Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/266

 254 Dictionary of English Literature

parish, where he d. in 1796. Great doubt still rests upon the subject of the Ossianic poems: it is, however, generally admitted that M. took great liberties with the originals, even if they ever really existed in anything at all resembling the form given in the alleged transla tions. No manuscripts in the original have ever been forthcoming. Few, however, will deny that M. either discovered, or composed, a body of poetry unlike anything that has preceded it, of unequal merit, indeed, but containing many striking and beautiful passages, and which unquestionably contributed to break up the tyranny of the classical school and thus prepare the way for the romantic revival.

MAGINN, WILLIAM (1793-1842). Journalist and miscel laneous writer, b. at Cork, became a contributor to Blackwood's Magazine, and afterwards foreign correspondent to The Representa tive, a paper started by J. Murray, the publisher, and when its short career was run, one of the leading supporters of Fraser's Magazine. One of the most brilliant periodical writers of his time, he has left no permanent work behind him. In his later years he fell into in temperate habits, and d. in poverty.

MAHONY, FRANCIS SYLVESTER (FATHER PROUT) (1804-

1866). Humorist, 6. at Cork, and ed. at the Jesuit Coll. at Clon- goweswood, Co. Kildare, at Amiens, and at Rome, becoming a member of the society, was Prof, of Rhetoric at Clongoweswood, but was soon after expelled from the order. He then came to London, and became a leading contributor to Fraser's Magazine, under the signature of " Father Prout." He was witty and learned in many languages. One form which his humour took was the professed discovery of the originals in Latin, Greek, or mediaeval French of popular modern poems and songs. Many of these jeux d' esprit were coll. as Reliques of Father Prout. He wittily described himself as " an Irish potato seasoned with Attic salt." Latterly he acted as foreign correspondent to various newspapers, and d. at Paris reconciled to the Church.

MAINE, SIR HENRY JAMES SUMNER (1822-1888). Jurist,

ed. at Christ's Hospital and at Camb., where he became Regius Prof, of Civil Law 1847-54. Called to the Bar in 1850, he went in 1862 to India as legal member of the Government. On his return he was in: 1870 appointed Prof, of Comparative Jurisprudence at OxL, which office he held until his election in 1878 as Master of Trinity Hall.i He became Whewell Prof, of International Law at Camb. in 1887, and was the author of many valuable works on law and the history of political institutions, and profoundly influenced the study of jurisprudence. Among his writings are Ancient Law (1861), Village Communities (1871), Early History of Institutions (1875), and Disser tations on Early Law and Customs (1883).

MAIR, OR MAJOR, JOHN (1469 ?-i55o). Historian, studied

at Camb. and Paris, was the teacher of John Knox and George Buchanan. In 1506 he was a Doctor of the Sorbonne, and in 1519 became Prof, of Divinity at St. Andrews. He wrote, in Latin, treatises on divinity and morals, and a History of Greater Britain, in