The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-31 00:00:00

THE LATE LORD MACAULAY.

No death which we could chronicle will be more

deeply or more widely lamented than that of Lord
Macaulay. His loss is not simply that of a great
man. It is the loss of a great man who accumu-
lated immense stores of information that perish
with him. As on the funeral pile of. some Oriental
potentate the wealth of a province is heaped up
to be burned, we see passing with the historian
into the darkness of the grave not onljr a
majestic mind which sooner •or later must have
gone from among us, but also the vast acqui-
sitions of this mind, which we fancy might have
remained to us for ever. Macaulay's wealth
of information, was almost incredible, and' in
tall his writings, 1 in his speeches, in his con-
versations, he poured it forth so lavishly, and yet
so carefully, that reader and hearer scarcely knew
which to admire most—the extent of his know-
lege, or the felicity with which he brought to bear
upon the matter in hand. He had a more intimate
acquaintance with English- history than any -man
living, or perhaps any man who ever lived. His
ac-
quaintance with it was not a barren knowledge, but
had fructified into political wisdom ; and no pen
could surpass his in thedescription of what he.knew
and thought and felt. The death of such a man is
more than a common loss—is more than the loss of
a man equally great in other departments of litera-
ture. The material which he handles gives to the
work of the historian a value which the work of no
other artist enjoys. A great novelist or a great poet
may be compared to a worker in colours, which
have no value except in the arrangement given to
them by the artist. A great historian, on the other
hand, is a worker in gold and silver and precious
stones, which have a value independent of the work •
manship bestowed on them. It requires a great
mind to elicit the facts, but the facts have a value
in themselves, and if they are not transmitted by
the historian who is in possession of them the loss
which we sustain is not comparable to that of an
additional poem or a new novel from the poet or
novelist too soon struck down. Macaulay is cut off
in his 60th year, and in the midst of his work.
Who is to finish what he has begun ? Who is to
make good wherein he has.failed? The deep regret
for such a loss will be universally felt wherever the
English language is spoken will bo mingled with
surprise at its suddenness. Only on Monday last
Lord Macaulay had entertained his family at a
Christmas party. It is true that for some years he
had suffered from an affection of the heart, and
three weeks ago he had a return of threatening
symptoms. But he appeared to rally again ; the
symptoms, although serious, were not alarming ;
and at the Christmas party on Monday last he
was only so far unlike himself as to be rather
silent. If Sidney Smith had been there, he would
not have had to complain, as he once did, that
he longed for some " brilliant flashes of silence ;"
and yet, in spite of Lord Maca.ulay's quietness, his
friends in parting with him that night little thought
that in less than eight-and-forty hours he would be
no mere,for this world. On Wednesday evening,
about 8 o'clock, he died in a fainting fit, without'
the least pain.
Thomas Babington Macaulay was born on the
25tli of October, 1800, at Rothley Temple, in Lei-
'estershire. He was the son of Zachary Macaulay,
Irho has a monument in Westminster Abbey, and
Nllin was well known as a prominent member of the
s,"-called "Clapham Sect," as well as of the philan
tltopists who exerted themselves for the abolition
,01the slave trade and of slavery. The family be-
'ON?ed to the Highlands of Scotland, where Zachary
„AL,6eaulay's father and uncle were ministers of the
11-isk. Dr. Johnson, in his "T our to the Hebrides,"
mentions both the Rev. John and the Rev Kenneth
Macaulay in a kindly way, and the Presbyterian
°rtgla of the family is worth noticing, as its effects
may lie traced quite distinctly in the writings of the
historian. Especially in his essays—that is to say,
