View of the Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the Nineteenth | The style was, in simplicity and elegance, a great improvement upon that of the Vindicia Gallicæ,' which bore too evident marks that the author had, in his early studies, been captivated by the vigour of Dr. Johnson. His more mature taste had relished the sweetness and delicacy of Addison and the richness of Burke. I am disposed to consider this essay as the most perfect of all his writings. The late Dr. Currie of Liverpool, himself a great example as well as great critic in the art of composition, in a letter to me on the subject of Mr. Mackintosh's literary attainments, of the writers of the present age. Everybody became anxious to expressed his opinion that this essay had placed him at the head hear the lectures which were announced with so much elegance, learning, and reverence for truth."-SIR JAMES SCARLETT, (LORD ABINGER:) Mackintosh's Life, vol. ii. chap. iv. "If Mackintosh had published nothing else than his Discourse monument of his intellectual strength and symmetry; and, even on the Law of Nature and Nations,' he would have left a perfect supposing that that essay had been recovered only imperfect and shown, they would bear a testimony to his genins as decided as the bust of Theseus bears to Grecian art among the Elgin marbles.”— THOMAS CAMPBELL: Mackintosh's Life, vol. i. chap, iii. Under this division of our subject we may perhaps properly include (2.) Discourse on the Law of Nature and Nations, already referred to as the preliminary lecture of a course on this subject delivered at Lincoln's Inn Hall in the spring of the year 1799. The title of this Discourse would justify us in placing it under the head either of Political Philosophy or Moral Philosophy, whilst the author's definition of his theme as conversant with the application of the "rules of morality," &c. protects the classification which we have selected from all reasonable censure. It is a striking proof of the very small number of minds to which topics of this important character successfully appeal, that, notwithstanding the praise which has been lavished on the Introductory Dis-mutilated, if but a score of its consecutive sentences could be course, the public was content to let more than a quarter of a century elapse (1799 to 1828) before the second edition was demanded. We may here appropriately introduce a notice of the American edition, edited by Mr. J. G. Marvin, (Bost., 1843, 8vo,) which is enriched by a List of Works upon International Law, and a sketch of the author's life. A strong temptation is presented to linger for a few moments, or a few pages, over a description of the distinguished auditory who sought knowledge at the lecturer's lips, and of the indignation of a portion of his hearers when they heard the doctrines of conservatism preached by the late republican, and the philosophic author of The Reflections quoted in terms of unmeasured eulogy by the same apostle of liberty who had attacked him with such vigour in the Vindicia Gallicæ. But moments and pages are both scarce with us, and we push forward. A few graphic lines from Hazlitt (an unexceptionable witness in this case) may be accepted- as a fair representation of the deep disgust excited among the radicals by this unlooked-for and to them mortifying spectacle: "He grew warmer with success. Dazzling others by the brilliancy of his acquirements, dazzled himself by the admiration they excited, he lost fear as well as prudence; dared every thing, carried every thing before him. The Modern Philosophy-counterscarp, outworks, citadel, and all-fell without a blow, by the whiff and wind of his fell doctrine,' as if it had been a pack of cards. The volcano of the French Revolution was seen expiring in its own flames, like a bonfire made of straw: the principles of Reform were scattered in all directions, like chaff before the keen northern blast. He laid about him like one inspired; nothing could withstand his envenomed tooth. Like some savage beast got into the garden of fabled Hesperides, he made clear work of it, root and branch, with white, foaming tusks "Laid waste the borders and o'erthrew the bowers.' "The havoc was amazing; the desolation was complete. As to our visionary skeptics and Utopian philosophers, they stood no chance with our lecturer: he did not carve them as a dish fit for the Gods, but hewed them as a carcass fit for hounds.' Poor Godwin, who had come, in the bonhommie and candour of his nature, to hear what new light had broken in upon his old friend, was obliged to quit the field, and slunk away after an exulting taunt thrown out at such fanciful chimeras as a golden mountain or a perfect man.'"-The Spirit of the Age: Sir James Mackintosh. Read the whole of this amusing protest: amusing in spite of its indignation. Five years after the delivery of these famous lectures, Mackintosh has no difficulty in acknowledging that his political conversion-doubtless greatly owing to his celebrated conference with Edmund Burke in 1796-was promulgated in a creed from which his cooler judgment was disposed to make large deductions: "As a political philosopher," he remarks, in his letter to Richard Sharp already referred to, "I will not say that I now entirely approve the very shades and tones of political doctrine which distinguished these lectures. I can easily see that I rebounded from my original opinions too far towards the opposite extreme. I was carried too far by anxiety to atone for my former errors. In opposing revolutionary principles, the natural heat of controversy led to excess." Lord Jeffrey finds no such fault: "He delivered in Lincoln's Inn Hall a series of lectures on the Law of Nature and Nations, in which, with singular eloquence, learning, and power of reasoning, he attempted to settle the rule of public and private duty, and to assign their just limits to the rights of a people and the authority of a government. The introductory lecture was published, and remains to this day the best summary and defence which has ever been made of the noble science of which it treats."-Edin. Rev., Ixii. 210. Oct. 1835. As regards his competency for this duty, Sydney Smith declares that Mackintosh "Had waded through morasses of international law where the step of no living man could follow him.”—Mackintosh's Life, vol. ii. chap. viii. The Introductory Lecture, when published, elicited enthusiastic commendation: The effect produced by this publication surpassed our most sanguine hopes. It was received with unmixed applause by all parties, and most highly valued by those who were the best judges. "I must be permitted to say," writes Wm. Pitt to the gratified author, "that I have never met with any thing so able and eloquent on the subject in any language." A lecture in the spirit of that discourse would at all times be of great utility, and of much ornament to the profession of the law. In times like the present it is capable of rendering great service to the cause of religion, morality, and civil policy."