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parliament, praying for his discharge from his office of judge of the high court of Admiralty, from which he was accordingly removed. He made an attempt to disprove the charges, by appearing in person before the house of lords, but the proofs against him were too clear to be shaken.

In private life, Sir Jonah was much courted and respected, and few have the reputation of being a more witty and entertaining companion. It is to be regretted that he should have so sullied the end of his public career, which, in other respects, appears to have been highly honourable to himself, and serviceable to his country. In 1795, Lord Westmoreland thus expressed himself in a letter to Sir Jonah, "I have not failed to apprize Lord Camden of your talents and spirit, which were so useful to my government on many occasions ;" and his present majesty, when Duke of Clarence, evinced such a warm regard for him and his family, that he educated his only son, and sent him into the army.

From his memoirs, which are extremely entertaining and characteristic, he appears to have been in the confidence of both insurgents and loyalists, during the time of the Irish rebellion; and dining, one day, at the house of a friend, where he met his relative, Captain Keogh, the counsellor Shears, and others, he said to the former, "My dear Keogh, it is quite clear that you and I, in this famous rebellion, shall be on different sides of the question; and, of course, on or other of us must necessarily be hanged at or before its termination; I upon a lamp-iron in Dublin, or you on the bridge of Wexford: now we'll make a bargain;-if we beat you, upon my honour, I'll do all I can to save your neck; and if your folks beat us, you'll save me from the honour of the lamp-iron. We shook hands," continues Sir Jonah, "on the bargain. which created much merriment; and I returned to Wexford, with a most decided impression of the danger of the country, and a complete presentiment that

either myself or Captain Keogh would never see the conclusion of that summer." His anticipations were realized; for, on his next visit to Wexford, he says, "I saw the heads of Captain Keogh, Mr. Harvey, and Mr. Colclough, on spikes over the court-house door;" their execution having been so speedy, that Sir Jonah had no time to make any exertions to save his friend, according to his promise.

Sir Jonah could occasionally make a joke with the same felicity that he could relate a story; the following is a specimen of the former :-Surveying, one day, the ruins of an old cathedral, in company with some friends, on one of the party begging to be told what the nave of the church was, "Oh !" he is said to have replied, "that's the incumbent !" which answer reaching the ears of a clergyman, he facetiously observed, "that Sir Jonah had given a key (k) to the question !"

SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.

THIS distinguished character, descended from an old Scottish clan, who followed the Pretender's fortunes, and the son of John Mackintosh, Esq., an officer in the army, was born in Morayshire, North Britain, on the 24th of October, 1765. He received the rudiments of his education at a school at Fortrose, in Ross-shire; and removed from thence to King's College, Aberdeen, where he distinguished himself by his proficiency in Greek and mathematics, and went through his various studies with a zeal and ability that gave promise of his future eminence. From Aberdeen, by the assistance of his aunt, he proceeded to the University of Edinburgh, with a view of preparing himself for the medical profession; and he accordingly became a pupil of the celebrated Cullen, under whom he studied about three years. During this period, it is said, he was in some danger of falling

into a life of gayety; but having imbibed an enthusiastic admiration for the writings of Robertson, Adam Smith, and others, then in the zenith of their fame, he devoted himself to the ardent study of their works, and made literature his engrossing pursuit. He, however, took his medical degree in 1787, although, from his earnest attention to moral and political philosophy, and, indeed, to almost every subject but that connected with medicine, it is probable that, even at this time, he contemplated abandoning his original profession. It is, however, stated, by the editor of the Law Magazine, that Sir James was dissuaded from practising medicine by Dr. Fraser; who, as Parr told the editor above-named, "dreaded having such a rival,"

In 1788, Mr. Mackintosh came to London, and published a pamphlet in defence of the constitutional right of the Prince of Wales to exercise, without restriction, the functions of the regency. Owing to the excitation which prevailed on the subject at the time, it gained great temporary attention; and, but for the king's sudden recovery, it is said, would have procured for its author very valuable patronage. However, as Mr. Campbell observes, in his biographical sketch of the subject of our memoir, "the theory of Pitt on this subject triumphed over that of Fox; and the first political essay of our literary hero, shared the fate of the cause which he defended.”

