There are

Mr.

the genius and eloquence of Sir James Mackintosh, we encountered him ourselves in the House of Commons ;-on all these occasions we were sensible, not that Mr. Burke's, Mr. Brougham's, Sir James Mackintosh's eloquence was less, but that it was addressed to another audience than that to which it was apparently delivered. Intended for the House of Commons only, the style would have been absurdly faulty: intended for the public, it was august and correct. two different modes of obtaining a parliamentary reputation: a man may rise in the country by what is said of him in the House of Commons, or he may rise in the House of Commons by what is thought and said of him in the country. Some debaters have the faculty, by varying their style and their subjects, of alternately addressing both those without and within their walls, with effect and success. Fox, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Canning were, and Lord Brougham is of this number. Mr. Burke and Sir James Mackintosh spoke to the reason and the imagination, rather than to the passions; and this, together with some faults of voice and manner, rendered these great orators (for great orators they were) more powerful in the printed reports, than in the actual delivery of their speeches. We ourselves heard Sir James Mackintosh's great, almost wonderful, speech upon Reform. We shall never forget the extensive range of ideas, the energetic grasp of thought, the sublime and soaring strain of legislative philosophy, with which he charmed and transported us; but it was not so with the House in general. His Scotch accent, his unceasing and laboured vehemence of voice and gesture, the refined and speculative elevation of his views, and the vast heaps of hoarded knowledge he somewhat prolixly produced, displeased the taste and wearied the attention of men who were far more anxious to be amused and excited, than to be instructed or convinced. We see him now! his bald and singularly formed head working to and fro, as if to collect, and then shake out his ideas; his arm violently vibrating, and his body thrown forward by sudden quirks and starts, which, ungraceful as they were, seemed rather premeditated than inspired. This is not the picture which Demosthenes would have drawn of a perfect orator; and it contains some defects that we wonder more care had not been applied to remedy.' pp. 119-21.

With this able critique, the reader may be pleased to compare the estimate furnished by the American Reviewer, who describes his own impressions. His eloquence was of a dignified, manly, and imposing character. His manner was not particularly graceful, and he had a slight Scotch accent; but his language was flowing, copious, energetic, and elegant, and, above all, carried with it to the minds of his hearers, the rich gifts of profound and original thought. The delightful combination of philosophy and taste was exhibited by Mackintosh in higher perfection than it had been by any parliamentary orator since the time of Burke; not excepting even Canning, who yet exemplified it in a very remarkable degree. The eloquence of Sir James was far more finished than that of Brougham; although the latter, from his supe rior activity and industry, possessed a greater share of political influence, and has finally made a much more brilliant fortune in the

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Sir James was elected, in 1822, Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, and again in 1823. On the 1st of December, 1830, he was appointed one of the Commissioners for the affairs of India. If our recollection does not deceive us, he held, for a short time, another public office at an intermediate period, which he resigned in consequence of some political changes. Had the state of his health permitted, it is believed that he would have formed a member of the present Administration, or have been promoted to some important and lucrative post. In that case, his American friend remarks, after having been nailed for much ' of his life to the north wall of Opposition, and suffered a good 'deal from pecuniary embarrassments, he would have found the evening of his days gilded and cheered with the southern sun ' of power and fortune. It is not the fact, however, as this Writer imagines, that he was unpensioned and neglected, with no other temporal reward for his labours, than a great but dowerless 'fame. Our admiration of his splendid endowments must not blind us to the lesson which may be derived from the history of his career. The homely virtues of steady industry and prudence, 'the secrets of fortune,' would have enabled him to secure at least an honourable competency; and while we may respect him for despising wealth, we cannot but regret that his improvidence interfered with his comfort, as much as his desultory habits did with his usefulness. The evening of his life was overcast also, we understand, by trials of a domestic character. We rejoice to be assured by Dr. Gregory, in his Life of Hall, that latterly, if a sadder, Sir James became a wiser man in the most essential respects; and that having always been the friend of Virtue, he became, towards the close of his days, more than he had been, the disciple of Religion.

