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Madden, Samuel, D.D., "Premium Madden," a distinguished writer, and one of the founders of the Royal Dublin Society, was born in Dublin, 23rd December 1686. He took the degree of B.A. at Trinity College in 1705, and was collated to Drummully, near Newtownbutler, in 1721. The celebrated Philip Skelton was his curate here, and tutor to his sons. (In his life by Burdy are several interesting particulars concerning Mr. Madden.) In 1723 he took the degree of D.D. He first appeared before the public as an author in 1729, when he published his tragedy of Themistocles, played with considerable success in London. In 1731 he wrote A Proposal for the General Encouragement of Learning in Trinity College, and in 1733 published anonymously in London his Memoir of the Twentieth Century, 527 pp., a cumbrous effort at a jeu d'esprit on current politics, "unrelieved by any merits adequate to counterbalance the serious defect of too great prolixity." Almost the whole edition of 1,000 copies was withdrawn and cancelled by himself a few days after publication. In 1738 he wrote Reflections and Resolutions proper for the Gentlemen of Ireland, a suggestive and valuable work, partaking somewhat of the character of Bishop Berkeley's Querist. About this time he promoted a system of quarterly premiums at Trinity College (which obtained for him the appellation of "Premium Madden", and constantly exerted himself to induce persons of rank and influence to give their support to plans for the amelioration of the country. The Dublin Society was originated at a meeting held in Trinity College on 25th June 1731. While Thomas Prior was most active in founding the Society, Madden was one of those to whom the ultimate success of this great national institution was due. It was mainly through his influence that in April 1749-'50 a charter of incorporation was obtained. Commencing in 1739, he contributed annually £130 in premiums for the encouragement of manufactures and the arts by means of the Society - a sum increased to above £300 per annum a few years later. Having spent a life of exemplary piety and charity, and devoted his talents and liberal fortune to the improvement of the condition of his fellow-creatures, he died at Manor Waterhouse, in the County of Fermanagh, 31st December 1765, aged 79. He bequeathed a large and valuable collection of books to Trinity College, and several paintings now in the Provost's house. Dr. Madden was the friend of many of the most eminent men of his time, and was greatly esteemed by Dr. Johnson, who said, his was "a name which Ireland ought to honour." So little is now known of this distinguished man that even his descendants are unacquainted with the place of his interment, and the accounts of his life are most meagre and contradictory. The particulars here given are principally taken from a notice of his family, his life, his descendants, and the rise of the Royal Dublin Society, in the Irish Quarterly Review, 1853. His son, Samuel Molyneux Madden, who died in 1798, bequeathed his estate in the corporation of Belturbet, together with the residue of his personal estate, for the founding of a prize to be given to the best of the disappointed candidates at the Fellowship examinations at Trinity College, Dublin.
Maelbrigid McDornan, Archbishop of Armagh in 885, was eminent for his learning and piety. Armagh was thrice (in 890, 893, and 919) taken by the Danes during his occupancy of the see. On several occasions he arranged disputes, and prevented wars between the northern chieftains; and in 908, we are told, visited the wilds of Munster, to redeem from servitude a strange Briton who was there held in captivity. Maelbrigid died about 927.
Maelmury, or Marian, Archbishop of Armagh, a man of great reputation in his time, who governed the see from 1001 to 1021. He is called in the Annals of the Four Masters, "the head of the clergy of the west of Europe, the principal of all the holy orders of the west; and a most wise and learned doctor." He followed Brian Borumha's body from Swords to Armagh, and performed the funeral obsequies. It is said that he died of grief 3rd June 1020 (or 1021), on the destruction of a great part of Armagh by fire.
Maffit, John Newland, an eloquent Methodist preacher, was born in Dublin, 28th December 1794. He early joined the ministry of the Methodist Church, and displayed great oratorical powers. He removed to the United States in 1819, and preached, lectured, and delivered addresses in various parts of the Union - his labours as a preacher in the west and south being attended with great success. He was chaplain to Congress in 1841. Mr. Maffit was the author of Tears of Contrition (1821), Poems (Louisville, 1839), and an autobiography. He died at Mobile, Alabama, 28th May 1850, aged 55. His son, John Newland Maffit, was a commodore in the Confederate navy, and in the Florida did great damage to United States shipping.
Magee, William, Archbishop of Dublin, a distinguished author and divine, was born at Enniskillen in 1766. In 1781 he was entered of Trinity College, Dublin, where he quickly distinguished himself and obtained all the academic honours, including a scholarship in the year 1784. In 1788 he was elected a Fellow; in 1790 entered into orders; in 1800 became Professor of Mathematics; in 1812 retired on the college livings of Cappagh and Killyleagh; in 1814 was made Dean of Cork; in 1819 was consecrated Bishop of Raphoe; and in 1822 was advanced to the see of Dublin. He attained a wide literary reputation, his most important work being Discourses on the Scriptural Doctrines of Atonement and Sacrifice (London, 1801), which has seen numerous editions, and is declared by a competent authority to be "one of the ablest critical and polemical works of modern times." He was in his early days a strenuous opponent of the Union, as he afterwards was of Catholic Emancipation. He died at Redesdale, near Dublin, 19th August 1831, aged about 65, and was buried in the centre of the old churchyard of Rathfarnham, under a tomb as yet un- inscribed. The Archbishop's works were collected and printed from his own corrected copies, with a memoir, by Rev. A. H. Kenney, in 2 vols., London, 1842. The present Bishop of Peterborough is his grandson.
Maginn, William, LL.D., a distinguished writer, was born in Cork in July 1794. He entered Trinity College at an unusually early age, and attained the degree of LL.D. when but twenty-three. In the literary society of Cork he soon excelled all his contemporaries in the depth and universality of his reading. The publication of Blackwood's Magazine, commenced in 1817, opened up a field especially favourable for the display of his talents. His earliest contribution was a translation into Latin of Chevy Chase. At first he wrote under the assumed name of "Ralph Tuckett Scott," and occasionally had considerable difficulty in getting cash for Mr. Blackwood's cheques in favour of that supposed individual. It would be impossible to specify his numerous contributions to the magazine, of which for a time he was the main stay. In 1823 he married, and giving up a school he had opened in Cork, removed to London. In 1824 he went to Paris for a time as correspondent of the Representative, and on his return continued to earn a livelihood by writing for magazines, annuals, and newspapers. His political articles in the early numbers of the Standard contributed much to the success of that newspaper. Disagreement with Mr. Blackwood led to the establishment by Maginn and his friend Hugh Fraser, of Fraser's Magazine in 1830. All the ability that characterized his articles in Blackwood shone out in the new serial, which rapidly sprang into public estimation. An article in the number for January 1836, led to a duel with Grantley Berkeley. Habits of dissipation and extravagance now grew upon him. Besides increasing money difficulties, and the losses resulting from his irregular life, "there was another external attraction that made home less agreeable-... his supposed attachment to Miss Lanyon. Whatever were the terms on which he stood to that gifted and fascinating creature, certain it is that the strongest friendship existed between them." On her death Maginn appeared inconsolable, and shortly afterwards he separated from his wife and children. In January 1838 appeared the first of his celebrated Homeric Ballads. Dissipation had now brought him to a miserable condition, and he suffered imprisonment for debt several times; yet through all he retained his serenity of mind, and was able to write political leaders when too ill to rise from bed. Near the last a friend wrote of him: "He was quite emaciated and worn away; his hands thin, and very little flesh on his face; his eyes appeared brighter and larger than usual; and his hair was wild and disordered. He stretched out his hand and saluted me. He is a ruin, a glorious ruin, nevertheless... But he lives a rollicking life, and will write you one of his ablest articles, while standing in his shirt, or sipping brandy. We talked on Seneca, Homer, Christ, Pluto, and Virgil." Like most men brought low by their own failings, he was ceaseless in his denunciations of the ingratitude of the world. He died 21st August 1842, at Walton-upon-Thames, aged 48. He is described as of middle height, "of slender make; his hair is very grey, and he has a gentle stoop... He has a slight stutter, and is rather thick in his delivery. He is completely and perfectly an Irishman in every look, and word, and movement." Allibone quotes the following estimates of his character: "For more than a quarter of a century the most remarkable magazine writer of his time was the late William Maginn, LL.D., well known as the 'Sir Morgan Odoherty' of Blackwood's Magazine, and as the principal contributor for many years to Fraser's, and other periodicals. The combined learning, wit, eloquence, eccentricity, and humour of Maginn had obtained for him, long before his death, the title of the modern Rabelais. His magazine articles possess extraordinary merit. He had the art of putting a vast quantity of animal spirits upon paper; but his graver articles - which contain sound and serious principles of criticism - are earnest and well-reasoned... Few men were equal to him in conversation, though he was the reverse of a great talker. It was the variety of topics upon which he threw light, and not the diffuseness of his remarks, which gave a happy idea of the wealth of his conversation. Meet him when you might, turn the discourse into whatever channels you pleased, Maginn was a master of every subject - the most recondite as well as the most familiar." "Now it was a parody, and now a translation; to-day, a critique, to-morrow, a letter from Paris; one month a novel, and the next a political essay. Versatile, learned, apt, and facile, the genial Irish Doctor made wisdom and mirth wherever he went. Too convivial for his own good, too improvident for his prosperity, he was yet a benefactor to the public, a delight to scholars, and an idol to his friends." Dr. Kenealy, who afterwards took a prominent part in the Tichborne trial, was his friend and biographer. Several interesting particulars regarding Dr. Maginn will be found in Notes and Queries, 1st and 2nd Series.
