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MACAULAY-GLADSTONE'S TRIBUTE TO HIS MEMORY.

entitled Egypt's Place in History. He had been recalled to Prussia or had resigned because of his opinions on the policy of the king in relation to the Russian war, but he was greatly esteemed by men of all parties in England.

But a larger gap than either of these was left in the public and literary ranks in England by the sudden death of Lord Macaulay on the 28th of December, 1859. This loss, which was felt throughout the country, may be said to have cast a shadow on the closing days of the year, for his books, and especially his History of England from the Accession of James the Second, was known and read all over England, and some of his poems had been listened to with delight when they were recited before large audiences. His prodigious memory and his philosophical mode of thought were allied to a strong imagination and to the power of striking poetical expression. Few men have united so much of the genius of the poet to the plodding industry and research of the antiquarian. The latter quality enabled him to seek the material for his vivid pages in musty parliamentary records-long closed correspondence-timeworn ballad-sheets, and even stained and frayed broadsheets relating to events that might otherwise have been forgotten, since they were never popularly depicted until he drew them with a vigorous hand. It has been contended that Macaulay only wrote history from the Whig side; and it can scarcely be denied that while he draws the misdeeds of the other party in strong dark outlines, he sublimates some of the faults of his political predecessors and somewhat idealizes their fessed principles. Yet his remarkable power of illustration and the charming lucidity which characterizes his style will always cause his history to hold a high place among all classes of readers. It was not, however, as an author alone that Macaulay was sorely missed. The place he had occupied in parliament and in the arena of politics could not easily be filled. Failing health had compelled him to resign the representation of Edinburgh and to abandon public speaking; but his superb achievements as a speaker, both in and out of the

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House of Commons, were not forgotten when he had retired to the seclusion of the home, where his presence was ever welcome and where his tender and affectionate nature found fitting companionship in his sister's family. He had been eminently successful, and his great ability and indefatigable energy had enabled him to achieve high distinction in whatever he attempted. Probably it would not have added to his fame if he had lived to carry his voice to the House of Peers, which would, however, have been graced by his intellect; and though it is to be deplored that his history remained uncompleted, it is not a mere fragment, but a shapely and finished production, a monument of his genius. Macaulay was never married, and the wealth which he had acquired went to his relatives; but during his life he was one of the most generous of men, and few distressed representatives of the literary craft applied to him in vain for assistance. It is certain, on the contrary, that because of the natural goodness of heart which could spare some pity for their distresses, he consciously helped some who were incompe tent, and should never have taken upon themselves the profession of letters.

We have already seen something of the early correspondence between Mr. Gladstone and the brilliant reviewer in their early days, and we may therefore fitly refer here to a few of the words used by the former when, in 1876, in a review of The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, by his nephew George Otto Trevelyan, M.P., he has to speak of the man whose own achievements had by that time almost become historical. Mr. Gladstone

says:

"Lord Macaulay lived a life of no more than fifty-nine years and three months. But it was an extraordinarily full life, of sustained exertion; a high table-land, without depressions. If in its outer aspect there be anything wearisome, it is only the wearisomeness of reiterated splendours, and of success so uniform as to be almost monotonous. He speaks of himself as idle; but his idleness was more active, and carried with it hour by hour a greater expenditure of brain-power, than what most men regard as their serious employments. He might

well have been in his mental career the spoiled child of fortune; for all he tried succeeded, all he touched turned into gems and gold. In a happy childhood he evinced extreme precocity. His academical career gave sufficient, though not redundant, promise of after celebrity. The new golden age he imparted to the Edinburgh Review, and his first and most important, if not best, parliamentary speeches in the grand crisis of the first Reform Bill, achieved for him, years before he had reached the middle point of life, what may justly be termed 'an immense distinction.

"For a century and more, perhaps no man in this country, with the exceptions of Mr. Pitt and of Lord Byron, had attained at thirty-two the fame of Macaulay. His parliamentary success and his literary eminence were each of them enough, as they stood at this date, to intoxicate any brain and heart of a meaner order. But to these was added, in his case, an amount and quality of social attentions such as invariably partake of adulation and idolatry, and as, perhaps, the high circles of London never before or since have lavished on a man whose claims lay only in himself, and not in his descent, his rank, or his possessions. Perhaps it was good for his mental and moral health that the enervating action of this process was suspended for four years. Although after his return from India in 1839 it could not but revive, he was of an age to bear it with less peril to his manhood. He seems at all times to have held his head high above the stir and the fascination which excite and enslave the weak. His masculine intelligence, and his ardent and single-minded devotion to literature, probably derived in this respect essential aid from that depth and warmth of domestic affections which lay nearer yet to the centre of his being.

