Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/78

M'Ewen roads, the most important of his inventions. An engineering treatise of the day (, Elementary Locomotion) speaks of it as 'a fine specimen of indomitable perseverance.' In this undertaking Maceroni was associated with a Mr. Squire, the owner of a factory on Paddington Green, by whom the invention was patented and worked out. Accounts of the successful performances of the steam-coach in the neighbourhood of London and Brussels appeared in the ' Morning Chronicle,' 7 and 16 Oct. 1833, 'Scotsman,' 9 March 1834, 'Times,' 10 Oct. 1834, 'Globe,' October 1834, 'True Sun,' December 1834, and elsewhere. But the railways ruined the project, the partners fell out, an execution was put in the works, and Maceroni was for some time a prisoner for debt. At the time of writing his memoirs in 1838 he and his children were in most distressed circumstances. He died in London on 25 July 1846. With much personal vanity, which his memoirs constantly betray, Maceroni appears to have been an amiable and accomplished man, of fertile inventive genius. His scientific views were practical as well as original. One of Maceroni's uncles, resident in England, changed the spelling of the family name to 'Macirone,' but Maceroni resumed the original orthography.

 M'EWEN, WILLIAM (1735–1762), Scotch secessionist, born at Perth in 1785, studied divinity under Ebenezer Erskine of Stirling and James Fisher of Glasgow. In 1753 he was licensed to preach by the associate presbytery of Dunfermline, and in 1754 he was ordained minister of the associate congregation in Dundee. He died suddenly at Leith on 13 Jan. 1762, having been married two days before to the eldest daughter of John Wardlaw, merchant of Dalkeith. He was buried in Dalkeith churchyard.

M'Ewen was an attractive preacher and writer. He was author of: 1. 'Grace and Truth; or the Glory and Fulness of the Redeemer displayed in an Attempt to explain. . . the Types, Figures, and Allegories of the Old Testament,' 12mo, Edinburgh, 1763 (numerous editions). 2. 'A select Set of Essays, doctrinal and practical, upon Subjects in Divinity,' 2 vols. 12mo, Edinburgh, 1767; 7th edit., 'enlarged, with fourteen new Essays on the Perfection of God,' 1799.

 MACFAIT, EBENEZER, M.D. (d. 1786), miscellaneous writer, was eminent in his day as a Greek scholar and mathematician. He practised medicine at Edinburgh, but died at Alva, the seat of his friend John Johnston, on 25 Nov. 1786 (Scots Mag. xlviii. 6221 He was author of: 1. 'Remarks on the Life and Writings of Plato, with Answers to the principal Objections against him; and a General View of his Dialogues,' 8vo, Edinburgh, 1760 [anon.] 2. 'A new System of General Geography,' pt. 1 (all published), 8vo, Edinburgh, 1780. Macfait also contributed two papers on meteorological subjects to vol. i. of 'Essays Physical and Literary' (1754).

 MACFARLAN, JAMES (1832–1862), poet, of Glasgow, son of a weaver turned pedlar, was born at Glasgow, 9 April 1832. He received some school training at Kilmarnock and Glasgow, but was mainly self-taught. Stirred by a stray volume of Byron when twelve years old, he presently joined subscription libraries in various provincial towns visited in the wanderings of the family. At twenty, Macfarlan, then a professional pedlar, knew the standard English poets, and had himself written verse extensively. In 1853 he walked to and from London, securing the publication of a volume of lyrics, which gave him reputation, but little profit. For a short time subsequently he held a post in the Glasgow Athenæum, but relapsed into peddling, ne printed in Glasgow a second book with an ambitious dedication, but received scanty encouragement either from his patron or from the public. Struggling on against consumption, poverty, and neglect, getting and quickly losing some petty employment, he was at length engaged as police-court reporter to the Glasgow 'Bulletin.' Too erratic for this post, he successfully contributed short stones for a time to the weekly issue of the paper. Then he married, and his wife helped the income by dressmaking. Dickens, whom Macfarlan found 'a prince of editors,' printed several of his poems in 'Household Words;' and Thackeray, hearing Samuel Lover recite his 'Lords of Labour' in 1859, warmly exclaimed that he did not think 'Burns himself could have taken the wind out of this man's sails.' Meanwhile, Macfarlan's health rapidly failed, owing partly to his convivial habits. His fatal illness seized him when hawking his prose pamphlet, 'An Attic Study,' and he died in Glasgow, 6 Nov. 1862. He was buried in Cheapside cemetery, Anderston, Glasgow, and a tombstone was erected by his admirers in 1885. 