ART. VI.-Lord Macaulay's Place in English Literature.

ALL the writings of Lord Macaulay, which, in his own judgment and in the judgment of his friends, seem worthy of a permanent place in English literature, have now been given to the world. His whole literary career, from an epitaph on Henry Martyn, written at the age of twelve, to the biography of William Pitt, the work of mature fifty-nine, is before us. Unfortunately we have nothing more to look for. It is well known that but little of the History has been left in a state which will allow of its publication; and Lord Macaulay's place in the world of letters must therefore be determined by what we already possess. His "Biography," it is true, has yet to be written. From that source, however, we can hope to hear nothing more of the writer; and it may even be doubted whether any very valuable addition will thereby be made to our knowledge of the man. The lives of most public men reveal their characters, and this was, in an especial degree, true of Lord Macaulay. Without being in any sense an egotist, he yet felt so warmly on public affairs, that in writing and speaking on them he unconsciously revealed himself. No one can handle themes of which his heart is full, without affording glimpses of his real nature. Lord Macaulay never wrote or spoke except on themes of which his heart was full; and hence in his writings and speeches the character of the man is more truly, because less intentionally, portrayed than in the writings of professed egotists like Byron or Rousseau. Nor should it be forgotten, that in political life, although the highest offices were denied him, he played no undistinguished part. He shared in the great Reform battles, in the storms which preceded the fall of the Melbourne Ministry, and in the bitterness of the opposition which arrayed itself against Peel. In these contests, and in the results which they entailed, ample opportunities were afforded for displaying all the qualities which dignify or discredit the career of a politician. No portraiture has yet been given to the public of Lord Macaulay's social and domestic characteristics, and on these, therefore, a stranger must be silent. But we know enough to enable us to assign him his place in the republic of letters, and to ascertain how far, in the great game of politics, his opinions were worthy to be accepted, and his example to be followed.

It is not, we confess, without hesitation that we attempt this subject. Lord Macaulay's death is still so recent, his loss is so irreparable to that most important branch of literature, the historical literature of our country, that we find it no easy matter

to discharge, with fitting composure, the duty of a critic. It is hard to be impartial in the midst of regret. When the feeling is strong upon us that the place which has been left vacant can never be supplied-that the task which has been left unaccomplished will never be completed—we are hardly able to be coldly impartial. So much, too, has been written on Macaulay, that it is impossible to write anything better than has been written already. But it is possible to write something more. His works have been reviewed as they variously appeared; but, until the present time, all his writings have never been brought together. It is now in our power to regard his labours as a whole, to notice the gradual development of style, to remark the growth of his ideas, and to admire the stability of his convictions. Such a study cannot be unimportant or uninstructive; and we shall endeavour to pursue it with as much impartiality as our fervent admiration for the great historian whom we have lately lost will allow.

When Lord Macaulay's contributions to the Edinburgh Review first appeared in a collected form, the popularity which they obtained was quite unprecedented; nor has it been approached since by any of the compilations of a similar nature which have become so common. Sydney Smith's articles alone, from the humour, the sound sense, and the knowledge of the world which they display, are worthy to be placed beside them. But Lord Macaulay took a wider sweep than the accomplished churchman, and lent to a more varied range of subject the charm of a more brilliant style. Any detailed criticism of these essays now-a-days would be absurd. Everybody has read them, and the verdict of public opinion has been definitely pronounced. They are a perfect mine of information. We have criticism on poetry, on essay writing, and on novel writing, in the articles on Byron, on Addison, and on Madame D'Arblay. We have elaborate portraitures of the greatest English statesmen-of Burleigh, of Walpole, and of Chatham. We have solutions of the most vexed questions of English history, as in the article on Sir William Temple. We have the great difficulty of Church and State connection discussed upon rational principles. And, above all, we have the magnificent Indian disquisitions. It is not too much to say, that an effect equal to the effect produced by "Lord Clive," and "Warren Ilastings," was never produced by any two articles since article-writing began. In the paper on Clive, surprise was expressed at the general ignorance of Indian affairs, even among educated Englishmen. The publication of these two essays went far to dispel that ignorance. They could not, indeed, narrate the whole. Yet, any one who studies them attentively will at least have laid a good foundation for further in

quiry. He will find that he has acquired not a little knowledge of the rise of our Indian empire, and of what may be called the Constitutional History of our rule in the East. And, what is of greater importance, he will find excited within him a very strong desire to learn more. India has been unhappy in her historians; but to these essays belongs the triumph that, in spite of the heaviness of Mill, the prolixity of Orme, and the commonplaceness of Elphinstone, Englishmen are at last beginning to know something of the "annals of that marvellous empire which valour without parallel has annexed to the throne of the Isles."

But Lord Macaulay, great though he was as an essayist, has won for himself a more enduring title to fame. His genius was essentially historical. His first essays were historical; his best essays were historical; and, last of all, we have the History itself by which his reputation will be finally determined.