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He was, indeed, prosperous and brilliant; a prodigy, a meteor, almost a portent, in literary history. But his course was laborious, truthful, simple, independent, noble; and all these in an eminent degree. Of the inward battle of life he seems to have known nothing: his mind was, so to speak, self-contained, coherent, and harmonious. His experience of the outward battle, which had reference to money,

was not inconsiderable, but it was confined to his earlier manhood. The general outline of his career has long been familiar, and offers neither need nor scope for detail. After four years of high parliamentary distinction, and his first assumption of office, he accepted a lucrative appointment in India, with a wise view to his own pecuniary independence, and a generous regard to what might be, as they had been, the demands of his nearest relations upon his affectionate bounty. Another term of four years brought him back, the least Indian, despite of his active labours upon the legislative code, of all the civilians who had ever served the Company. He soon re-entered parliament; but his zest for the political arena seems never to have regained the temperature of his virgin love at the time of the Reform Bill. He had offered his resignation of office during the debates on the Emancipation Act, at a time when salary was of the utmost importance to him, and for a cause which was far more his father's than his own. This he did with a promptitude and a manly unconsciousness of effect or merit in the act which were truly noble. Similar was his dignified attitude when his constituents of Edinburgh committed their first and last fault in rejecting him on account of his vote for Maynooth. This was in 1847. At the general election in 1852 they were again at his feet, as though the final cause of the indignity had been only to enhance the triumph of his re-election. Twice at least in the House of Commons he arrested the successful progress of legislative measures, and slew them at a moment's notice and by his single arm. The first of these occasions was the Copyright Bill of Serjeant Talfourd in 1841; the second, the bill of 1853 for excluding the Master of the Rolls from the House of Commons. But, whenever he rose to speak, it was a summons like a trumpetcall to fill the benches. He retired from the House of Commons in 1856. At length, when in 1857 he was elevated by Lord Palmerston to the peerage, all the world of letters felt honoured in his person. The claims of that, which he felt to be indeed his profession, acquired an increasing command on him as the interests of political action grew less and less.

DEATH OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA-NEARER LOSSES.

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Neither was social life allowed greatly to interfere with literary work, although here, too, his triumphs were almost unrivalled. Only one other attraction had power over him, and it was a life-long power-the love of his sisters; which about the mid-point of life came to mean his sister Lady Trevelyan.

"As there is nothing equally touching, so there is really nothing more wonderful in the memoirs, than the large the immeasurable abundance of this gushing stream. It is not surprising that the full reservoir overflowed upon her children. Indeed he seems to have had a store of this love that could not be exhausted, for little children generally; his simplicity and tenderness vying all along in graceful rivalry with the manly qualities, which in no one were more pronounced. After some forewarnings, a period of palpable decline, which was brief as well as tranquil, brought him to his end.

"To the literary success of Macaulay it would be difficult to find a parallel in the history of recent authorship. For this and probably all future centuries we are to regard the public as the patron of literary men, and as a patron abler than any that went before to heap both fame and fortune on its favourites. Setting aside works of which the primary purpose was entertainment, Tennyson alone among the writers of our age, in point of public favour, and of emolument following upon it, comes near to Macaulay. But Tennyson was laboriously cultivating his gifts for many years before he acquired a position in the eye of the nation. Macaulay, fresh from college in 1825, astonished the world by his brilliant and imposing essay on Milton. Full-orbed he was seen above the horizon; and full-orbed, after thirty-five years of constantly-emitted splendour, he sank beneath it.

