He reported, from memory, some of the major speeches in parliament during Lord North's administration, in particular from those delivered in the debates on the American War of Independence.
[5] On the evening of 8 August 1804, during the Brentford election, Macfarlan was killed by an accidental fall under a carriage, at Hammersmith.
[2] Marfarlan was engaged by Thomas Evans the publisher, of Paternoster Row, to write a History of the Reign of George III, the first volume of which was issued in 1770.
Reconciled to Evans, Macfarlan wrote in 1796 a fourth volume, which was severely handled by the critics.
It had two dissertations prefixed to it: one on the supposed identity of the Getae and Scythians and the Goths and Scots; and the other vindicating the character of Buchanan as an historian.
[2] The antiquarian material bore on the current debate with Malcolm Laing and John Pinkerton, on the validity of Ossian, Celticism and Gothicism.