The life and letters of Lord Macaulay

Preface

THIS work has been undertaken principally from a conviction that it is the performance of a duty which, to the best of my ability, it is incumbent on me to fulfill. Though even on this ground I can not appeal to the forbearance of my readers, I may venture to refer to a peculiar difficulty which I have experienced in dealing with Lord Macaulay's private papers.

To give to the world compositions not intended for publication may be no injury to the fame of writers who, by habit, were careless and hasty workmen ; but it is far otherwise in the case of one who made it a rule for himself to publish nothing which was not carefully planned, strenuously labored, and minutely finished. Now, it is impossible to examine Lord Macaulay's journals and correspondence without being persuaded that the. idea of their being printed, even in part, never was present to his mind; and I should not feel myself justified in laying them before the public if it were not that their unlabored and spontaneous character adds to their biographical value all, and perhaps more than all, that it detracts from their literary merit.

To the heirs and relations of Mr. Thomas Flower Ellis and Mr. Adam Black ; to the Marquis of Lansdowne ; to Mr. Mac-

12 PREFACE.

vey Napier ; and to the executors of Dr. Whewell, my thanks are due for the courtesy with which they have placed the different portions of my uncle's correspondence at my disposal. Lady Caroline Lascelles has most kindly permitted me to use as much of Lord Carlisle's journal as relates to the subject of this work ; and Mr. Charles Cowan, my uncle's old opponent at Edinburgh, has sent me a considerable mass of printed matter bearing upon the elections of 1847 and 1852. The late Sir Edward Ryan, and Mr. Fitzjames Stephen, spared no pains to inform me with regard to Lord Macaulay's work at Calcutta. His early letters, with much that relates to the whole course of his life, have been preserved, studied, and arranged by the affectionate industry of his sister, Miss Macaulay ; and material of high interest has been intrusted to my hands by Mr. and the Hon. Mrs. Edward Cropper. I have been assisted throughout the book by the sympathy and the recollections of Lady Holland, the niece to whose custody Lord Macaulay's papers by inheritance descend.

G. O. T.

Chapter I. 1800-1818

Plan and Scope of the Work. — History of the Macaulay Family. — Aulay. — Kenneth. — Johnson and Boswell. — John Macaulay and his Children. — Zachary Macaulay. — His Career in the West Indies and in Africa. — His Character. — Visit of the French Squadron to Sierra Leone. — Zachary Macaulay's Marriage. — Birth of his Eldest Sou. — Lord Macaulay's Early Years. — His Childish Productions. — Mrs. Hannah More. — General Macaulay.— Choice of a School. — Shelford. — Dean Miluer. — Macaulay's* Early Letters. — Aspenden Hall. — The Boy's Habits and Mental Endowments.— His Home. — The Clapham Set. — The Boy's Relations with his Father. — The Political Ideas among which he was brought up, and their Influence on the Work of his Life Page 17

Chapter II. 1818-1824

Macaulay goes to the University. — His Love for Trinity College. — His Contemporaries at Cambridge. — Charles Austin. — The Union Debating Society. — University Studies, Successes, and Failures. — The Mathematical Tripos.— The Trinity Fellowship. — William the Third.— Letters.— Prize Poems. — Peterloo. — Novel-reading. — The Queen's Trial. — Macaulay's Feeliug toward his Mother. — A Eeading-party. — Hoaxing an Editor.— Macaulay takes Pupils 78

Chapter III. 1824-1830

Macaulay is called to the Bar. — Does not Make it a Serious Profession. — Speech before the Antislavery Society. — Knight's Quarterly Magazine. — The Edinburgh Eeview and the " Essay on Milton."— Macaulay's Personal

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Appearance and Mode of Existence. — His Defects and Virtues, Likings and Antipathies. — Croker. — Sadler. — Zachary Macaulay's Circumstances. — Description of the Family Habits of Life in Great Ormond Street. — Macaulay's Sisters. — Lady Trevelyan. — " The Judicious Poet." — Macaulay's Humor in Conversation. — His Articles in the Revieic. — His Attacks on the Utilitarians and on Southey. — Blackwooffs Magazine. — Macaulay is made Commissioner of Bankruptcy. — Enters Parliament. — Letters from Circuit and Edinburgh Page 109

CHAPTEE IY.

