THE LETTERS OF THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY VOLUME IV
'Unhappy Ghosts wandering on the banks of Styx.' Number 891 of the Political Sketches by John Doyle, published 19 November 1847 (British Museum). Macaulay appears at the head of a procession of defeated candidates — Sir John Hobhouse, Benjamin Hawes, Thomas Wyse, Colonel Fox — walking on the banks of the Styx, followed by J. A. Roebuck, tearing his hair, while John Bull as Charon shoves off for Elysium with Lord John Russell, Sir Charles Wood, and their colleagues.
THE LETTERS OF THOMAS BABINGTON
MACAULAY EDITED BY
THOMAS PINNEY PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH POMONA COLLEGE, THE CLAREMONT COLLEGES CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA
VOLUME IV SEPTEMBER 1841-DECEMBER 1848
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE LONDON • NEW YORK • MELBOURNE
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Delhi Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521211260 © Cambridge University Press 1977 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1977 This digitally printed version 2008 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron, 1800—1859. The Letters of Thomas Babington Macaulay. On spine: The letters of Macaulay. Includes indexes. CONTENTS: v. 1. 1807 - February 1831.-v. 2. March 1831 -December 1 8 3 3 v. 3. January 1834 -August 1841 - v. 4. September 1841 - December 1848 1. Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron, 1800—1859. I. Pinney, Thomas, ed. II. Title. III. Title: The letters of Macaulay. DA3.M3A4 1974 828'.8'09 [B] 73-75860 ISBN 978-0-521-21126-0 hardback ISBN 978-0-521-08899-2 paperback
The title-page device is the Macaulay coat of arms, taken from Macaulay's seal on a letter of 17 December 1833; it was later the basis of Macaulay's arms as Baron Macaulay. Acknowledgement is made to the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge.
CONTENTS
Unhappy Ghosts Wandering on the Banks of Styx
frontispiece
Preface
vii
Biographical Chronology
xi
THE LETTERS The Bachelor of the Albany, September 1841-1842
3
To the Last Edinburgh Review, 1843-1844
87
Return to Office and Defeat at Edinburgh, 7 January 1845 ~ 3° July 1847
229
The History of England, 2 August 1847 - 30 December 1848
343
Letters of Uncertain Date, 1830-1847
395
Index
405
PREFACE
The years that Macaulay spent in the Albany, that phase of his life whose first half is recorded in this volume, were the most personally satisfactory of all to him. He lived in bookish, bachelor comfort, wellattended by servants who remained with him long, and surrounded by the growing thousands of volumes on his library shelves; thus he was free to read and write in undisturbed, though not reclusive, privacy. Yet, near enough so that he could have an intimate part in its daily life, was a household presided over by his adored Hannah, where he might have access to all the news of family and friends and all the satisfactions of parental interest without its obligations. His return to politics kept him before the public and gave him the pleasure of exercising his oratorical skills. He enjoyed the rare success of directly altering legislation by the effect of his speaking, as, for example, by his speeches on the question of copyright. He produced, in fact, a series of notable speeches between 1839 and 1847, some on large and some on small issues, but always thoroughly Macaulayan: one may mention especially the speeches on the Gates of Somnauth, on Maynooth, and on the Ten Hours Bill. For all this, it is evident that Macaulay was not passionately involved in politics after his return from India as he had been before. Why, then, did he allow public life to steal so much of his time and of his best energy? Why commit the fault, for which he was never tired of blaming Burke and Mackintosh, of giving to faction what was meant for literature? I have no answer. Macaulay was certainly flattered to be asked to represent Edinburgh; he certainly enjoyed making speeches the effect of which was obvious and gratifying to him; and he certainly had pleasure in the dignity of cabinet office and the state of being Right Honorable. But after the crisis of his Indian years and his determination to commit himself to a literary work that the world would not willingly let die, were these things necessary to him? Macaulay would, possibly, be surprised at the question. Perhaps it is simplest just to observe that in the vigorous years of the 1840s, after the haunting anxiety of Hannah's return to India had been dispelled and Vll
Preface
before the failure of his health in the early 1850s, Macaulay abounded in energy and never doubted that he could meet any demand that might be made of it. To the steady, unhurried work of the historian, he added the responsibilities, parliamentary, political, and personal, of the M.P.; meantime, he continued to produce essays for the Edinburgh Review, and all the while he functioned as an assiduous diner-out, clubman, and committeeman. He was, in short, one of the lions of London. The writing of the History was set back, but Macaulay had, if nothing else, the excellent excuse that he was enjoying himself. There were, of course, drawbacks and difficulties. The most trying was the troublesome character of Macaulay's constituency. To a Laodicean like Macaulay, the fanatical tone of the inescapable religious element in Edinburgh politics was a constant tribulation. Running athwart the disputes of Radicals, Tories, and Whigs that surrounded such issues as free trade, or education, or the factory acts, were the hostilities of Dissenters and Voluntaries for Churchmen; of intrusionists for non-intrusionists; of Churchmen for Free Churchmen - disputes that Macaulay had long since decided had no place at all in politics but which, perhaps for his sins, he had constantly to attend to in doing the business of the Good Town. *I am surrounded by the din of a sort of controversy which is most distasteful to me* he wrote as early as the election of June 1841: '"Yes, Mr. Macaulay; that is all very well for a statesman. But what becomes of the headship of our Lord Jesus Christ?" And I cannot answer a constituent quite as bluntly as I should answer any body else who might reason after such a fashion.' When Edinburgh at last rejected him in 1847 the cause seems, as much as anything, to have been Macaulay's lukewarm, trimming, lack of zeal on all the issues closest to Presbyterian hearts. The defeat at Edinburgh was something of a national scandal, not because Macaulay's politics were regarded as especially privileged, but because by 1847 n e n a d acquired an essentially literary fame; how ironic, then, that the modern Athens should reject so Athenian a representative. The Lays of Ancient Rome, in 1842, had added an unexpected ornament to Macaulay's reputation, all the more graceful because he made no pretension to poetic glory and wisely did not try the public judgment more than once. Meanwhile, the fame of his essays was growing more and more. The Americans were the first to treat them as permanent literature, two volumes appearing in Boston in 1840, three volumes in Philadelphia in the next year, and a steady stream thereafter. The success of these pirated editions provoked Macaulay's English publishers, in 1843, to bring out their own edition in mere self-defense; Macaulay, despite a genuine reluctance to give substantial form to periodical writings, perforce agreed to the arrangement. And, after all, his hesitation was not justified, for the Vlll
Preface English success of the Essays matched the American. By the end of the decade they were in their sixth edition. They included what for many years were the most highly-regarded and popular of Macaulay's essays, another fruit of his Indian years, the articles on Lord Clive and Warren Hastings. This steadily-enhanced literary reputation, which was fully supported by Macaulay's parliamentary speaking, stimulated the expectations of the public for Macaulay's History, which, it had been known for some years, was the main occupation of Macaulay's life in intention if not always in fact. Macaulay himself had not been slow to advertise his plan. Within two months of Macaulay's return to England, Charles Greville reported in his diary that 'his object now is to devote himself to literature, and his present project, to write a History of England for the last 150 years.' Perhaps Macaulay did at one time, in the early days, think of the History as merely the 'present project' in a long series of planned literary productions. If so, he soon learned to think otherwise. By 1841 he had reduced the scope of the History by more than a hundred years, aiming now at a conclusion in 1714 rather than at the original terminus of 1832. Not much later, he recognized that the composition of the History would be not an incident, but both the business and the pleasure of his life. By the end of his working life he sought only to reach the death of his hero, William III. The 150 years blithely undertaken in 1838 had, at the end, shrunk to 14 - though a densely-filled 14, to be sure. More and more, despite the many days spent among the distractions of politics and society, Macaulay realized that he had a heavy and a slow labor on his hands, and gradually he came to be wholly absorbed in it. One of the chief animating ideas of the History — the idea that social life as well as public events demanded the historian's attention - involved Macaulay in the slow work of original inquiry into unrecorded and unorganized sources. He also set a new example to English historians by his researches in continental archives and by his systematic tours of inspection of the scenes that he had to describe. The necessary slowness of this process of preparation by saturation made him all the more ready to write when the time came. At the end of 1844 he determined to give up writing for the Edinburgh Review, so putting an end to a connection of nearly twenty years' standing for the sake of concentrating on the History. When, in 1847, he was dismissed at Edinburgh, though it was, as he wrote, a manumission ' after the old fashion, by a slap in the face,' it was nonetheless welcome to the historian. He put his new liberty to good use, and within a year had completed the first part of the History. The story of its reception and continuation belongs to the next volumes of this edition; the triumphant publication itself is a fitting end to this portion of the letters. IX
BIOGRAPHICAL CHRONOLOGY
1841 Early September Moves to the Albany, Piccadilly — c. September 22 Finishes * Warren Hastings' (ER, October) — Early October Trip to Belgium — November Returns to work on History 1842 February 21 Speech on Corn Laws — April 1 Finishes 'Frederic the Great' (ER, April) — April 6 Second speech on copyright — May 3 Speech on the People's Charter — Early August In Devonshire and Somerset, visiting the scenes of Monmouth's rebellion — October 27 Lays of Ancient Rome published — December 27 Finishes 'Madame D'Arblay' (ER, January 1843) 1843 March 9 Speech on Gates of Somnauth — April 1 Collected Essays, 3 vols., published -July ' Life and Writings of Addison,' ER
- July 7 Speech on state of Ireland — c. August 21 — September 15 Tour of the Loire valley 1844 February 19 Speech on state of Ireland — April 'Barere's Memoirs,' ER — May 4 Appointed to Fine Arts Commission for decoration of new Houses of Parliament - June 6 Speech on Dissenters' Chapels Bill - October ' Early Administrations of George the Third: the Earl of Chatham,' ER: TBM's last contribution - c. October 7-22 Tour of the Low Countries — December 6 Gives up connection with ER in order to concentrate on History 1845 February 26 Speech on Sugar Duties — April 14 Speech on Maynooth - April 23 Speech on the Church of Ireland Speech on Scottish University Tests XI
Biographical
Chronology - c. January Appointed trustee of the British Museum - April 19 Speech on Education ~ July 30 Defeated at Edinburgh following dissolution of Parliament; does not resign from office - September Tour in Holland with Ellis; examines Dutch archives for History 1848 April 25 Resigns from office - Early September Tour in France with Ellis - November 15 Elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow - December 2 History of England, vols. 1 and 2, published
- December 2 Speech at Edinburgh on Corn Laws - December 19 Offered cabinet office as Paymaster General, but Russell's effort to form ministry collapses 1846 May 22 Speech on Ten Hours Bill - July 2 Accepts office of Paymaster General in Russell's cabinet - July 14 Re-elected at Edinburgh - September 24 Death of Henry William Macaulay - November 4 Speech at Edinburgh Philosophical Institution 1847 January Moves to new chambers in the Albany
Xll
THE LETTERS
THE BACHELOR OF THE ALBANY SEPTEMBER 1841-1842
1841 Early September Moves to the Albany, Piccadilly - c. September 22 Finishes 'Warren Hastings' (ER, October) - Early October Trip to Belgium - November Returns to work on History 1842 February 21 Speech on Corn Laws - April 1 Finishes 'Frederic the Great' (ER, April) - April 6 Second speech on copyright - May 3 Speech on the People's Charter - Early August In Devonshire and Somerset, visiting the scenes of Monmouth's rebellion - October 27 Lays of Ancient Rome published - December 27 Finishes 'Madame D'Arblay' (ER, January 1843)
Macvey Napier TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 3 S E P T E M B E R
3 September 1841 1841
MS: British Museum. London Septr. 3 / 1841 Dear Napier, I am in all the agonies of changing house. Next week will be a week of confusion. I have between three and four thousand volumes to arrange, and am unable at present to consult several books which I must refer to before I can finish my article on Hastings. I have however got on far, and tolerably to my own satisfaction. I have brought the hero to England; and I have now only to tell the story of his impeachment and of his life in retirement. If I could get a week of leisure I could easily finish the whole. But in the present bustle I can only work at odd ends of time. However I think that I can confidently promise you the whole paper by the 20th, which, according to my calculations, ought to be in ample time. I aim at 90 pages, and I expect to hit pretty exactly. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO [ E D W A R D B A I N E S , J R ? ] , 14 S E P T E M B E R
1841
MS: Trinity College.
London Septr. 14. 1841 My dear Sir, I feel, as I well may, true gratitude and affection to the people of Leeds: and I am sincerely glad that an useful institution, like that to which your letter relates, thrives so well among them.1 But on the 13th of October I expect to be on the Continent.2 Should I be in England, I will, with the greatest pleasure, unless prevented by some unforeseen cause, attend the interesting ceremony to which you have invited me. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay Pray remember me kindly to my excellent friend your father. 1 2
A new hall for the Leeds Mechanics' Institute was opened on 13 October, with Edward Baines, Jr, in the chair (Leeds Mercury, 16 October). TBM was going to Belgium: see 4 October.
20 September 1841 TO MACVEY NAPIER, 20 SEPTEMBER
Macvey Napier 1841
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, p. 364.
London Septr. 20 / 1841 Dear Napier, I send you by this day's post the greater part of my paper on Hastings, - more than two thirds - 1 should think near three quarters, — of the whole. The rest shall follow, if possible, the day after to morrow. I am in a situation of the greatest discomfort. My chambers are not quite furnished. But all my books are there. And to write a paper like this requires the help of a whole library. Pray let me have proofs as early as possible: and let me beg that the proofs may have ample margins. The last were cut so close, on account of postage I suppose, that I could hardly make any correction more important than a comma. I am particularly anxious about this, because I fear that the style of the paper which I now send will require much retouching. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO S I R JAMES G R A H A M , 27 S E P T E M B E R
1841
MS; Mr W. Hugh Peal.
Mr. Macaulay presents his compliments to the Secretary of State for the Home Department and has the honor to transmit, for presentation to Her Majesty, a petition from the Chamber of Commerce of Edinburgh under their Common Seal, praying that parliament may not be prorogued till a plan for relieving public distress shall have been brought forward.1 Albany / September 27. 1841 1
The petition was voted at a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce on 25 September (Scotsman, 29 September); at the Chamber's meeting of 6 October the Secretary read a letter from TBM * acknowledging receipt of a petition to the Queen; which, as there was then no prospect of a levee, he had forwarded to the Secretary of State for presentation to her Majesty' (Scotsman, 9 October).
Macvey Napier TO MACVEY NAPIER, 4 OCTOBER
4 October 1841 1841
MS: British Museum. Partly published': Trevelyan, 11, 183.
Albany / London October 4 / 1841 Dear Napier, I send by this day's post the revise to the printers. I find the paper longer than I expected. But I am inclined to think that it will take. Jeffrey, thank God, is mending fast.1 I inclose a note which has just reached me from Empson. I never looked for such good news. My bankers are Messrs. Williams Deacon Labouchere and Co Birchin Lane. But I expect to be back from Belgium within a week after the Review comes out. 2 As to a visit to Edinburgh in November, I wish to be entirely guided by my friends.3 What do you think? Would not there be some danger of a disturbance either with the Church or the Dissenters. If the people of Edinburgh were not my constituents, there is no place in the island where I should like so much to pass a few weeks. But our relation imposes both such constant exertion and such constant reserve that a trip thither is neither pleasant nor prudent. But, as I said, I wish my friends to judge for me. Ever yours T B Macaulay I think it better to say nothing about John Duke of Bedford,4 unless I could go into his character at length. 1 2 3 4
Jeffrey had gone to England in August and had fallen so ill there that he had had to take leave of absence from his duties in the Court of Session (Cockburn, Journal, 1, 308). TBM must have left very shortly after the date of this letter for Belgium; he set out on his return to England on 15 October. TBM did not go to Edinburgh again this year. John Russell, fourth Duke of Bedford (see 18 November 1842). I do not know what TBM has in mind: Bedford has no connection with TBM's current article, on Hastings.
[13? October 2842] TO RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES, 1
Richard Monckton Milnes
[13? OCTOBER 1841]2
MS: Trinity College.
[Brussels] Hotel de Bellevue / Wednesday Morning Dear Milnes, Your note found me in bed, knocked up by a day spent in rambling, knee-deep in clay, over the field of Waterloo. I will with very great pleasure dine with Mr. and Mrs. Craven3 to day. Pray thank them in my name, for their obliging invitation. I shall be at home from twelve to one, and shall be glad to see the library that you mention in your company. - To morrow I shall set off for Liege and Maestricht. But I shall return to Brussels after a short trip. I like this place exceedingly. It is an exceedingly pleasant cross between Antwerp and Paris. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO CHARLES MACAULAY, 14 OCTOBER 1841 Text: Extract in Maggs Brothers Catalogue 497, Christmas 1927, item 2388, 2-1/4 pp. 8vo: dated Brussels, 14 October 1841.
I have seen all that I very much cared to see except Louvain. And I have found travelling in this country so easy and agreeable that this will not be my last visit. I shall start for England to-morrow, and cross from Ostend, I know not whether for Dover or for London, but by the first conveyance that I can find. If there be any difficulty I shall probably go on to Calais and cross from there. 1
2
3
Milnes (1809-85: DNB), afterwards first Baron Houghton, was a minor poet, politician, traveller, biographer of Keats, bibliophile, collector of erotica, and a fixture in London society for half a century. Milnes knew everyone, took part in most of the public occasions and great social events of his time, andfiguresprominently in the anecdotal literature of the Victorian age. Since TBM was writing from London on 4 October and preparing to return from Belgium on 14 October, the only Wednesday that this could have been written on was the 13th. On the 14th he writes that he expects to set out for England on the next day, so that the plan mentioned in this letter to go to Liege and Maestricht evidently was not carried out. Probably he had received news in the interval that Charles was leaving England (see 26 October) and determined to return at once. Augustus Craven (d. 1884) and his wife Pauline (1808-91: DNE), the writer.
