396, 418.

345.

It was

A number of papers of unusual excellence, pub. by Mr. Macaulay in Knight's Quarterly Magazine, preceded the celebrated essay on Milton, which introduced him to the fastidious readers of the Edinburgh Review. This brilliant yet profound disquisition appeared in the number for August, 1825, and at once excited the interest and admiration of the public in no ordinary degree. eagerly devoured by readers of all shades of political opinion and all grades of mental culture,-from Sir James Mackintosh, who declared it to be worthy of the Edinburgh's best days, to the ambitious school-boy, who immediately adopted it for his next annual recitation; from the uncompromising Tory, who praised every thing but its republican logic, to the exulting Whig, who found in it for a second time the death-warrant of the first Charles. The paper on Milton was succeeded in the Review by articles from the same able pen, many of them of equal, and some of superior, merit to that famous production. The last essay-that on the Earl of Chatham-appeared in the number for October, 1844,-nearly twenty years from the date of the first of the series. A collective edit. of these reviews-all that had then appeared-was pub. at Philadelphia, by Messrs. Carey & Hart, in 5 vols. 12mo, and also in 1 vol. 8vo. They were eagerly purchased, and within five years 60,000 vols. had left the publishers' shelves. As these vols. were imported into England in large quantities, the author felt it a duty to authorize the owners of the Review to issue an impression for the protection of their own rights; and accordingly, in 1843, an edit. of the Essays, revised by the author, was issued in 3 vels Though pub. in an expensive form, the demand

in Great Britain was so great that within the last few months (we write in 1857) the 8th ed. has been put to press, 3 vols. 8vo, 368. Pocket ed., 3 vols. fp. 8vo, 21. A number of the articles have also been issued separately. The London ed. contains the following articles: (we quote from the issue of 1854, 3 vols. fp. Svo.) Vol. I.: I. Milton, (August, 1825.) II. Machiavelli, (March, 1827.) III. Hallam's Constitutional History, (Sept. 1828.) IV. Southey's Colloquies on Society, (Jan. 1830.) V. Mr. Robert Montgomery's Poems, (April, 1830.) VI. Southey's edition of the Pilgrim's Progress, (Dec. 1830.) VII. Civil Disabilities of the Jews, (Jan. 1831.) VIII. Moore's Life of Lord Byron, (June, 1831.) IX. Croker's edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson, (Sept. 1831.) X. Lord Nuleigh and his Times, (April, 1832.) gent's Memorials of Hampden, (Dec. 1831.; XI. BurXII. War of the Succession in Spain, (Jan. 1833.) XIII. Horace Walpole, (Oct. 1833.) Vol. II.: XIV. William Pitt, Earl of Chat. ham, (Jan. 1834.) XV. Sir James Mackintosh, (July, 1835.) XVI. Lord Bacon, (July, 1837.) XVII. Sir William Temple, (Oct. 1838.) XVIII. Gladstone on Church and State, (April, 1839.) XIX. Lord Clive, (Jan. 1840.) XX. Von Ranke, (Oct. 1840.) Vol. III.: XXI. Leigh Hunt, (Jan. 1841.) (July, 1841.) XXII. Lord Holland, XXIV. Frederic the Great, (April, 1842.) XXIII. Warren Hastings, (Oct. 1841.) XXV. Madame D'Arblay, (Jan. 1843.) XXVI. Life and Writings of Addison, (July, 1843.) XXVII. The Earl of Chatham, (Oct. 1844.) The Philadelphia ed. (we quote

IV. Cowley and

from that of 1849, r. 8vo) contains all the preceding, and the following additional papers: I. On Dryden, (E. R., 1828.) II. History, (E. R., 1828.) III. Dumont's Recollections of Mirabeau, (E. R., 1832.) Milton. V. On Mitford's History of Greece. VI. On the Athenian Orators. VII. Barère's Memoirs, (E. R., April, 1844.) VIII. Mill's Essay on Government, (E. R., March, 1829.) IX. Bentham's Defence of Mill, (June, 1829.) X. Utilitarian Theory of Governinent, (E. R., Oct. 1829.) XI. Charles Churchill. It is denied that this last-named is properly attributed to Mr. Macaulay; nor can we vouch which this list is taken contains also The Lays of Ancient for the authenticity of all the others. The vol. from Rome. An ed. of the Essays was pub. in New York, 1854, 5 vols. 12mo; and in Boston, 1854, 1 vol. 8vo. We have referred to the admiration expressed by Sir James Mackintosh of the paper on Milton: this eminent critic did not scruple, at a later day, to eulogize the author in the most flattering terms:

"The admirable writer whose language has occasioned this illus tration, who at an early age has mastered every species of composi tion, will doubtless hold fast to simplicity, which survives all the fashions of deviation from it, and which a man of a genius so fertile has few temptations to forsake." See Blackw. Mag., xxviii. 587.