1830-1832.

State of Public Affairs when Macaulay entered Parliament. — His Maiden Speech. — The French Revolution of July, 1830. — Macaulay's Letters from Paris.— The Palais Royal. — Lafayette. — Lardner's Cabinet "Cyclopedia."— The New Parliament Meets. — Fall of the Duke of Wellington.— Scene with Croker. — The Reform Bill. — Political Success. — House of Commons Life. — Macaulay's Party Spirit. — London Society. — Mr. Thomas Flower Ellis. — Visit to Cambridge. — Rothley Temple. — Margaret Macaulay's Journal. — Lord Brougham. — Hopes of Office. — Macaulay as a Politician. — Letters to Lady Trevelyan, Mr. Napier, and Mr. Ellis 148

CHAPTEK Y.

1832-1834.

Macaulay is Invited to stand for Leeds. — The Reform Bill passes.— Macaulay appointed Commissioner of the Board of Control. — His Life in Office.— Letters to his Sister. — Contested Election at Leeds. — Macaulay's Bearing as a Candidate. — Canvassing. — Pledges. — Intrusion of Religion into Politics. — Placemen in Parliament. — Liverpool. — Margaret Macaulay's Marriage. — How it Affected her Brother. — Ho is Returned for Leeds. — Becomes Secretary of the Board of Control. — Letters to Lady Trevelyan. — Session of 1832. — Macaulay's Speech on the India Bill. — His Regard for Lord Glenelg. — Letters to Lady Trevelyan. — The West Indian Question. — Macaulay resigns Office. — He gains his Point, and resumes his Place. — Emancipation of the Slaves. — Death of Wilberforcr. — Letters to Lady Trevelyan. — Macaulay is appointed Member of the Supreme Council of India.— Letters to Lady Trevelyan, Lord Lausdowne, and Mr. Napier. — Altercation between Lord Althorp and Mr. Sheil. — • Macaulay's Appearance before the Committee of Investigation. — He sails for India... ., 227

CHAPTEE YL

1834-1838.

The Outward Voyage. — Arrival at Madras. — Macaulay is summoned to join Lord William Bentinck in the Neilgherries. — His Journey Up-country.— His Native Servant. — Arcot. — Bangalore. — Seringapatam. — Ascent of the Neilgherries. — First Sight of the Governor-general. — Letters to Mr. Ellis and the Miss Macaulays. — A Summer on the Neilgherries. — Native Christians. — Clarissa. — A Tragi-comedy. — Macaulay leaves the Neilgherries, travels to Calcutta, and there sets up House. — Letters to Mr. Napier and Mrs. Cropper. — Mr. Trevelyan. — Marriage of Hannah Macaulay. — Death of Mrs. Cropper. — Macaulay's Work in India. — His Minutes for Council. — Freedom of the Press. — Literary Gratitude. — Second Minute on the Freedom of the Press. — The Black Act. — A Calcutta Puhlic Meeting. — Macaulay's Defense of the Policy of the Indian Government. — His Minute on Education. — He becomes President of the Committee of Public Instruction. — His Industry in discharging the Functions of that Post. — Specimens of his Official Writing. — Results of his Labors. — He is appointed President of the Law Commission, and recommends the Framing of a Criminal Code. — Appearance of the Code. — Comments of Mr. Fitzjames Stephen. — Macaulay's Private Life in India. — Oriental Delicacies. — Breakfast-parties. — Macaulay's Longing for England.— Calcutta and Dublin. — Departure from India. — Letters to Mr. Ellis. Mr. Sharp, Mr. Napier, and Mr. Z. Macaulay Page 320

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LIFE AND LETTEES

Chapter I. 1800-1818

Plan and Scope of the Work. — History of the Macaulay Family. — Aulay. — Kenneth. — Johnson and Boswell. — John Macaulay and his Children. — Zachary Macaulay. — His Career in the West Indies and in Africa. — His Character. — Visit of the French Squadron to Sierra Leone. — Zachary Macaulay's Marriage.— Birth of his Eldest Son. — Lord Macaulay's Early Years. — His Childish Productions. — Mrs. Hannah More. — General Macaulay.—Choice of a School. — Shelford. — Dean Miluer.— Macaulay's Early Letters. — Aspenden Hall. — The Boy's Habits and Mental Endowments.— His Home. — The Clapham Set. — The Boy's Relations with his Father. — The Political Ideas among which he was brought up, and their Influence on the Work of his Life.