-LORD LOUGHBOROUgh. "Perused, with delight and admiration. Mackintosh's Preliminary Discourse on the Study of the Law of Nature and Nations; cated subject, and imparting a most exalted idea of the future exhibiting a most perspicuous and masterly view of this compli Temple to which it forms the Portico."-Green's Diary of a Lover of Lit., March 8th, 1799, Ipswich, 1810, 4to, 127. "Everywhere about us are the mighty fragments of his genius, exquisite skill of the artist. His Introductory Lecture on the Law like the mutilated Torso, exhibiting in its broken proportions the of Nations, the most magnificent discourse in our own or perhaps in any other language, is but a finished portico for the vestibule of a temple destined never to be erected."-JUDGE STORY: Life and Letters, 1851, vol. i. 502. See Judge Story's remarks on the Dissertation on Ethical Philosophy already quoted by us. "How few," remarks the same eminent jurist, "have aspired. even in vision, after those comprehensive researches into the law of nations which the Introductory Discourse of Sir James Mackintosh has opened and explained with such attractive elegance and truth!"-Story's Miscell. Writings, 1852, 237. See also p. 239. Again: "Sir James Mackintosh, of late years so distinguished in Parlia ment as a friend to liberty, to science and liberal institutions, and who is at the same time a most humane and philosophical jurist, has in his incomparable Introductory Discourse to his Lectures on the Law of Nations given us a finished specimen of the advantages resulting from the mastery of foreign public writers. It would perhaps be difficult to select from the whole mass of modern literature a discourse of equal length which is so just and beautiful, so accurate and profound, so captivating and enlightening, so enriched with the refinements of modern learning and the simple grandeur of ancient principles. It should be read by every student for instruction and purity of sentiment, and by lawyers of graver years to refresh their souls with inquiries which may elevate them above the narrow influences of a dry and hardening practice.”— Story's Review of Phillips's Treat. in the Law of Insurance: N. Amer. Rev., xx, 64–65, Jan. 1825. It seems pertinent to remark here that Sir James's admiration of Judge Story's critical acumen and profound erudition is no secret : "I wish." writes Sir James, in a letter to Mr. Everett, introducing some English friends, dated June 3, 1824. that Mr. S and his friends could be made known to Mr. Justice Story, whom I have not the honour to know, but whose judgments are so justly admired by all cultivators of the Law of Nations." See Story's Life and Letters, vol. i. 435. The Introductory Lecture was published at the time, and is one of the most valuable and important of his printed works. We cannot doubt that the whole course will be brought before the world: and, if the other Lectures compare at all in merit with the first, the work must become at once the standard and text-book of the great sciences of Natural and National Law."-A. H. EVERETT: N. Amer. Rer., xxxv. 440. Would that these Lectures had been given to the world! This great loss is but one added to innumerable others resulting from that common evil, procrastination. See also Warren's Law Studies, 1845, 439, 860; Warren's Duties of Attornies and Solicitors, 1851, 19, 20; Hallam's Lit. Hist. of Europe, 4th ed., 1854, ii. 580, 588; N. Amer. Rev., lxvi. 268. III. MACKINTOSH THE ESSAYIST. Of Mackintosh's essays contributed to the Edinburgh Review, there will be found in his Miscellaneous Works, ed. 1854: Vol. I.: 1. The extracts entitled On the Philosophical Genius of Lord Bacon and Mr. Locke, taken from Edin. Rev., vols. xxvii. and xxxvi., (vide ante.) 2. A paper on the Authorship of the EIKON BAEIAIKH, from Edin. Rev., xlvi. 1, &c. Vol. II. : 3. An Account of the Partition of Poland, from Edin. Rev., xxxvii. 463, &c. 4. Sketch of the Administration and Fall of Struensee, 6. On from Edin. Rev., xliv. 366, &c. 5. Statement of the Claim "He contributed," says Lord Jeffrey, "articles of great value to this journal."-Edin. Rev., Ixii. 211. "Sir James Mackintosh is understood to be a writer in the Edin burgh Review, and the articles attributed to him there are full of matter of great pith and moment. But they want the trim, pointed expression, the ambitious ornaments, the ostentatious display and rapid volubility, of his early productions."-Hazlitt's Spirit of the Age: Sir James Mackintosh, q. v. Sir James's admirable articles in the Edinburgh Review."-RT. HON. J. W. CROKER: Lon. Quar. Rev., liv. 292. Mackintosh has been already discussed in these pages as a senator; but his merits as an essayist, and as one of the original contributors to the Edinburgh Review, are too considerable to render any apology necessary for again making him the subject of discussion. His mind was essentially philosophical; his soul was imbued with principle, his memory stored with knowledge. He was fitted to have been a great leader of men, rather than their powerful ruler. These characteristics are strongly apparent in his writings; and the English language cannot present a more perfect example of philosophical disquisition than some of his political essays, particularly that on Parliamentary Reform, exhibit."-SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON: Hist. of Europe, 1815-1852, chap. v. "His collected essays from the Edinburgh Review, lately put together, are not so discursive as those of Lord Jeffrey nor so amusing as those of Sydney Smith; but they are much more profound than either, and treat of subjects more permanently interesting to the human race. Many of them-particularly that on representative governments-abound with views equally just and original. It is impossible not to regret that a mind so richly stored with historical knowledge and so largely endowed with philosophic penetration should have left so few lasting monuments of its great and varied powers."-SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON: Essays, Polit., Histor, and Miscell., 1850, iii. 655. Allan Cunningham, after a review of the critical characteristics of Jeffrey, Gifford, Brougham, and Sydney Smith, remarks, "Sir James Mackintosh was a critic of a milder mood: his know ledge reached from east to west; he was familiar with the history of our literature, and tasted the racy spirit of our earlier verse like a poet of the highest order. ... But he inclined more to discussion than to criticism: he seldom embroiled himself in personal matters; he loved to speculate in magnificent generalities. . . . If he chanced to dip his wing in the stream of sarcastic criticism. he soon rose again into upper air."