1758 and 1762, and the third at Amsterdam in 1763. An English translation by P. O'Kelly appeared in Dublin in 1831, and was republished in 1844. MacGeoghegan's history extends from the earliest period to the Treaty of Limerick. It has been continued to our own times by John Mitchel. The work, despite its diffuseuess of style, is highly spoken of in the Biographie Générale. This author spells his name Ma-Geoghegan on the title-page of his first volume, and MacGeoghegan on that of the second. 34

MacGrady, Augustin, born about 1349, was a writer who continued the Annals of Tighernach, from that annalist's time to the year of his own death, nearly 300 years, thereby contributing valuable materials for Irish history. An unknown hand continued the Annals two years further, to 1407, and gives the following note concerning MacGrady's death: " Augustin MaGradaigh, a canon of the canons of the Island of the Saints [in Lough Ree, in the Shannon], a saoi [doctor] during his life, in divine and worldly wisdom, in literature, in history, and in various other sciences in like manner, and the doctor of good oratory of western Europe — the man who compiled this book, and many other books, both of the lives of the saints and of historical events — died on the Wednesday before the 1st day of November [1405], in the 56th year of his age." 260

MacGregor, John James, author of a voluminous History of the French Revolution, History of the County and City of Limerick, and True Stories from the History of Ireland, was born in Limerick, 24th February 1775. He resided at Limerick, Waterford, and during the latter part of his life in Dublin, where he was literary assistant to the Kildare-place Education Society. An ardent Methodist, he edited the Munster Telegraph for some years, and for a longer period the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Magazine. His death took place in Dublin, 24th August 1834, in his 60th year; his remains were interred in the burial ground attached to St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Mackay, James Townsend, was a distinguished Scotch botanist, who resided most of his life in Ireland. He was Curator of the College Botanic Gardens, Dublin, which he laid out in 1808 and he made a valuable contribution to the study of Irish botany in his Flora Hibernica (Dublin, 1836). Mr. Mackay died, probably in Dublin, 25th July 1862. 233 332

Macken, John, a poet, who wrote under the pseudonym of "IsmaelFitzAdam," was born at Brookeborough, County of Fermanagh, probably about the close of the 18th century. We have few particulars concerning his life, except that he passed some years as a sailor in the navy, and was present at the bombardment of Algiers. In 1818 a volume of poems by him was published in England — The Harp of the Desert, and in 1821 his Lays on Land. Despite the earnest commendations of his 313