MACKINTOSH, SIR JAMES. 



MACKINTOSH, SIR JAMES. 



26 



shooting and fishing, sports to which he was particularly attached, 

 and which he pursued as long as his strength permitted. His old 

 age was healthy, cheerful, and happy : a slight deafness alone indicated 

 the decay of nature. He, who had iu youth breakfasted with Dr. 

 Johnson, aud who had enjoyel the friendship of Blair and Robertson 

 and Adam Smith, lived to see one generation after another, and revo- 

 lution after revolution in the phenomena of literature. He , had 

 married the daughter of Sir Lodovick Grant of Grant : and by this 

 lady he had eleven children, one of whom was long a judge in the 

 Supreme Court of Scotland. Henry Mackenzie died in Edinburgh on 

 the 14th of January 1831, being in the eighty-sixth year of his age. 



MACKINTOSH, SIR JAMES, was born at Aldourie, on the banks 

 of Loch Ness, seven miles from Inverness, Scotland, on the 24th of 

 October 1765. His father. Captain John Mackintosh, was the repre- 

 sentative of a family which had for above two centuries possessed a 

 small estate called Kellachie, which Sir James inherited from him. 

 His mother, originally a Miss Marjory Macgillivray, was connected 

 with several good Scottish families ; and, with her child, resided with 

 her mother and sisters at a small house called Chine, her husband being 

 absent with his regiment at Antigua and Dublin for eight or nine years 

 afterthe Ijirtb of their child. Sir James, in his 'Autobiographical Sketch,' 

 written in India, siys of this period of his life, " The only infant in 

 a family of several women, they rivalled each other in kindness and 

 indulgence towards me, and I think I can at this day discover in my cha- 

 racter many of the effects of this early education." In the house of his 

 grandmother he found the works of the chief writers of Queen Anne's 

 time, and from them acquired a fondness for desultory reading, which 

 became in later years a confirmed habit From the ordinary day- 

 schools of Fortrose he passed in his fifteenth year to college at Aber- 

 deen, where he remained from 1780 to 1784, the vacations being passed 

 in the house of his grandmother. 



At Aberdeen Robert Hall, who was his senior by a year, was his 

 fellow-student, and Mackintosh records " the great influence which 

 Hall's society and conversation had on his mind." They lived in the 

 same house, were constantly together, and led each other into contro- 

 versies on the most abstruse points of theology and metaphysics. 

 By their fellow-students they were regard d as the intellectual leaders 

 of the university, and under their auspices a society was formed in 

 King's College, which was commonly designated " The Hall and Mack- 

 intosh Club." Several of the professors at Aberdeen at this time were 

 men of eminence, but Mackintosh does not appear t > have owed much 

 to their prelections. He finally quitted Aberdeen in the spring of 

 1784, having taken his M.A. degree on the 30th of March. His own 

 inclination was for the bar, but the circumstances of his family seemed 

 to present an insurmountable obstacle, and he eventually proceeded 

 to Edinburgh (October 17o4) to study medicine. There he mingled 

 freely with the intellectual society of the place ; divided his studious 

 hours between medicine, metaphysics, and politics, intermingling with 

 each excursions into its lighter literature and passing or past contro- 

 versies, and he became a prominent speaker in the medical, physical, and 

 speculative societies. Three years were thus pleasantly spent, and not 

 un profitably, as regarded the general culture of his mind, but his pro- 

 fessional education advanced probably little beyond the theoretical 

 information which enabled him to maintain tha thesis necessary to 

 secure his diploma. 



Having obtained that, he naturally turned southwards. It was a 

 season of great political excitement when the young physician arrived 

 in London, an I 1m entered heartily into it. Listening to the eloquence 

 of Burke at Warren Hastings' trial, parading the streets with Home 

 Tooku's colours in his hat during the fervour of a Westminster 

 election, or talking politics in a debating society, was an occupation 

 far more to his taste than walking the wards of a hospital. More- 

 over he had obtained introduction into literary and political society, 

 ami his conversational talents backed by remarkable kindliness of 

 manner and social habits rapidly widened the circle. But be made, 

 or his friends made for him, tsouie efforts to secure a professional 

 establishment At first it was arranged that he should avail himself 

 of au opening for a physician at St. Petersburg ; then he sought to 

 settle at Salisbury, aud afterwards at Weymouth ; but all in turn were 

 abandoned. Yet while thus undetermined in his plius, he married 

 (February 1788) a young lady with as little fortune as he himself 

 possessed. A tour made through the Low Countries to Brussels, and 

 a somewhat protracted stay there, led to his undertaking the " foreign 

 department " of the ' Oracle ' newspaper ; aud the success of the 

 anticles which he contributed to the 'Oracle' led him to turn his 

 attention to the study of the law. Burke's ' Reflections on the Revo- 

 lution in France ' had thoroughly aroused the public mind, and called 

 forth a multitude of advocates and opponents. Mackintosh, who was 

 an ardent admirer of the revolution, as far as it had then proceeded, 

 was eager to join in the fr.iy, but it was not until 1791 that he com- 

 pleted hiii ' Viti'jiciao Gallicee.' The work was hailed with enthusiasm 

 by the Whig party, and was gen -rally acknowledged to be the ablest 

 answer to Burke which liad appeared. The author at once became 

 famous; and the highest anticipations were formed of his future 

 career. Fox, Sheridan, and the other leading Whigs of the day sought 

 his acquaintance ; and on the formation of the well-known 'Associa- 

 tion of the Friends of the People,' he was unanimously appointed the 

 secretary, and entrusted with the drawing up of the ' Declaration.' 