-Biog. and Crit. Hist. of the Lit. of the Last Fifty Years. See also Tuckerman's Characteristics of Lit., Second Series, 1851, 220; Whipple's Essays and Reviews, 1851, ii 114-117, (and in N. Amer. Rev., lxi. 483-485;) McCulloch's Lit. of Polit. Econ., 1845, 14. But among the very best of Mackintosh's essays are the admirable literary portraits which occur in the Memoirs of his Life, by his son, Robert James Mackintosh, Fellow of New College, Oxford, Lon., 1852, 2 vols. 8vo. These volumes were received with immediate favour from the public, and are not likely ever to lose their popularity: "There cannot, we think, be a more delightful book than this.whether we consider the attraction of the character it brings so pleasantly before us, or the infinite variety of original thoughts and fine observations with which it abounds.... By far the greater part of it is of Sir James's own writing; and it would perhaps have been more justly entitled Journals and Letters of Sir James Mackintosh, with a short Account of his Life. When his works, accordingly, come to be collected, we have no doubt that most of what is now before us will go into the collection. and be read with delight and admiration, long after it has become a matter of indifference where he was born and educated.-what places he represented in Parliament,-what offices he filled or should have filled, -or with whom he most delighted to associate."-LORD JEFFREY: Edin. Rev., Ixii. 205, 241; and in his lordship's Contrib. to Edin. Rev., 1853, 958. We marvel that Lord Jeffrey's hint has not been taken ere this, and a transfer been made from the Memoirs to Mackintosh's works of much that surely would there be in its most appropriate place,-though, of course, we are glad to have it anywhere. "No book has appeared for a long time." writes Sydney Smith to Sir Wilmot Horton in 1835, "more agreeable than the Life of Mackintosh: it is full of important judgments on important men, books, and things."-Memoir of Rev. Sydney Smith, vol. ii. "Sydney, sp.aking of Mackintosh and his Memoirs,' remarked on the proof they afforded of his having been so very honest a politician."-Moore's Journal, dc., 1856, vii. 204. "This is, though not a good Life of this eminent man, a most interesting and entertaining collection of Mackintoshiana.”—RT. HON. J. W. CROKER: Lon. Quar. Rev., liv. 250–294, q. v. MAC "In less than a fortnight, during this voyage, [Bombay to Eng land.] he seems to have thrown off nearly twenty elaborate characters of eminent authors or statesmen in English story, conceived with a justness and executed with a delicacy which would LORD JEFFREY: Edin Rev., 1xii. 222; and Essays, 1853, 963. seem unattainable without long meditation and patient revisal." "The characters of the poets and statesmen of England during the eighteenth century, written on the voyage home from Bombay and published in his very interesting Life by his son, are perhaps the most perfect criticisms and portraits of the kind in the Eng lish language."-SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON: Essays, 1850, iii. 635. also Sir Archibald's Hist. 1789-1815, chap. lx. See also his Hist. of England, 1815-1852, chap. v.; see The pleasure with which we peruse the Memoirs of Mackintosh is certainly much alloyed by the consideration of how much more he could have done, and intended to do, than he actually effected for the education of the public mind. of his father, "the interest with which he [Judge Story] read the "I well remember," remarks Mr. William W. Story, in his life menting, with some impatience and much regret, on his want of elegant biography of that distinguished man by his son, comdecision and energy in carrying out his ideas and large designs." -Vol. ii. 563. It will be remembered that Judge Story expatiates on (portions of which we have already quoted) on the Litethis subject with great force and beauty in A Discourse ciety of the Alumni of Harvard University at their First rary Tendencies of the Times, pronounced before the SoAnniversary, Aug. 23, 1842. See Story's Miscell. Works, 1852, 761-763. "What can be more melancholy," remarks the eloquent speaker, learning, so elevated in virtues,-which has thus passed away "than the contemplation of such a mind,-so comprehensive in leaving so many admirable enterprises unaccomplished and so many plans for immortality unfulfilled?" This is a common source of regret; but it is not to be forgotten that Lord Jeffrey vigorously defends his late friend from this imputation: "Before concluding," he remarks, in his review of Mackfind pretty generally entertained,-that Sir James Mackintosh did intosh's Memoirs, "we wish to say a word on a notion which we him, and did much less than, with his gifts and opportunities, he not sufficiently turn to profit the talent which was committed to ought to have done. He himself seems, no doubt, to have been occasionally of that opinion; and yet we cannot but think it in a which makes it imperative on every man of extraordinary talent great degree erroneous. . . . We know of no code of morality to write a large book." Edin. Rev., lxii. 248-255; and Jeffrey's Contrib. to Edin. But the reader must refer to this valiant apology. See Rev., 1853, 970-975. See also De Quincey's Essays on Philosophical Writers, &c., 1854, vol. i. 66-72, 79-94; Dubl. Univ. Mag., vi. 481, vii. 177; Lon. Gent. Mag., loch's Lit. of Polit. Econ., 1845, 310; N. Amer. Rev., 1834, Pt. 1, 459; Lon. Athen., 1835, 561, 579; McCullxvi. 261. IV. MACKINTOSH THE HISTORIAN. Under this head we are to consider-1. The History of England, written for Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia. Vol. i. was pub. in 1830, vol. ii. in 1831. James lived to complete only a portion,-to the fourteenth Of vol. iii. Sir year of the reign of Elizabeth. The unfinished volume was handed to Mr. William Wallace, a literary barrister, for completion: he died before he had concluded his labours, and Mr. Robert Bell finished the work. History of England has since been republished in 10 vols. The 8vo. 12mo; and in 1853, revised by the author's son, vols. Of course, our quotations apply only to that portion of the History for which Sir James is responsible. "They bear marks both of talent and research; but there is nothing in them of that high and commanding order which makes common readers pause and say, A new light has arisen in the land. In truth, the genius of Mackintosh belonged less to history than oratory."-ALLAN CUNNINGHAM: Biog, and Cr t. Hist.. dr. "Received from Dr. Lardner some of the sheets (about half a volume) of Mackintosh's History of England: read them with much avidity, and was, on the whole, not disappointed,-which, taking into account the expectation with which one must always approach any thing of Mackintosh's, is saying a great deal.”