Three causes especially have excited the discontent of mankind; and, by impelling us to seek remedies for the irremediable, have bewildered us in a maze of madness and error. These are death, toil, and the ignorance of the future..

In the autumn of 1844 he moved to Scotland and became editor of the Glasgow Argus resigning in 1847. During the American Civil War he returned there as a correspondent for the Times in which capacity he discovered and disclosed the Fenian conspiracy. In the autumn of 1839 he spent a month's holiday in Scotland witnessing the Eglintoun Tournament which he described in the Chronicle and making acquaintances in Edinburgh.

Charles Mackay (26 March 1812 – 24 December 1889) was a Scottish poet journalist author anthologist novelist and songwriter remembered mainly for his book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.