Magraidain, Augustin, was canon in the monastery of All Saints' Island, in Lough Ree, at the end of the 14th century. He wrote an important work, Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae, frequently referred to by Colgan, a copy of which is said to be preserved in the library of the Convent of St. Francis, Dublin. Magraidain also compiled a chronicle known as Annales Insulenses. He died in 1405, and was buried on the island (now a peninsula) where he had passed so much of his life.
Magrath, Miler, Archbishop of Cashel and Bishop of Emly, was born in the County of Fermanagh about 1522. Originally a Franciscan Friar, he became a Protestant, and was consecrated Bishop of Clogher, and in 1570-71 advanced to the archbishopric of Cashel and bishopric of Emly. He also held the bishoprics of Waterford and Lismore in commendam from 1582 to 1589, and from 1592 to 1607, when he resigned them, and was placed in charge of Killala and Achonry. He contrived to recommend himself favourably to Queen Elizabeth, but appears to have been an unscrupulous waster of the temporalities of the sees committed to his charge. In the Regal Visitation of 1615, the Commissioners speak of him as the "Archbishop, Miler Magrath, who would give the Commissioners no satisfactory information respecting the revenues. He held four bishoprics and a great number of benefices in various dioceses." Among the Patent Rolls of James I. (1624) will be found an important letter from the King to the Lord-Deputy concerning Magrath's abuse of the archbishopric. He had four sons and four daughters. Some of the former, although Catholics, contrived to possess themselves of several church livings. Amongst other nefarious alienations from the Church was that of the manor and see lands of Lismore, with the castle, to Sir Walter Raleigh, for the annual rent of £13 6s. 8d. In 1602 this property was purchased by the Earl of Cork, from whom the greater part of it is inherited by the present Duke of Devonshire. In the Life and Letters of MacCarthy More will be found well authenticated proofs of the Archbishop's complicity with Carew and Cecil in their high-handed government of Ireland, and in their attempts to secure the assassination of some of the Irish chieftains. After occupying the archbishopric for fifty-two years, he died at Cashel in December 1622, aged 100 years, and was buried in the cathedral under a monument previously erected by himself, which may still be seen. Upon it are some curious Latin verses, of which the following translation is given in Harris's Ware. One line has doubtless given rise to the tradition that he became a Catholic at the last, and directed his body to be secretly buried elsewhere: "Patrick, the glory of our isle and gown, First sat a bishop in the see of Down. I wish that I succeeding him in place As bishop, had an equal share of grace. I served thee, England, fifty years in jars, And pleased thy Princes in the midst of wars; [is, Here, where I'm placed, I'm not; and thus the case I'm not in both, yet am in both the places."
Maguire, Cathal, Dean of Clogher, an eminent divine, philosopher, and historian, and a canon of Armagh, was born about 1438. He was the 7th in descent from Maguire, a distinguished chief of Fermanagh, who died in 1302. Harris's Ware says he wrote Annales Hiberniae usque ad sua tempora. They were called Annales Senatenses from a place called Senat-Mac-Magnus, in the County of Fermanagh [Belle Isle in Lough Erne], where the author wrote them, and oftener Annales Ultonienses, the Annals of Ulster, because they were compiled in and by natives of that province. They begin in 431, and are carried down by the compiler to his death in 1498; but they were afterwards continued by Roderic Cassidy to the year 1532. He also wrote a book entitled Aengusius Auctus, or the Martyrology of Aengus enlarged. He died of small-pox on the 23rd of March 1498, aged 59. There are also ascribed to him Scholia, or annotations on the Registry of Clogher, a work now lost. Several interesting notes on this annalist, by Dr. O'Donovan, will be found in the Annals of the Four Masters under the year 1498; and O'Curry devotes the larger portion of a chapter of his Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History to a disquisition on the five copies of the Annals of Ulster known to exist. He says "the text is a mixture of Gaedhlic and Latin, sometimes being written partly in one language and partly in the other."
Maguire, Hugh, Lord of Fermanagh, who took a prominent part in the war during Elizabeth's reign, was son of Cuconnaught Maguire, Prince of Fermanagh, and cousin of Hugh O'Neill. His mother was Nuala, daughter of Manus O'Donnell. On the death of his father in 1589, he became possessed of the estates held by his ancestors since 1302. He soon took up a defiant attitude towards the Government, replying, when told by the Deputy Fitzwilliam that he must allow the Queen's writs to run in Fermanagh: "Your sheriff shall be welcome, but let me know his eric, that if my people should cut off his head I may levy it upon the country." He succoured Hugh Roe O'Donnell in his escape from Dublin Castle. In 1593 he besieged the sheriff and his party in a church, and would have starved them out, but for the intervention of Hugh O'Neill, then an ally of the Anglo-Irish. On 3rd July of the same year Maguire carried off a large prey of cattle from Tulsk, from under the eyes of Sir Richard Bingham, Governor of Connaught. The Four Masters give a spirited account of the engagement. Sir William Clifford and a few horsemen were slain on Bingham's side, while Maguire lost, amongst several of his party, Edmond MacGauran (Archbishop of Armagh) and Cathal Maguire. Some months later he unsuccessfully endeavoured to prevent Marshal Bagnall and Hugh O'Neill crossing the Erne at Athcullin. We are told that his forces, a great number of whom were slain, consisted of Irish, armed with battle-axes, and some Scotch allies, armed with bows. Hugh O'Neill was severely wounded in the thigh in the contest. According to MacGeoghegan, the Anglo- Irish were ultimately forced back across the river. Early in 1594 the Anglo- Irish took and garrisoned Enniskillen; and in June it was invested by Maguire and his friend Hugh Roe O'Donnell, who had collected a large force for the purpose. Sir George Bingham endeavoured to raise the siege in August, but was intercepted by Maguire at a ford on the Arney river (now Drumane bridge), in the County of Fermanagh, and defeated with a loss of some 400 men. This engagement was generally known as the battle of Bel-Atha-na-mBriosgaidh (the Ford of the Biscuits), from the quantity of biscuits and supplies taken by the Irish. The garrison of Enniskillen surrendered almost immediately after this disaster. Next year Maguire devastated Cavan, so that he did not leave a "hut in which two or three persons might be protected" in the entire district. He threw himself heart and soul into O'Neill's war, and took part in the victory of Clontibret and Kilclooney, and was in command of the cavalry at Mullaghbrack in 1596, where the Anglo-Irish were defeated with heavy loss. The same year he was, with O'Neill and O'Donnell, formally outlawed, and a price was set upon his head. In 1598 he held a command at the defeat of Marshal Bagnall at the Yellow Ford. Next year Maguire joined O'Donnell in a marauding expedition into Thomond, and took Inchiquin Castle. In March 1600 he commanded the cavalry in Hugh O'Neill's expedition into Leinster and Munster. Accompanied by a small party, he reconnoitred the country towards Cork; but was intercepted by Sir Warham St. Leger and Sir Henry Power, with a superior force. Nothing daunted, he struck spurs into his horse, and dashed into the midst of the Deputy's band, where St. Leger inflicted a deadly wound on him with his pistol. Maguire, summoning his remaining strength, cleft his adversary's head through his helmet, and then fell exhausted and almost immediately expired. According to the Four Masters, "the death of Maguire caused a giddiness of spirit and a depression of mind in O'Neill and the Irish chiefs in general, and this was no wonder, for he was the bulwark of valour and prowess, the shield of protection and shelter, the tower of support and defence, and the pillar of the hospitality and achievements of the Oirghialla, and of almost all the Irish of his time." His wife was a daughter of Hugh O'Neill. Hugh Maguire's name will probably live longest in the ode addressed to him by his bard, O'Hussey, which has been so forcibly rendered into English by Mangan.
