He has consequently in his great work, the "Meeting of Wellington and Blucher after Waterloo," which he is painting in one of the compartments of the Royal gallery of the house of lords, employed water-glass (silicate of potash) as the vehicle, with excellent effect as regards appearance and, we may hope, as regards permanence also. This picture from its size (it is forty-five feet in length), the vast number of figures which it contains, its grave monumental character, the untiring labour bestowed upon every part, as well as from its remarkable technical merits, is at once by far the most important work which Mr. Maclise has painted, and the grandest mural painting of the English school. It is now completed; and "Trafalgar," a companion worthy of it will shortly be commenced by Mr. Maclise in the corresponding compartment of the Royal gallery. It only remains for us to allude to the very remarkable drawings by Mr. Maclise which have from time to time been exhibited, especially to the unrivalled series of forty-two drawings illustrative of the. Norman invasion, exhibited in 1857; and those engraved for the illustrated editions of Moore's Poems, &c. Mr. Maclise has painted portraits of Lytton, Dickens, and other literary friends, &c.—J. T—e.
* MACMAHON, Marie-Edme-Patrice-Maurice, Count de, Duke de Magenta, Marshal of France, was born in 1808 of an old Irish family, which had thrown in its fortunes with the Stewarts, and migrated with the latter to France. His father was a personal friend of Charles X., and a peer of France. The duke de Magenta entered the French army at an early age, and sent with his regiment to Algeria in 1830, distinguished himself highly, rising to be a general of brigade in 1848, and a general of division in 1852. Early in 1855 he was recalled to France to command a division of the army of the North, and in the August of the same year he replaced Canrobert in the command of a division of the army before Sebastopol. In this command he was charged with the final assault on the Malakhoff, 8th September, 1855, and its success gave him a world-wide reputation. Among his rewards was his elevation to the senate in 1856. After a brilliant campaign, in command of a division, against the Kabyles of Algeria, he was appointed, August, 1858, general-in-chief of the whole French military force in Africa. On the breaking out of the war of 1859 between France and Austria, he received the command of the second corps of the army of the Alps, and crossed the Ticino on the 2nd of June. On the 4th he was directed to move in two columns on Buffalora and Magenta. The Austrians threatened to get between his columns, when at a critical movement, with great skill and daring he re-united his corps and pushed it forward in a concentrated attack on the key of the position, Magenta, which was finally won by the French. The laurels of the day were considered chiefly his, and immediately after the battle he was created Duke de Magenta and Marshal of France. At Solferino he commanded the second corps which formed the centre, and contributed materially to the victory of the French. After the peace of Villafranca he was appointed to the important command of the divisions which have their head-quarters at Lille, and watch the Prussian frontier. At the coronation of the king of Prussia in 1861, he represented the emperor of the French.—F. E.
MACMURROUGH or MACMURCHAD, Dermot, historically connected with the English invasion of Ireland in the reign of Henry II., was king of Leinster, and a man of a cruel, treacherous, and violent nature. The abduction of Dervorgil—the wife of his enemy O'Ruarc, prince of Breffny—in 1153 led to an inextinguishable feud between these chiefs. Upon the accession of Roderic O'Connor as king of Ireland in 1166, a large force under O'Ruarc was mustered against Dermot, who in despair set fire to his capital of Ferns; fled to Bristol and thence to France, where Henry then was; and offered to hold his kingdom under the English monarch on the condition of his assisting him to recover it. This offer fell in with the previous designs of Henry, and he dismissed Dermot with letters, authorizing his English subjects to aid him. Dermot returned to Bristol, and engaged Strongbow to invade Ireland, offering him his daughter Eva in marriage. Proceeding secretly to Ireland in 1169, he concealed himself in the monastery of Ferns. In the following year he was joined by Fitzgerald and Fitzstephen from Wales, and a series of contests of various fortune ensued, ending in the subjugation of Ireland. Dermot finally led his troops into the territory of O'Ruarc, but was twice signally defeated, and died at Ferns in May, 1171, aged eighty-one, when his kingdom passed in right of his daughter to Strongbow.—J. F. W.
