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the Author of "Vindiciae Gallica, or a Defence of the French Revolution and its English admirers against the accusations of the Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke." This work, an octavo volume of 379 pages, he is said to have sold, before it was completely written, for a trifling sum; but the publisher liberally presented the Author with triple the original price. At the end of four months, two editions had been sold, and a third appeared at the end of August 1791. The powerful talent displayed in this performance, procured for its Author the acquaintance of Sheridan, Grey, Whitbread, Fox, and the Duke of Bedford. It afterwards led to his being introduced to Burke himself, who invited him to his seat at Beaconsfield; and the visit is said to have resulted in a very considerable modification of the political opinions avowed in that brilliant but immature performance. Time-the very events of the following year-must, even without any such aid from the corrective wisdom of the venerable political philosopher, have wrought some change upon Mackintosh, in common with every sanguine admirer of the French revolution. Yet, those who were the most disappointed by the issue, were not the least sagacious observers; and history rejects alike the generous illusions to which Mackintosh surrendered himself, and the more elaborate misrepresentations of his great anti-Gallican antagonist *.

Fully determined now to relinquish the medical profession, Mr. Mackintosh, in 1792, entered himself as a student of Lincoln's Inn; and in 1795, he was called to the bar; but he does not appear to have obtained any considerable practice. In the year 1798, he projected, as a means of improving his income, the delivering a course of lectures on the Law of Nature and of Nations; and he applied to the Benchers of Lincoln's Inn, to be allowed the use of their Hall for that purpose. It was not without difficulty that he succeeded in overcoming the objections

'Mackintosh,' remarks the American Reviewer, gives us the frothy effervescence of an immature mind which is still in a state of fermentation, while in Burke we have the pure, ripe, golden, glowing 'nectar.' There is certainly more ripeness and body in Burke's performance, though it is scarcely less heady. We little expected, however, to meet with so unqualified a panegyric upon that beautiful political romance from a Republican writer. Even now,' adds the Reviewer, although his (Burke's) practical conclusions have been confirmed by the event, and are generally acquiesced in, the public mind has no where-no, not even in England-reached the elevation of his theory. If it had, we should not witness the scenes that are now acting on the theatre of Europe! This is strange language to come from a New-Englander; and we are really at a loss to know what is meant by Mr. Burke's political theory.

which were raised on the ground of his supposed Jacobin principles. To disprove the calumny, he published his Introductory Lecture, which met with general admiration; and Mr. Pitt himself, who was a bencher of Lincoln's Inn, spoke of it as the most able and elegant discourse on the subject in any language. It is said to have been at the immediate recommendation of Lord Loughborough, the Chancellor, that permission was at length given to use the Hall; and Mackintosh delivered his course to a large and most respectable audience. The Introductory Lecture is generally considered as the most valuable and important of his printed works; and the whole course, if of any corresponding merit, would be a precious acquisition. But we can scarcely entertain the hope that he has left any thing more than imperfect memoranda. In these lectures, it is remarked by Mr. Campbell, 'Mackintosh, with the eye of a true philosopher, laid bare the 'doctrines of Rousseau and Vattel, and of a host of their fol'lowers, who borrowed their conceptions of the law of nature from 6 the savages of the forest, or from the abodes of the brute 'creation. The errors which he combated, have now, however, become so far obsolete, that, eminent as was the service rendered to science at the time, these Lectures would now, perhaps, be deprived of some portion of their interest.

