The recurrence of the vacations, which were commonly spent with his aunt at Farr, or with his other kind relatives, Mr. and Mrs. Fraser, at Moniach, also in the neighbourhood of Inverness, released him for a time to breathe morally, as well as naturally, a purer atmosphere amongst his native hills. Thither he was accompanied only by that ardent love of study and literary abstraction*, which had become the presiding habit of his mind.

The allotted course of education having now elapsed, he became candidate for a degree, and prepared, in conformity with custom, a thesis to be submitted to the professors, as one of the tests of qualification. The subject he selected was, "De motu musculari t;" one of so much intricacy and doubt, as to cause very general surprise in those who had been cognizant of his desultory mode of study, at the lucid manner in which the inquiry into the different hitherto received opinions was conducted; he himself supporting the theory of Haller regarding the necessary intervention of nervous action. in producing muscular irritability, against that of Whytt, and the more generally received opinions of the time.

* Amusing instances might be cited. One day, after he had been conversing with Mrs. Fraser, a key, which was much wanted, as some visiters were waiting for some refreshments of wine, &c., and it "oped that sacred source of sympathetic joy"-could not be found; it struck her that Mr. M., in an absent mood, might have taken it up. A servant was despatched after him, by whom he was found in a pool of the burn, which runs by the house, bathing, with his clothes on one stone, and kis watch on another, while the young philosopher was busily employed in feeling his own pulse, to discover the difference made upon its pulsation by the immersion of his body in water; the key being, as was suspected in his waistcoat-pocket.

It was dedicated to his intimate friend, the late Dr. Alexander, of Halifax. Another of his associates was the late Dr. Sayers, of Norwich, whom he used to meet subsequently, during his frequent visits to that city.

It was somewhat characteristic, that on the morning of the examination, although it did not take place till between ten and eleven o'clock, he kept the Senatus Academicus waiting for him a considerable time. "For this disrespectful inattention, he, however," adds Dr. Fleming, "abundantly atoned by the quickness and dexterity with which he replied to the different objections that were urged against his positions."

Having obtained his diploma, he lingered in Edinburgh for some weeks after the session had closed, and quitted it finally in the month of September following, with a store of knowledge more varied and comprehensive, than methodically arranged, or concentrated on professional objects, but with aroused energies, and youthful confidence in the future.

CHAPTER II.

ARRIVAL IN LONDON-PERIOD OF POLITICAL EXCITEMENT-CONTEMPLATES A MEDICAL APPOINTMENT IN RUSSIA MARRIAGE-PAMPHLET

ON THE REGENCY ABANDONS THE MEDICAL FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION"VINDICIÆ GALLICE"-"FRIENDS OF the people -LETTER TO MR. PITT -CALLED TO THE BAR CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. BURKE-VISIT TO BEACONSFIELD-DEATH OF MRS. MACKINTOSH-LETTER TO DR. PARR.

THE time when, what is imputed to his countrymen as an instinctive inclination towards the south might be indulged, was now arrived, and Mr. Mackintosh repaired, for the first time, to London, in the beginning of the next spring (1788), where he took up his abode as a boarder, in the house of Mr. Fraser, a worthy man, and a maternal relation, who was then carrying on the business of a wine merchant in Clipstone Street, near Fitzroy Square. He was accompanied, on this occasion, by one of his most intimate college friends, Mr. Grant, who still survives, but not in a state of health to supply any memorials of what passed in the mind of his companion at that moment-so full of hope and fear-in the struggle of unaided genius.

The scene for which he longed was now before him; and he had arrived on the great stage of action at a moment sufficiently distracting for one of more advanced age, and more settled pursuits. At the point of time when a young enthusiast for public happiness came in contact with society, it was already heaving with the coming storm, which was so soon to burst over a neighbouring country, and eventually to shake every other to its lowest foundations.

In the former, to recur for a moment to the circumstances of the period-in France, the opposite evils and errors of actual legislation, and of long neglect, were keenly felt. A long period of unprecedented internal peace had indeed in those countries of Europe, in which civilisation had made the greatest strides, diffused an elegance of manners, a toleration and liberality of thought, and an extent of information unparalleled in the past history of mankind. The progress of political knowledge and speculation, even while it was unmarked, and considered only as idle theory, was real and great. Voltaire had laughed at all abuses, and sometimes at the most valuable truths. Rousseau had laid bare the very foundations of society; and by a singular union of metaphysical thought, with profound and eloquent sensibility, had created a numerous body of disciples of every class and rank. The works of Montesquieu, sage, temperate, and pregnant with thought, had become the manual of statesmen and philosophers. The speculations derived from these sources, long silently working among men of letters, and, indeed among readers of every description on the Continent, had rendered familiar to the public mind many opinions and principles, which, though considered as only curious and amusing subjects of nearly barren political disquisition, lay in their minds, and formed a combustible mass, ready at the first touch to be roused into action, with a force altogether unsuspected by the most sanguine of these speculators themselves. The reasonings of the economists, though exposed to ridicule by the wits and courtiers of the time, had not been without their influence.

While these materials were mingling and fermenting in the public mind, two great events gave them unlooked for energy. The one was the revolt of the American colonies from England; the other, the financial bankruptcy of France. The former, being countenanced by

the French ministry, accustomed the new allies of the colonies to defend their interference on reasonings drawn from the very fundamental principles of society, and to apply to actual events, discussions that had always before terminated in barren generalities. The latter induced the government to invite its subjects, at a crisis of extreme difficulty, to assist it in the management of national affairs. It is to be recollected, that no class of Frenchmen had ever been admitted to any share in public affairs, or had received the advantage of the slightest training in the practice, even of provincial or municipal legislation; but, on this invitation, they hurried to the work, full of the most generous intentions, excited by grand and swelling plans, long indulged and cherished as elegant and benevolent theories. The accumulated abuses of long years of mismanagement unfortunately presented too many objects of legitimate attack to the honest, but inexperienced, legislators, who longed to improve the institutions of their country. It would have been well, had the sudden consciousness of the possession of power permitted a calm and discreet exercise of it. The scene opened to their view was totally new, and filled them with generous but vague dreams of happiness and perfection.

In England, where various classes had long possessed a share in the government, in proportion as less was to be done the ideas of men were more precise and definite; still, however, even here a widely extended impression existed, that a great political regeneration was at hand; and numbers of even the best informed men in Europe, in general, looked forward to a grand and immediate improvement in the social institutions of the world. The influence of these opinions pervaded every rank, and was felt in every company. They were opposed or defended