1831.] 



Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Persons. 



231 



is now the only survivor. Their scheme was 

 speedily carried into effect ; and the papers, 

 under the title of The Mirror, of which 

 Mr. Mackenzie was the editor, were pub- 

 lished in weekly numbers, at the price of 

 threepence per folio-sheet. The sale never 

 reached beyond three or four hundred in 

 single papers; but the succession of the 

 numbers was no sooner closed, than the 

 whole, with the names of the respective 

 authors, were republishedin three duodecimo 

 volumes. The writers sold the copy -right ; 

 out of the produce of which they presented 

 a donation of 100 to the Orphan Hos- 

 pital, and purchased a hogshead of Claret 

 for the use of the Club. 



To The Mirror succeeded The Lawyer, 

 a periodical of a similar character, and 

 equally successful. Mr. Mackenzie was 

 the chief and most valuable contributor to 

 each of these works. 



On the institution of the Royal Society 

 of Edinburgh, Mr. Mackenzie became one 

 of its members ; and, amongst the papers 

 with which he enriched the volumes of its 

 transactions, are, an elegant tribute to the 

 memory of his friend Judge Abercrombie, 

 and a Memoir on German Tragedy; the 

 latter of which bestows high praise on the 

 Emilia Galotti of Lessing, and on The 

 Robbers, by Schiller. For this memoir he 

 had procured the materials through the me- 

 dium of a French work ; but desiring 

 afterwards to enjoy the native beauties of 

 German poetry, he took lessons in German 

 from a Dr. Okely, who was at that time 

 studying medicine at Edinburgh. The 

 fruits of his attention to German literature 

 appeared farther in the year 1791? in a 

 small volume containing translations of the 

 Set of Horses, by Lessing, and of two or 

 three other dramatic pieces. 



In 1 793, Mr. Mackenzie edited a quarto 

 volume of Poems by the late Rev. Dr. 

 Thomas Blackloclc, together with An Essay 

 on the Education of the Blind, Qc. In 

 political literature, he was the author of a 

 Revietv of the Proceedings of the Parlia- 

 ment, which met first in the year ] 784, and 

 of a series of Letters under the signature 

 of Brutus. In all those exertions which, 

 during the war of the French revolution, 

 were found necessary to support the govern- 

 ment and preserve the peace of the county, 

 no person was more honourably or more use- 

 fully zealous. 



Mr. Mackenzie was remarkably fond of 

 the rural diversions of fowling, hunting, and 

 fishing. In private life, his conversation 

 was ever the charm and the pride of so- 

 ciety. He died at Edinburgh, his constant 

 residence, on the 14th of January, 1831. 



THE PRINCE DE CONDE. 



The Due de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, 

 and father of the Due D'Enghien, who was 

 executed 'more correctly speaking, mur- 

 dered at Vincenncs, by the command of 

 Buonaparte, in March 1804, was found 



dead in his chamber, at the chateau of St. 

 Leu, on the 27th of August, under circum- 

 stances which leave it doubtful whether he 

 had died by his own hand, or that of an 

 assassin. The weight of evidence, how- 

 ever, strange as it may seem that he should 

 have committed suicide, is much in favour 

 of the former opinion. 



This unfortunate Prince was born, we 

 believe, in the year 1756. He married an 

 aunt of Louis Philippe, the present King 

 of the French, who died suddenly in the 

 month of January 1822. Many years 

 since, he became attached to a handsome 

 young Englishwoman, a Miss Sophia 

 Dawes ; and, although she was afterwards 

 married to Colonel Baron de Feucheres, who 

 commanded a regiment in the late expedi- 

 tion against Algiers, the attachment between 

 her and the Prince is believed to have never 

 undergone a change. However, she and 

 her husband separated. A niece of Ma- 

 dame de Feucheres is married, by the 

 sanction of Charles X., to the Marquis de 

 Chabonnes; and, by this marriage (the 

 Marquis's next brother, the Count de Cha- 

 bonnes, having married Miss Ellis) Ma- 

 dame Feucheres is connected with the noble 

 families of Bristol, Liverpool, Seaford, and 

 Howard de Walden, in England ; and with 

 the Talleyrands and other distinguished fa- 

 milies in France. 



The death of the Due d'Enghien had so 

 violent and enduring an effect on the Prince 

 his father, that, having no descendant left 

 to inherit his estates and honours, he uni- 

 formly refused to assume the title of Prince 

 de Conde, choosing to be addressed only as 

 the Due de Bourbon. For many years his 

 chief amusement and employment had been 

 hunting ; but after the departure of Charles 

 X. from Paris, he, in deference to public 

 opinion, determined to relinquish hunting 

 the boar, and to reduce his vast equipage de 

 chasse. His habits were simple, and he 

 was in perfect health the very day before his 

 death. It is understood that he contem- 

 plated the events of " the three days" with 

 much satisfaction ; and it has been asserted 

 that, on the evening previously to his de- 

 cease, he addressed a most affectionate letter 

 to the present King of the French. 



Under such circumstances, it is astonish- 

 ing that he should have meditated suicide. 

 However, on the morning of August 27, he 

 was found dead, suspended by two handker- 

 chiefs from the window-bolt of his chamber. 

 The room had no private doors : its window 

 and its only door were securely fastened 

 within-side. It was necessary to employ 

 force to obtain entrance; and when the 

 Attorney-General of the Royal Tribunal 

 attended to investigate the circumstances of 

 the case, there was no appearance in the 

 apartment to sanction the belief that the 

 unfortunate Prince had died otherwise than 

 by his own hand. It is probable, therefore, 

 that the reports of an opposite character 

 since put into circulation, must have origi- 