Subsequently to the general election in 1802, Mr. Mackintosh was retained as counsel in several cases of contested elections, and acquitted himself with ability before committees of the House of Commons. The first occasion, however, on which he distinguished himself at the bar, was as counsel in defence of Peltier, the Editor of the Ambigu, who was prosecuted in Feb. 1803, for a libel against Bonaparte, then First Consul of France. Mr. Perceval, afterwards prime minister, as attorney general, conducted the prosecution, and was seconded by Mr. Abbot, afterwards Lord Tenterden. Against this array of talent and power, Mackintosh appeared as the single counsel for the defendant; and he delivered, on this occasion, an oration in defence of the liberty of the press, which has been pronounced one of the most finished specimens of modern eloquence. Lord Ellenborough declared it to be the most eloquent oration he had ever heard in Westminster Hall. A translation of it into French, by Mad. de Stael, was circulated throughout Europe. We are not sure,' remarks the writer in the North American Review, that there is any single speech in the English language, which can fairly 'be compared with it.'

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The reputation which Mr. Mackintosh had previously acquired from his Lectures at Lincoln's Inn, had obtained for him the appointment of Professor of the Laws in the East India College at Hertford. His eloquent defence of Peltier procured him the offer of the Recordership of Bombay, which, after some hesitation,

he accepted. With a large and increasing family and a slender and precarious income, he could scarcely decline a high judicial station which promised ample means and literary leisure, although at the cost of expatriation, and, as the event proved, of the loss of health. On this occasion, he received the honour of knighthood. He had previously lost his first wife, and married, in 1798, a daughter of J. B. Allen, Esq., of Cressella, in Pembrokeshire, who, with several children, accompanied him on his voyage to the East.

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It is not very honourable to the discernment of the Government,' remarks the American writer above referred to, that they 'should have permitted the expatriation, for so many of the best years of his life, of one of the master spirits of the country, whose proper sphere of action was the centre of business at home; and it is much to be regretted that private considerations rendered it expedient for Sir James to consent to the proposal.' Want of discernment, in this instance, cannot, however, be fairly imputed to the Government. The constitutional indolence which unfortunately adhered to him, and which rendered his life a course of splendid but desultory efforts, with long intervals of compara tive inaction, his deficiency in the habits of business and in the practical knowledge of his profession, together with his singular improvidence, would probably have debarred him from filling that sphere of usefulness at home to which his great talents would otherwise infallibly have raised him. While he remained in India, Sir James discharged his official duties with distinguished zeal, ability, and philanthropy; and it was while there, that the subject of Criminal Jurisprudence became more especially an object of his attention. By his high intellectual and moral qualities, he contributed to elevate the standard of civilization in that remote colony. He founded a literary society at Bombay, as Sir William Jones had done at Calcutta; but he did not engage with similar ardour in the study of the oriental languages, his acquaintance with which was very limited. After a residence in India of between seven and eight years, he found his health seriously impaired by the effects of the climate; and in 1811, he returned to England with his fortune not much improved, and with a liver complaint which adhered to him for the rest of his life, and ultimately shortened his days. He obtained a retiring pension from the East India Company, of 1200l. a year; but habits of economy are not to be learned in India.

As soon as his shattered health would permit, Sir James was introduced into Parliament. In July 1813, he entered the House of Commons as representative for the county of Nairn. In 1818, the influence of the Duke of Devonshire secured his return for Knaresborough, for which borough he was re-elected at the subsequent elections of 1820, 1826, 1830, and 1831. On all ques

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tions of foreign policy and international law, on the alien bill, on the liberty of the press, on religious toleration, on slavery, on the settlement of Greece, on Parliamentary Reform, and more especially upon the reform of the Criminal Law, Sir James took a prominent part, and was always to be found on the side of freedom, justice, and humanity. On the questions connected with neutral rights, which grew out of the relations between Great Britain and the United States of America, he cooperated actively and ably with his friend Mr. Brougham in support of a liberal policy. After the close of the last American War, he took occasion, in one of his speeches in the House, to compliment the American Commissioners at Ghent, upon their astonishing su'periority over their opponents; a circumstance which we find noticed with great complacency by our North American contemporary, who adds:- In other speeches, and in his writings, he has often spoken in friendly and favourable terms of this coun'try. This candid,-perhaps partial disposition, in one whose opinion was authority, coming into contrast, as it did, with the meanness and illiberality of many of his contemporaries, had so 'much endeared the name of Sir James Mackintosh to our citizens, that he was generally styled in the newspapers, whenever he was mentioned, the friend of America. A report which was spread soon after the entrance into power of the present mi'nistry, that he was coming out to reside amongst us as British 'Minister, was heard with much satisfaction; and there cannot be a doubt that his reception would have been of the most gratifying character.' We can scarcely suppose that there was any foundation for the report, as the station would have been ill suited to Sir James, and the state of his health would scarcely have admitted of his encountering, without imminent risk, the trials of a long voyage and a new climate.

