The Press.
London, England, 1856-01-26 00:00:00

RETIREMENT OF MR. MACAULAY.

WE have not been surprised by the announce-
ment that Mr. MACAULAY intended to resign
his seat for Edinburgh. It has long been no
secret that the most brilliant of Whig reviewers
has fin• some time been in very indifferent
health. Sir GIBSON CRAIG attributes " asthma "
as the cause of the withdrawal from public life
of the Member for Edinburgh, though we have
heard a different name for the malady ; but
such matters are not in the cognisance of the
journalist. We cannot, however, allow the
departure from the Parliamentary scene of so
eminent a man to pass without notice.
It is about thirty years since Mr. MACAULAY'S
name became familiar to the Inns of Court
and " the town "of London Life. His articles
in Knight's QuarteHy Maguz.ine, his speeches
at debating clubs, his authorsb ip of the essay
on " Milton " in the Edinburgh for 1825, intro-
duced him largely to public notice. Seldom
has a young man been so fortunate in his
career. A rotten borough returned him to
Parliament, for a Whig Marquis patronised
him at the outset. He had never to endure
the toils and labours which other men of
greater force, like BURKE and BROUGHAM, had
to undergo. When some cynical critic was
once sneering at Mr. MACAULAY'S powers, the
late Mr. SHELL exclaimed, " Disparage
" MACAULAY, sir ! Monstrous 1 He's the
" cleverest man of the day. He made four
" speeches on the Reform Bill, and he got ten
" thousand a year !" _ .

In truth, Mr. MACAULAY was so fortunate as
to deserve his early name of " lucky Tom."
After three years' representation of Caine and
Leeds, from 1830 to 1833, he went out to India
for four years. He returned when the Whigs
were weak, and, under the auspices of Lord
MELBOURNE, became a Cabinet Minister. It
was expected that he would have been a
leader in the Senate, but Nature never
intended him for a practical ruler of his kind.
Mr. MACAULAY belonged in politics to the
Edinburgh-Review school of literary Whigs.
Brilliant writers rather than profound authors,
lively reviewers rather than powerful orators
—they always ornamented, if they did not
often rule their connection. JEFFREY sparkled
in print ; HORNER theorised in pamphlets and
Parliament; MACKINTOSH lectured profoundly
though drowsily ; and BroucitiAm wrote, spoke.
thought, and talked de omnibus rebus. Of
Scottish lineage on the father's side, Mr.
MACAULAY had-an English mother. His father
ZACHARAY ?sIACAULAY, an African merchant,
was " a humanitarian," and associate of what
used to be caned " The Wilberforce set" (a
phrase which has a far different meaning in
our own times). His mother was a Miss MILLS,
and she is reported to have been a very
superior woman, of considerable accomplish-
ments. Educated at Cambiidge, destined for
the Bar, and within earshot of the London
platform (as it was in 1823-5), Mr. MACAULAY
early acquired a taste for the part of a public
speaker. At Freemasons'-hall, he supported
with his fluent tongue and forcible language
the connection to which his father was at.
taehed; and when he came into Parliament, hs
espoused the cause of the territorial Whigs
with ardour, and never swerved from their
standard.

But Mr. MACAULAY could scarcely be called
a statesman. He never led a connection in
the House of Commons, nor did he ever stamp
the passing politics of his time with convic-
tions of his own. He argued for the Ballot,
but he made no converts to his views of
secret suffrage. He railed against the Church
of Ireland, but the Protestant sentiment of
the empire is on the increase, notwithstand-
ing the eloquent latitudinarianism of the bril-
liant essayist. Of no legislative measure has
he any parental recollection. In Parliament he
spoke essays ; he lectured on the past, rather
than debated on the present. A brilliant illus-

SATURDAY,

trator of foregone conclusions, his politics
wanted germinating force. There was vast
cleverness in his language; there was little
that was practical in his suggestions. What
the decorator is to the architect, a political
rhetorician is to the statesman. All the
practical problems of the age Mr. MACAULAY
left as he found them Old and familiar
thoughts he gracefully attired in the lacework
and embroidery of his own picturesque style.
In everything that came from his lips in Par-
liament there was singular brilliancy of man-
ner; rarely any originality of matter.