HE who undertakes to publish the memoirs of a distinguished man may find a ready apology in the custom of the age. If we measure the effective demand for biography by the supply, the person commemorated need possess but a very moderate reputation, and have played no exceptional part, in order to carry the reader through many hundred pages of anecdote, dissertation, and correspondence. To judge from the advertisements of our circulating libraries, the public curiosity is keen with regard to some who did nothing worthy of special note, and others who acted so continuously in the face of the world that, when their course was run, there was little left for the world to learn about them. It may, therefore, be taken for granted that a desire exists to hear something authentic about the life of a man who has produced works which are universally known, but which bear little or no indication of the private history and the personal qualities of the author.

This was in a marked degree the case with Lord Macaulay. His two famous contemporaries in English literature have, consciously or unconsciously, told their own story in their books. Those who could see between the lines in "David Copperfield " were aware that they had before them the most delightful of autobiographies : and all who knew how to read Thackeray could trace him in his novels through every stage in his course, on from the day when as a little boy, consigned to the care of English relatives and school-masters, he left his mother on the steps of the landing-place at Calcutta. The dates and names were wanting : but the man was there ; while the most ardent admirers of Macaulay will admit that a minute study of his literary productions left them, as far as any but an intellectual knowledge of the writer himself was concerned, very much as it found them. A consummate master of his craft, he turned out works which bore the unmistakable marks of the artificer's hand, but which did not reflect his features. It would be almost as hard to compose a picture of the author from his " History," his " Essays," and his " Lays," as to evolve an idea of Shakspeare from " Henry the Fifth" and " Measure for Measure."

But, besides being a man of letters, Lord Macaulay was a statesman, a jurist, and a brilliant ornament of society, at a time*when to shine in society was a distinction which a man of eminence and ability might justly value. In these several capacities, it will be said, he was known well, and known widely. But in the first place, as these pages will show, there was one side of his life (to him, at any rate, the most important) of which even the persons with whom he mixed most freely and confidentially in London drawing-rooms, in the Indian council - chamber, and in the lobbies and on the benches of the House of Commons, were only in part aware. And in the next place, those who have seen his features and heard his voice are few already, and become yearly fewer : while, by a rare fate in literary annals, the number of those who read his books is still rapidly increasing. For every one who sat with him in private company or at the transaction of public business, for every ten who have listened to his oratory in Parliament or from the hustings, there must be tens of thousands whose interest in history and literature he has awakened and informed by his pen, and who would gladly know what manner of man it was that has done them so great a service.

To gratify that most legitimate wish is the duty of those who have the means at their command. His life-like image is indelibly impressed upon their minds (for how could it be otherwise with any who had enjoyed so close relations with such a man ?), although the skill which can reproduce that image before the general eye may well be wanting. But his own letters will supply the deficiencies of the biographer. Never did any one leave behind him more copious materials for enabling others to put together a narrative which might be the history, not indeed of his times, but of the man himself. For, in the first place, he so soon showed promise of being one who would give those among whom his early years were passed reason to be proud, and still more certain assurance that he would never afford them cause for shame, that what he wrote was preserved with a care very seldom bestowed on childish compositions ; and the value set upon his letters by those with whom he corresponded naturally enough increased as years went on. And, in the next place, he was by nature so inoapable of affectation or concealment that he could not write otherwise than as he felt, and, to one person at least, could never refrain from writing all that he felt ; so that we may read in his letters, as in a clear mirror, his opinions and inclinations, his hopes and affections, at every succeeding period of his existence. Such letters could never have been submitted to an editor unconnected with both correspondents by the strongest ties : and even one who stands in that position must often be sorely puzzled as to what he has the heart to publish and the right to withhold.

