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adjoining county court, before whom the same shall be heard and determined, &c.

CHAPTER 166. An act annulling the marriage of James Barnes and Mable Barnes, of Talbot county.

CHAPTER 167. A supplement to the act, entitled, An act to incorporate a company for erecting a bridge over Chester river at Chestertown.

CHAPTER 168. An act to fix and establish the pay of the adjutant-general and brigade-inspectors.

CHAPTER 169. An act to establish a board of agriculture for the counties therein mentioned.

CHAPTER 170. An act for the payment of the journal of

accounts.

In addition to these acts a number of resolutions were passed, all of which are of a local nature except one, which is here inserted literatim et punctuatim. As there can be no " judgment and wisdom" without deliberation, and as the embargo act was passed without any knowledge of facts, but upon the high responsibility of the President, according to Mr. Adams, we cannot conceive a more bitter sarcasm upon the blind confidence and slavish adulation which distinguished the proceeding of Congress on that momentous occasion.

WHEREAS the general assembly of Maryland have, on all occasions, viewed with the deepest interest and utmost solicitude, every change in the aspect of our foreign relations, the present novel and interesting crisis peculiarly demand an expression of the public will, through the medium of the legislature; therefore

RESOLVED, That the late act of congress, imposing an embargo, is in the opinion of this general assembly, a measure strongly characteristic of the judgment and wisdom of our national councils, and well calculated to inspire confidence in the individuals of the nation which they represent.

BIOGRAPHY.

OF the different subjects which our plan embraces, not only our taste, but our sense of its intrinsic importance, will induce us to remit no exertion in the collection of accurate sketches of those distinguished men, who have adorned the tide of time. No pursuit is more worthy the attention of the liberal scholar than that which leads him into the interior recesses of the studious, and unfolds to his inquisitive research the restless operations of genius. There he contemplates the infant conceptions of ambition, and pursues her footsteps through every impediment, until she attains the pinnacle of fame.

He may listen to the thunder of a Demosthenes who rekindled the expiring flame of patriotism in every Athenian breast, or admire the perspicuous mind of a Mansfield which indicated and explained the immutable principles of truth to a British bar.

He who peruses the abundant volume of biography will find a mirror in every page. The world, says Livy, contains people of all sorts. If the student be dismayed by the tyranny of oppression, or shackled by the galling chain of poverty, he will there learn that it is the glorious privilege of genius to surmount every obstacle. If, without regard to the common maxims of life, he suffer himself to be deluded by the syren song of pleasure, or fascinated by the bewitching strains of imagination, he may learn from the bitter experience of those who have trod these velvet paths, that nothing will supply the want of prudence; and that negligence and irregularity, long continued, will make knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius contemptible.

In so fertile a field no man can long slumber in the apathy of neutrality. However he may be depressed by despondency or enervated by indolence, the brilliant spectacle which is there exhibited to his curious eye, cannot but rouse his inactivity to exertion, and summon him to vindicate the honour of his nature.

If such be the uses and pleasures of Biography, the Editor requires no apology for devoting a portion of his Miscellany to so important a study. The bench and the bar of the British empire have furnished the world with examples of eloquence and learning, which would have added new lustre to the brightest days of Greece or the noblest period of Roman history. Upon this copious exchequer the Editor will draw with confidence, being assured that he shall contribute to the treasures of his own country, and render that homage which is justly due to merit under whatever clime it diffuse its genial rays. He will also consider himself as highly indebted to those who may supply him with memoirs of the eminent men of this nation, who have challenged a place on the rolls of fame, and taught an envious world that America is not less the nurse of liberty than the cradle of glory.

R

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF

SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH,

RECORDER OF BOMBAY, &c.

WE are fully sensible how difficult it is to comprise, within

the narrow limits allotted to our biographical sketches, any thing like a satisfactory account of the life and writings of men distinguished for genius, and eminent for learning. But we are equally sensible how curious the public must feel, to learn whatever particulars may be collected of persons, who, like the gentleman of whom we are now proceeding to speak, are enabled, by the direction of their talents, so powerfully to influence the opinion and the taste of the nation. Respecting such men, we think it better to say even a little, than remain wholly silent; always anxious to exert ourselves to gratify the laudable curiosity of our readers, while we are equally desirous to advance nothing, but what we derive from faithful and authentic sources.

