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

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 31, 1859.

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which we have spoken that he was engaged to write
an article on Milton for the Edinburgh Review.
This appeared in August, 1825, and Jeffrey's opi-
nion of it was so high that he immediately secured
the services of the young Essayist for future num-
bers. It is scarcely necessary to say that this
famous paper on Milton was afterwards republished
by Macaulay in his collected essays, and we have
all, therefore, an opportunity of taking his measure
as a•young man. In republishing it ho mado a few
alterations, but every competent judge will endorse
his own statement,—that " the criticism on Mil-
ton, which was written when the author was fresh
from College, and which contains scarcely a para-
graph such as his matured judgment approves, still
remains overloaded with gaudy and ungraceful
ornament." As he advanced, however, he improved,
as will be seen in the essay on Machiavelli, which
immediately follows that on Milton, but it is sepa-
rated from it by an interval of 18 months. It will
never be so popular as the Milton article,
which is very dazzling, but it is in every
way a better work, and one can see in it the Macau-
lay of later days—his subtlety of thought, his tole-
rant temper, his high view of Morality, his ideal of
composition ; and we may say the same on the:arti-
cles on Hallam and Southey, 'which are next in
order, and belong to the period before he entered
Parliament. An article on " History," which he con-
tributed to the Edinburgh Review in May, 1828,
has not been republished, an in itself perhaps it is
not of much value, having very much the appear-
ance of a college exercise touched up. But as the
production of one who afterwards became one of the
greatest of historians, and who, if he has not actu-
ally invented a new style of history, has given us
the. most perfect specimen of the new style, it is
well worthy of perusal, and will, no doubt, be one
day published with other works which Lord Macau-
lay has been perhaps too anxious to consign to obli-
vion. Among these will be found some political
squibs which are really very good, and with regard
to two of them we quote the following. from
" Moore's Diary," though the date is June, 183 t.
He is relating a conversation at the breakfast table
of Rogers, and says—" In the course of conversa;.
tion Campbell quoted a line— .
" 'Ye diners out from whom wo guard our spons,'

_ .
and looking over at me said significantly, You
ought to know that line.' I pleaded not guilty;
upon which he said, It is a poem that appeared in
the Times which every one attributes to you.' But
I again declared that I did not e:en remember it.
Macaulay then broke silence and said, to our gene-
ral surprise, That is mine,' on which we all ex-
pressed a wish to have it recalled to our memories,
and he repeated the whole of it. I then remembered
having been much struck with it• at the time, and
said that there was another squib still better"on
the subject of Win. Bankes's candidateship for
Cambridge, which so amused when it appeared
and showed such power in that style of composition
that I wrote up to Barnes about it, and advised
him by all means to secure that hand as an ally.
That was mine also,' said Macaulay, thus dis-
covering to us a new power, in addition to that
varied store of talent which we had already known
him to possess." His talents were so great, his
writings so effective, and his influence so strong that
the Whigs obtained for him (this, we suppose,
must have been in the Coalition Ministry) an ap-
pointment as Commissioner of Bankrupts, and in
1830 he entered Parliament as member for Caine.
For the future Mr. Macaulay is to be as much a
politician as a writer. lie made an impression in
the House of Commons almost from the first. To
one who was uttering some dispsragement of the
young man, Mr. Shell is reported to have screeched
out, "Nonsense, sir ! don't attempt to run down
Macaulay: He's the cleverest man in Christendom.
Didn't he make four speeches on the Reform Bill,
and net £lO,OOO a-year ? Think of that, and be
dumb." 'lmmense things were expected of him
when he appeared in the house ; he was to be
another Burke, and indeed he took a part in • the
debates in favour of Reform and the Grey Ministry
second only to the more spontaneous effarts of
Lord. Derby, then Mr. Stanley. Croker, who had
nig° a reputation as a reviewer, was frequently in
these days sot up to destroy the young debater, but
he failed, as, other things being equal, the man of
detail must alwayssfail against the man of broad
views and sweeping generalisations. Besides his
performances on the floor of the House of Commons
Mr. Maea.ulay did duty in these clays for his friends
the Abolitionists, whose hearts he rejoiced in highly
impassioned speeches at the Freemasons"ravern.
In Parliament his style was more argumentative
and sober, and he did good service to his friends.
Jeffrey, writing to Lord Cockburn in 1833, observes
—" Mac is a marvellous person. He made the very
best speech that has been this session on India, a
few nights ago, to a house of less than fifty. The
Speaker, who is a severe judge, says he rather
thinks it the best speech, he ever heard." Admi-
rable speaker as he was, however, ono may venture
to doubt about Mr. Macaulay's qualifications as a
debater. With all his stores of information, and all
his flow of language, he could never trust himself
to speak without elaborate preparation; his presence
as an orator was not overpowering ; and his voice
was not particularly good. His head was 'Set stiff
upon-his shoulders, and his feet were planted im-
movable on the ground. One hand was fixed be-
hind him;across his back, and in this rigid attitude,
with only a slight movement of his right hand, he
poured forth his sentences. His speeches were what
he said those of Sir James Mackintosh were—spoken
essays, only that Macaulay's essays, unlike those of
Sir James, were written in a highly rhetorical style.
It is, perhaps, the most rhetorical prose that ever
was written ; at all events, the prose that combines
in the most perfect way whatever is excellent in
the written with whatever is valuable in the spoken
style. Macaulay certainly did wonders with it, and
if he was not very formidable in extempore debate,
he managed at all times to fascinate both sides of
the House, and to win golden opinions from all sorts
of men.
With the new Parliament, which assembled after
the passing of the Reform Bill, ho was returned to
the House of Commons as representative of Leeds,
and was appointed Secretary to the Board of Con-
trol; but in 1834 he resigned his seat and his secre-
taryship to go out to India as a member of the Su-
preme Council. The emolument, we believe, was the
chief inducement to this step, a few years'of India in
such on office being sufficient to secure a competency;
but it will at once be seen that the acceptance of
such a post was a frank surrender on the part of
Mr. Macaulay of the highest political position. A
man who felt that his life was in action, and knew
that he must push his way to power, would not
have thrown away some of the best years of his
life in a distant dependency. He had probably
discovered by this time that he was more a historian
than a statesman, and that ho was happier and more
useful among his books than in office and in debate.
And yet, although Mr. Macaulay's acceptance of
the Indian office surprised those of his friends
who had marked out for him, in imagination, a
brilliant political future, he had an object in
visiting the East which might well fire his ambi-
tion. He was appointed not simply a member of
the Supreme Council, but also legal adviser to it,
and the special object of his mission was to prepare
a new Indian code of law. He was therefore ex-
empted from all share in the administration of
affairs ;, he had four assistants to help him in his
labours, and the
.penal code which was produced
under his superintendence is mainly to be attri-
buted to him. Containing some 26 chapters divided
into nearly 500 clauses, this code was published
after Mr. Macaulay's return to this country in
1848, and its great ability acknowledged. To pro-
duke such a code was an object worthy of his ambi-
tin. Unfortunately, his code was rather admired
than obeyed ; it was too good to be true ; mankind
lasas not fit for it; it would not work. The variety
Of races and customs to which it was applied has
prevented oven the attempt to put it in practice.
One of its enactments, indeed, was so odious to the
English inhabitants that they gave it the appella-
tion of the " Black Act." It abolished the right of
appealing from the local courts to_ the Supreme
Court at the Presidency. This right had. hitherto
been exclusively enjoyed by Europeans, and now it
was proposed to put them on the same footing with
natives, giving to both a certain right of appeal,
but appeal only to the highest provincial courts.
It was practically the same measure which roused
the inhabitants of Calcutta to indignant remon-
strance immediately before the outbreak of the
mutiny, and which, being put forward at such a
time, showed the confidence of our Indian officials
in the justice of the Hindoo population. One benes
fit our author derived from his Indian experience;
he was able to write of Indian affairs with a full-
ness of knowledge and a vividness of apprehension
which are unsurpassed in his treatment of any other
subject. His essays on Clive and Warren Hastings
are, onthe whole, the best he has written. Nothing
can be more masterly than his views, nothing
more picturesque than his narration, nothing
more just than' his admiration of the men, com-
bined with condemnation of their acts. The essays
will always be the most popular of his works, and
we may read them a dozen times without ever tir-
ing of them. The English is his best—his most
finished style, and we must give him the praise of