— Moore's Journal, dr., 1853, vi. 108. "He was a great essayist or painter of character rather than a great historian. His History of England-written for Lardner's Encyclopedia-can scarcely be called a history: it is rather a series of discourses on History. It treats so largely of some events. so scantily of others, that a reader not previously acquainted with the subject might rise from its perusal with scarcely an idea of the thread of English story. But no one who was already informed valuable reflection, just and profound views."-SIR ARCHIBALD ALIon it can do so without feeling his mind stored with original and SON: Essays, 1850, iii. 635. See also p. 427. "After dreaming all his life about a philosophical History of England. he, in his very last years, lowered his ambition to the humble task of preparing an abridgment for Lardner's Encyclopedia, in which he did not wholly discard the philosophical style of writing history, and frequently suspends his narrative to make sometimes profound, but more often trivial, observations, which Hume used to condense into a single epithet. But even this abridgment he brought down only to the Reformation [vide ante]." -I'T. HON. J. W. CROKER: Lm. Quar. Rev.. liv. 294. There is little pretension in the appearance of these volumes. Do not be deceived by this circumstance: they are full of weighty matter, and are everywhere marked by paragraphs of comprehensive thought and sound philosophy, political and moral. They are very well worthy their distinguished author. The sentences are now and then overcharged with reflection, so as to become obscure, particularly in the first volume. But do not be deterred by a fault that too naturally resulted from the richly-stored and highly metaphysical mind of this valuable writer."-Prof. Smyth's Lects, on Mod. Hist., Lect. V. See also Lect. VIII., and notes to Lects. V., VI. In the first volume we find enough to warrant the anticipations of the public that a calm and luminous philosophy will diffuse itself over the long narration of our British story. But we must expect the full display of that eminent writer's powers in the ensuing volumes."--DR. JOHN ALLEN: Edin. Rev., liii. 17. "I think the history a noble one: perhaps I never read one with equal gratification. He knows on what parts of history to throw the strongest light: he judges past ages with discrimination and candour, eners into their spirit, and knows the significance of actions in different stages of society. A genuine sympathy with the human race, and a high moral feeling, breathe through the work. He is a thorough Englishman, yet interested in the cause of mankind; and a staunch friend of liberty, without going into the extravagance of liberalism. It does one good to see a mau so conversant with the world and with history holding fast his confidence in the trials and triumphs of truth. freedom, and virtue. A man raay know the world, it seems, without despairing of it."-DR. W. E. CHANNING: Mackintosh's Life, vol. ii. chap. vii. "It is an excellent summary of the most memorable events in English history, and contains a sound and philosophical view of the nature and progress of her social and political institutes, written in a chaste and elegant style."-CHANCELLOR KENT: Course of Eng. Reading, Oakley's id., 1853, 22. We have now to consider conceded access to the papers of the House of Stuart has been mentioned,—an example which was followed by the representatives of most of the noble families which supplied the actors in the historical scenes upon which he was engaged, with a liberality which commanded his grateful acknowledgments. It may give an idea of the anxiety of his preparations for a faithful narrative, to state that his collection of MS. authorities amounted to fifty volumes. Such it now remains,-serving, at least, to mark the broad and deep foundations from which only the majestic proportions of the intended superstructure can now be ascertained."Mackintosh's Life, vol. ii. chap. v. In our life of THOMAS BAKER, p. 104 of this Dictionary, we have quoted some remarks so pertinent to our present subject that we venture to commend them to the reader's attention: "We shall probably lose the great work," says Professor Smyth to his class at Cambridge," which Sir James projected as a continuation of Hume. This, on every account, is forever to be lamented: no one ever had access to such materials or was so fitted to use them."-Notes to Lects. V., VI. on Mod. Hist. Neither of these remarks can now be repeated. Mr. Macaulay has added the collections of his predecessor to the vast materials accumulated by his own untiring industry, and has already chronicled a portion of the History of England in a manner to which neither Sir James Mackintosh nor any writer of the day could make even a distant approach. "1 take this opportunity," writes Mr. Macaulay, "of expressing my warm gratitude to the family of my dear and honoured friend, Sir James Mackintosh, for confiding to me the materials collected by him at a time when he meditated a work similar to that which I have undertaken. I have never seen, and I do not believe that there anywhere exists, within the same compass, so noble a collection of extracts from public and private archives. The judg ment with which Sir James, in great masses of the rudest ore of history, selected what was valuable and rejected what was worthless, can be fully appreciated only by one who has toiled after him in the same mine."- Macaulay's Hist. of Eng., vol. i. chap. iii., n. But how has Sir James accomplished the fragment which he completed? For an answer to this question the reader must consult the authorities from which our limited space allows us to make but brief extracts. aulay was quoted last as to the preparation, and he shall be the first heard respecting the results: Mr. Mac 2. Review of the Causes of the Revolution of 1688. The nine chapters (pp. 1-336, vol. ii., of Mackintosh's Miscell. Works, ed. 1854) which compose this fragment comprise all that was completed of the author's twenty years' dream of a philosophical history of England. These chapters, (sold for £500,) with a Continuation by another hand, and a Selection of the Speeches of Sir James Mackintosh, were pub. in a large 4to vol. (above 900 pages) in 1834, £3 308.; subsequently reduced to £1 118. 6d. Great expectations had been long enter-gularly mild, calm, and impartial in his judgments of men and of tained of Mackintosh's prospective History of England, -"a work," says Campbell, "which he meant to have been his monument for posterity." "For nearly twenty years," writes Allan Cunningham in 1833, "his History was in hand; and yet I know not that a single volume was finished. . . . When any one inquired what he was about, they were told he was collecting materials and digging the foundations of his future structure. One saw him taking votes from the manuscripts in the British Museum; by another he was found consulting the records of the Commons, or the documents in the State-Paper Office; while by a third he was overheard in consultation with Lord Holland on the meaning of some dubious deed or dark undertaking in the days of William or Anne."