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MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY, ...
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See also:MACAULAY, See also: Still, See also:allowance being made for the barbarous partisanship of the established See also:critical tribunals of the See also:period, it seems surprising that a social success so See also:signal should have been the consequence of a single See also:article. The explanation is that the writer of the article on See also:Milton was, unlike most authors, also a brilliant conversationalist. There has never been a period when an amusing talker has not been in See also:great demand at See also:London tables; but when Macaulay made his debut witty conversation was studied and cultivated as it has ceased to be in the more busy age which has succeeded. At the university Macaulay had been recognized as pre-eminent for inexhaustible talk and genial companionship among a circle of such brilliant young men as See also: When he went to college his father believed himself to be See also:worth £roo,000. But commercial disaster overtook the house of Babington & Macaulay, and the son now saw himself compelled to See also:work for his livelihood. His Trinity fellowship of £300 a See also:year became of great consequence to him, but it expired in 1831; he could make at most £20o a year by See also:writing; and a commissionership of See also:bankruptcy, which was given him by See also:Lord See also:Lyndhurst in 1828, and which brought him in about £400 a year, was swept away, without See also:compensation, by the See also:ministry which came into See also:power in 1830. Macaulay was reduced to such straits that he had to sell his Cambridge See also:gold See also:medal.
In See also:February 183o the doors of the House of Commons were opened to him through what was then called a "See also:pocket See also:borough." Lord See also:Lansdowne, who had been struck by two articles on See also: The See also:part he took in India has been described as " the application of See also:sound liberal principles to a government which had till then been jealous, See also:close and repressive." He vindicated the See also:liberty of the See also:press; he maintained the equality of Europeans and natives before the law; and as See also:president of the See also:committee of public instruction he inaugurated the See also:system of See also:national See also:education. A clause in the India Act x833 occasioned the appointment of a See also:commission to inquire into the See also:jurisprudence of the Eastern dependency.. Macaulay was appointed president of that commission. The draft of a penal See also:code which he submitted became, after a revision of many years, and by the labour of many experienced lawyers, the Indian criminal code. Of this code See also:Sir James See also:Stephen said that " it reproduces in a concise and even beautiful See also:form the spirit of the law of England, in a See also:compass which by comparison with the See also:original may be regarded as almost absurdly small. The Indian penal code is to the English criminal law what a manufactured article ready for use is to the materials out of which it is made. It is to the See also:French code penal, and to the See also:German code of 1871, what a finished picture is to a See also:sketch. It is simpler and better expressed than See also:Livingston's code for See also:Louisiana; and its practical success has been See also:complete." Macaulay's enlightened views and. See also:measures See also:drew down on him, however, the abuse and See also:ill-will of Anglo-Indian society. Fortunately for himself he was enabled to maintain a tranquil indifference to political detraction by withdrawing his thoughts into a See also:sphere remote from the opposition and enmity by which he was surrounded. Even amid the excitement of his early See also:parliamentary successes literature had balanced politics in his thoughts and interests. Now in his See also:exile he began to feel more strongly each year. the attraction of See also:European letters and European history. He wrote to his friend See also:Ellis: " I have gone back to See also:Greek literature with a See also:passion astonishing to myself. I have never See also:felt anything like it. I was enraptured with See also:Italian during the six months which I gave up to it; and I was little less pleased with See also:Spanish. But when I went back to the Greek I felt as if I had never known before what intellectual enjoyment was." In thirteen months he read through, some of them twice, a large part of the Greek and Latin See also:classics. The See also:fascination of these studies produced their inevitable effect upon his view of political See also:life. He began to wonder what See also:strange infatuation leads men who can do something better to squander their See also:intellect, their See also:health and See also:energy, on such subjects as those which most statesmen are engaged in pursuing. He was already, he says,
more than See also:half determined to abandon politics and give myself wholly to letters, to undertake some great See also:historical work, which may be at once the business and the amusement of my life, and to leave the pleasures of pestiferous rooms, sleepless nights, and diseased stomachs to See also:Roebuck and to Praed."