"His gains from literature were extraordinary. The cheque for £20,000 is known to all. But his accumulation was reduced by his bounty; and his profits would, it is evident, have been far larger still had he dealt with the products of his mind on the principles of economic science (which, however, he heartily professed), and sold his wares in the dearest market, as he undoubtedly acquired them in

the cheapest. No one can measure the elevation of Macaulay's character above the mercenary level without bearing in mind that for ten years after 1825 he was a poor and contented man, though ministering to the wants of a father and a family reduced in circumstances; though in the blaze of literary and political success; and though he must have been conscious from the first of a gift which, by a less congenial and less compulsory use, would have rapidly led him to opulence. Yet of the comforts and advantages, both social and physical, from which he thus forebore, it is so plain that he at all times formed no misanthropic or ascetic, but on the contrary a very liberal and genial, estimate. It is truly touching to find that never, except as a minister, until 1851, when he had already lived fifty years of his fifty-nine, did this favourite of fortune, this idol of society, allow himself the luxury of a carriage.

"It has been observed, that neither in art nor letters did Macaulay display that faculty of the higher criticism which depends upon certain refined perceptions and the power of subtle analysis. His analysis was always rough, hasty, and sweeping, and his perceptions robust. By these properties it was that he was so eminently Cords, not in the vulgar sense of an appeal to spurious sentiment, but as one bearing his reader along by violence, as the river Scamander tried to bear Achilles. Yet he was never pretentious; and he said frankly of himself that a criticism like that of Lessing in his Laocöon, or of Goethe on Hamlet, filled him with wonder and despair."

In the first days of January, 1861, intelligence arrived of the death of the King of Prussia, whose illness, accompanied by mental disorder, had long precluded him from taking any part in the government of the country. His brother, who had been appointed princeregent, came to the throne with the title of King William I., and our princess royal thereupon became Crown-princess of Prussia, and afterwards, of Germany.

The relations between our own royal family and that of Prussia naturally increased the serious feelings with which the death of King

Frederick William was regarded by the Queen and Prince Albert, especially at a time when they were mourning the sickness or the loss of some of those eminent servants of the state on whose loyalty and ability they had so frequently been able to rely.

Sir James Graham was dead. On the 14th of December the Earl of Aberdeen, who had been so intimately associated with the royal family, had passed away. Sir Sidney Herbert, who had been raised to the House of Lords with the title of Lord Herbert of Leigh, had been for some time suffering from the same illness of which he died in the following August. As the year went on the other names were absent from the earthly roll-call of those who were loved, respected, or admired. On the 6th of June Cavour, suffering from typhoid fever, had been bled to death by Italian doctors, who could not depart from their old traditions, and the news telegraphed from Turin sent a shock through Europe; for the affairs of Italy had reached a crisis, in which it was believed only his strong guiding hand and inimitable statecraft could be of immediate avail. We shall have to return to the events which had produced that impression, and had caused Prince Albert, on receiving the intelligence of the death of the minister, to write in his diary the words, "Ein ungeheurer Verlust für Italien" (an immeasurable loss for Italy).

There were other losses nearer to the royal domestic circle in England. Dr. Baly, the trusted physician to the prince and the royal family, was killed in a railway accident between London and Wimbledon on the 29th of January. He was the only person seriously injured. Soon afterwards, died Sir George Couper, physician to the Duchess of Kent. These losses occurred during the sorrow experienced by the royal household for the death in April, 1860, of Prince Ernest of Hohenlohe Langenburg, husband of the queen's sister,. and president of the upper chamber of Wirtemberg.

Not only were public affairs full of exciting interest during the latter half of 1860 in consequence of the Franco-Italian alliance, the schemes of Napoleon III., and other foreign complications of which we shall presently

have to take note; but the royal family was to some extent separated, and amidst many domestic claims and an unflagging attention to public business the health of Prince Albert became precarious, and he frequently suffered from attacks of illness, against which he bore up with patient courage, but which were sufficient to cause great uneasiness to the queen and to others who anxiously watched his unremitting labours.

In March, 1860, arrangements were made for the visit of the Prince of Wales to Canada, in fulfilment of a promise made to a deputation which came here during the Crimean war asking the queen to visit her American possessions. Her majesty could not accede to a request which would involve so long a voyage, and it was then proposed that one of the princes should become governor-general. They were both too young for such a proposition to be entertained; but it was agreed that as soon as the Prince of Wales was old enough, he should visit the Dominion. This intention was about to be carried out in the autumn, when the visit would be signalized by his royal highness laying the foundation-stone of the new Canadian parliament-house at Ottawa, and opening the great railway bridge across the St. Lawrence at Montreal.

