Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/23

 In July 1868, after being for a few months out of power, McCulloch became premier for a second time, holding the posts of treasurer and chief secretary. He resigned in September 1869, after receiving the honour of knighthood on the occasion of the Duke of Edinburgh's visit. In April 1870 he again became premier, holding the same posts as before; but in the following year he was defeated because he declined to increase the protective duties any further.

McCulloch acted as agent-general for the colony in London during 1872 and 1873, and in 1874 he was made a K.C.M.G. For a time he returned to the colony, and became premier on 20 Oct. 1875; but his fourth tenure of office was obstructed by the ‘stonewalling’ tactics of Sir Graham Berry, who maintained that the government majority did not really reflect the people's will. McCulloch introduced the ‘closure’ rule with a view to meeting his opponents, but his party was utterly defeated at the general election in May 1877. On the assembling of the new house McCulloch, who had been elected for Warrnambool, found himself practically without followers, and shortly after retired from parliamentary life, settling in England.

He was twice president of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce as well as director of several banks and public companies. He took especial interest in the National Gallery of Victoria, and a considerable part in the selection of pictures for it.

McCulloch died on 31 Jan. 1893 at his residence, Garband Hall, Ewell, Surrey. He was twice married: first, in 1841, to Susan, daughter of the Rev. James Renwick of Muirton; secondly, in 1867, to Margaret, daughter of William Inglis of Walflat, Dumbarton, who survived him.

 MACCULLOCH, JOHN, M.D. (1773–1835), geologist, was born in Guernsey, 6 Oct. 1773, his mother, Elizabeth, being a daughter of Thomas de Lisle, a jurat of that island, but his father, James, who was engaged in business in Brittany, was descended from the Maccullochs of Nether Ardwell in Galloway. John, the third son, a precocious, thoughtful child, was sent to school, first at Plympton, then at Penzance, and lastly at Lostwithiel, where he remained three years. Thence he went to Edinburgh to study medicine, and graduated M.D. 12 Sept. 1793, with a thesis on electricity. He remained for some time longer at the university, and, as he afterwards stated, those systematic journeys in Scotland which supplied the material for the main work of his life grew out of the ‘boyish wanderings of his college holidays,’ when he visited such places as Dunkeld and Dunsinane. At this time he formed a close friendship with Walter (afterwards Sir Walter) Scott and with Thomas Douglas, fifth earl of Selkirk [q. v.] James Macculloch, the father, lost his business in France in consequence of the revolution; was imprisoned during the reign of terror; and after his release quitted the country and settled in Cornwall. John obtained the position of assistant surgeon to the royal regiment of artillery; but his scientific acquirements became known, and in 1803 he was appointed chemist to the board of ordnance. In 1807 he established himself at Blackheath, where for a time he followed his profession, and was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians, 30 Sept. 1808, but gave up practice in 1811, when he was sent by the board of ordnance to Scotland, to determine what kinds of rock could be most safely employed in powder-mills. A commission followed to ascertain on which of the Scotch mountains the experiments which had been undertaken by Maskelyne in 1774, in regard to the deflection of the plumb-line, might be repeated with most advantage. From 1811 to 1821 he travelled yearly in Scotland, accumulating a vast store of scientific observations. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society on 21 April 1801, and a member of the Geological Society of London on 5 Feb. 1808. His name appears among the council in the first volume of the Geological Society's ‘Transactions,’ to which he contributed a paper on Guernsey and the other Channel islands, his first important contribution to geology, and he was president in 1816–17. Macculloch was also appointed about 1814 geologist to the trigonometrical survey, and was lecturer on chemistry and mineralogy at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Later in life he held a similar appointment at the East India Company's College at Addiscombe, and he was nominated in 1820 physician to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in the same year. In 1826 he was commissioned to prepare a geological map of Scotland. The idea had occurred to him at an early period, and on his previous visits to Scotland he had used ‘his own time and spent his own money,’ in the intervals of work for the government in making investigations in the matter. From 1826 to 1832 he was busily engaged, travelling in Scotland during the summer, and arranging his materials in the winter. In 1835, to the surprise of his ac-