Sir Archibald Alison, after a review of the literary characteristics of Lord Jeffrey, Sir James Mackintosh, and Sydney Smith, continues:

"Much as these very eminent men differ from each other, Mr. Macaulay is, perhaps, still more clearly distinguished from either. Both his turn of mind and style of writing are peculiar, and exhibit a combination rarely if ever before witnessed in English, or even in modern, literature. Unlike Lord Jeffrey, he is deeply learned in ancient and modern lore: his mind is richly stored with the poetry and history both of classical and Continental literature. Unlike Mackintosh, he is eminently dramatic and pictorial; he alternately Smith, he has omitted subjects of party contention and passing speaks poetry to the soul and pictures to the eye. Unlike Sidney interest, and grappled with the great questions, the immortal names, which will forever attract the interest and command the attention of man. Milton, Bacon, Machiavelli, first awakened his the Great, called forth his dramatic and historic powers. He has discriminating and critical taste: Clive, Warren Hastings, Frederick treated of the Reformation and the Catholic reaction in his review of Ranke; of the splendid despotism of the Popedom in that of Hildebrand; of the French Revolution in that of Barère. There is no danger of his essays being forgotten, like many of those of of, as in most of those of Johnson. His learning is prodigions; Addison; nor of pompous uniformity of style being complained and perhaps the chief defects of his composition arise from the exuberant riches of the stores from which they are drawn. When warmed in his subject, he is thoroughly in earnest, and his lauguage, in consequence, goes direct to the heart. In many of his essay on the Reformation-there are reflections, equally just and writings-and especially the first volume of his history, and his original, which never were surpassed in the philosophy of history. That he is imbued with the soul of poetry need be told to none who pher will be disputed by none who are acquainted with the splendid have read his Battle of the Lake Regillus; that he is a great biogra biographies of Clive and Hastings, by much the finest productions of the kind in the English language.

"Macaulay's style, like other original things, has already produced a school of imitators. Its influence may distinctly be traced both in the periodical and daily literature of the day. Its great characteristic is the shortness of the sentences,-which often equals that of Tacitus himself,-and the rapidity with which new and dis

finct fleas or facts succeed each other in his richly-stored pags. He is the Pope of English prose: he often gives two sentiments or facts in a single line. No preceding writer in prose, in any modern language with which we are acquainted, has carried this art of abbreviation, or rather cramming of ideas, to such a length; and to its felicitous use much of the celebrity which he has acquired is to be ascribed. There is no doubt that it is a most powerful engine for the stirring of the mind, and, when not repeated too often or carried too far, has a surprising effect. Its introduction forms an era in our historical composition. It reminds us of Sallust and Tacitus."-Essays, 1850, iii. 635-637; originally pub. in Blackw. Mag., April, 1849.

See also Alison's Hist. of Europe, 1815-1852, chap. v. ; his Essays, 1850, ii. 420, iii. 118.

Lord John Russell] praised Macaulay's late articles in the Edinburgh, and agreed with me in lamenting that his great powers should not be concentrated upon one great work, instead of being scattered thus in Sibyls' leaves,-inspired indeed, but still only leaves. I did not express the thought quite in this way; but such was my meaning."-Moore's Diary, June, 1839; Memoirs, .. Lon., 1856, vii. 258.

"Rogers directed my attention to the passage in his last Edinburgh article, where he describes Warren Hastings's trial and the remarkable assemblage of persons and circumstances which it brought together. Agreed perfectly with R. as to the over-gor geousness of this part of the article. But the whole produces great effect, and is everywhere the subject of conversation."-Ibid., Dec. 1841; Memoirs, dc.. 304–305. See also vol. vi., Pref, xv.

"His critical essays exhibit a wide variety of knowledge, with a great fertility of illustration, and enough of the salt of pleasantry and sarcasm to flavour, and in some degree disguise, a somewhat declamatory and pretentious dogmatism."-J. WILSON CROKER: Lon. Quar. Rev., 1xxxiv. 549.

"These essays are remarkable for their brilliant rhetorical power, their splendid tone of coloring, and their affluence of illus tration. With a wide range of reading, and the most docile and retentive memory, he pours over his theme all the treasures of a richly stored mind, and sheds light upon it from all quarters. He excels in the delineation of historical characters, and in the art of carrying his reader into a distant period and reproducing the past with the distinctness of the present. He is also an admirable literary critic, though sometimes his praise and censure might be distributed with somewhat more of discrimination and qualification. And the obvious criticism which his writings call forth is founded upon their exuberance of power, and their too uniform splendor of style. The mind would sometimes be refreshed if passages of a calmer, soberer tone were here and there interspersed, on which the highly-wrought powers of attention might repose themselves. Nor does he always resist the temptation to produce effect by a slight touch of caricature."-GEORGE STILLMAN HILLARD.

See also Poe's Literati; Lewes's Biog. Hist. of Philos., 2d ed., 1857; The Life of Bacon; Henry Reed's Lects. on Eng. Lit., Phila., 1855, 58; Allan Cunningham's Biog. and Crit. Hist. of the Lit. of the Last Fifty Years, 1833; Men of the Time, Lon., 1853; Lyall's Agonistes, or Philos. Strictures, Lon., 1856, 55, 74, 118, 140; Blackw. Mag., xvii. 468, xxii. 406, xxvii. 679, (Noctes Ambros., April, 1830,) xxx. 411, (Noctes Ambros., Aug. 1831) Fraser's Mag., i. 584; Maginn's Fraserian Papers, N. York, 1857, 112-120; Tuckerman's Characteristics of Lit., 2d series; Amer. Whig Rev., ix. 499, (by Rev. H. N. Hudson ;) Princ. Rev., xii. 431; Chris. Rev., v. 450; South. Lit. Mess., xiv. 476; Knick., xxxiii. 508; New Englander, vii. 288, (by Rev. Leonard Bacon;) N. York Eclec. Mag., vii. 394, xiii. 35, (by Geo. Gilfillan;) N. Amer. Rev., lxi. 481, (by E. P. Whipple.) To the last-named gentleman-Mr. Whipple, of Boston-we are indebted for one of the ablest criticisms on Mr. Macaulay's characteristics as an essayist which has been given to the world. The article to which we refer, and of which Mr. Macaulay himself expressed great admiration, was originally pub. in the Boston Miscellany for February, 1843, and has been reprinted in the 1st vol. of Whipple's Essays and Reviews, (Boston, 1852, 2 vols. 12mo.) We must make room for a brief extract:

"If Macaulay thus obtains popularity in quarters where it is generally denied to thinkers and monopolized by the last new Lovel, he is not the less calculated to win golden opinions from readers of judgment and reflection. Behind the external show and glittering vesture of his thoughts-beneath all his pomp of diction, aptness of illustration, splendor of imagery, and epigrammatic point and glare-a careful eye can easily discern the movement of a powerful and cultivated intellect, as it successively appears in the well-trained logician, the discriminating critic. the comprehensive thinker, the practical and far-sighted statesman, and the student of universal knowledge. Perhaps the extent of Macaulay's range over the field of literature and science, and the boldness of his generalizations, are the most striking qualities he displays. The amount of his knowledge surprises even book-worms, memorymongers, and other literary cormorants. It comprises all litera

tures, and all departments of learning and literature. It touches Scarron on one side and Plato on the other. He seems master of every subject of human interest, and of many more subjects which only he can make interesting. He can battle theologians with weapons drawn from antique armories unknown to themselves; sting pedants with his wit, and then overthrow them with a profusion of trivial and recondite learning; oppose statesmen on the practical and theoretical questions of political science; browbeat political economists on their own vantage-ground; be apparently victorious in matters of pure reason in an argument with reason

MACAULAY AS AN ORATOR:

"It is hard to say," remarks Sir Archibald Alison. "whether his poetry, his speeches in Parliament. or his more brilliant essays, are the most charming: each has raised him to very great eminence, and would be sufficient to constitute the reputation of any ordinary man. That he was qualified to have taken a very high place in oratory is proved by many of his speeches in the House of Commons.-particularly those on the Reform Bill."-Hist. of England, 1815-1852, chap. v.

That these Speeches should be equally popular with the Essays or the History of the same great writer was hardly to be expected; that they deserve to be so we have no manner of doubt in the world. . . . For ourselves, we have been equally delighted with the manner and the matter of these speeches. They are wonderful, not merely as compositions, but as specimens of true deliberative eloquence; and equally admirable for the just, and often deep, practical political philosophy with which they are everywhere imbued.. If we examine these speeches of Mr. Macaulay, not simply by some abstract canons of ideal perfection in oratorical style, (which scarcely any man has exemplified, but by a due deference to the variable limits imposed by the variable structure of different minds,-limits within which the conditions of that style may be adequately complied with,-we must again profess our surprise at the degree in which many of these speeches fulfil those conditions. We have no scruple in saying that they will in that respect sustain comparison with any speeches with which the whole range of British oratory has supplied us. Burke often managed to empty the House: Mr. Macaulay, if it be known that he is likely to speak, never fails to fill it. If the benches be empty when he begins, no sooner is it known that he is speaking than numbers flock in and hang on his accents with breathless attention. Certainly, he does not want the testimonies to signal eloquence enumerated by Cicero:- Coronam multiplicens, judicium erectum, crebras assensiones, multas admirationes."-Edin. Rev., c. 490-534, Oct. 1854: review of the ed. of Speeches corrected by himself. Lon., 1854, 8vo.

The popular voice places Mr. Macaulay in the very first rank of contemporary speakers. Those who are prepared to admit a dis tinction between the most distinguished and successful of untrained speakers and the confessed orators include him, without hesitation, in the latter class. If they form their judgment merely from reading his speeches as reported in the papers, certainly they have ample ground for presuming that he must be a man of no ordinary eloquence; for he scarcely ever rises but to pour a flood of light upon the subject under discussion, which he handles with a masterly skill that brings out all the available points and sets them off with such a grace of illustration, such a depth and readi ness of historical knowledge, as are equalled by no other living orator.... When it gets whispered about that Mr. Macaulay is likely to speak on a particular question. the intelligence acts like a talisman on the members. Those who may not take sufficient interest in the current business to be present in the house may be seen hovering in its precincts, in the lobbies, in the library, or at Bellamy's, lest they should be out of the way at the right moment and so lose a great intellectual treat; and it is no sooner known that the cause of all this interest has actually begun to speak than the house becomes, as if by magic. as much crowded as when the leader for the time-being is on his legs."-Fruses Magazine, xxxiii. 77; Contemporary Orators: The Right Hon. 1. B. Macaulay.

See also Blackw. Mag., xxix. 140, 662; xxx. 396, 410, (Noctes Ambros., Aug. 1831.)

MACAULAY AS A HISTORIAN:

Many thousands, doubtless, of the admirers of the impassioned poet, the brilliant essayist, and the eloquent orator, had long shared in the regret of Lord John Russell and Tom Moore (ubi supra) that Macaulay's "great powers should not be concentrated upon one great work, instead of being scattered in Sibyls' leaves."

