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MACKENZIE. 



In tlie father's case lie had to resist the oppressive 

 fictions of the crown lawyers, but all he suffered was 

 amply repaid on the son. After this celebrated trial, 

 hr ui 1 pears to have obtained, as part of the spoil, a 

 gift ot the barony of Bute, ratified by the parliament 

 of 1681. On tlie recapture of the earl after his 

 escape, Mackenzie was one of those who objected 

 to a new trial, and he accordingly recommended 

 his suffering on his former sentence ; he is alleged 

 to have done so from the probability, that, owing to 

 the extreme injustice of the sentence, his heirs might 

 probably be restored to their heritage. Meanwhile 

 his professional ingenuity had been employed in the 

 case of the lawburrows, by which a legal form, useful 

 in the defence of the subject against lawless aggres- 

 sion, was, by adding to its natural power the weight 

 of the royal influence, made an engine of oppression. 

 It would be a vain task to enumerate tlie minor state 

 prosecutions, which, in this eventful period, gave full 

 employment to this active servant of government: 

 most of them are well known, and they were at any 

 rate numerous enough to stamp him in the minds of 

 his opponents with a character which must live 

 with his name " The blood-thirsty advocate." Sir 

 George found it necessary to attempt a vindica- 

 tion of his acts, under the title of A Vindication 

 of the Government of Charles II. "No age," he 

 says, " did see so many thousands pardoned, nor so 

 many indemnities granted, as was in his time: 

 which, as it must be principally ascribed to the 

 extraordinary clemency of tlie kings he served, so it 

 may be in some measure imputed to the bias which 

 Sir George had to the merciful hand." Sir George 

 leaves out of view, that it is possible for one lord 

 advocate so far to exceed another in the number of 

 his prosecutions, as both to acquit and sacrifice more 

 than the whole number accused by his brethren. It 

 was not those who were forgiven, but those who were 

 not forgiven, that fix upon the reign of Charles II., 

 and also upon his Scottish advocate, the indelible 

 character of oppression and blood-thirstiness. It 

 must, at the same time, be allowed, that the acute mind 

 of Sir George Mackenzie was never asleep to practi- 

 cal improvements in jurisprudence, although the lust 

 of power was sufficient to subdue his efforts, or turn 

 them into another course. While he wielded the sword 

 of persecution himself, he did much to unfit it for the 

 use of others. He countenanced and cherished a 

 principle, which called for the examination of all 

 witnesses in criminal cases, in presence of the 

 accused, instead of the secret chamber of the privy 

 council. A frightful fiction of the law of both 

 countries, by which no evidence could be led by a 

 prisoner in opposition to the assertions of the libel 

 made by the prosecutor, as representing tlie king, 

 was removed by Sir George, forty years before it 

 ceased to exist in England ; and he put a stop to the 

 system of permitting the clerk of court to be enclosed 

 with the king, for the purpose of assisting him. In 

 1686, Mackenzie showed that he had a feeling of 

 conscience, and that his religion, if entirely political, 

 was not accurately squared to personal aggrandize- 

 ment, by suffering himself to be dismissed for not 

 agreeing to the catholic projects of James II. In 

 1688, however, he was restored, on the advancement 

 of his successor, Dalrymple, to the presidency of the 

 court of session. 



The Revolution terminated his political career. 

 At this feverish moment of struggle and disappoint- 

 ment, he could so far abstract his mind from politics, 

 as to perform the greatest public service which is 

 ever now connected with his name, by founding the 

 Advocates' Library. The inaugural speech which 

 was pronounced on the occasion, is preserved in his 

 works. The institution has flourished, and redeems 



I Scotland from the imputation of not possessing an 

 ' extensive public library. After the Revolution, Sir 

 George threw himself into the arms of the university 

 of Oxford, the fittest receptacle for so excellent a 

 vindicator of the old laws of divine right. He was 

 admitted a student on the 2d of June, 1690 ; but he 

 did not long live to feel the blessings of the retirement 

 he had praised, and for the first time experienced. 

 He died at St James's on the 2nd May, 1691. 



Sir George wrote several works of a more labori- 

 ous cast than those to which we have referred. His 

 Institute of the Law of Scotland is well arranged, but, 

 in comparison with the profoundness of Dalrymple, 

 is meagre, and its brevity makes it of little use. His 

 Laws and Customs in Matters Criminal, is full of 

 useful information, and is the earliest arrangement 

 (though not a very clear one) of our criminal code. 

 His Observations on the Laws and Customs of 

 Nations as to Precedency, with the Science of 

 Heraldry as part of the Law of Nations, is esteemed 

 by heralds. When Stillingfleet and Lloyd made 

 their critical attacks on the fabulous history of Scot- 

 land, Sir George, who seemed to consider it a very 

 serious matter to deprive his majesty of forty ances- 

 tors, wrote in 1680 A Defence of the Royal Line of 

 Scotland, in which he comes forward as his majesty's 

 advocate, and distinctly hints to the contemners of 

 the royal line, that, had they written in Scotland, he 

 might have had occasion to put his authority in force 

 against them. These works, along with tlie obser- 

 vations on the acts of parliament, and some other 

 minor productions, were edited by Ruddiman, in two 

 handsome folio volumes, in 1722. His Memoirs, 

 or account of his own times, certainly the most inter- 

 esting of all his works, though promised at that time, 

 was withheld through the timidity of his friends. 

 When long lost sight of, the greater part of it was a 

 few years ago recovered to the world. It is full of 

 graphic pictures of the state of the times ; and if not 

 so descriptive in character as Clarendon or Burnet, 

 is often more lively in the detail of incident, and 

 more acute in perceiving the selfish motives of the 

 actors. 



MACKENZIE, HENRY, the author of the Man of 

 Feeling, was born at Edinburgh, in August, 1745. 

 His father was Dr Joshua Mackenzie, an eminent 

 physician. His mother was Margaret, eldest daugh- 

 ter of Mr Rose of Kilravock, a gentleman of ancient 

 family in Nairnshire. After being educated at the 

 high school and university of Edinburgh, Mr Macken- 

 zie was articled to Mr Inglis of Kedhall, in order to 

 acquire a knowledge of the business of the Exchequer. 

 To this, though not perfectly compatible with the 

 literary taste which he very early displayed, he 

 applied with due diligence; and, in 1765, went to 

 London to study the modes of English Exchequer 

 practice, which, as well as the constitution of the 

 court, were similar in both countries. While there, 

 his talents induced a friend to solicit his remaining 

 in London, and qualifying himself for the English 

 bar. But the anxious wishes of his family that he 

 should reside with them, and the moderation of an 

 unambitious mind, decided his return to Edinburgh; 

 where lie became, first, partner, and afterwards suc- 

 cessor, to Mr Inglis, in the office of attorney for the 

 crown. 



His professional labour, however, did not prevent 

 his attachment to literary pursuits. When in London, 

 he sketched some part of his first and very popular 

 work, The Man of Feeling, which was published in 

 1771, without his name, and was so much a favourite 

 with the public, as to become, a few years after, the 

 occasion of a remarkable fraud. A Mr Eccles of 

 Bath, observing the continued mystery as to the 

 author, laid claim to the work as his own, and, in 