Nor had Mr. MACAULAY any readiness
in debate. Ho could not reply suddenly to
an antagonist, and his speeches were almost
as seasonable in one period as in another.
By degrees the House of Commons felt that
the Member for Edinburgh was better fitted
to comment on the past than to council
on the present. Even admiring Whigs re-
peated Mr BURKE'S saying as appropriate to
Mr. MACAULAY :—" Retrospective wisdom and
" historical sagacity are things of excellent
" convenience, and serve admirably to reconcile
" the old quarrel between speculation and
" practice." He could dazzle and declaim,
but he could neither create nor rule; he could
always shine—he could never sway. Nature
gave hint the imagination of an artist, not the
powerful volition of a monarch amongst men.
Yet it would be gross injustice to set down
Mr. MACAULAY as a declaimer in politics. He
took always a reasonable view of whatever
case he spoke upon. His sophistry shone
with the brilliance of genius, and his rhetoric
was interwoven with all the ingenuity of
thought. If not a statesman, he was at least
an elegant lecturer on statesmanship. " Al-
" ways brilliant, often convincing," was the
formula once applied to hint by a most accom-
plished literary Whig, and his political career
might be recorded under such a text.
It was supposed by many that Mr. MA-
CAULAY would play a part in public similar to
that of BURKE. But no two men could be
more unlike. BURKE was a being of intensely
passionate temperament; he was vehement
and irascible, with the faults and virtues of a
moral enthusiast. His convictions flashed
into his mind, not only from the induction of
his intellect, but from the intuition of his
heart. The principles which guided his course
were far larger and deeper than those con-
ventional modes of Lansdowne-house Liberal-
ism to which Mr. MACAULAY paid feudal
homage. BURKE was great as a man, as an
orator, and as a writer. MACKINTOSH was not,
perhaps, wrong in calling him " the greatest,
" philosopher in action thn world ever saw:
But action demands enthusiasm and a domi-
nating will—a something (call it what you
please) that can subvert or uphold—that can
help to establish or overwhelm systems or
empires. It is no disparagement of Mr. MA-
CAULAY to say that such powers were not as-
signed to him. It was for a literary man that
he was specially designed ; and in another
department of THE PRESS we have recently
paid a willing tribute to his fine language,
varied reasoning, and vast reading.

His absence from the House of Commons
leaves a blank in the Whig party. Where now
is there a single Whig of any genius in Par-
liament? It is with pride that the Conserva-
tives can point to the rare endowments and
first-class literary powers of Nll'. DISRAELI and
Sir BULWER LyrroN. The Premier scarcely
belongs to the Whigs; and Sir CHAR'.Es Wool)
is now their greatest Ministerial orator !

THE LATE DEBATE IN THE PIEDMONTESE CHAM-
BERS upon the adoption of the New Loan, was most
spirited. Count Cavour spoke well, but the best
speech in its favour was made by Count BON
"All Italy" he remarked, "has applauded our par-
ticipation in the war against Russia. The victory of
the Tchernaya has been a fete for us anti for Italy.
Has not the political importance' of Piedmont in
Europe since then increased, and is this the moment
for asking us where we are leading the country
We lead you to see our army honoured; our General-
in-Chief called to the European Council of War ; our
King traversing Europe in triumph! Where do we
lead you ?We lead you—l ought rather to say
(addressing the Right), we drag you—there whither
eight centuries of noble traditions beckon us."

JANUARY 26, 1856.

E \V AR.