having in his style added to the clearness of the
English language. He has taught us to avoid in-
volved sentences; he has given us the most brilliant
examples of directness; and by a chary use of pro-
nouns, especially the personal pronouns, he has
given at once lucidity and emphasis to all he has to
say.

Mr. Macaulay, we have said, returned to this
country in 1838. His subsequent history is too
well known to need much remark. He was elected
member for Edinburgh in 1839, and became Secre-
tary at War in the same year. Mr. Macaulay did
not long remain in office, for the Whigs were soon
ousted by. Sir :Robert Peel. In opposition Mr.
Macaulay's voice was not often heard, but on one
occasion he expressed himself in such a manner as
to give mortal offence to his constituents and power-
fully to influexce his future career. On. the subject
of the Maynooth endowment he spoke in favour of
the grant to the Roman Catholics, and ventured to
make allusion to " the bray of Exeter-hall." His
constituency resented the expression, and refused
to re-elect him in 1847. In 1852 they repented of
their doings and spontaneously reelected
without asking him to issue an address, to attend a
meeting, or to bear one farthing of the expense..lt
was a worthy repai lotion, and the historian sat for
a short time in Parliament, although an at-
tack of heart complaint compelled him to avoid the
excitement of public speaking. After a few sessions,
he retired from the House of Commons, and only
about two years ago he was raised to the peerage.
Lord Macaulay's rejection at Edinburgh probably
hastened the undertaking of what was his chief am-
bition,---at true History of England. He produced two
volumes of this history in 1848, two more made
their appearance in 1855, and the public were in
expectation of a further instalment, to be
issued very shortly, when now they hear of the
historian's decease. The excitement which the first
two volumes created, appearing as they did in all
the hubbub of the French Revolution, presenting
to ns a picture in remarkable contrast to that of
the Parisian rabble,, and 'calming down our
own populace with the story of a nobler revolution,
must be vividly in the recollection of our readers.
Of the value of that history we have spoken so re-
cently (the Times, January 11, 1850) that we need
not now trouble them with a detailed criticism.
Despite of any amount of criticism, the work is a
very great work, and just as Hume is read not-
withstanding our censures, Macaulay will be read,
whatever his deviations from strict accuracy. The
only fact about this splendid monument of human
labour to which it is necessary to call attention is,
that the author in commencing his work proposed
to carry it down to a period "'within the memory
of persons still living," and that he has .not been
permitted to fulfil his task. He frequently turned
his attention to other works, as witness his admir-
able biography of the 'younger Pitt in a recent
volume ofthe .Enclyclopedia : and the work had so
grown on his hands that probably he himself long
since gave up the hope of being able to bring down
his narration to regent times. As it is, it is a mag-
nificent fragthent, which, even if 'the author had
produced but a single voithoe, would have been o
enorriious value as a Specimen of the high ideal at
which he aimed.--:-Titnes.