MACKENZIE

MACKENZIE, SIR GEORGE, a learned writer and eminent lawyer of Scotland, was the grandson of Kenneth, first Lord Mackenzie of Kintail, and the nephew of Colin and George, first and second Earls of Seaforth. He was born at Dundee in 1636; and after passing through the usual course of education in his own country, he was sent to the university of Bourges, at that time denominated the Athens of lawyers, where he remained three years. Young Scotchmen intended for the bar, having no sufficient means of instruction in the Roman law at home, were then accustomed to frequent the university of Bourges, as in later times they repaired to those of Utrecht and Leyden. He was called to the bar in the year 1656, and had risen into considerable practice before the Restoration. Immediately after the Restoration he was appointed one of the justices-depute,—criminal judges who exercised that jurisdiction which was soon afterwards vested in five lords of sessions, under the denomination of commissioners of justice; and in 1661, he and his colleagues were ordained by the parliament "to repair, once in the week at least, to Musselburgh and Dalkeith, and to try and judge such persons as are ther or therabouts delate of witchcraft."

Mackenzie's name appears in the parliamentary proceedings as counsel in almost every cause of importance; and

Mackenzie's connection in that character with the Marquis of Argyll gives no small weight to a passage in his Memoirs respecting a circumstance in the trial of that nobleman, which has been the subject of much historical controversy. Between the years 1663 and 1667 he was knighted. He represented the county of Ross during the four sessions of the parliament which was called in 1669. In 1667 he had been appointed lord-advocate in the room of Sir John Nisbet. By that preferment he was, unhappily for his character, implicated in all the worst acts of the Scotch administration of Charles II. Having betrayed some repugnance, however, to concur in those measures which openly and directly led to the re-establishment of Popery, he was removed from his office in 1686, and (which is not a little remarkable) reinstated in 1688, when such measures were still more avowedly pursued.

At the Revolution he adhered to the fortunes of his royal master. Being elected a member of the convention, he supported the pretensions of King James with courage and ability. King William had been solicited by some eager partisans to declare Mackenzie and a few others incapable of holding any public office; but he refused to accede to the proposal. At this critical juncture Sir George Mackenzie composed and delivered his inaugural address on the foundation of the library of the Faculty of Advocates, which he had been mainly instrumental in establishing; a circumstance evincing no inconsiderable degree of firmness and intrepidity. When the death of Dundee destroyed the hopes of his party in Scotland, he took refuge in Oxford, the natural asylum of so learned and inveterate a Tory. But, under the tolerant government of King William, he appears to have enjoyed, in perfect security, his ample fortune, the fruit of his professional labours.

In the spring of 1691, Sir George Mackenzie went to London, where he contracted a disorder which carried him off. He died in St James's Street, on the 2d of May 1691; and his death is mentioned as that of an extraordinary person by several of those who recorded the events of their time. His body was conveyed by land to Scotland, and interred with great pomp and splendour in the Greyfriars churchyard, Edinburgh; a circumstance which shows how little the administration of William was disposed to discourage the funereal honours paid to its most inflexible opponents.

The writings of Sir George Mackenzie are literary, legal, and political. His Miscellaneous Essays, both in prose and verse, considered as the elegant amusements of a statesman and lawyer, afford evidence of the refinement of his taste and the variety of his accomplishments. In several of his moral essays, both the subject and the manner betray an imitation of Cowley; and we find Evelyn and Dryden speaking highly of his merits as a writer.

His work, On the Laws and Customs of Scotland in Matters Criminal, published in 1678, and dedicated to the Duke of Lauderdale, is an ingenious and plausible production.

The works of Sir George Mackenzie were published at Edinburgh in two volumes folio, in 1716 and 1722. A History of the Affairs of Scotland from the Restoration of King Charles II. 1660, to the [year] 1691, was published at Edinburgh in 1821, 4to, under the editorial superintendence of Mr Thomas Thomson, who, in an able preface, related the singular circumstances in which the manuscript was rescued from destruction. It is to be regretted, however, that the portion thus published ends at the very time when the author's means of information became more ample. For many reasons, it would be highly desirable to possess the sequel of these Memoirs. (See Edinburgh Review, xxxvi. 1.)