508 SCBTCH OF THE PERSONAL CHARACTER OF 



had placed him at the head of the writers of the present age. Every- 

 body became anxious to hear the lectures which were announced with 

 so much elegance, learning, and reverence for truth. The difficulties of 

 the benchers of Lincoln's Inn vanished, and their hall was never more 

 honoured than by the use which they now readily permitted him to make 

 of it. There he delivered a course of lectures to the most learned and 

 polite audience which the metropolis could afford : not students only, 

 who sought instruction as a duty, but peers, ministers of state, members 

 of parliament, eminent judges, the gravest lawyers, and the most 

 distinguished men of letters, crowded to hear and admire him. Here, 

 with little preparation, and, for the most part, without previous compo- 

 sition, he poured out the abundance of his stores in the most perspicuous 

 and elegant diction, with a facility, arid a force of argument and illustra- 

 tion, that could not be surpassed. Maintaining all the principles which 

 induced him to take a liberal view of the theories of government and 

 society, he nevertheless thought it the duty of a teacher of morals and 

 politics to inculcate rules and not exceptions, and to prove that it was 

 not the great business of life to seek out the occasions, and cherish the 

 means of resistance to authority much less to preach up disconteut as 

 a merit, and sedition as a duty. He satisfied his friends, and conciliated 

 his opponents in politics, by aiming his flight above all party questions 

 and temporary topics, and laying the great foundations of society, and 

 government, and law, in the wants and principles of human nature. 

 During this extraordinary display of talent, Mr. Mackintosh maintained 

 as high a reputation as it was possible for a private individual to enjoy. 

 The way was opened to him into every society ; his presence was" esteemed 

 an honour and a charm in every company. But though these lectures 

 added so greatly to his fame, the popularity they gave him, and the 

 habits of life they produced, were not so favourable to his progress at the 

 bar. To descend from knowledge to rudiments is ever an irksome task, 

 and it was not to be expected that one, who possessed so complete a 

 mastery over the great rules and principles of all legal science, should 

 readily condescend to the daily drudgery necessary to the technical parts 

 of practice in the legal profession, and not very consistent with the 

 alluremnts offered by a command of society, and a peculiar facility both 

 of receiving and giving pleasure in it. Nevertheless, it is certain that 

 he might have accomplished whatever his taste had led hm to desire in 

 the profession of the law. He had become too well known not to be well 

 encouraged, and it seemed to depend upon himself what degree of suc- 

 cess he should attain, and in what particular line. He confined his 

 practice chiefly to the business of parliament, as most suitable to his taste 

 and habits, and made rapid advances in that department. During the 

 short peace of Amiens and the administration of Mr. Addington, he was 

 called upon to defend Monsieur Peltier, the editor of a French journal 

 published in London, who was prosecuted by government for a libel 

 upon Buonaparte, then first Consul of France. The defence has ben pub- 

 lished ; considered as a treatise, it is a master-piece of eloquence and 

 reason. Some, however, who most esteemed the author, thought that 

 the manner was too didactic; that the style had borrowed something from 

 the habits of the lecturer, and that it wanted the compression and force that 

 were desirable in forensic performances. Whatever might be its defects 



