



Produced by Bryan Ness, Val Wooff and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was
produced from scanned images of public domain material
from the Google Print project.)







Transcriber's Note

Spelling and punctuation have been preserved as faithfully as possible.
Only obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

For ease of reading, the footnotes have been moved to the end of the
book.








                       A DISCOURSE

                            ON

                         THE STUDY

                          OF THE

                 LAW OF NATURE AND NATIONS.

                            BY

                 SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH, M.P.

                     _SECOND EDITION._

                          LONDON:
                     HENRY GOODE AND CO.

            QUEEN'S HEAD PASSAGE, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

   SOLD BY T. CLARK, EDINBURGH; AND WARDLAW AND CO. GLASGOW.

                       M.DCCC.XXVIII.





                        A DISCOURSE,

                            ETC.


                  *     *     *     *     *

Before I begin a course of lectures on a science of great extent and
importance, I think it my duty to lay before the public the reasons
which have induced me to undertake such a labour, as well as a short
account of the nature and objects of the course which I propose to
deliver. I have always been unwilling to waste in unprofitable
inactivity that leisure which the first years of my profession usually
allow, and which diligent men, even with moderate talents, might often
employ in a manner neither discreditable to themselves, nor wholly
useless to others. Desirous that my own leisure should not be consumed
in sloth, I anxiously looked about for some way of filling it up, which
might enable me