Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/801

 MACKINTOSH of society, far more congenial to Ms tastes than the life of a medical practitioner. While his plans were thus undetermined, and he felt the pressure of pecuniary difficulties, he married a young lady without fortune, and found him- self at the age of 24 with no prospect of pro- fessional settlement, with his property rapid- ly diminishing, and with a wife. The malady which attacked the king in 1788, and largely occupied the public attention, led him to ad- vertise a work on insanity, a considerable por- tion of which was written, but which was never published. During the struggle con- cerning the regency he made his first public appearance in politics, the field then most con- genial to his thoughts, by writing a pamphlet in support of Mr. Fox. In 1789 he made a tour with his wife through the Netherlands to Brussels, and on his return to London he con- tributed articles on the affairs of Belgium and France to the " Oracle " newspaper, which led to his superintendence of the foreign depart- ment of that journal. From this period dates his resolution to study law and change his pro- fession. Burke's " Reflections on the French Revolution" was generally received with en- thusiasm by the educated classes, and with in- dignation by those who favored the French principles of liberty. Numerous replies were immediately published, and in the Vindicice Gallica (April, 1791) Mackintosh appeared as the apostle of liberalism, with a beauty of style and illustration which placed him at once in the front rank of his party. His acquaintance was sought by the most eminent whigs of the day, and upon the formation of the association of the friends of the people he became its sec- retary, in which semi-official character he de- fended its principles in a letter to Pitt. He was called to the bar in 1795, and attached himself to the home circuit. But the techni- calities of the law were distasteful to his gen- eralizing and philosophical mind, and excur- sive reading and occasional contributions to periodicals divided his attention, when in 1797 he suffered a severe affliction in -the loss of his wife. In 1799 he formed the plan of a series of lectures upon the law of nature and of na- tions, for which the benchers of Lincoln's Inn granted him the use of their hall. The repu- tation gained by his lectures favored his pro- fessional advancement, and for a few years he was chiefly occupied with legal practice. His forensic reputation was raised to its highest point by his effort as counsel for Peltier (Feb. 21, 1803), accused of libel on the first consul of France. " I perfectly approve of the ver- dict," wrote Erskine, "but the manner in which you opposed it I shall always consid- er as one of the most splendid monuments of genius, learning, and eloquence." By the friendly interest of Canning he obtained the recordership of Bombay, and was knighted. He reached India in May, 1804, and in 1806 received the additional appointment of judge of the admiralty court. At Bombay he founded MACK VON LEIBERICII 795 and was president of the literary society, for the investigation of the philosophy, arts, lit- erature, geography, and history of India. He returned to England, poor and with broken health, in 1812. In 1813 he was returned to parliament in the whig interest for the county of Nairn, and retained his seat successively for Nairn and Knaresborough during the remain- der of his life. In 1818 he was appointed professor of law in the college at Haileybury, and discharged the duties till 1824. Under Lord Grey's administration in 1830 he became a member of the board of control, though a seat in the cabinet was generally expected for him. His last great political effort was a speech advocating the reform bill (July 4, 1831). While in India he planned a history of England from the reign of James II., which was prosecuted from time to time, though ul- timately he changed his scheme and wrote a brief but highly esteemed general survey of English history down to the reign of Elizabeth, forming three volumes of Lardner's " Cabinet Cyclopaedia;" a new edition in 2 vols., revised by his son, was published in 1853 ; the work has also been continued to 1760 by Wallace and Bell (10 vols., London, 1830-'38). Of his larger work only a fragment was posthumously published, containing an account of the rev- olution of 1688, which Macaulay pronounced decidedly the best history of the reign of James II. Among his works originally writ- ten for Lardner's " Cyclopaedia," and afterward Siblished separately, is a " Life of Sir Thomas ore" (London, 1844). For the "Encyclo- paedia Britannica " he wrote an introductory " Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Phi- losophy;" the original outline of which his de- clining health obliged him to compress. His miscellaneous works, including his contribu- tions to the "Edinburgh Review," have been collected (3 vols., London, 1846; 1 vol., Phila- delphia). The "Memoirs" of his life by his son (2 vols., London, 1835 ; Boston, 1853) in- cludes also his autobiography, journal corre- spondence, and many fragments and sketches. MACK VON LEIBERICH, Karl, baron, an Aus- trian general, born at Neuslingen, Franconia, Aug. 25, 1752, died at St. Polten, near Vienna, Oct. 22, 1828. He rose from humble life, served in Turkey under Laudon, and against France in the Netherlands in 1792-'3. Appointed in 1798 generalissimo of the Neapolitan troops, he was defeated by Macdonald and Champion- net, and incurring the suspicion of the Nea- politans, gave himself up to the French gen- erals, by whom he was sent as prisoner to Paris, but made his escape and held command in Tyrol, Dalmatia, and Italy in 1804, and in S. W. Germany in 1805. Surrounded by Na- poleon's armies, he surrendered the fortress of Ulm (Oct. 20, 1805) with a garrison of about 23,000 men, among whom were 18 gen- eral officers, with 40 stands of colors and 60 pieces of artillery. The spectacle of the tri- umph of the French at Ulm had a powerful