he was in want of ready money. He managed, after many delays from illness, and making some omissions, to finish in the spring of 1830 what is perhaps his most important work, the 'Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy,' for the 'Encyclopædia Britannica,' He wrote also the short 'History of England' for the 'Cabinet Cyclopædia.' Macaulay says (to Lansdowne, 25 Dec. 1833) that to him the thought of bearing from publishers and editors what Dryden bore from Tonson, and what, to his own knowledge, Mackintosh bore from Lardner, was 'horrible.' For Lardner he also wrote a life of Sir Thomas More. He was one of the chief celebrities at Holland House, and after leaving Haileybury resided for some time at Lord Holland's seat, Ampthill Park in Bedfordshire. According to Scarlett, Canning, upon forming his administration of 1827, was surprised that Mackintosh was not proposed as one of his colleagues by the whigs (Life, ii. 295). He was shortly afterwards made a privy councillor, but it seems that he had not made a sufficient mark as a practical politician, or was regarded as too infirm to be fit for any important office. His wife died on 6 May 1830, while on a visit to her sister, Madame Sismondi, near Geneva. On the formation of the whig government in the following November he was made a commissioner of the board of control, a post which had been offered to him through Canning in 1812, during the negotiations which followed Perceval's death. Mackintosh was disappointed by the insignificance of his new position, but took part in the inquiry into East Indian affairs which preceded the renewal of the company's charter. He supported the second reading of the Reform Bill in 1831 (4 July), in a speech which was respectfully received, in spite of its philosophical generalities. He spoke for the last time on 9 Feb. 1832, in a debate upon Portuguese affairs in the new parliament. A trifling accident to his throat from swallowing a chicken-bone caused an inflammation. He sank gradually, always preserving his sweetness of temper, and died at his house in Langham Place on 30 May 1832. He was buried at Hampstead on 4 June.
Mackintosh's historical writings, though tending to discourse rather than narrative, show reading and a judicial temper, but have been superseded by later books. The 'Dissertation upon Ethical Philosophy' is perfunctory, except in regard to the English moralists since Hobbes, and greatly wanting in clearness and precision. It is intended to be eclectic, accepting Hume's doctrine of utility as the 'criterion' of morals, and Butler's doctrine of the supremacy of the conscience, while the formation of the conscience is explained by Hartley's doctrine of association. In substance it seems to be a modification of utilitarianism, and suggests some important amendments in the theory. James Mill, however, attacked it with excessive severity in his 'Fragment on Mackintosh,' 1835, and exposed much looseness of thought and language. Mackintosh was entrusted with some metaphysical papers written by Thomas Wedgwood, and undertook to write his life, but the papers disappeared, and the life remained unwritten.
His works are:
- 'Disputatio physiologica inauguralis de actione musculari, 1787.
- 'Vindiciæ Gallicæ' (1791, three editions, 1837).
- 'Discourse on the Study of the Law of Nature and Nations' (at Lincoln's Inn, 13 Feb. 1799), 1799.
- 'Speech in Defence of Peltier,' 1803.
- 'History of England' (in Lardner's 'Cabinet Cyclopædia, 1830 (new edition in 1853).
- 'Life of Sir Thomas More' (in Lardner's 'Cabinet Cyclopædia'), 1830.
- 'Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy, chiefly during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries' (in supplement to 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' and privately printed), 1830; with preface by Whewell in 1886; tenth edition 1872.
- 'History of the Revolution in England in 1688' (with biographical notice), 1834.
- 'Tracts and Speeches' (1787-1831), privately printed, 1840.
- 'Miscellaneous Works, 3 vols. 1846, includes nearly all the above, with parliamentary speeches and articles from the 'Edinburgh Review.'
A portrait by Lawrence is in the National Portrait Gallery, London, and another by Colvin Smith is in the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.
[Life by his Son, R. J. Mackintosh, 2 vols. 8vo, 1836; Life prefixed to Hist, of Revolution (this life, by a Mr. Wallace, nearly led to a duel between the author and Macaulay, who attacked it with excessive asperity in the article mentioned below. Wallace had no information from the family, but the life could be only offensive to devout believers in the creed of Holland House); Miss Meteyard's Group of Eminent Englishmen, 1871, pp. 58, 143, 158, 159, 241, 294, 305, 316, 383, 387; Moore's Diaries, ii. 245, 315, iii. 382, vi. xi, 81, 90, 292; Macaulay's Essay upon the Hist, of the Revolution describes his conversation and character (cf. Froude's Life of Carlyle, ii. 204, and Scott's Journal, vol. ii. passim). A good essay is in Hazlitt's Spirit of the Age, and another in Lord Dalling's Historical Characters, 5th edit. 1876, pp. 254-306.]
MACKINTOSH, WILLIAM (1662–1743), of Borlum, Inverness-shire, brigadier in the Pretender's service, eldest of the five