When it was known in America that the heir to the English throne was about to visit Canada, the president, Mr. Buchanan, addressed a letter to the queen, offering a cordial welcome at Washington to the prince if he should extend his visit to the United States, and assuring her majesty that he would be everywhere greeted by the American people in a manner which could not fail to prove gratifying to her majesty. This request was answered in the same cordial spirit, and Mr. Buchanan was informed by the queen that the prince proposed to return from Canada through the United States, and that it would give him great pleasure to have an opportunity of testifying to the president in person that the feelings which had dictated the president's letter were fully reciprocated on this side of the Atlantic. At the same time the municipality of New York sent a message through the American minister, Mr. Dallas, expressing

"THE STAR OF INDIA"-THE ARMY--THE VOLUNTEERS.

a strong desire that the prince should visit that city. This visit, also, was included in the programme of the prince's journey, which was, however, to be only that of a private gentleman, and in no sense an affair of state. The prince was to travel as Lord Renfrew, and was to be accompanied by the Duke of Newcastle, secretary of state for the colonies.

Prince Alfred also started on a long voyage to another colony, the Cape of Good Hope, by way of Rio Janeiro. He left England in the spring of 1860, and was expected to reach Capetown, and there to lay the first stone of the breakwater in the harbour at about the same time that his brother was performing similar duty in Canada.

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Among the numerous questions in which the prince and the queen were concerned at this time, was the institution of a proposed new order or decoration for distinguished service in India. Not only was it exceedingly difficult to decide on a design and motto, of which the prince sketched several, but there was still more difficulty in adopting a name for the decoration, though several were proposed. It was agreed that the order should be a star, but the question was what star? To illustrate the important critical nature of the discussion, we may quote a letter from Lord Canning, urging that the title "Eastern Star," which was most liked, could not be adopted. "The Hindustani for the Eastern Star,"" he wrote, "is 'Poorbeah Sittara: 'Poorbeah' has, as you probably know, become a sort of generic name given to our Sepoys, from their being mostly men from Behar and OudhEastern provinces; and during the mutinies it grew to be used somewhat as 'Pandy' was used, as a familiar name for the mutineers. This, however, is not the point. That association is already passing away. But 'Poorbeah,' for the very reason that it means 'Eastern,' and that in India the further any person or thing comes from the East, the less is the respect shown to either, has been a term of disparagement time out of mind. Long before mutinous Sepoys were heard of, an Indian resented being called a 'Poorbeah.' The term was, and—as Frere assures me--still is eagerly repudiated by every one who comes from

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far enough west to be able to do so. He speaks with knowledge, for his time has been passed chiefly amongst the Mahrattas and Rajpoots, who are the best and proudest blood in India. I asked him if there was anything insulting in the word. He said, Not quite that; but that it implied the same sort of contemptuous superiority on the part of one Indian who used it towards another, as would be implied by an Englishman who should call an Irishman a 'Paddy,' or address a Scotchman as 'Sawney.""

The prince, referring to the obstacles to the adoption of every name proposed, humorously wrote to Sir Charles Wood:

"It is unfortunate that we get no further with the appellation of the order than from one difficulty into another, and I might be inclined to give it the sign and name of a house at Töplitz-the sign being gilt figures of men rowing against a rock, with the title of "The Golden Impossibility."" Not till some time afterwards was the difficulty solved, and on the 23rd of February, 1861, the institution of "The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India," set the question at rest.

It may be mentioned in connection with military affairs, that early in May, 1860, it was decided by a resolution of the cabinet to discontinue supporting a separate European army for India, and that instead of two forces there should be only one imperial army, taking its turn of duty throughout the British Empire, in all its home provinces and foreign dependencies, including India. This resolution was afterwards strenuously opposed in parliament, but was passed in the autumn session.

The winter of 1859 had been wet, cold, and unhealthy, but on the return of spring the weather was more cheering. There were 18,000 men at Aldershot, where the queen and the prince were frequent visitors, and held a review in the first week of May. But of more significance still was the rapid growth of the Volunteer force, which consisted at that time of 124,000 men, already well drilled, and a large number of them possessing such remarkable skill with the rifle that it recalled the ancient fame of the English bow

men.

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