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 Era,’ which was less successful than the ‘American Celt,’ but he soon achieved a high place in Canadian politics. Within a year of his arrival he was elected one of the three members for Montreal in the Legislative Assembly, and in May 1862, and again in 1864, his eloquence and administrative capacity procured him the important post of president of the council. He devoted much energy to assisting the formation of the Dominion of Canada and the federation of the provinces. ‘To him is due the chief credit of having all over British North America, in the maritime provinces as well as in Ontario, popularised the idea’ (Irishman in Canada, p. 654). When the union was accomplished, in 1867, his post of president was exchanged for that of minister of agriculture and emigration, and he was elected member for Montreal West in the Dominion parliament on 6 Nov. 1867.

McGee resolutely denounced the threatened Fenian invasion of Canada, and supported the prosecution of disloyal Irishmen. A plot to murder him was consequently matured, and in the early morning of 7 April 1868, as he was returning home after a parliamentary sitting, he was shot before his own house in the streets of Ottawa. Public indignation was intense, and McGee was accorded a magnificent state funeral. He left a widow and two daughters, who were provided for by the Canadian government. Twenty thousand dollars were offered for the capture of the murderer, and one P. J. Whelan was taken and hanged.

McGee was gifted with great eloquence, and his verse possessed a strength and terseness not very common in Irish poetry. His prose was virile and picturesque, and his ‘Popular History of Ireland’ is considered the best of its kind. His efforts to promote the union of the Canadian provinces and to render them loyal to England have met with due recognition, while his name is as well known in Ireland as that of any of the Young Irelanders, except Thomas Davis. His dark complexion gave him the sobriquet of ‘Darky’ McGee.

His published works, apart from separately published pamphlets and speeches, and twenty-eight lectures on English, Irish, and Canadian subjects (see, Bibl. Canadensis, pp. 265–7), are:
 * 1) ‘Historical Sketches of O'Connell and his Friends,’ 3rd edit. 12mo, Boston, 1845.
 * 2) ‘Irish Writers of the Seventeenth Century,’ 18mo, Dublin, 1846.
 * 3) ‘Memoir of the Life and Conquests of Art McMurrogh, King of Leinster,’ 12mo, Dublin, 1847.
 * 4) ‘Memoir of C. G. Duffy,’ Dublin, 1849.
 * 5) ‘A History of the Irish Settlers in North America,’ 12mo, Boston, 1851; 2nd edit. 8vo, 1852.
 * 6) ‘Irish Letters,’ New York, 1852.
 * 7) ‘History of the Attempts to establish the Protestant Reformation in Ireland,’ 12mo, Boston, 1853.
 * 8) ‘Catholic History of North America,’ 12mo, 1854.
 * 9) ‘Life of Edward Maginn, Coadjutor Bishop of Derry,’ 8vo, New York, 1857; Montreal, 1857, 12mo.
 * 10) ‘Canadian Ballads and Occasional Pieces,’ 8vo, Montreal, 1858.
 * 11) ‘A Popular History of Ireland,’ 8vo, 2 vols. New York, 1862; another edition in one volume, London, 1869.
 * 12) ‘The Crown and the Confederation’ (‘by a Backwoodsman’), 8vo, Montreal, 1864.
 * 13) ‘Notes on Federal Governments Past and Present,’ 8vo, Montreal, 1865; a French translation appeared in the same year at the same place.
 * 14) ‘Speeches and Addresses, chiefly on the subject of the British American Union,’ 8vo, London, 1865.
 * 15) ‘Two Speeches on the Union of the Provinces,’ 8vo, Quebec, 1865.
 * 16) ‘Poems,’ edited by Mrs. M. A. Sadleir, with introductory memoir and portrait, 8vo, New York, 1869.

 MACGEOGHEGAN, CONALL (fl. 1635), Irish historian. [See .]

MACGEOGHEGAN, JAMES (1702–1763), historian, was born near Uisnech in co. Westmeath in 1702, and belonged to the family known in Irish as CinelFhiachach, so that he was related to Richard MacGeoghegan, the defender of Dunboy in 1602, and to [q. v.], translator of the 'Annals of Clonmacnoise,' as well as to Francis O'Molloy, author of the 'Lucerna Fidelium.' He was educated in France, and entered the church, becoming an abbe. In 1758 he published in Paris 'Histoire de Flrlande, ancienne et moderne,' of which the second volume appeared in 1762, and the third in 1763. Amsterdam appears on the title of vol. iii., but as the paper, type, and most of the ornaments are identical, and as the royal approbation for the first two volumes appears at the end of the third, the place is probably merely an indication that an official approval was not given to the recent politics of the last volume. The work is dedicated to the Irish troops in the service of France, and is a summary of the existing