The telegraphic intelligence that Russia has
ordered all hostilities to cease upon her part in the
Crimea, will, if true, check the few matters of interest
now gleaned from the camp, for the letters received
dining this week do little but anticipate attacks from
the Russians upon various points. At Kinburn, it
was reported that some 10,000 men, with twenty
guns, were being collected at Otchakoff and on the
coast of the isthmus, so as to attack the fort simul-
taneously on front and flank, by crossing the ice,
and advancing up the spit. The French general
of artillery, Le Bceuf, had, on the sth, mi•
nutely inspected the fortress, and pronounced
it in an efficient state for a successful defence. The
coast had been reconnoitred, and no large body of
troops observed. The garrison and flotilla were,
however, on the qui rive.
At Kertch, on the other extremity of the coast,
similar reports prevailed. General Wrangel was
believed to be en route, with 50,000 men, to attack
the tow❑ and fortifications.

From our own camp the news is unimportant.
The weather was intensely cold, but fine ; men and
officers were well cared for, and the health of the
army excellent.
From Asia Minor, we learn that Mouravieff, at
one time reported to be at the gates of Erzeroum,
had blown up the advanced works of Kars, and fallen
back on Gu►nri for the winter, leaving a strong force
in Kars. Omer Pacha was still at Redout Kaleh.
A portion of his army was to winter at Uzurgatu,
while the remainder would he transferred to Trebi
zond. General Kmety and Colonel Colman are said
to have accepted commands at Erzeroum.
THE WAR IN ASIA.

Letters from Constantinople of January 10th state
that :

General Mouravieff, after having destroyed the advanced
w irks of Kars, has left a force in that place, and directed
hir march upon Gumri with the main body of his army.
There were at Trebizond 13,000 Turks and Egyptians,
the greater part of whom are on their way to the succour
o' Erzerourn. These troops endure all sorts of privations,
a el suffer extremely from the bad state of the roads, which
a:e encumbered with snow.

The Incalide Russe of the 15th publishes various
extracts from Prince Goitschakoll's journals. Oil
tie 31st December, the blowing up of the docks is
simply noted as " a loud explosion on the south
side, followed by two others in the dry docks."
On the same day, a foray seems to have been
made by the French from Eupatoria, of which we
have not yet received any official intelligence :

From Eupatoria, under date of the 10th (31st) of Dec.
(writes Prince Gortschakoff), it is reported that sixteen
squadrons of French cavalry, with two pieces of horse
artillery and a division of infantry, had left the town and
taken the direction of the village of Saki, preceded by an
advanced guard of two squadrons. Major Ditnitrieff, oI
the dragoons of his Imperial Highness the Grand Duke
Nicolaieyitch, who commands this portion of our advanced
posts, having apprised the advanced guard of the advance
of the enemy in superior force, he commenced retreat;ng
Saki and Tchebotar, pursued by the French, who
threatened his right flank..
_ _

Major-tienertif de Slitton, in command of the advanced
guard, informed of this movement, placed his Cossacks in
the plain between Lake Saki and Tchebotar, and sent two
trAnias of the rsith Regiment to the village orrouzla, in
the rear of the enemy's squadrons, which had detached
themselves and had meantime been joined by two other
Iluadrons; the enemy, received by the fire of the Cossacks
placed in the ravine, threatened with being turned by the
detachment from the village of Tonila, and seeing two
regiments of dragoons and a battery of horse artillery
appear on the Tchebotar heights, hastily rejoined the
main body, near Sak , and half an hour afterwards returns d
to Eupatoria. During the pursuit of the retreating squad
inns by the Cossacks, the French Captain Fouques, of the
.aff, was made prisoner.

CAMP OCCURRENCES.
The amusement of snow bulling, and construction
of amatuer redoubts and fancy batteries, upon the
capture or defence of which the energies of rival
regiments ware devoted, form almost the staple
subject-matter of present letters from the camp.
Some little excitement, however, had been caused in
Balaklava by the Provost Marshal having Hogged the
mate of one of the transport steamers, and
threatened a couple of transport captains with the
same. The correspondent of the Daily News,
writing on the 7th, gives the following account of