Maguire, Cuconnaught, Lord of Fermanagh, younger brother of preceding, was upon his death in 1600 installed chief in the presence of his clansmen. He procured the ship for the flight of the Earls of Tyrone and Tirconnell, and accompanied them to the Continent. This prince, whom the Four Masters style "an intelligent, comely, courageous, magnanimous, rapid-marching, adventurous man, endowed with wisdom and personal beauty, and all the other good qualifications," died at Genoa on 12th August 1608. After his departure from Ireland, almost the whole of Fermanagh was confiscated and "planted" with English settlers, by King James I.; 2,000 acres were settled upon one Brian Maguire, son or brother of Cuconnaught. The direct descendants of this prince (the representative of one of the most distinguished Milesian families), through Cuconnaught Mor, who fell at the battle of Aughrim, and Brian, an officer in the East India Company's service, of duelling celebrity, have become so reduced that when O'Donovan was editing the Annals of the Four Masters, they were "common sailors on the coast vessels trading between Dublin and Wales." See Notes and Queries, 4th Series, for an interesting note on the burial place of the Maguires; while notes on the family descents may be consulted under the years 1498 and 1608 in the Annals of the Four Masters.
Maguire, Connor, Baron of Enniskillen, son of Brian Roe, 1st Baron, and his wife, a sister of Owen Roe O'Neill. He was of the same family as the preceding, and was born in Fermanagh about 1616. He entered enthusiastically into the plans for insurrection in October 1641, for expelling the English settlers and asserting the freedom of Catholic worship, and was one of the leaders who came to Dublin to arrange for the outbreak. His lodging was at "one Nevil's, a chirurgeon, in Castle-street, near the pillory," and there several private conferences were held. Sir Felim O'Neill was deputed to seize Charlemont; Maguire, Barry, Preston, Moor, and Plunket, Dublin Castle; Sir James Dillon, the Fort of Galway; Sir Morgan Cavanagh and Hugh MacFelim, the Fort of Duncannon. The plot to take Dublin Castle was betrayed, however, and while most of his confederates fled across the Liffey and escaped, Maguire was arrested. He was imprisoned in the Castle for nearly a year, and then removed to the Tower of London, with his friend MacMahon. During his incarceration he was more than once examined, and substantially admitted the charges brought against him. After nearly two years' imprisonment, he and MacMahon escaped on 18th August 1643, and were at liberty until 20th October. They lay hid in a house in Drury-lane, and would probably have escaped to the Continent, but for the rashness of one of them in calling from a top window to an oyster-man in the street. The voice was recognized; they were recaptured, and in two hours were again in the Tower. Maguire was brought up for trial for high treason at the King's Bench on the 11th November 1644. He pleaded his right to be tried by his peers in Ireland. This was overruled by the judge, as well as by both Houses of Parliament, to whom the matter was referred, and his final trial came on 10th February 1644-'5. He defended himself with great ability, and urged so many technical objections to the proceedings that the case went over to the second day. The judge charged strongly against him; he was found guilty, and condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. Both after conviction in court, and in an appeal to Parliament from his prison, he unsuccessfully prayed that his body might be spared the indignity of quartering. Then the prisoner departing from the bar, Mr. Prynne advising him to confer with some godly ministers for the good and comfort of his soul, he answered that he would have none at all, unless he might have some Romish priests of his own religion. This prayer was also denied, and when he was brought up on a sled for execution the 20th February 1644-'5, he repeatedly broke in upon the reiterated exhortations of the sheriff that he should renounce his faith, with cries of "For Jesus Christ's sake, I beseech you to give me a little time to prepare myself... For God's sake, give me leave to depart in peace.. Pray let me have a little time to say my prayers." At the final moment the sheriff commanded his pockets to be searched whether he had no bull or pardon about him; but they found in his pockets only some beads and a crucifix, which were taken from him." His title was assumed by his son and descendants, the last of whom, Alexander Maguire, 8th Baron, was, a captain in the Irish Brigade in France. [In commemoration of his arrest and the discovery of the plot for insurrection in October 1641, it was customary, until the year 1829, for the bells of St. Audoen's Church to be rung every 22nd of October at midnight.] William Prynn, the Parliamentarian, took a prominent part against Maguire on his trial, and printed a pamphlet (running to thirty-two pages of Cobbett's State Trials) to prove "that Irish peers, as well as commons, may be lawfully tried in this court in England.
Maguire, John Francis, politician and writer, the son of a merchant in Cork, was born about 1815. He was called to the Irish Bar in 1843, sat member for Dungarvan from 1852 to 1865, and for Cork from that date till his death. He actively supported the Liberal party, especially in its legislation regarding the disestablishment of the Church, and the land question. It was known that he was not in affluent circumstances, and it was expected that he would soon be offered a government position of some description; so that his sincerity was strikingly shown in 1870, when he joined the Home Rule party, led by Mr. Butt, and thereby sacrificed all his prospects of an official career. A series of articles on the question of Home Rule, which appeared in his paper, the Cork Examiner, were published in a collected form in 1871. Mr. Maguire was author of Rome and its Ruler (1857), Life of Father Mathew (1862), Irish in America (1868), The Next Generation, a novel (1871), and other works. He was a brilliant raconteur, was a prominent advocate of female suffrage, and for his defence of the position of the Pope was created a Knight Commander of St. Gregory. He died near Cork, 1st November 1872, aged 57. His character for earnestness and sincerity stood so high that a testimonial subscription, opened after his death, was joined in by the Queen, and by many others who were unable to endorse his political opinions.
Mahony, Francis Sylvester, Rev., a distinguished writer, was born in Cork about 1805. He was educated at a Jesuit college in France, and at the University of Rome, and returning home in orders, he for a short time performed the duties of a Catholic clergyman, and was a tutor in Clongowes Wood College. Eventually he gave up his cure, and devoted himself entirely to literature. His ripe scholarship, his pathos and wit, soon became known to the public in a series of papers, "The Reliques of Father Prout," which first appeared in Fraser's Magazine, and were published in a separate form in 1836. For Fraser, also, he wrote "The Bells of Shandon" and other well-known pieces of poetry. His powers of versification in foreign languages was strikingly exhibited in a series of articles on "Moore's Plagiarisms," wherein the Latin and Greek "originals" of most of the Melodies were given. In the Greek versions he was assisted by Francis Stack Murphy. Mahony also wrote "The Groves of Blarney" in Italian, as "sung by a Garibaldian bivouac amid the woods over Lake Como, 25th May 1859," besides versions in French, Greek, and Latin. The writer of the preface to his works says he "belonged to a race of mortals now quite gone out of Irish existence, like the elk and wolf-dog." The "Prout Papers" as a whole brim over with humour, dash, and feeling. He spent some years in travelling through Hungary, Asia Minor, Greece, and Egypt; and in January 1846 accepted, under Dickens, the position of Roman correspondent of the Daily News. His articles were afterwards republished as Facts and Figures from Italy, by Don Jeremy Savonarola, Benedictine Monk. He was Paris correspondent of the Globe the last eight years of his life, and until within a few weeks of his death, which took place at his residence in the Rue des Moulins, Paris, 18th May 1866. A reviewer thus speaks of his Reliques: "Do you wish for epigrams? There is a fairy shower of them. Have you a taste for ballads, varying from the lively to the tender, from the note of the trumpet to the note of the lute? Have you an ear for translations which give the semblance of another language's face? Are you given to satire?... Do you delight in the classic allusion, the quaint though yet profound learning of other days? All these and a great deal more are to be found in Father Prout's chest." Father Mahony strenuously opposed O'Connell and the Repeal movement. Hardly anything more bitter in its way was ever written against the "Liberator" than "The Lay of Lazarus," which appeared in the Times in 1845. He was also opposed to the disestablishment of the Church in Ireland. His person is thus described: "He was a remarkable figure in London. A short, spare man, stooping as he went, with the right arm clasped in the left hand behind him; a sharp face, with piercing grey eyes that looked vacantly upwards, a mocking lip, a close-shaven face, and an ecclesiastical garb of slovenly appearance-such was the old Fraserian, who would laugh outright at times, quite unconscious of by-standers. Mahony was a combination of Voltaire and Rabelais; but there was never the slightest doubt as to his orthodoxy." He never allowed a day to pass without reading his Office from the well-worn volume which he always carried about with him. "He may have been, canonically speaking, an indifferent priest, an inefficient member of an uncongenial profession, which I have always understood he entered from family pique and impetuosity;.. but he was in heart and soul a thoroughly believing and, as everyone knew, a most sincerely tolerant Christian. He was on friendly and in some instances affectionate terms with many ministers of various Christian denominations; had the highest esteem for several Jewish rabbis, and their noble old faith; and even his academic pride and high cultivation did not hinder him from sympathizing with field and street preachers, whose mission, however rude their speech and manner might be, he always declared was generous and good."
