eldest daughter married Mr. Finlay, the direct ancestor of the Finlays of Castle Toward, and his grand-daughter by his second daughter Mrs. Craig became Mrs. M'Lehose, the famous Clarinda of Burns' correspondence. She died in Edinburgh in 1841. Maclaurin's fame rests on his posthumous sermons, first published in 1755 by his son-in-law. Dr. Gillies. A handsome edition of his works was lately published under the care of Dr. Goold. His sermons are grand and massive, abounding in original, profound, and suggestive thought, and yet very spiritual in tone. His discourse on "glorying in the cross of Christ" is one of the noblest in the language, and has often been commended for its eloquence and power. He also wrote some essays. That on the "Prejudices of Men against the Gospel," is distinguished by its depth, acuteness, and searching character; and that on the "Scripture Doctrine of Divine Grace" is no less remarkable for its force and fulness. He also wrote at considerable length on the prophecies relating to the Messiah.—J. E.
MACLEAN, Let. Elizabeth. See Landon, Miss.
MACLEAY, Alexander, F.R.S., L.S., &c., for more than a quarter of a century secretary of the Linnæan Society, was born in the county of Ross, on the 24th of June, 1767. His father was provost of the town of Wick, and a deputy-lieutenant of the county of Caithness, and the representative of one of the most ancient families in the north of Scotland. Mr. Macleay was educated for commercial pursuits, which, however, he soon relinquished, and became in 1795 chief clerk in the Prisoners of War office; in 1797, head of the correspondence department of the Transport Board; and in 1806, secretary of that board, which office he filled until the abolition of the board in 1818, when he retired upon a pension. Having been selected by Earl Bathurst, then colonial minister, to occupy the important office of colonial secretary to the government of New South Wales, he embarked for that colony in 1825. Previous to his leaving England, the Linnæan Society at a general meeting unanimously adopted a resolution, which was recorded in the minutes, expressive of the high estimation in which Mr. Macleay was held by the members, "on account of twenty-seven years of unremitted and unrequited labour, devoted to the interests of science; and of the cordial esteem and sincere regret of the society in quitting, even for a time, his cherished sphere of usefulness." Mr. Macleay ably and most satisfactorily administered the colonial secretaryship of New South Wales until the close of 1836; and having now been completely identified with the colony, and justly regarded as one of the warmest promoters of its interests, he was chosen in 1843 to be the first speaker of the legislative council, then established, and in that capacity conducted himself "with so much ability, judgment, and impartiality, as to receive on his retirement from its duties, in May, 1846, the marked approbation of both sides of the house." As a naturalist, Mr. Macleay was chiefly devoted to the study of insects, of which he had the finest and most extensive collection then existing in the possession of any private individual in England. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1809, and subsequently a member of its council. He was also a foreign member of the Academy of Sciences of Stockholm, and a corresponding member of the Academy of Turin. He was also appointed a vice-president of the Horticultural Society on its first formation. Mr. Macleay married early in life a relation of the house of Barclay of Urie, by whom he had seventeen children. His eldest son, William Sharp Macleay, is the well known naturalist and author of Horæ Entomologicæ, &c. Mr. Macleay closed a life of honour and usefulness, on the 18th July, 1848, in the eighty-second year of his age.—J. O. M'W.