Great, therefore, was the satisfaction at the announcement recorded by Moore in his Diary, Dec. 1841, two years and a half subsequent to the entry from which we have just quoted

Mr.

"Macaulay, another of the guests, and I, stayed for some time. He is a most wonderful man; and I rejoice to learn that the world may expect from him a History of England, taken up, I believe, where Hume leaves off."-Moore's Memoirs, dr., Lon., 1856, vii. 304. Never, perhaps, was a work more anxiously, more impatiently, expected by the public than Macaulay's History of England, from the first announcement of its intended preparation to the day (Dec. 17, 1855) which witnessed the publication of the third and fourth volumes. Macaulay, however, was too conscientious a historian, and too sensible of the value of his extended literary reputation, to permit himself to be hurried to the press. Truncated Whitelockes, and second-hand authorities, were not permitted to mislead; the ease of the lounger's sofa possessed no charms, and the forbidding piles of the State-Paper Office no terrors, to one to whom criticism was a luxury and labour a necessity. See our Life of DAVID HUME, p. 916 of this Dictionary. At length, in 1849, appeared the first and second volumes of The History of England, from the accession of King James the Second down to a time which is within the memory of men still living." The success of these vols. was great and immediate :

We pay Mr. Macaulay no compliment, but only record his good fortune, when we say that these two volumes are the most popu lar historical work that ever issued from the English press. Within six months this book has run through five editions,-involving an issue of above 18,000 copies; and, on the other side the Atlantic, our enterprising and economical brothers of America have, we hear, reproduced it in forms which appear infinite in number and infinitesimal in price. For the best rewards of authorship he, therefore, has not been doomed, like many illustrious predecessors, to await the slow verdict of his own or the tardy justice of a succeeding generation. Fame has absolutely trodden on his heels. As widely as our language has travelledsuper et Garamantas et Indos-these volumes have already spread the reputation and opinions of their author."-Edin. Rev., xc. 249, July, 1849.

The 8th ed. was pub. in 1852, 2 vols. 8vo; and, by Jan. 1856, the sale of vols. i. and ii. had reached nearly 40,000 copies. In the United States, the sale of vols. i. and ii., in five years, (1849-54,) amounted to no less than 125,000 copies; and this number may now (1857) be considerably increased. A new ed. of vols. i.-iv., to be pub. in 7 vols. p. Svo, has been recently (1857) announced. Mr. Macaulay's volumes had hardly got fairly before the world when they were attacked with much asperity by the Rt. Hon. J. Wilson Croker, in the London Quarterly Review for March, 1849, 549–630. It is said that Mr. Croker's critical perceptions were sharpened in this case by Mr. Macaulay's strictures (Edin. Rev., Sept. 1831) on his edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson, and that he revenged on the historian the offence of the essayist; but on this subject we have no right to express an opinion. In justice to Mr. Macaulay, we could say no less than we have done on this theme; in justice to Mr. Croker, we can say no more. We give some brief extracts from Mr. Croker's critique:

"It may seem too epigrammatic-but it is, in our serious judgment, strictly true-to say that his History seems to be a kind of combination and exaggeration of the peculiarities of all his former efforts. It is as full of political prejudice and partisan advocacy as any of his parliamentary speeches. It makes the facts of English History as fabulous as his Lays do those of Roman tradition; and it is written with as captious, as dogmatical, and as cynical a spirit as the bitterest of his reviews. That upon so serious an undertaking he has lavished uncommon exertion is not to be doubted, nor can any one, during the first reading, escape the entrainement of his picturesque, vivid, and pregnant execution; but we have fairly stated the impression left on ourselves by a more calm and leisurely perusal. . . . Mr. Macaulay's historical narration is poisoned with a rancour more violent than even the passions of the time; and the literary qualities of the work, though in some respects very remarkable, are far from redeeming its substantial defects. There is hardly a page-we speak literally, hardly a page-that does not contain something objectionabl either in substance or in colour; and the whole of the brilliant and at first captivating narrative is perceived, on examination, to be impregnated to a really marvellous degree with bad taste, bad feeling, and-we are under the painful necessity of add ing-bad faith. . . . Mr. Macaulay's pages, whatever may be their other characteristics, are as copious a repertorium of vituperative eloquence as, we believe, our language can produce, and especially against every thing in which he chooses (whether right or wrong) to recognise the shibboleth of Toryism.. ... We premise that we are about to enter into details, because there is, in fact, little to question or debate about but details. We have already hinted that there is absolutely no new fact of any consequence, and, we think we can safely add, hardly a new view of any historical fact, in the whole book. Whatever there may remain questionable or debatable in the history of the period, we should have to argue with Burnet, Dalrymple, or Mackintosh, and not with Mr. Macaulay.... Our first complaint is of a comparatively small and almost mechanical, and yet very real, defect,-the paucity and irregularity of his dates, and the mode in which the few that he does give are overlaid, as it were, by the text. . . . Our second complaint is one of the least important, perhaps, but most prominent,

