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McNair untrustworthy—as in fact they were; that there was no time to be lost in seizing any opportunity that offered of saving the troops, the women and the children, then besieged in the cantonments. His statesmanship has been judged solely by his Afghan policy, which undoubtedly was a failure, and by his reports of the state of Afghanistan in 1840 and 1841, which events signally falsified; but it must be remembered that in his Afghan policy he was supported by Lord Auckland; and that the verdict passed on his conduct as envoy is largely based on the strictures of Sir Alexander Burnes, who could not in the circumstances be an altogether unprejudiced critic. The task which was set him, that of governing the Afghan people without direct authority over them, and of preserving the seeming independence of Shah Soojah, while leaving him only a power for mischief, was in itself a hopeless one. Macnaghten married in 1823 the widow of Colonel M'Clintock. There is a portrait of him in Atkinson's 'Views in Afghanistan.'

 McNAIR, WILLIAM WATTS (1849–1889), traveller, was born 13 Sept. 1849. He joined the Indian survey department 1 Sept. 1867. His first twelve veers of service were passed with the Rajputana and Mysore topographical parties, and under Majors Strahan and Thullier he learned surveying thoroughly. In the autumn of 1879 he was selected to accompany the Khyber column of the Afghan field force, and was present during the fighting before Cabul and the defence of Sharpur in 1879–80. While in Afghanistan he made valuable maps, exploring the Lughman Valley and the route to Kafristan; and he was the first officer to traverse by the same valley the route from Cabul to Jalalabad. South of Cabul he penetrated to the Logar and Wardak valleys. After the war he was engaged in the Kohat survey under Major Holdich, tracing the frontier line from Kohat to Bannu, and, across the border, surveying part of the valley of the Tochi, and mapping some of the Khost district. He was soon transferred to one of the Beluchistan parties, and passed the remainder of life in surveying in that district; his main work was to carry a series of triangles from the Indus at Dehra Gazi Khan, near the thirtieth parallel, to Quetta. In 1883, hearing that a native explorer was about to visit Kafristan, he volunteered to accompany him disguised as a hakim, or native doctor. He obtained a year's leave, and the party crossed the frontier 13 April. They passed through the Dir country, and came by the Kotal Pass, at an elevation of 10,450 feet, to Ashreth, and thence to Chitral. He had intended to go northwards, by the Hindu Kush valleys, but after reaching the Dora Pass, and making observations in the Chitral district, he was compelled to return, owing to his identity having been disclosed by a native, Kafristan being very strictly secluded from Europeans. On his return he was officially reprimanded by the viceroy for crossing the frontier without permission. He read an account of his expedition before the Royal Geographical Society in London on 10 Dec. 1883, and was awarded the Murchison grant. He continued his survey work, but was in 1889 attacked by fever at Quetta, and moved to Mussooree, where he died 13 Aug. 1889.

 MACNALLY, LEONARD (1752–1820), playwright and political informer, son of Leonard MacNally, merchant, of Dublin, was born at Dublin in 1752. His father died in 1756, and his education was neglected, though he resided long enough at Bordeaux to acquire a conversational knowledge of French. In 1771 he opened a small grocery shop in St. Mary's Lane, Capel Street, Dublin, but was called to the Irish bar in 1776, and to the English bar at the Middle Temple on 30 May 1783. He was in London during the Gordon riots (June 1780), and at the risk of his life rescued Dr. Thurlow, brother of the lord chancellor, who was suspected of an inclination to popery, from the violence of the mob. For some years he maintained himself by editing the 'Public Ledger' and writing for the stage (see bibliography infra). In 1782 he published a political pamphlet entitled 'The Claims of Ireland and the Resolutions of the Volunteers vindicated,' London, 8vo, in which he sought to throw the aegis of whig principles over the Irish revolutionaries. Subsequently he removed to Dublin, where in 1792 he was counsel for Napper Tandy in his action for false imprisonment against Lord Westmorland. An original member of the Society of United Irishmen he published rebellious verses in their organ, the 'Northern Star' (10 Nov. 1792), and fought a duel with Sir Jonah Barrington to 