Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/265

 Dictionary of English Literature 253 M'LENNAN, JOHN FERGUSON (1827-1881). Sociologist,

b. at Inverness, and ed. at Aberdeen and Camb., was in 1857 called to the Scottish Bar, and was subsequently Parliamentary Draftsman for Scotland. His main contribution to literature is his original and learned book, Primitive Marriage (1865). Another work, The Patriarchal Theory, left unfinished, was completed by his brother (1884). These works and other papers by M. gave a great impulse
 * o the study of the problems with which they deal, and cognate

questions. M. received the degree of LL.D. from Aberdeen in 1874.

" MACLEOD, FIONA " (see SHARP, WILLIAM).

MACLEOD, NORMAN (1812-1872). Scottish divine and

miscellaneous writer, s. of the Rev. Norman M., D.D., a distinguished minister of the Scottish Church, studied at Edin., and was ordained in 1838. He became one of the most distinguished ministers, and most popular preachers of his Church, was made one of the Royal Chaplains in Scotland in 1857, and became.a trusted friend of Queen Victoria. He was the first ed. of Good Words, to which he contri buted many articles and stories, including Wee Davie, The Starling, and The Old Lieutenant and his Son.

MACNEILL, HECTOR (1746-1818). Poet, was in the West

ndies 1780-86, and clerk on a flagship. He wrote various political >amphlets, two novels, and several poems, The Harp (1789), The ",arse of Forth, and Scotland's Skaith, the last against drunkenness, >ut is best known for his songs, such as My Boy Tammy, I lo'ed ne'er a Laddie but ane, and Come under my Plaidie.

MACPHERSON, JAMES (ij36?-ijg6). Alleged translator

>f the Ossianic poems, s. of a small farmer at Ruthven, Inverness- hire, studied for the Church at Aberdeen and Edin., became teacher >f the school in his native parish, and afterwards tutor in a gentle man's family. In 1 758 he pub. The Highlander, an ambitious poem in cantos, which, however, attracted no attention. But in the follow ing year he submitted to John Home (q.v.}, the author of Douglas, certain writings which he represented to be translations from ancient Gaelic poems. By the help of Home and some of his friends ML was enabled to pub. a considerable number of his Fragments of ^oetry translated from the Gaelic and Erse Languages. These were eceived with profound and widely-spread interest, and gave rise to i controversy which can hardly yet be said to be settled. While ome authorities received them with enthusiastic admiration, others mmediately called their genuineness in question. In the first in stance, however, a subscription was raised to enable M. to make a ourney in search of further poetic remains, the result of which was Temora, also an epic, in 8 books. The fame which these brought to
 * he production in 1761 of Fingal, an epic in 6 books, and in 1763 of
 * heir discoverer was great, and the sales enormous. In 1764 M.

vent as sec. to the Governor of Pensacola in Florida. Returning n 1766 he settled in London, became an energetic pamphleteer in support of the Government, and in 1780 entered Parliament, and vas next year appointed to the lucrative post of Agent for the Nabob rf Arcot. He retired in 1789, and bought an estate in his native