Macvey Napier TO MACVEY NAPIER, 26 OCTOBER
26 October 1841 1841
MS: British Museum. Partly published: Trevelyan, 11, 101.
Albany London / October 26. 1841 Dear Napier, I was recalled from Belgium a little earlier than I expected by the news that my youngest brother was under the necessity of sailing for Mauritius immediately.1 I have now seen him off, with all fair prospects of competence and domestic happiness. I write chiefly to point out, what I dare say you have already observed, the absurd blunder in the first page of my article. I have not, I am sorry to say, the consolation of being able to blame either you or the printers. For it must have been a slip of my own pen. I have put the Vicar of Wakefield instead of the History of Greece.2 Pray be so kind as to correct this in the errata of the next Number. I am indeed so much vexed by it that I could wish that the correction were made a little more prominent than usual, and introduced with two or three words of preface. But this I leave absolutely to your taste and judgment.3 As far as I can learn in the present deserted state of London the Number is very well liked. I am pleased with Senior's article,4 and pleased also, though in a less degree, with Hunt's. 5 I think that a certain mixture of his mannerisms is piquant and pleasant. It would never do to have a whole Number of such writing. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay P S. Give me your advice about visiting Edinburgh next month. If I come I shall try to be quiet and to be as much as is proper with my private friends. 1
2
Charles Macaulay entered the Mauritius civil service in this year and remained in it until 1848, becoming Registrar of the Court of First Instance in 1846. Charles had just married, on 7 October, Mary, the daughter of Richard Potter, Radical M.P. for Wigan. The marriage was an unhappy one: see Belinda Norman-Butler, Victorian Aspirations, 1972. 'It would be unjust to estimate Goldsmith by the Vicar of Wakefield . . .' (ER, LXXIV, 160).
3
A 250-word apology appears in the January number, p. 538. 4 'Poor Law Reform,* ERy LXXIV (October 1841), 1—44. s 'Pepys's Memoirs and Correspondence? ER> LXXIV (October 1841), 105—27.
29 October 1841
Leigh Hunt
TO LEIGH HUNT, 29 OCTOBER
1841
MS: British Museum. Published: Hunt, Correspondence, 11, 23—5.
Albany October 29. 1841 My dear Sir, I do not wonder that you are hurt by Napier's letter.1 But I think that you a little misunderstand him. I am confident that he has not taken any part of your conduct ill, and equally confident that by the expression, gentlemanlike, which certainly he might have spared, he meant not the smallest reflection either on your character or manners. I am certain that he means merely a literary criticism. His taste in composition is what would commonly be called classical, — not so Catholic as mine, nor so tolerant of those mannerisms which are produced by the various tempers and trainings of men, and which, within certain limits, are, in my judgment, agreeable. Napier would thoroughly appretiate the merit of a writer like Bolingbroke or Robertson; but would, I think, be unpleasantly affected by the peculiarities of such a writer as Burton, Sterne, or Charles Lamb. He thinks your style too colloquial; and, no doubt, it has a very colloquial character. I wish it to retain that character, which to me is exceedingly pleasant. But I think that the danger against which you have to guard is excess in that direction. Napier is the very man to be startled by the smallest excess in that direction. Therefore I am not surprised that, when you proposed to send him a chatty article, he took fright, and recommended dignity and severity of style, and care to avoid what he calls vulgar expressions, such as bit. The question is purely one of taste. It has nothing to do with the morals or the honor. As to the tone of Napier's criticism, you must remember that his position with regard to the Review and the habits of his life are such that he cannot be expected to pick his words very nicely. He has superintended more than one great literary undertaking — the Encyclopaedia Britannica, for example. He has had to collect contributions from hundreds of men of letters, and has been answerable to the publishers and to the public for the whole. Of course he has been under the necessity of very frequently correcting, disapproving, and positively rejecting articles, and is now as little disturbed about such things as Sir Benjamin Brodie about performing a surgical operation. To my own personal knowledge, he has positively refused to accept papers even from so grfeat a man as 1
Hunt wrote to Napier, 21 October, to ask if Napier would like an article on *some chatty subject'; Napier replied on 25 October that 'your phrase "chatty" rather alarms me' but that an article 'in an amusing but gentlemanlike tone and style' would be acceptable. Hunt then wrote to TBM to ask what he ought to do, thinking that Napier meant to offend him (Hunt, Correspondence, II, 19—23). 10
Leigh Hunt
29 October 1841
Lord Brougham. He only a few months ago received an article on foreign politics from an eminent diplomatist. The style was not to his taste; and he altered it to an extent which greatly irritated the author.1 Mr. Carlyle formerly wrote for the review, - a man of talents, though, in my opinion, absurdly overpraised by some of his admirers. I believe, though I do not know, that he ceased to write because the oddities of his diction and his new words compounded a la Teutonique drew such strong remonstrances from Napier.2 I could mention other instances. But these are sufficient to shew you what I mean. He is really a good, friendly, an honorable man. He wishes for your assistance. But he thinks your style too colloquial. He conceives that, as Editor of the Review, he ought to tell you what he thinks. And, having during many years been in the habit of speaking his whole mind on such matters almost weekly to all sorts of people, he expresses himself with more plainness than delicacy. I shall probably have occasion to write to him in a day or two. I will tell him that one or two of his phrases have hurt your feelings, and that, I think, he would have avoided them if he had taken time to consider. If you ask my advice, it is this. Tell him that some of his expressions have given you pain; but that you feel that you have no right to resent a mere difference of literary taste; - that to attempt to unlearn a style already formed and to acquire one completely different would, as he must feel, be absurd, and that the result would be something intolerably stiff and unnatural; but that, as he thinks that a tone rather less colloquial would suit better with the general character of the review, you will, without quitting the easy and familiar manner which is natural to you, avoid whatever even an unreasonably fastidious taste could regard as vulgarity. This is my honest advice. You may easily imagine how disagreeable it is to me to say anything about a difference between two persons for both of whom I entertain a sincere regard. / Believe me, / Dear Sir, Yours very truly T B Macaulay 1 2
Henry Bulwer: see 25 January 1841. Carlyle wrote seven articles for the ER between 1827 and 1832 but nothing thereafter; he was, however, proposing to write for Napier in 1841, though he did not carry out his intention (Napier, Correspondence, pp. 348-9).
II
30 October 1841
Macvey Napier
TO MACVEY NAPIER, 30 OCTOBER
1841
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence^ pp. 364-7.
Albany London. October / 30. 1841 Dear Napier, I have received your letter; and am truly glad to find that you are satisfied with the effect of my article.1 As to the pecuniary part of the matter, I am satisfied and more than satisfied. Indeed, as you well know, money has never been my chief object in writing. It was not so, even when I was very poor. And at present I consider my self as one of the richest men of my acquaintance. For I can well afford to spend a thousand a year: and I can enjoy every comfort on eight hundred. I own however that your supply comes agreeably enough to assist me in furnishing my rooms, which I have made, unless I am mistaken, into a very pleasant student's cell. And now a few words about a poor devil who wants money a great deal more than I ever did, — Leigh Hunt. He wrote to me yesterday in great distress, and inclosed a letter which he had received from you and which had much agitated him. In truth he misunderstood you; and you had used an expression which was open to some little misconstruction. You told him that you should be glad to have a gentlemanlike article from him. And Hunt took this for a reflection on his birth, manners, and way of life. He implored me to tell him candidly whether he had given you any offence, and to advise him as to his course. I replied that he had utterly misunderstood you, - that I was sure that you meant merely a literary criticism, - that your taste in composition was more severe than his, more severe indeed than mine, - that you were less tolerant than myself of little mannerisms springing from peculiarities of temper and training, - that his style seemed to you too colloquial, - that I myself thought that he was in danger of excess in that direction, - and that when you received a letter from him promising a very chatty article, I was not surprised that you should caution him against his besetting sin. I repeated in the strongest manner, as I am sure I safely might, that the expressions vulgar and gentlemanlike which seemed to have gone to his heart were not used with the smallest reference to his morals or manners, but purely to his diction. I said that I was sure that you wished him well, and would be glad of his assistance; but that he could not expect a person in your situation to pick his words very nicely, — that you had during many years superintended great literary undertakings, - that you had been under the necessity of 1
*Mr. Macaulay's article is, indeed, literally what you call it, "most magnificent'" (Leigh Hunt to Napier, 21 October 1841: Hunt, Correspondence^ 11, 20). 12
Macvey Napier
30 October 1841
collecting contributions from great numbers of writers, and that you were responsible to the public for the whole. Your credit was so deeply concerned that you must be allowed to speak plainly. I knew that you had spoken to men of the first consideration quite as plainly as to him. I knew that you had refused to insert passages written by so great a man as Lord Brougham. I knew that you had not scrupled to hack and hew articles on foreign politics which had been concocted in the hotels of ambassadors and had received the imprimatur of Secretaries of State. I said that therefore he must, as a man of sense, suffer you to tell him what you might think, whether rightly or wrongly, to be the faults of his style. As to the sense which he had put on one or two of your expressions, I took it on my self as your friend to affirm that he had mistaken their meaning, and that you would never have used those words if you had foreseen that they would have been so understood. Between ourselves the word gentlemanlike was used in rather a harsh way: and considering that poor Hunt has more than once been attacked for really ungentlemanlike conduct, and is naturally sore on that point, I am not much surprised that he was hurt. As to advice, I advised him to tell you that, whatever pain your letter had given him, he felt that he had no right to complain of purely literary criticism, - that it was too late for him to unlearn a style and to learn another, - that, if he were to aim at a sort of writing different from that which use had made natural to him, stiffness and dulness would be the necessary result, — but that, as you thought that the interests of the Review required that he should adopt a less colloquial manner, he would attempt, without abandoning the easy and familiar way of expressing himself to which he was accustomed, to avoid every thing which even an unduly fastidious taste could designate as vulgar. Now I have told you what has passed between him and me: and I leave you to act as you think fit. I am sure that you will act properly and humanely. But I must add that I think you are too hard on his article. That it is the better for your corrections I do not in the least doubt. But I assure you that I generally hear it spoken of as a very pleasant paper. And only yesterday a woman of very great taste and talent who did not in the least suspect by whom it was written said that it was just the sort of light amusing reading that was wanted to relieve the general gravity of the Edinburgh Review. As to the Vicar of Wakefield the correction must be deferred, I think, till the appearance of the next Number. I am utterly unable to conceive how I can have committed such a blunder, and failed to notice it in the proofs.
i November 1841
Macvey Napier
If any subject for a short article occurred, I might write something for the January Number. But I think that Farquhar and Van[brugh] will hardly do. However, if you can think of any text for such a review, I will consider of it. But to go back on a publication reviewed last Xtmas is against your rules. I submit to the opinion of my friends, about a visit to the North. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , I N O V E M B E R
1841
MS: British Museum.
Albany London / Nov 1. 1841 Dear Napier, The bill arrived safe this morning. On Saturday I had a few lines from Leigh Hunt, thanking me for my advice and promising to conform to it.1 By the bye I may as well send them to you, as they will shew that he is in good temper again, and really wishes to meet your views. I am desirous that there should be no breach. For the poor fellow has many good qualities and has been most unlucky in life. I also am sincerely of opinion that he may become a valuable contributor to the Review. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO J O H N L E Y C E S T E R A D O L P H U S , 4 N O V E M B E R
1841
MS: British Museum.
Albany. I.E. / Nov 4. 1841 Dear Adolphus, Pray breakfast with me on Saturday.2 Empty as London is, you shall have Sydney Smith, — as great a luxury in November as green peas. Ever yours, T B Macaulay Ten is the hour. 1
2
Hunt writes: *I am extremely obliged by your letter, than which nothing could possibly be better in every respect.... I need not add, that I shall do precisely as it advises.... as to colloquiality, I will take care and do my best to be on my good behaviour in the classical pages of the "Edinburgh"' (30 October: MS, British Museum). On being established in the Albany, TBM took up the fashion of entertaining at breakfastparties and continued it until his death. The vogue for such parties, which was widespread, had been created by Samuel Rogers. The Duke of Argyll wrote of the 1840s that * there is no circumstance of my life in London which I recall with greater pleasure than the habit which then, and for some years later, prevailed among literary men, of giving each other 14
Macvey Napier
5 November 1841
TO MACVEY NAPIER, 5 NOVEMBER
1841
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Trevelyan, 11, 103-4.
Albany London Nov 5. 1841 Dear Napier, Leigh Hunt has sent me a most generous and amiable letter which he has received from you. He seems much touched by it, and more than satisfied, as he ought to be. 1 I have at last begun my historical labours, I can hardly say with how much interest and delight. I really do not think that there is in our literature so great a void as that which I am trying to supply. English history from 1688 to the French revolution is even to educated people almost a terra incognita. I will venture to say that it is quite an even chance whether even such a man as Empson or Senior can repeat accurately the names of the prime ministers of that time in order. The materials for an amusing narrative are immense. I shall not be satisfied unless I produce something which shall for a few days supersede the last fashionable novel on the tables of young ladies.2 I should be very much obliged to you to tell me what are the best sources for information about the Scotch revolution in 1688,— the subsequent administration in William's reign, - the campaign of Dundee the massacre of Glencoe, - and the Darien scheme. I mean to visit the scenes of all the principal events both in Great Britain and Ireland, and also on the continent. Would it be worth my while to pass a fortnight in one of the Edinburgh libraries next summer? Or do you imagine that the necessary information is to be got at the British Museum?
1 2
breakfasts. . . . The hour was usually 9.30 or 10 a.m. . . . The principal breakfast-givers were Bishop Samuel Wilberforce; Monckton Milnes . . .; Henry Hallam . . .; Macaulay; Lord Mahon . . .; Sir Charles Lyell. . .; and a few others* {Autobiography and Memoirs,1, 400-1). G. W. E. Russell says that the habit 'virtually died out with the disappearance of Mr. Gladstone' and quotes this passage: * "Men who breakfast out are generally Liberals," says Lady St. Julians in Sybil. "Have you not observed that?" " I wonder why?" "It shows a restless, revolutionary mind," said Lady Firebrace, "that can settle to nothing, but must be running after gossip the moment they are awake"' (Collections and Recollections, New York, 1899, p. 342). TBM did not have the facilities for giving dinners after he left his house on Great George Street. In late 1858, when he had a house, a new butler, and a new cook, he did give a dinner, ' the first dinner - not a mere family dinner that I have given in a house of my own since 1841' (Journal, xi, 377: 16 October 1858). Hunt's effusive letter of acknowledgement to Napier for Napier's apology is in his Correspondence, 11, 26. Perhaps this echoes Gibbon's boast that his book ' was on every table, and almost on every toilette' (Autobiography, World's Classics edn, p. 180). 15
,9 November 1841
Lady Holland
By the bye a lively picture of the state of the Kirk at that time is indispensable. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO L A D Y H O L L A N D , 9 N O V E M B E R
1841
MS: British Museum.
Albany Nov 9. 1841 Dear Lady Holland, I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you this evening. But as I may be detained too late at the place where I dine, I send you the volumes1 which you were so kind as to ask for. Pray remember that I had nothing whatever to do with the publication; and that I should certainly have suppressed more than one half of what my American friends have chosen to reprint. Do me also the justice to remember that the Dialogue between Cowley and Milton2 and the other prose pieces at the end of the third volume were written before I left college. Ever yours most truly T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 10 N O V E M B E R
1841
MS; British Museum. Mostly published; Napier, Correspondence, p. 368.
Albany London Nov 10. 1841 Dear Napier, Thanks for your interesting letter. I quite agree with you that it will be necessary for me to study in the libraries of Edinburgh. I must also see some places where great events have happened, particularly Killiecrankie and Glencoe. I have been turning over the lives of Farquhar and Vanbrugh. I can make nothing of them that would satisfy me. You must give me a holiday for a quarter. I will try to be of some use to your April Number. I have the less scruple in taking this respite because I know that you are in no want of matter. You found, I remember, some difficulty in accommodating Warren Hastings with the immense space which he required, and 1
2
The American edition of TBM's essays, 3 vols., Philadelphia, 1841, the so-called second edition: see 28 May 1841. *A Conversation between Mr. Abraham Cowley and Mr. John Milton, Touching the Great Civil War. Set Down by a Gentleman of the Middle Temple,* Knight's Quarterly, in (August 1824), 17-33. 16
Macvey Napier
1 December 1841
were forced to postpone some papers which were meant for the last Number. A subject struck me this morning while I looked over the advertisements in the Times. A Mr. Endell Tyler has published a life of Henry the Fifth in two volumes.1 The Athenaeum and the Examiner praise it as a work of great research.2 I think little of such puffs. But if Longman will send it to me, I will see whether I cannot, with the help of Froissart and Monstrelet, furnish a spirited sketch of that short and most brilliant life. I think that forty very amusing pages might be written on that subject. How does it strike you? 3 Ever yours T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , I D E C E M B E R
1841
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Trevelyan, 11, 104-5.
