Background
James Mackintosh was born at Aldourie on October 24, 1765. He was the son of Captain John Mackintosh of Kellachie Both his parents were from old Highland families.
( Vindiciae Gallicae was James Mackintoshs first major p...)
Vindiciae Gallicae was James Mackintoshs first major publication, a contribution to the debate begun by Edmund Burkes Reflections on the Revolution in France. The success of Mackintoshs defense of the French Revolution propelled him into the heart of London Whig circles. Following the September 1792 massacres Mackintosh, along with other moderate Whigs, revised his opinions and moved closer to Burkes position. The Liberty Fund edition also includes Mackintoshs Discourse on the Law of Nature and Nations, Letter to William Pitt, and On the State of France in 1815. James Mackintosh (17651832) was a prominent Scottish Whig. Donald Winch is Research Professor in the School of Humanities at the University of Sussex and a Fellow of the British Academy. Please note: This title is available as an ebook for purchase on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0084H1ULO/?tag=2022091-20
James Mackintosh was born at Aldourie on October 24, 1765. He was the son of Captain John Mackintosh of Kellachie Both his parents were from old Highland families.
James Mackintosh went in 1780 to college at Aberdeen, where he made a friend of Robert Hall, afterwards the famous preacher.
In 1784 he proceeded for the study of medicine to Edinburgh, where he participated to the full in the intellectual ferment, but did not quite neglect his medical studies, and took his degree in 1787.
As a lawyer his greatest public efforts were his lectures (1790) at Lincoln's Inn on the law of nature and nations, of which the introductory discourse was published, and his eloquent defence (1803) .
In 1788 James Mackintosh removed to London, then agitated by the trial of Warren Hastings and the king's first lapse into insanity.
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 Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution.
It was the only worthy answer to Burke that appeared.
The success of the Vindiciae finally decided him to give up the medical for the legal profession.
He was called to the bar inand gained a considerable reputation there as well as a tolerable practice.
of Jean Gabriel Peltier, a French refugee, tried at the instance of the French government for a libel against the first consul.
He courteously declined the offer of Perceval to resume political life under the auspices of the dominant Tory party, though tempting prospects of office in connexion with India were opened up.
He sat for that county, and afterwards for Knaresborough, till his death.
On Mme de Stael's visit to London he was the only Englishman capable of representing his country in talk with her.
This was the Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy, prefixed to the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
The dissertation, written mostly in ill-health and in snatches of time taken from his parliamentary engagements, was published in 1831.
It was severely attacked in 1835 by James Mill in his Fragment on Mackintosh.
About the same time he wrote for the Cabinet Cyclopaedia a " History of England from the Earliest Times to the Final Establishment of the Reformation. "
His more elaborate History of the Revolution, for which he had made great researches and collections, was not published till after his death.
( Vindiciae Gallicae was James Mackintoshs first major p...)
James Mackintosh entered parliament in the Whig interest as member for Nairn.
His parliamentary career was marked by the same wide and candid liberalism as his private life.
He opposed the reactionary measures of the Tory government, supported and afterwards succeeded Romilly in his efforts for reforming the criminal code, and took a leading part both in Catholic emancipation and in the Reform Bill.
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (later the RSPCA), Nairn
In 1789 James Mackintosh married Catherine Stuart. They had a son, who died in infancy, and three daughters:
Mary Mackintosh (1789–1876),
Maitland Mackintosh (1792–1861). Catherine Mackintosh.
In 1797 his wife died, and next year he married Catherine Allen. They had 2 dauthers:
Frances Emma Elizabeth Mackintosh (Fanny),
Bessy Mackintosh (1804–1823).