* MACLISE, Daniel, R.A., was born at Cork, January 25th, 1811. Though born in Ireland he is of Scottish descent. His father, a Macleish of Callander, was an ensign in the Elgin Fencibles, and was stationed with his regiment at Cork; when captivated by the fair daughter of a merchant in that city, he sold his commission and took to trade in order that he might marry her. It was the earnest desire of young Maclise to become a painter; but business had not been prosperous, and his father deemed it more prudent to accept for him a situation in a bank. At the age of sixteen, however, the youth boldly resolved to quit this uncongenial occupation, and trust to his pencil for a maintenance. He entered himself as a student in the Cork School of Art, and took lessons in anatomy, supporting himself meantime by taking likenesses and by the sale of drawings. In 1828 he came to London and entered himself a student in the Royal Academy. Here he fairly distanced all his compeers, carrying off in succession all the medals, commencing with that for a drawing from the antique on the year of his entry, and concluding with the gold medal, the highest honour obtainable by an academy student. But the teaching of the academy was insufficient alone to satisfy his eagerness for artistic knowledge. The summer of 1830 was spent in Paris in studying the processes of the French painters, and examining the masterpieces in the public galleries. Whilst studying in the academy, Mr. Maclise supported himself by making drawings for the booksellers, and painting portraits. His first oil pictures were "Mokanna Unveiling," exhibited in 1833 at the British Institution; and "All Hallow-eve;" and another at the Royal Academy. They were regarded as works of unusual promise, and the favourable impression was fully confirmed by his "Installation of Captain Rock," exhibited in 1834, and still more by "The Chivalrous Vow of the Ladies and the Peacock," 1835—one of the leading attractions of the year, and altogether so remarkable a work as to insure the painter's election as A.R.A. at the earliest age (twenty-four), which the statutes of the academy permitted. He was elected R.A. in February, 1840; his election following at the earliest possible date upon the exhibition of his great picture, "Merry Christmas in the Baron's Hall." From this time up to 1855, Mr. Maclise usually had at least one picture at the annual exhibition of the Royal Academy. Some of these were paintings much larger in size, more elaborate and complex as compositions, and filled with many more figures than it is in these days customary for English painters to execute, except at rare intervals; others were illustrations of some simple passage from Goldsmith or Le Sage, and of comparatively moderate dimensions; but all of them afforded the plainest evidence—at times almost too palpable evidence—of careful study and conscientious execution. Mr. Maclise's oil paintings divide themselves into four classes—the Familiar, in which a sense of humour is predominant, as in his "Olivia and Sophia fitting out Moses for the Fair," "Moses and the Gross of Green Spectacles," and others of the Vicar of Wakefield series; those from Gil Bias; and those from the Twelfth Night: the Romantic, as the "Vow of the Peacock," "Orlando and the Duke's Wrestler," "Robin Hood and Coeur de Lion," "The Chivalry of the reign of Henry VIII," &c.: the Fanciful, or poetic, as in the "Origin of the Harp," "Shakspeare's Seven Ages," &c.: and the more strictly Historic, or that in which the historic or reflective element prevails, of which "Noah's Sacrifice," "Alfred in the Tent of Guthrum," the "Play Scene in Hamlet," and the "Marriage of Eva and Strongbow," are prominent examples. The only painting which Mr. Maclise has exhibited at the Royal Academy for the last six years is one of secondary importance, "The Poet to his Wife," 1859. His time has been of late almost entirely devoted to his commissions for the new houses of parliament. When it was decided to decorate the new building with frescoes, Mr. Maclise was one of the artists selected for the purpose: he had already painted a fresco of "Sabrina releasing the Lady from the Enchanted Chair" in the summer house of Buckingham palace. His frescoes "The Spirit of Justice" and "The Spirit of Chivalry," in the house of lords, are perhaps the most successful yet executed. In order to execute these works satisfactorily, Mr. Maclise made careful inquiries and instituted various experiments into the process of fresco painting—an art at the time he commenced his pictures almost untried by English painters. He obtained great mastery over the materials, but his experience whilst working, and still more the appearance of other frescoes recently executed in this country and on the continent, rendered him distrustful of the permanency of the process as at present understood and practised. He therefore made a prolonged visit to Italy in 1855, in order to examine into the condition of the earlier frescoes. Their faded and damaged state strengthened his distrust; and the attentive perusal of a publication on the process of stereochromy or water-glass painting, by Dr. J. N. von Fuchs, which the prince consort had caused to be translated and privately circulated chiefly among the artists engaged on the new houses of parliament, led him to determine on submitting the new process to a thorough investigation. Dissatisfied with his early experiments, he proceeded to Germany, where Kaulbach and other eminent mural painters had for some time been employing the process in their more elaborate works. The result was that Mr. Maclise fully satisfied himself of the superiority of the process for mural paintings over any other, and acquired a thorough facility in its application.