defects of Mr. Macaulay's book,-his style,-not merely the choic and order of words, commonly called style, but the turn of mind which prompts the choice of expressions as well as of topics. We must next notice the way in which Mr. Macaulay refers to and uses his authorities,-no trivial points in the execution of a his torical work, though we shall begin with comparatively small matters.... But, we are sorry to say, we have a heavier complaint against Mr. Macaulay. We accuse him of a habitual and This unfortunate really injurious perversion of his authorities. indulgence-in whatever juvenile levity it may have originated, and through whatever steps it may have grown into an uncon scious habit-seems to us to pervade the whole work, from Alpha to Omega, from Procopius to Mackintosh.... We must here observe that one strong mark of his historical impartiality is to call uny thing bigoted, intolerant, shameless, cruel, by the comprehensive title of Tory.... We are ready to admit, a hundred times over, Mr. Macaulay's literary powers,-brilliant even under the affecta tion with which he too frequently disfigures them. He is a great painter, but a suspicious narrator; a grand proficient in the picturesque, but a very poor professor of the historic. These volumes have been, and his future volumes as they appear will be, de voured with the same eagerness that Oliver Twist or Vanity Fair excite, with the same quality of zest, though perhaps with a higher degree of it; but his pages will seldom, we think, receive a second perusal; and the work, we apprehend, will hardly find a permanent place on the historical shelf, nor ever, assuredly,—if cor tinued in the spirit of the first two volumes,-be quoted as authority on any question or point of the History of England.'

But this reviewer was himself reviewed in the Edin. burgh Quarterly for July, 1849, in the concluding portion of an eulogistic notice of Mr. Macaulay's History :

"Such is this great national work,-as our countrymen have already pronounced it to be. The loud, clear voice of impartial Fame has sounded her award; and it will stand without appeal. as long as Englishmen regard their past history and love the Con stitution of which he tells. From one quarter only-and that a quarter of which we expected, and which perhaps wished for itself, better things-has the melancholy wailing of disappointed jealousy been heard. The public naturally looked with interest for the notice of Mr. Macaulay's History in the Quarterly Re view. The notice had not long appeared. when it was observed, with equal wit and truth, that the writer of it, in attempting murder, had committed suicide. We have doubted whether we should add a word in illustration of a judgment in which the public has shown, through almost all its representatives, that it cordially agrees. . . . That a journal of deserved name and reputa tion should announce of these volumes propositions so openly contradictory as that on the one hand their author has produced no new facts and discovered no new materials, and that on the other he has made the facts of English history as fabulous as his Lays do those of Roman tradition,' betrays, it is true, some rank ling wound behind. . . . It was a great mistake to assail this work on the score of accuracy. Its author was the last man likely to

be caught tripping on that head."-Edin. Rev., xc. 281-282, 290. Sir Archibald Alison, whilst not hesitating to condemn the historian when he thought condemnation deserved, yet rebukes the too common fault of petty criticism,exaggeration of the importance of trifling slips of the

pen:

time....

"We shall not, in treating of the merits of this very remarkable production, adopt the not-uncommon practice of reviewers on such occasions. We shall not pretend to be better informed on the de tails of the subject than the author. We shall not set up the reading of a few weeks or months against the study of half a lifeWe shall leave such minute and Lilliputian criticisms to the minute and Lilliputian minds by whom alone they are ever made. Mr. Macaulay can afford to smile at all reviewers who affect to possess more than his own gigantic stores of information." Sir Archibald then proceeds to a temperate discussion of several of the points involved in Mr. Macaulay's history, concluding with

It is this partial and one-sided exposition of the truth, accom panied by a general exaggerated style of composition, more than positive inaccuracy, that we complain of in Mr. Macaulay. It is this statement of the facts on both sides which, amidst all our admiration of his genius, we often desiderate in his entrancing pages; and nothing but the adoption of it, and taking his seat on the Bench instead of the Bar of History, is required to render his noble work as weighty as it is able. and as influential in forming the opinion of future ages as it unquestionably will be successful in interesting the present."-Black wood's Mag., April, 1849; and in his Essays. Edin. and Lon.. 1850, iii. 628–674. See also his Hist. of Europe, 1815-1852, chap. v. For other reviews and notices of the first and second volumes of Macaulay's History of England, see Tuckerman's Characteristics of Literature, First Series, Phila., 1849, 171192; Edin. Rev., 1xxxix. 462; N. Brit. Rev., x. 197; Eclec. Rev., 4th ser., xxv. 1; Fraser's Mag., xxxix. 1; Lon. Gent. Mag., 1849, Pt. 1, 338; N. Amer. Rev., lxviii. 511, (by Francis Bowen ;) Mass. Quar. Rev., ii. 326; Princeton Rev., xxii. 101; South. Quar. Rev., xv. 374; Brownson's Quar. Rev., 2d ser., iii. 274; Bost. Chris. Exam., xlvi. 253, (by G. E. Ellis ;) Democrat. Rev., xxiv. 205: N. York Church Rev., ii. 1, (by J. Williams;) N. York Eclec. Mag., xvi. 405, 500; Bost. Liv. Age, xx. 298, (from the Lon. Spectator,) 408, (from the Lon. Examiner.) Particular portions of Mr. Macaulay's History have been criticized by different critics: Wm. Hepworth Dixon and Samuel M. Jauney (see pp. 506 and 954 of this Dictionary) have defended the character of William

Penn; Hugh Miller and others have espoused the cause of the Scotch; Dr. Lingard (see Lon. Quar. Rev., lxxxix. 289, n.) that of the Roman Catholic Church; and Churchill Babington (see Edin. Rev., xc. 287, n.) contends for a higher status for the clergy of the seventeenth century than Mr. Macaulay will allow them. Other criticisms upon various points discussed in the history have appeared in the columns of the Athenæum, the Times, and other journals of the day.