Maildulph, a learned Irish monk, who was the author of several theological works named in Harris's Ware, flourished in the 7th century. He removed to Britain, and founded a monastery and school at Ingleborne, where he instructed many afterwards eminent for learning, of whom the great St. Aldhelm was the chief. "From this Maildulph, Ingleborne, situated in Wiltshire, was anciently called Maildulfesburg (by Bede, Maildulfi Urbs), but now commonly Malmesbury, where there was afterwards an abbey enriched by the presents of King Athelstane and other benefactors."
Makemie, Francis, a Presbyterian divine, who was distinguished in the early settlement of Virginia. He was born in Donegal, and went to America in 1682. He preached principally in Virginia and the Carolinas, and was for a time engaged in the West India trade. For preaching without licence in New York in 1707, he was arrested by Governor Cornbury, and imprisoned for two months. Cornbury, in justifying his action, reported that Makemie was "a preacher, a doctor of physic, a merchant, an attorney, a counsellor-at- law, and, which is worst of all, a disturber of governments." He printed a Narrative of this affair, and many tracts, some of which have been since republished. His Answer to George Keith's Libel (Boston 1692) bears the imprimatur of Increase Mather. He died in Boston in the summer of 1708.
Malachy I. (Maelseachlainn), Monarch of Ireland, reigned, according to the Four Masters, from 845 to 860. Before his accession he compassed the assassination of Turgesius, a Dane, and the expulsion of the Northmen from Ireland; but they returned in force before long, and his reign was marked by constant descents and depredations of the Dubh-Lochlannaigh (Black Scandinavians, or Danes), and Finn-Lochlannaigh (White Scandinavians, or Norwegians). His reign was also notable for a regal convention which he called at Rathhugh, in the present County of Westmeath.
Malachy Mor, Monarch of Ireland, flourished from 980 to 1022, the rival, and afterwards the tributary of Brian Borumha. He succeeded to the nominal sovereignty of Ireland in 978, two years after Brian became King of Munster. He married Maelmaire, sister of Sitric, the Danish King of Dublin; and after the death of his father, his mother married Olaf, a renowned warrior of the same nation. The early part of Malachy's reign was spent in constant contentions with Brian and other Irish chiefs, and with his connexions, the Northmen. Upon more than one occasion he inflicted severe defeats on the latter, carrying away 2,000 hostages, jewels, and other valuables, and "freed the country from tribute and taxation from the Shannon to the sea;" and "wore the collar of gold, Which he won from her proud invader." In 982 he invaded Thomond and rooted up and cut to pieces the great tree at Magh-Adhair [now Moyry Park, in the County of Clare], under which Brian and his ancestors of the Dalcassian line had been crowned, and where for generations they had received the first homage of their subjects. Eventually Brian and Malachy had to lay aside their feuds and unite against the common enemy, and in the year 1000 they defeated the Northmen at Glenmama, near Dunlavin, in the County of Wicklow, as is related in the notice of Brian Borumha. In 1002 Brian, whose power had been gradually increasing, marched to Tara, deposed Malachy, and assumed the supreme sovereignty. Malachy not only submitted, but appears to have entered into Brian's plans for the government of the country, and helped him in his operations against the Northmen. After the battle of Clontarf and Brian's death, 23rd April 1014, Malachy again assumed the supreme authority in Ireland. His energy in following up the struggle refuted the calumny that he secretly favoured the Northmen in the fight. He reigned nine years after Brian's death, and is mentioned as the founder of churches and schools; but the annals of the time show that the latter years of his life were passed chiefly in plundering expeditions in various parts of the island, and murderous contentions with the chiefs who owed him a nominal allegiance. Malachy died at Croinis (Cormorant Island), in Lough Ennel, near Mullingar, in 1023. A month before he had defeated the Northmen of Dublin at Athboy.
Malachy O'Morgair, Saint, Archbishop of Armagh, was born near Armagh, in 1095. He was educated near his home, by Abbot Imar, and afterwards at Lismore, under Bishop Malchus. Returning to Ulster, he was admitted to orders, and in 1120 was placed over the Abbey of Bangor. Four years later he was consecrated Bishop of Connor. According to Harris, St. Bernard gives a lamentable account of the people of his diocese, saying that Malachy found them rude, barbarous, and uncultivated; but "in a few years wrought such a reformation in the morals of his flock as was little inferior to that brought about by St. Patrick in these parts." Archbishop Celsus, on his death-bed in 1129, desired that Malachy should be his successor in the primacy; but it was not until 1134 that he was permitted to enter on the duties of the see, which he held but three years. In 1137 he resigned (Gelasius being appointed), and betook himself to the see of Down, where he founded an abbey. In 1139 he proceeded to Rome, was received with great distinction by the Pope, and appointed Legate. "He returned to Ireland and landed at Bangor, where he was received with the universal exultation of all degrees of people. He entered on the exercise of his legatine function over all parts of Ireland, held many synods, and restored and reformed the old discipline;" he purified the monastic orders, and introduced a branch of the monks of St. Bernard. In 1148 he undertook another journey to Rome to solicit palls for the Irish Church, but died of fever at Clairvaux, 2nd November, aged 53, and was there entombed. In 1793, during the French Revolution, his remains and those of his friend St. Bernard were removed from their sepulchres. What are believed to be portions of them, since recovered, are now regarded with great veneration. An account of his life, from which subsequent writers have derived almost their entire information, was written by St. Bernard, in whose arms he died. He was canonized in 1190: his festival is 3rd November. An exhaustive memoir of this saint has been written by the Rev. John O'Hanlon. By Protestant writers his ministry is believed to have marked a most important era in the history of the Irish Church, at which it abandoned its independence, and was brought under the influence of Rome; and it is thought that the accounts of the disorders of the state and of the Church before his time are unduly exaggerated by contemporary writers, so as to justify and glorify the change that then took place.
Malone, Anthony, a distinguished politician, was born in Ireland 5th December 1700. In his twentieth year he entered at Oxford, pursued his studies at the Temple, and in May 1726 was called to the Irish Bar. The following year he was elected to represent Westmeath, a seat he held without interruption until 1760. In 1740 he was appointed Prime-Sergeant, a position from which he was dismissed in 1754 for joining in the assertion of the right of Parliament to dispose of unappropriated taxes. In 1757, under the Duke of Bedford's government, he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer. From this office he was also removed, for maintaining the right of the Irish House to originate the supplies. Soon afterwards, however, he was placed on the Privy- Council, and granted a patent of precedence at the Bar. In 1771 he voted against Lord Townshend's government, although, as the Viceroy bitterly complained in a black list forwarded to London, he had "been obliged in everything that he had asked." "To a commanding person, fine voice, an impressive yet conciliatory manner, temper rarely to be ruffled by an opponent, were added powers of argument and persuasion so effective that it was once proposed to transfer him from the Irish to the English House of Commons, in order to oppose Sir Robert Walpole." Grattan declared "Malone was a man of the finest intellect that any country ever produced. The three ablest men I have ever heard were Mr. Pitt (the father), Mr. Murray, and Mr. Malone. For a popular assembly I would choose Pitt; for a Privy Council, Murray; for twelve wise men, Malone." He died 8th May 1776, aged 75. His nephew, afterwards Lord Sunderlin, inherited most of his estates.
Malone, Edmond, Shaksperian commentator and author, nephew of the preceding, was born in Dublin, 4th October 1741. He was first educated at Ford's school in Molesworth-street (with Robert Jephson, Marquis of Lansdowne, General Blakeney and many who subsequently became distinguished), and then passed on to Trinity College, where steadiness rather than shining abilities characterized him. In 1763 he entered the Temple, and three years afterwards we find him travelling in France. He was called to the Irish Bar, and for a time rode the Munster circuit, but being possessed of a competence, he gradually yielded to the charms of a literary life, and in 1777 settled permanently in London. Remaining unmarried to the last, almost his whole life was devoted to the study and elucidation of Shakspere. The result of these labours, a New Edition of Shakspeare, appeared in 11 vols. 8vo. in 1790. In 1821, some years after his death, a second edition, in 21 vols., was edited by his friend James Boswell. The principal of his other numerous works were, History of the English Stage (1790), Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1797), Prose Works of Bryden (1800). He was a prominent member of "The Club," and was consequently intimate with Johnson, Burke, Charlemont, and the best men of his time. "Of Malone it is not, perhaps, very high praise to say that he was with out doubt the best of the commentators on Shakspere. He is, compared with his predecessors, more trustworthy in his assertions, more cautious in his opinions, and more careful to interpret what he found in the text than to substitute his own conjectures. But he belonged to an age when the merits of Shakspere were not properly appreciated; and he is, like the rest of his brethren, cold and captious. He was of a critical school which, to a great extent, is fortunately extinct." The Saturday Review says: "In diligence, integrity, and veneration for Shakspere himself, Malone stands second to none of the Shaksperian commentators. But his was not the subtle and catholic spirit to discover under the rough integument of first essays the sacred fire of genius, or to make allowance for the passion and vigour which streak and sometimes redeem their extravagance. Malone was an excellent ferret in charter warrens, but there his skill ended; for the higher matters of criticism he was as blind as a mole." After twenty-three years' residence in England we find him advising his Irish friends against voting for the Union. Intimate with men high in power, his influence was courted on both sides-by Lord Clare as well as by the members of the opposite party. Two of his correspondents lost their appointments for following his advice. Mr. Malone died, principally from over study and sedentary habits, 25th May 1812, aged 70. Lord Sunderlin, his brother, buried him by the family mansion at Baronstown in Westmeath. Although it is stated to have been his wish that his splendid library should go to Trinity College, where he had been educated, Lord Sunderlin made it over to the Bodleian at Oxford, in the belief that it would there be useful to a larger number of persons than if sent to Ireland. His biographer says: "His countenance had a most pleasing expression of sensibility and serenity... He wore a light blue coat, white silk stockings, and I think buckles in his shoes. His hair was white, and tied behind." There are numerous references to him and his writings in Notes and Queries, especially in the 2nd Series.
