Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

tion which it contains, chiefly in a tabular form, and drawn from parliamentary documents, would have rendered it, a few years ago, a literary curiosity. The art of compression is now carried to such perfection, that we have ceased to wonder at such displays of ingenuity; but we must fairly say, that the Proprietors of this Almanack deserve well of the public for the pains they have bestowed on its compilation. The title page exhibits a general view of its contents, which are not more multifarious than intrinsically useful.

ART. IX. LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

The Cabinet Annual Register, and Historical, Political, Biographical, and Miscellaneous Chronicle of 1832, is announced for publication on the 1st of February next, with additional claims to public favour and patronage.

Preparing for publication by subscription, A History of Protestant Nonconformity in the County of York. By the Rev. Thomas Scales, of Leeds, Author of " Principles of Dissent.” The object of the Author is, to trace the origin, progress, and present state of all the Societies of the Three Denominations in each of the Three Ridings, with memoirs of their successive pastors. To be comprised in two large volumes, 8vo. Subscribers' names are solicited.

On the 1st of January will be published, price one penny, The Protestant Dissenter's Juvenile Magazine.

A Prospectus is issued of a splendid Periodical, under the title of Finden's Gallery of the Graces; to consist of a series of Portrait Sketches, designed to exhibit, in its various forms of female loveliness, the spirit of beauty. The whole to be engraved from original pictures, under the superintendence of W. and E. Finden, and accompanied by poetical illustrations from the pen of T. K. Hervey, Esq.

A new edition (the third thousand) of Saturday Evening," by the Author of "the Natural History of Enthusiasm"; and a sixth edition of the Natural History of Enthusiasm, are now ready.

In the press, and shortly will be published, Memorials of the Professional Life and Times of Sir William Penn Knight, Admiral and General of the Fleet during the interregnum, Admiral and Commissioner of the Admiralty and Navy after the Restoration from 1644 to 1670. In 2 Vols. 8vo. By Granville Penn, Esq.

Also, edited by the same Author, The Character of a Trimmer ;His opinion of-1st. Laws and Government ;-2d. Protestant Religion;-3d. The Papists ;-4th. Foreign Affairs. By the Honourable Sir W. Coventry, Knight. First printed in 1687.

The Seasons.--Stories for very young Children. (Winter.) By the author of "Conversations on Chemistry," &c. &c.

Nearly ready for publication. In 2 vols. 8vo. A View of the Early Parisian Greek Press; including the Lives of the Stephani or Estiennes, Notices of the other Contemporary Greek Printers of Paris, and various particulars of the Literary and Ecclesiastical History of their Times. By the Rev. W. Parr Greswell, Author of " Memoirs of Politian," &c. and of "Annals of Parisian Typography." (Oxford: printed at the University Press, for D. A. Talboys.) The above work (in which it has been the author's object to combine literary history with bibliography) contains extensive biographies of Robert and of Henry Stephens, and a vindication of the former of those celebrated individuals from the charges alleged against him by Michaelis and Mr. Porson.

ART. X. WORKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Bibliotheca Scoto-Celtica; or an Account of all the Books which have been printed in the Gaelic Language; with Bibliographical and Biographical Notices. By John Reid. 8vo. 12s. extra cloth boards. A few copies on Imperial Writing Paper, price 51. 5s.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Fifty-one Original Fables, with Morals and Ethical Index. Embellished with eightyfive Original Designs by R. Cruickshank. Engraved on Wood. Also a Translation of Plutarch's Banquet of the Seven Sages, revised for this Work. 8vo. 12s. in cloth, or 14s. in silk.

The Apiarian's Guide; containing practical directions for the Management of Bees, upon the Depriving System. By J. H. Payne, Author of "The Cottager's Guide."

THEOLOGY.

The Works of Robert Hall, A.M.; with a brief Memoir of his Life. By Dr. Gregory; and Observations on his Character as a Preacher. By John Foster. Published under the superintendence of Olinthus Gregory, LL.D. F.R.A.S., Professor of Mathematics in the Royal Military Academy. Vol. VI. (pp. 708, and Portrait) 16s. The Sacred Trust. A Charge delivered at the ordination of the Rev. T. Atkinson, over the Church assembling at Hounslow, Middlesex. On the 2d of Oct. 1832. By Andrew Reed. 8vo. 1s.