Albany London Dec 1 / 1841 Dear Napier, I ought in gratitude for the kindness of your last letter to have answered it earlier. But I had nothing to say. You do not seem to like what I suggested about Henry V. Nor do I, on full consideration. What do you say to an article on Frederic the Great? Tom Campbell is bringing out a book about His Majesty.4 Now that I am seriously engaged in an extensive work which will probably be the chief employment of the years of health and vigour which may remain to me, it is necessary that I should chuse my subjects for Reviews with some reference to that work. I should not chuse to write an article on some point which I should have to treat again as a historian. For if I did I should be in danger of repeating my self. I assure you that I a little grudge you Westminster Hall in the paper on Hastings. On the other hand there are many characters and events which will occupy little or no space in my history, yet with which, in the course of my historical researches, I shall necessarily become familiar. There 1
2
3 4
James Endell Tyler, Henry ofMonmouth; or, Memoirs of the Life and Character of Henry the Fifth as Prince of Wales and King of England, 2 vols., 1838; this does not appear among the advertisements in The Times of 10 November, but perhaps TBM was put in mind of it by the birth of Edward, Prince of Wales, on 9 November, to which much of The Times on the 10th is devoted. The book is reviewed in the Athenaeum, 7 and 14 July 1838, by no means uncritically; the Examiner, 10 June 1838, is more enthusiastic. See 1 December. Frederic the Great and his Times, 2 vols., was published in November and ostensibly edited by Campbell. TBM reviewed it in * Frederic the Great/ ER, LXXV (April 1842), 218-81.
17
ii December 1841
[Carey and Hart]
cannot be a better instance than Frederic the Great. His personal character, manners, studies, literary associates, his quarrel with Voltaire, his friendship for Maupertuis, his own unhappy metromanie, and so forth, will be very slightly, if at all, alluded to in a history of England. Yet in order to write the history of England it will be necessary to turn over all the memoirs and all the writings of Frederic, connected as he was with us as an ally in a most important war. In this way my reviews would benefit by my historical researches and yet would not forestall my history, or materially impede the progress of my history. I should not like to engage in any researches altogether alien from what is now my main object. Still less should I like to tell the same story over and over again, which I must do if I were to write on such a subject as the Vernon Correspondence1 or Trevor's History of William the 3d.2 I have not seen Lord John since parliament rose. But I have no doubt that you might obtain assistance from him.3 If you like it I will speak to him when I see him. Empson is now standing by me. He sends all sorts of kind messages. Jeffrey is going on very well, if he would but think so. But his Doctors declare that he knows too much and too little of medicine. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO [ C A R E Y AND H A R T ] , I I D E C E M B E R
1841
MS: Harvard University.
Albany London / December 11. 1841 Gentlemen, I wrote a few days ago to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 22nd of November. I have since looked again at that letter; and I see that you speak of two articles on the Dramatists as mine. Only one of those articles is mine - that on Mr. Leigh Hunt's edition of Wycherley, Congreve, etc.4 / I have the honor to be, / Gentlemen Your faithful Servant T B Macaulay 1 2
3 4
The collection recently published by G. P. R. James: see 12 June 1840. Arthur Hill-Trevor, Lord Dungannon, Life and Times of William the Third, 2 vols., 1835-6. Nothing by Russell appears in the ER at this time. TBM's essay on Hunt's * Comic Dramatists of the Restoration* appears in the fourth volume of Carey and Hart's edition of the essays, added in 1843.
18
Unidentified Recipient
25 December 2842
TO UNIDENTIFIED RECIPIENT, 15 DECEMBER
1841
Text: Maggs Brothers Catalogue 433, Christmas 1922, item 3478, 2 pp. 4to: dated Albany, 15 December 1841.
. . .Can the Church, after the language she has held, recede? Can the State allow any subject of the realm to be damnified1 for having obeyed what the courts of law told him was the law? And if there be between the State and Church a difference not admitting of compromise, what remains but that the Church should cease to exist as an establishment?
TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 30 D E C E M B E R
1841
MS: British Museum. Albany London / Dec 30. 1841 Dear Napier, I write only to remind you of that horrible blunder about the Vicar of Wakefield. Pray recollect that it is to be set to rights. I think Frederic a capital, indeed an incomparable, subject. I only regret that I have never seen Berlin and Potsdam. But still I hope to furnish you with something that people will be willing to read. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO U N I D E N T I F I E D R E C I P I E N T , 2 10 J A N U A R Y
1842
MS: Trinity College.
Albany London Jany. 10 1842 My dear Sir, How could you think it possible that your very interesting and valuable letter, a letter written too at my own request, could have offended me? I own that I ought to have answered it. My only reason for not having done so is this - that I had not time to go fully into the question, and was afraid of being misunderstood if I did not go fully into it. I am now writing in haste to catch the post, and must hasten away from the subject, full as it is of grave difficulties. 1 2
To suffer injury or loss (legal). The likely person is Adam Black, and the subject the Corn Laws; but I have not found any evidence. 19
21 January [2842]
Lord Mahon
I will write to the Post office without delay; and beg that the decision may be speedy. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO L O R D M A H O N ,
21
JANUARY
[1842]
MS; Stanhope Papers, Chevening.
Albany Jany. 21 Dear Lord Mahon, I am truly obliged to you for your prompt kindness.11 am also obliged to Sir James Graham for his civility, and I will thank you to tell him so. Breakfast with me, if you can, on Tuesday next at ten. Every yours truly T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 24 JANUARY
1842
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 377-8.
Albany London / Jany. 24. 1842 Dear Napier, Many thanks for your care and judgment touching that provoking blunder. I am not quite satisfied with the new Number, though it contains much that is good: and, to speak quite candidly, I am a good deal displeased with the spirit of the first article.2 It is quite out of my power to judge which of the contending parties is in the right as to the undulatory theory. But I can clearly see that Brewster writes under the influence of feelings which ought not to be indulged on any occasion, and least of all in controversy on a question of pure science. Every sort of animosity, personal animosity, national animosity, academical animosity, appears to prompt his expressions. Though I know Whewell I am by no means his intimate friend or his blind admirer. But I really think that he has done nothing to provoke 1
2
A memorandum by Mahon on this letter explains that he had applied to Sir James Graham, then Home Secretary, to obtain admission for TBM 'to the State Paper Office, and for every facility being afforded towards his intended work on the Revolution of 1688/ Graham returned a * prompt and ready compliance.* Sir David Brewster, 'Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences* ER, LXXIV (January 1842), 265—306. Brewster (1781-1868: DNB), a noted physicist and scientific journalist, one of the founders of the British Association, was Principal of the United Colleges of St Salvator and St Leonard, St Andrews, and later became Principal of the University of Edinburgh. 2O
Duncan McLaren
29 January 2842
such malevolence as Brewster seems to feel. And it is quite unintelligible to me how a man of real merit like Brewster can stoop to the littleness of turning a great philosophical controversy into a question between England and Scotland, Cambridge and Edinburgh. This is not an opinion confined to my self. I have heard it expressed by several persons, and in particular by one who loves neither Whewell nor WhewelPs books, but who is anxious for the interests and honor of science. I know that you will not be angry with me for telling you truly what I think. As to Frederic I do not see that I can deal with him well under seventy pages. I shall try to give a life of him, after the manner of Plutarch. That, I think, is my forte. The paper on Clive took greatly. That on Hastings, though, in my own opinion, by no means equal to that on Clive, has been even more successful. I ought to produce something much better than either of those articles, with so excellent a subject as Frederic. Keep the last place for me if you can. I greatly regret my never having seen Berlin and Potsdam. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO D U N C A N M C L A R E N , 29 JANUARY
1842
Text: Mackie, Life of McLaren, 1, 251.
Albany, London, January 29, 1842. My dear Sir, I have to thank you for several very interesting documents. It is hardly necessary for me to tell you that my views as to the corn question agree with yours, except perhaps that my hopes of success are less sanguine, and my disposition to accept any tolerable compromise consequently greater. Of any tolerable compromise there is, I fear me, not the smallest chance, and we may therefore adjourn, I am sorry to say, to a distant period the discussion of the question whether it would be right to accept a large instalment of what is our due and to waive our claim to the rest.1 Ever yours very truly, T. B. Macaulay. 1
The debate on Peel's proposed sliding scale of duties on foreign grain was about to begin; TBM spoke in the debate on 21 February (see 23 February), arguing for free trade but not until the farming interest had had time to transfer its capital to other industries.
21
23 February 1842
Macvey Napier
TO MACVEY NAPIER, 23 FEBRUARY
1842
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 380-1.
Albany London Feb 23. / 1842 Dear Napier, I am afraid that what I wrote about Brewster has hurt you a little. I really did not mean it. In communicating with you I never pick my words. It may be, as you say, that Brewster's severity was just.1 For I have seen only the retaliation, and not the provocation. At the same time I must add that a person who is no friend to Whewell, pointed out to me some handsome compliments paid by Whewell to Brewster, for which, as it seemed to me, Brewster made but an ungracious return. However, we need not discuss that matter further. I have been so much occupied by politics, and by the society which at this season fills London, that I have written nothing for some weeks. I will however set to work again on Frederic. You expect infinitely too much. The article, I am afraid, will want interest. I cannot get on fast with it. For I am under the necessity of grubbing in German memoirs and documents which I do not read with great facility. I heartily wish that you could give me a respite till July. But if that cannot be I will be ready by the end of March. I do not quite understand your anxiety about time. We are now never behindhand. We have not lost a day in four years. I spoke the day before yesterday on the Corn Laws,2 and with much more success than, considering the dulness of the subject and the exhaustion of the house, was to be expected. I am afraid however that I shall not have satisfied the Anti Corn Law League.3 Ever yours T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 28 FEBRUARY
1842
MS: British Museum.
Albany London / February 28 / 1842 Dear Napier, You shall not be disappointed, - except as to the merit of my article. I do not take to the subject. It looks well at a distance. But there is too much cutting of throats: and, never having travelled in Germany, I write under the constant fear of committing some blunder. 1 2 3
Brewster's defense of himself is in Napier, Correspondence, p. 380. Hansard, 3rd Series, LX, 746-60. Founded in 1839, the agency of Cobden and Bright. The League was not satisfied, as TBM feared. 22
Lord John Russell
[Late February? 2842]
I am exceedingly obliged to you for what you say about the Melville Correspondence.1 I had heard of it, and am satisfied that it must be most valuable. Thanks too for your congratulations on my last speech. It certainly succeeded beyond my expectation. You say nothing of your own health. Yet you must know how anxious I am about it. Have you any hope of coming to town during the Spring? And shall you be in time for festivities? Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO L O R D J O H N R U S S E L L , [ L A T E F E B R U A R Y ?
1842]2
MS: Public Record Office. Mostly published: G. P. Gooch, ed., The Later Correspondence of Lord John Russell, 1840-18 j8, 2 vols., 1925, 1, 55—6.
[London] [...] as on the writer; and it is necessary to think of the effect of the plate by candle light as well as of the sense and style. If a continuous inscription is preferred, and yours can, without injurious mutilation, be brought within the proper dimensions, nothing can be better. And now a word as to the very kind reproof which you have given me. In one point you are a little mistaken. Society has not seduced me from the House of Commons. I have been much more frequently occupied by my books than by either dinner parties or routs when you have missed me on the opposition bench. To say the truth, I am convinced, after full and calm consideration, that literature is my vocation and not politics. It was the same with Mackintosh. The fault of Mackintosh was that he halted between two opinions. He fell between two stools. He attended too much to politics for a man engaged in a great literary work, and too much to literature for a man who aimed at great influence in politics. Society too, as you justly say, stole away too much of his time both from parliament and from his study. I am six or seven years younger than he was when he first entered parliament, and am already weaned from that 1
2
Leven and Melville Papers, Letters and State Papers Chiefly Addressed to George Earl of Melville, Secretary ofStatefor Scotland, 1689-1691 [ed. W. H. Leslie Melville], Edinburgh, Bannatyne Club, 1843. The letter, the first part of which is missing, may be dated from TBM's saying that he is now ' six or seven years younger' than Mackintosh was at the time he entered Parliament — i.e., either 41 or 42 years old. This suggests early 1842, when the first full parliamentary session since the fall of the Whigs began. The conjecture is strengthened by the fact that Peel, in the debate on total repeal of the Corn Laws on 23 February, had remarked sarcastically on TBM's absence now that they were approaching a vote on the question. Russell, in reply, defended TBM with the argument that duty to one's constituents did not always require a vote {Hansard, 3rd Series, LX, 963; 969).
i April 2842
Macvey Napier
ambition which was the bane of his life. The part of a political leader is not one to which I aspire. I have had longings of that sort. But they are over; and hopes and schemes of a more reasonable kind have taken their place. Do not suppose however that I will flinch from your side when I am wanted. There are some questions on which I think that I can be of use: and whenever those questions are brought forward you may command me. Indeed it is probable that I shall be more active during the remainder of the Session than I have hitherto been.1 Ever yours most truly T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , I A P R I L
1842
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, p. 381.
Albany London April 1 / 1842 Dear Napier, I send off my article by this day's post. I hope that the public will like it better than I do. I was never so little pleased with a performance of my own. At all events I hope that the faults of the article which are quite sufficient by themselves will not be increased by errors of the press. If it be possible, let me have a proof. It shall be returned by return of post. But if it be absolutely impossible, I must beg that you will take great care, particularly about proper names, which the printers may not be able to make out. Ever yours T B Macaulay I have looked again over the article. It is such a scrawl that, unless I have a proof, I fear it will make a ridiculous figure. 1
The session began on 3 February; TBM's only speech so far had been on the 21st, but he spoke thereafter at fairly frequent intervals on such questions as copyright, the income tax, the Chartists, and Sunday travelling.
24
Macvey Napier TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 7 A P R I L
y April 1842 1842
MS: British Museum. Albany London / April 7. 1842 Dear Napier, I received three sheets this morning, and I return them by this evening's post, carefully registered. I am much obliged to you for sending them. I fear that you think me importunate as to the proofs. But I have felt so much mortification in reading the American reprint of my articles at the blunders faithfully copied from the original Reviews, that I am exceedingly unwilling to let any article of mine appear without having cast my eye over it in print. We had a field-day in the House of Commons yesterday. The question was one of the very few on which we do not agree, — the Copy right Bill.11 succeeded in modifying Mahon's plan to a great extent: and I really hope that you will be of opinion that what I proposed is a far greater boon to literature than his measure would have been. I am really inclined to think that we shall settle the matter to the general satisfaction. It is lucky that both Talfourd2 and Warburton 3 are out of the way. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 8 A P R I L
1842
MS: British Museum. Extract published: Napier, Correspondence, p. 38in.
Albany London / April 8. 1842 Dear Napier, I received late yesterday evening the last ten pages of the article. The first forty-eight I sent you back yesterday. From some mistake I have not had the pages from the 49th to the 54th inclusive. I hope that they have been looked to. 1
2
3
TBM made his second speech then on the question of copyright. On 5 February 1841 he had spoken against the bill introduced by Serjeant Talfourd to extend copyright for a period of sixty years from the death of the author, and had helped to secure the bill's narrow defeat. Lord Mahon's bill proposed to allow copyright for twenty-five years beyond an author's death. TBM's speech of 6 April argued instead for a copyright of forty-two years, measured from the date of publication. TBM's proposal was adopted in the Copyright Act of this year, which remained in force until 1911. Talfourd introduced a copyright bill in 1837 (for which Dickens dedicated Pickwick to him) and annually thereafter until 1841, when he lost his seat. Talfourd was less ready to compromise than Mahon. Henry Warburton (see 11 August 1834), who was also out of Parliament, opposed all copyright on the Radical grounds of securing cheap books.
13 April 1842
Duncan McLaren
I like the article better than I did. It does not go deep. But I should not wonder if it were thought amusing enough. By this day's post you will receive the last proofs. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO D U N C A N M C L A R E N , 13 A P R I L
1842
Text: Mackie, Life of McLaren, I, 251-2.
Albany, London, April 13, 1842. My dear Sir, . . . I agree with you in thinking that the Corn-laws, as the worst of all commercial abuses, ought to go first; then perhaps the sugar-duties ought to follow. But we cannot effect this at present, and when we shall effect it is quite in the dark. Are we, therefore, to prop up all other monopolies? Far from it. I do not think we are beginning our inroad on this system at the right end. But, after all, the whole system hangs together, while at whatever end we effect a breach, the whole is in danger of ruin. Hitherto the landlords have pointed to the protection enjoyed by various trades. Every trade, as soon as its protection is menaced, has pointed to the great monopoly of the landlords. One abuse has been made the plea for another, and we have gone on in what Lord John well called a circle of false reasoning. "Why is bread to have protection?" "Because shoes, cork, etc., have protection." "Why are shoes and cork to be protected?" "Because bread is protected." It would be best to reform the whole system together. It would be next best to begin with the greatest evil, the corn monopoly. But it is a good thing to begin to reform anywhere. And I have no doubt that just as your High Churchmen, if they lose their benefices, will all turn Voluntaries before long, so will all the small protected interests, as soon as they lose their protection, fall with zeal never before known on the great interest which still retains an undue protection. On these grounds I intend, in the main, to support with all my power the new tariff;1 and I trust that you will think that I act rightly. If we choose to join with the Tories to oppose it, we shall certainly throw it out and unseat the Government. But I should think a change of Ministry at present a great public calamity. We cannot at present carry any really good measure. We can only maintain good principles, and those principles we shall maintain with more freedom and effect in opposition. Yours very truly, T. B. Macaulay. 1
Peel proposed extensive reductions of the tariff; the measure was furiously debated in the House, as was the proposal for an income tax that accompanied it in Peel's program of financial reform. TBM spoke against the income tax in the debate on 11 April {Hansard, 3rd Series, LXII, 255-66). 26
Macvey Napier
18 April 1842
TO MACVEY NAPIER, 18 A P R I L
1842
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Trevelyan, 11, 106-9.