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After the death of Sir Samuel Romilly, the advocacy of the revision of the Penal Code devolved more especially upon Sir James. He was Chairman of a Committee in the House of Commons on the subject of the Criminal Law in 1819; and in pursuance of its report, he introduced six bills in the course of May 1820. Only three of these were, however, at the time, persisted in; and in the Commutation of Punishment bill, only four offences were suffered to be included in its provisions, out of the eleven for which it was proposed to commute the capital punishment; the other seven being expunged from the bill in the House of Lords. For some time, after the death of Tierney, Sir James was, we believe, regarded as a sort of chief of the Opposition party; but, although a most important auxiliary, he was deficient in many of the requisites demanded by the post of a political leader and tactician. His character as a parliamentary speaker, is thus por

trayed in an article originally inserted in the New Monthly Magazine, and attributed to the pen of Mr. Lytton Bulwer.

"Sir James Mackintosh never spoke on a subject without displaying, not only all that was peculiarly necessary to that subject, but all that a full mind, long gathering and congesting, has to pour forth upon any subject. The language, without being antithetic, was artificial and ornate. The action and voice were vehement, but not passionate; the tone and conception of the argument, of too lofty and philosophic a strain for those to whom, generally speaking, it was directed. It was impossible not to feel that the person addressing you was a profound thinker, delivering a laboured composition. Sir James Mackintosh's character as a speaker, then, was of that sort acquired in a thin House, where those who have stayed from their dinner, have stayed for the purpose of hearing what is said, and can, therefore, deliver up their attention undistractedly to any knowledge and ability, even if somewhat prolixly put forth, which elucidates the subject of discussion. We doubt if all great speeches of a legislative kind would not require such an audience, if they never travelled beyond the walls within which they were spoken. The passion, the action, the movement of oratory which animates and transports a large assembly, can never lose their effect when passion, action, movement are in the orator's subject; when Philip is at the head of his Macedonians, or Catiline at the gates of Rome. The emotions of fear, revenge, horror, are emotions that all classes and descriptions of men, however lofty or low their intellect, may feel:-here, then, is the orator's proper field. But again; there are subjects, such as many, if not most, of those discussed in our House of Commons, the higher bearings of which are intelligible only to a certain order of understandings. The reasoning proper for these is not understood, and cannot therefore be sympathised with, by the mass. In order not to be insipid to the few, it is almost necessary to be dull to the many. If our Houses of legislature sat with closed doors, they would be the most improper assemblies for the discussion of legislative questions that we can possibly conceive. They would have completely the tone of their own clique. No one would dare or wish to soar above the common-places which find a ready echoing cheer: all would indulge in that vapid violence against persons, which the spirit of party is rarely wanting to applaud. But as it is, the man of superior mind, standing upon his own strength, knows and feels that he is not speaking to the lolling, lounging, indolently listening individuals stretched on the benches around him he feels and knows that he is speaking to, and will obtain the sympathy of, all the great and enlightened spirits of Europe; and this bears and buoys him up amidst any coldness, impatience, or indifference, in his immediate audience. When we perused the magnificent orations of Mr. Burke, which transported us in our cabinet, and were told that his rising was the dinner bell in the House of Commons; when we heard that some of Mr. Brougham's almost gigantic discourses were delivered amidst coughs and impatience; and when, returning from our travels, where we had heard of nothing but

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