The Official Glory of the Son of God

and the Universal Headship of Christ. By John Jefferson. 12mo.

A Sermon preached on the Death of William M'Gavin, Esq. By the Rev. Greville Ewing. 12mo. 1s. Bound in cloth,

1s. 6d.

Counsels to Controversialists; or, the Temper of Mind in which Religious and Political Controversy ought to be maintained. A Sermon preached before the Monthly Meeting of Congregational Ministers and Churches, at New Broad Street Meeting-House, on Thursday, Nov. 6th, 1831. By John Morison, D.D. 6d.

A Key to the Pictorial and Geographical Chart, displaying at one View the Rise and Progress of the Evangelical or Christian Dispensation, from the Commencement of the Gospel Narrative to the Ascension of Jesus Christ. Arranged, by Permission, according to Greswell's "Harmonia Evangelica." By R. Mimpriss, price 34. 13s. 6d. on rollers.

Of the Chart itself, notice will be taken in our next Number.

TRAVELS.

Six Weeks on the Loire, with a Peep into La Vendée; a route which, in addition to the Beauties of Scenery it must always command, derives a political interest, at the present moment, from the circumstance of its including many of the scenes in which the hazardous enterprises and "hair-breadth escapes" of the Duchesse de Berri have taken place. 8vo. Plates.

THE

ECLECTIC REVIEW,

FOR FEBRUARY, 1833.

Art. I. The History of England. By the Right Hon. Sir James Mackintosh, LL.D. M.P. Volume the Third. (Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia, Vol. xxxvII.) Fcap. 8vo. pp. xlii. 368. London, 1832.

SIR James Mackintosh had proceeded to the 211th page of 'this third volume of his History of England, when literature and his country were deprived of him by his lamented ' death. A melancholy interest attaches to this portion of his unfinished labours; and we avail ourselves of the opportunity, to attempt, with the aid of two well written notices of his life and writings, now before us *, a brief memoir of a man who united in no ordinary degree the qualities, rarely associated, of the philosopher, the jurist, the forensic orator, and the man of letters.

The father of Sir James Mackintosh was a captain in the army, whose life was chiefly spent in foreign and garrison service. James, the eldest son, was born at Alldowrie in the county of Inverness, on the 24th of October, 1765. For his early instruction and discipline, he was greatly indebted to the superintending care of an excellent grandmother, upon whom the charge of him chiefly devolved. He was afterwards placed at the school of Mr. Stalker, at Fortrose in Rosshire, where his talents were so far elicited as to encourage his friends to determine on sending him to college, with a view to his being qualified for some liberal profession. He was accordingly placed at King's College, Aberdeen, under Mr. Leslie, where he soon distinguished himself by his proficiency in

* The Annual Biography and Obituary. 1833. Vol. XVII. Art. X. North American Review. No. LXXVII. Art. Sir James Mackintosh. The writer of this last article was introduced to Sir James, when on a visit to London in 1817, and during that and some subsequent visits, enjoyed, he says, a good deal of his society.

VOL. IX.-N.S.

N

6

Greek and mathematics; and it was there, when in his eighteenth year, that he first formed an acquaintance and close intimacy with that eminent friend of whom he had undertaken to be the biographer, when his own death prevented his paying that tribute to his memory. Mr. Hall was about a year and a half older than Sir James Mackintosh. Their tastes, at the commencement of their intercourse, were widely different; and upon some most important topics of inquiry, there was little or no congeniality of sentiment between them. But the sub-stratum of their minds. 'seemed of the same cast'; and upon this, Sir James himself thought, their mutual friendship was founded. He became attached to Mr. Hall, he said, because he could not help it. He was fascinated by his brilliancy and acumen, in love with his cordiality and ardour, and awe-struck by the transparency of 'his conduct and the purity of his principles.' We cannot refrain from forestalling our notice of Dr. Gregory's Memoir of Mr. Hall, by transcribing from it the following paragraph, describing the intimacy of these two distinguished class-mates.