Albany London / April 18. 1842 My dear Napier, I am much obliged to you for your criticisms. My copy of the Review I have lent, and therefore cannot refer to it. But I have thought over what you say, and should be disposed to admit part of it to be just. But I have several distinctions and limitations to suggest. The charge to which I am most sensible is that of interlarding my sentences with French terms. I will not positively affirm that no such expression may have dropped from my pen in writing hurriedly on a subject so very French. It is however a practice to which I am extremely averse, and into which I could fall only by inadvertance. I do not really know to what you allude. For as to the words Abbe, and Parc-aux-cerfs, which I recollect, those are surely not open to objection. I remember that I carried my love of English in one or two places almost to the length of affectation. For example I called the Place des Victoires the Place of Victories, and the Fermier-General D'Etioles a publican.11 will look over the article again when I get it into my hands and try to discover to what you allude. The other charge, I confess, does not appear to me to be equally serious. I certainly should not, in regular history, use some of the phrases which you censure. But I do not consider a review of this sort as regular history. And I really think that from the highest and most unquestionable authority I could vindicate my practice. Take Addison, the model of pure and graceful writing. In his Spectators I find "wench," "baggage," "queer old put," "prig," "fearing that they should smoke the Knight." All these expressions I met this morning in turning over two or three of his papers at breakfast. I would no more use the words bore or awkward squad in a composition meant to be uniformly serious and earnest than Addison would, in a state-paper, have called Louis an old put, or have described Shrewsbury and Argyle as smoking the design to bring in the Pretender. But I did not mean my article to be uniformly serious and earnest. If you judge of it as you would judge of a regular history your censure ought to go very much deeper than it does, and to be directed against the substance as well as against the diction. The tone of many passages, nay of whole pages, would justly be called flippant in a regular history. But I conceive that this sort of composition has its own character and its own laws. I do not claim the honor of having invented it. That 1
ER, LXXV, 234; 258.
27
18 April 1842
Macvey Napier
praise belongs to Southey. But I may say that I have in some points improved upon his design. The manner of these little historical essays bears, I think, the same analogy to the manner of Tacitus or Gibbon which the manner of Ariosto bears to the manner of Tasso, or the manner of Shakspeare's historical plays to the manner of Sophocles. Ariosto, when he is grave and pathetic, is as grave and pathetic as Tasso. But he often takes a light fleering tone which suits him admirably, but which in Tasso would be quite out of place. The despair of Constance in Shakspeare is as lofty as that of (Edipus in Sophocles. But the levities of the bastard Falconbridge would be utterly out of place in Sophocles. Yet we feel that they are not out of place in Shakspeare. So with these historical articles. Where the subject requires it they may rise, if the author can manage it, to the highest altitudes of Thucydides. Then again they may without impropriety sink to the levity and colloquial ease of Horace Walpole's Letters. This is my theory. - Whether I have succeeded in the execution is quite another question. You will however perceive that I am in no danger of taking similar liberties in my history. I do indeed greatly disapprove of those notions which some writers have of the dignity of History. For fear of alluding to the vulgar concerns of private life, they take no notice of the circumstances which most deeply affect the happiness of nations. But I never thought of denying that the language of history ought to preserve a certain dignity. I would however no more attempt to preserve that dignity in a paper like this on Frederic, than I would exclude from such a poem as Don Juan slang terms because such terms would be out of place in Paradise Lost, or Hudibrastic rhymes because such rhymes would be shocking in Pope's Iliad. As to the particular criticisms which you have made, I willingly submit my judgment to yours, though I think that I could say something on the other side. The first rule of all writing, that rule to which every other rule is subordinate, is that the words used by the writer shall be such as most fully and precisely convey his meaning to the great body of his readers. All considerations about the purity and dignity of style ought to bend to this consideration. To write what is not understood in its whole force, for fear of using some word which was unknown to Swift or Dryden, would be, I think, as absurd as to build an Observatory like that at Oxford, from which it is impossible to observe, only for the purpose of exactly preserving the proportions of the Temple of the Winds at Athens. That a word which is appropriated to a particular idea, which every body, high and low, uses to express that idea, and which expresses that idea with a completeness which is not equalled by any other single word, and scarcely by any circumlocution, should be banished from writing, seems to be a mere throwing away of power. Such a word as talented 28
Macvey Napier
18 April 1842
it is proper to avoid, first because it is not wanted, secondly because you never hear it from those who speak very good English.1 But the word shirk1 as applied to military duty is a word which every body uses, which is the word and the only word for the thing, which in every regiment and in every ship belonging to our country is employed ten times a day, which the Duke of Wellington or Admiral Stopford would use in reprimanding an officer. To interdict the use of it therefore in what is meant to be familiar and almost jocose narrative seems to me rather rigid. But I will not go on. I will only repeat that I am truly grateful for your advice; and that if you will, on future occasions, mark with an asterisk any words in my proof-sheets which you think open to objection, I will try to meet your wishes, though it may sometimes be at the expence of my own. The article is not ill printed. But there are two rather vexatious mistakes for one of which I am answerable. The other was in the part of the article which I did not see in the proofs. Count Bruhl is everywhere turned into Count Buhl. And the word Herrhholds, which will puzzle many readers, is substituted for Sternholds.3 I think the first article in the new Number4 very clever and good in many parts. I should be glad to know who wrote it. He has committed one monstrous blunder, inexcusable in so knowing a person. He says that India is a loss to England in consequence of the great sums which we are forced to advance for her government. I know of no such advances. The first time that such a thing was ever hinted at was by Sir Robert Peel the other day.5 The truth is that India pays her own expences to a farthing, and remits to England a vast tribute in the form of civil and military pensions, dividends on India Stock, etc. Who wrote the paper on Moore?6 I could not, I will fairly own, get through it. The budget7 I suppose to be Senior's. Ever yours most truly T B Macaulay 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
See 30 May 1831. TBM says of Frederic that 'he shirked the duties of the parade* (ER, LXXV, 221). 'The rude hymns of the old Saxon Herhholds' (ER, LXXV, 270). Nassau Senior, 'France, America, and Britain' ER, LXXV (April 1842), 1-48. In his speech on the budget, n March: Hansard, 3rd Series, LXI, 429. Herman Merivale, 'Moore's Poetical Works,' ER, LXXV (April 1842), 162-87. Nassau Senior, 'The budget of 1842,' ER, LXXV (April 1842), 187-218.
2
9
25 April 1842
Macvey Napier
TO MACVEY NAPIER, 25 APRIL
1842
MS: British Museum. Partly published: Trevelyan, n, 109-10.
Albany London / April 25. 1842 Dear Napier, Thank you for your letter. We shall have no disputes about diction. The English language is not so poor but that I may very well find in it the means of contenting both you and my self. I will only say that I admit the correctness of the distinction which you make between what a writer says in his own person and what he puts into the mouths of those who are his Dramatis persona. But it is a distinction which does not apply to what I cited from Addison. It is quite true that Addison disliked the coining of words and the importing of words. But he had no objection to the lowest and most colloquial expressions, provided they were English and had been some time in common use. "Wiseacre""to smoke a jest"-and other phrases of that sort are frequent in his lighter writing. Of course he would not have put them into his character of Lord Somers or into the reflections on Westminster Abbey. I have no objection to try Madame D'Arblay1 for the October number. - Indeed, as you so much dislike articles which break off in the middle, it would be desirable to wait till the whole life is published. I have only one scruple, - that some months ago that poor devil Leigh Hunt told me that he thought of proposing that subject to you; and I approved of his doing so. Now I should have no scruple about taking a subject out of Brougham's hands, because he can take care of himself if he thinks himself ill used. But I would not do anything that could hurt the feelings of a man whose spirit seems to be quite broken by adversity, and who lies under some obligations to me. If he has not mentioned the scheme to you, of course I can have no difficulty. Thanks for the letter of credit, - though it wants some formality or other, I think a signature. I am not very familiar with law-merchant, and sent it to my banker who tells me that Jones and Loyd2 make difficulties on account of the absence of a name at the foot. Perhaps I had better reinclose it to you that the inaccuracy, if it be one, may be rectified. I saw Senior to day, and convinced him that he was in the wrong on the point to which I adverted when I wrote to you last. His papers are both of them good, particularly that at the beginning of the Number. 1
2
Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay, 7 vols., 1842-6; the first five volumes, published January—November, are reviewed by TBM in * Madame D'Arblay,' ER, LXXVI (January 1843), 523-70. A London bank later merged in the London and Westminster.
30
Macvey Napier
26 April 1842
Merivale must be out of his wits. I understand only just enough of his system to see that it is not worth understanding.1 By the way, a word on a subject which I should be much obliged to you to consider and advise me upon. I find that the American publishers have thought it worth while to put forth two, if not three, editions of my reviews;2 and I receive letters from them saying that the sale is considerable. I have heard that several people here have ordered them from America. Others have cut them out of old numbers of the Edinburgh Review and have bound them up in volumes. Now I know that these pieces are full of faults, and that their popularity has been very far beyond their merit. But if they are to be republished, it would be better that they should be republished under the eye of the author, and with his corrections, than that they should retain all the blemishes inseparable from hasty writing and hasty printing. Longman proposed something of the kind to me three years ago. But at that time the American publication had not taken place, which makes a great difference. Give me your counsel on the subject. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 26 A P R I L
1842
MS: British Museum.
Albany April 26 / 1842 Dear Napier, I am quite vexed that you should have thought it necessary to write about this sum of five pounds. I was perfectly satisfied, as I always am with your conduct in money-matters, and should never have suspected any mistake. I sent you back the letter of credit yesterday because it wanted a signature which the bankers pronounced necessary. This was the only mark of haste in the packet which I had from you yesterday. There was nothing in your letter which could possibly hurt the feelings of a much vainer and worse-tempered man than I take myself to be. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1
2
TBM probably means the Coleridgean discussion of the distinction between Fancy and Imagination in Merivale's review of Moore, ER, LXXV, 165-75. A third edition was published in 1842: see 28 May 1841.
29 April 1842 T O M A C V E Y N A P I E R , 29 A P R I L
Macvey Napier 1842
MS: British Museum. Published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 392-3.
Albany London / April 29. 1842 Dear Napier, The hundred guineas came quite safe. I feel some scruple about Madame D'Arblay. However it is not necessary to decide that point at present, as some months must pass before the memoirs are fully before us; and I could not in any case write anything for the July Number. I have another scheme floating in my head. Did you ever hear of Rio. 1 He is a very clever and ardent Breton - a chouan2 himself and the son of a chouan, devoured with zeal for the Catholic religion and legitimate monarchy. He is the oddest Frenchman that I ever knew. He cares not a straw for France; but is a devoted patriot as far as Britanny is concerned. I have met him repeatedly in the best society, and did what I could to obtain access for him to some records which relate to the history of his province. He is about to publish a history of the Chouans.3 I take rather a peculiar view of the Vendean war, a view which I have not time to develope now, but which I think both new and just. I talked on the subject to Rio, and though we started, as you may suppose, from principles diametrically opposite, we agreed so well in our results that he renounced all his prejudices against me, which were by no means weak, and promised to send me his book as soon as it was printed. I think that it may prove a good subject for a paper. As to our own Civil Wars, I cannot write any more about them without repeating myself. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1 2 3
Alexis Francois Rio (1798-1874), Catholic art historian and writer. A Breton royalist partisan in the time of the Revolution. La Petite Chouannerie, ou Histoire d'un College Briton sous I*Empire, 1842. TBM did not review it: see 24 June.
Thomas Noon Talfourd
30 April 1842
TO T H O M A S N O O N T A L F O U R D , 30 A P R I L
1842
MS: Morgan Library. Albany April 30. 1842 My dear Talfourd, Thank you for your trouble; and thank you still more for your speech,1 which I had read, and read with great pleasure, even before I came to the very kind and flattering allusion to my self which it contains. By the bye, do I owe you nothing for the package which you have transmitted to me? Pray let me know if you have disbursed anything on my account. You would hardly, I imagine, have forwarded it if you had known what it contained. It is a bale of piratical plunder; and you as well as my self are among the parties robbed. Meg Merrilies says to Dominie Sampson - " The folk that made that broth thought little of your game-laws."2 I can assure you that the folk who made up that parcel thought little of copy right. I am truly glad that you are so well content with what has been at last done about literary property. 3 1 think that the thing might have been better done. But I am on the whole very well satisfied, and am particularly pleased to find that the settlement which has been made has excited no violent discontent in any quarter. I do not remember to have seen a case in which a compromise has been so welcome to all parties. Something must be attributed to the fear entertained by many members that, if this opportunity were lost, they might have to pass their Wednesday afternoons during many Sessions in the House. Ever yours most truly T B Macaulay I see that you have sent me your tragedies4 as well as your speech. I had them already, but am glad to have them with your handwriting in the title page. I hope that the hours which you have withdrawn from politics will be in part at least given to poetry. Try the conspiracy of Parmenio and Philotas5 — a noble subject for a writer who has learning as well as dramatic inspiration. The King intoxicated with victory and 1
2
4 5
Talfourd's * Speech for the Defendant' in the prosecution of Edward Moxon for the publication of Shelley's Works, 1841, mentions TBM as *a Cabinet Minister more distinguished even as a profound thinker and an eloquent and accomplished critic, than by political station' (p. 21). Guy Manneringy ch. 46: *the folk that are to eat that dinner thought little o' your game3 laws.' See 7 April. Ion, The Athenian Captive, and Glencoe, published together as Tragedies, 1840. Talfourd did not: Parmenio and Philotas, father and son, were executed for conspiracy against Alexander the Great.
33
6 May 1842
Henry Macaulay
glory - the Greeks impatiently bearing his despotism and his pretensions to divinity, - the obsequious Asiatics, - a philosopher from the Academy, — a courtesan from Miletus, - and a crowd of camp-followers, soothsayers, Magians, fair Persian captives, will furnish you with admirable groups.
TO H E N R Y MACAULAY, 6 M A Y
1842
Text: [J. B. Macaulay], Memoirs of the Clan 'Aulay', Carmarthen, Privately Printed, 1881,
p. 42.
Albany, London, / May 6, 1842. Dear Henry, You are quite welcome to Lord Byron's letter.1 I have no great turn for collecting autographs, and should [set] very little value on Lord Byron's I am glad you saw so much of Jeffrey.2 He is more remarkable, in my opinion, for the goodness of his heart than even for the qualities of his head, and yet I have not fallen in with three such heads in my whole life. Kindest regards to Margaret. Yours ever truly, T. B. Macaulay. TO FRANCES MACAULAY, 7 M A Y 1842 MS: Trinity College.
Albany May 7. 1842 Dearest Fanny, What can one say about Hannah's letter? It reminds us of the instability of every thing.3 If things had ended otherwise I should have been fished 1
2
3
A letter from Byron to Zachary Macaulay as the editor of the Christian Observer thanking him for a review of The Giaour; the letter is printed in the Christian Observer, xn (1813), 731, and in Knutsford, Zachary Macaulay, p. 310; it is not included in Prothero's edition of Byron's letters. Henry was in England, having completed his appointed time in Sierra Leone. In December, 1841, he had married Margaret Denman, daughter of Lord Denman, and had then gone to Torquay, where Jeffrey met him. On 29 April 1842 Jeffrey wrote: * We know nobody here but a brother of Macaulay's who married a very sweet and beautiful daughter of Lord Denman's last December, and has been honey mooning with her here ever since. He has the robust spirits, and stout and kind heart of his brother, though without any of his firm understanding, and, indeed, is chiefly remarkable for being alive, after a ten years' residence at Sierra Leone' (Cockburn, Life of Jeffrey•, 11, 351). I do not know what is referred to.
34
Frances Macaulay
iy May 1842
out of the Thames to morrow, and should have afforded Mr. Wakley1 an extra guinea or two. By such a tenure we hold every thing. I have a letter from Charles. It is directed to Hannah; but he told me to read it. The news is excellent. He has made his peace with the colonists, thinks himself in great favour with every body, and finds his place more lucrative than he imagined. During the first month he pocketed 300 £. He says that just at present the office is thought worth four thousand a year. This, he adds, may not last. But if times continue good he will rapidly make a fortune. I have also a letter from Henry - and the letter is Henry all over. I have laughed over it till my sides were sore; and yet it is on a doleful subject, the drowning of one of his servants. You never saw such a crazy performance. One would have thought that I had been the Coroner, and that Henry was making a deposition before me. I shall never forgive my self for having burned it without considering what I was doing. How are you? How long [... . ] 2
TO F R A N C E S MACAULAY, 17 MAY
1842
MS: Trinity College. Albany London / May 17. 1842 Dearest Fanny, Thanks for your letter and for your account of Charley. I cannot help thinking that he is a good deal like what I was at his age. I am very anxious about the way in which he passes the next few years, and very anxious too that his affections may be developed as well as his understanding. I have sometimes feared that, in consequence of the peculiar circumstances in which he is placed, he may turn out a mere selfish intellectual voluptuary, learned, polished, curious, skilled in criticism and in all things appertaining to art, but loving nothing. Goethe's character is the sort of thing that I mean: and Bacon's has some resemblance to it [... .] 3 to do so: and the tendency of such a life is not the best. But I did not mean to croak. Tell me what you think. [. . . .] 4 I find that I shall have a few pounds more for you and Selina from my father's estate - about twenty nine pounds apiece. 1
2 3 4
Thomas Wakley (1795-1862: DNB), surgeon and reformer, founder of The Lancet', M.P., 1835-52; Coroner of West Middlesex from 1839. The rest is missing. The lower half of the sheet has been torn away. Lower half of sheet torn away: '[ajttack* may be read at the end ofthefirstline of the missing section. The sentence with which this letter concludes is written at the top of the first page.