Malone, William, Rev., best known for his challenge to Protestant writers and Archbishop Ussher's reply, was born in Dublin about 1586. At an early age he was sent to Portugal, and then to Rome, where in his twentieth year he entered the order of Jesuits. After a sojourn in Ireland, he was sent for to Rome and appointed Rector of St. Isidore's College. He returned to Ireland as Superior of the Jesuit mission. He excited the suspicion of the Government and was arrested; but contrived to make his escape to Spain, where he died Rector of the Irish College at Seville, in 1659, aged about 73.
Manby, Peter, Rev., Dean of Deny, an Irish writer who flourished in the 17th century, was educated at Trinity College, became chaplain to Archbishop Boyle, and in 1672 was appointed Dean of Derry. In 1686 he embraced Catholicism, being permitted by James II. to retain his deanery. After the defeat of James in Ireland he removed to France and afterwards to London, where he died in 1697. He was the author of several controversial works, some of which were replied to by Dr. King, afterwards Archbishop of Dublin.
Mangan, James Clarence, a distinguished Irish poet, was born in Fishamble street, Dublin, in the spring of the year 1803. Little is recorded concerning his parentage. Those who knew him in his later days had a vague sort of knowledge that he had a brother, sister, and mother still living, whose scanty subsistence depended partly on him. He received what scholastic training he ever had at a poor school in Derby-square, near his birthplace. For seven years he laboured as a copyist with a scrivener at a weekly salary, and afterwards passed two years in an attorney's office. At what age he devoted himself to this drudgery, at what age he left it, or was discharged from it, does not appear... Those who knew him in after years can remember with what a shuddering and loathing horror he spoke, when at rare intervals he could be induced to speak at all, of his labours with the scrivener and the attorney. He was shy and sensitive, with exquisite sensibility and fine impulses... At this time he must have been a great devourer of books, and seems to have early devoted himself to the exploration of those treasures which lay locked up in foreign languages. Mangan had no education of a regular and approved sort; neither, in his multifarious reading had he, nor could brook, any guidance whatever." How he came by the brilliant acquirements he soon displayed is not recorded. How he made his unaided studies in the attorney's office, or at the top of a library ladder so effective, is difficult to understand. It is certain that he became a classical scholar, and that he was familiar with at least three modern languages - German, French, and Spanish - besides his own. During this obscure and unrecorded period of his life, he appears to have contracted an unhappy passion for a certain "Frances," whose name often appears in his poems. About 1830 we find him contributing short poems, usually translations from the German, or renderings of literal translations from the Irish, to Dublin periodicals. He thus became acquainted with Dr. Anster, Dr. Petrie, and Dr. Todd, and through their influence was given employment suited to his tastes and acquirements, in the catalogue department of Trinity College Library. John Mitchel describes his appearance here: "It was an unearthly and ghostly figure in a brown garment; the same garment (to all appearance) which lasted till the day of his death. The blanched hair was totally unkempt; the corpse-like features still as marble; a large book was in his arms, and all his soul was in the book... Here Mangan laboured mechanically, and dreamed, roosting on a ladder, for certain months, perhaps years; carrying the proceeds in money to his mother's poor home, storing in his memory the proceeds which were not in money, but in another kind of ore, which might feed the imagination indeed, but was not available for board and lodging. All this time he was the bond-slave of opium." He found employment in the Ordnance Survey. He also wrote for the Dublin Penny Journal, the Irish Penny Journal, and the University Magazine, and later for the Nation. When John Mitchel left the Nation, and started the Irishman, Mangan, who thoroughly sympathized with his revolutionary sentiments, confined his writings almost exclusively to its columns. Nothing could reclaim him from habits of intemperance. It has been well said, "There were two Mangans, one well known to the Muses, the other to the police... Sometimes he could not be found for weeks; and then he would reappear, like a ghost, or a ghoul, with a wildness in his blue, glittering eye, as of one who has seen spectres... Yet he was always humble, affectionate, almost prayerful. He was never of the Satanic school, never devoted mankind to the infernal gods, nor cursed the sun; but the cry of his spirit was ever, `Miserable man that I am, who will deliver me from the wrath to come?'" Anster, Father Meehan, Petrie, and James Haughton retained generous friendship for him to the last. Early in June 1849 he was seized with cholera in a miserable lodging in Dublin, was taken to Mercer's Hospital for treatment, and there sank and died on the 20th of the same month, aged 46. He was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. His poetry, instinct with tenderness, pathos, and force of imagery, is too little known. A memoir and an essay on the characteristics of his poetical genius are prefixed to the edition of his Poems published by John Mitchel (New York, 1859). Of his distinctly Irish pieces, perhaps his "Dark Rosaleen," and "Lament for the Princes of Tyrone and Tirconnell" are the best known. In these and other translated Irish pieces he has so completely caught the feeling of the original that it is difficult to believe that his knowledge of Irish was very limited, and that he trusted to literal translations made for him by friends. His German Anthology contains perhaps the most widely-known of his translations. Mitchel says: "I have never yet met a cultivated Irish man or woman, of genuine Irish nature, who did not prize Clarence Mangan above all the poets that their island of song ever nursed."
Marianus Scotus, whose Irish name was Maelbrigde, an annalist of the 11th century, a contemporary of Tigernach, was born in 1028. He is said to have been the first by whom the name Scotia, theretofore applied to Ireland only, was given to Scotland. He went abroad in 1056, and joined a religious community at Cologne. From 1059 to 1069 he was imprisoned by command of the Bishop of Metz. He died in 1086, aged 57. Harris gives a list of his works, and quotes the opinion that, "without comparison, he was the most learned man of his age, an excellent historian, a famous man at calculations, and a solid divine."
Marsden, William, F.R.S., a distinguished oriental scholar, was born in Dublin, 16th November 1754. Obtaining an Indian appointment in 1771, he broke off his theological studies at Trinity College, and went out to Bencoolen, Sumatra, as secretary to the British representative. His duties were by no means arduous, and he devoted his leisure to the study of the Malay language, and was enabled to lay up the stock of oriental knowledge that was afterwards given to the world in his various publications. After eight years' residence abroad, he returned to England in 1779, with an income of a few hundred pounds a year, determined to devote himself to literature. Before long he became acquainted with Sir Joseph Banks and the leading literary men of the day, and was elected a member of the Royal Society and other learned bodies. His History of Sumatra was published in 1782 - according to Southey, " a perfect model of topographical and descriptive composition." Having declined several offers of lucrative employment in India, in 1795 he was appointed Second Secretary of the Admiralty, and in due time became Chief Secretary, with a salary of,£4,000 per annum. He discharged the duties of this office for twelve years eventful to the British navy, much to his own honour and the public advantage. In 1807 his health began to suffer from overwork, and he retired on a pension of £1,500. The first fruit of his labour in retirement was the publication, in 1812, of his Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay Language, thirty-three years after he had collected the materials. In 1817 appeared a translation of the Travels of Marco Polo. According to MacCulloch, "this is incomparably the best translation of the celebrated Travels of Marco Polo,... and is in all respects one of the best edited books that have ever been published." Several other works followed-notably Numismata Orientalia. In 1831, from feelings of patriotism, he voluntarily resigned his pension. He died of apoplexy, 6th October 1836, aged 81, and was buried in Kensal-green. He bequeathed his collection of oriental coins and medals to the British Museum, and his library to King's College, London.