M'NAB, William, a skilful Scottish cultivator and practical botanist, was born in the parish of Dailly in Ayrshire in 1780, and died at the botanic garden, Edinburgh, on 1st December, 1848. Sir Joseph Banks became acquainted with his merits when M'Nab was employed as foreman in the garden at Kew, and he recommended him to Dr. Rutherford, professor of botany, as being well qualified for the office of superintendent of the botanic garden at Edinburgh. He continued to occupy the situation with great credit and success for a period of forty years. He assisted the professors of botany in the class demonstrations, and joined them in many of their botanical excursions. He was an able horticulturist, and was held in universal respect. Mr. M'Nab cultivated Cape heaths with great success. A genus of heaths is named M'Nabia after him.—J. H. B.
MACNAGHTEN, Sir William Hay, Bart, one of the victims of the Affghan war, was born about 1793. He was the second son of an Irish baronet, and in 1809 accompanied his father to India, when the latter was nominated judge of the supreme council of Madras. He entered the service of the East India Company as a cavalry cadet on the Madras establishment, and was transferred in 1814 to the Bengal civil service. His great accomplishments as an oriental linguist first brought him into notice, and in 1833 he had become chief secretary to government. He was one of the high officials who advised Lord Auckland to undertake the Affghan war, and he personally negotiated with Runjeet Singh the treaty which preceded it. After the first successes which placed Shah Soojah for a few months on the throne he was created a Baronet, and left in charge of English interests at Cabul. About to quit his post when the outbreak began, which led to the disastrous retreat of the English army from Affghanistan, he was treacherously assassinated by Akbar Khan at a conference on the 23rd of December, 1841. Sir William Macnaghten had edited an Arabic edition of the Thousand and One Nights, 1839. His "Principles and Precedents of Hindoo Law," Calcutta, 1829, was re-edited in 1860 by Professor Horace Hayman Wilson.—F. E.
M'NALLY, Leonard, an Irish dramatic writer, born in Dublin in 1752; died in 1820. At twenty-one he entered the Middle temple, London, and during the course of his studies there maintained himself entirely by his pen. He edited the Public Ledger, superintended the publication of several magazines, and began to write for the stage. After being called to the bar he returned to Ireland, where he eventually became a successful practitioner, especially in the department called "crown law." Besides his professional treatises M'Nally published several operas and comedies.
MACNEIL, Hector, a Scottish poet and miscellaneous writer, was born in 1746, and was the son of a military officer, who ultimately quitted the army and became a farmer at Rosebank, near Roslin. Hector was educated for a mercantile life, and lived for some time with his cousin, a merchant in Bristol. He afterwards went to the West Indies, where for many years he followed the ungenial employment of a slave-driver. He returned to Scotland in 1786, in poor health and with very narrow means. From his early years he had manifested a taste for poetry, and in 1789 he published "The Harp, a Legendary Tale." In 1795 appeared his best and best-known work "Will and Jean," which was followed next year by "The Waes o' War." Both of these poems display pathos and simplicity, occasionally degenerating into baldness and silliness. About the same time he published a descriptive poem entitled "The Links of Forth," and wrote a number of songs which display considerable humour, as well as pathos and delicacy of sentiment. He was under the necessity of returning to the West Indies, but after a brief residence there he received a legacy of £100 a year, and immediately returned to Edinburgh, where he resided till his death in 1818. Besides the works already mentioned, he was the author of "The Memoirs of Charles Macpherson," a novel; "The Pastoral and Lyric Muse of Scotland;" "Town Fashions;" "By-gone Times;" and "The Scottish Adventurer." Several of his songs are still popular.—J. T.
* M'NEILL, Sir John, the Right Hon., third son of the late John M'Neill, Esq., of Colonsay, and brother of the president of the court of session, was born at Colonsay in 1795. After serving in the army of the East India Company, he was appointed assistant envoy at Teheran in 1831, having previously been assistant to the chargé d'affaires at the Persian court. In 1834 he became secretary of embassy, and from 1836
