Colonies with Great Britain was then at hand.

At the age of twentyeight, he was called to the responsible and hazardous station of one of the Committee of Safety, for Orange county, N. C. It was the business of this committee to promote the revolutionary spirit among the people to procure a supply of arms and ammunition and to make collections for the people of Boston, the harbor of which was blocked up by a British fleet, and to prevent the sale and consumption of East India Teas. In August, 1775, Col. Rochester's legislative career commenced, as a member of the Provincial Convention of North-Carolina. From this convention his first commission as Major of militia emanat ed; and the rapid progress of hostilities did not leave him long without an opportunity of signalizing himself. The immediate call upon his services, resulted from the secret mission of the British General, Alexander McDonald, to the highland Scotch in Cumberland County refugees from their native land, for adherence to the disastrous fortunes of the Pretender. The schemes of this officer were executed so carefully, that before his intentions were known, one thousand men had been raised and were marching to Wilmington. When intelligence of this reached Hillsborough, Colonel Thackson immediately went in pursuit to Fayetteville, (then called Cross Creek). The enemy had left before they arrived, and Major Rochester was despatched by his commanding officer to overtake them by forced marches, before General McDonald should gain the transports, waiting at the mouth of Cape Fear River,

to convey them to New York. At daybreak, after a march of twenty miles, the General and five hundred of his Scotch recruits, were met on the retreat, having been turned at Moore's Creek Bridge by Colonel Caswell, afterwards the first Governor of the State. Major Rochester captured the whole-but from scarcity of provisions, was compelled to release all but about fifty officers binding the discharged not to serve again during the war against the colonies. On his return to head-quarters, he found that Colonel Martin of the Salisbury minute-men, had arrived with 2000 men, and to him the credit of the capture is by mistake ascribed, by Chief Justice Marshall, in his Life of Washington.

In 1776 Major Rochester was again a member of the convention at Halifax, and by that body was promoted to the rank and pay of a colonel, for the North Carolina Line, and appointed commissary general of military stores and clothing. That Convention organized the state government, by the appointment of a governor, and other officers, and ordered an election of members of a state legislature. In the exercise of his office as commissary, Colonel Rochester was exposed to severe fatigue, and being compelled to travel with great rapidity between all the sea-port towns in Carolina and Virginia- until his health gave way under its pressure of duty by the advice of his medical friends, he reluctantly submitted to a resignation of his office. Before he reached home his election was secured as member of the assembly. After the war, and the resignation of the office of clerk of the court, (which had

in the mean time been given to him,) Colonel Rochester embarked again in mercantile pursuits, first at Philadelphia, and after wards at Hagerstown, Maryland. At this place, for many years, he held the office of Postmaster, until his nomination as one of the Judges of Washington county obliged him to resign it, in 1807. The strong integrity, which was so decided a feature of this venerable man's character, displayed itself here; and, from conscientious scruples, growing out of his ignorance of the law, he abandoned the bench. The office of Sheriff engaged him for the next three years, after which he filled the Presidency of the Hagerstown Bank, until the period of his removal to the State of New York. His first purchase had been made in 1800, in connection with three other gentlemen. In 1802, the site of the flourishing and enterprising village of Rochester, then called 'the hundred acre lot,' was purchased by the same company, at the rate of seventeen dollars and fifty cents per acre. To the place, which had thus received his name, after a residence of eight years in Steuben and Ontario counties, Colonel Rochester removed; and which will be, to late posterities, a proud mausoleum for his honored memory.

As a public man, Colonel Rochester's labors were not terminated by his removal to the Western world. He was summoned to act as presidential elector in 1817; in 1822 he was a member of the legislature. Oppressed by age and increased infirmities, much against his own inclination, he held for a few months the Presidency of the Bank of Rochester. Its successful organization per

mitted him to gratify himself by retiring, and he drew back altogether from active life, to spend his few remaining years in the quiet of his own family.

JAMES MACKINTOSH.