Marsh, Sir Henry, Bart., a distinguished physician, was born at Loughrea in 1790. (He was lineally descended from Francis Marsh, Archbishop of Dublin.) He graduated at Trinity College in 1812; but having attached himself to a sect known as the Walkerites, abandoned the studies which he had been pursuing with a view of entering the Church. He turned his attention to medicine, and was apprenticed to Philip Crampton. In 1818 he took his degree, walked the Paris hospitals, and in 1820, having settled in Dublin, was appointed physician to Dr. Steevens' Hospital. Thenceforward his progress in the medical profession was rapid. He enjoyed an increasing private practice, and held some of the most onerous and honourable positions connected with Dublin medical charities; and in 1839 he and Surgeon Crampton were created baronets. He died suddenly at his residence in Merrion-square, Dublin, 1st December 1860, aged 70, and was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery. Sir Henry was greatly beloved in private life, and was held in high esteem by the members of his own profession.
Marsh, James, a Dublin physician and chemist, who distinguished himself by the discovery of a process by which the most minute portions of arsenic can be detected in any body or liquid, was born in 1789. His discovery was given to the world in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal for October 1836. The process, details of which will be found in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, is constantly made use of in medical jurisprudence. He died at Woolwich, where for some time he had occupied the position of practical chemist to the Royal Arsenal, 21st June 1846, aged 56.
Marsh, Narcissus, Archbishop of Armagh, was born at Hannington in Wiltshire, 20th December 1638. Educated at Oxford, he became Doctor of Divinity in 1671; and seven years afterwards, through the influence of his friend the Duke of Ormond, was appointed Provost of Trinity College, Dublin. In 1682 he was consecrated Bishop of Leighlin and Ferns; in 1690 was translated to Cashel; in 1694 he was promoted to the archbishopric of Dublin; and in 1702 became Archbishop of Armagh. The writings of this eminent prelate scarcely merit record; he is remembered for his bequests to the see of Armagh, for the foundation of widows' alms-houses at Drogheda, and above all by the foundation, in 1707, of a free public library contiguous to St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin - probably the first of its kind in Ireland. He laid out £4,000 on the building, which at his death contained 10,000 volumes. Forty years afterwards it received an important addition in a bequest of books and MSS. from Dr. Stearne. The salary of a librarian was provided for by a charge of £250 per annum on church lands in Meath. An Act of the Irish Parliament exempted Marsh's Library from taxes. This venerable foundation, which, although somewhat restricted in its scope, contains many valuable works, is still open to the public. Archbishop Marsh died 2nd November 1713, aged 75, and was buried in a vault in the churchyard of St. Patrick's, adjoining the library. A stately monument was erected to his memory in St. Patrick's Cathedral. He at one period occupied a house at Leixlip, still known as the Archbishop's palace. No relationship appears to have existed between him and Francis Marsh, his predecessor in the see of Dublin.
Martin, John, a distinguished Irish nationalist, was born 8th September 1812, at Loughorne, near Newry, where his father was a Presbyterian clergyman. After a preliminary education at Newry, he passed to Trinity College, where he took a degree in 1834. He then commenced the study of medicine, which he eventually abandoned, partly from want of nerve in the dissecting-room, and partly from want of faith in the science. The death of an uncle in 1835 left him in independent circumstances. In 1839 he visited America, and in 1841 travelled on the Continent. His attention was turned to politics by the progress of the Repeal agitation, and he gave in his adhesion to the movement, nothing but diffidence preventing him from advocating the cause in public. He joined in the secession of the Young Ireland party, and took a prominent part in the councils of the Confederation, occasionally contributing articles to the United Irishman. Although the purity and sincerity of his character were well known, he showed more courage and determination than he had been credited with, when, on the seizure of the United Irishman in 1848, he settled his affairs in the north, proceeded to Dublin, and commenced the publication of the Irish Felon from the abandoned office of the United Irishman and openly advocated the policy of revolution and forcible separation from Great Britain. After the issue of the third number a warrant for his arrest was in the hands of the police, and the fifth number was the last. On 8th July 1848 he surrendered himself to the authorities (having kept out of the way for a few days to avoid trial at a commission then sitting), and was committed to Newgate. On 19th August he was tried for treason- felony before the Commission Court sitting in Dublin, and a verdict of guilty having been returned, he was sentenced to ten years' transportation. Next year he was sent in the ship Elphinstone, in company with Kevin I. O'Doherty, to Tasmania, where they arrived in November 1849. During his exile, in common with the other Irish political prisoners, Mr. Martin enjoyed comparative freedom in the district assigned to him. In 1854, together with W. Smith O'Brien and Kevin I. O'Doherty, he was pardoned, on condition of not visiting the United Kingdom, whereupon he returned to Europe by the overland route, and settled in Paris in October. Two years afterwards his pardon was made unconditional, and he paid a short visit to his friends in Ireland. He had made no effort to secure these pardons, and in accepting them placed himself under no restraint as to his future action. His sister- in-law died in 1858, and the illness of his brother induced him to return to Ireland to tend him in his dying moments, and to assume the guardianship of his children and the care of his business at Kilbroney, Rostrevor. These duties he performed with scrupulous fidelity, and in their discharge, and in communion with nature in the romantic neighbourhood of Rostrevor, he found the best support against the anguish he endured at the failure of his hopes for Ireland, and the faithlessness of many of his old friends. In January 1864, with The O'Donohoe and some others, he established The National League," having for its object the securing of the legislative independence of Ireland. It had a short existence, chiefly owing to the active opposition of the Fenian party, then rising into power. On Sunday, 8th December 1867, Mr. Martin took a prominent part in the funeral procession in Dublin in honour of Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien, who had been executed at Manchester a few days previously. For this he was prosecuted by Government, and defending himself in a speech of singular ability and moderation, was acquitted. Mr. Martin gave in his hearty adhesion to the principles of the Home Government Association, established in May 1870, to agitate for a federal arrangement between Great Britain and Ireland. Late in the same year he was, without cost to himself, elected member of Parliament for Meath. When applied to by the editor of Debrett's Heraldic and Biographical House of Commons for his arms, he wrote: "I carry no arms: this is a proclaimed district." He was re-elected by an overwhelming majority at the general election in 1874. Attendance at the House of Commons was very irksome to him: yet when he spoke it was with feeling and impressiveness, and he won general respect. His greatest parliamentary effort was perhaps a speech delivered during the discussion of a Coercion Act, 26th May 1871, in reply to Mr. Gladstone, who taunted him with being "the servant of the evil traditions of his country," and said the Ministry were "not afraid to compete with him for the future confidence of Ireland." At the Home Rule Conference of 1873 in Dublin, he unreservedly accepted the programme then adopted. For a time he was induced to occupy the post of Secretary to the Home Rule League - drawing, however, only half the salary agreed upon, although his means had been much straitened by his unceasing sacrifices for Ireland. Shortly before his death he resigned the paid secretaryship, and accepted an honorary one, finding it impossible, on any terms, to receive money for patriotic services. The death of his friend and brother-in-law, John Mitchel, in March 1875, was severe blow to him. Within one week thereafter he succumbed to an old complaint, spasmodic asthma, on the 29th March 1875, aged 62, and was buried in Loughorne churchyard, close by the homestead where he was born. Few men have been more revered both in public and private life. He was lovingly known in Ireland as "Honest John Martin." His knowledge of languages was extensive, and his literary tastes were refined.
Martin, Mary Laetitia Bell, an authoress, daughter of Thomas B. Martin, of Ballinahinch Castle, County of Galway (who died in 1847), was born early in the present century. An heiress to landed property in the county, worth some £5,000 per annum, she married Arthur G. Bell, who took her name. She was a writer of no mean ability, and contributed largely to the Encyclopedie des Gens du Monde and other French periodicals, besides writing some novels, of which St. Etienne, a Tale of the Vendean War, and Julia Howard may be mentioned. The failure of the potato crop and the famine and pestilence of 1845-'7 caused the financial ruin of herself and her husband. "Her projects for the improvement of the wild district over which she had reigned as a sort of native sovereign were at an end, and she went forth from the roof of her fathers a wanderer, without a home, and, as it would appear, almost without a friend." She died in a hotel in New York, 30th October 1850, ten days after her arrival in America, having suffered much from fever, the consequence of a premature confinement during her passage on board a sailing vessel.
Massey, Eyre, Lord Clarina, was born in Ireland, 24th May 1719. He entered the army at an early age, and was wounded at Culloden in 1745. At the head of the storming party that took Moro Castle, Havannah, he was again wounded, as also at the capture of Martinique. He fought under Wolfe at Quebec, and captured Fort Oswegachie, in August 1760. During the American Revolutionary War he was a Brigadier-General in command at Halifax. He was Colonel of the 27th Regiment, Governor of Limerick, and of Kilmainham Hospital, and was created an Irish peer, 27th December 1800. He died at Bath, 17th May 1804, aged 84, being one of the last survivors of those who served under Wolfe.
