Versailles hastened to Paris, and remained there from the beginning to the end of the Commune, describing the events of the period in graphic letters. He was the only correspondent in the city, and established an intimacy with Dombrovsky and other communist leaders that was the cause of his arrest by the National troops, from whose custody he was delivered through the intercession of the U. S. minister, Elihu B. Washburne. His published conversations with Leon Gambetta, Archbishop Dupanloup, and others introduced into Europe the practice of newspaper interviewing. After the Commune he visited Bucharest, Odessa, and then Yalta, where he formed many friendships with members of the czar's household and officers of the guards. Accompanying the court to St. Petersburg, he was appointed regular correspondent of the "Herald" in that capital, and through his exceptional social relations with high officials was able to obtain interesting political news. He accompanied Gen. William T. Sherman to the Caucasus in 1872, then reported the proceedings of the " Alabama " conference in Geneva, gathered news in London, Paris, Lyons, and other places, and after marrying, in January, 1873, a Russian lady whose acquaintance he had first made at Yalta, was unexpectedly ordered to join the expedition against Khiva. After vainly seeking permission for the journey from the Russian government, he set out alone on his adventurous trip, riding unhindered through the desert, and overtaking the Russian column before Khiva just as the bombardment began. While he was there a close intimacy sprang up between him and Col. Skobeleff.
On his return to Europe he published his "Campaigning on the Oxus, and the Fall of Khiva" (London, 1874), which has passed through many editions. In July, 1874, he went to the Pyrenees to report the Carlist war, and remained with Don Carlos for the next ten months, acquiring in a short time a perfect command of the Spanish tongue. During the campaign he lived in the saddle and was frequently under fire. In his letters to the "' Herald " he tried to gain for the Carlists the sympathies of the civilized world. In June, 1875, he sailed from Southampton on the "Pandora" for the Polar seas. This voyage he described in newspaper letters, and in a volume entitled "Under the Northern Lights" (London, 1876). In June, 1876, he received a special commission from the editor of the London " Daily News " to investigate the truth of despatches describing Turkish barbarities in Bulgaria, which had been called in question by the premier, Benjamin Disraeli, in the House of commons. Accompanied by Eugene Schuyler, who had been commissioned by the U. S. government to prosecute a similar inquiry, MacGahan went over the desolated districts, questioned the people in Russian, of which language he had gained a limited knowledge, and presented in brilliant descriptive style a mass of detailed evidence of the reality of the Bulgarian horrors that enlisted on behalf of the Christians of Turkey the sympathies of the British public, and removed the hindrances to the armed intervention of Russia. His letters were reprinted in a pamphlet entitled "Turkish Atrocities in Bulgaria" (London, 1876). In the following winter he reported the conference of the ambassadors in Constantinople, then went to St. Petersburg to watch the war preparations. Notwithstanding a painful accident, he accompanied the Russian army, was present at the first battle with the Turks, and witnessed the passage of the advanced guard over the Danube. Though crippled by a broken leg and bruised in the fall of an ammunition-cart, he accompanied Gen. Gourko's column, and was with Gen. Skobeleff at the front, where he often went without food, and four times lay ill in the trenches with malarial fever. His letters described the course of operations and vividly pictured the scenes of battle from the fight at Shipka Pass to the fall of Plevna. While the negotiations of San Stefano were proceeding he remained at Pera during an epidemic of spotted typhus, and at last fell a victim to the disease. MacGahan combined in a remarkable degree descriptive powers and facility of composition, acute military and political perceptions, and physical energy and decisiveness in action. His fearlessness in exposing himself to fire enabled him to describe battles with great fidelity. He had planned a work on the eastern question, but left it in no form for publication.
McGARVEY, John William, theologian, b. in Hopkinsville, Ky., 1 March, 1829. He was graduated at Bethany college, Va., in 1850, became a minister of the Christian denomination, and preached at Fayette, Mo., in 1851-'3, then at Dover, Mo., till 1862, and from 1862 till 1881 at Lexington, Ky. Since 1865 he has been professor of sacred history in the College of the Bible, Kentucky university. From 1869 till 1876 he edited the "Apostolic Times." He is the author of a "Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles" (Cincinnati, 1863); "Commentary on the Gospels of Matthew and Mark" (1876); "Lands of the Bible" (Philadelphia, 1880); and "The Text and the Canon," consisting of the first two parts of a work on the evidences of Christianity (Cincinnati, 1886).
McGEE, Thomas D'Arcy, statesman, b. in Carlingford, Ireland, 13 April, 1825; d. in Ottawa, Canada, 7 April, 1868. He was educated at Wexford, where his father was employed in the custom-house, emigrated to this country in 1842, and settled in Boston, where he wrote for the “Pilot,” a Roman Catholic newspaper, and soon became its editor. On his return to Ireland soon afterward he became parliamentary correspondent of the Dublin “Freeman's Journal,” and, identifying himself with the Young Ireland party, joined the staff of “The Nation” newspaper. In 1847 he made himself conspicuous by summoning a meeting to the Rotunda, Dublin, his object being to expose the later policy of Daniel O'Connell. Toward the end of 1848, having become compromised by the part he had taken in the Young Ireland movement, he made good his escape to the United States; and in New York he established a newspaper called “The American Celt,” and afterward “The Nation,” advocating the claims of Ireland to independent nationality. During the “Know-Nothing” excitement of 1854-'6 his views underwent a radical change, and he became an ardent royalist. He then removed to Canada, where he was gladly welcomed, established a paper called “The New Era,” and in 1857 was elected to the Canadian parliament as one of the members for Montreal. In 1864 he was made president of the executive council, which office he continued to hold till 1867. He took an active part in the movement that resulted in the confederation of the British North American colonies, framing the draft of the plan of union that was substantially adopted. He was re-elected after the union and sent to the parliament of Ottawa. McGee had rendered himself obnoxious to the members of the Fenian secret society, and on the evening of 7 April, 1868, when returning from a night session of parliament, he was assassinated at the door of his hotel. He was a man of more than ordinary culture, which was fully recognized. At