35
2 2 June 2842 TO J. F. M A C F A R L A N , I I J U N E
j , p. Macfarlan 1842
MS: Trinity College. Albany London / June 11. 1842 My dear Sir, I have talked with Craig about the Post Office matters: and one of us will see Maberley1 to day. If it should be absolutely necessary, I will say something in parliament. But that is a last resource, and it is in general rather by the apprehension of a parliamentary discussion than by the discussion itself that concessions are obtained from unwilling departments. I will try to put your name on the Speaker's list for Wednesday. But you should have applied some days earlier. In case of the worst I enclose you an order for the gallery. The case of the Scotch Church is hopeless. The protest of the General Assembly declaring not only the proceedings of the Courts of Law but Acts of Parliament which have been in force more than a century null and void, has excited universal disgust.2 I see only one chance of saving the Church. The legislature must grant to the people a veto or something tantamount. The Assembly must retrace its steps with regard to the Strathbogie ministers. If both these things be not done, there can be no settlement: and I do not believe that either of them will be done. As to Campbell's bill,3 it is utterly undeserving of support. It robs both the patrons and the people in order to give power to the Church-Courts. I would willingly keep my opinions to myself. But a crisis has arrived at which it will be my duty to speak out.4 Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1
William Leader Maberley (1798-1885: DNB), joint secretary to the Post Office. The General Assembly, on 25 May, had put forth a 'Claim of Right' that, among other things, declared all legislation affecting church government passed without the consent of the Church of Scotland to be null and void. 3 The bill originally framed in 1841 by the Duke of Argyll, a modification of the veto law, was introduced in the House of Commons by Alexander Campbell on 14 April; the second reading was postponed to 15 June, and the bill was then killed on a technicality. * See 14 June. 2
Frances Macaulay
14 June 1842
TO FRANCES MACAULAY, 14 JUNE
1842
MS: Trinity College. Extract published: Trevelyan, 11, 112-1311.
Albany London / June 14. 1842 Dearest Fanny, Thank you for your letter. I am always delighted to hear from you. I have little or nothing to tell. For I suppose that you see the papers, and are aware that the Oxford men beat the Cambridge men in the boat-race, that Lord Congleton has hanged himself, and that the Kyber pass has been forced.1 But poor Arnold!2 I am deeply grieved for him and for the public. It is really a great calamity, and will be felt as such by hundreds of families. There was no such school: and from the character of the trustees who almost all belong to the worst class of Tories, I fear that his place is likely to be filled by somebody of very different spirit.3 Poor Lister too! 4 But that was fully expected. The name of Arnold reminds me of my Roman ballads in which you took some interest. They are finished at last, and will be published next January. The prefaces and a few notes have still to be written. I think Virginia, as it now stands, the best of them: and so thinks Ellis. At all events I shall run the hazard. The Kirk plagues me out of my life. Those fools will utterly ruin themselves; and no efforts of their best friends can save them. To morrow the question comes on in the House; and I fear that I must speak upon it.5 As to the Sages tell Charley that they are humbugs. The poets are your men. — Here comes Empson; and I must break off. Kindest love to Selina — Charley — Edward etc. Ever yours T BM 1 2
3
5
See The Times, 13, 10, and 7 June. Thomas Arnold (179 5-1842: DNB\ Headmaster of Rugby, historian, classical scholar, and father of the poet, died on 12 June. TBM mentions him to Fanny because she knew him through her visits to a cousin, Lydia Rose, who married Bonamy Price, a Rugby master; it was Fanny who showed TBM's Lays to Arnold: see 14 July 1842. A letter from Empson to Napier, 20 January [1845], reports that TBM, after reading Empson's review in the ER of Arnold's Life, said * that, tho' he is very glad that I have been able honestly to speak of [Arnold], as I have done; yet, he could have done no such thing: that, he thinks him narrow, morally as well as intellectually: He cites, to be sure, an alarming instance of the first... a Wordsworthian letter he had seen about Macaulay's speech on the Copyright Bill — declaring it showed the point of moral degradation, to which he had for some time past seen Macaulay was falling. His instance of the last, is not so striking: sc. that Arnold should have presumed to edit Thucydides, without having read Aristophanes: or to write on the Roman Emperors without reading Martial or Statius' (MS, 4 British Museum). He died on 5 June. He did not, since the bill was not proceeded with.
37
20 June 1842 TO F R A N C E S MACAULAY, 20 J U N E
Frances Macaulay 1842
MS: Trinity College. Albany London / June 20. 1842 Dearest Fanny, I write to Charley by this post, in answer to his defence of the sages. The controversy seems likely to be animated and instructive. There is hardly any news stirring. We knocked Plumptre's absurd plan on the head with very little ceremony.1 The business of the Session will very soon be over, as far as I am concerned: and then, I think, I shall make a trip to Rotterdam, and see Holland.2 There is a little money from Sierra Leone. But Henry has contrived to mix it up with Mrs. Rankin's remittances; and it will be three months before I am able to get at it. There will be, I hope, about thirty pounds altogether for you and as much for Selina, in addition to what you already have. This includes the twenty guineas that I mentioned to you before. We can determine what to do with it when we meet, which, I hope, will be soon. How could you believe the nonsensical lie about the burning of Christ Church?3 All England would have rung with it, if it had been true. I have just seen Trevelyan, fresh from Brighton, with all the outward signs of health. He says that Hannah and the children are remarkably well. They mean to give Baba another week of ducking, and I think they are quite right. Love to Selina, Edward and Charley — and to all other friends and relations who may be with you. Ever yours TBM I shall not forget you and Selina at the end of the month. If you change your quarters before then, let me know. 1
2 3
John Pemberton Plumptre, M.P. for Kent and an Evangelical zealot, proposed an amendment to the Railways Bill on 18 June prohibiting Sunday travelling except in cases of * charity or necessity* (Hansard, 3rd Series, LXIV, 183). He was answered by TBM, who called the motion a * futile and childish' proposition (ibid., 184). The motion was then defeated, 105 to 8. He did not go until 1844. I have not been able to find any report of this.
Charles Cropper
20 June 1842
TO CHARLES CROPPER, 20 JUNE
1842
Text: Copy, Mrs Lancelot Errington: dated Albany, 20 June 1842.
My dear Charley Euclid was a clever fellow and so was Archimedes. When I called the Sages humbugs I was not thinking of such men as those. Socrates was a clever fellow too, but a great humbug and a great bore. Plato was a poet if ever there was one; and his poetry is very much the best thing about him. But Shakespeare was worth all the four together and so was Homer. When you are able to read Plato and Homer in the Greek, which you will be, I hope, in a few years, you will say just as I say. As to Mentor he was an old ass who ought to have had a fool's cap on his head for advising Idomeneus to make such a set of foolish laws. / Ever dear Charley Yours affectionately T B Macaulay TO H E N R Y T A Y L O R , 1 20 J U N E
1842
MS: Trinity College. Published: Edward Dowden, Correspondence of Henry Taylor, 1888, pp. 134-5.
Albany June 20. 1842 Dear Taylor, Many thanks for the little volume.2 I have read it once. But one reading is not sufficient to entitle me to pronounce a judgment. However I cannot delay sending you my acknowledgements and communicating my first impressions. I think that, considered as an intellectual effort, the tragedy is fully equal to Van Artevelde.3 Indeed I think that it contains finer specimens of diction. It moves the feelings less, - or at least it moves my feelings less. But this I attribute to a cause which was perhaps beyond your controul. Van Artevelde and his Italian mistress are persons of far higher powers and stronger characters than Edwy and his Queen. And the cracking of tough natures is the most affecting thing that a dramatist can exhibit. Othello is the great example. Poor Edwy and his bride go down like willows before the hurricane. I should say that you have succeeded on the whole better in exhibiting the character of the age and of the two parties than the character of 1 2 3
(Sir) Henry Taylor (1800-86: DNB), essayist and dramatist, clerk in the Colonial Office since 1824 under James Stephen, and son-in-law of Spring-Rice; knighted, 1869. Taylor's tragedy Edwin the Fair, 1842. See 25 J u l y - 12 August 1836.
39
24 June 1842
Macvey Napier
individuals. In this respect the play reminds me of Shakspeare's Henry the Sixth, which, though not eminent, at least among his works, for delineation of particular men and women, exhibits a peculiar state of society with a vivacity and truth such as no historian has approached. Your monastic and secular factions are admirable. Dunstan I cannot make up my mind about. I must wait for another reading. I am more and more struck by what, I think, I once mentioned to you, the resemblance between your poetry and Schiller's. I wish to God that you would take that great subject of which he touched only a portion, the greatest subject of modern times, - Mary Queen of Scots, and give us her Life and Death in three parts. The first part should end with the death of Darnley, and the second with the flight into England.1 Ever yours truly T B Macualay TO M A C V E Y N A P I E R , 24 J U N E
1842
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Trevelyan, n, 110-12.
Albany London June 24. 1842 Dear Napier, I have lent the last number of the review to somebody or other, and therefore cannot at present search for errata.2 Nor does it much matter. When once such mistakes are made it is vain to correct them in a subsequent number. I have thought a good deal about republishing my articles, and have made up my mind not to do so. It is rather provoking, to be sure, to learn that a third edition is coming out in America, and to meet constantly with smuggled copies. It is still more provoking to see trash of which I am perfectly guiltless inserted among my writings. But on the whole I think it best that things should remain as they are. The public judges, and ought to judge, indulgently of periodical works. They are not expected to be highly finished. Their natural life is only six weeks. Sometimes the writer is at a distance from the books to which he wants to refer. Sometimes he is forced to hurry through his task in order to catch the post. He may blunder; he may contradict himself; he may break off in the middle of a story; he may give an immoderate extension to one part of his 1
2
TBM urged this subject on Taylor again (see to Taylor, 16 November), but without result. Curtis Dahl suggests that Taylor may have passed on the suggestion to Swinburne (* Mao aulay, Henry Taylor, and Swinburne's Trilogy,* Papers on Language and Literature, II [1966], 166-9). In the essay on Frederic: see 18 April 1842.
40
Macvey Napier
24 June 1842
subject, and dismiss an equally important part in a few words. All this is readily forgiven if there be a certain spirit and vivacity in his style. But as soon as he republishes, he challenges a comparison with all the most symmetrical and polished of human compositions. A painter who has a picture in the exhibition of the Royal Academy would act very unwisely if he took it down and carried it over to the National Gallery. Where it now hangs surrounded by a crowd of daubs which are only once seen and then forgotten, it may pass for a fine piece. He is a fool if he places it side by side with the master-pieces of Titian and Claude. My reviews are generally thought to be better written, and they certainly live longer, than the reviews of most other people. And this ought to content me. The moment that I come forward to demand a higher rank, I must expect to be judged by a more severe standard. Fonblanque may serve for a beacon. His leading articles in the Examiner were extolled to the skies; and not without reason while they were considered merely as leading articles: for they were in style and matter incomparably superior to any thing in the Courier or Globe, or Standard, — nay to any thing in the Times. People said that it was a pity that such admirable compositions should perish. So Fonblanque determined to republish them in a book. 1 He never considered that, in that form, they would be compared, not with the rant and twaddle of the daily and weekly press, but with Burke's pamphlets, with Pascal's letters, with Addison's Spectators and Freeholders. They would not stand this new test a moment. I shall profit by the warning. What the Yankees may do I cannot help. But I will not found any pretensions to the rank of a classic on my reviews. I will remain, according to the excellent precept in the Gospel, at the lower end of the table where I am constantly accosted with "Friend, go up higher," - and not push my way to the top at the risk of being compelled with shame to take the lowest room.2 If I live twelve or fifteen years I may perhaps produce something which I may not be afraid to exhibit side by side with the performances of the old masters. I hope that your judgment agrees with mine: and I rather infer from your expressions that such is the case. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay You say nothing about your own health. Rio's book is very good indeed, but hardly a subject for me. There is an article on it in the Quarterly.3 It is a lively and pathetic narrative of a 1 2 3
England under Seven Administrations, 3 vols., 1837. Luke 14:9-10. Abraham Hayward, 'Rio, La Petite Chouannerie; Insurrection of the Breton Students/ Quarterly Review, LXX (June 1842), 73-98. 41
24 June 1842
Sir Edward Bulwer
Breton insurrection against Buonaparte during the 100 days. I had imagined that he was going to treat the great Vendean war: and, I believe, he still means to do so.
T O S I R E D W A R D B U L W E R , 24 J U N E
1842
MS: Hertfordshire County Council. Published; Earl of Lytton, Life of Edward Bulwer, First Lord Lytton, 1913, 11, 91-2.
Albany June 24. 1842 Dear Bulwer, I was unable to discover your dwelling-place in either red book or blue book, and fancied that you must have wandered to the Pyrenees or the Apennines, till I learned yesterday from Lady Holland that you were at Fulham. I write therefore to send my tardy thanks for your very pleasing and interesting little volume.1 You have written more brilliant poetry, but none, I think, which moves the feelings so much. If I regret anything in the volume it is that you should, in the last piece, have uttered, in language certainly very energetic and beautiful, complaints which I really think are groundless.2 It has perhaps always been too much the habit of men of genius to attach more importance to detraction than to applause. A single hiss gives them more pain than the acclamations of a whole theatre can compensate. But surely if you could see your own position as others see it, you have no reason to complain. How many men in literary history have at your age enjoyed half your reputation? Who that ever enjoyed half your reputation was secure from the attacks of envious dunces? And what harm,, in the long run, did all the envy of all the dunces in the world ever do to any man of real merit? What writer's place in the estimation of mankind was ever fixed by any writings except his own? Who would in our time know that Dry den and Pope ever had a single enemy, if they had not themselves been so injudicious as to tell us so? You may rely on this, that there are very few authors living, and certainly not one of your detractors, who would not most gladly take all your literary vexations for the credit of having written your worst work. If however you really wish to be free from detraction, I can very easily put you in the way of being so. Bring out a succession of poems as bad as Mr. Robert Montgomery's Luther,3 and of prose works in the style of Mr. Gleig's Life of Warren Hastings: and I will undertake 1
2 3
Eva, A True Story, of Light and Darkness; the Ill-Omened Marriage, and Other Tales and Poems, 1842. In 'The Desire of Fame' Bulwer speaks of'Foes quick to scoff and friends afraid to praise.* 1842, in 31 cantos.
42
Frances Macaulay
30 June 2842
that in a few years you shall have completely silenced malevolence. To think that you will ever silence it while you continue to write what is immediately reprinted at Philadelphia, Paris and Brussels would be absurd. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO F R A N C E S MACAULAY, 30 J U N E
1842
MS: Trinity College.
Albany London / June 30. 1842 Dearest Fanny, I send you a cheque for the quarter. Pray let me know whether it reaches you safe. Hannah and the children are come back in excellent health and spirits. Baba looks quite brilliant. She has some capital stories about Georgy. When he was to be bathed, he was frightened out of his wits, and crept out of the bathing-woman's way into the corner of the machine, and said "Let me go away as I came." Ever yours TBM TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 14 J U L Y
1842
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Trevelyan, 11, 112-14.