[ocr errors]

They read together; they sat together at lecture, if possible; they walked together. In their joint studies, they read much of Xenophon and Herodotus, and more of Plato ; and so well was all this known, exciting admiration in some, in others envy, that it was not unusual, as they went along, for their class-fellows to point at them, and say, "There go Plato and Hērodotus". But the arena in which they met most frequently, was that of morals and metaphysics, furnishing topics of incessant disputation. After having sharpened their weapons by reading, they often repaired to the spacious sands upon the seashore, and still more frequently to the picturesque scenery on the banks of the Don, above the old town, to discuss with eagerness the various subjects to which their attention had been directed. There was scarcely an important position in Berkeley's Minute Philosopher, in Butler's Analogy, or in Edwards on the Will, over which they had not thus debated with the utmost intensity. Night after night, nay, month after month, for two sessions, they met only to study or to dispute; yet no unkindly feeling ensued. The process seemed rather, like blows in that of welding iron, to knit them closer together. Sir James said, that his companion, as well as himself, often contended for victory; yet never, so far as he could then judge, did either make a voluntary sacrifice of truth, or stoop to draw to and fro the serra Xoyopaxias, as is too often the case with ordinary controvertists. From these discussions, and from subsequent meditation upon them, Sir James learned more, as to principles, (such, at least, he assured me, was his deliberate conviction,) than from all the books he ever read. On the other hand, Mr. Hall through life reiterated his persuasion, that his friend possessed an intellect more analogous to that of Bacon, than any person of modern times; and that if he had devoted his powerful understanding to metaphysics, instead of law and politics, he would have thrown an unusual light upon that intricate but valuable

region of inquiry. Such was the cordial, reciprocal testimony of these two distinguished men.' Memoir of Robert Hall. (Works, Vol. VI. pp. 14, 15.)

From Aberdeen, Mackintosh repaired to Edinburgh, to complete his education, where he spent three years, attending the lectures of Dr. Cullen and Professor Black, preparatory to his taking up the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Medical studies, however, had but a small portion of his attention; they had few attractions for him; and we are surprised that he should ever have thought of adopting, as a means of subsistence, a profession so little suited to his taste and habits of mind. Was it that the practice of law seemed to present still less scope for speculative and excursive inquiries, and that the science of law, in which he was so peculiarly fitted to excel, has hitherto been deemed an elegant study, rather than a branch of professional accomplishment? Mackintosh pursued the study of medicine, however, so far as to obtain, in 1787, his medical degree; on which occasion, he composed a Latin thesis, 'On Muscular Action,' afterwards published. On leaving the university, he repaired to the metropolis, ostensibly for the purpose of practising as a physician. If he had any serious intention of this nature, the step which he took, in engaging in political controversy, was the most likely to defeat his purpose. The great question of the day was the proposed Regency, in consequence of the first illness of George III. Mackintosh made his début as a political writer, by a pamphlet in support of the views of Fox; and his first essay shared the fate of the cause which he espoused. Foiled and disappointed, the young politician repaired to the Continent, apparently with the view of renewing his professional studies. After spending a short time at Leyden, then the most celebrated medical school in Europe, he proceeded to Liege, where he was an eye-witness of the memorable contest between the Prince-Bishop and his subjects. His visit to the Continent must have been little more than a summer tour, since we find him, in this same year, again in London. About the same time, his father died, and bequeathed him a small landed property in Scotland. This may, perhaps, explain another circumstance; that, while as yet a physician without fees, and a writer without fame or influential friends, he ventured upon matrimony. In 1789, he married Miss Stuart, a Scottish lady without beauty or fortune, but of 'great intelligence and most amiable character;'-the sister to Mr. Charles Stuart, the author of several dramatic pieces. In her, he found a partner of his heart, who appreciated his character, and urged him on to overcome his almost constitutional in'dolence.'

In the spring of 1791, Mackintosh started into notoriety, as

« ForrigeFortsett »