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BARON THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY MACAU...

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 196 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BARON See also:THOMAS See also:BABINGTON See also:MACAULAY MACAULAY (1800-1859)  , See also:English historian, essayist and politician, was See also:born at Rothley See also:Temple, See also:Leicestershire, on the 25th of See also:October i800 . His See also:father, Zachary See also:Macaulay (1768-1838), had been See also:governor of Sierra Leone, and was in i800 secretary to the chartered See also:company which had founded that See also:colony; an ardent philanthropist, he did much to secure the abolition of the slave See also:trade, and he edited the abolitionist See also:organ, the See also:Christian Observer, for many years . Happy in his See also:home, the son at a very See also:early See also:age gave See also:proof of a determined See also:bent towards literature . Before he was eight years of age he had written a Compendium of Universal See also:History, which gave a tolerably connected view of the leading events from the creation to 1800, and a See also:romance in the See also:style of See also:Scott, in three cantos, called The See also:Battle of Cheviot . A little later he composed a See also:long poem on the history of Olaus See also:Magnus, and a vast See also:pile of See also:blank See also:verse entitled Fingal, a Poem in Twelve Books . After being at a private school, in October 1818 See also:young Macaulay went to Trinity See also:College, See also:Cambridge, where he after-wards became a See also:fellow . He gained in 1824 a college See also:prize for an See also:essay on the See also:character of See also:William III . He also won a prize for Latin declamation and a See also:Craven scholarship, and wrote the prize poems of 1819 and 1821 . In 1826 Macaulay was called to the See also:bar and joined the See also:northern See also:circuit . But he soon gave up even the pretence of See also:reading See also:law, and spent many more See also:hours under the See also:gallery of the See also:house of See also:commons than in the See also:court . His first See also:attempt at a public speech, made at an See also:anti-See also:slavery See also:meeting in 1824, was described by the See also:Edinburgh See also:Review as " a display of eloquence of rare This sudden See also:blaze of popularity, kindled by a single essay, is partly to be explained by the dearth of See also:literary See also:criticism in See also:England at that See also:epoch . For, though a higher See also:note had already been sounded by See also:Hazlitt and See also:Coleridge, it had not yet taken hold of the public mind, which was still satisfied with the feeble appreciations of the Retrospective Review, or the dashing and damnatory improvisation of See also:Wilson in See also:Blackwood or See also:Jeffrey in the Edinburgh .

Still, See also:

allowance being made for the barbarous partisanship of the established See also:critical tribunals of the See also:period, it seems surprising that a social success so See also:signal should have been the consequence of a single See also:article . The explanation is that the writer of the article on See also:Milton was, unlike most authors, also a brilliant conversationalist . There has never been a period when an amusing talker has not been in See also:great demand at See also:London tables; but when Macaulay made his debut witty conversation was studied and cultivated as it has ceased to be in the more busy age which has succeeded . At the university Macaulay had been recognized as pre-eminent for inexhaustible talk and genial companionship among a circle of such brilliant young men as See also:Charles See also:Austin, See also:Romilly, See also:Praed and See also:Villiers . He now displayed these gifts on a wider See also:theatre . Launched on the best that London had to give in the way of society, Macaulay accepted and enjoyed with all the zest of youth and a vigorous nature the opportunities opened for him . He was courted and admired by the most distinguished personages of the See also:day . He was admitted at See also:Holland House, where See also:Lady Holland listened to him with deference, and scolded him with a circumspection which was in itself a compliment . See also:Samuel See also:Rogers spoke of him with friendliness and to him with See also:affection . He was treated with almost fatherly kindness by " Conversation " See also:Sharp . Thus distinguished, and justifiably conscious of his great See also:powers, Macaulay began to aspire to a See also:political career . But the See also:shadow of pecuniary trouble early began to fall upon his path .