Massue, Henry de, Marquis de Ruvigny, Earl of Galway, a distinguished general (son of the first Marquis de Ruvigny, a General in the French army and Councillor-of-State), was born in France in 1648, and left the country with his father on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and settled at Greenwich. When news reached him of the death of his only brother, De la Caillemotte, and of his friend Marshal Schomberg at the battle of the Boyne in 1690, he offered his services to William III., was appointed Major-General, and Colonel of Schomberg's Regiment of Huguenot Horse, and joined De Ginkell at Athlone. His regiment lost 144 men in the capture of the town. "After the battle," says De Bosanquet, "Ginkell came up and embraced De Ruvigny, declaring how much he was pleased with his bravery and his conduct;" and the King raised him to the Irish peerage, as Earl of Galway. After serving William III. upon the Continent, he was appointed one of the Lords-Justices of Ireland; and, says Mr. Smiles, "during the time that he held office, devoted himself to the establishment of the linen trade, the improvement of agriculture, and the reparation of the losses and devastations from which the country had suffered during the civil wars." The King conferred upon him an estate in the Queen's County, on which he founded the colony of Portarlington, where he induced a large number of the best class of Huguenot refugees to settle. He liberally assisted them out of his private means, erected more than one hundred dwellings of a superior kind, built and endowed a French and an English Church, and established two excellent schools for the education of their children. "Thus," says Mr. Smiles, "the little town of Portarlington shortly became a centre of polite learning, from which emanated some of the most distinguished men in Ireland, while the gentle and industrious life of the colonists exhibited an example of patient labour, neatness, thrift, and orderliness, which exercised a considerable influence on the surrounding population." The appropriation of the Portarlington estate was, however, objected to by the English Parliament, and a Bill was passed annulling that and all grants of a like kind made by the King. The property was eventually made over to the Hollow Sword-Blade Company, along with many large estates throughout the country, and in 1701 Lord Galway returned to England. Fortunately the leases he had given to the Huguenot exiles were not interfered with; and he ever continued to take a deep interest in the colony he had established. The rest of his life was passed in active military service on the Continent, and for the last few years in retirement at Rookley, near Southampton. He died 3rd September 1720, aged 72, and was buried in Micheldever churchyard. Samuel Smiles's Huguenots, their Settlements, Churches, and Industries in England and Ireland, is full of interesting particulars concerning the French settlers in Ireland.
Mathew, Theobald, D.D., temperance reformer, was born at Thomastown, in the County of Kilkenny, 10th October 1790. His family were connexions of the Baron of Landaff, and at Thomastown House, the seat of that nobleman, much of the lad's early life was passed. He was of a sweet and engaging disposition, incapable of anger or resentment, free from selfishness, always anxious to share with others whatever he possessed, and jealous of the affections of those to whom he was particularly attached. Having passed through the usual preliminary course of studies for Maynooth College, he was sent thither in September 1807; but left it within a short time to avoid expulsion for some trifling breach of discipline, and placed himself under the spiritual care of Rev. Celestine Corcoran, Dublin. In 1814 he was ordained by Archbishop Murray, and admitted a member of the Capuchin Order. For more than twenty years he devoted himself untiringly to the duties of his order, principally in Cork, without any thought of the more comprehensive mission that lay before him. Mr. Maguire, his biographer, thus speaks of his ministrations between 1820 and 1830, at a little priory in Cork, of which he and a colleague, Father Donovan, were the principal occupants: "Father Mathew was not a man of shining abilities, nor was he a profound or severely-trained scholar. Neither had he fashioned his style upon the best models, or improved his taste by a thorough acquaintance with those authors whose works are the classics of English literature. He certainly was not then an accomplished pulpit orator, if at any period of his life he could lay claim to that distinction; and in the earlier years of his ministry he was frequently guilty of errors of taste and violations of those rules laid down by rhetoricians of ancient and modern schools... What was the charm that held spell-bound the close- packed hundreds beneath the pulpit, that riveted the attention of the crowded galleries, and moved the inmost hearts even of those who had come to criticise? The earnestness of the preacher-... the earnestness of the truth, of sincerity, of belief. Father Mathew practised what he preached, and believed what he so persuasively and urgently enforced." His striking personal appearance is thus described: "A finely-formed, middle- sized person, of exquisite symmetry; the head of admirable contour, and from which a finished model of the antique could be cast; the countenance intelligent, animated, and benevolent; its complexion rather sallow, inclining to paleness; eyes of dark lustre, beaming with internal peace, and rich in concentrated sensibility, rather than speaking or kindling with a super abundant fire; the line of his mouth harmonizing so completely with his nose and chin, is of peculiar grace; the brow open, pale, broad, and polished, bears upon it the impress not merely of dignified thought, but of nobility itself." Endowed with such capacities of mind and body, and divested of sectarian bitterness, it is not surprising that he exercised a considerable influence not only over his co-religionists, but over persons of all persuasions in the south of Ireland. Through his exertions, a new cemetery was opened at Cork, and he established several literary institutions and industrial schools. He was fearless and untiring in the cholera epidemic of 1832. During all these years his ministrations were mostly amongst the poor, and he saw more clearly day by day that most of the miseries of their lot arose from drink. Already considerable efforts had been made in Ireland by different associations in the direction of temperance, or abstinence from the use of spirits of all kinds. About 1830, however, a new movement was inaugurated - that of teetotalism, or total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors. The apostles of this reform in the south of Ireland were Rev. Nicholas Dunscombe, a Church clergyman; Richard Dowden, a Unitarian gentleman; and William Martin, or "Billy Martin," as he was familiarly called, a member of the Society of Friends. Of these, perhaps William Martin most closely identified himself with the cause, and through his influence, Father Mathew, in April 1838, was induced to sign the total abstinence pledge at a public meeting in Cork, and to promise to the movement all the aid in his power. His brother and many of his intimate friends were brewers or distillers, so that this decided step showed great depth of conviction and determination. The influence that Father Mathew - a popular Catholic clergyman - exercised by thus throwing himself into the temperance cause can scarcely be over-estimated. Thousands flocked to hear him, and take a pledge to abstain from all intoxicating liquors; and the immediate benefit to those who abstained appeared so great that it was thought by many, forgetting the weakness of human nature, that the habits of a people were about to be permanently changed through his means. Father Mathew extended his temperance crusade from Cork to the most remote parts of Ireland, and wherever he went addressed and gave the pledge to enormous multitudes of people. The face of Irish society was almost revolutionized; public-houses and distilleries were closed in many places, temperance halls were opened, and temperance musical bands organized. It was estimated that at one time the pledged abstainers in Ireland numbered some millions. Comparing the years 1839 and 1842, the annual consumption of spirits in Ireland fell from 12,296,000 to 6,485,443 gallons; the duty from £1,434,573 to,£861,725; and the number of persons committed to jail from 12,049 to 9875 - Dr. Channing said: "History records no revolution like this; it is the grand event of the present day." After a few years Father Mathew extended his ministrations beyond Ireland, and was warmly received in different parts of England and Scotland, where some 600,000 took the pledge from him. An observer, writing on his mission there, says: "The secret of his success consists chiefly in the fact that he has wholly abstained from doing what his opponents have accused him of. He has avoided making his labours subservient either to religious or political objects; but it is by this singleness of purpose - this determination to make temperance his chief and only object - that he has been able to achieve so much for the cause he has undertaken." He gave away much in charity, and subscribed largely for eccleiastical purposes, contributed to the support of temperance bands, and spent much money in the gratuitous distribution of thousands of medals; and although he travelled free in Ireland, through the courtesy of the coach proprietors, and received large sums for the furtherance of his mission, he was soon immersed in pecuniary difficulties. In 1844 he became so involved that he was for a short time incarcerated for debts, none of which were incurred for personal expenditure. Father Mathew was untiring in his exertions during the famine years of 1845-'6-'7. In 1847, on the death of Dr. Murphy, his name was sent forward to Rome by the Archbishop of his province and his suffragans as "dignissimus," on a list of candidates for the appointment of Catholic Bishop of Cork; and confirmation in the office was regarded by himself and others as certain. His was not the name selected. While bowing to the unexpected Papal decision, he felt the blow acutely - a blow lightened, however, by the reverence and love of the public, which thereafter assumed a character at once deeper, more affectionate, and more sympathetic than ever. The same year, mainly through the exertions of S. C. Hall, he was granted a Civil List pension of £300 by Lord John Russell, a sum which, though ample in itself, is understood to have been little more than sufficient to keep up the payments on