Men of the time : a dictionary of contemporaries, containing biographical notices of eminent characters of both sexes. / revised by Thompson Cooper.

Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Men of the time : a dictionary of contemporaries, containing biographical notices of eminent characters of both sexes. / revised by Thompson Cooper. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    675/1090 (page 661)
    MACDONALD—MCDONALD. 1809, educated at the comity gram- mar-school, and admitted to the bar •of the province in 1835 ; removed to Halifax in 1849, and was appointed Q.C. and Solicitor-General in 1860. He was long connected with the public press of his native province, and served as a delegate at Quebec in 1861 and 1862, on the subject of the union of the provinces and the Inter-colonial Railway, being the Chief Commissioner of railways for Nova Scotia. In 1864 he was one of the delegates to Charlotte Town, Prince Edward’s Island, for securing the union of the maritime provinces, and to Canada, to assist in preparing the Quebec scheme, and in 1866 to London, for carrying out the con- federation of the British provinces in North America, of which he had .always been an ardent supporter. He is a Liberal, and formerly led the ■Opposition in the Upper House. In 1870 he was appointed a puisne judge •of the Suprene Court of the province of Nova Scotia. MACDONALD, George, poet and novelist, was bom at Huntly, Aber- deenshire, in 1824, and was educated at the parish school there, and at King’s College and University, Aber- deen. After taking his degree he •became a student for the ministry at the Independent College, Highbury, London, and was for a short time an Independent minister, but soon re- tired, became a lay member of the Church of England, and settled hi London to pursue a literary career. His first work was “Within and Without, a Dramatic Poem,” 1856 ; followed by “ Poems,” 1857 ; “ Phan- tastes, a Faerie Romance,” 1858 ; “ David Elginbrod,” 1862 ; “ Adela Cathcart,” 1864 ; “ The Portent, a Story of Second Sight,” 1864 ; “ Alec Forbes of Howglen,” 1865 ; “ Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood,” 1866; “ Guild Court,” 1867 ; “ The Disciple and other Poems,” 1868 ; “The Sea- board Parish,” 1868 ; “ Robert Fal- coner,” 1868; “Wilfrid Cumber- mede,” 1871; “The Vicar’s Daugh- ter ; ” « Malcolm,” 1874 ; “ St. George and St. Michael,” 1875 ; “ Thomas Wingfield, Curate,” 1876 ; “ The Mar- quis of Lossie,” 1877. Besides these Mr. MacDonald has written books for the young : “ Dealings with the Fairies,” 1867 ; “ Ranald Bannerman’s Boyhood,” 1869 ; “ The Princess and the Goblin,” 1871; “At the Back of the North Wind,” 1870; and others. He is also the author of “ Unspoken Sermons,” 1866 ; and a treatise on the “ Miracles of our Lord,” 1870. In 1877 he received a Civil List pension of £100, in con- sideration of his contributions to literature. MCDONALD, Sir John Alex- ander, K.C.B., D.C.L. (Oxon),LL.D., a Canadian statesman, bom in 1815, educated at the Royal Grammar- school, Kingston, and admitted to the bar in 1835 ; was elected to Par- liament for Kingston, U.C., as a Conservative, in Nov., 1844, and still represents that city. He was ap- pointed a member of the Executive Council, and Receiver-General in May, and Commissioner of Crown Lands in Dec., 1847. The cabinet of which he was a member resigned in March, 1850, and the reformers, under the lead of Messrs. Lafontaine, Baldwin, and Hincks, held the reins of power in Canada until Sept., 1854. Difficulties connected with the lands reserved for a Protestant clergy, and other questions, led to a coalition in 1854, Mr. McDonald joining the Government as Attorney-General, which post he held until May, 1862, being a part of the time premier. In Jan., 1862, the militia department was ro-organised, and Mr. McDonald appointed Minister of Militia. De- feated on their Militia Bill of that year, he and his colleagues resigned, and remained in opposition until May, 1864, when he again acceded to office as Attorney-General in the cabinet of Sir E. P. Tache. But the Government was unable to command a sufficient majority, and the pro- position to federalize British Ame- rica having been reported by a com- mittee of the Legislative Assembly, a