When he went to college his father believed himself to be See also:

worth £roo,000 . But commercial disaster overtook the house of See also:Babington & Macaulay, and the son now saw himself compelled to See also:work for his livelihood . His Trinity fellowship of £300 a See also:year became of great consequence to him, but it expired in 1831; he could make at most £20o a year by See also:writing; and a commissionership of See also:bankruptcy, which was given him by See also:Lord See also:Lyndhurst in 1828, and which brought him in about £400 a year, was swept away, without See also:compensation, by the See also:ministry which came into See also:power in 1830 . Macaulay was reduced to such straits that he had to sell his Cambridge See also:gold See also:medal . In See also:February 183o the doors of the House of Commons were opened to him through what was then called a "See also:pocket See also:borough." Lord See also:Lansdowne, who had been struck by two articles on See also:James See also:Mill and the Utilitarians, which appeared in the Edinburgh Review in 1829, offered the author the seat at See also:Calne . The offer was accompanied by the See also:express assurance that the See also:patron iI MACAULA'Y and editors what See also:Dryden See also:bore from See also:Tonson and what See also:Mackintosh bore from See also:Lardner, is horrible to me." Macaulay was thus prepared to accept the offer of a seat in the supreme See also:council of See also:India, created by the new India See also:Act . The See also:salary of the See also:office was fixed at £ro,aoo, out of which he calculated to be able to See also:save £30,000 in five years . His See also:sister Hannah accepted his proposal to accompany him, and in February 1834 the See also:brother and sister sailed for See also:Calcutta . Macaulay's See also:appointment to India occurred at the critical moment when the See also:government. of the company was being superseded by government by the See also:Crown . His knowledge of India was, when he landed, but superficial . But at this juncture there was more need of statesmanship directed by See also:general liberal principles than of a See also:practical knowledge of the details of See also:Indian See also:administration . Macaulay's presence in, the council was of great value; his minutes are See also:models of See also:good See also:judgment and. practical sagacity .

The See also:

part he took in India has been described as " the application of See also:sound liberal principles to a government which had till then been jealous, See also:close and repressive." He vindicated the See also:liberty of the See also:press; he maintained the equality of Europeans and natives before the law; and as See also:president of the See also:committee of public instruction he inaugurated the See also:system of See also:national See also:education . A clause in the India Act x833 occasioned the appointment of a See also:commission to inquire into the See also:jurisprudence of the Eastern dependency .. Macaulay was appointed president of that commission . The draft of a penal See also:code which he submitted became, after a revision of many years, and by the labour of many experienced lawyers, the Indian criminal code . Of this code See also:Sir James See also:Stephen said that " it reproduces in a concise and even beautiful See also:form the spirit of the law of England, in a See also:compass which by comparison with the See also:original may be regarded as almost absurdly small . The Indian penal code is to the English criminal law what a manufactured article ready for use is to the materials out of which it is made . It is to the See also:French code penal, and to the See also:German code of 1871, what a finished picture is to a See also:sketch . It is simpler and better expressed than See also:Livingston's code for See also:Louisiana; and its practical success has been See also:complete." Macaulay's enlightened views and. See also:measures See also:drew down on him, however, the abuse and See also:ill-will of Anglo-Indian society . Fortunately for himself he was enabled to maintain a tranquil indifference to political detraction by withdrawing his thoughts into a See also:sphere remote from the opposition and enmity by which he was surrounded . Even amid the excitement of his early See also:parliamentary successes literature had balanced politics in his thoughts and interests . Now in his See also:exile he began to feel more strongly each year. the attraction of See also:European letters and European history . He wrote to his friend See also:Ellis: " I have gone back to See also:Greek literature with a See also:passion astonishing to myself .

I have never See also:

felt anything like it . I was enraptured with See also:Italian during the six months which I gave up to it; and I was little less pleased with See also:Spanish . But when I went back to the Greek I felt as if I had never known before what intellectual enjoyment was." In thirteen months he read through, some of them twice, a large part of the Greek and Latin See also:classics . The See also:fascination of these studies produced their inevitable effect upon his view of political See also:life . He began to wonder what See also:strange infatuation leads men who can do something better to squander their See also:intellect, their See also:health and See also:energy, on such subjects as those which most statesmen are engaged in pursuing . He was already, he says, more than See also:half determined to abandon politics and give myself wholly to letters, to undertake some great See also:historical work, which may be at once the business and the amusement of my life, and to leave the pleasures of pestiferous rooms, sleepless nights, and diseased stomachs to See also:Roebuck and to Praed." In 1838 Macaulay and his sister Hannah, who had married Charles Trevelyan in 1834, returned to England . He at once entered See also:parliament ' as member for Edinburgh . In 1839 he became secretary at See also:war, with a seat in the See also:cabinet in Lord Mel. See also:bourne's ministry., His See also:acceptance of office diverted him for a See also:time from prosecuting the See also:plan he had already formed of a great historical work . But in less than two years the See also:Melbourne had no wish to interfere with Macaulay's freedom of voting . He thus entered parliament. at one of the most exciting moments of English domestic history, when the compact See also:phalanx of reactionary administration which for nearly fifty years had commanded a crushing See also:majority in the Commons was on the point of being broken by the growing strength of the party of reform . Macaulay made his See also:maiden speech on the 5th of See also:April 1830, on the second reading of the See also:Bill for the Removal of Jewish Disabilities . In See also:July the See also:king died and parliament was dissolved; the revolution took See also:place in See also:Paris .

Macaulay, who was again returned for Calne, visited Paris, eagerly enjoying a first See also:

taste of See also:foreign travel . On the 1st of See also:March 1831 the Reform Bill was introduced, and on the second See also:night of the debate Macaulay made the first of his reform speeches . It was, like all his speeches, a success . Sir See also:Robert See also:Peel said of it that " portions: were as beautiful as anything I have ever heard or read." Encouraged by this first success, Macaulay now threw himself with ardour into the life of the House of Commons, while at the same time he continued to enjoy to the full the social opportunities which his literary and political celebrity had placed within his reach . He dined out almost nightly, and spent many of hi$ Sundays at the suburban villas of the Whig, leaders, while he continued to See also:supply the Edinburgh Reviewer with articles . On the See also:triumph of See also:Earl See also:Grey's cabinet, and the passing of the Reform Act in See also:June 1832, Macaulay, whose eloquence had signalized , every See also:stage of the conflict, became one of the commissioners of the See also:board of See also:control, and applied himself to the study of Indian affairs . Giving his days to India and his nights to the House of Commons, he could only devote a few hours to literary See also:composition by rising at five when the business of the house had allowed of his getting to See also:bed in time on the previous evening . Between See also:September 1831 and See also:December 1833 he furnished the Review with eight important articles, besides writing his ballad on the See also:Armada . In the first Reform Parliament, See also:January 1833, Macaulay took his seat as one of the two members for See also:Leeds, which up to that date had been unrepresented in the House of Commons . He replied to O'Connell in the debate on the address, meeting the great agitator See also:face to face, with high, but not intemperate, See also:defiance . In July he defended the Government of India Bill in a speech of great power, and he was instrumental in getting the bill through committee without unnecessary See also:friction . When the abolition of slavery came before the house as a practical question, Macaulay had the prospect of having to surrender office or to See also:vote for a modified abolition, viz. twelve years' See also:apprenticeship, which was proposed by the ministry, but condemned by the abolitionists .

He was prepared to make the See also:

sacrifice of place rather than be unfaithful to the cause to which his father had devoted his life . He placed his resignation in Lord Althorp's hands, and spoke against the ministerial proposal . But the sense of the house was so strongly expressed as unfavourable that, finding they would be beaten if they persisted, the ministry gave way, and reduced apprenticeship to seven years, a See also:compromise which the abolition party accepted; and• Macaulay remained at the board of control . While he was thus growing in reputation, and advancing his public See also:credit, the fortunes of the See also:family were sinking, and it became evident that his sisters would have no See also:provision except such as their brother might be enabled to make for them . Macaulay had but two See also:sources of income, both of them See also:precarious—office and his See also:pen . As to office, the Whigs could not have expected at that time to retain power for a whole See also:generation; and, even while they did so, Macaulay's See also:resolution that he would always give an See also:independent vote made it possible that he might' at any moment find himself in disagreement with his colleagues, and have to quit his place: As to literature, he wrote to Lord Lansdowne (1833), "it has been hitherto merely my relaxation; I have never considered it as the means of support . I have chosen my own topics, taken my own time, and dictated my own terms . The thought of becoming a bookseller's hack, of spurring a jaded See also:fancy to reluctant exertion, of filling sheets with trash merely that sheets may be filled, of bearing from publishers ministry See also:fell . In 1842 appeared his See also:Lays of See also:Ancient See also:Rome, and in the next year he collected and published his Essays . He returned to office in 1846, in Lord See also:John See also:Russell's administration, as paymaster-general . His duties were very See also:light, and the See also:con-tact with See also:official life and the obligations of parliamentary attendance were even of benefit to him while he was engaged upon his History . In the sessions of 1846-1847 he spoke only five times, and at the general See also:election of July 1847 he lost his seat for Edinburgh .

