Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/263

Maconochie pleasure in exercising his mind, and in making people wonder at the singularity of his views, into which, as into his language, he never failed to infuse as much metaphysical phraseology and argument as he could' (Memorials of his Time, p. 141). His learning was so varied and considerable that he seemed 'to be equally at home in divinity, agriculture, and geology, in examining mountains, demonstrating his errors to a former, and refuting the dogmas of the clergyman, though of all his occupations the last perhaps gave him the greatest pleasure. . . . He questioned everything, he demonstrated everything, his whole life was a discussion. . . . He had more pleasure in inventing ingenious reasons for being wrong than in being quietly right' (ib. pp. 142-143). His predilection for Latin quotation is happily caricatured in the 'Diamond Beetle Case,' attributed to George Cranstoun, lord Corehouse (, Original Portraits, ii. 386). He married, on 11 Nov. 1774, Elizabeth, third daughter of Robert Welwood of Garvock and Pitliver, Fifeshire, the granddaughter of Sir George Preston, bart., of Valleyfield. He left four sons, viz. (1) Alexander [q. v.]; (2) Robert, who became mint master at Madras, and died in Devonshire Place, London, on 19 Feb. 1858; (3) James Allan, sheriff of Orkney and Shetland, who died unmarried in 1846; and (4) Thomas Tod, who died unmarried in 1847.

Maconochie was a keen agriculturist. He was the anonymous author of 'Directions for preparing Manure from Peat, and Instruction for Foresters,' which was reprinted in 1816, Edinburgh, 8vo, and again in 1842, Edinburgh, 8vo. His 'Considerations on the Introduction of Jury Trial in Civil Causes into Scotland' was published anonymously in 1814, Edinburgh, 8vo; 2nd edit. Edinburgh, 1815, 8vo. On the flyleaf of the copy of the first edition in the British Museum Lord Cockburn has written: 'It is a very intelligent, and was at the time a very useful, exposition of some of the practical principles of jury trial which were least understood, and most necessary to be understood here,' &c. His 'Essay on the Origin and Structure of the European Legislatures' appeared in two parts in the first volume of 'The Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,' Edinburgh, 1788, 4to, of which he was a vice-president. A number of his manuscripts are in the possession of Mr. J. A. Maconochie-Welwood at Meadowbank House.

A portrait of Maconochie, painted by Sir Henry Raeburn in 1814, was exhibited at the Raeburn Exhibition in Edinburgh in 1876 (Catalogue, No. 77). Three etchings of him will be found in the second volume of Kay's 'Series of Original Portraits' (Nos. 177, 800, 312). There is a medallion of Maconochie by James Tassie in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (Catalogue, 1889, No. 219).

 MACPHAIL, JAMES (fl. 1786–1805), gardener, the son of a highland peasant, was born in Aberdeenshire in 1754. In his seventeenth year he obtained employment as a farm labourer. 'I ate and drank,' he says, 'at the same table as my master and mistress, for I was the only servant or labourer they kept' (Hints and Observations on the Improvement of Agriculture, 1794). His wages were 23s. 4d. for the half-year. After suffering many hardships as a farm labourer in Scotland, he migrated to England and became in January 1785 gardener to Lord Hawkesbury (afterwards second earl of Liverpool), at Addiscombe Place, near Croydon, where he remained twenty years. He invented a new method of growing cucumbers, and achieved great success in growing pines and melons.

MacPhail's chief works were: 1. 'A Treatise on the Culture of the Cucumber, &c., to which are added Hints and Observations on the Improvement of Agriculture,' London, 1794, 8vo. With the exception of some remarks on highland farming based upon MacPhail's early experiences, the 'Hints and Observations' consist of paragraphs reprinted verbatim, and without acknowledgment, from Adam Smith's 'Wealth of Nations' and Arthur Young's 'Tours,' and agricultural reports. They were reprinted separately in 1795. 2. 'Remarks on the Present Times,.. &c, being an Introduction to Hints and Observations,' &c, 1795, in which he met the accusation that had been made against him, 'and that, too, to no less a man than the. secretary of state,' of holding democratic principles. 3. 'The Gardener's Remembrancer, exhibiting the various Natures of Earth and Degrees of Climate best adapted for the Growth of Trees and. . . Fruits,' &c, London, 1803, 8vo; reprinted 1807; 2nd edit., improved, London, 1819, 12mo. [Autobiographical Notes in Hints and Observations, &c., 1794, and Introduction to Hints