Synopses & Reviews
Vindiciae Gallicae was James Mackintoshs first major publication, a contribution to the debate begun by Edmund Burkes Reflections on the Revolution in France (published by Liberty Fund in 1999). The success of Mackintoshs defense of the French Revolution propelled him into the heart of London Whig circles. The turn of events in France following the September 1792 Massacres caused Mackintosh, along with other moderate Whigs, to revise his opinions and to move closer to Burkes position.
A Discourse on the Law of Nature and Nations was the introduction to a popular course of public lectures at Lincolns Inn in 1799 and 1800. These lectures provided Mackintosh with an opportunity to complete the evolution of his political thought by expounding the principles of a Scottish version of the science of natural jurisprudence dealing with the rights and duties of men and of states,” to announce his withdrawal of support for the French Revolution, and to criticize former allies on the radical wing of the reform movement.
The Liberty Fund edition also includes Mackintoshs Letter to William Pitt, an attack on the prime minister, Pitt the Younger, for going back on his own record as a parliamentary reformer; and On the State of France in 1815, his reflections on the nature and causes of the French Revolution.
James Mackintosh (17651832) was a prominent Scottish Whig politician, a moral philosopher, and a historian of England. He belonged to the group of students that surrounded Dugald Stewart, professor of moral philosophy in Edinburgh, during the last decades of the eighteenth century and the first decade of the nineteenth century. He was a regular writer for the publishing enterprises this group founded and edited, notably the Edinburgh Review and the Encyclopaedia Britannica; he contributed to the latter his Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy, Chiefly During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” thereby completing a project begun by Dugald Stewart.
Donald Winch is Research Professor in the School of Humanities at the University of Sussex and a Fellow of the British Academy.
Knud Haakonssen is Professor of Intellectual History and Director of the Centre for Intellectual History at the University of Sussex, England.
Synopsis
Vindiciae Gallicae was James Mackintosh's first major publication, a contribution to the debate begun by Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. The success of Mackintosh's defense of the French Revolution propelled him into the heart of London Whig circles. Following the September 1792 massacres Mackintosh, along with other moderate Whigs, revised his opinions and moved closer to Burke's position. The Liberty Fund edition also includes Mackintosh's Discourse on the Law of Nature and Nations, Letter to William Pitt, and On the State of France in 1815.
James Mackintosh (1765-1832) was a prominent Scottish Whig.
Donald Winch is Research Professor in the School of Humanities at the University of Sussex and a Fellow of the British Academy.
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Table of Contents
Introduction ix
Note on the Texts Used in This Edition xix
Acknowledgments xxi
VINDICIAE GALLICAE
Defence of the French Revolution and Its English Admirers
Against the Accusations of the Right Honourable Edmund
Burke; Including Some Strictures on the Late Production
of Mons. De Calonne (London, 1791) 1
A Letter to the Right Honourable William Pitt on His
Apostacy from the Cause of Parliamentary Reform
(London, 1792) 167 Appendix to A Letter to the Right Honourable William Pitt 190
A Discourse on the Law of Nature and Nations 203 Appendix to the Discourse: Extracts from the Lectures 250
“On the State of France in 1815,” Edinburgh Review,
no. 48, February 1815 259 Appendix to “On the State of France in 1815” 274
Chronology of James Mackintosh’s Life 279 Selective Chronology of Events Relating to the French
Revolution and Parliamentary Reform in Britain 283 Dramatis Personae 289
Index 301