All of us remember the manner in which the first two volumes of the History were received. No book, not even the best of the Waverley series, ever experienced such popularity.__ The Times devoted not only articles, but leaders, to its praise. Every Review in the country went into ecstasies. One notorious exception indeed there was; but that exception only sufficed to bring out more forcibly the otherwise universal concord. Such harmony was too beautiful to last. Gradually faint murmurs of disapprobation made themselves heard. As years went on, these increased in number and deepened in tone, until the reaction reached a height on the appearance of volumes III. and IV. The greeting accorded to them differed markedly from that which had welcomed their more fortunate predecessors. Faults before unnoticed were pointed out; blemishes before hinted at were enlarged upon; beauties before brought into strong relief, were passed over or denied. The whirligig of time brought round revenges which might have satisfied even the soul of Mr Croker. The Edinburgh Review itself, bound to render all suit and service to its great contributor, began to falter in its allegiance. This was no more than might have been expected. Such changes from one extreme of opinion to the opposite extreme, are as common in literature as in anything else. But the reactionary spirit leads into as great error as the original enthusiasm. Every part of Lord Macaulay's history possesses peculiar and appropriate merits; but were a choice forced upon us, we should give the preference to the third and fourth volumes over the other two. The first part of the work, indeed, possessed the charm of novelty. All the more prominent characters were brought on the stage; and the celebrated second chapter, from the nature of its subject, stands alone. The brilliant circle which surrounded Charles II. is painted with the pencil of

Watteau, in colours rendered brighter by contrast with the sombre court of his successor. The fall of James from the height of almost absolute power to the long exile at St Germains, is traced in a manner hardly less dramatic than that in which Thucydides traces the fate of the Sicilian expedition from the bright midsummer morning on which it sailed, to its end in the quarries of Syracuse. Yet it is not too much to say that the varied powers of the historian are more displayed in the latter portion of his narrative. The siege of Derry is the most exciting thing in the book. The battle of Landen will bear a comparison even with the battle-pieces of Sir William Napier. The passage of the Boyne is finer than the rout of Sedgemoor. In these volumes, too, we have evidence of an ability, for the exercise of which the earlier volumes afforded no scope-we mean, the power of carrying on, without confusion, a complex story. From the beginning of the work down to the abdication of James we are seldom out of Britain, and the action is simple and continuous. After the accession of William, the plot deepens and widens. The subject changes, the scene shifts, and yet every transition is managed without effort and without abruptness. The historian passes easily from the campaigns in Ireland to the intrigues of St James', from the battle-fields of the Low Countries to the mountains of Scotland,-never confusing his readers-never unequal to his theme. Few qualities are rarer than this, and none is more important. Students of the fifth and sixth volumes of Mr Froude's history will best appreciate its value, by having had most occasion to lament its absence. That gentleman's guidance is like the magic carpet in the Arabian Nights. It whisks us about from country to country, over sea and over land, with a rapidity which takes our breath away, and disturbs all our ideas of space and time. Above all, the last part of Lord Macaulay's work is valuable, as telling us so much which it behoves us to know. Less picturesque it may be than what went before; but we are certain that it is more instructive. Volumes I. and II. tell of an overthrow; volumes III. and IV. tell of a reconstruction-a work far greater in itself, immeasurably greater, in that it has been enduring.

In the progress of its development, the political constitution of England has been exposed to two great shocks, arising out of two great convulsions in the minds of the people: one, the change of the national faith at the Reformation; the other, the long struggle of the Commons against the Crown. When William of Orange appeared on the stage, both convulsions-the change of religion and the struggle for liberty-had left deep scars. The empire was torn with religious dissensions; all constitutional forms were unsettled. From this chaos William had to evoke

order; those scars it was his to heal. His reign was the new birth of our constitution-the real beginning of the modern history of England. How he accomplished his arduous task, how, under his wise guidance, the constitution recovered the shocks it had undergone, and, renewing its youth, gave promise of a strong and lasting existence, this is the theme, than which no theme can be nobler, of the concluding volumes of Lord Macaulay's History. The position and influence of the monarchy were defined by the Bill for Settling the Coronation Oath, and the Bills for Settling the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy. The clergy and the Tories retained sufficient power to defeat the Comprehension Bill, and to maintain the test. But by the Toleration Act, religious differences were, in part at least, composed; and Dissenters experienced the strange freedom of being allowed to follow, without molestation, the dictates of their consciences. The ecclesiastical constitution of Scotland was fixed, and fixed upon such principles, that, had it not been wantonly altered by the advisers of Anne, it would have been spared the shock of so many secessions. The Bank of England was founded; the national debt began; the whole financial system of the country had its origin. English politics acquired the characteristics which they retain to the present day, by the formation of the first regular Ministry under Sunderland. Party warfare lost the violence and cruelty which had before disgraced it, and became animated by a comparative moderation of spirit ever after that Act of Grace, the granting of which constitutes one of William's purest titles to fame. The scandal of our State trials was swept away by the law which secured to the judges their seats during life or good behaviour, and by the law for regulating trials in cases of treason; and, above all, the liberty of the press was established.

All these great changes-changes which made the England of 1697 hardly recognisable by the statesmen of 1687-are narrated in the historian's best manner. They are the topics of which Lord Macaulay is most thoroughly master, and in the handling of which he is most perfectly at home. Brilliant as are his pictures of courts, stirring as are his scenes of battle, it is in describing social ameliorations and parliamentary struggles that his genius has achieved its most signal triumphs.

Yet, in spite of all this, these volumes never enjoyed the popularity of their forerunners. Enemies soon found this out. The mere caprice of reaction had dictated the general judgment, but hostile critics readily set themselves to justify that judgment. At first they had, for the most part, been frightened into silence; but now they took heart of grace and spoke. To a certain extent this is a compliment-qui n'a pas de lecteurs, n'a pas