Sir James's health had been for some time rapidly declining; and we were painfully struck, on meeting him at the anniversary of the Anti-Slavery Society in 1831, with the unequivocal indications of premature age. The illness which immediately led to his death was, however, the effect of accident. About the beginning of March 1832, while at dinner, a small particle of bone in a portion of the breast of a boiled chicken, which he was attempting to swallow, stuck in his throat; and it was not till after two days that the obstruction was removed by an emetic.

The effects of the accident completely unsettled his general health. He afterwards laboured under increasing debility and occasional attacks of severe pains in his head, shoulders, and limbs. A few days before death, the pains suddenly ceased. Febrile symptoms set in, and the head became affected. Although this change was met, and in a

world.' For a spirited and, upon the whole, correct portrait of Sir James, as a writer, a speaker, and a converser, we may refer also to a clever volume, "The Spirit of the Age." (8vo. 1825.)

great measure subdued, by the treatment prescribed by his medical attendants, the consequent debility was too great for his constitution to resist, already oppressed by the weight of sixty-six years. Sir James Mackintosh anticipated the near approach of his dissolution with the greatest firmness, and with the most perfect resignation to the Divine will; retaining, nearly to the last, the command of the powerful mental faculties which distinguished him through an arduous life. His decease took place on the 30th of May, 1832, at his house in Langham Place. He was buried on the 4th of June, at Hampstead. Among the carriages in the procession were those of the Lord Chancellor, the Dukes of Bedford and Devonshire, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Earl of Carlisle, Lords Holland and Dover, Right Hon. C. Grant, Sir Robert Inglis, Bart. M.P., &c.' pp. 125-6.

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Many years ago, (it is even said, early in life,) Sir James had projected a great historical work on the affairs of England since the Revolution of 1788, for which he collected materials with much assiduity; but, after his return to Europe, his parliamentary duties conspired with the feeble state of his health, to prevent his making much progress in the execution of his design. The work of which the volume before us contains a valuable fragment, may be regarded as an expansion of the prefatory matter intended for his greater history.' The entire work was to have extended to eight volumes of the Cyclopædia; and he is stated to have left various manuscripts and memoranda relating to English history,' which have been purchased by the proprietors, and will be used as occasion shall require in the progress of 'the work.' Among these is a view of English affairs at the ' time of the Revolution,' which promises to be peculiarly valuable. We know not to whom the delicate task of continuing the history has been intrusted; but we should strongly recommend, that that portion of the history towards which Sir James's manuscripts will be found to supply no available materials, should be despatched with all convenient brevity, for two obvious reasons; first, because the work, as originally planned, is on a scale too large in proportion for the Cyclopædia itself, and secondly, because, if that scale is adhered to, Sir James's composition will form too small a proportion of this History. Perhaps another reason might be drawn from the character of that portion which he lived to execute: though richly instructive, it presents by no means a model for advantageous imitation by any inferior hand. The learned Author was better qualified to be a commentator upon history, than an historian. His comments and elucidations are admirable, and throw a strong light upon conspicuous points; but he does not excel in either graphic delineation or compressed and perspicuous narrative. His distinguished friend, Mr. Hall, is stated to have expressed in conversation, the opinion that, in attempting history, Mackintosh had mistaken the proper line of

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his powers. The conversation alluded to, which took place in 1819 and 1823, has been preserved by the Rev. Robert Balmer, of Berwick upon Tweed, and is printed in the VIth volume of Mr. Hall's Works, just published. We shall transcribe the whole of what relates to the subject of the present sketch.

"I know no man," Mr. Hall said repeatedly and emphatically, equal to Sir James in talents. The powers of his mind are admirally balanced. He is defective only in imagination . . . . . He has imagination too; but, with him, imagination is an acquisition, rather than a faculty. He has, however, plenty of embellishment at command; for his memory retains every thing. His mind is a spacious repository, hung round with beautiful images; and when he wants one, he has nothing to do but reach up his hand to a peg, and take it down. But his images were not manufactured in his mind; they were imported." B." If it be so defective in imagination, he must be incompetent to describe scenes and delineate characters vividly and graphically; and I should apprehend, therefore, he will not succeed in writing history." H." Sir, I do not expect him to produce an eloquent or interesting history. He has, I fear, mistaken his province. His genius is best adapted for metaphysical speculation. But, had he chosen moral philosophy, he would probably have surpassed every living writer." B. "I admired exceedingly some of his philosophical papers in the Edinburgh Review; his articles, for instance, on Mde. de Stäel's Germany, and on Dugald Stewart's Preliminary Dissertation; but there seemed to me a heaviness about them; and I do think that Mr. Jeffrey could expound a metaphysical theory with more vivacity and effect." H." With more vivacity, perhaps, but not with equal judgement or acuteness. He would not go so deep, Sir. I am persuaded that if Sir James Mackintosh had enjoyed leisure, and had exerted himself, he would have completely outdone Jeffrey and Stewart, and all the metaphysical writers of our times."

