The Press. — London, England, 1853-12-31 00:00:00

F 832 iteraturt. MACAULAY. Speeches of the Riyht Hon. T. B. Macaulay, M.P. Corrected by Himself. London: Longman and Co. Speeches, Parliamentary and Miscellaneous. By the Right Hon. T. Babingtmi Nlacanlay. (Two volumes.) London: Clarke, Becton, and Co. _ (Second Notleo.] WHATEVER may be the estimation formed of his literary abilities, we think it evident that Mr. Macaulay was never intended by nature for a man of action. A politician who looks on the world like au essayist cannot halve that vigorous volition, that strenuous predomi nance of individuality, which rules men around him like some mysterious influence, and draws them on to follow The world's history is full of many instances in which the greatest ce lebrities have been almost solely indebted to will for their great achievements. Luther was often excelled as theologian, scholar, and writer ; but whole colleges full of men like Erasmus, or some of our recent ambiguous theologians, could never have influenced the fate of Christendom like the mighty will of Luther. In the cabinet and the field Crom well owed his predominance neither to origin ality of ideas nor to subtlety of conception, but to the transcendent energy of his resolu tion. So, in parliamentary history, Walpole, Chadian', and all the great celebrities of the Senate, have been distinguished for this tower ing faculty, which is as indispensable to a statesman as melody to a poet, or subtlety to a metaphysician. Wanting will, a nuui wants power; and, wanting power, a man may have knowledge, fine thoughts, and lofty aspira tions. but be con MVO' produce historical actions. . When Mr. Macaulay consented, at a critical period in polities , to expatriate himself to India, he showed that be did not aim at a great political career. Affairs were at a crisis in 1833. Constitutional changes had pPoceeded too far. Reaction, necording to the old normal law of English politics, was beginning to set in against Reform. When a levelling body of Radicals, aided by the anomalous Irish party (that has existed since '2lO, w a nted to upheave the e illars of the Constitution, they were sturdily encountered by fared Derby, the Duke of Richmond, and others. Lord Althorp va cillated—the great body of the Liberals began to look about them for a leader—anti Sir Robert Peel plucked up seirit. At such a time a maul with a tine genius for eloquence had at magnificent opportunity for placing himself at the head of the independent Eng lish " Liberals," and becoming one of the powers of tlae State. Mr. Macaulay preferred to go to India, realise an independence, and be a literary wan in polities for the rest of his days. Try Mr. Macaulay, as at man of action, upon the great questions since 1833, and it will be found that he adorned his party, rather than originated its views. He has always been a follower, never a leader—on echo, not an inspiration. " Nature," says Mr. Fonblainque, in his " England under Seven Administra tions," " must have formed Mr. Macaulay for a trumpeter!" And in truth his talent in poli ties is more caleulated to sound a flourish of victory than to mingle in the thick of the fray. Ile has not a parental recollection of a single great measure, but he has allayed in splendid costumes the thoughts Or others. Looking to the politicians of our own days, we can see that the Duke of Wellington, Earl Grey, Lord Palmerston, the Earl of Derby, Sir Robert Peel, Lord .lohn Russell, Lord )ia,,rateli, Mr. O'Con remarkable things history of the age. ere right or waolag. lot actually carried event has been de ) Cabinet. has ever never introduced a into Parliament ; Ily been in political Is. I.;is never exhi of ~lun which men Geor:e Ilentinck, Mr. Di lid rMR ~„.• 11444 Apme will • - 1 11 . Oir ithe w C r. i I 1 .. w. y . ' ;, •. . w• 1i 0 ..1 i '.,.., 44 , - , • -•• 4 ' , n• ;,...,-,..---, --.•-• I N lia . 11 ...,,,( z, ) .. • • ~,,) ~ ~c 4.3 ~, , . A - in ,.. tl lit" '... •••., • ' l Af‘. .' ' 'e i ain't M "`t n e' r. . . wn an. 1 -14• : ..r k • , - quail life ',IP. W • . gears. 