History of the Revolution in England in 1688

SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH will be remembered as a man of letters and member of the House of Commons. He cultivated literature without incidents or disputes, and spoke in Parliament without participation in the counsels, either of party or of the government. The following notice, therefore, contains little that is merely personal.* It will but present a passing and imperfect view of the exercise of his faculties, and development of his principles, in his writings and speeches. Some few particulars, however, of his private and early life may be given. He was born on the 24th of October, 1765, in the county of Inverness. It appears, from the following passage in one of his speeches, referring to a grant from the civil list by the late king for the erection of a monument at Rome to Cardinal York, that his family were Jacobites, and espoused the cause of the Pretender :

"I trust that I shall not be thought unfeeling, if I confess, that I cannot look in the same light on a sum of public money, employed in funeral honours.to the last prince of a royal family, who were declared by our ancestors unfit to reign over this kingdom. That they should be treated as princes, in the relief of their distress-that they should be treated as princes, even to soothe their feelings, in

* It is right to state that the family of Sir James Mackintosh have had no part in the preparation of this notice.

the courtesies of society-I most cheerfully allow. Neither the place of my birth, nor the actions and sufferings of those from whom I have descended, dispose me to consider them with sternness; but, I own, that to pay funeral honours to them in the name of the country, or its sovereign, appears to me (to speak guardedly) a very ambiguous and questionable act."

His father, a military officer of social habits and careless temper, had already encumbered and wasted the family patrimony, and was, for the most part, absent from Scotland with his regiment on foreign service. Fortunately, neither the absence nor the imprudence of Captain Mackintosh interfered with the education of his son. Sir James received his first instruction from a female relative, who was conversant with books, and to whose lessons he ever after acknowledged himself under lasting obligations. A bequest to him, whilst yet a child, by an uncle, supplied the means of continuing and completing his studies. He was placed, first at the school of Fortrose, in Ross-shire; next at King's College, Aberdeen; and gave, at both, decisive promise of his future eminence. His friends selected for him the profession of a physician. He accordingly became, about the age of twenty, a medical student at the University of Edinburgh. Here the study of medicine is said to have occupied the lesser, whilst literature, philosophy, and dissipation, engaged the greater portion of his time. One of the most fascinating and exciting objects of ambition, especially in youth, is oratory. Mackintosh distinguished himself as a speaker in two debating societies, the one limited to medical subjects, the other embracing a wider range in matters of taste and speculation. The ascendant of his talents was such, that it grew into a fashion among the students to copy him, even in the negligence of his dress. With his distaste for the study of medicine, he yet took the degree of doctor in 1787, and printed, according to immemorial usage on the occasion, a thesis in Latin. He took, for his subject, Muscular Action. The probationary thesis of Sir James, in the midst of his distractions, could not add much to physiological science. He is said to have distinguished himself in what the Scotch call Humanity whilst at the University of Aberdeen; and he loved to quote the Roman classics in his writings and speeches. Yet this composition of his youth, when he must have been most familiar with Latin writers, is no signal exception to the latinity of physicians. The dedication may be cited as a specimen the most favourable to the author, and most intelligible to the unprofessional reader.

AMICO SUO GULIELMO ALEXANDER, &c. &c. JACOBUS MACKINTOSH, s. p. d.

"Cum mihi dulce magis decorumque videatur, sancto amicitiæ numini, quales amicum deceat* honores impendere, quam inanes Optimatium titulos inaniori laude conspurcare, ut huicce opusculo dignitatis aliquid conciliaretur, itemque ut servilioris obsequii crimen effugerem, illud tibi, AMICORUM AMICISSIME, nuncupandum existimavi. Mecum igitur hodie suavissime agitur, cum gratissimis gratissimæ necessitudinis vocibus auscultare, unaque ingenuæ ingenui animi superbiæ non obsurdescere contingat; neque tibi injucundum fore arbitrarer, si dum multi, iique amore observantiaque dignissimi consuetudinem mecum nec declinant nec dedignantur, (mihi etenim in fatis fuit, ut nunquam non juventus mea talibus amicis bearetur:) Te, hos inter, principem conjunctissimumque compellarem. Si quid igitur ex mentis meæ industria fœtuve, nomini possem tuo laudis decorisve fœnerari, sive quodlibet tibi possem nuncupare opus, cujus olim memoria oblivione non obrueretur, tunc meam in te deficere voluntatem haudquaquam suspicareris. Quare mihi, credo, minime subirasceris, si inauguralibus hisce Academiarum NOMEN AMICI, præficere non reformidem. Atqui inania mihi hæc frivolaque, ut ut puerilia quandoque fastidienti, hoc saltem subridebit voluptatis, quod pectus mihi ILLORUM recordatione pertentabitur, quorum consentientibus studiorum rationibus inflammabar, quorum ex judiciis judicio meo lumen roburque accedebat, quorum labores horarum subsecivarum mutuis mutui oblectamentis condiebantur, quorum denique unanimia in te vota precesque mecum hic hodie concinunt conspirantque ; neque hæc, si Diis placeat, sive materno sive novercali fortuna me lumine intueatur, ex 'sanctis unquam mentis meæ recessibus*' exulabunt: quin crescentes crescentium, annorum curas solicitudinesque permulcendo, ope, illaque haud illætabili, tristia senectutis tædia recreabunt, quod (sors etiamsi obtingat humilior nomenque sileatur), non una amicitiæ lacryma amici cineribus parentaverit. Vale AMICE, amici valete.

"Dab. Edin. Prid. ante Id. Septemb. A. 1787.".

There is, in this dedication, and in the note on Dr. Parr's preface to Bellendenus, subjoined to it with more ambition than propriety, much pretension to idiom and conceit of scholarship,

Neque hic a mente mea mens.vel ipsius Verulamii abhorret. Vide de Augmentis Scientiarum, lib. i. p. 29.

* "Vide perelegantem in nuperam Bellendini operum edit. Lond. excusam Præfat.. Atque hic mihi neminem, dummodo Attice Romaneque vel tantillum sapiat, succensurum crediderim, si quantum ex aureo hocce opusculo perlegendo voluptatis perceperim (ab illo etenim lectitando 'aure' adhuc ferveo vaporata") intempestive fortasse quamvis, attamen vel importunus profitear. Hocque mihi ideo antiquius visum est, quod amicum quem hic alloquor (ille etenim ab optimis nunquam, nunquam a sapientibus discrepuit), de republica, cum auctore gravi literatissimoque, idem semper velle, idem semper sentire, non ignorabam. Hujus equidem scriptoris Latinissimi, sive Procerum,varias variarum indolum facies scite adumbrare; sive eosdem, prout debeatur meritis, vel infamiæ notis inustos, vel immortali condecoratos gloria posteritati tradere, famæ quasi largitoris jure, tam exculto limatoque ingenio, haud inique condonaveris. Ipsius enimvero nutui adeo advolant et famulantur, quæcunque habeat antiquitas leporum et venustatis, ut omnia e proprio penu deprompsisse potius, quam ut alienum libasse,' videatur. Verbo dicam Romanæ hinc et inde Cecropiæque pullulantes elegantiæ flosculos. ita carpsit curiose, ut in sertum quasi germanum, maritalesque corollas sponte coalescerent. Sed quid ego hæc autem-mene Antalcideæ immemorem sententiæ,— Τις γαρ αυτον ψέγει;»

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History of the Revolution in England in 1688, Band 1