The legal attainments of Mackenzie were not of the highest order: but, as a scholar, a wit, and an orator, he stood high in the opinion of his countrymen; and his renown had spread even to the coffeehouses of London and the cloisters of Oxford.

The remains of his forensic speeches prove him to have been a man of parts, but are somewhat disfigured by what he doubtless considered as Ciceronian graces, interjections which show more art than passion, and elaborate amplifications, in which epithet rises above epithet in wearisome climax.

He had now, for the first time, been found scrupulous.

He was, therefore, in spite of all his claims on the gratitude of the government, deprived of his office.

He retired into the country, and soon after went up to London for the purpose of clearing himself, but was refused admission to the royal presence.