James Mackintosh (now Sir James) is descended of an ancient and respectable family, in the Highlands of Scotland, which possessed a small estate of about 500. a-year. He was born on the 24th of October, 1765, in the parish of Dores, in the county of Inverness, and the care of his infant years was intrusted to his grandmother. At the age of seven he was relieved from female tuition, and removed to the school of Fortrose, where his juvenile studies were ably superintended, first by a Mr. Smith, and afterwards by a Mr. Stalker. His proficiency was such as announced the dawn of extraordinary

URNAL,

AMERICAN LAW JOURNAL, &c.

123

talents; and he was particularly remarkable for quickness of conception and retentiveness of memory, the power of the mind, which is generally the earliest to expand itself, and in which to excel is the first intellectual struggle of puerile emulation. When he had scarcely reached the age of thirteen, he had already acquired all that the school of Fortrose was competent to teach; and by the advice of his master he was sent to King's College, Aberdeen. Here he applied with equal diligence and success, to a more critical study of the classics, under Mr. Ogilvie; and was afterwards initiated in the elements of philosophy, under Dr. Dunbar. In the one he evinced the elegance of his taste, in the other the acuteness of his understanding, and in both he afforded an instance of such rapid improvement as had seldom been observed in that or any other university. To whatever department of science the propensities of his own mind inclined him, he was now intended by his friends for the profession of physic, and with that view he removed to Edinburgh. The literary fame, which the superiority of his talents had acquired at Aberdeen, travelled before him to Edinburgh, and, on his arrival, his acquaintance and company were eagerly courted by those students who aspired to equal eminence, or who embarked in similar pursuits. If Edinburgh afforded him more various facilities of improvement, it also held out opportunities of pleasure and dissipation, in which the most cautious youth is often but too prone to indulge. Young Mackintosh was not altogether proof against the frailties of his age, and he indulged pretty freely in all those enjoyments in which its ardour and impetuosity are wont to revel. The character however of his dissipation was very different from that of the generality of young men. Whatever might be the inconstancy of his other amours, the love of knowledge never once deserted him. Whether he sighed in the Idalian groves, or joined in the roar of the convivial board, he had constantly a book in his hand; and most commonly an ancient or a modern poet, upon whose sentiments or diction he frequently interposed some observations, and to which he endeavoured to direct the attention and remarks of others. He was thus unremittingly

active in the exercise of his mind, and thus happily contrived to imbibe instruction with his wine. But the particular bias of his mind soon began to declare itself; his attendance at the medical lectures became daily less frequent; and he was jocosely styled, by his fellow students, an honorary member of the classes. Notwithstanding however this apparent inattention, his medical knowledge was astonishingly extensive, and he was observed to collect it from conversing with those who were known to be most sedulous and successful in such pursuits. He was likewise a distinguished member of the Medical Society, in which he made his first essay in public speaking, and in which he was admired, not only for eloquence and acuteness, but also for the profoundness of his medical researches. His favourite society however was the speculative, in which literary, metaphysical and political subjects were discussed, and which afforded him happier opportunities of displaying the versatility of his genius and the variety of his accomplish

ments.

In the year 1787, the career of his medical studies drew near to a close; and previous to taking his degree of Doctor, he was obliged to write a Latin thesis, in conformity with the rules of the university, which is submitted to the professors as a probationary essay. His habitual indolence, for no man was ever, with such mental activity, physically more indolent, and his general disrelish of medical subjects, made him postpone this production until the last moment; but when it was produced, it bore the stamp and features of a mind which could give birth to nothing vulgar or subordinate. He chose indeed a subject (muscular motion) which at once gave room for the display of his physiological and metaphysical knowledge, and the intricacy and obscurity of which he aptly alluded to in the motto prefixed to the dissertation: "Latet arcaná non enarrabile fibra." On this intricate and obscure question, he was supposed to have thrown as much light as it has hitherto been thought susceptible of, and as it was well possible to concentrate within the limits usually prescribed to these academical essays. But another, and more striking instance here occurred of the

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