606 



MACKENZIE'S RIVER MACKINTOSH. 



indeed from one considerably antecedent to it, he 

 might be said to have abandoned literature, though, 

 to use his own affecting image, as employed at one 

 of the meetings of the Royal Society, the old stump 

 would still occasionally send forth a few green shoots. 

 The patronage of the government was unfortunately 

 extended in a somewhat improper shape, in as far as 

 the office bestowed upon him, though lucrative, 

 required unremitting personal labour. He was thus 

 unable, even if he had been willing, to cultivate 

 literature to any considerable purpose. Such leisure 

 as he possessed, he spent chiefly in healthy recreations 

 in shooting, particularly, and angling, to which he 

 was devotedly attached, and the former of which he 

 practised in early life, on the ground now occupied 

 by the New Town of Edinburgh. He thus pro- 

 tracted his days to a healthy old age, until he finally 

 stood amidst his fellow men, like Noah amongst his 

 descendants, a sole-surviving specimen of a race of 

 literary men, all of whom had long been consigned 

 to the dust. His recollections of the great men who 

 lived in his youth, were most distinct and interesting; 

 but it is to be regretted, that with the exception of 

 what he has given in his Life of Home, he never 

 could be prevailed upon to commit them to paper. 

 At length, after a comparatively brief period of de- 

 cline, he died January 14, 1831, in the eighty-sixth 

 year of his age. By his wife, Miss Penuel Grant, 

 daughter of Sir Ludovick Grant, of Grant, bart., 

 Mr Mackenzie had eleven children, the eldest of 

 whom is a judge of the courts of session and justi- 

 ciary. 



MACKENZIE'S RIVER ; a river of North Amer- 

 ica. In the first part of its course, it flows N. E. to 

 the Lake of the Hills, under the name Unigah, or 

 Peace river ; thence to Slave lake, it is called Slave 

 river ; it then takes the name of Mackenzie's river, 

 and flows 780 miles N. into the Arctic sea ; Ion. 130 

 to 135 VV. ; lat. 69 14' N. Its whole course is 

 about 2000 miles. 



MACKEREL (scomber). This is a tribe of mi- 

 gratory fishes, which annually visit the American 

 coast, and is among the most celebrated of that 

 class, for its numbers, and for the great use made of 

 it in a salted state. The European mackerel (S. 

 scomber) was early known as an article of food, and 

 was held in high esteem by the ancient Romans, as 

 forming the celebrated sarum, a pickle, or sauce, of 

 which they made great use. This was prepared 

 from several different kinds of fishes, but that from 

 the mackerel was deemed by far the best. The 

 mackerel is easily taken, by a variety of baits, and 

 the capture always succeeds best during a gentle 

 breeze of wind, which is hence termed a mackerel 

 breeze by seamen. At such a time the usual bait is 

 a bit of red cloth, a coloured feather, &c. This fish, 

 when alive, possesses great symmetry of form and 

 brilliancy of colours, which are much impaired by 

 death, though not wholly obliterated. It is said, that, 

 in the spring, their eyes are almost covered with a 

 white film, which grows in the winter, and is regu- 

 larly cast at the beginning of summer, before which 

 they are half blind. There are several species of 

 laackerel on the coast of the United States, the most 

 common of which the S. vernalis, closely resembles 

 the European species. 



MACKINAC. See Michilimackinac. 



MACKINTOSH, SIR JAMES, eminent as a jurist, 

 a statesman, and a writer, equally distinguished for 

 his extensive learning, his large views, and his lib- 

 eral principles in law, politics, and philosophy was 

 descended of an ancient Scottish family, and born in 

 the parish of Dorish, county of Inverness, in 1765. 

 After studying at the school of Fortrose, in Ross- 

 shire, he was sent to King's college, Aberdeen, and 



spent three years at Edinburgh, chiefly in medico I 

 studies. He received his medical degree in 1787 ; 

 but his attention had already been drawn to general 

 literature, history, and moral, political, and specula- 

 tive philosophy, and his inclination soon led him to 

 abandon his profession. In 1789, we find him in 

 London, where he published a pamphlet on the re- 

 gency question, which, on account of the sudden 

 recovery of the king, attracted little notice. A visit 

 to the continent, at that interesting period, contrib- 

 uted to excite his sympathies for the French, and he 

 published a reply to the celebrated Reflections ot 

 Burke, under the title of I'indicice Gallicee, or De- 

 fence of the French Revolution (1792), a work which 

 laid the foundation of his fame, and acquired for him 

 the friendship both of Fox and his great antagonist. 

 About this time, Mr Mackintosh entered himself as a 

 student of Lincoln's Inn, was soon called to the bar 

 by that society, and commenced the practice of the 

 law. Having obtained permission, though not with- 

 out much difficulty, to deliver a course of lectures in 

 the hall of Lincoln's Inn, on the law of nations, he 

 published his Introductory Lecture, under the title of 

 a Discourse on the Law of Nature and Nations. The 

 ability which it displayed obtained him a large aud- 

 ience, including some of the most distinguished men 

 of the country. On the trial of Peltier for a libel 

 against Bonaparte (then first consul of France), in 

 which the prosecution was conducted by Mr Percival, 

 the attorney general (afterwards first minister of 

 state) , and Mr A bbot (afterwards lord Tenterden) , 

 the defence was conducted by Mr Mackintosh, as 

 sole counsel in one of the most brilliant speeches ever 

 made at bar or in forum, which at once established 

 his reputation as an advocate and an orator. The 

 recordership of Bombay, with the dignity of knight- 

 hood, was soon after conferred on him, and, besides 

 the discharge of the duties of his office, the nine 

 years which he spent in India were marked by his 

 exertions in the amelioration of the criminal law, the 

 foundation of the Literary Society in Bombay, and 

 his valuable communications in the Asiatic Register. 

 While sitting on an admiralty cause, he declared 

 that that court was bound to decide by the law of 

 nations, and not (as had been maintained by one of 

 the judges in England) by any direction from the king 

 or his ministers. His return to England was has- 

 tened by a severe illness. He left Bombay in No- 

 vember, 181 1, retiring from the Recordership with a 

 pension of 1200 per annum. 



In July, 1813, he was elected, through the interest 

 of lord Cawclor, as representative for the county of 

 Nairn. In 1818, he was elected for Knaresborough 

 in Yorkshire, through the influence of the duke of 

 Devonshire, and was re-chosen at the subsequent 

 elections of 1820, 1826, 1830, and 1831. He was 

 also elected Lord Rector of the university of Glas- 

 gow in 1822, and again in 1823. Sir James was 

 now become a person to whom a national importance 

 and consideration were attached, one of the marked 

 and elevated characters of the country, who had ac- 

 quired a conventional right from the soundness and 

 capacity of his judgment, and the extraordinary 

 splendour of his abilities, to take an active and pro- 

 minent part in the management of her affairs, and a 

 conviction of this truth prevailing in those high 

 quarters where it could be acted upon, he was ap- 

 pointed in 1828, one of his majesty's privy council, 

 and on the formation "of the Earl Grey administration 

 in 1830, he was made on the 1st December a com- 

 missioner for Indian affairs. 



In parliament, Sir James took a prominent part in 

 all questions connected with foreign policy, and in- 

 ternational law ; but more especially distinguished 

 himself in the discussions on the alien bill, the crim- 