But he gradually devoted less time to politics, and concentrated his 

 powers upon his legal studies. He was called to the bar by the 

 Society of Lincoln's Inn in Michaelmas Term 1795. Still he continued 

 his wide and excursive reading, and occasionally contributed to the 

 literary periodicals of the day. A critique on Burke's ' Thoughts oil 

 a Regicide Peace,' which appeared in the ' Monthly Review ' (Novem- 

 ber and December 1796), excited much attention, and led to some 

 correspondence, and ultimate friendly intercourse, with Burke a 

 circumstance to which Mackintosh used in after years to revert with 

 great delight 



To a mind so long conversant with the study of general principles, 

 the rudiments and technicalities of law, as then commonly pursued, 

 could not fail to be distasteful. Without therefore neglecting them, 

 he turned with ardour to the broader field of public or international 

 law a subject then of intense interest in connection with current 

 events. Here he found a thoroughly congenial pursuit, and he probably 

 during the next few years studied with more concentration of thought 

 and purpose than at any other period of his life. Ho saw too that it 

 waa a study which, from its general omission in the scheme of profes- 

 sional training, afforded him a favourable opportunity of distinguishing 

 himself; and he could not but feel that his previous wide though 

 discursive range of reading which a memory of extraordinary capacity 

 enabled him to render at all times fully available and his familiarity 

 with mental philosophy, qualified him to enter upon the study with 

 more than usual advantages. Having conceived the plan of giving a 

 course of lectures on the subject of international law, he, in order to 

 remove any objections which the novelty of his scheme might provoke, 

 at the beginning of 1799 published au ' Introductory Discourse,' which 

 was received with marked favour by men of all parties and character 

 Mr. Pitt, Mr. Perceval, the Lord Chancellor, and Dr. Parr being among 

 the earliest in expressing their admiration. The benchers of Lincoln's 

 Inn granted the use of their hall, and in February Mackintosh began 

 a course of thirty-nine lectures ' On the Law of Nature and Nations,' 

 and it was repeated with some variations tha following year. Its 

 success was triumphant. The old hall was filled daily "with an 

 auditory such as never before was seen on a similar occasion. All 

 classes were there represented lawyers, members of parliament, men 

 of letters, and country gentlemen, crowded to hear him." Canning 

 was a regular attendant, as were other men of mark from the party to 

 which Mackintosh was politically opposed; but he was somewhat 

 piqued to observe that, except Lord Holland, none of the prominent 

 men of his own political party were among his au litors. Indeed the 

 lectures, greatly as they added to his reputation, for a time rather 

 lessened the hold he had secured upon the Whig leaders. The terms 

 in which he spoke of the French revolution were very different from 

 those of the ' Vindiciie Gallicaa,' while he availed himself of every 

 opportunity to record his admiration of Burke both as a statesman 

 and a philosopher a change which the friends of Fox were at this 

 time sure to resent. But the breadth of view, the general philoso- 

 phical calmness and impartiality with which he conducted his argu- 

 ment, the evident love of truth, and the manly eloquence of their 

 style, secured for the lectures general approbation ; and judges from 

 the bench, and clergymen from the pulpit, quoted them as authorities. 

 But, haviug thus as he eai t " disburdened his mind in his lectures," 

 he turned somewhat disgusted from revolutionary politics, and spent 

 the next three or four years in the steady prosecution of his profes- 

 sional and literary pursuits, and in domestic and social enjoyment. 

 He joiuei the Norfolk circuit, in which he soon took a leading position. 

 He was a powerful advocate where the case permitted him to appeal 

 to general principles or hi<h moral feelings, and Mr. Basil Montagu 

 (his colleague in tha cause) has mentioned one such case iu which 

 Mackintosh's speech produced an effect such as ha believes was never 

 equalled in a court of justice. (' Life,' i. 163.) This forensic reputation 

 was raised to its highest pitch by the speech which Mackintosh delivered 

 (February 21, 1803) iu the action brought agaiust M. Peltier, au 

 e.uigraut royalist, for a libel on Bonaparte, then First Consul. The 

 speech was published, aud being translated into French by .Madame 

 de Stiiel, was quickly circulated throughout Europe, despite the efforts 

 made by the partisans of Bonaparte for its supure-sion. 



His pro.spects at the b.ir were quiti as favourable as he could have 

 anticipated; at the end of seven years he found himself iu the receipt 

 of an income of 1200/., and he was looked up to with general respect by 

 the profession. But his position was far from satisfactory. His social 

 standing and his social habits entailed au expenditure which not merely 

 encumbered his present efforts, but, at a time when he was longing for 

 ease and learned leisure, rendered a life of continuous toil the inevitable 

 prospect. He had married a second time, and had now a family of a 

 son and five daughters. According he began to turn his thoughts 

 to the Indian bench as an honourable retreat, and through the friendly 

 efforts of Canning the recordership of Bombay was obtained for him. 

 On receiving this appointment the honour of knighthood was con- 

 ferred on him. Sir James reached Bombay iu May 1804, aud remained 

 there till November 1811. To his duties as recorder were added in 

 1806 those of judge of the Admiralty Court, and in all respects his 

 judicial conduct secured general respect Throughout his judicial 

 career he was the sole judge in his courts, aud in criminal cases he 

 had to decide without the intervention of a jury ; and it was no small 

 relief to his feeling* that only ia one instance, and that only a short 



