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 the health of the younger children, and sailed in February 1810. He was urged by his English friends to remain after the five years, which entitled him to a pension, in order to make some more money. His poverty, he admitted, showed 'a want of common sense. I can no more learn to play the game of life than that of whist' (ib. ii. 2). The state of his health made a departure imperative before he had stayed much longer, and he sailed for England on 6 Nov. 1811. He had gradually secured the goodwill of his countrymen by his ability and kindliness, and received addresses with requests for his portrait from the grand jury and the 'Literary Society,' In his last charge to the grand jury he congratulated himself especially on having been able greatly to dispense entirely with capital punishment (just afterwards he had to sentence one man to death) without any increase of crimes (ib. ii. 110).

Mackintosh landed at Weymouth on 26 April 1812. He immediately received an offer of a seat in parliament from his old friend Perceval, now prime minister. He wrote a reply, saying that he could not accept an offer by which he would be implicitly pledged to resist an immediate repeal of Roman catholic disabilities. Perceval was assassinated before receiving the answer. Scarlett (afterwards Lord Abinger) had meanwhile been empowered by Lord Cawdor to offer Mackintosh a seat for the county of Nairn, if he should still adhere to the whig politics. Mackintosh in reply produced the letter to Perceval as a proof of his unchanged views, and was elected for Nairn in June 1813. His health had suffered permanently from the Indian climate, and he had to pay several visits to Bath and Cheltenham. During the homeward voyage he had begun the introduction to his contemplated history of England from the revolution of 1688 to the French revolution. He was allowed to examine the Stuart papers then at Carlton House (ib. ii. 265); he examined also the French archives during some foreign trips, and collected in time fifty volumes of manuscript notes (ib. ii. 334). He made his first speech in the House of Commons on 14 Dec. 1813, protesting against the threatened interference of the allies in Holland and Switzerland, and at the end of the session made an appeal for Poland, which was warmly acknowledged by Kosciusko (ib. ii. 279). He also supported Romilly's attempt to reform the criminal law by abolishing the 'corruption of blood' of convicted felons. It soon became clear to his friends that his weakened health would disqualify him from at once writing history and attending to politics. He took Weed on Lodge, nearly Aylesbury, in order to secure some retirement, and spent there great part of three years. Unfortunately he did not break off his parliamentary career. He was elected for Knaresborough, a borough belonging to the Duke of Devonshire, in the parliament which met in January 1819. Some of his speeches were successful; but Macaulay, a friendly witness, says that he 'rather lectured than debated' (Essay on Mackintosh's History of the Revolution), and that his most splendid orations produced less effect than always attended the speaking of men without a tenth part of his abilities. He was, however, an able and faithful defender of liberal principles. He vigorously opposed the repressive measures which followed the peace, the 'Seditious Meetings Bill' of 1817, the 'Six Acts,' and the 'Alien Bill,' renewed periodically in 1818, 1820, 1822. On 10 June 1819 he made an eloquent speech, opposing the Foreign Enlistment Bill, directed against the supplies sent to the Spanish colonies. He supported Romilly's proposals for softening the severity of the criminal law, and after Romilly's death in 1818 took charge of similar measures. On 2 March 1819 he carried a motion against the government, by a majority of nineteen, for a committee to consider capital punishment. He introduced in 1820 six hills embodying the recommendations of the committee, three of which only became law (1 Geo. IV, 116, 116, 117). On 21 May 1823 he proposed nine resolutions to the house for abolishing the punishment of death in many cases. Peel, then home secretary, moved and carried the previous question, but promised to introduce some measures of the same kind, and Mackintosh left the question to be taken up by the government.

In February 1818 Mackintosh was appointed to the professorship of 'law and general politics' at Haileybury, worth about 300l. a year, and took a house at Mardocks, near Ware. He had to give lectures two days a week (scheme given in Life, ii. 362-372), which probably cost little trouble. He was long the colleague and friend of Malthus. In 1820, upon the death of (1778–1820) [(q. v.],he had the offer of succeeding to the chair of moral philosophy at Edinburgh, but was persuaded by his political friends to decline. He resigned his post at Haileybury in 1824, and was succeeded by  [q. v.] He had written for the 'Edinburgh Review' since his return, and was unable to refuse applications from the editor, although to the delay of his history. James Mill harshly says that he only lived for 'social display' and to be talked of in certain circles (, p. 25). It seems, too, that