-Biog, and Crit. Hist., dr. The history of the same period," writes Dr. John Allen in 1831, "which we hope to obtain from the pen of Sir James Mackintosh, will send Smollett to the cheesemongers.”—Edin. Rev., liii. 17. But we can give nothing so much to the point as the author's own appeal to the public for original materials to be used in the compilation of his projected History. We print from an original copy of the "Advertisement," which we have preserved in our "Mackintosh Collections." "History of Great Britain, from the Revolution in 1688, to the French Revolution in 1789: by Sir James Mackintosh, M.P., LL.D., F.R.S. "It is the wish of the author that this work may not exceed three volumes in quarto, but it may extend to four. He has already experienced a facility of access to original papers greater than, even with his confidence in the liberality of the age and nation, he could have ventured to hope. But there are, doubtless, | many proprietors of valuable papers to whom he has not the good fortune to be known, or of whose collections he has not heard. They are likely to be as desirous as any others to contribute towards an authentic history of their country. Trusting in their liberal character, the author ventures in this manner respectfully to solicit information, through his publishers, concerning the Historical Papers in their possession, and to request access to their collections. in the manner and on the conditions which they may think fit," &c. This appeal was liberally responded to: "The reason of my having been at the levee," writes Sir James in 1813, was to thank the Prince for having granted me access to a very valuable collection of papers which he has lately procured. They are those of the Stuart family. ... I go to the library at Carlton House four hours of three days in the week to make extracts from them."-Mackintosh's Life, vol. ii. chap. iv. Much of his time [in 1815] was also occupied in what was still but a preliminary labour,-that of arranging and adding to the richness of manuscript materials which had been placed at his disposal. The kind consideration with which his late majesty had ¦ "The intellectual and moral qualities which are most important in a historian he possessed in a very high degree. He was sin parties. Almost all the distinguished writers who have treated of English history are advocates. Mr. Hallam and Sir James Mackintosh alone are entitled to be called judges. We have no hesi tation in pronouncing this Fragment decidedly the best history now extant of the reign of James the Second. . . . We find in it the diligence, the accuracy, and the judgment of Hallam united to the Vivacity and the colouring of Southey. A history of England written throughout in this manner would be the most fascinating book in the language. It would be more in request at the circu lating-libraries than the last novel.”—Ediħ. Rev., Ixi. 270, 271; and in Macaulay's Essays, 1854, ii. 59, 60, 61. We shall not resume what we have said, in another place, as to the merit of the histories which are now in question; but we fear not to put this upon record as our deliberate, and, we think, impartial, judgment.-that they are the most candid, the most judicious, and the most pregnant with thought and moral and political wisdom, of any in which our domestic story has ever yet been re corded."-LORD JEFFREY; Edin. Rev., Ixii. 251; and in Jeffrey's Con trib. to Edin. Rev., 1-53, 972. His lordship also remarks, in a letter to the historian's son, that Sir James's "historical writings will probably be the most durable monuments of his merits;" and that he knows "No writer who has so successfully recalled History to her proper vocation of a teacher.”—Mackintosh's Life, vol. ii. chap. viii. "This lecture was written many years ago; but at this moment, while I am now reading it, occurs the great subject of regret to literary men, and particularly those interested in the history of their country.-the loss of Sir James Mackintosh. This great thinker and accomplished writer was worthy of such a theme, and had undertaken it: what he has left is the best account we have of the first ominous proceedings of the reign of James the Second.”—Prof. Smyth's Lects, on Mod. Hist., Lect. XXIII. "He left a few chapters of a History of the Revolution of 1688, (which we noticed in a former number;) but this, notwithstanding all that we hear of his diligence in seeking for information, contains, we believe, nothing new, and might, we think, be more truly called an attempt to reconcile the principles of the Whigs of 1830 with those of 1688."-J. W. CROKER: Lon. Quar. Rev., liv. 292. "It contains much new and curious information, of which excellent use has been made."-Edin. Rev., Ixi. 270. "Mackintosh wanted only greater industry, and a happy exemption from London society, to have rivalled Thucydides in the depth of his views."-SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON: Hist. of Europe, 1789-1815, chap. Ix., 1839. &c. "It is deeply to be regretted that Sir James Mackintosh did not complete his long-cherished design of continuing Hume's history. No man since Hume's time possessed so many qualifications for the undertaking. To an incomparable talent for depicting cha racter, and a luminous, philosophic mind, he joined great erudition, extensive knowledge, and a practical acquaintance both with statesmen and ordinary life."-Ibid.: Essays, 1850, iii. 323; from Blackw. Mog., March, 1845. The contrast between these opinions and the verdict of the same critic recorded on a different occasion is rather striking: He never could have carried on, in a style of equal popularity, the immortal work of Hume; and the absorption of his mind and waste of his time in the abstractions of London society-so much a subject of regret at the time to his friends-perhaps saved his reputation from the injury it must have sustained had he aimed at a higher flight and failed in the attempt."-Ibid.: Hist. of Europe, 1815-1852. chap. v., pub. 1852. "The beginning of the history which he has left . . . is learned. minute, and elaborate, but dull."-Ibid.: Essays, 1850, iii. 634; from Blackw. Mag., April, 1849. "His contributions to the History of England seem but interludes between the acts and epochs of that great drama, where the curtain drops just when the principal actors are about to play their parts on that grand theatre of human life."