Mr. Hall's remarks upon Sir James's qualifications for historical writing, were made in anticipation of his great work, which was destined never to appear, and had no reference to the task which he was induced to undertake for Dr. Lardner's Cyclopædia. In these volumes, he was obliged to have more immediately in view the amusement of popular readers; but his style is by no means adapted to a popular work. It is rich, but often crowded with thought; obscure, not through any defect of perspicuity in the diction, but from the complexity arising from the number of accessory ideas interlaced with the primary one in the sentence or paragraph. The narrative is encumbered with the philosophy, like a silver stream half concealed by the rich vegetation it has nourished. He presents to us not the mere facts, but the reasons of the facts, never being satisfied without tracing the event to the cause; and thus, if not the most graphic of narrators, his work, > far as it goes, is the most instructive of historical manuals. ur readers will probably prefer to any further observations of

our own upon this subject, the following critique upon the first two volumes, from the pen of Mr. Campbell, the Poet.

"There is something, at the first view, unpleasant in conceiving a man like Mackintosh, with a mind whose deep speculations would require a good long life-time for ordinary men to study, sitting down to write a book for men of little leisure; but on closer examination of the subject, it will occur, that we scarcely recognise profound thinkers by a surer test, than that they save the bulk of men from the pain of elaborate thought. They simplify truth at a glance. Locke, Bacon, and Montesquieu afford abundant examples. That Mackintosh has done this in a certain and very considerable degree, in his Manual of English History, I do honestly believe; nor would I wish that the world had lost that Manual upon any terms, unless, perhaps, on the condition that he had finished his larger history. I pretend not, indeed, to come armed at all points, by that fresh and full research which the subject would require, to defend those two volumes against every objection which criticism, both oral and written, has brought against them. During their preparation, he had grown a veteran in fame; and, from the exaggerating tendency of the popular mind, he had to satisfy absurd anticipations. Among familiar facts, he was expected to introduce novelty, among the lying chronicles,' he was expected to establish harmonious testimony, and over ages of events, from Boadicea to Bacon, he was to expound every thing at once palpably to the school-boy, and profoundly to the philosopher. My own opinion, if it may be heard amidst the myriad buzz of criticism, is, that he has wonderfully solved the difficulty of making history at once amusing to the fancy, elevating to the understanding, and interesting to the heart. I scarcely know two volumes from which, considering their depth of thought, the simplest mind will be apt to carry off more instruction, nor from which the most instructed minds, if I may judge of such a mental class, would be likely, considering the manual and popular object of the work, to carry off more sound and pleasant impres

sions.

"As to the perfect correctness of the light in which he has exhibited every historical fact, I should exceed my commission, if I were to speak in more than general terms. The axáuator Tup of inquisitive discernment seems, to my humble apprehension, always to accompany him in his path as an historian; but to prove, or to disprove, whether that light ever failed him in certain dark periods of English annals, would, for an opinion of any value, require to come from the most experienced English antiquary. It has been objected to him, that he has too frequently put faith in the authority of More, and in that of the chroniclers Hall and Grafton. Those men wrote, it is well known, as the very indentured servants' of the Tudor dynasty; and it has been pertinently asked, whether men, stating, by their own confession, that they wrote at the instance of his highness (Henry VIII.), should never omit a displeasing fact, never modify the appearance of an event? Assuredly, the supposition is inadmissible; but then, on the other hand, has Mackintosh really held up More, Grafton, and Hall irrefragable authorities? Has he not rather sought to sift their t