In 1838 Macaulay and his sister Hannah, who had married Charles Trevelyan in 1834, returned to England. He at once entered See also:parliament ' as member for Edinburgh. In 1839 he became secretary at See also:war, with a seat in the See also:cabinet in Lord Mel. See also:bourne's ministry., His See also:acceptance of office diverted him for a See also:time from prosecuting the See also:plan he had already formed of a great historical work. But in less than two years the See also:Melbourne
had no wish to interfere with Macaulay's freedom of voting. He thus entered parliament. at one of the most exciting moments of English domestic history, when the compact See also:phalanx of reactionary administration which for nearly fifty years had commanded a crushing See also:majority in the Commons was on the point of being broken by the growing strength of the party of reform. Macaulay made his See also:maiden speech on the 5th of See also:April 1830, on the second reading of the See also:Bill for the Removal of Jewish Disabilities. In See also:July the See also: Macaulay, who was again returned for Calne, visited Paris, eagerly enjoying a first See also:taste of See also:foreign travel. On the 1st of See also: He was prepared to make the See also:sacrifice of place rather than be unfaithful to the cause to which his father had devoted his life. He placed his resignation in Lord Althorp's hands, and spoke against the ministerial proposal. But the sense of the house was so strongly expressed as unfavourable that, finding they would be beaten if they persisted, the ministry gave way, and reduced apprenticeship to seven years, a See also:compromise which the abolition party accepted; and• Macaulay remained at the board of control.
While he was thus growing in reputation, and advancing his public See also:credit, the fortunes of the See also:family were sinking, and it became evident that his sisters would have no See also:provision except such as their brother might be enabled to make for them. Macaulay had but two See also:sources of income, both of them See also:precarious—office and his See also:pen. As to office, the Whigs could not have expected at that time to retain power for a whole See also:generation; and, even while they did so, Macaulay's See also:resolution that he would always give an See also:independent vote made it possible that he might' at any moment find himself in disagreement with his colleagues, and have to quit his place: As to literature, he wrote to Lord Lansdowne (1833), "it has been hitherto merely my relaxation; I have never considered it as the means of support. I have chosen my own topics, taken my own time, and dictated my own terms. The thought of becoming a bookseller's hack, of spurring a jaded See also:fancy to reluctant exertion, of filling sheets with trash
merely that sheets may be filled, of bearing from publishers
ministry See also:fell. In 1842 appeared his See also:Lays of See also:Ancient See also:Rome, and in the next year he collected and published his Essays. He returned to office in 1846, in Lord See also: The See also:balance of Macaulay's faculties had now passed to the See also:side of literature. At an earlier date he had relished crowds and the excitement of ever new faces; as years went forward, and absorption in the work of composition took off the edge of his See also:spirits, he recoiled from publicity. He began to regard the prospect of business as worry, and had no longer the See also:nerve to See also:brace himself to the social efforts required of one who represents a large See also:constituency.
Macaulay retired into private life, not only without regret, but with a sense of See also:relief. He gradually withdrew from general society, feeling the bore of big dinners and See also:country-house visits, but he still enjoyed close and See also:constant intercourse with a circle of the most eminent men that London then contained. At that time social breakfasts were in See also:vogue. Macaulay himself preferred this to any other form of entertainment. Of these brilliant reunions nothing has been preserved beyond the names of, the men who formed them—Rogers, See also:Hallam, See also:Sydney See also: In these years he was working with unflagging See also:industry at the composition of his History. His composition was slow, his corrections both of See also:matter and style endless; he spared no pains to ascertain the facts. He sacrificed to the See also:prosecution of his task a political career, House of Commons fame, the allurements of society. The first two volumes of the History of England appeared in December 1848. The success was in every 'way complete beyond expectation. The See also:sale of edition after edition, both in England and the See also:United States, was enormous. In 1852, when his party returned to office, he refused a seat in the cabinet, but he could not bring himself to decline the compliment of a voluntary amende which the See also:city of Edinburgh paid him in returning him at the See also:head of the See also:poll at the general election in July of that year. He had hardly accepted the See also:summons to return to parliamentary life before fatal weakness betrayed itself in deranged See also:action of the See also:heart; from this time forward till his See also:death his strength continued steadily to sink. The See also:process carried with it dejection of spirits .as its inevitable attendant. The thought oppressed him that the great work to which he had devoted himself would remain a fragment. Once again, in June 1853, he spoke in parliament, and with effect, against the exclusion of the See also:master of the rolls from the House of Commons, and at a later date in See also:defence of competition for the Indian See also:civil service. But he was aware that it was a grievous See also:waste of his small stock of force, and that he made these efforts at the cost of more valuable work. In See also:November 1855 vols. iii. and iv. of the History appeared and obtained a vast circulation. Within a generation of its first appearance upwards of 140,000 copies of the History were printed and sold in the United See also:kingdom alone; and in the United States the sales were on a correspondingly large See also:scale. The History was translated into German, See also:Polish, Danish, See also:Swedish, Hungarian, See also:Russian, Bohemian, Italian, French, Dutch and
Spanish. Flattering marks of respect were heaped upon the author by foreign See also:academies. His pecuniary profits were (for that time) on a scale commensurate with the reputation of the See also:book: the See also:cheque he received for £20,000 has become a landmark in literary history.