I am conscious that in an undertaking of this nature a near relative has peculiar temptations toward that partiality of the biographer which Lord Macaulay himself so often and so cordially denounced : and the danger is greater in the case of one whose knowledge of him coincided with his later years ; for it would not be easy to find a nature which gained more by time than his, and lost less. But, believing, as I do (to use his own words), that " if he were now living he would have sufficient judgment and sufficient greatness of mind " to wish to be shown as himself, I will suppress no trait in his disposition or incident in his career which might provoke blame or question. Such in all points as he was, the world, which has been so indulgent to him, has a right to know him ; and those who best love him do not fear the consequences of freely submitting his character and his actions to the public verdict.

The most devout believers in the doctrine of the transmission of family qualities will be content with tracing back descent through four generations : and all favorable hereditary influences, both intellectual and moral, are assured by a genealogy which derives from a Scotch manse. In the first decade of the eighteenth century Aulay Macaulay, the great-grandfather of the historian, was minister of Tiree and Coll ; where he was " grievously annoyed by a decreet obtained after instance of the Laird of Ardchattan, taking away his stipend." The Duchess of Argyll of the day appears to have done her best to see him righted : " but his health being much impaired, and there being no church or meeting-house, he was exposed to the violence of the weather at all seasons ; and having no manse or glebe, and no fund for communion elements, and no mortification for schools or any pious purpose in either of the islands, and the air being unwholesome, he was dissatisfied :" and so, to the great regret of the parishioners whom he was leaving behind, he migrated to Harris, where he discharged the clerical duties for nearly half a century.

Aulay was the father of fourteen children, of whom one,

Kenneth, the minister of Ardnamurchan, still occupies a very humble niche in the temple of literature. He wrote a " History of St. Kilda," which happened to fall into the hands of Dr. Johnson, who spoke of it more than once with favor. His reason for liking the book is characteristic enough. Mr. Macaulay had recorded the belief prevalent in St. Kilda that, as soon as the factor landed on the island, all the inhabitants had an attack which, from the account, appears to have partaken of the nature both of influenza and bronchitis. This touched the superstitious vein in Johnson, who praised him for his "magnanimity" in venturing to chronicle so questionable a phenomenon : the more so because, said the doctor, " Macaulay set out with a prejudice against prejudice, and wanted to be a smart modern thinker." To a reader of our day the " History of St. Kilda " appears to be innocent of any trace of such pretension ; unless it be that the author speaks slightingly of second-sight, a subject for which Johnson always had a strong hankering. In 1773, Johnson paid a visit to Mr. Macaulay, who by that time had removed to Calder, and began the interview by congratulating him on having produced " a very pretty piece of topography " — a compliment which did not seem to the taste of the author. The conversation turned upon rather delicate subjects, and before many hours had passed the guest had said to the host one of the very rudest things recorded by Boswell. Next morning he atoned for his incivility by giving one of the boys of the house a pocket Sallust, and promising to procure him a servitorship at Oxford. Subsequently Johnson pronounced that Mr. Macaulay was not competent to have written the book that went by his name : a decision which, to those who happen to have read the work, will give a very poor notion of my ancestor's abilities.

The eldest son of old Aulay, and the grandfather of Lord Macaulay, was John, born in the year 1720. He was minister successively of Barra, South Uist, and Inverary ; the last appointment being a proof of the interest which the family of Argyll continued to take in the fortunes of the Macaulays. He, likewise, during the famous tour in the Hebrides, came across the path of Boswell, who mentions him in an exquisitely absurd paragraph, the first of those in which is described the visit to Inverary Castle on October 25th. Mr. Macaulay afterward passed the evening with the travelers at their inn, and provoked Johnson into what Boswell calls warmth, and any one else would call brutality, by the veiy proper remark that he had no notion of people being in earnest in good professions if their practice belied them. When we think what well-known ground this was to Lord Macaulay, it is impossible to suppress a wish that the great talker had been at hand to avenge his grandfather and grand-uncle. Next morning " Mr. Macaulay breakfasted with us, nothing hurt or dismayed by his last night's correction. Being, a man of good sense, he had a just admiration of Dr. Johnson." He was rewarded by seeing Johnson at his very best, and hearing him declaim some of the finest lines that ever were written, in a manner worthy of his subject.