Albany London July 14. 1842 Dear Napier, Mr. Porter is an ass, as a man ought to be who gives lectures on such a writer as Palissot.1 My expression is quite defensible. The stage means, of course, the public stage, and does not refer to private theatricals. If I were to say that Van Artevelde was Henry Taylor's first work, would it be any answer to say that, some years before he produced Van Artevelde, he wrote some verses in a girl's album? The matter is not worth consideration. As to the next Number I really must beg you to excuse me. I am exceedingly desirous to get on with my history which is really in a fair train. I must go down into Somersetshire and Devonshire to see the scene of Monmouth's campaign, and to follow the line of William's march from 1
Charles Palissot de Montenoy (1730-1814), comic dramatist and satirist, dealing in personalities. There is nothing in the Napier papers nor in the Edinburgh newspapers of the time to throw any light on the reference to Mr Porter. He had perhaps criticized some point in TBM's essay on Hunt's Comic Dramatists. 43
14 July 1842
Macvey Napier
Torquay. 1 1 have also another plan, of no great importance, but one which will occupy me during some days. You are acquainted, no doubt, with Perizonius's theory about the early Roman history,-a theory which Niebuhr revived, and which Arnold has adopted as fully established. I have my self not the smallest doubt of its truth. It is that the stories of the birth of Romulus and Remus, the fight of the Horatii and Curiatii, and all the other romantic tales which fill the first three or four books of Livy came from the lost ballads of the early Romans. I amused myself in India with trying to restore some of these long perished poems. Arnold saw two of them2 and wrote to me in such terms of eulogy that I have been induced to correct and complete them. There are four of them; and I think that, though they are but trifles, they may pass for scholar-like and not inelegant trifles. I must prefix short prefaces to them: and I think of publishing them next November in a small volume. I fear therefore that just at present I can be of no use to you. Nor indeed should I find it easy to select a subject. Madame D'Arblay's memoirs are not yet complete; and, even if I were to review them, I should not like to do so till the whole is published. Romilly's Life is a little stale. Lord Cornwallis is not an attractive subject.3 Clive and Hastings were great men, and their history is full of great events. Cornwallis was a respectable specimen of mediocrity. His wars were not brilliantly successful. Fiscal reforms were his principal measures. And to interest English readers in questions of Indian finance is quite impossible. I am surprised and rather vexed to learn that the paper on List is by Austen.4 He is a speaker of very eminent ability; and in conversation I hardly know his superior. But one man cannot be every thing. 1
2
3
4
TBM made his visit in the first part of August. According to the often untrustworthy John Camden Hotten, TBM stayed at Weston Zoyland, Somersetshire, * occupying his time with minute investigations in the neighbourhood, and writing that portion of his narrative while the facts and impressions were fresh on his mind, in a little room which is still shown there to the rare visitors to the locality' (Macaulay, the Historian, Statesman, and Essayist, 2nd edn, i860, p. 99). For other evidence of this tour see 13 January 1843. In her notes on Trevelyan Fanny Macaulay says of this passage that 'Arnold saw them all for I read them to him. He preferred Capys to any as "the most Roman" he said' (MS, Trinity). Perhaps the knowledge that his father was responsible for TBM's decision to publish the Lays entered into Matthew Arnold's hostility towards them; he said of TBM's lines in 'Horatius' — 'To all the men upon this earth Death cometh soon or l a t e ' that it was hard to read them * without a cry of pain' ('Last Words,' in On Translating Homer). Arnold's quotation is not exact. I do not know what occasion there may have been for an article on Cornwallis. There is no other reference to the subject in Napier's correspondence, but perhaps Napier had suggested it to make a trio of Indian articles with those on Clive and Hastings. John Austin, 'List on the Principles of the German Customs-Union: Dangers of British Industry and Commerce,' ER, LXXV (July 1842), 515-56. John Austin (1790-1859: DNB),
44
Macvey Napier
14 July 1842
I am a little startled by the very careless way in which the review of Mellingen on Duelling1 has been executed. In the historical part there are really as many errors as assertions. Look at page 439. Ossory never called out Clarendon. The peer whom he called out on the Irish cattle bill was Buckingham. The provocation was Buckingham's remark that whoever opposed the bill had an Irish interest or an Irish understanding. It is Clarendon who tells the whole story. Then as to the scuffle between Buckingham and a free-trading Lord Dorchester in the lobby, the scuffle was not in the lobby but at a conference in the Painted Chamber, nor had it anything to do with free trade. For at a conference all the Lords are on one side. It was the effect of an old quarrel and of an accidental jostling for seats. Then a few lines lower, it is said that Lady Shrewsbury dissipated all her son's estate, which is certainly not true: for soon after he came of age he raised 40000 £ by mortgage which, at the then rate of interest, he never could have done unless he had had a good estate. Then in the next page it is said that Mohun murdered rather than killed the Duke of Hamilton, - a gross blunder. Those who thought that the Duke was murdered, always attributed the murder not to Mohun, but to Mohun's second Macartney. The fight between the two principals was universally allowed to be perfectly fair. Nor did Steele rebuke Thornhill for killing Dering, but on the contrary did his best to put Thornhill's conduct in the most amiable light, and to throw the whole blame on the bad usages of society. I do not know that there ever was a greater number of mistakes as to matters of fact in so short a space. I have read only those two pages of the article. If it is all of a piece, it is a prodigy indeed. It is not impossible that I may run down to Edinburgh in November.2 But say nothing about it. I wish to visit you, not as M.P., but as a friend, and I shall be as quiet as possible. Let me also beg that you will not mention the little literary scheme which I have confided to you. I should be sorry that it were known till the time of publication arrives. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay
1 2
older brother of TBM's college friend Charles Austin, and the husband of Sarah, the translator of Von Ranke, was a lawyer who did nothing in practice but acquired a high reputation for his philosophical (Benthamite) ideas of law and government, and for Coleridgean powers of conversation, though the latter apparently came late. Meeting him in 1854 TBM was surprised to find him 'wonderfully fluent and wonderfully conservative. He seems to have lost his taciturnity and his radicalism together. I remember when he was dumb and a Chartist or nearly so' (Journal, vm, 106: 26 August 1854). Henry Rich, 'Mellingen on Duelling,' ER, LXXV (July 1842), 422-52. He did not.
45
15 July 1842
Frances Macaulay
TO F R A N C E S MACAULAY, 15 J U L Y 1842
MS: Trinity College. Albany July 15 / 1842 Dearest Fanny, When are we to see you again? I have nothing particular to tell you except that I have received a few more pounds from Sierra Leone; and that I am in hopes that I shall be able to pay the 10 per Cent on your railway shares and Selina's next January without selling any of your stock. Edward will explain this to you if you do not understand it. It will add, I hope, three or four guineas a year to your income. I have settled with Longman that the ballads are to be published in November. They will make, with the prefaces, a neat little volume of perhaps a hundred and fifty pages. I have written the prefaces to two of them, and am pretty well satisfied. [. . .]*
TO
MACVEY N A P I E R ,
20
JULY
1842
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 397-8.
Albany London July 20 / 1842 Dear Napier, I do not like to disappoint you; and I really would try to send you something if I could think of a subject that would suit me. It ought to be something which would require no reading. My objections to taking Romilly's life for a subject are numerous. One of them is that I was not acquainted with him, and never heard him speak, except once for a few minutes when I was a child. A stranger who writes a description of a person whom hundreds still living knew intimately is almost certain to make mistakes; and even if he makes no absolute mistake, his portrait is not likely to be thought a striking resemblance by those who knew the original. It is like making a bust from description.2 The best sculptor must disappoint those who remember the real face. I felt this even about Lord Holland, and nothing but Lady Holland's request would have overcome my unwillingness to say anything about his parliamentary speaking which I had never heard. I had however known him familiarly in private. But Romilly I never saw except in the House of Commons. I thought once of trying Professor SewelPs Lectures on Moral Philo1 2
The lower half of the leaf has been cut away for the signature. TBM perhaps has in mind the bust of his father then being made: see 10 March 1843.
46
Macvey Napier
20 July 1842
sophy,1 an unutterably absurd specimen of Puseyism, - far below the level of Sir Thomas Filmer.2 I do not remember that you have had any article on that subject. I think that I could make the Oxonian Ethics rather ridiculous. If you like this notion and will desire Longman to send me the book, I will see what can be made of it. You do not quite apprehend the nature of my plan about the old Roman ballads. But the explanation will come fast enough. I wish from my soul that I had written a volume of my history. 3 1 have not written half a volume; nor do I consider what I have done as more than rough-hewn. I am just about to write to Lord John: and I will plainly tell him what you and I also wish. Austin's article, though I do not very much like it, has succeeded, pretty well. Stephen's4 is good undoubtedly, but not so good as some of his have been. I thought the article in the Quarterly on the Encyclopaedia5 very handsome. But in truth both parties had contributed to that great collection, and to attack it would have been to attack all the English literature of the age. I hear with some concern that Dickens is going to publish a most furious book against the Yankees.6 I am told that all the Fearons,? Trollopes, Marryatts,8 and Martineaus9 together have not given them half so much offence as he will give. This may be a more serious affair than the destruction of the Caroline10 or the mutiny in the Creole. 11 Ever yours T B Macaulay 1 have written to Lord John, offering to be bail for your honor and discretion; and I am not without hopes that we may succeed. 1
William Sewell, Christian Morals, 1840, and Christian Politics, 1840. Empson reviewed the first of these in ' Sewell's Christian Morals — the Ethical Philosophy of Oxford,* ER, LXXVI (January 1843), 464-96. 2 Sir Robert Filmer (d. 1653: DNB), whose theories of the divine origin of monarchy TBM calls 'absurd* (History of England, iv, 350: ch. 19). 3 This was a current rumor: James Stephen wrote to Napier on 7 June that 'I hear that Macaulay has actually completed a volume of his History' (MS, British Museum). 4 James Stephen, 'Ignatius Loyola and His Associates,' ER, LXXV (July 1842), 297-358. 5 Sir David Brewster, ' The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Seventh Edition,' Quarterly Review, LXX (June 1842), 44-72. The seventh edition was under Napier's editorship. 6 American Notes for General Circulation, 2 vols., 1842. 7 Henry Bradshaw Fearon, Sketches of America, 1818. 8 Captain Marryat, A Diary in America, with Remarks on its Institutions, 1839. 9 Harriet Martineau, Society in America, 1837, and A Retrospect of Western Travel, 1838. 10 An American steamship destroyed in the Canadian insurrection, 1838. 11 Slaves being shipped to New Orleans on the Creole late in 1841 murdered a passenger, seized the ship, and took it to Nassau. The British governor refused the American demands to return the slaves. The matter was settled in the Treaty of Washington, August, 1842.
47
25 July 1842 TO MACVEY
Macvey Napier NAPIER,
25 J U L Y
1842
MS: British Museum. Published: Napier, Correspondence, p. 398.
Albany London / July 25. 1842 Dear Napier, I have just heard from Lord John. I may as well send you what he has written. Of course you will say nothing about the literary plan which he mentions.1 You might, I think, with perfect propriety write to him yourself, if you have anything to suggest. By the bye, I forgot to say that I wish Dickens's Book on the United States to be kept for me. I have never written a word on that subject; and I have a great deal in my head. Of course I shall be courteous to Dickens, whom I know,2 and whom I think both a man of genius and a good-hearted man, in spite of some faults of taste. Yours ever T B Macaulay P.S. What say you to Palmerston?3 He writes excellently. Shall I mention it to him? Or will you?
TO
THOMAS
FLOWER
E L L I S , 22
AUGUST
1842
MS: Trinity College. Mostly published: Trevelyan, 11, 116-18.
Albany London / August 22 / 1842 Dear Ellis, For the ballads many thanks. Some of them are capital. I have been wishing for your advice. My little volume is nearly finished, and I must talk the prefaces over with you fully. I have made some alterations which I think improvements, and in particular have shortened the battle of Regillus by near thirty lines without, I think, omitting any important circumstance. 1
2
Russell replied that he was tempted but feared to give up to 'temporary subjects' the time that he should devote to *a history of Europe from 1453 to 1520 —a period comprising the brilliant age of the Arts in Italy, and the discovery of the New World' (to TBM, 23 July: MS, British Museum). He never carried out the project. TBM and Dickens met at least as early as 19 December 1839, when they both dined at Sir Robert Inglis's (Major-General C. W. Robinson, Life of Sir John Beverley Robinson, 1904, p. 295). In a letter of 4 May 1841 Dickens says that he knows' something' of Macaulay 3 {Letters of Charles Dickens, 11 [1969], 279). See 30 August.
48
Thomas Flower Ellis
22 August 1842
It is odd that we never in talking over this subject remembered that in all probability the old Roman lays were in the Saturnian metre. And it is still more odd that my ballads should, by mere accident, be very like the Saturnian metre, quite as like indeed as suits the genius of our language. The Saturnian metre is acatalectic1 dimeter Iambic followed by three trochees, as in the epitaph of old Naevius, where to be sure spondees are pretty freely substituted for Iambic feet Mortales immorteles flere si foret fas, Flerent Divae camenae Naevium poetam.2 A pure Saturnian line is preserved by some grammarian Dabunt malum Metelli Naevio poetae.3 Now oddly enough every tetrastich and almost every distich of my ballads opens with an acatalectic dimeter Iambic line. "Lars Porsena of Clusium" 4 is precisely the same with "Dabunt malum Metelli." I have not kept the trochees which really would be very unpleasing to an English ear. Yet there are some verses which the omission of a single syllable would convert into pure Saturnian metre — as "In Alba's Lake no fisher (His) nets to day is flinging."5 Is not this an odd coincidence. The only pure Saturnian line that I have been able to call to mind in all English poetry is in the nursery song. "The Queen was in her parlour Eating bread and honey." 6 Let me know when you come to town. I shall be here. Fix a day for dining with me next week, the sooner after your arrival the better. I must give you one good boring about these verses before I deliver them over to the printer's Devils. Have you read Lord Londonderry's travels.7 I hear that they contain 1
2 3 4 5 6 7
On the publication of this letter in the Life, Trevelyan's old Harrow master, C. J. Vaughan, wrote to him that it ought to be 'catalectic' here and a few lines below (25 April 1876: MS, Mrs Mary Moorman); the correction was made in the second edition. Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, 1, xxiv, 2. Pseudo-Asconius, commentary on Cicero, In Act., 1, 29. 'Horatius,' line 1. 'The Prophecy of Capys,' 9—10. TBM uses this illustration in the Preface to the Lays, p. 24n. The Marquess of Londonderry, A Steam Voyage to Constantinople, by the Rhine and the Danube, in 1840-41, and to Portugal, Spain, etc., in 1839^ 2 vols., 1842.
49
2j August 1842
Lord Palmers ton
the following pious expressions of resignation to the divine will. "Here I learned that Almighty God, for reasons best known to himself, had been pleased to burn down my house in the County of Durham." 1 Is not the struggle of vexation with respect admirable? It reminds me of Achilles's compliment to Apollo r\ a'av Ticyai|Jir)v, si jaoi Sweeps ye Trapeir).2 I am sorry to hear so indifferent an account of your health. Ever yours TB M TO L O R D P A L M E R S T O N , 27 A U G U S T
1842
MS: National Register of Archives.
Albany London / August 27. 1842 Dear Lord Palmerston, I send a louis every year to the Institut d'Afrique,3 and receive in return their publications, which however I very seldom read. What I have read is perfectly harmless. I send you the last number of their Annales, which I have found on my table together with your letter. You will judge whether this society is likely to found a great empire in Africa.4 Nobody can be better acquainted than you with the absurd and malevolent suspicions which foreigners entertain as to the objects of all our exertions against slavery and the slave-trade. Even very enlightened Frenchmen and Americans believe most firmly that we emancipated the negroes only for the purpose of annoying the United States and the planters of Martinique and Cuba, and that we search slavers only in order to strengthen our maritime supremacy. Mr. Abdy5 seems to me to take just as unfair and unreasonable a view of the motives of the Institut d'Afrique. Of this I am sure, that it is not for the interest or credit of England that we should be eager to accuse foreigners of pursuing selfish objects under pretence of introducing civilisation and Christianity into Africa. 1
2
3
4
5
A Steam Voyage, n, 88-9: the passage reads: *I received from England the sad news that the Almighty had thought fit, in his wisdom, and for purposes alone known to an inscrutable Providence, to allow my residence at Wynyard Park, in the county of Durham, to be utterly and entirely destroyed by fire. . . . ' Sydney Smith said that this passage * exceeds any single printed absurdity I ever met with* {Letters, 11, 773). Iliad, XXII, 20: 'Verily I would avenge me on thee, had I but the power' (Loeb translation). A society established in the 1830s to propagate information about Africa and to support French colonization there. Palmerston returned the Annales with the remark that ' nothing can be more harmless in Execution whatever it may be in Design' (29 August: MS, British Museum). Perhaps Edward Strutt Abdy (1791—1846: DNB) or Thomas Neville Abdy (1810-77: Boase), but I have no evidence for either identification.
50
Macvey Napier
3<> August 1842
I will however read the publications of this society hereafter more attentively than I have done. We did not finish our conversation the other night about the Edinburgh Review. I cannot but think that it might be worth your while to give a few mornings of the recess to the preparation of a paper on the foreign policy of the late administration. There are public men and very distinguished public men whom I would not advise to risk by writing any part of the reputation which they have gained by speaking and by acting. But you certainly write even better than you speak. I will guarantee you the most sacred silence on Napier's part. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 30 A U G U S T
1842
MS; British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, p. 401.
Albany London / August 30. 1842 Dear Napier, I had a short talk about the Edinburgh Review with Palmerston just before he left London. I found him irresolute; and we were interrupted by other people before we finished what we had to say. I have since written to him, and I send you his answer, from which you will see in what a state his mind is upon this subject.1 I told him, what is quite true, that there were some public men of high distinction whom I would never counsel to write, both with a view to the interests of the review and to their own; but that he was in no danger of losing by his writings any part of the credit which he had acquired by speech and action. I was quite sincere in this. For he writes excellently. I suppose that you are all in the first ecstasies of loyal joy and affection.2 Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
2
'Lord Palmerston, after thinking the matter over, sent Macaulay a letter promising to think it over a little more; and stating, in his free pleasant style, the difficulties which made him hesitate about acceding to the proposal. "If one has any good hits to make about the present state of foreign affairs one feels disposed to reserve them for the House of Commons"' (Trevelyan, 11, 116). Palmerston did not contribute to the ER. Over Victoria's visit to Edinburgh, 31 August- 15 September.
[Late August? 1842]
Thomas Flower Ellis
TO THOMAS FLOWER ELLIS, [LATE AUGUST?
1842]
MS: Trinity College. Published: Trevelyan, 11, 118.
[London] Dear Ellis, Your objection to the lines "By heaven, he said, yon rebels Stand manfully at bay," is quite sound. I also think the word rebels objectionable, as raising certain modern notions about allegiance, divine right, Tower-Hill, and the Irish Croppies, which are not at all to the purpose. What do you say to this couplet? Quoth h e , - "The She Wolf's litter Stand savagely at bay." 1 Litter is used by our best writers as governing the plural number. Ever yours T B Macaulay
TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , [I S E P T E M B E R ? 1842]2 MS: Trinity College. Extract published: Trevelyan, 11, 211-12.
Albany Thursday Dear Ellis, Remember that you dine here to morrow. What say you to a preliminary walk? And what say you to a visit to the Chinese Museum?3 It is the most interesting and curious sight that I know. If you like the plan I will call on you at four. Or will you call on me? For I am halfway between the Temple and the wonders of the Celestial Empire. I have finished my manuscript, and put it into Longman's hands.4 He was very civil, and, being warned probably by the judgment which has just overtaken his father, made me a very fair offer without reading a line. 1
'Horatius,' stanza 43. Since TBM expected to have had complete proofs of the Lays by mid-September (see 16 September), 1 September, a Thursday, seems likely. 3 A public exhibit at Hyde Park Corner, opened in June, 'comprising upwards of Fifty Figures . . . in their Native Costume' (Athenaeum, 25 June 1842, p. 569). 4 Thomas Longman (1804—79: DNB), eldest son of Thomas Norton Longman. The father had died on 28 August after a fall from his horse, and the son, a partner in the firm since 1832, was now its head. 2
52
Lord Mahon
5 September 1842
He is to stand all the risks of printing and we are to share the profits equally, so that I may gain, and can lose nothing.1 By the bye I have discovered another curious fact which may serve to illustrate the neglect of the old Latin ballads. Are you aware that the Nibelungen lied of which the Germans are so proud was never printed till 1784, and was found among the Manuscripts of a noble family?2 Ever yours TBM TO L O R D M A H O N , 5 SEPTEMBER
1842
MS: Stanhope Papers, Chevening.