In May 1856 he quitted the See also:Albany, in which he had passed fifteen happy years, and went to live at See also:Holly See also:Lodge, Campden See also: Absorbed in the prosecution of his historical work, he had grown indifferent to the party politics of his own day. Gradually he had to acquiesce in the conviction that, though his intellectual powers remained unimpaired, his See also:physical energies would not carry him through the reign of See also:Anne; and, though he brought down the narrative to the death of William III., the last half-See also:volume wants the finish and completeness of the earlier portions. The See also:winter of 1859 told on him, and he died on the 28th of December. On the 9th of January r86o he was buried in See also:Westminster See also:Abbey, in Poets' Corner, near the statue of See also:Addison. Lord Macaulay never married. A See also:man of warm domestic affections, he found their See also:satisfaction in the See also:attachment and close sympathy of his sister Hannah, the wife of Sir Charles Trevelyan. Her See also:children were to him as his own. Macaulay was a steadfast friend, and no act inconsistent with the strictest See also:honour and integrity was ever imputed to him. When a poor man, and when salary was of consequence to him, he twice resigned office rather than make compliances for which he would not have been severely blamed. In 1847, when his seat in parliament was at stake, he would not be persuaded to humour, to temporize, even to conciliate. He had a keen relish for the good things of life, and desired See also:fortune as the means of obtaining them; but there was nothing See also:mercenary or selfish in his nature. When he had raised himself to opulence, he gave away with an open See also:hand, not seldom rashly. His very last act was to write a See also:letter to a poor See also:curate enclosing a cheque for £25. The purity of his morals was not associated with any tendency to cant. The lives of men of letters are often records of sorrow or suffering. The life of Macaulay was eminently happy. Till the closing years (1857-1859), he enjoyed life with the full zest of healthy See also:faculty, happy in social intercourse, happy in the solitude of his study, and equally divided between the two. For the last fifteen years of his life he lived for literature. His writings were remunerative to him far beyond the See also:ordinary measure, yet he never wrote for See also:money. He lived in his historical researches; his whole heart and See also:interest were unreservedly given to the men and the times of whom he read and wrote. His command of literature was imperial. Beginning with a good classical See also:foundation, he made himself See also:familiar with the imaginative, and then with the historical, remains of See also:Greece and Rome. He went on to add the literature of his own country, of See also:France, of See also:Italy, of See also:Spain. He learnt Dutch enough for the purposes of his history. He read German, but for the literature of the northern nations he had no taste, and of the erudite labours of the Germans he had little knowledge and formed an inadequate estimate. The range of his survey of human things had other limitations more considerable still. All philosophical See also:speculation was See also:alien to his mind; nor did he seem aware of the degree in which such speculation had influenced the progress of humanity. A large—the largest—part of ecclesiastical history See also:lay outside his historical view. Of See also:art he confessed himself ignorant, and even refused a See also:request to furnish a critique on See also:Swift's See also:poetry to the Edinburgh Review. See also:Lessing's See also:Laocoon, or See also:Goethe's criticism on See also:Hamlet, " filled " him " with wonder and despair." Of the marvellous discoveries of See also:science which were succeeding each other day by day he took no note; his pages contain no reference to them. It has been told already how he recoiled from the mathematical studies of his university. These deductions made, the circuit of his knowledge still remains very wide—as extensive perhaps as any human See also:brain is competent to embrace. His literary outfit was as complete as has ever been possessed by any English writer; and, if it wants the See also:illumination of See also:philosophy, it has an