1 bited that independence et THE PRESS. like Burke and Sheridan showed when, in various instances, trey refused to be dragged after their ►arty. We often thought it a mis fortune in Mr. Macaulay's ease that he started in political life on the crutches of patronage. His stride would have been more manly, his part inure resolute, if he had not been so much the follower of the great Whig families, whom he holds, as he himself says, "in reverence and honour." Whatever the Duke of Bedford, the Marquis of Lansdowne, and other great Whig magnates have resolved to do will never be opposed by Mr. Macaulay. It is very cu lions, while England was heaving with agita tion on the occasion of the Papal aggression, that Mr. Macaulay held his tongue. He never uttered his "yea " or "nay." Every other ]►ublic character of note proclaimed his opinion, hut Mr. Macaulay held his peace. Would a man of strong volition and decided convic tions have been content to allow the passions of the country to be excited without his express ing his opinion one way or the other? Turning from these circumstances to the speeches " corrected by himself," we arc sur prised tA) find Mr. Macaulay so excessively bit ter in his mode of referring to the first pub lishers of his speeches. He says : Unhappily an net for which the law affords no redress, but which I have no hesitation in pronouncing to be a gross injury to me and a gross fraud on the public, has compelled me to do what l should never have done wit lingly. A bookseller, hawed Vizetelly, who seems to as pire to that sort of di stinct' which Curll enjoyed a hun dred and twenty years ago, thought fit, without asking my consent, without even giving me stay notice, to announce an edition of toy speeches, and was not ashamed to tell the world in his advertisement that be published them by special licence. - - - - -- • There is too much wounded feeling in this passage, and we certainly agree with those who have termed it " undignified." Were not the speeches of Chatham, Burke, Fox, Pitt, Sheridan, Curran, Grattan, published to the world without their permission ? Sheridan was o ff ered a thousand pounds for a copy of the Begum speech " corrected by himself;" but he never gave his own version, and spu rious copies have been for years. even to the present day, in circulation. The right to print speeches is undoubted, and for obvious reasons. If a man be elected by the people to discharge a public trust, him speeches deli vered in that capacity are clearly pro bow publico. It would be a most unjust supposi tion to think that they were made for personal purposes. The maker of the speeches is re compensed at the time by the applause be stowed on him, and the consideration given to him. On the present question, Mr. Vize telly, the original publisher, has issued a cir cular from which we extract the following pas sage : • * I ask your permission to be allowed to point out to you that Mr. Macaulay's indignation is based upon the misrepresentation that. I had undertaken to edit the edition of his speeches which was printed by me from "Ranstults Parliamentary Debates." From the titlepage and preface to this edition, which I enclose, yon will see that I do not apwar in any capacity, nor indeed does the edition profess tote anything beyond a mere reprint from " liansord;" consequently Mr. Macaulay's attack should have been di• meted against the editor of "Hansard," if against any, rather than myself. • • With regard to the übserva thins of a more personal character shielt Mr. Macaulay has thought fit to indulge in, these I shall leave to be dealt with, as advised, by a court of law. We cannot, however, excuse Mr. Vizetelly for having originally published advertisements with the words "by xpecial penniasion," which were calculated to mislead. But we appre hend that he will not again experiment in printing the speeches of public men, People will now wait for the " corrected " editions, so that the " trade " will probably allow states men the custody of their own oratorical fame. Of Mr. Macau !al . 's own " corrected" edition we must say, that he has not given us a very candid record of his speeches. We cannot charge him with any alteration of what he has spoken, but he is certainly obnoxious to the imputation of having only " selected" such speeches as would not be unpalatable to the Earl of Aberdeen. Was it. fair in him to re print his personal invective against the Earl of Ellenborough, and omit those severe and galling attacks which he delivered again s t Sir James Graham in the Post-oflice letter opening eases? We find in Vizetelly's edi tion a passage which we recollect ourselves having heard, and we have a vivid recollection SATURDAY, of the expression of Sir James Graham's face while it WuS being delivered:— Some unhappy foreigner has come to our free land and, relying upon the supposed good faith of the English Post•ottice, writes to his friends with greater freedom than he world otherwise have done, or than he would ever do abroad. Then came the secretary of some foreign em bassy to the Secretary for the Home Department, applies for information as to the contents of the letters of ter. taro parties, which, on receiving, he sends over to the native tiovernment of the unhappy foreigner, who carefully lays it by. No evil