Background
Henry Mackenzie was born on July 26, 1745 in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, Joshua Mackenzie, was a distinguished physician, and his mother, Margaret Rose, belonged to an old Nairnshire family.
Henry Mackenzie was born on July 26, 1745 in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, Joshua Mackenzie, was a distinguished physician, and his mother, Margaret Rose, belonged to an old Nairnshire family.
Henry Mackenzie was educated at the high school and the university of Edinburgh, and was then articled to George Inglis of Redhall, who was attorney for the crown in the management of exchequer business.
In 1765 Henry Mackenzie was sent to London to prosecute his legal studies, and on his return to Edinburgh became partner with Inglis, whom he afterwards succeeded as attorney for the crown.
His first and most famous work, The Man of Feeling, was published anonymously in 1771, and met with instant success.
The " Man of Feeling " is a weak creature, dominated by a futile benevolence, who goes up to London and falls into the hands of people who exploit his innocence.
Mackenzie's name was then officially announced, but Eccles appears to have induced some people to believe in him.
Julia de Roubigne (1777), a story in letters, was preferred to his other novels by " Christopher North, " who had a high opinion of Mackenzie.
He also wrote a Life of Doctor Blacklock, prefixed to the 1793 edition of the poet's works.
There is an admiring but discriminating criticism of his work in the Prefatory Memoir prefixed by Sir Walter Scott to an edition of his novels in Ballantyne's Novelist's Library.
He emigrated to Otago, New Zealand, in 1860.
In the House of Representatives he soon made good his footing, becoming almost at once a recognized spokesman for the smaller sort of rural settlers and a person of influence in the lobbies.
He acted as government whip for the coalition ministry of Sir Robert Stout and Sir Julius Vogel, 1884-1887, and, while still a private member, scored his first success as a land reformer by carrying the " McKenzie clause " in a land act limiting the area which a state tenant might thenceforth obtain on lease.
He was still, however, comparatively unknown outside his own province when, in January 1891, his party took office and he aided John Ballance in forming a ministry, in which he himself held the portfolio of lands, immigration and agriculture.
Generally his aim was to break up and subdivide the great freehold and leasehold properties which in his time covered four-sevenths of the occupied land of the colony.
In his Land Act of 1892 he consolidated, abolished or amended, fifty land acts and ordinances dealing with crown lands, and thereafter amended his own act four times.
As a compromise he introduced the lease in perpetuity or holding for 999 years at a quit rent fixed at 4%; theoretical objections have since led to its abolition, but for fifteen years much genuine settlement took place under its conditions.
In 1776 Henry Mackenzie married Penuel. They had eleven children.
