"The bray of Exeter Hall," a phrase in his Maynoott speech particularly obnoxious to the dissenters, he would not take back, and it was used against him with great effect. A Mr. Cowan, a man of no note, was elected as the opposing candidate, as if his enemies had determined to mortify his pride as well as deprive him of his seat. His speeches from the hustings were continually interrupted by a mob who, infuriated by fanaticism or whiskey, received his statements with insults, and answered his arguments by jeers. "If," exclaimed Macaulay in one of his speeches, "your representative be an honest man -"Ay! but he's no that" was a cry that came back from the crowd. To interruptions and to insults, however, he presented a bold front, and met outrage with defiance. not condescend to humor at the hustings the prejudices he had offended in Parliament, but reaffirmed his opinions in the most pointed and explicit language. One of his arguments was that, in regard to the Maynooth grant, no principle was involved. A sum had always been yearly voted to support that Roman Catholic College; the only cause of complaint against him was that he had spoken and voted for an additional sum. He was therefore opposed, not on a principle, but on a quibble. "And," he exclaimed, "if you want a representative who will peril the peace of the empire for a mere quibble, that representative I will not be." He would He was defeated, and after it was known that he was defeated, he was hissed. In his speech to the crowd, announcing that his political connection with Edinburgh was dissolved forever, he alluded to this last tircumstance as unprecedented in political warfare. To hiss a defeated candidate, he reminded them, wa below the ordinary magnanimity of the most factious mob. In his farewell address to the electors, written after he had returned to London, he indicated that, to an honest, honorable, and patriotic statesman, there might be solid consolations, even to personal pride, in the circumstances of his defeat. "I shall always be proud," he writes, "to think that I once enjoyed your favor, but permit me to say I shall remember, not less proudly, how I risked and how I lost it." The following noble poem, published since his death, contains, perhaps, the most authentic record of his feelings on the occasion: LINES WRITTEN IN AUGUST, 1847. THE day of tumult, strife, defeat, was o'er; That room, methought, was curtained from the light; Sleeping life's first soft sleep, an infant lay Pale flickered on the hearth the dying flame, And lo! the fairy queens who rule our birth Drew nigh to speak the new-born baby's doom: Not deigning on the boy a glance to cast, Swept careless by the gorgeous Queen of Gain; The Queen of Power tossed high her jewelled head, Scarce one stray rose-leaf from her fragrant crown Still Fay in long procession followed Fay; And still the little couch remained unblest; Ob, glorious lady, with the eyes of light And laurels clustering round thy lofty brow, "Yes, darling; let them go;" so ran the strain: Belongs the nether sphere, the fleeting hour. "Without one envious sigh, one anxious scheme, "Fortune, that lays in sport the mighty low, Age, that to penance turns the joys of youth, Shall leave untouched the gifts which I bestow, The sense of beauty and the thirst of truth. "Of the fair brotherhood who share my grace, I, from thy natal day, pronounce thee free; And, if for some I keep a nobler place, I keep for none a happier than for thee. "There are who, while to vulgar eyes they seem Of all my bounties largely to partake, Of me as of some rival's handmaid deem, And court me but for gain's, power's, fashion's sake. "To such, though deep their lore, though wide their fame, Shall my great mysteries be all unknown: But thou, through good and evil, praise and blame, Yes; thou wilt love me with exceeding love; "For aye mine emblem was, and aye shall be, "In the dark hour of shame, I deigned to stand "I brought the wise and brave of ancient days I lighted Milton's darkness with the blaze Of the bright ranks that guard the eternal throne. "And even so, my child, it is my pleasure That thou not then alone shouldst feel me nigh, "Not then alone, when myriads, closely pressed "No: when on restless night dawns cheerless morrow, When weary soul and wasting body pine, Thine am I still, in danger, sickness, sorrow, In conflict, obloquy, want, exile, thine; "Thine, where on mountain waves the snow-birds scream, "Thine, when around thy litter's track all day "Thine most, when friends turn pale, when traitors fy, "Amidst the din of all things fell and vile, Hate's yell and envy's hiss and folly's bray, "Yes: they will pass away; nor deem it strange: He now devoted his time to a work he had long meditated, and for which he had not only collected a considerable portion of the materials, but had probably written some portion of the text, the History of England, from the Accession of James II. The first two volumes of this were published in the autumn of 1848, and gave him a literary reputation far beyond what he had acquired by his historical essays. The book was as popular as any of Scott's or Dickens's novels, while its solid merits of research and generalization placed it among the great historical works of the century. Its circulation, large in England, was immense in the United States; and in every portion of the world where English literature is esteemed, it was widely read, either in the original text or in carefully prepared translations. In 1852, the city of Edinburgh, desirous of repairing the injustice it had done to Macaulay in 1847, elected him its representative without his appearing as a candidate. He accepted the trust, though his health had begun to fail, and he was already visited with the |