consecrences result to the unfortunate writer whilst he remains in this country ; but, at length, unconscious of what awaits him, he goes back to his native land—he actually walks into the lion's month, in land where there is no jury to protect him ; and, upon evidence got up in this manner, he is consigned, perhaps, to the inside of a dungeon for life. We remember also how Mr. Macaulay re turned again and again to the knout, and we find him reported:—" I now say that there is a wide difference between the conduct of the right honourable baronet and that of any persons who have _preceded him"— (Vizetelly, vol. ii., p. 107.) We find him also omitting his zealous speech in 1833 advo cating the " Irish Coercion Bill," where ho talked of " Experimentum in corpore vili." We must. however, admit that he has faith fully reproduced his galling disparagement of the late Sir Robert Peel. It is not too much to say that the often-invoked personage, " an intelligent foreigner," would, on reading Mr. Macaulay's speeches, entertain a most odious view of the late member for Tamworth. Again and again he charges him with degrading con duct and disingenuous practices. We have a lively recollection of those poignant articles in which Air. Fonblanque so often branded Sir Robert Peel as Joseph Surface and 3laster ; but Mr. Macaulay is still more bitter in his charges. Observe the intense viru lence with which he records the silence of Sir Robert Peel upon the question of the slave trade : I am sure that the right honourable baronet the First Lord of the Treasury would think that I was speaking ironically if I were to compliment him on his zeal for the liberty of the negro race. Never once, dining the whole of the long and obstinate conflict which ended in the abolition of shivery in our colonies, (lid he give one word, one sign, of encouragement to those who buttered and laboured for the good cause. The whole weight of his great abilities and in fluence was in the other scale. I well remember that,so late as 1833, he declared in this house that he could give his as sen t neither to the plan of immediate emancipation proposed by my noble friend who now represents Sunderland, nor to the plan of gradual emancipation proposed by Lord Grey's Government. I well remember that he said. " I shallclaim no credit hereafter on acconnt of this bill; nil that I desire is to be alsa dyed from the responsibility." As to the other two right honourable gentlemen whom I have mentioned, they are West Indiana ; and their conduct wan that of West In dians. Ido not wish to give them pain, or to throw any disgraceful imputation on them. Observe, these are the words of the " cor rected" edition, and mark the contrasted force in the last sentence—" throw any disgraceful im putation on them." While the " Uncle Tom's Cabin" feverwas at its height, we should like to have asked the subscribers to the Peel statues, did they approve of Sir Robert's insensibility to the sufferings of the dusky tribes of Africa ? hut we pass on to other of the " disgraceful imputations" which Mr. Macaulay so plenti fully showered upon Sir Robert Peel. We will take them from the " corrected " edition. Mr. Macaulay thus records the manner in which Mr. Canning was " worried to death":— Lord Grey and Lord Grenville endeavoured to do but a very small part of what Mr. Pitt had thought right and ex pedient ; and they were driven from office. Mr. Canning took the same side ; and his reward was to be worried to death by the party of which he was the brightest ornament. At length,when he was gone, the Roman Catholics began to look, not to Cabinets and Parliaments, but to themselves. They displayed a formidable array of physical force, and yet kept within, just within, the limits of the law. The consequence was, that, in two year►. more than any pru dent friend had ventured to demand fro• them was granted to them by their enemies. Yes ; within two years after Mr. Canning had been laid in the transept near us. all that he would have done, and more than he could have done, was done by his persecutors. Bow was it possible that the whole Roman Catholic population of Ireland should not take up the notion that from England, or at. least from the party which then governed and which now governs England, nothing is to be got by reason, by en- treaty, by patient endurance, but everything by intimidation ? The Tory party must not be identified with his " persecutors, ' or with having yielded to - in timidation. " Elsewhere Mr. Macaulay (p. 400) sketches the political character of the member for Tam worth : The right honourable baronet will come down to make a proposition conceived in the very spi►it of the motions