-JUDGE STORY: Life, 1851, ii. 562; and Miscell. Writings, 1852, 762. Allan Cunningham published the following opinion before the appearance of Sir James's fragment: his expectations evidently were not of the most sanguine cha racter: "He seemed to want that scientific power of combination without which the brightest materials of history are but as a glittering mass: he was deficient in that patient but vigorous spirit which broods over scattered and unconnected things and brings them into order and beauty. . . . A clear, straightforward, consistent narrative, such as history demands, was a flight beyond him.”— Biog, and Crit. Hist., dr. With the Continuation of Sir James's History, and the Memoir prefixed to it, Mr. Macaulay-certainly a competent witness-does not seem particularly gratified: "The Continuation which follows Sir James Mackintosh's Fragment is as offensive as the Memoir which precedes it. We do not pretend to have read the whole, or even one-half of it. Three hundred quarto pages of such matter are too much for human patience. . . . Why such an artist was selected to deface so fine a Torso we cannot pretend to conjecture."-Edin. Rev., Ixi. 272, 278. See Macaulay's Crit. and Hist. Essays, 1854, ii. 52-127. Especially see note at bottom of p. 52. See also Lon. Quar. Rev., 1. 273; N. Amer. Rev., lxvi. 274-276; Warren's Law Studies, 1845, 400; Westm. Rev., xxi. 399; Lon. Month. Rev., exxii. 546, cxxv. 187; Bost. Chris. Exam., xi. 377, (by S. A. Eliot.) The Life of Sir Thomas More, pub. in Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia, (new ed., 1844, fp. Svo,) arose out of the investigations made by Sir James when engaged in the preparation of the history of the reign of Henry VIII., and may therefore be properly classed with his historical writings. It has been described as "One of the most pleasing and instructive pieces of biography in the English language. More's talents, his knowledge, his wit, his superiority, his age, his pure life, his unspotted mind, his unaffected homely virtue and warm affections, are described with all the feelings of affectionate admiration. There are probably few works in which the moral ends of biography are better answered, or from which the reader is likely to rise more pleased and improved."-Mackintosh's Life, vol. ii. chap. vii. "It is very consoling to think that Sir James has been able to rescue the fame of More from any charge of positive cruelty, and even from materially forgetting the sentiments of mercy and justice which nature and reflection had implanted in his bosom." -Prof. Smyth's Lects. on Mod. Hist., Lect. X. See note of the American editor, (Jared Sparks, LL.D.,) p. 166 of Amer. ed., Bost., 1851. "We have also, of his, a Life of Sir Thomas More, which is really such turtle-soup as we have before described, where the facts of the old biographies float about in a tureen of Mackintosh: the gravy, we admit, is well made, and, on the whole, it is very palatable. We, however, are of Sir William Curtis's school, and still prefer what he used to call the turtle dressed clean.”—J. W. CROKER: Lon. Quar. Rev., liv. 292. Dr. A. P. Peabody gives a very different verdict from this, and commends the author for keeping himself in the background, forbearing all irrelevant rhetoric and impertinent discussion, and concealing the "painter's hand." See N. Amer. Rev., lxvi. 272. "Sir James Mackintosh, in his elegant Life of Sir Thomas More, has sketched out a history of Chancery Jurisdiction not materially different from that given by Lord Hardwicke, aided as he was by late discoveries of the Commissioners of the Public Records, as stated in their printed reports."-Judge Story's Equity Jurisp., 6th ed., 1853, i. 45, n. Several of the articles on historical subjects contributed to the Edinburgh Review might claim a notice here; but some of these have already been named in a preceding division with other essays. In addition to the articles there enumerated, his Miscellaneous Works contain-ed. of 1854: Vol. I. Dissertation on Ethical Philosophy; A Discourse on the Law of Nature and Nations; Life of Sir Thomas More; Memoir of the Affairs of Holland. Vol. II. Review of the Causes of the Revolution of 1688; Character of Charles, First Marquis of Cornwallis; Character of the Rt. Hon. George Canning; Preface to a Reprint of the Edinburgh Review of 1755: Review of Rogers's Poems; Discourse read at the Opening of the Literary Society of Bombay. Vol. III. Vindicia Gallier Speech in defence of Jean Peltier, accused of a Libel on the First Consul of France; a Charge at Bombay; Seven Speeches in the House of Commons, 1815, '19, '24, 28, 29, '31. Sir James's Miscellaneous Works were first pub. in 1846, 3 vols. 8vo; 2d ed., 1851, sq. er. 8vo; 3d ed., 1854, 3 vols. 12mo. See De Quincey's Essays on Philosophical Writers, &c., Bost., 1854, i. 64–95. V. MACKINTOSH THE ORATOR. It requires little temerity to hazard the remark that Mackintosh the parliamentary speaker never equalled Mackintosh the advocate of Jean Peltier. The expectations of the public were high when the celebrated pleader took his seat in the House of Commons: he soon gave notice of a motion on the cession of Norway to Sweden: "The crush was great to hear him, and the dread of the ministry was not a little, for the fame of his knowledge and eloquence was high." He made a learned speech, a philosophical speech, but not one of the kind that carries the hearer away with the speaker whether he will or not: "I heard many members mutter, 'A complete failure,' when he concluded his speech."-ALLAN CUNNINGHAM: Biog, and Crit. Hist., dc. "We could easily name men who, not possessing a tenth part of his intellectual powers, hardly ever address the House of Commons without producing a greater impression than was produced by his most splendid and elaborate orations. His luminous and philosophical disquisition on the Reform Bill was spoken to empty benches. . . . His talents were not those which enable a speaker to produce with rapidity a series of striking but transitory impres sions, to excite the minds of five hundred gentlemen at midnight, without saying any thing that any one of them will be able to remember in the morning."-T. B. MACAULAY: Edin. Rev., Ixi. 268– 269; and in his Essays, 1854, ii. 57, 58. "Sir James Mackintosh is an accomplished debater rather than a powerful orator. . . . His mode of treating a question is critical, and not parliamentary. It has been formed in the closet and the schools, and is hardly fitted for scenes of active life or the collisions of party spirit."-Hazlitt's Spirit of the Age: Sir James Mackintosh. "Talked [with Lord John Russell] of Mackintosh's want of ob servation in common life, and his helplessness in the House of Commons from that circumstance."-Tom Moore's Memoirs, de.. 1853. iii. 177. "His manner of speaking in Parliament was too elaborate, per haps too didactic, and his voice harsh and hoarse."