policies of assurance on his life for the benefit of his creditors. After rigorous fasting in the Lent of 1848, he was attacked with paralysis of a very alarming character. His mind, fortunately, was not affected, the weakness in his limbs soon diminished, and the entreaties of friends and physicians were unable to prevent him from resuming his arduous labours in the temperance cause. More than two years, from the summer of 1849 to December 1851, were passed in a mission to the United States. He was received with great respect in the twenty-five States in which he travelled. He was honoured with a formal reception by the Senate, and was entertained by the President. His abstinence from all expression of opinion regarding the horrors of American slavery greatly disappointed his anti slavery friends. There can be little doubt that the fatigues endured in this journey gave the finishing stroke to a frame already enfeebled by anxiety and disease. Yet to the warnings of physicians who recommended absolute rest, as necessary to preserve his life, he replied: "Never will I desert my post in the middle of the battle - it cannot be sacrificed in a better cause. If I am to die, I will die in harness." In February 1852, he was stricken with apoplexy; yet he recovered sufficiently to pass some months in Madeira, and on his return to his home - his brother's house at Lehenagh - resumed his old routine. "Day by day he became more feeble and helpless; still he would totter down the steps, and limp along the avenue, to meet a poor drunkard half-way, or to anticipate the arrival of a friend whom he had recognized from the window or the door. Sweetness, humility, and holiness marked every hour of his declining days." His last years were passed at Queenstown -a white-haired, venerable old man, slowly creeping along sunny places - his tottering steps assisted by a lad, on whose shoulder one hand of the invalid rested for support - softening of the brain sadly and darkly settling down upon him. He was often absorbed in prayer before the altar two hours of each day. He passed away, 8th December 1856, aged 66, in the forty-second year of his ministry, and was buried in the cemetery he was instrumental in establishing at Cork. Reference must not be omitted to Father Mathew's influence in curing or allaying diseases. Dr. Barter, the distinguished hydropathic physician, says: "I often witnessed great relief afforded by him to people suffering from various affections, and in some cases I was satisfied that permanent good was effected by his administration. Such satisfactory results, on so large a scale too, made him the more earnest in his purpose, and gave the recipient unbounded faith in his power; and the result from such a favourable combination of circumstances, could not be otherwise than beneficial to the public. Father Mathew possessed in a large degree the power of animal magnetism, and believe that the paralytic affection from which he suffered, and which brought his valuable life to an untimely end, was produced by an undue expenditure of this power." His biographer, Mr. Maguire, thus summarizes the benefits that have accrued to Ireland mainly from Father Mathew's mission: "Formerly, drunkenness was regarded rather as a fault for which there were numerous excuses and palliations; now, drunkenness is looked upon as a degrading vice, and the drunkard finds no universal absolution from the judgment of society. Whatever opinion may be held as to the necessity of total abstinence, or the wisdom of moderation, there is but one opinion as to excess - that is one of just and general condemnation. Formerly, there was not a circumstance in one's life, or an event in one's family, or in the family of one's friend or acquaintance, that was not a legitimate excuse for a poor fellow `having forgotten himself', or `being overtaken by liquor;' but a sterner verdict, which evidences a higher tone of public wisdom and morality, is another of the results of Father Mathew's teaching." A fine statue of Father Mathew was erected in Cork shortly after his decease.
Maturin, Charles Robert, Rev., author, was born in Dublin in 1782. [His ancestor, Gabriel Maturin, a Huguenot refugee, arrived in Ireland a cripple, after twenty-six years' confinement in the Bastile. His son Peter became Dean of Killala, and his grandson Dean of St. Patrick's: from the latter descended Rev. C. Maturin, Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin; and Rev. C. R. Maturin, the subject of this notice.] He distinguished himself at school and college, married before he took his degree, and having entered the Church, obtained the curacy of Loughrea, which he afterwards exchanged for that of St. Peter's in Dublin. To increase his narrow income of about £85, he prepared scholars for college, and under the name of "Dennis Jasper Murphy," published some works of fiction. For his Milesian Chief he received £80 from Colburn. In 1816 he met an unexpected success in the reception of his tragedy of Bertram, at Drury-lane-a tragedy praised by Scott and Byron, who took much interest in having it brought forward. His profits on this occasion were more than £ 1,000, and he was induced to throw off the disguise of authorship. In 1815 he obtained a prize for a poem on the Battle of Waterloo. His next play, Manuel, brought out in 1817, was a failure, and having launched into expenses on prospects that were never realized, the remainder of his life was a severe struggle for subsistence. He wrote several other novels and poems, besides a volume of controversial sermons. He died of a lingering disease, at his house in York-street, Dublin, 30th October 1824, aged about 42. A writer in the University Magazine says: "He was eccentric in his habits almost to insanity, and compounded of opposites - an insatiable reader of novels; an elegant preacher; an incessant dancer (which propensity he carried to such an extent, that he darkened his drawing-room windows, and indulged during the day time); a coxcomb in dress and manners; an extensive reader... Among other peculiarities, he was accustomed to paste a wafer on his forehead whenever he felt the estro of composition coming on him, as a warning to the members of the family, that if they entered his study they were not to interrupt his ideas by questions or conversations." Talfourd styles his Fatal Revenge "one of the wildest and strangest of all false creations proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain. It is for the most part a tissue of magnificent yet appalling horrors." Sir Walter Scott speaks of Bertram as "grand and powerful, the language most animated and poetical, and the characters sketched with a masterly enthusiasm;" while Allan Cunningham says it contains "incoherent language, improbable incidents, and distracted vehemence." Byron styles his Manuel "the absurd work of a clever man." Blackwood calls his romance of The Albigenses, published in 1824, four volumes of vigour, extravagance, absurdity, and splendour. .. This last work is also his best."
Maxwell, Hugh, a distinguished officer in the United States revolutionary army, was born in Ireland, 27th April 1733. His father shortly afterwards emigrated to New England. Hugh served five campaigns in the old French war; and on one occasion was taken prisoner at Fort Edward, barely escaping with his life. At Bunker's Hill, where he acted as Lieutenant, he was wounded; he was Major in Bailey's regiment, July 1777, and at the battle of Saratoga, and was Lieutenant- Colonel at the close of the war. He died at sea, on a return voyage from the West Indies, 14th October 1799, aged 66. His brother, Thompson Maxwell, born at Bedford, Massachusetts, was also a distinguished revolutionary soldier.
Maxwell, William Hamilton, Rev., a voluminous writer, was born at Newry, in 1794. He graduated with distinction at Trinity College. His wish to enter the army was opposed by his family, especially by an aunt, who promised to leave him her fortune if he chose some other career. Whilst yielding to the wishes of his friends, he yearned for excitement, and proceeding to the Peninsula, travelled in the track of Wellington's victorious troops, picking up information upon military matters, and encountering adventures with the narration of which he delighted his readers in after life. On his return home he anticipated his future income by confirming leases granted by his father as tenant for life; and spent his time in hunting and shooting, and reading military history, poetry, and romance. On the death of his aunt it was found that her will was informally executed, and the property for which he had sacrificed his military tastes, went to another. His design of going to South America was frustrated by the death of a friend upon whom he had relied for advancement in that country; whereupon he turned to the Church as his career, and having taken orders and married, was in 1819 collated to the rectory of Balla, in Connemara. There he occupied his leisure time in authorship. His Stories of Waterloo (1829) and Wild Sports of the West (1833) were received with favour by the public, and between 1829 and 1848, a series of works (numbered up to twenty by Allibone) flowed from his pen. Most of them, whether truth or fiction, deal with military matters. His Life of Wellington (3 vols. 1839-'4i1 was declared at the time of its publication to have "no rival among similar publications of the day." Maxwell is thus spoken of in the University Magazine: "If a brilliant fancy, a warm imagination, deep knowledge of the world, consummate insight into character, constitute a high order of intellectual gift, then he is no common man. Uniting with the sparkling wit of his native country the caustic humours and dry sarcasms of the Scotch, with whom he is connected with the strong ties of kindred, yet his pre-eminent characteristic is that sunshiny temperament which sparkles through every page of his writings." His History of the Rebellion in Ireland in 1798, illustrated by Cruikshank, and published in 1845, meant probably as a corrective to Madden's Lives of the United Irishmen, is a solid contribution to the history of the period of the Insurrection and Union. He was a frequent contributor to Bentley's Miscellany and the University Magazine. Cotton, who states that he was deprived of his living for non-residence in 1844, is probably mistaken in saying he was once a captain in the army. Notwithstanding his popularity and success, he never made provision for the future; and after the failure of his health and the exhaustion of his spirits, he is said to have passed his days in penury. He died at Musselburgh, near Edinburgh, 29th December 1850, aged 55.
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