From the date of the publication of the first and second volumes of Mr. Macaulay's History, the public were anxiously awaiting, month after month, year after year, the appearance of the continuation of this fascinating production; but the tedious term of Jacob's servitude elapsed before the eager expectants were gratified. Dec. 17, 1855, will long be remembered in the annals of Paternoster Row. The publishers had promised the third and fourth volumes of the History on that day; and, as the first edition of the first and second volumes had consisted of 5000 copies only, it was presumed that 25,000 would be amply sufficient to meet the public demand. But this enormous pile of books-weighing no less than fifty-six tons-was exhausted the first day, and eleven thousand disappointed applicants remained unsatisfied, to envy the happy possessors and to insist upon a new impression being immediately put to press. The delighted publishers apologized for the disappointment, and asked for another month's time to fill the unsupplied orders. But this demand, extraordinary as it was, was greatly surpassed in America. One publishing-house in New York sold 73,000 vols. in ten days, (three different styles and prices,) and 25,000 more were immediately issued in Philadelphia. 10,000 copies were stereotyped, printed, and in the hands of the publishers, within fifty working-hours, (more than one hundred compositors being employed on the enterprise) and editions were pub. in Boston, and probably in other cities of the United States. We presume that the aggregate sale in England and America within the first four weeks from the date of publication considerably exceeded 150,000 copies. On the continent of Europe, editions of the History were pub. in Dutch, (issued by H. C. S. Ery, at the Hague, 4th Part pub. Sept. 1856,) and in Hungarian, trans. by M. Auton Szengery. As regards the divizion of time in the four volumes of the History, vol. i. closes with an account of the occurrences of the autumn of 1685; in the concluding chapter of vol. ii. we find William and Mary seated on the English throne; vol. iii. comprises the history of events in 1689, '90, and '91; and vol. iv. terminates with the Peace of Ryswick in 1697. It is stated that for vols. i. and ii. Messrs. Longman agreed to allow the author £600 per annum for the privilege of publication for ten years, the copyright remaining the property of Mr. Macaulay, and that the copyright of vols. iii. and iv, was purchased by the same house for £16,000. We do not vouch for the correctness of these figures, but presume that they represent the truth.

Whether Mr. Macaulay will be able to carry his history down to so recent a point as he originally designed "the memory of men yet living"-is now a matter of some doubt in the public mind; but it is to be remembered that by far the greater part of the historian's task is now accomplished: the history of England from the Peace of Ryswick to the close of the American War presents but few points which require extended examination and minute investigation. We trust that Mr. Macaulay will live to carry his narration down to 1789, the startingpoint of Sir Archibald Alison's History. We shall then have an uninterrupted narrative, in the histories of Hume, Macaulay, and Alison, extending over a period of 1907 years, viz.: B.C. 55-A.D. 1852.

volumes of matter in the comparatively few passages of which his last two volumes are composed. But to our quotations:

"We conclude, as we commenced, in unfeigned admiration of the power, wisdom, and success of this great national work: of the comprehensive philosophy of its plan, and the rare felicity of its execution. The height at which it aims is ambitious; but Mr. Macaulay has reached it. and will hand down his name to future times indissolubly linked with that free constitution the history of which he has done so much to illustrate. Let those who wish to study the genius of British liberty learn by the light of these volumes, imbibe their spirit, and be roused by their noble fervour to thoughts and deeds worthy of freemen. As long as she is animated by such patriotism and imbued with such principles, we may augur the best for the future of our country, and for the dynasty established by William, under which she has risen to such freedom and such greatness."-Edin. Rev.. Jan. 1857. "Mr. Macaulay's peculiar qualifications for the great task he has undertaken are well known. Probably no man of our days enjoyi so wonderful a memory, or possesses such extensive and varied knowledge. In science we do not suppose he is much of a proncient, but over the field of literature his reign is universal. History, especially that of England, has always been his favourite study, and he has devoted to the volumes already published many years of indefatigable toil. Every page bears testimony to a degree of conscientious and minute research which no historian has ever surpassed, and which only Grote, Gibbon, and Hallam, in this country, have ever approached."-North British Rev., May, 1856. Macaulay. Steady, strong, and uniform. the stream of his thought continues to flow; and, without effort, or with no outward sign of it, he keeps his place as the first living writer of English prose. There is no occasion for us to quote from Mr. Macaulay, to criticise or to praise him. Our readers long ago have made their own quotations, selected their favourite passages, have read again and again every page of his history; and the universal approbation of the world has at once dispensed with the necessity of panegyric, and made censure impossible, except to those who are ambitious of á foolish singularity. On whatever side we look at this book, whethe the style of it or the matter of it, it is alike astonishing. The style is faultlessly luminous; every word is in its right place; every sentence is exquisitely balanced; the current never flags. Homer, according to the Roman poet, may be sometimes languid; Mr. Macaulay is always bright, sparkling, attractive."- Westminster Rev., April, 1856.

"With the rest of the world we come with our homage to Mr.

siastic than the three just quoted: Some of Mr. Macaulay's reviewers are far less enthu

in-Mr. Macaulay. This, which is perhaps the most brilliant of "Everybody reads-everybody admires-but nobody believes all histories, seems about the least reliable of any We have not encountered a single courageous individual, among the multitud, of its admirers, bold enough to avouch for it; yet no one reads 1-88 eagerly because it is difficult to find any one who has genne faith in what he reads."-Blackw. Mag., Aug. 1856; and see the number for Sept. 1856.