May 30, 1832. At his house in Langham Place, in the 67th year of his age, Sir James Mackintosh. The rare combination of moral and intellectual qualities which was found in the character of this distinguished man, entitles him to a more elaborate notice than the limits of a periodical will allow. History, (of which biography is a handmaid,) has been well termed philosophy, teaching by examples;' but these examples apply rather to communities, than to individuals, and they operate upon the public mind, and shape the destinies of nations, instead of forming the character of the private citizen. Biography, on the contrary, being a delineation of the peculiar qualities, the personal history of some extraordinary man, addresses itself at once to the individual, and by showing how circumstances affect character, and with what care and unceasing labor superior talents are prepared for active life, conduces more directly to self-examination, and stimulates to the imitation of illustrious examples.

The highly gifted subject of our remarks, (who so beautifully united the philosopher, with the man of the world, the lawyer, with the statesman, and to the accomplishments of the gentleman, added the attainments of the scholar,) has not left behind him such accounts of his early life, as to enable us to trace the first steps of his intellectual progress, or of his youthful discipline for the com

bats of manhood. He was born in Alldowrie in the county of Inverness, October 24th, 1765, and was educated at the school of Fortrulo, and at King's College, Aberdeen, where he formed an intimacy with the Rev. Robert Hall, which terminated only with the death of the former, the year previous to the decease of Sir James. Having been intended for the profession of medicine, he repaired to Edinburgh, and attended the lectures of Dr Cullen and Professor Black. He became one of the annual presidents of the Royal Medical Society, but the bent of his mind towards general literature and rhetoric, now began to display itself, and he applied himself with more diligence to the study of moral, political, and speculative philosophy, under the immediate influence of Robertson, Smith, Clark and Brown, than to those more immediately connected with the medical profession.

In 1787, he took his degree and shortly after he went to England, in company with the eldest son of Sir Charles Grant. His attention, however, was now strongly attracted towards politics, and in 1789 he published a pamphlet defending the whig side of the Regency question. This pamphlet did not meet with much success, and Mr Mackintosh repaired to the continent, and after spending some time at Leyden, he went to Leige, where he was an eye-witness to the conflict between the Bishop and his subjects at the opening of the French revolution. On his return to England he relinquished his medical title, and in 1792, entered himself of Lincoln's Inn, without influential friends, but confident in the strength of his talents. In 1791, he became known to the world by the pro

duction of his Vendicia Galliciæ, in reply to the strictures of Burke upon the French revolution. The talent displayed in this work, introduced him to the leaders of the whig party, and from that time he became a marked man. Although this publication in some measure vindicated the French nation from the eloquent and overpowering invective of Burke,, the author himself could not resist the unfavorable impression caused by the sanguinary excesses of the Jacobin leaders, and after an interview with Burke, and a visit to Beaconsbille, he frankly owned to his friends, that he was partially converted to the arguments of his antagonist.

In 1795, he was called to the bar, and unwilling to lose in unprofitable inactivity that leisure usually allowed in the first years of professional life, he announced his intention in 1798, of delivering a course of lectures on the law of nature, and of nations.' Many obstacles were interposed to the execution of this plan, by the violence of party spirit; which was then highly excited, and he was accused of a design to en courage revolutionary principles in England. The publication of the introductory lecture completely refuted this calumny, and not only the leading Whigs, but Mr Pitt himself, spoke of the performance in terms of no measured praise.

The lectures met accordingly with distinguished success, and if Mackintosh had left nothing else, this discourse would have made him eminent with posterity. Mr Mackintosh now began to find employment in his profession, and in 1803, acquired general celebrity by the defence of M. Peltier for a libel against the First Consul of France.

Napoleon, annoyed at the strictures of the press, had caused a complaint through his minister to be made against this person, who conducted a Journal in London, devoted to his opponents.

The English government suffered itself to be so far influenced by this complaint as to institute a prosecution against Peltier for libelling an ally of that country, and Mr Mackintosh was called upon to defend him single handed, against Mr Perceval, who was then Attorney General, and Mr Abbott, afterwards Lord Tenterden. Such an opportunity was never afforded to any advocate to earn distinction at one effort, as was now present ed to the young lawyer. The First Consul, after having restored tranquillity and peace to France, was fast advancing to absolute power, by overturning the constitution which he had sworn to support. His jealousy of the press had already succeeded in suppressing political discussion upon the continent, and Mr Mackintosh was well justified in regarding this prosecution, as the first of contests, between the greatest power upon earth, and the only press which was still free.' The bright prospects to human freedom held out at the opening of the French revolution the disappointment of those hopes by the bloodshed and anarchy the military despotism which was then established in France, all afforded topics which were familiar to the advocate, and of which he eloquently availed himself.

