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Rh McKAY, James, Canadian legislator, b. in Sas- katchewan, Canada, about 1815; d. there, 3 Dec, 1879. He was educated at the Red River settle- ment, was in the employ of the Hudson bay com- pany for a time, and afterward became a contractor and superintended the construction of part of the Dawson route. When the province of Manitoba was formed Mr. McKay became a member of its legislative council, and was speaker for several years. He was appointed a member of the first provincial administration in January, 1871, with the office of president of the executive council, which he held till December, 1874. Soon after- ward he became minister of agriculture, but re- signed in 1878, owing to illness. His intimate ac- quaintance with the Indians and half-breeds, and the great influence he possessed over them, enabled him to render the government valuable aid in con- nection with the various treaties by which Indian land-titles were extinguished.

MACKAY, John William, capitalist, b. in Dub- lin, Ireland, 28 Nov., 1831. He is of Scotch-Irish descent, and came with his parents in 1840 to New York, where his father died soon after their arrival. Young Mackay obtained a public-school education, and was apprenticed to the trade of ship-building. On the discovery of gold in California he went with the crowd that was then thronging to the Pacific, and lived a miner's life for several years, with vary- ing fortunes, acquiring a perfect command of the technical and practical knowledge of mining. ' Be- fore he was thirty years old he had made and lost a small fortune. In 1860 Mackay left California for Nevada, where he has since made his home. In Nevada his fortunes slowly and steadily im- proved, and he became a leader of men among the rough spirits that formed the mining community. He was a man of rigidly temperate habits, which saved him from the misfortunes that attended so many in the early mining days. In 1872 he was among the discoverers of the Bonanza mines, on a ledge of rock in the Sierra Nevadas, under what is now Virginia City. The discovery of their vast deposits of silver and gold is the most noted and perhaps the most romantic incident in mining history. It changed the face of the silver markets of the world, and to nations like India and China became an important and embarrassing factor in modern political economy. The mines that came within the Bonanza designation were owned by John W. Mackay, James C. Flood, James G. Fair, after- ward senator from Nevada, and William O'Brien. Of this interest Mr. Mackay owned two fifths — double that of any of his partners. In 1873 the great silver vein was opened, and from one mine alone Mr. Mackay and Mr. Fair, the practical min- ing members of the Bonanza firm, took out $150,- 000,000 in silver and gold. In 1875 the working of the mines was interrupted by a fire, but the own- ers continued to pay dividends in order that the share-holders, many of whom were their working- men, should not lose their income. During the active yield of the mines Mr. Mackay devoted him- self personally to their superintepdence, working in the lower levels as an ordinary miner. In 1878, with Mr. Flood and Mr. Fair, he founded the Bank of Nevada, with its headquarters in San Francisco. Mr. Mackay has spent some time in Europe for the education of his children, and, although he has a special interest in the study of art, he has main- tained his active and personal intei'est in mining. His firm are understood to control the principal mines on the Comstock lode. In 1884 Mr. Mackay, in partnership with James Gordon Bennett, laid two cables across the Atlantic from the United States to England and France. These cables are under a system i^nown as the Commercial cable company, although the private property of Mr. Mackay and Mr. Bennett. In 1885 Mr. Mackay was offered the nomination as U. S. senator from Nevada, under circumstances that would have made his election virtually unanimous, but he refused, as his private business rendered, in his opinion, a usefid public life impossible. He has been liberal in his dona- tions to charities, and among other gifts to the Roman Catholic church, of which he is a member, has founded an orphan asylum in Nevada City.

MACKAY, Robert, Canadian jurist, b. in Mon- treal in 1816 ; d. there, 23 Feb., 1888. His father was an army officer in the East Indian depart- ment. The son was called to the bar in 1837, and became Queen's counsel in 1867. He was appoint- ed a commissioner for consolidating the statutes in 1856, and worked upon the Lower Canada and general statutes. He became puisne judge of the supreme court in 1868, was a judge of the court of Queen's bench from 1868 till 1883, and was presi- dent of the Montreal bar association and of the Art association of that citv.

MACKAY-SMITH, Alexander, clergyman, b. in New Haven, Conn., 2 June, 1850. He is a grand- son of Nathan Smith, U. S. senator from Connec- ticut, and a younger brother of the Rev. Cornelius B. Smith, D. D., of St. James's church, New York city. He was graduated at Trinity in 1872, studied divinity at the General theological seminary and in England and Germany, and took orders in the Protestant Episcopal church. He was rector of Grace church. South Boston, Mass., in 1877-'80, and in the latter year became assistant rector of St. Thomas's church. New York city. In 1886 he declined the post of assistant bishop of Kansas, and in 1887 he became first archdeacon of New York. He has taken an active part in the civil-service re- form movement, and has published occasional poems in periodicals.

McKEAN, Joseph, clergyman, b. in Ipswich, Mass., 19 April, 1776; d. in Havana, Cuba, 17 March, 1818. He was graduated at Harvard in 1794, and taught in Ipswich and Berwick till 1797, when he was ordained pastor of the Congregational church in Milton, Mass. The failure of his health compelled his resignation in 1804, and he resumed teaching. He declined the chair of mathematics at Harvard in 1806, but two years afterward ac- cepted the Boylston professorship of rhetoric and oratory, succeeding John Quincy Adams, continu- ing in office until a few months before his death, which was the result of pulmonary disease. Prince- ton gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1818, and Allegheny college that of D. D. a few months later. He published occasional sermons, and a " Jlemoir of the Rev. John Eliot," printed in the Massachu- setts historical collections.

McKEAN, Samuel, senator, b. in Huntingdon county, Pa., in 1790; d. in McKean county, Pa., 23 June, 1840. He was elected to congress as a Democrat in 1822, served in 1823-9, and from March, 1833, till March, 1839, was United States senator from Pennsylvania.

McKEAN, Thomas, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. in New London, Chester co., Pa., 19 March, 1734; d. in Philadelphia, Pa.. 24 June, 1817. His parents were both natives of Ireland. The son was educated by the Rev. Francis Allison, who was at that time a celebrated teacher of New Castle, Del., and after studying law a few months became register of probate of New Castle county, Del. He was admitted to the bar before he was twenty-one, appointed deputy attorney-