Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/158

134 county court of York in October, 1876, and in 1877 judgeof the Ontario mai-itime court. Judge Mac- kenzie also presided at criminal sessions, at the surrogate court, and the court of assessment ap- peals, and also conducted ten division courts.

MACKENZIE, Robert Shelton. author, b. at Drew's Court, Limerick co.. Ireland, 22 June, 1809 ; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 30 Nov., 1880. He was the second son of Capt. Kenneth Mackenzie, author of a volume of Gaelic poetry. After his education at Fermoy, he studied medicine at Cork, and was graduated at Dublin, but never practised his pro- fession. After passing his medical examination in 1825, he opened a school in Fermoy, and in 1829, having had experience in the mean time as a newspaper reporter, he became editor of a county journal in Staffordshire. England. In 1830-'l he was employed in London in writing biographies for a work called "The Georgian Era," and in re- vising the contributions of others. Subsequently he acted as editor of various newspapers, among them the " Liverpool Journal." From 1834 till 1851 he was the English correspondent of the " New York Evening Star," besides contributing extensively to various periodicals in the United States. In 1845 he became editor and part propri- etor of a railway journal in London, and in 1847 was an active member of Lord Brougham's Law amendment society. In 1852 Dr. Mackenzie came to the United States, and at first resided in New York city, where he engaged in various literary undertakings. In 1857 he became book and for- eign editor of the " Philadelphia Press," with which publication he was afterward identified. He re- ceived the degree of LL. D. from Glasgow univer- sity in 1834, and in 1844 that of D. C. L. from Ox- ford. He published in England " Lays of Pales- tine " (London, 1828) ; " Titian, a Venetian Art- Novel " (3 vols., 1843) ; " Life of Guizot," prefixed to a translation of " Democracy and its Mission " (1846) ; " Partnership en Commandite," a work on commercial law (1847) ; and " Mornings at Mat- lock," a collection of stories (3 vols., 1850). After his arrival in this country he issued " Shell's Sketches of the Irish Bar " (2 vols., New York) ; and the '• Noctes Ambrosianae " (5 vols., 1854) ; " De Quincy's ' Klosterheim,' " and " Life of Cur- ran " (1855) ; " Lady Morgan's ' O'Brien's and O'Flahertys ' " (2 vols., 1857) ; " Dr. Maginn's Mis- cellaneous Works " (5 vols., 1855-'7) ; " Bits of Blarney," a collection of stories (1855) ; " Tressilian and his Friends " (Philadelphia), and " Memoirs of Robert Houdin " (1859) ; " Life of Charles Dick- ens " (1870) ; and " Sir Walter Scott : the Story of his Life " (Boston, 1871).

MACKENZIE, William, book-collector, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 1 Aug., 1758 ; d. there, 23 July, 1828. He received his education at the academy and college of Philadelphia, and then entered the counting-room of John Ross, in that city. Being in easy circumstances and fond of reading and re- tirement, although for some time engaged in ac- tive business pursuits, he withdrew from them at an early period in his career, and for forty years devoted himself to the collection of rare books, which he bequeathed to the Philadelphia and Loganian libraries. His collection at the time of his death was considered the most valuable in Philadelphia in private hands. Among the works given to the last-named institution were copies of Voragine's " Golden Legend," printed by Caxton in 1483 ; the fii'st edition of the Bible printed in Rome in 1471, being the second published in Latin : the first Bible printed in Venice in 1485 ; the first printed at Nuremberg, and a copy of the first edition of the New Testament printed in French- All of the foregoing are very valuable, the '• Golden Legend " being to-day (1888) worth $10,000, accord- ing to the testimony of an expert. " Mr. Macken- zie," says his intimate friend. Rev. Dr. James Ab- ercrombie, " I believe never had an enemy ; at least, from the purity of his principles and the correct- ness of his conduct, he never deserved one." He left considerable amounts to various charities.

MACKENZIE, William Lyon, Canadian journalist, b. in Dundee, Forfarshire, Scotland, 12 March, 1795; d. in Toronto, 28 Aug., 1861. He was educated imperfectly, owing to the death of his father, Daniel, when the son was an infant, and was obliged to work at an early age for his own support. When a mere lad, he entered a shop in Dundee, went thence into the counting-house of a wool-merchant, and when seventeen years of age engaged in business himself by opening a small general store and circulating library at Alyth. He was unsuccessful in business, and going to England in 1817 became managing clerk to a canal company in Wiltshire, and subsequently was for a short period in London. After visiting France, in the spring of 1820, Mr. Mackenzie emigrated to Canada, where he was made superintendent of the works of the Lachine canal, and afterward opened a drug and book store at Little York (now Toronto), in partnership with John Lesslie. This partnership was dissolved in 1823, and Mackenzie removed to Queenstown, where he opened a store, but abandoned it soon afterward to enter politics. In May, 1824, he issued the first number of the " Colonial Advocate," which he continued to publish until 1833. In June, 1826, the office of the " Advocate," which had been removed to Toronto, was forcibly entered, its contents destroyed, and most of the type thrown into Toronto bay. This act, which was doubtless prompted by persons that had been attacked by Mr. Mackenzie in his paper, made him more popular than before, and the large damages he received as a compensation for the outrage enabled him to continue more successfully than ever his appeals for reform in the government, and his denunciations of the official classes. In 1827 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the provincial parliament from York, and was elected in 1828 ; but, for alleged libel on the assembly, was expelled five times, only to be as often re-elected, until the government finally refused to issue another writ of election. In April, 1832, he went to London to present to the home government a petition of grievances from the Reformers of Canada, and while there secured from the Whig ministry the dismissal from office of the attorney-general, and the solicitor-general of Upper Canada, and a veto of the Upper Canada bank bill. In March, 1834, the name of York was changed to Toronto, and Mr. Mackenzie was chosen its first mayor, thus being the first mayor in Upper Canada. " In July, 1836, he issued the first number of " The Constitution," in which he attacked Sir Francis Bond Head, the lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, for his arbitrary acts and interference with the freedom of election. In August, 1837. a manifesto appeared in " The Constitution," which was virtually a declaration of independence, and in December of that year he crowned his defiance of the government by instigating rebellion. He and Van Egmond, a retired soldier of the first Napoleon, who had been appointed general of the insurgents, appeared on Yonge street, near Toronto, at the head of an armed force, and demanded of the lieutenant-governor a settlement of all provincial difficulties by a convention, which