There is a tradition that, in his younger days, the minister of Inverary proved his Whiggism by giving information to the authorities which almost led to the capture of the young Pretender. It is perhaps a matter of congratulation that this item was not added to the heavy account that the Stuarts have against the Macaulay family. John Macaulay was in high reputation as a preacher, and especially renowned for his fluency. In 1774, he removed to Cardross, in Dumbartonshire, where, on the bank of the noble estuary of the Clyde, he spent the last fifteen years of a useful and honored life. He was twice married. His first wife died at the birth of his first child. Eight years afterward, in 1757, he espoused Margaret, daughter of Colin Campbell, of Inverseger, who survived him by a single year. By her he had the patriarchal number of twelve children, whom he brought up on the old Scotch system— common to the households of minister, man of business, farmer, and peasant alike — on fine air, simple diet, and a solid training in knowledge, human and divine. Two generations after, Mr. Carlyle, during a visit to the late Lord Ashburton at the Grange, caught sight of Macaulay's face in unwonted repose, as he was turning over the pages of a book. " I noticed," said he, " the homely Norse features that you find every where in the Western Isles, and I thought to myself : 4 Well ! any one can see that you are an honest, good sort of fellow, made out of oatmeal.' ':

Several of John Macaulay's children obtained position in the world. Aulay, the eldest by his second wife, became a clergyman of the Church of England. His reputation as a scholar and antiquary stood high, and in the capacity of a private tutor he became known even in royal circles. He published pamphlets and treatises, the list of which it is not worth while to record, and meditated several large works that perhaps never got much beyond a title. Of all his undertakings the one best deserving commemoration in these pages was a tour that he made into Scotland in company with Mr. Thomas Babington, the owner of Kothley Temple, in Leicestershire, in the course of which the travelers paid a visit to the manse at Cardross. Mr. Babington fell in love with one of the daughters of the house, Miss Jean Macaulay, and married her in 1787. Nine years afterward, he had an opportunity of presenting his brother-in-law Aulay Macaulay with the very pleasant living of Rothley.

Alexander, another son of John Macaulay, succeeded his father as minister of Cardross. Colin went into the Indian army, and died a general. He followed the example of the more ambitious among his brother officers, and exchanged military for civil duties. In 1799 he acted as secretary to a political and diplomatic commission which accompanied the force that marched under General Harris against Seringapatam. The leading commissioner was Colonel Wellesley, and to the end of General Macaulay's life the great Duke corresponded with him on terms of intimacy, and (so the family flattered themselves) even of friendship. Soon after the commencement of the century, Colin Macaulay became resident at the important native state of Travancore. While on this employment, he happened to light upon a valuable collection of books, and rapidly made himself master of the principal European languages, which he spoke and wrote with a facility surprising in one who had acquired them within a few leagues of Cape Comorin.

There was another son of John Macaulay who in force and elevation of character stood out among his brothers, and who was destined to make for himself no ordinary career. The path which Zachary Macaulay chose to tread did not lead to wealth, or worldly success, or indeed to much worldly happiness. Born in 1768, he was sent out at the age of sixteen by a Scotch house of business as book-keeper to an estate in Jamaica, of which he soon rose to be sole manager. His position brought him into the closest possible contact with negro slavery. His mind was not prepossessed against the system of society which he found in the West Indies. His personal interests spoke strongly in its favor, while his father, whom he justly respected, could see nothing to condemn in an institution recognized by Scripture. Indeed, the religious world still allowed the maintenance of slavery to continue an open question. John Newton, the real founder of that school in the Church of England of which in after-years Zachary Macaulay was a devoted member, contrived to reconcile the business of a slave-trader with the duties of a Christian, and to the end of his days gave scandal to his disciples (who by that time were one and all sworn abolitionists), by refusing to see that there could be no fellowship between light and such darkness.