We quote another comment:

"The Principle upon which Mr. Macaulay wrote his History. "MR. URBAN:-In reading Macaulay's Essays the other day, I came across a passage in which the author lays down the principles on which, in his opinion, history ought to be written. It may, perhaps, have some interest for your readers, as being, in some sort. a defence to the charges which many reviewers have not scrupled to bring against the historian of James and William, of giving a false colouring to events. Speaking of Machiavelli s History, he says,

"The history does not appear to be the fruit of much industry or research. It is unquestionably inaccurate. But it is elegant, lively, and picturesque, beyond any other in the Italian language. The reader, we believe, carries away from it a more vivid and a more faithful impression of the national character and manners than from more correct accounts. The truth is, that the book belongs rather to ancient than to modern literature. It is in the style not of Davila and Clarendon, but of Herodotus and Tacitus. The classical histories may almost be called romances founded in fact. The relation is, no doubt, in all its principal points, strictly true. But the numerous little incidents which heighten the inby the imagination of the author. The fashion of later times is terest, the words, the gestures, the looks, are evidently furnished different. A more exact narrative is given by the writer. It may be doubted whether more exact notions may be conveyed to the reader. The best portraits are perhaps those in which there is a slight mixture of caricature; and we are not certain that the bett histories are not those in which a little of the exaggeration of fi titious narrative is judiciously employed. Something is lost in accuracy, but much is gained in effect. The fainter lines are neglected, but the great characteristic features are imprinted on the mind forever.'-Essay on Machiavelli, March, 1827, Essays, vol. i. p. 110. "I remain, sir, yours obediently, -L. Gent. Mag., June, 1857, 708. Certainly no one can question our fairness as regards a faithful exhibition of both sides of opinions on this popular writer.

"F. J. V."

1160

vii. 288, (by L. Bacon ;) N. York Eclec. Mag., i. 1, vii. 394, xiii. 35, (by G. Gilfillan,) xvii. 134; Bost. Liv. Age, xxi. 206, xlii. 382. We should not omit to mention that Mr. Macaulay has lately contributed to the 8th ed. of the Encyclopedia Britannica, now (1857) passing through the press, Lives of Dr. Samuel Johnson, of Oliver Goldsmith, of Bishop Atterbury, and of John Bunyan. These have been reprinted in America. Messrs. Appleton, of New York, also pub., in 1857, Biographical and Historical Sketches by T. B. Macaulay, consisting of the four biographical articles just noticed, and eighty-three selections from the History of England.

With a memory so retentive, stores of information so multifarious, and a vocabulary more copious than is generally given to the sons of men, it may well be supposed that the essayist, orator, poet, and historian possesses Bubstantial claims to distinction as a brilliant, instructive, and interesting conversationist. Such, indeed, is the fact. Tom Moore again and again expresses his astonishment at Macaulay's wonderful powers, e. g.:

"Dined at Lansdowne House. Sat between Macaulay and Rogers. Of Macaulay's range of knowledge any thing may be believed, so wonderful is his memory."-Diary, Aug. 2d, 1840: Memoirs, de., vii. 280.

"Went to Bowood to dinner. . . . Macaulay wonderful: never, perhaps, was there combined so much talent with so marvellous a memory. To attempt to record his conversation, one must be as wonderfully gifted with memory as himself."-Diary, Oct. 21st, 1846: Memoirs, de.. vii. 283.

"Macaulay, another of the guests, and I stayed for some time. He is a most wonderful man.'-Diary, Dec. 15th and 16th: Memoirs, dc., vii. 304. (Quoted previously in another connexion.) "Breakfasted this morning with Milnes, to meet the American Minister, Hallam. Macaulay, &c. &c. Macaulay opened for us quite a new character of his marvellous memory, which astonished us as much as it amused me; and that was his acquaintance with the old Irish slang ballads, such as The Night before Larry was Stretched.' &c. &c., many of which he repeated as glibly as I could in my boyhood. He certainly obeys most wonderfully Eloisa's injunction, Do all things but forget. "-Diary, March 18th, 1842: Memoirs, dc., vii. 314-315.

But perhaps no one of these interviews delighted Moore so greatly as the one next to be noticed, the account of which will remind the reader of the literary dinner at Foote's, when Dr. Johnson electrified the eulogizing translator of Demosthenes with the blunt declaration, "That speech I wrote in a garret in Exeter Street." But to Moore's narrative:

"Went (Lord John and I together, in a hackney-coach) to breakfast with Rogers. The party, besides ourselves, Macaulay, Luttrell, and Campbell. Macaulay gave us an account of the Monothelite controversy, as revived at present among some of the fanatics of the day. In the course of conversation Campbell quoted a line, Ye diners-out, from whom we guard our spoons,' 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 even remember it. Macaulay then broke silence, and said, to our general surprise, 'That is mine. On which we all expressed 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 William Bankes's

candidateship for Cambridge, which so amused me when it ap peared, 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 discovering to us a new power, in addition to that varied store of talent which we had already known him to possess. He is certainly one of the most remarkable men of the day."—June 26, 1831: Memoirs, dc., vi. 213–214.

