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Sir James Mackintosh ( October 24, 1765 - May 30, 1832), Scottish publicist, was undoubtedly one of the most cultured and catholic-minded men of his time. His studies and sympathies embraced almost every human interest, except pure science. He was trained as a doctor and barrister, working also as a journalist, judge, administrator, professor, philosopher and politician.His Vindiciae Gallicae was the verdict of a philosophic Liberal on the development of the French Revolution up to the spring of 1791. The excesses of the revolutionaries compelled him a few years later to oppose them and agree with BurkeEdmund Burke ( January 12, 1729— July 9, 1797) was an Irish philosopher, Whig politician and statesman, remembered principally for his criticism of the French Revolution and his discussion of "the sublime. He was a founder of the Annual Register and is re, but his earlier defence of the rights of manHuman rights natural rights are rights which some hold to be "inalienable" and belonging to all humans, according to natural law. Such rights are believed, by proponents, to be necessary for freedom and the maintenance of a " reasonable" quality of life. is a valuable statement of the cultured Whig's point of view at the time. The width of his intellectual sympathies, joined to a constitutional indecision and vis inertiae, prevented him from doing more enduring work. His History of the Revolution in England, breaking off at the point where William of OrangeWilliam III and II (William Henry) ( 14 November 1650 8 March 1702) was Prince of Orange from his birth, King of England and Ireland from 13 February 1689, and King of Scotland from 11 April 1689, in each case until his death. He won the English, Scottish is preparing to intervene in the affairs of England, is chiefly interesting because of Macaulay's admiring essay on it and its author.
1 Early life
Mackintosh was born at Aldourie, 7 miles from InvernessThis article is about the city of Inverness in Scotland. For other places of the same name, see Inverness (disambiguation). Inverness Lieutenancy Site of city shown in red Inverness is the only city in the Scottish Highlands. It lies at the mouth of the R. Both his parents were from old Highland families. His mother died while he was a child, and his father was frequently abroad, so he was brought up by his grandmother, and then schooled at Fortrose Seminary academy. He went in 1780Events January 16 American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cape St. Vincent February, Armed Neutrality of the North alliance formed between Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. March 26 The British Gazette and Sunday Monitor the first Sunday newspaper in Britain May to King’s College, AberdeenThis article is about the Scottish city. For other uses see Aberdeen (disambiguation Aberdeen is a royal burgh, the major component of the City of Aberdeen, capital of Aberdeenshire, and chief seaport in the north-east of Scotland. It boasts the title of, where he made a lifelong friend of Robert Hall, later a famous preacher. In 1784 he began to study medicine at Edinburgh University. He participated to the full in the intellectual ferment, but did not quite neglect his medical studies, and took his degree in 1787.
In 1788 Mackintosh moved to London, then agitated by the trial of Warren Hastings and the first lapse into insanity of George III. He was much more interested in these and other political events than in his professional prospects; and specially interested in the events and tendencies which caused or preceded the Revolution in France. In 1789 he married Catherine Stuart, whose brother Daniel later edited the Morning Post . His wife's prudence counteracted Mackintosh's own unpractical temperament, and his efforts in journalism became fairly profitable. They had a son, who died in infancy, and three daughters.
Mackintosh was soon absorbed in the question of the time; and in April 1791, after long meditation, he published his Vindiciae Gallicae, a reply to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution. It was the only worthy answer to Burke that appeared. It placed the author in the front rank of European publicists, and won him the friendship of some of the most distinguished men of the time, including Burke himself. The success of the Vindiciae finally decided him to give up the medical for the legal profession. He was called to the bar in 1795. and gained a considerable reputation there as well as a tolerable practice. In 1797 his wife died, and next year he married Catherine Allen, sister-in-law of Josiah and John Wedgwood , through whom he introduced Coleridge to the Morning Post.
As a lawyer his greatest public efforts were his lectures (1799) at Lincoln's Inn on the law of nature and nations, of which the introductory discourse was published; the resulting fame helped open doors for him later in life. Mackintosh was also famed for his spreech in 1803 defending Jean Gabriel Peltier, a French refugee, against a libel suit instigated by Napoleon - then First Consul (military dictator) of France. It was widely published in English and also across Europe in a French translation by Madame de Staël. In 1803 he was knighted.