Albany London / Septr. 5. 1842 Dear Lord Mahon, Thank you for thinking of me in your agreeable retreat. I have been in Somersetshire and Devonshire;3 and I am on the point of setting out for Norfolk and Suffolk, having taken it into my head that a man who has not seen all the Cathedrals and great cities of his own country has no business at Rotterdam or Strasbourg. I shall not, I fear, be in this part of the world again till you have left Chevening. Some other year, I hope, I shall have the great pleasure of passing a day or two with you there. I have nothing for the next Number of the Edinburgh Review. Adolphus4 I cannot touch. For I do not like his book, and I do like his son, who is an excellent man though a bitter Tory: and for his sake I spare the father. I shall not fail to read your paper in the Quarterly,5 and am much obliged to you for telling me of it. I have some intention of publishing a small volume in November, which will not, I think, be generally popular, but which for a scholar and a historian may have some interest. I will take care to have it sent to you. Pray remember me with all respect and kindness to Lady Mahon.6 Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1
2
4
5
6
Apparently there was no formal contract between Longman and TBM for the first edition (750 copies); an agreement for the second edition, dated 6 December 1842, specifies that author and publisher are to divide the profits equally and that the same terms apply to the first, third, and fourth editions (Longman archive). By i860 Longman had sold 38,000 copies. The manuscript was discovered in 1755 in the library of the Count of Hohenems; the first 3 full text was printed in 1782. See 14 July 1842. The elder Adolphus was at work on a continuation of his History of England, 1802; it had reached a seventh volume at his death in 1845. * Correspondence between Mr. Pitt and the Duke of Rutland/ Quarterly Review, LXX (September 1842), 289-314. Emily Harriet Kerrison (1815-73) married Lord Mahon in 1834. 3 53 P L T iv
c> September 1842
William Gibson Craig
TO W I L L I A M G I B S O N C R A I G , 9 S E P T E M B E R
1842
MS: Scottish Record Office. Albany London / September 9. 1842 Dear Craig, My vote at the India House is promised to Mangles, and I have also told him that at the elections which may precede his, I will vote for the candidate whose success he thinks most likely to be conducive to his. I am therefore not free as to that matter. It is possible however that Mangles may not stand next time, and may have no objection to my voting for Major Oliphant.1 I will learn how that is. As to the other matter I feel some little difficulty. Any hardship affecting any constituent I would willingly represent to the Treasury or to any other department. I have done so, and have obtained redress, just as I should have done when we were in office. But I have some scruple about asking favours for men on the ground of their Whiggism from Trevelyan. I have hitherto scrupulously refrained from doing so. I will however when he returns to town which will be in about a fortnight put the memorandum into his hands, and ask him to attend to the case and to do what is just. But in truth if the case stated in the memorandum is really made out, I can hardly think that any interest or solicitation can be necessary. The Queen's visit seems to me to have been as bad a business as rain and fools could make it. The debates of the Commission of Assembly and of the Town Council have been as absurd as if they had been trying for a wager whether the laity or clergy should expose themselves most.2 But it seems to me, at this distance, that the greatest blunder was that of the person who advised the Queen to hear the Episcopal service at Dalkeith on Sunday from a Scotch Dissenter. After George the Fourth had set the example of conformity3 this could be construed only into a declaration that the Kirk is one with which it is sinful to hold communion. The Queen has a perfect right to think so. But if she thinks so she had better have staid in England. I fear that we shall have a burst of 1
2
3
Major James Oliphant (1796-1881: Boase) of the Madras Engineers; elected a Director of the East India Company, 1844; Chairman of the Court of Directors, 1854-5. Mangles was elected a Director in 1847. The Commission of Assembly debated whether the Church's loyal address to Victoria should include a reference to Church grievances; it was finally decided not to (The Times, 3 September). The Town Council of 6 September met to quarrel about who was to blame for the mishap that occurred on the Queen's arrival in Edinburgh, 1 September; she arrived before the scheduled hour, so that the Council missed greeting her on her landing and the planned procession was spoiled (The Times, 9 September). On his visit in 1822. Victoria stayed at Dalkeith Palace, where she attended the chapel on Sunday, 4 September, to hear the Rev. E. B. Ramsay, Dean of Edinburgh (The Times, 7 September).
54
Frances Macaulay
[12 September 2842]
exultation from all the Puseyites on this occasion. I see that the fervent Presbyterians have already begun to shew their teeth.1 Ever yours T B Macaulay TO FRANCES MACAULAY,
[12
SEPTEMBER
1842]2
MS: Trinity College.
Albany Monday Dearest Fanny, I am glad to have so good an account of Georgy. I have written to Hannah and have told her that he is well again or nearly so, and that nobody was to blame. I have picked up the Elements of Morality3 for Baba. I used to think it a delightful book thirty three or thirty four years ago. It is now out of print and only to be got by chance on an old book stall. But I like it better than nine tenths of the modern stories for children. Send a line by the post to tell me how Georgy is going on, and whether you think of coming in to town. Love to all. TBM
TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 14 SEPTEMBER
1842
MS: Trinity College. Albany Sept. 14 / 1842 Dear Ellis, Valerius Maximus repeats Livy's words, and rather strengthens them. Pliny says nothing to the purpose. I retain a strong opinion that the procession was older than the year of the City 45o.4 Yet it can hardly be doubted that in that year it became much more splendid and important than it had ever before been. I think it for example highly probable that the purple robes and olive-crowns were then first introduced. By the bye the olive according to Fenestella was unknown in Italy till the time of the Tarquins, and the olive is a tree of slow growth. Hesiod says that 1
2 3
4
Extracts from angry articles on this subject in the Edinburgh Witness appear in The Times of 9 September. Dated by reference to the Elements of Morality, mentioned again on 15 September. Christian Gotthilf Salzmann, The Elements of Morality for the Use of Children . . . Translatedfrom the German \by Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin] . . . Illustrated with Copper Plates, 2 vols., 1790. The subject of this letter is the procession of Roman Knights on the anniversary of the battle of Regillus; TBM discusses it in the preface to * The Battle of the Lake Regillus,' where he cites the classical references given here and comes to the conclusion that the procession was an innovation of the time of Quintus Fabius and Publius Decius. 55
3-2
2 5 September 1842
Margaret Trevelyan
the person who sows it never gets any fruit from it.1 It is not then a little improbable that while Tarquinius Superbus was still living a ceremony should have been instituted in which the whole body of Knights wore crowns of so rare a leaf. This is not a decisive argument. But it has some weight with me. Dionysius's statement may, I think, stand with the supposition even that there was no procession at all till the Censorship of Fabiusand Decius. The day was undoubtedly a great festival from a very early period, and the procession might have been ingrafted on the ancient ritual. Of course the Pontiffs would have been consulted, and some old Pontifical tradition brought forward to vindicate the innovation. Roman history is full of such things. On the whole, finding Livy, Valerius Maximus, and Niebuhr2 on one side, and Dionysius not hearty on the other, I think it safest to take the later date. It will hardly be necessary to alter a word of the poem. For, as I dare say you have observed, the difficulty is to keep these lays from being too modern; and, do what I can, they have a less antique air than I could wish. The poem will really be more in character, if it be given to a minstrel of the generation preceding the War with Pyrrhus than if it be ascribed to the age of Camillus. It is also an advantage to be able to fix a particular year and day for the singing of the lay. I have just read or tried to read Hogg's article on Niebuhr.3 Sus Minervam, with a vengeance. I never saw anything so contemptible. Ever yours TB M TO M A R G A R E T T R E V E L Y A N , 15 S E P T E M B E R
1842
MS: Trinity College. Partly published: Trevelyan, 11, 203-4.
Albany September 15 / 1842 My dear Baba, Thank you for your very pretty letter. I am always glad to make my little girl happy. And nothing pleases me so much as to see that she likes books. For when she is as old as I am she will find that they are better than all the tarts and cakes and toys and plays and sights in the world. If any body would make me the greatest King that ever lived, with palaces and gardens, and fine dinners and wine and coaches and beautiful 1 2
3
The remarks of both Fenestella and Hesiod are preserved in Pliny, Natural History, xv, 1. In the section entitled 'Die Censur des Q. Fabius und P. Decius,' volume 3 of the Romische Geschichte, 1832, cited by TBM in the preface to 'The Battle of the Lake Regillus,' Lays, p. 9on. I cannot find that Hogg wrote any review of Niebuhr other than that in the ER in 1830: see 19 August 1830 and 21 March 1832.
[Thomas Longman?]
16 September 1842
clothes and hundreds of servants, on condition that I would not read books, I would not be a King. I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a King who did not love reading. I shall go to Clapham1 on Sunday and then we will look at the pictures in the Elements of Morality. I used to think them very funny when I was as little as you. I have a very bad cold, and am nursing my. elf. Tell Aunt Fanny that I am much obliged to her for her letter; and give my love to her and to Aunt Selina, and to Field-Marshal George Otto Trevelyan. Ever since he took his physic so well the French are very much afraid of him. Ever yours, Uncle Tom. TO [ T H O M A S L O N G M A N ? ] , 16 S E P T E M B E R
1842
MS: Mr W. Hugh Peal. Albany Septr. 16 / 1842 My dear Sir, I should be much obliged to you if you would urge the printer to speed. I expected to have had all the proofs. I have received only a single sheet. The delay cannot be necessary; and it is in several ways inconvenient to me. / Believe me Yours very truly T B Macaulay
TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 29 S E P T E M B E R
1842
MS: Trinity College. Partly published: Trevelyan, 11, 118-19.
Albany Septr. 29. 1842 Dear Ellis, Can you dine and take a bed at Clapham on Wednesday or Thursday next. I can promise you a haunch from a good buck of the Queen's, and Trevelyan and my sister beg hard for your company, and give you your choice between the days. I shall be glad to know as soon as possible. Many thanks for the sheets. I am much obliged to Adolphus for the trouble which he has taken. Some of his criticisms are quite sound. I admit that the line about bringing Lucrece to shame is very bad, and the 1
The Trevelyans left TBM in his house in Great George Street about October, 1840, for a house at number 84 West Side, Clapham; they remained there until 1849, when they moved back into London.
57
2g September 2842
Thomas Flower Ellis
worse for coming over so often.1 I will try to mend it. I admit also that the inventory of spoils in the last poem is, as he says, too long.2 I will see what can be done with it. He is not, I think, in the right about the word pilum.2 Nor is he in the right about the "true client smile."4 The "true client smile" is not exactly in the style of our old ballads. But it would be dangerous to make those old ballads models, in all points, for satyrical poems which are supposed to have been produced in a great strife between two parties crowded together within the walls of a city and a republican city. And yet even in an old English ballad I should not be surprised to find an usurer described as having the "ryghte Jew grinne," or some such thing. As to the quantity of interjection at the end of the Triumphal song,5 I rather think that Adolphus is right. And I will try to cut out a few exclamations. But the triumphal songs which have come down to us would lead me to think that this was the style of those compositions "Tuque dum procedis, Io triumphe, Non semel dicomus, Io triumphe Civitas o m n i s " - 6 And again. Io triumphe, tu moraris aureos Currus et intactoes boves. Io triumphe, nee Jugurthino parem Bello reportaste ducem.7 I am more obliged to Adolphus than I can express for his interest in these trifles. As to you I need say nothing. But pray be easy. I am so, and shall be so. Every book settles its own place. I never did and never will directly or indirectly take any step for the purpose of obtaining praise or deprecating censure. Longman came to ask what I wished him to do before the volume appeared. I told him that I stipulated for nothing but that there should be no puffing of any sort.8 I have told Napier that I ask it as a personal favour that my name and writings may never be mentioned in the Edinburgh Review. And I shall certainly leave this 1
A sort of epithet attached to * false Sextus' in 'Horatius': TBM altered it to 'That wrought the deed of shame.* Stanzas 27 and 28 of ' The Prophecy of Capys.' 3 The short pike of the Roman infantry, in stanzas 21 and 26 of * The Prophecy of Capys.' 4 'Virginia/ line 58. 5 Stanzas 26fT. of 'The Prophecy of Capys.* 6 Horace, Odes, iv, ii, 29—31. 7 Horace, Epodes, ix, 21—4. 8 Longman's advertisement in the Athenaeum, 29 October, p. 922, merely states: 'Lays ox Ancient Rome, by the Rt. Hon. Thos. Babington Macaulay. 8vo. pp. 192, 10^. 6d. cloth.* 2
58
Thomas Longman
8 October 1842
volume as the ostrich leaves her eggs in the sand. By the bye tell me whether you will breakfast with me on Saturday morning. Au revoir at Miladi's.1 T B Macaulay
TO THOMAS LONGMAN, 8 OCTOBER
1842
Text: Facsimile in Harry Furniss, Paradise in Piccadilly: The Story of Albany, 1925, p. 84: * Written to his publisher, Mr. Longman.*
Albany October 8 1842 Dear Sir, I have now quite finished the correcting of my proof-sheets. Every thing else I leave to you. I will only say that, as far as I am concerned, I should wish the volume to appear with as little delay as possible. Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO M R S C H A R L E S T R E V E L Y A N , 12 O C T O B E R
1842
MS: Trinity College.
Cambridge Octr. 12. 1842 Dearest Hannah, Ellis and I arrived here two hours ago in charge of Master Frank, who looks very well in his purple gown, and is as much amazed at all he sees as I was exactly twenty four years ago. 2 We - that is Ellis and I - proceed to Ely on Friday and to Peterborough on Saturday. On Saturday evening we shall return hither, and see how our young freshman is going on. On Monday we shall go to London. I expect to find Dickens's book there. For Longman promises to procure me a copy some days before the publication. He enjoins however great discretion with regard to the contents. If it perfectly suits you I will dine at Clapham on Tuesday, and take it down with me. Love to all. I was thinking just now that probably, if we all live, we shall be here with Georgy about this day fourteen years, buying his gown, looking out his tea-things and hard ware, and criticising his sitting-room and bed-room. Dear Baba will probably be with us then. If you have anything to say in haste direct to the Post office here. If not, send a line to the Albany. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1 2
Lady Inglis. Frank Ellis entered Trinity College in this term.
59
22 October 1842
George Peacock
TO G E O R G E PEACOCK, 1 12 O C T O B E R
1842
MS: Trinity College. Cambridge October 12. 1842 My dear Sir, Ellis came hither to day with his son who is destined, I hope, to do honor to the purple gown; and I accompanied them. Ellis and I mean to visit Ely on Friday, in the hope of seeing both your fine Cathedral and its Dean. If it suits you perfectly, we should very much like to dine with you. 2 There are few people, and certainly no other Dignitary of the Church, to whose table I should venture to invite myself. But the fame of your hospitality removes all scruple. We shall go to Peterborough on the following day. If you will send a line to the Post Office here we shall receive it before we start on Friday. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO [ T H O M A S L O N G M A N ] , 19 O C T O B E R
1842
MS: Bavarian State Library, Munich.
Albany Octr. 19. 1842 My dear Sir, Thanks for Dickens's book. I suppose that my little volume will soon make its appearance. I should wish a few copies to be sent to some persons who are in or near town, Lady Holland, 33 South Street, Hallam, in Wilton Crescent, Sir Edward Bulwer, at Fulham, and Miss Berry at Richmond. I think that these, in the present deserted state of London, will suffice. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay Let me have a dozen copies. 1
2
Peacock (1791—1858: DNB), Dean of Ely, was mathematics lecturer at Trinity in TBM's time there and tutor from 1823 until being made Dean of Ely in 1839. They did: see to Bulwer, 19 October.
60
Macvey Napier
19 October 1842
TO MACVEY NAPIER, 19 OCTOBER
1842
MS: British Museum. Partly published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 408—9.
