During Charles Dickens’s brief editorship of the London _Daily News_, a number of verses by Mackay were published in that newspaper, and attracted much notice and praise. They were subsequently republished in a volume as “Voices from the Crowd.” A selection of these verses was set to music, and quickly caught the ear of the people, “The Good Time Coming” reaching a circulation of well-nigh half a million.
In 1848 Mr. Mackay became a member of the staff of _The Illustrated London News_, and in 1852 was appointed editor of that journal. Here, through the enterprise of Mr. Ingram, the song-writing capacities of Mr. Mackay were put to good use, and a number of musical supplements of _The Illustrated London News_ were produced. “Songs for Music” afterwards appeared as a volume in 1856. The pieces included such prime favorites as “Cheer, Boys, Cheer!” “To the West! To the West!” “Tubal Cain,” “There’s a Land, a dear Land,” and “England over All.” Set to the taking melodies of Henry Russell and others, these songs, it may truly be said, have been sung the world over, wherever the English language is spoken.
Mackay severed his connection with _The Illustrated London News_ in 1859, and in the following year started _The London Review_, which did not succeed. Failure was the fate, too, of another periodical, _Robin Goodfellow_, founded by him in 1861. During the American Civil War, Mackay was the special correspondent of the New York _Times_. Dr. Mackay’s efforts in prose were as numerous and as interesting as his verses. His “Forty Years’ Recollections of Life, Literature, and Public Affairs from 1830 to 1870,” is a classic and a literary treat to every one who reads it; for herein is set forth a graphic picture of the life and times of that most interesting period, not only in England, but in the United States. His relations with Greeley and with President Lincoln were of altogether exceptional interest. Few men had experiences so varied and interesting as those of Charles Mackay--his degree, by the way, was that of LL. D. of Glasgow University--and few men were so capable as was he of vividly describing what he did, and saw, and heard.
In addition to writing many volumes of songs and ballads himself, it should be mentioned that Mackay compiled the well-known “A Thousand and One Gems of English Poetry.”