We have ourselves listened with great interest to Mr. Washington Irving's graphic description of the historical arguments (not "wit-combats") between Hallam and Macaulay. Mr. Irving assured us that Macaulay could quote with as much facility from the volume and page of the authorities which he referred to as if they were immediately under his eye.

Among the many honours conferred upon our author, nct the least was his election, together with Mr. Prescott, November 30, 1852, to membership of the Royal Irish Academy. These gentlemen were elected to fill the vacancies in the department of polite scholarship (which numbers only fifteen) caused by the death of Moore and Wordsworth.

"Macaulay," observed the secretary on that occasion, "the historian, the critic, the poet, the philosopher.-however individuals may find fault with his history, dissent from his criticism, censure his poems, or dispute his philosophy-must still be regarded as one of the foremost literary men in the world."

The late Sydney Smith also bears testimony to Macaulay's wide range of knowledge and conversational fluency, and far higher commendation-to his patriotism and tolitical honesty:

I always prophesied his greatness, from the first moment I

saw him, then a very young and unknown man on the Northern circuit. There are no limits to his knowledge, on small subjects as well as great: he is like a book in breeches.

"Yes; I agree, he is certainly more agreeable since his return from India. His enemies might have said before (though I never did so) that he talked rather too much; but now he has occasional flashes of silence that make his conversation perfectly delightful. But what is far better and more important than all this is, that I believe Macaulay to be incorruptible. You might lay ribbons, stars, garters, wealth, title, before him in vain. He has an honest, genuine love of his country; and the world could not bribe him to neglect her interests.”

Macaulay, Zachary, 1759-1838, an eminent merchant, and still more eminent as a zealous philanthropist, father of the preceding, for forty years fought by the side of William Wilberforce in promotion of the British Anti-Slavery movement. He pub. Letter to H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester, Lon., 1815, 8vo; a tract on East and West India Sugar, 1823, 8vo, &c. See Wilberforce's Life and Correspondence; Lon. Gent. Mag., March, 1838, 323, Dec. 1838, 678; Index to Blackw. Mag., vols. i.-1. A monument to this excellent man was erected by his friends in Westminster Abbey: his son, the historian of England. has already erected a monument for himself. Macauley, Miss E. W., d. 1837, aged 52, an actress and poetess. 1. Effusions of Fancy, Lon., p. 8vo. Mary Stuart; an Historical Poem, 8vo., 3. Tales of the Drama, 1822, 12mo. See Lon. Gent. Mag., 1837, Pt. 2, 96. Macauley, James. The Natural, Statistical, and Civil Hist. of the State of New York, N. York, 1829, 3 vols. 8vo.

2.

"Tell Catherine to take Macbean's Ancient Geography out of the book-case in your room and send it to me."-Tom Moore's Memoirs, dc., Lon., 1853, i. 94.

2. Dictionary of the Bible, 1779, 8vo. "A useful book in its day, but now completely superseded by later works."-Horne's Bibl. Bib.

Recommended by Bishop Tomline. MacBean, Wm. Gunnery, Lon., 1743, 8vo. MacBeth, Rev. John. The Sabbath, 1822, 12mo. MacBeth, Wm. 1. On Wines, &c., Lon., 1794, 8vo. 2. Paper in Med. Com., 1795.

MacBride, David, M.D., 1726-1778, pub. some medical works, of which the best-known is Introduc. to the Theory and Practice of Physic, Lon., 1772, 4to; Dubl., 1776, 2 vols. 8vo; in Latin, Utrecht, 1774, 2 vols. 8vo. See Rees's Cyc.

He was

MacBride, James, M.D., 1784-1817, a native of Williamsburg district, South Carolina, educated at Yale College, practised medicine at Pineville, S.C. the author of many botanical papers, and contributed to Dr. Stephen Elliott's Sketch of the Botany of S. Carolina and Georgia, Charleston, S.C., 1821-24, 2 vols. 8vo. MacBride, John David, D.C.L., Principal of Magdalene Hall. 1. Diatessaron; or, The Hist. of our Lord Jesus Christ, compiled from the Four Gospels, Oxf., 183′′, 8vo. Anon. 2. Lects. Explanatory of No. 1, 1835, 8vo; 4th ed., 1854, 2 vols. 8vo. See Horne's Bibl. Bib., 1939, 138. 3. Lects. on the Articles of the United Church of

England and Ireland. 1853, 8vo.

MacCabe, William Bernard. 1. A Catholic Hist. of Ireland, 3 vols. 8vo: i., 1848; ii., 1849; iii., 1855. See commendations in Lon. Notes and Queries, vol. xi. 518. 2. Bertha; a Romance, 1851, 3 vols. p. 8vo. 3. Florine, Princess of Burgundy, 12mo. 4. Adelaide, Queen of Italy; a Tale, 1856, 12mo.

MacCaghwell, Hugh, Latin Cavellus, 15711626, titular primate of Armagh, wrote commentaries on, and a defence of, Duns Scotus's Works, &c., which were in substance incorporated in Luke Wading's ed. of Duns Scotus's Works, Lyons, 1639, 12 vols. fol. See Ware's Ireland, by Harris.

Georgia, 1824, aged 57. MacCall, Hugh, Major, U. S. Army, d. at Savannah, Hist. of Georgia, Savannah, 2 vols. 8vo: vol. i., 1811; ii., 1816. "McCall's History has its merits. but the author laboured under disadvantages, and his materials were scanty."-JARED SPARKS; N. Amer. Kev., liii. 178.