A short time afterwards Mr. Mackintosh proceeded to the continent; having, according to the authority last-mentioned, previously entered himself a student of one of the inns of court. Another of his biographers asserts, that he went abroad with the intention of renewing his medical studies; and he appears to have passed some time at Leyden; where he made the acquaintance of the principal literati of that university. He subsequently visited Liege, where he was an eye-witness of the memorable contest between the prince bishop of that principality and his subjects;

and, his attention being immediately afterwards transferred to the assembly of the states-general of France, which at that time commanded the attention of the whole world, he returned to England enthusiastically full of the sentiments with which the proceedings of that country had inspired him. These he conveyed to the world shortly after his arrival in London, where he published, about 1791, his Vindicia Gallicæ, in answer to Mr. Burke's work on the French Revolution. The Vindicia at once fixed the fame of its author; and, besides extracting the applause of Burke himself, gained for the writer the friendship of Mr. Fox, and of some of the most eminent Whigs.

The effect produced by the work on the public, is thus described by Mr. Campbell. "Those who remember," he says, "the impression that was made by Burke's writings on the then living generation, will recollect, that in the better educated classes of society, there was a general proneness to go with Burke; and it is my sincere opinion that that proneness would have become universal, if such a mind as Mackintosh's had not presented itself, like a breakwater to the general spring tide of Burkism. I may be reminded that there was such a man as Thomas Paine; and that he strongly answered, at the bar of popular opinion, all the arguments of Burke. I deny not this fact and I should be sorry if I could be blind, even with tears for Mackintosh in my eyes, to the services that have been rendered to the cause of truth, by the shrewdness and the courage of Thomas Paine. But without disparagement to Paine, in a great and essential view, it must be admitted, that though radi cally sound in sense, he was deficient in the stratagetics of philosophy-whilst Mackintosh met Burke, perfectly his equal in the tactics of moral science, and in beauty of style and illustration. Hence Mackintosh went, as the apostle of liberalism, among a class, perhaps too influential in society, to whom the manner of Paine was repulsive. Paine had something

of a coarse hatred towards Burke's principles, but he had a chivalric genius. He could foil him, moreover, at his own weapons; he was logician enough to detect the sophist by the rules of logic; and he turned against Burke, not only popular opinion, but classical and tasteful feelings."

Mr. Mackintosh, having completed the necessary preparatory studies, was, in due time, called to the bar, but had scarcely commenced practice when he was left a widower with three daughters; having married, in 1789, a Miss Stewart, of Edinburgh. He, however, devoted himself with singular ardour to the study of the law of nations; and having arranged a course of lectures on the subject, obtained, through the influence of the benchers, the use of Lincoln's Inn Hall for their delivery. Many obstacles were at first thrown in the way of his request, which was opposed by several, on the assumption that his object was to disseminate the dangerous principles of the French revolution. The publication, however, of his intended introductory lecture, in 1799, entitled, A Discourse on the Law of Nature and Nations, dispelled all apprehension, and removed the previous objection. So far, indeed, were his lectures from inculcating the principles anticipated, that, it is said, they gave less offence to government than to some violent members of the opposition; who, because his original ardour for the French revolution had abated, in consequence of the cruelties by which that event was followed, charged him with apostacy and insincerity. His discourses were, however, attended by a large number of the wisest men of the age, and amongst those who expressed their admiration of them, were Fox and Pitt; the latter of whom said to him-"I have no motive for wishing to please you, but I must be permitted to say, that I have never met with any thing so able or so elegant on the subject in any language."

In 1800, Mr. Mackintosh volunteered his services

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