See also:equivalent resource in a practical acquaintance with affairs, with administration, with the interior of cabinets, and the humour of popular assemblies. Nor was the knowledge merely stored in his memory; it was always at his command. Whatever his subject; he pours over it his stream of See also:illustration, See also:drawn from the records of all ages and countries. His Essays are not merely instructive as history; they are, like Milton's blank verse, freighted with the spoils of all the ages. As an historian Macaulay has not escaped the See also:charge of partisanship. He was a Whig; and in writing the history of the rise and triumph of Whig principles in the latter half of the 17th See also:century he identified himself with the cause. But the charge of partiality, as urged against Macaulay, means more than that he wrote the history of the Whig revolution from the point of view of those who made it. When he is describing the merits of See also:friends and the faults of enemies his pen knows no moderation. He has a constant tendency to glaring See also:colours, to strong effects, and will always be striking violent blows. He is not merely exuberant but excessive. There is an overweening confidence about his See also:tone; he expresses himself in trenchant phrases, which are like challenges to an opponent to stand up and deny them. His propositions have no qualifications. Uninstructed readers like this assurance, as they like a physician who has no doubt about their See also:case. But a sense of distrust grows upon the more circumspect reader as he follows See also:page after page of Macaulay's categorical affirmations about matters which our own experience of life teaches us to be of a contingent nature. We inevitably think of a saying attributed to Lord Melbourne: " I wish I were as cocksure of any one thing as Macaulay is of everything." Macaulay's was the mind of the See also:advocate, not of the philosopher; it was the mind of See also:Bossuet, which admits no doubts or reserves itself and tolerates none in others, and as such was disqualified from that equitable balancing of See also:evidence which is the See also:primary See also:function of the historian. Macaulay, the historian no less than the politician, is, however, always on the side of See also:justice, fairness for the weak agaihst the strong, the oppressed against the oppressor. But though a Liberal in practical politics, he had not the reformer's temperament. The See also:world as it is was good enough for him. The glories of See also:wealth, See also:rank, honours, literary fame, the elements of vulgar happiness, made up his ideal of life. A successful man himself, every personage and every cause is judged by its success. " The brilliant Macaulay," says See also:Emerson, " who expresses the tone of the English governing classes of the day, explicitly teaches that ` good ' means good to eat, good to See also:wear, material commodity." Macaulay is in See also:accord with the See also:average sentiment of orthodox and stereotyped humanity on the relative values of the See also:objects and motives of human endeavour. And this See also:commonplace See also:materialism is one of the secrets of his popularity, and one of the qualities which See also:guarantee that that popularity will be enduring. (M. P.)complete edition, the " Albany," in 12 vols., in 1898. There are numerous See also:editions of the Critical and Historical Essays, separately and collectively; they were edited in 1903 by F. C. See also:Montagu. The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay (2 vols., 1876), by his See also:nephew, Sir See also:George See also:Otto Trevelyan, is one of the best See also:biographies in the English language. The life (1882) in the " English Men of Letters " See also:series was written by J. See also:Cotter See also:Morison. For further criticism, see Hepworth See also:Dixon, in his Life of See also:Penn (1841) ; John See also:Paget, The New Examen: Inquiry into Macaulay's History (1861) and Paradoxes and Puzzles (1874); See also:Walter See also:Bagehot, in the National Review (See also:Jan. 186), reprinted in his Literary Studies (1879); James See also:Spedding, Evenings with a Reviewer (1881), discussing his essay on See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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