Mackintosh’s lectures, in the spring of 1799, at Lincoln’s Inn Hall, were attended by an auditory such as had never before met in England on a similar occasion. “Lawyers, members of Parliament, men of letters, and gentlemen from the country crowded the seats; and the Lord Chancellor, who, from a pressure of public business, was unable to attend, received a full report of each lecture in writing, and was loud in their praise.” The introductory lecture, the only one that was written out and preserved, is as remarkable for its eloquence as for the depth of its learning and the vigor and discrimination of its thought. Mackintosh now devoted himself to the practice of his profession with every prospect of the most flattering success. Regarding himself as more perfectly fitted for a position upon the bench than at the bar, he aspired to a judicial appointment at Trinidad or in India. The appointment was under contemplation, when he was engaged to defend M. Jean Peltier, a Frenchman who resided in London and published a newspaper opposed to the rising fortunes of Bonaparte. There is an English statute against “libel on a friendly government”; and Bonaparte, who was now for the moment at peace with England, demanded that the statute should be enforced. Action was brought against Peltier, and when the case came on for trial Mackintosh delivered the speech selected from his works for this volume. He labored under the disadvantage of having the law clearly against him; but he regarded the equities of the case as entirely on the side of Peltier, and therefore he devoted his remarkable powers to the discussion of the general principles involved in the case. It was a plea in behalf of freedom of the English press—its privilege and its duty to comment on and to criticise the crimes even of the proudest tyrants. The jury, under the law, was obliged to convict; but seldom before an English court has a speech made a greater impression. Of this fact we have the most conclusive evidence in the testimony of the greatest of English advocates. Erskine was present during its delivery, and before going to bed he sent to Mackintosh the following remarkable note: “DEAR SIR:—I can not shake off from my nerves the effect of your powerful and most wonderful speech, which so completely disqualifies you for Trinidad or India. I could not help saying to myself, as you were speaking: ‘_O terram illam beatam quæ hunc virum acciperit, hanc ingratam si ejicerit, miseram si amiserit._’ I perfectly approve the verdict, but the manner in which you opposed it I shall always consider as one of the most splendid monuments of genius, literature, and eloquence. “Yours ever, T. ERSKINE.”