-LORD JOHN RUSSELL: Tom Moore's Memoirs, dr., 1833, vi., xii. "His style of speaking in Parliament was certainly more aca, demic than forensic: it was not sufficiently short and quick for a and, though nobody was in reality more sincere, he seemed not only busy and impatient assembly. . . . His voice was bad and nasal; not to feel, but hardly to think, what he was saying."-REV. SYDNEY SMITH: Mockintosh's Life, vol. ii. chap. viii.; and in Smille's Works, 1854, iii. 436. Commons; and it is enough to say that he lost nothing of his "He soon took a leading part in the debates of the House of reputation by his performances there. If, however, I may be allowed to express an opinion on that subject, I should say that the House of Commons was not the theatre where the happiest efforts of his eloquence could either be made or appreciated. . .. It cannot be denied that, whenever the nature of the subject and the disposition of the House were favourable to his qualities as a speaker, he exhibited specimens of eloquence that were of the highest order and elicited the most unqualified applause."--SIR JAMES SCARLETT, (LORD ABINGER:) Life of Mackintosh, vol. ii. chap. iv. "We must say that we think Lord Abinger's friendly partiality carried him too far when he characterized any of Mackintosh's efforts in Parliament as being of the highest order of eloquence. Mr. Sydney Smith's testimony is more precise, and, we think, nearer the mark. . . . But, after all, the truest test of Mackintosh's parliamentary success-or, as he himself modestly called it, his failure-is the opinion not only of the House of Commons and the country, but of his party themselves."-J. W. CROKER: Lon. Quar. Rev., liv. 279, 281, q. v. See also N. Amer. Rev., lxvi. 276. VI. MACKINTOSH THE CONVERSATIONIST. If Sir James did not distinguish himself by public elequence, he made ample amends by those wonderful conversational powers to which the present century has furnished no parallel. Dr. Johnson and Sir James Mackintosh were unquestionably the two greatest talkers of whom English annals present any record. Coleridge was a preacher, Burke a preceptor, Lamb a punster, Hook an epigrammatist, Sydney Smith a wit, and Charles Mathews a wag; but Johnson and Mackintosh were talkers. We regret that our limited space prevents our doing full justice to Mackintosh's remarkable colloquial talents; but some testimonies must be adduced: "Till subdued by age and illness, his conversation was more brilliant and instructive than that of any human being I ever had the good fortune to be acquainted with. His memory (vast and prodigious as it was) he so managed as to make it a source of pleasure and instruction, rather than that dreadful engine of colloquial oppression into which it is sometimes erected. He remem. bered things, words, thoughts, dates, and every thing that was wanted. His language was beautiful, and might have gone from the fireside to the press."-REV. SYDNEY SMITH: Mackintosh's Life, | vol. ii. chap. viii.; and Smith's Wurks, 1854, iii. 434. "Of all those whose conversation is referred to by Moore. Sir James Mackintosh was the ablest, the most brilliant, and the bestinformed. . . . His stores of learning were vast, and of those kinds, which, both in serious and light conversation. are most available.. This information, too, which no book or number of books of refer- "October 9, 1882.-[Rogers] spoke of poor Mackintosh, [lately deceased:] said he had sacrificed himself to conversation; that he read for it, thought for it, and gave up future fame for it."—Ibid., 292. "I never met with any person whose conversation was at once so delightful and so instructive. He possesses a vast quantity of well-arranged knowledge, grace and facility of expression. and gentle and obliging manners. It would be hard to find another person, of equal talents and acquirements so perfectly unassuming, or one so ready to talk whose conversation was so well worth listening to. Pride, reserve, laziness, and that mortal dread of being thought bores, or pedants, which haunts our English society, continually prevent the ablest and best-informed people from conversing in a satisfactory way upon the subjects upon which they are best acquainted. Now, Mackintosh, though nothing can be less like a pedant or a bore, has no prudery of that sort, but is always ready to discuss, to communicate, and to explain."-MR. WARD, (EARL OF DUDLEY:) Mackintoshi's Life, vol. ii. chap. iv. "The charms of his conversation, the pleasure and the instruction which were found in his society, can be appreciated by contemporaries only, who enjoyed the opportunity of intercourse with him. . . . In the more unmixed circles of his society, almost every subject of letters and metaphysics was freely discussed; and in every discussion Mr. Mackintosh bore an eminent part, not only for knowledge and acuteness, but for a spirit of candour and a love of truth which were ever with him paramount to the desire of victory."-SIR JAMES SCARLETT, (LORD ABINGER:) Mackintosh's Life, vol. ii. chap. iv. "In all his productions the riches of his knowledge and the subtlety and force of his understanding are alike conspicuous; but I am not sure whether his characteristic qualities did not display themselves in a more striking way in his conversation. It was here, at least, that his astonishing memory-astonishing equally for its extent, exactness, and promptitude-made the greatest impression."-LORD JEFFREY: Mackintosh's Life, vol. ii. chap. viii. See also Lord Jeffrey's comments on the same subject in Edin. Rev., lxii. 212-213, and his Contrib. to Edin. Rev., 1853, 961. His lordship very properly rebukes (Edin. Rev., Ixii. 242-248, and Contrib. to Edin. Rev., 967-970) Coleridge's affected contempt for Mackintosh's intellectual abilities. The reader may remember Hazlitt's comparison between the colloquial talent of Mackintosh and Coleridge: we quote a few lines: "They have nearly an equal range of reading and of topics of conversation: but in the mind of the one we see nothing but fixtures; in the other every thing is fluid. The ideas of the one are as formal and tangible as those of the other are shadowy and evanescent. Sir James Mackintosh walks over the ground; Mr. Coleridge is always flying off from it. The first knows all that has been said upon a subject: the last has something to say that was never said before. . . . The conversation of Sir James Mackintosh has the effect of reading a well-written book; that of his friend is like hearing a bewildering dream. The one is an Encyclopedia of knowledge; the other is a succession of Sibylline Leaves."