Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/156

Mackenzie , rural economy, and commerce of the island. Although the scientific portions of the book have long been superseded, it contains much information of permanent interest on the social and economic condition of Iceland. It was favourably reviewed by Robert Southey (Quarterly Review, vii. 48–92). To illustrate the conclusions he had formed with regard to the geology of Iceland, Mackenzie visited the Faroe Islands in 1812, and on his return read an account of his observations before the Edinburgh Royal Society (Edinb. Roy. Soc. Trans, vii. 218–28). Shortly afterwards he drew up a careful report on the agriculture of Ross and Cromarty for the board of agriculture ('General View of the Agriculture of Ross and Cromarty,' 1813, 8vo). From 1826 to 1848 he contributed numerous papers to the discussion of the origin of the 'parallel roads' of Lochaber, but the views which he expressed did not gain acceptance (Phil. Mag. vii. 433–6; Edinb. Roy. Soc. Proc. i. 348, 349; Edinb. New Phil. Journ. xliv. 1–12). He died in October 1848.

Mackenzie married, first, 8 June 1802, Mary, fifth daughter of Donald Macleod of Geanies, sheriff of Ross-shire, by whom he had seven sons and three daughters. On her death (13 Jan. 1835) he married, secondly, Katharine, second daughter of Sir Henry Jardine of Harwood, and widow of Captain John Street, R.A., by whom he had one son.

In addition to the works mentioned above the following books and papers may be noticed: 1. 'Treatise on the Diseases and Management of Sheep. With ... an Appendix containing documents exhibiting the value of the merino breed,' Inverness, 1807, 8vo. 2. 'An Essay on some Subjects connected with Taste,' Edinburgh, 1817; 2nd edit. 1842. 3. 'Illustrations of Phrenology. With Engravings,' Edinburgh, 1820, 8vo. 4. 'Documents laid before. . . Lord Glenelg. . . relative to the Convicts sent to New South Wales,' Edinburgh, 1836, 8vo. 5. 'General Observations on the Principles of Education, &c.' Edinburgh, 1836, 12mo. 6. 'On the most Recent Disturbance of the Crust of the Earth in respect to its Suggesting an Hypothesis to Account for the Origin of Glaciers' (Edinb. New Phil. Journ. xxxiii. 1–9).

 MACKENZIE, HENRY (1745–1831), novelist and miscellaneous writer, was born in August 1745 at Edinburgh, where his father, Joshua Mackenzie, was a physician of eminence. His mother was Margaret, eldest daughter of Hugh Rose of Kilravock, of an old Nairnshire family (, Landed Gentry, p. 1189). He was educated at the high school and university of his native city, and in boyhood showed so much intelligence that he was allowed to be present, as a sort of amateur page, at the literary tea-parties then the fashion in Edinburgh. He was articled to an Edinburgh solicitor, in order to acquire a knowledge of exchequer business. In 1765 he went to London to study the methods of English exchequer practice, and returning to Edinburgh became the partner of his former employer, George Inglis, of Redhall, whom he succeeded as attorney for the crown in Scotland. He soon began to write a sentimental novel, largely under the influence of Sterne. It was entitled ‘The Man of Feeling,’ and its style was remarkable for perspicuity. But the sensibility had a tendency to grow lackadaisical, and booksellers long declined to publish it even as a gratuitous offering. At length, in 1771, it appeared anonymously, and the impression it produced was very soon compared to that made at Paris by ‘La Nouvelle Héloise.’ Subsequently a Mr. Eccles, a young clergyman of Bath, was tempted to claim its authorship, and in support of his pretension produced, as the original manuscript of it, a transcript of the work made by himself, with erasures and interlineations. Though Mackenzie's publishers issued a formal contradiction and disclosed his responsibility, yet on the death of Eccles in 1777 his epitaph opened with the line: ‘Beneath this stone the Man of Feeling lies’ (, Johnson, 1848 edit. p. 122 and brother's note). In 1773 appeared, also anonymously, Mackenzie's ‘The Man of the World,’ the hero of which was intended to be a striking contrast to ‘The Man of Feeling;’ but its complicated plot and its tedious length injured its literary value. In 1777 appeared, again anonymously, Mackenzie's pathetic ‘Julia de Roubigné,’ a novel in letters, suggested by a remark of Lord Kames [see ] that a morbid excess of sentiment, naturally good, often brought misfortune and misery on those who indulged in it. Talfourd, like Christopher North, regarded ‘Julia’ as the most ‘delightful’ of the author's books. Allan Cunningham found it ‘too melancholy to read.’

Meanwhile in 1773 Mackenzie had successfully produced a tragedy, ‘The Prince of Tunis,’ at the Edinburgh Theatre. His other plays were the ‘Shipwreck,’ a version of Lillo's ‘Fatal Curiosity,’ ‘injudiciously spun out to five acts,’ presented at Covent Garden 10 Feb. 1783; ‘The Force of Fashion, a Comedy’