But Zachary Macaulay had eyes of his own to look about him, a clear head for forming a judgment on what he saw, and a conscience which would not permit him to live otherwise than in obedience to its mandates. The young Scotchman's innate respect for his fellows, and his appreciation of all that instruction and religion can do for men, was shocked at the sight of a population deliberately kept ignorant and heathen. His kind heart was wounded by cruelties practiced at the will and pleasure of a thousand petty despots. He had read his Bible too literally to acquiesce easily in a state of matters under which human beings were bred and raised like a stock of cattle, while outraged morality was revenged on the governing race by the shameless licentiousness which is the inevitable accompaniment of slavery. He was well aware that these evils, so far from being superficial or remediable, were essential to the very existence of a social fabric constituted like that within which he lived. It was not for nothing that he had been behind the scenes in that tragedy of crime and misery. His philanthropy was not learned by the royal road of tracts, and platf 01111 speeches, and monthly magazines. What he knew he had spelled out for himself, with no teacher except the aspect of human suffering and degradation and sin.

He was not one of those to whom conviction comes in a day ; and, when convinced, he did nothing suddenly. Little more than a boy in age, singularly modest, and constitutionally averse to any course that appeared pretentious or theatrical, he began by a sincere attempt to make the best of his calling. For some years he contented himself with doing what he could (so he writes to a friend) " to alleviate the hardships of a considerable number of my fellow-creatures, and to render the bitter cup of servitude as palatable as possible." But by the time he was four-and-twenty, he became tired of trying to find a compromise between right and wrong, and, refusing really great offers from the people with whom he was connected, he threw up his position and returned to his native country. This step was taken against the wishes, of his father, who was not prepared for the construction which his son put upon the paternal precept that a man should make his practice square with his professions.

But Zachary Macaulay soon had more congenial work to do. The young West Indian overseer was not alone in his scruples. Already for some time past a conviction had been abroad that individual citizens could not divest themselves of their share in the responsibility in which the nation was involved by the existence of slavery in our colonies. Already there had been formed the nucleus of the most disinterested, and perhaps the most successful, popular movement which history records. The question of the slave-trade was well before Parliament and the country. Ten years had passed since the freedom of all whose feet touched the soil of our island had been vindicated before the courts at Westminster, and not a few negroes had become their own masters as a consequence of that memorable decision. The patrons of the race were somewhat embarrassed by having these expatriated freedmen on their hands ; an opinion prevailed that the traffic in human lives could never be efficiently checked until Africa had obtained the rudiments of civilization ; and after long discussion a scheme was matured for the colonization of Sierra Leone by liberated slaves. A company was organized, with a charter from the crown, and a board which included the names of Granville Sharpe and Wilberforce. • A large capital was speedily subscribed, and the chair was accepted by Mr. Henry Thornton, a leading City banker and a member of Parliament, whose determined opposition to cruelty and oppression in every form was such as might be expected in one who had inherited from his father the friendship of the poet Cowper. Mr. Thornton heard Macaulay's story from Thomas Babington, with whom he lived on terms of close intimacy and political alliance. The board, by the advice of its chairman, passed a resolution appointing the young man second member in the Sierra Leone Council, and early in the year 1793 he sailed for Africa, where soon after his arrival he succeeded to the position and duties of governor.

The directors had done well to secure a tried man. The colony was at once exposed to the implacable enmity of merchants whose market the agents of the new company spoiled in their capacity of traders, and slave-dealers with whom they interfered in their character of philanthropists. The native tribes in the vicinity, instigated by European hatred and jealousy, began to inflict upon the defenseless authorities of the settlement a series of those monkey-like impertinences which, absurdly as they may read in a narrative, are formidable and ominous when they indicate that savages feel their power. These barbarians, who had hitherto commanded as much rum and gunpowder as they cared to have by selling their neighbors at the nearest barracoon, showed no appreciation for the comforts and advantages of civilization. Indeed, those advantages were displayed in any thing but an attractive shape even within the pale of the company's territory. An aggregation of negroes from Jamaica, London, and Nova Scotia, who possessed no language except an acquired jargon, and shared no associations beyond the recollections of a common servitude, were not very promising apostles for the spread of Western culture and the Christian faith. Things went smoothly enough as long as the business of the colony was mainly confined to eating the provisions that had been brought in the ships ; but as soon as the work became real and the commons short, the whole community smoldered down into chronic mutiny.