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McCEIE— MACDONALD.

McCKIE, The Kbv. Thomas, D.D., LL.D., eldest son of the Eev. Dr. T. McCrie, author of the "Life of Knox," was born at Edinburgh about 1798, and educated at Edin- burgh University. He first settled as minister in Crieff, and was ap- pointed to supply his father's place in Edinburgh, in 1836. He has published a translation of Pascal's " Provincial Letters ; " " Sketches of Scottish Church History j" " Life of Sir A. Ag^ew ; " and has contributed to the Witness, British and Foreign Evangelical Review, and other religious periodicals. He was appointed Professor of Systematic Ideology in the English Presby- terian College at London, in 1856.

MACDONALD, George, poet and novelist, was born at Huntly, Aberdeenshire, in 1824, and was educated at the parish school there, and at King's College and Univer- sity, Aberdeen. After taking his degree he became a student for the ministoy at the Independent Col- lege, Highbury, London, and was for a short time an Independent minister, but soon retired, became a lay member of the Church of England, and settled in London to pursue a literary career. His first work was " Within and Without, a Dramatic Poem," 1866 ; followed by " Poems," 1857 ; " Phantastes, a Fafirie Eomance," 1858; "David Elginbrod," 1862; "Adela Cath- cart," 1864; "The Portent, a Story of Second Sight," 1864; "Alec Forbes of Howglen," 1865; "An- nals of a Quiet Neighbourhood," 1866 : " Guild Court,'^ 1867 ; " The Disciple and other Poems," 1868; "The Seaboard Parish," 1868; "Robert Falconer," 1868r; "Wil- frid Cumbermede," 1871; "The Vicar's Daughter;" "Malcolm," 1874; "St. George and St. Michael," 1875; " Thomas Wineiield, Curate," 1876; "The Marqius of Lossie," 1877. Besides these Mr. MacdonaJd has written books for the young : " Dealings with the Fairies," 1867 ; "Banald Bannerman's Boyhood,"

1869 ; "The Princess and the Got! lin," 1871 ; " At the Back of th^ North Wind," 1870; and othe He is also the author of " Un^ke^ Sermons," 1866 ; and a treatise the " Miracles of our Lord," 187f). In 1877 he received a Civil Li»t pension of .£100, in consideration of his contributions to literature. His later works are " The Gifts of the Child Christ, and other poems," 2 vols., 1882 ; "Castle Warlock," 3 vols., 1882 ; and " The Princess and Curdde," a fairy romance, 1882.

MACDONALD, Sm John Alex- ander, K.C.B., D.C.L. (Oxon.), LL.D., a Canadian statesman, born 11th Jan., 1815, educated at the Eoyal Grammar-school, Kingston, and admitted to the bar in 1835 ; was elected to Parliament for King- ston, U.C., as a Conservative, in Nov., 1844, and long represented that city. He was appointed a member of the Executive Council, and Beceiver-General in May, and Commissioner of Crown Lands in Dec., 1847. The cabinet of which he was a member resigned in March, 1850, and the reformers, under the lead of Messrs. Lafon- taine, Baldwin, and Hincks, held the reins of power in Canada until Sept., 1854. Difficulties connected with the lands reserved for a Pro- testant clergy, and other questions, led to a coalition in 1854, Mr. Macdonald joining the Government as Attorney-General, which post he held until May, 1862, being a part of the time Premier. In Jan., 1862, the militia department was re-organised, and Mr. Macdonald appointed Minister of Militia. De- feated on their Militia Bill of that year, he and his colleagues re- signed, and remained in opposition until March, 1864, when he again acceded to office as Attomey-Greneral in the cabinet of Sir E. P. Tache. But the Government was unable to command a sufficient majority, and the proposition to federalize British America having been reported by a committee of the Legislative