The See also:

balance of Macaulay's faculties had now passed to the See also:side of literature . At an earlier date he had relished crowds and the excitement of ever new faces; as years went forward, and absorption in the work of composition took off the edge of his See also:spirits, he recoiled from publicity . He began to regard the prospect of business as worry, and had no longer the See also:nerve to See also:brace himself to the social efforts required of one who represents a large See also:constituency . Macaulay retired into private life, not only without regret, but with a sense of See also:relief . He gradually withdrew from general society, feeling the bore of big dinners and See also:country-house visits, but he still enjoyed close and See also:constant intercourse with a circle of the most eminent men that London then contained . At that time social breakfasts were in See also:vogue . Macaulay himself preferred this to any other form of entertainment . Of these brilliant reunions nothing has been preserved beyond the names of, the men who formed them—Rogers, See also:Hallam, See also:Sydney See also:Smith, Lord See also:Carlisle, Lord See also:Stanhope, See also:Nassau See also:Senior, Charles Greville, See also:Milman, See also:Panizzi, G . C . See also:Lewis, See also:Van de Weyer . His biographer thus describes Macaulay's See also:appearance and bearing in conversation: " Sitting See also:bolt upright, his hands resting on the arms of his See also:chair, or folded over the handle of his walking-stick, See also:knitting his See also:eye-brows if the subject was one which had to be thought out as he went along, or brightening from the forehead downwards when a burst of See also:humour was coming, his massive features and honest glance suited well with the manly sagacious sentiments which he set forth in his sonorous See also:voice and in his racy and intelligible See also:language . To get at his meaning See also:people had never the need to think twice, and they certainly had seldom the time." But, great as was his enjoyment of literary society and books, they only formed his recreation .

Phoenix-squares

In these years he was working with unflagging See also:

industry at the composition of his History . His composition was slow, his corrections both of See also:matter and style endless; he spared no pains to ascertain the facts . He sacrificed to the See also:prosecution of his task a political career, House of Commons fame, the allurements of society . The first two volumes of the History of England appeared in December 1848 . The success was in every 'way complete beyond expectation . The See also:sale of edition after edition, both in England and the See also:United States, was enormous . In 1852, when his party returned to office, he refused a seat in the cabinet, but he could not bring himself to decline the compliment of a voluntary amende which the See also:city of Edinburgh paid him in returning him at the See also:head of the See also:poll at the general election in July of that year . He had hardly accepted the See also:summons to return to parliamentary life before fatal weakness betrayed itself in deranged See also:action of the See also:heart; from this time forward till his See also:death his strength continued steadily to sink . The See also:process carried with it dejection of spirits .as its inevitable attendant . The thought oppressed him that the great work to which he had devoted himself would remain a fragment . Once again, in June 1853, he spoke in parliament, and with effect, against the exclusion of the See also:master of the rolls from the House of Commons, and at a later date in See also:defence of competition for the Indian See also:civil service . But he was aware that it was a grievous See also:waste of his small stock of force, and that he made these efforts at the cost of more valuable work .

In See also:

November 1855 vols. iii. and iv. of the History appeared and obtained a vast circulation . Within a generation of its first appearance upwards of 140,000 copies of the History were printed and sold in the United See also:kingdom alone; and in the United States the sales were on a correspondingly large See also:scale . The History was translated into German, See also:Polish, Danish, See also:Swedish, Hungarian,