This speech established Mr Mackintosh's fame as an orator of the highest rank, and being translated by Madame de Staël, was circulated through Europe. He was, however, now destined to enter a new sphere, and in a judi

cial capacity. His discourse on the law of nations, and his defence of Peltier, had so established his reputation, that the government began to regard him as an individual who might be advantageously employed in the public service.

In December 1803, he was accordingly appointed Recorder of Bombay, and was knighted on occasion of his promotion. In this station he showed himself a great master in one of the most important of human sciences - criminal jurisprudence. Like a skilful physician, who when appointed to a hospital, would seek to ascertain what complaints he was most frequently called upon to prescribe for, Sir James Mackintosh endeavored to find out the prevailing crimes of the community, in which he was to administer justice. Among the native East Indians he discovered to his deep regret, that the besetting sin was perjury, a crime that rendered the administration of justice uncertain, by obscuring the light by which she is to be guided, and which is, as he justly described it,' an attack on religion, and law, in the very point of their union.'

Against this crime he directed his energies; but his zeal, accompanied as it always was with an enlightened philanthropy, sought to cure the evil, by reforming the public mind, and awakening to its enormity the moral sense which had been stupified and deadened by the political and religious institutions of the country.

One of the most striking instances of equanimity and freedom from all personal considerations ever manifested on the bench, was displayed by him during the trial of two native officers, who were convicted of a conspiracy to rob two travellers from Cochin.

There was no doubt of the culprits having designed to murder the travellers; and expecting to be sentenced to death, they had obtained their knives, and were resolved to sacrifice the judge when sentenced. From the circumstance that the design had been formed under the influence of intoxication, and that there was a strong suspicion that in the temperament of the culprits there was some admixture of insanity, Sir James determined to sentence them to the lightest punishment in his power, and to subject them to supervision after the term of their punishment. At that moment he was informed of their murderous intentions. This, however, did not induce him to alter his judgment, and the next day addressing the criminals he said, I was employed in considering the mildest judgment which public duty would allow me to pronounce on you, when I learned from undoubted authority, that your thoughts towards me were not of the same nature. If your murderous project had been executed, I should have been the first British magistrate who ever stain ed with his blood the bench on which he sat to administer justice. But I could never have died better than in the discharge of my duty. When I accepted the of fice of a minister of justice, I knew that I ought to despise unpopularity and slander, and even death itself. Thank God I do despise them, and I solemnly assure you, that I feel more compassion for the gloomy and desperate state of mind which could harbor such projects, than resentment for that part of them which was directed against myself. I should consider myself as indelibly disgraced, if a thought of your pro

jects against me were to influence my judgment.'

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After an impressive admonition sentenced them to twelve months' imprisonment. Sir James sat upon the Indian bench until 1811, when his impaired health induced him to return to England, and he retired from his office with a pension of £12,000, from the East India Company.

As soon as his health would permit, he entered the House of Commons as representative from the county of Narina, in July 1813. In 1818, he was elected for Knaresbough, which he continued to represent until his death.

On all questions of foreign policy and international law, on the alien bill, on the liberty of the press, religious toleration, the slave trade, parliamentary reform, the settlement of Greece and the right of the colonies to self-government, Sir James warmly espoused the side of freedom and justice.

As Chairman of the Committee to whom. upon the death of Sir Samuel Romilly, the reform of the criminal law devolved, his labors were of great importance in awakening a full sense of the necessity of meliorating the sanguinary code of England. In 1820, he introduced six bills, pursuant to a report from this committee of the preceding year. Three of these, however, only were carried through, and in the House of Lords seven of the offences which it was intended to commute were expunged, and only four were suffered to remain.

In 1822 and 1823, Sir James Mackintosh was declared Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow; and in 1830, he was appointed one of the commissioners for India.