. The Scottish nation; or, The surnames, families, literature, honours, and biographical history of the people of Scotland. eput the laws in execution with the utmost strict-ness and severity. On the trial of the earl ofArgyle in December 1681, he exerted all his ener-gies to obtain a conviction; and in June 1685,when that nobleman was apprehended after hisunfortunate expedition to the Highlands, Macken-zie objected to a new trial, and he was put todeath on his former iniquitous sentence. Thestate prosecutions, conducted by Sir George Mac-kenzie, in some of which he notoriously stretchedthe la
. The Scottish nation; or, The surnames, families, literature, honours, and biographical history of the people of Scotland. eput the laws in execution with the utmost strict-ness and severity. On the trial of the earl ofArgyle in December 1681, he exerted all his ener-gies to obtain a conviction; and in June 1685,when that nobleman was apprehended after hisunfortunate expedition to the Highlands, Macken-zie objected to a new trial, and he was put todeath on his former iniquitous sentence. Thestate prosecutions, conducted by Sir George Mac-kenzie, in some of which he notoriously stretchedthe laws to answer the purposes of the govern-ment, were so numerous, that he obtained the un-enviable title of The blood-thirsty advocate,and Bloody Mackenzie. After the Revolution,in justification of his acts, he published A Vindi- cation of the Government of Charles II. (1691.)which, to those who know anything of the scenesof persecution and oppression which were enactedin Scotland at that period, appears the very re-verse of satisfactory. His portrait, taken by SirGodfrey Kneller, was engraved by Beugo, and Notwithstanding his severity, however, SiiGeorge was the means of introducing variouspractical improvements into the criminal jurispru-dence of his country ; and in 1686, upon the abro-gation of the penal laws against the Papists byJames VII., he deemed it incumbent on him toretire from his post of lord advocate. In Feb. 1688,however, lie was restored to that office, which heheld till the Revolution, when he relinquished allhis employments. In 1689 he founded the Advo-cates Library at Edinburgh, and the Latin in-augural oration pronounced on the occasion isrecorded in his works. In September of that yearhe retired to England, resolving to spend the re-mainder of his days in study at Oxford. In June1690 he was admitted a student of that university,and subsequently published an Essay on Reasonin 1690, and The Moral History of Frugality,and its Opposite Vices, in 16
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