his earlier writings—there must be observed a curi-
ous familiarity, not simply with scriptural phrase-
ology, which might have been derived from any ire-
g education, but with the pet phrases and for-
mulasi°lilwhich are current among the Presbyterian
and Aetaphysical divines. Although Macaulay
scarcely be called a Scotchman, his religious
allusionscoudl
, are as distinctively Scotch as those of Sir
Walter Scott himself. His father, Zachary, seems
to have been a sturdy Calvinist. He was a West
Indum..rehant, who had early in life been sent to
Jamaica, and who was so horrified with what he
saw tnete of slavery that he for some years pitched
his
Leone, tent
amid all the unhealthiness of Sierra
wth the hope of doing good to the negroes.
It was 'alder the influence of such a character
and of la,
associates, who at that time were held
up to pubic scorn as
"the Clapham Sect," that
MacAulay was brought up. His education be-
gan ; he was then placed under tho care
Preston, at Shelford, in Cambridgeshire ;
Lordaogfna oda
amt
finallyhope
le entered at Trinity College,Cambridgo,
is
career at the university was very
In his first year he gained the
medal for a poem on " Pompeii ; " in
1
his second
ina i
Chancellor'ssiBl 11 g 8 het.
Year he carried off the same prize for a
poem on g'ining," both of which have been pub-
lished immEdiately afterwards he gained the
Scholarship; in 1822 he took his
Bachelor's
edl ;
Craves
or's detrec,
and though he did not compete
for honours, twin_
g to his dislike of mathematics,
he was elected
s
1. Fellow of his college. Macaulay,
moreover,
great figure in the Union Debat-
ing Society, d
he a
where he spelt a good deal of his time.
He was to stn, for the bar, and it was evident
b's, an orator. 1V hat were his chances
st had a Fellowship to begin with./
he had a father vho was not only in good circum-
stances, promotion
hom owtiaosa t ; k
"(so a leading member a frater-
nitypolitical influence, and has
always been celeb
stancetsh,abtuthad was
cone
hted for the virtue which phre-
nologists have tensed " adhesiveness." Evangeli-
calsgencrallr had the merit of sticking to
each other, and,
even had he been a dull nag,
Macaulay, ma h
e aual
av
ye
might I hve counted on the tenacity of
his father's friends.
It so happened that he gave
the most brilliant pkonise
in
youth, and when still
a o very
man achieved some extraordinary
w
gllicals of. that day were not
remarkable for learn 6 g
Ko or ability, or any kind of
works. The
brilliancy, and they L_
fellow
graciously on the young
yTohunegEvan
man who was to -"How in the footsteps of his
tie lustre of intellect to the
b
In 1830 Mr. Macaulty _
had made such a reputa-
tion for himself that
father,
eaut and
of
he became M.P. for the
sett then, as now, in the nomi-
nationlmo. We have, therefore to
borou
oghfo of Coradin Leaansd oaccount for those eight ears between 1822, when
s
he took his Bachelor' lee-ree, and 1830, when he
entered the House of Cotlbmons, and to show how
uPwNs. For the first four of
deal of his time was spent
between London and Is
thhees fought his trs
a way
mbridge,-a where he had
good d
his Master's degree in
BiB 24,n Fellowship.
the bar at Lincoln's-inn
in 1826. But far more
;mportant to his future
hlad lie was He
called took
t it
prospect was the fact that h this
period he began to
write. He wrote poetry, Is, wrote essays, he wrote
imaginary conversations, se wrote critiques—he
wrote in every form. Thesappeared as contribu-
tions to "Knight's Quarter) .
f Magazine," of which
it will readily be understood
they formed the prin-
cipal
ll a d so f attraction.tho
Spanish
awn
iasshi
An
rtasdEto
the Battle of the day
League, ',eve that some of his
republished in Ame-
rica,at whe o benei,
Macaulay was
chary of publishing his periodical writings, and it
eag
otheralthoughucecontributions
iatnridb
I t uviroyn ;
certainlyhas not ;all.
ritish Museum that
wisooonya bynd doiagewinhgatinhtoo
wtahse
the beginning. One
us of ascertaining
what he was when fresh froh College. He had
chance, indeed, he has given
ie contributions of
earned such a reputation by t