, 1881-10-02
MACAULAY,


sASAA~<A ~@AAA%
HI. Intellectual Defect.
st. Jam.s' Gazette {L,udon>.
Five years have elapsed since the first edi-
tion Of Alr. Trevelyan's Life aud Letters Of
Lord Macaulay'' was published. We still
believe that Mr.. Trcyclyan's book IS the
best biography which has appeared i'll
England since Cariyle's life Of :Ster-
ling" And we sill thinks that it would be
much improved by the excision Of a great
deal OF public and domestic gossip. 1t is
clear, too, without entering into the lucs-
ton whether Mr.. rrcyeIyan's book has, OH
the whole, raised or lowered Nacaulay's 5
reputation, that, so far at least AS some minor
intfrini;ics Of taste and temper are ron
cerned, the nephew has proclaimed
what the uncle would certainly have
concealed. Tn the other hand we
doubt whether he has brought into sufficient
relief the most salient defect in his ullc1e's
character. lie acIuicsces i'll the Spectators
assertion that the habit Of lmputin5 motives
was Macaulay's one intellectual vice, and
is charmed beyond measure because the
Spectator *'iirely adds as he thinks,
that this is 1.-THE vice OF rcc.itude.>
1t A1atauiay is really open 10 the
charge of habitually inlu|sing in an in
tellectual vice so grave and dangerous. he
is not to be cleared by !: mere phrase Of this
kind For unless the Spcc'nfnr means ~
addendu,n is simply nottrne. ,Andatti,ough
Il false ethical maxim may deserve IL oe
called ''smart,'' it can never deserve to be
rallied 4'tine'' or merit serious considrra-
ttion. We neither assert nor deny that
Indictment thus brought against him.
But we confidently assert that, # he must,
the :. vice Of rectitude:' is BY no means the
see intellectual vice which can he laid 1T his
door. Ills great intellectual defect was
tendency to harbor what Butler, in his ser
mon on resentment, calls "a certain deter
r1ination and resolnte bent Of tie mind not
to be convinced or set right :, or rather, per-
haps, we should say-and it makes the
charge more scrions-not to confess and ad-
init that he was convinced and set right
4 curious example Of this weakness will
be found in the We!i-knowne on Crokcr.S
edition Of Boswe!l.s - Life Of Johnson:
silence. is not generally known. At the time
of the Reform bill llacaulay sat for Cal,1e.
The Observation-Disclosures Of that borhn.h
was not 3s ;ns least 1, Gt th9 n;a,rv ss nneM sai
10 be thought synonymous terms. X
higll-spirited and clear-sightcd man would
feel very keeniy any taullts oil 50 sore sub
rated, it is true, III the heyday Of his lntlsl-
ence, but quite adequate, to the congenial
task of . making the gllleti jade vince The
member for Calne was naturally eX-
treme!y annoyed by his aAversarys
attacks: land see,'' he wrote to his
sister Hannah, whether DO not dust
that varlet;s jacket for him III tn; next
number Of the Blue and Yellow lie was
more than lis gopu as his word. But while
dustlng Mr. Cookers jacket III i way which
his own admirers must always, regret.
he stumbled himself into 4 ritfail out OF
which they will never drag him. Croker had
confessed that he found the following coup
LET. attributed to Sir William Jones, unin-
telligible:
Six bours to law, to soothing sumbcrs seven,
Ten to the world alot- and ill to Heaven.
Macaulay thereupon declared that he did not