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 union. On 18 Aug. 1845 he was appointed coadjutor to Dr. John MacLaughlin, bishop of Derry, and was nominated to the see of Ortosia, in the archbishopric of Tyre, in partibus infidelium. The election was confirmed by the pope on 8 Sept., and Maginn was consecrated in the cathedral at Waterside on 18 Jan. 1846. An enthusiastic politician, he zealously promoted all the nationalist and clerical movements of his time. He gave evidence before Lord Devon's commission on the occupation of land in Ireland, wrote a series of letters on tenant right, and published ‘A Refutation of Lord Stanley's Calumnies against the Catholic Clergy of Ireland’ (reprinted at Dublin, 1850, 12mo). Lord Stanley (afterwards fourteenth earl of Derby) had stated in 1847 that in Ireland there was a fatal breach between the Roman catholic clergy and the law, and that the confessional was conducted with a degree of secretness, and carried to an extent, dangerous alike to the civil government and the peace of the country. Maginn died on 17 Jan. 1849, and was buried in the catholic cathedral at Londonderry. A highly eulogistic and inflated ‘Life’ of him by Thomas D'Arcy McGee, with selections from his correspondence, was published at New York, 1857, 8vo. 

MAGINN, WILLIAM, LL.D. (1793–1842), poet, journalist, and miscellaneous writer, was born at Marlboro's Fort, Cork, on 10 July 1793, and was the son of a private schoolmaster in the city. His precocity in classical study was remarkable; he is alleged to have entered Trinity College, Dublin, at the age of ten; but this is impossible, as he graduated B.A. in 1811. A poem composed during his undergraduate days, and entitled ‘Æneas Eunuchus,’ is said to have attracted great attention by its boldness and eccentricity; but it does not appear whether it was in Latin or English, or whether it was circulated in manuscript or in print. Returning to Cork, he assisted his father in his school, and carried it on after the latter's death in 1813. In 1819 he obtained the degree of LL.D. at Trinity College, and began to contribute to the ‘Literary Gazette’ and ‘Blackwood's Magazine,’ commencing the long list of his articles in the latter with a wretched parody of ‘Christabel,’ and continuing it with one of his cleverest performances, a rendering of ‘Chevy Chase’ into doggerel Latin verse. Contributions to both periodicals followed thick and fast, those to ‘Blackwood’ under the assumed name of R. T. Scott, and at first with no claim for remuneration. In 1821, however, he went over to Edinburgh, and introduced himself to his publisher, through whom he soon became acquainted with the leading Edinburgh literati of the tory camp. At this time he frequently adopted the signature of ‘Morgan O'Doherty,’ and most contributions with internal evidence of an Hibernian origin may be ascribed to him, though his biographer, [q. v.], appears to doubt the genuiness of the greater part of the mock epic, ‘Daniel O'Rourke,’ attributed to him, a portion of which he certainly wrote. He also indited exceedingly clever poems and songs in Latin, classical and canine, attacked Byron in verse and prose, pointing out his indebtedness to Miss Lee's ‘Canterbury Tales’ for the plot and much of the language of ‘Werner,’ took Moore's style off inimitably, and perpetrated a parody of ‘Adonais’ more inept, if possible, than his previous parody of ‘Christabel.’ He has the credit of having suggested the ‘Noctes Ambrosianæ;’ the motto was certainly his selection and translation, and some of the raciest passages may be confidently ascribed to him. He also appears to have assisted Theodore Hook in the ‘John Bull,’ though the precise date and precise extent of his contributions are doubtful. These literary labours were probably not conducive to the prosperity of his school, which, if Kenealy can be trusted, he had previously conducted with success. At all events, in 1823 he made up his mind to relinquish it and try his fortune as a literary adventurer in London. He had just united himself to Ellen Cullen, described by Jerdan as an excellent woman, though she appears in a less favourable light in the biography of [q. v.]

Maginn began his London career under brilliant auspices. His connection with ‘Blackwood’ and the ‘Literary Gazette’ recommended him to Murray, who thought for a time of entrusting him with the biography of Byron, but must soon have discovered that Maginn wanted the first qualification of a biographer, interest in his subject. He had little heart and less faculty of admiration, and himself confesses in the ‘Noctes’ that he cared nothing for Byron's poetry in comparison with his literary feuds. Maginn as biographer from this point of view was conceivable, but Murray as publisher was not, and the materials were soon withdrawn. Murray nevertheless enlisted him in his abortive journalistic enterprise, ‘The Representative,’ but Maginn, according to an anecdote related by S. C. Hall, and confirmed by an allusion in a letter from Lockhart, speedily incurred disgrace by yielding to what was