-The Spirit of the Age: Sir James Mackintosh. As we have entered upon comparisons, it will be interesting to see a comparison drawn between the conversational powers of Jeffrey and Mackintosh. Sir Archibald Alison shall be the Plutarch: "The writer once spent a forenoon in his society, from breakfast to two o'clock. Lord Jeffrey and Mr. Earle Monteith, now Sheriff cf Fife, were the only other persons present. The superiority of Sir James Mackintosh to Jeffrey in conversation was then very manifest. His ideas succeeded each other much more rapidly; his expressions were more brief and terse, his repartee most felicitous. Jeffrey's great talent consisted in amplification and illustration, and there he was eminently great; and he had been accustomed to Edinburgh society, where he had been allowed by his admiring auditors, male and female, to prelect and expand ad libitum. Sir James had not greater quickness of mind,-for nothing could exceed Jeffrey in that respect,-but much greater power of condensed expression, and infinitely more rapidity in changing the subject of conversation. Tout toucher, rien approfondir was his practice, as it is of all men in whom the real conversational talent exists, and where it has been trained to perfection by frequent collision, in polished society, with equal or superior men and elegant and charming women. Jeffrey, in conversation, was like a skilful! swordsman flourishing his weapon in the air: while Mackintosh, with a thin. sharp rapier, in the middle of his evolutions, ran him through the body."-Hist. of Europe, 1815-1852. Sir Archibald tells us in another place that Mackintosh only wanted 1186 "A biographer like Boswell to have equalled Johnson in the fame of his conversation."-Hist. of Europe, 1789-1815, chap. Ix. The reader must not omit to refer to a contrast from the pen of Lord John Russell between the conversational characteristics of Mackintosh and Sydney Smith, in his lordship's Pref. to vol. vi. (1853) of Moore's Memoirs, xii-xiv. "The words which he casually uttered in conversation were remembered to be repeated. . . . He was a sayer of splendid things." -Allan Cunningham's Biog, and Crit. Hist., dx. "A metaphysical argument might have been printed from the mouth of Sir J. Mackintosh, unaltered and complete. That arrange ment of the parts of an abstruse subject which to others would be a laborious art was to him a natural suggestion and pleasurable exercise. In no instance have I seen an equal power of distributing methodically a long train of argument, adhering to his scheme, and completing it in all its parts. He divided his sulf mand it."-SIR HENRY HOLLAND: Mackintosh's Life, \..: chap. vii. con "Whatever was valuable in the compositions of Sir James Mackintosh was the ripe fruit of study and of meditation. It was the same with his conversation. In his most familiar talk there was no wildness, no inconsistency, no amusing nonsense, no exaggera tion for the sake of momentary effect. His mind was a vast magazine admirably arranged: every thing was there, and every thing was in its place. His judgments on men, on sects, on books, had been often and carefully tested and weighed, and had then been committed each to its proper receptacle in the most capacious and accurately-constructed memory that any human being ever pos sessed. It would have been strange, indeed, if you had asked for any thing that was not to be found in that immense warehouse. .. You never saw his opinions in the making.-still rude, still inconsistent, and requiring to be fashioned by thought and discussion. They came forth, like the pillars of that temple in which no sound of axes or hammers was heard, finished, rounded, and exactly suited to their places."-LORD MACAULAY: Edin. Rev., lxi. 269; and in his Essays, 1854, il. 58, 59, "His memory," remarks another admirer, who had ample proof whereof he affirmed, "is the most apt and prodigious I ever knew: indeed, one can hardly fancy a greater power of instant recollection and exact quotation." Portfolio of a Man of the World, 1818: Lon. Gent. Mag., 1845, Pt. 2,339. If the reader desire to see a specimen of Sir James's him refer to a conversation between the "power of instant recollection and exact quotation," let World," Mackintosh, and others, recorded in Lon. Gent. Man of the Mag., 1846, Pt. 1, 585–590. After listening to copious quotations from Sir James in German, French, and English, the Man of the World bends his steps homeward, lost in wonder at the exhibition he had witnessed, and, after examining his books to verify the quotations, thus registers the result of his investigations: "Looked in Browne, &c., when I got home, for all the quotations Sir James had made: properties for proprieties in Sir Thomas Browne: draw from heaven,' instead of pull,' in Jane Shore; and a few words left out in Lord Grenville's preface: but all the rest, as far as I can remember, was, word for word, quoted exactly."P. 590. See also Lon. Gent. Mag., 1845, Pt. 2, 339; 1846, Pt. 2. 563. No wonder that Horne Tooke declared that Sir James "was a very formidable adversary across a table." is recorded by the late Alexander H. Everett in the North Another interesting specimen of his colloquial powers American Review for October, 1832, (xxxv. 445-449.) It is thus prefaced: "The writer of this article had the honor of a personal introduction to Sir James Mackintosh while on a visit to London in the year 1817, and, during that and some other subsequent visits, enjoyed a good deal of his society. He was much struck with the copiousness, elegance, originality, and point of Sir James's conversation, and made a memorandum, at the time, of a few of his remarks, which, with some omissions, is here recorded."-445, n. forcible sayings usually have had, the gall-bladder was omitt d Mr. Sydney Smith says, forcibly, and with more justice than in his composition; and certainly never was there a party-man a more acceptable member of general society: 'He steer'd through life with politics refined, With Pulteney voted, and with Walpole dined.' "Of such men conversation is naturally the forte; and Mack intosh's was very delightful. If he had had a Boswell, we should have said of him what Burke said to him of Johnson-that he was greater in Boswell's work than in his own."-J. W. CROKER: Lou. Quar. Rer. liv. 289. Sir Archibaid Alison refers (Essays, 1850, iii. 634) te Sir James's habit of "spending whole forenoons in conversing with fashionable or literary ladies" whilst his prospective History of England was claiming his time in his library. The ladies were not ungrateful for the preference: "His prodigious memory," says Mrs. Thomson, "was so chas tised by judgment as never to ove power. He needed not the foil of ordinary minds to set off his mental superiority. Among the select of France and England, by the side of Hellam and Sismondi, he surpassed all other minds in the extent of his knowledge and freshness of ideas. With Cuvier and Herschel, the accomplished philosopher, great in science almost as in literature, shone forth; |