Albany Octr. 19. 1842 Dear Napier, This morning I received Dickens's book. I have now read it. It is impossible for me to review it: nor do I think that you would wish me to do so. I cannot praise it; and I will not cut it up. I cannot praise it, though it contains a few lively dialogues and descriptions. For it seems to me to be, as a whole, a failure. It is written like the worst parts of Humphrey's Clock. What is meant to be easy and sprightly is vulgar and flippant, as in the first two pages. What is meant to be fine is a great deal too fine for me, as the description of the fall of Niagara. A reader who wants an amusing account of the United States had better go to Mrs. Trollope, coarse and malignant as she is. A reader who wants information about American politics, manners, and literature, had better go even to so poor a creature as Buckingham.1 In short I pronounce the book, in spite of some gleams of genius, at once frivolous and dull. Therefore I will not praise it. Neither will I attack it, first because I have eaten salt with Dickens; secondly because he is a good man and a man of real talent, thirdly because he hates slavery as heartily as I do, and fourthly because I wish to see him inrolled in our blue and yellow corps, where he may do excellent service as a skirmisher and sharp-shooter. I think that when you have read the book, you will be of my mind, that the less we say about it the better. If you think it necessary to have a review, you can have no difficulty in finding a reviewer. But I, you perceive, am out of the question. What then shall I do for you? The only subject that occurs to me is Madame D'Arblay: and I will try my hand on that, if you can arrange matters properly with Leigh Hunt. In order that you may fully understand my feelings, I must tell you, what I earnestly beg that you will not mention to any body, that he has some obligations to me of a sort which would make it the basest thing in the world in me to use him ill or even indelicately. As you have made up your mind that he shall not review Madame, I do not use him ill in taking the subject. But I wish to treat him with all delicacy. I think that you might without impropriety tell him that, as the latter part of the Memoirs related so much to the trial of Hastings to which I had paid particular attention, you had thought it for the interest of the review to give the subject to me. And indeed it is possible that I may take this opportunity of adding a few touches to my 1
James Silk Buckingham, America, Historical, Statistic, and Descriptive, 3 vols., 1841. 6l
ig October 1842
Sir Edward Bulwer
view of Hastings' character and administration, and of Burke's conduct respecting the impeachment. If you approve of this suggestion, I will also write a few lines to Hunt, such as may sooth his self-love. God knows, he has few soothings of that kind, poor fellow! His article on Madame de Sevigne1 is not profound, but very good and pleasant. The number generally is, as you say, readable. But my friend Mangles's Indian speculations2 seem to me to become heavier and heavier. I cannot conceive that there can be any objection to the publication of Lord Holland's letter.3 There are many things indeed in the letter from which I dissent. But on the whole it does Lord Holland great honor. Nor can it be from regard for him that Brougham objects to the publication. For in all the doctrines of Lord Holland about the war of 1815, doctrines from which I dissent, Brougham notoriously concurred. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay My little volume will be out, I think, in the course of the week. But all that I leave to Longman, - except that I have positively stipulated that there shall be no puffing.
TO S I R E D W A R D BULWER, 19 O C T O B E R
1842
MS: Hertfordshire County Council. Albany, October 19 / 1842 Dear Bulwer, When your invitation reached my chambers here, I was feasting at Ely with the Dean; or I should have been most happy to join your party. I have a little volume in the press. Indeed I hope that it is now through the press. I have desired Longman to send you a copy, in the wish rather than the hope that it may give you some small part of the pleasure which your prose and verse have often given me. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1 2
'Madame de Sevigne and Her Contemporaries,' ER, LXXVI (October 1842), 203-36. 'Government of India: Its Constitution and Departments,' ER, LXXVI (October 1842), 171—202.
3
A letter from Lord Holland to Lord Kinnaird arguing against the execution of Marshal Ney in 1815 was printed by Nassau Senior, 'Berryer's Autobiographical Recollections,' ER, LXXVI (October 1842), 121-71. Brougham thought that it injured Holland's memory: see Napier, Correspondence, p. 405. 62
Frances Macaulay
z5 October 1842
TO F R A N C E S MACAULAY, 25 O C T O B E R 1842
MS: Trinity College. Albany Octr. 25 / 1842 Dearest Fanny, The volume is too heavy for the post. I have therefore sent it by railway. The inconvenience and uncertainty of this kind of conveyance is such that I shall confine my presents to people who are in town, yourself excepted. It is well printed, and will at least look well in a library. I dine with Lady Holland to day in order to meet Morpeth who, after an absence of more than a year, is in England again.1 I hope he does not mean to follow Dickens's example. I begin to be quite sick of tours in [....]*
TO MACVEY NAPIER, 27 OCTOBER
1842
MS: British Museum.
Albany Octr. 27. 1842 Dear Napier, You shall certainly have an article from me for next Number. If nothing else turns up I will write on Madame. But I am under some difficulty, because the work is still unfinished. I am afraid of saying something which the publication of the papers still in reserve may shew to be incorrect. The family indeed have offered me papers and communications, if I will fight their battle against Croker. This of course is in confidence. I had a letter some time ago together with a paper of hints from one of the nieces:3 and the sister4 has prevailed on Wilbraham5 the old M.P. for Cheshire to write to me. But I do not chuse to tie myself up from speaking my mind. However I will try my hand, not with much hope of success. You must leave me the last place, if only in the hope that the fifth volume will appear before our next Number comes out. As to Dickens, you can have no difficulty in procuring an article on his book from some of his admirers. I should be exceedingly glad to see it praised by anybody but myself. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1 2 4 5
Morpeth had been in Canada and the United States; he did not publish his travels. 3 The rest is missing. See 21 November 1839. Madame D'Arblay's only surviving sister was Sarah Harriet Burney (1772-1844). George Wilbraham (1779-1852: Boase), M.P. for Stockbridge, 1826-31; for South Cheshire, 1832-41. 63
2j October 1842 TO L E I G H H U N T , 27 O C T O B E R
Leigh Hunt 1842
MS: British Museum. Albany Octr. 27 / 1842 My dear Sir, Napier makes such a point of my reviewing Mme. D'Arblay, and I am so much pressed on that subject from half a dozen quarters, the lady's family included, that I do not well know how to refuse. I should be extremely sorry to do anything that you could think unfriendly or unhandsome to you; and I remember that you had some notion of taking the subject yourself. As however I learn from Napier that he has another plan in view in which he will want your help,1 I have the less scruple in taking Madame. I was very much pleased with your paper on Mme. de Sevigne, and so have all been whose opinion I have heard. If I knew your number, I would send you a little volume of mine, of no great value, which is just published. But I forget the precise address; and the book is too heavy for the post. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO [ G E O R G E W I L B R A H A M ? ] , 2 28 O C T O B E R
1842
Text: Composite from Sotheby's Catalogue, 15 December 1964, item 203; and Charles J. Sawyer Catalogue 284, item 227, 3 pp. 8vo: dated Albany, London, 28 October 1842.
I admire her talents and respect her character. I also think, as every gentleman must think, that Croker has behaved like Croker - 1 do not know what stronger expression I can u s e . . . . I must notice, I hope without asperity or malevolence, the faults as well as the merits of Madame D'Arblay 1 2
Hunt wrote * Memoirs of the Courts of England', ER, LXXVII (April 1843), 412-43. Conjectured from the evidence in the letter to Napier, 27 October.
Sir Edward Bulwer TO S I R E D W A R D BULWER, 28 O C T O B E R
28 October 1842 1842
MS: Hertfordshire County Council. Albany October 28. 1842 Dear Bulwer, There is a vigorous line which everybody quotes, while scarcely anybody knows whence it comes. I had quite forgotten, if I ever knew, to whom we owed it, when, in the course of my researches into the old Latin poets a few weeks ago, I came upon it among the fragments of Naevius. "Laetus sum Laudari me abs te laudato viro, pater."1 I assure you that I never felt the force of this proverbial expression more strongly than while I read your very kind letter. Your criticism on the metre would have been entitled to the most serious consideration, if the blemish were not now beyond cure. What you say about the rhymes of mass and pass2 is sound and excellent. Possibly I may still profit by it. As to the wild-cat3 I remember no allusion to that animal in ancient literature except in the 4th Fable of the 2nd book of Phaedrus "Aquila in sublimi quercu nidum fecerat: Feles cavernam nancta in media pepererat." Now if the wild cat was well known at Rome in the age of Augustus, it is probable that it was still more common in an earlier age, when cultivation had made less progress. Perhaps it might not be found in the flat Campagna. But among the oaks of Algidus, I should think that the breed probably abounded. I am very sorry to be under the necessity of agreeing with you about Dickens's book. He is a man of talents, and an honest man, and has been as little spoiled by success as could reasonably have been expected. But this last work is a complete failure. I had intended to review it in the Edinburgh. But I have excused myself. I could not praise it; and I did not chuse to be the executioner of a man of whom I think well and with whom I have eaten salt. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1 2 3
Naevius, Hector Proficiscens, fragment 2. At the end of stanza 36, 'The Battle of the Lake Regillus/ Introduced in similes in 'Horatius,' stanza 45, and 'Virginia,' line 257.
28 October 1842
Henry Hallam
T O H E N R Y H A L L A M , 28 O C T O B E R 1842
MS: Christ Church, Oxford. Published: Notes & Queries, October, 1967, p. 369.
Albany October 28. 1842 My dear Hallam, I am delighted to learn that you found any thing in my little volume to please you. I published it not without many misgivings. The plan occurred to me in the jungle at the foot of the Neilgherry hills; and most of the verses were made during a dreary sojourn at Ootacamund and a disagreeable voyage in the Bay of Bengal. My sister who had a copy of them shewed them last year to poor Arnold. He wrote to me about them with great kindness, and urged me to complete them. But for this encouragement I should hardly have ventured before the public, either as a poet or as a lecturer on points of classical learning. I had very great pleasure in seeing your son1 at Cambridge, and in learning, as I did, that he had already made a most favourable impression on those whose good opinion will be of the greatest consequence to him. I spoke to him about sitting for the University Scholarship. He had not thought about the matter. But I earnestly hope that he will, on no account, omit to do so. The honor, if he gets it, is the highest of its kind in either University. The examination, even if he fails, is the best preparation for all other classical examinations. It is not likely that he will succeed the first time. That Thirlwall succeeded the first time was thought marvellous. But the names of all who acquit themselves creditably are well known, and are not seldom published by authority. That he will acquit himself creditably I have not the smallest doubt. Will you breakfast with me on Tuesday next at ten? Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO HENRY HOLLAND, 28 OCTOBER
1842
MS: Mr D. C. L. Holland.
Albany October 28 / 1842 My dear Sir, I need not tell you how much pleasure your approbation has given me. I was so sensible of the extreme difficulty of what I had undertaken that nothing but the praise and exhortation of poor Arnold who, a short time before his death, saw two or three of the poems in manuscript would have induced me to finish them and to give them to the world. I have done so 1
Henry Fitzmaurice Hallam (1824-50: DNB), entered Trinity College in this month.
66
Lady Holland
29 October 1842
with much diffidence. But I shall not regret the step which I have taken if the very few who resemble you in taste and learning find in my little volume something to commend. I am truly sorry to say that I cannot dine with you to day. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO L A D Y H O L L A N D , 29 O C T O B E R
1842
MS: British Museum.
Albany Octr. 29 / 1842 Dear Lady Holland, I have declined an invitation for Monday, on account of my vexatious malady. But I fully expect to be well on Tuesday; and I will with great pleasure dine in South Street on that day. I am truly glad that you found anything to like in my little volume. If you had condemned altogether I should have been neither surprised nor angry, knowing as I do that in poetry we are of different sects. I will take with me to South Street a copy for Mr. Frere,1 whose Christian name you must tell me. For, as I have never fallen in with any of the family except William2 who used to examine me at Cambridge, I am always confounding Hookham and Bartholomew.3 / Believe me ever, / Dear Lady Holland, Yours most truly T B Macaulay TO FRANCES MACAULAY, 29 OCTOBER 1842 MS: Huntington Library.
Albany London / October 29. 1842 Dearest Fanny, I find that I cannot leave town next week. I am sorry for it. I hear, as yet, nothing but praise of my little volume: and the praise is worth having: for it comes from such men as Dr. Holland, Hallam, and Sir Edward Bulwer. But I cannot tell how long this may last: and I am perfectly prepared for coldness and even abuse. To be sure one circum1
2
3
John Hookham Frere (1769—1846: DNB), diplomat, author, and wit. He was a familiar of Holland House before TBM's time; after 1818 he lived abroad, settling finally at Malta. In the preface to the Lays of Ancient Rome, TBM refers to Frere's translation of the Cid as 'above all praise.' William Frere (1775-1836: DNB), brother of John Hookham, was Master of Downing College from 1809 and Vice-Chancellor of the University in 1819. Bartholomew Frere (1778-1851: DNB\ a third brother, was in the diplomatic service, 1801-21.
67
32 October 2842
[Thomas Longman]
stance, which will probably keep the book from ever becoming popular, will guard it from vulgar scurrility. No man who is not a good scholar can attack it without exposing himself: and there are few good scholars among the hacks of literature. The whole work is Hebrew to the crowd of penny-a-line men. It is odd to see how tastes differ. The latter part of Virginia which you, Bulwer, Adolphus, and Ellis, think the best thing in the volume, Arnold thought the worst, and both Hannah and Trevelyan think it the worst. Hannah puts the poems thus. 1. Horatius. 2. Regillus. 3. Prophecy. 4. Virginia. You put them 1. Virginia. 2. Prophecy. 3. Horatius. 4. Regillus. Adolphus puts them. 1. Prophecy. 2. Horatius and so on. I have found no two people who agree. But I must not get into the vile Hayley-like trick of talking for ever about my own verses. All is well here. The children are as good and happy as possible. Baba and the two little girls who are with her came into town on Wednesday, saw the Museum and the Chinese exhibition, and dined here, apparently much to their satisfaction. Dickens's book is a deplorable failure. The wit is flippancy and the eloquence fustian. Kind regards to your host and hostess. Ever yours TBM TO [ T H O M A S L O N G M A N ] , 31 O C T O B E R
1842
MS: Bodleian Library.
Albany Octr. 31. 1842 Dear Sir, Be so kind as to send my little book to Lord Jeffrey at Edinburgh, and to let me have half a dozen more copies here. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay
68
[Thomas Longman]
y November 1842
TO [ T H O M A S L O N G M A N ] , 7 N O V E M B E R
1842
MS: Trinity College. Albany Nov 7. 1842 Dear Sir, I should be much obliged to you to send a copy of my book to Lady Williams,1 28 Grosvenor Square, and another to H S Thornton Esq at Messrs. Williams and Co Bankers, Birchin Lane. Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 16 N O V E M B E R MS:
1842
British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 409-11.
Albany London Nov 16. 1842 Dear Napier, On my return from a short tour 2 I found your letter on my table. I am glad that you like my lays, and the more glad because I know that, from good-will to me, you must have been anxious about their fate. I do not wonder at your misgivings. I should have felt similar misgivings if I had learned that any person, however distinguished by talents and knowledge, whom I knew, as a writer, only by prose works, was about to publish a volume of poetry. Had I seen advertised a poem by Mackintosh, by Dugald Stewart, or even by Burke, I should have augured nothing but failure; and I am far from putting my self on a level even with the least of the three. Almost all my friends, I believe, expected that I should produce something deserving only to be bound up with Lord John's unlucky Don Carlos.3 So much the better for me. Where people look for no merit, a little merit goes a great way: and, without the smallest affectation of modesty, I confess that the success of my little book has far exceeded its just claims. I shall be in no hurry to repeat the experiment. For I am well aware that a second attempt would be made under much less favourable circumstances. A far more severe test would now be applied to my verses. I shall therefore, like a wise gamester, leave off while I am a winner, and not cry Double or Quits. 1
2 3
Wife of Sir John Williams, Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench. TBM dined with her in Rome on 1 December 1838, when he * liked neither the house nor the woman nor the dinner nor the company* (Journal, 1,191); perhaps he had talked to her of the Lays then. According to Frederick Pollock, Lady Williams and Sir John 'had their separate sets of friends his chiefly legal, hers chiefly fashionable' (PersonalRemembrances, 1, 117). I have found no information about this. A tragedy, 1822.
69
16 November 1842
Henry Taylor
As to Madame D'Arblay, I will fall to work on her immediately. I took her memoirs, her novels, and her reminiscences of her father with me on my travels last week, and read them again from beginning to end. She was certainly a woman of talents and of many good qualities. But she had so many foibles, and the style which she wrote, particularly in her later years, was so execrable, that I heartily congratulate my self on having refused to come under any engagements to her family. I need not say that I shall not follow Croker's example. But truth and a regard for my own character and that of the Review will compel me to mix a little delicate censure with the praise which I shall most cordially and sincerely bestow. Four sheets will be ample. I shall certainly not visit Edinburgh while your meeting of fanatical priests is sitting. Indeed your advice and that of Sir James Craig have almost determined me not to go among you this year. Is there any chance that we may see you in the spring? I agree with you about the last Number, which has had very fair success here. You do not say what you purpose to do respecting Dickens and his American Notes.1 As to poor Leigh Hunt, I wish that I could say with you that I heard nothing from him. I have a letter from him on my table asking me to lend him money and lamenting that my verses want the true poetical aroma which breathes from Spenser's Faery Queen. I am so much pleased with him for having the spirit to tell me, in a begging letter, how little he likes my poetry, that I shall send him a few guineas, which I would not have done if he had praised me: for, knowing his poetical creed as I do, I should have felt certain that his praises were insincere. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO H E N R Y T A Y L O R , 16 N O V E M B E R
1842
MS: Bodleian Library. Published: Dowden, Correspondence of Henry Taylor, pp. 141-2.
Albany Nov 16. 1842 Dear Taylor, Many thanks for your letter and for your kind and lenient criticism. I am glad that you found any thing to like in the Lays. The public has been much kinder to them than I at all expected. Indeed I attribute the favour which they have found in the eyes of readers chiefly to this, - that everybody predicted an utter failure. Where nothing good is looked for, a very little goes a great way. I shall not however take your advice and cry 1
It was reviewed by James Spedding, *Dickens's American Notes* ERy LXXVI (January 1843), 497-522. 70
Unidentified Recipient
16 November 1842
Double or Quits, but, like a sober cool-headed black-leg, shall rise with my first winnings in my pocket. To turn to your own poetical plans which are of much more consequence to the world than mine, I cannot help again pressing you to give us a great and extended drama on the life of Mary Queen of Scots. Three parts of five Acts each, - the length of Shakspeare's Henry the Sixth, would be sufficient. The first part might end with the murder of Darnley, the second with the flight into England, the third with the execution. The savage nobles, the fierce protestant preachers, the foreign minions, the conspirators, the ministers of Elizabeth, Elizabeth herself, and above all Mary, would furnish you with such subjects for art as, I believe, are nowhere else to be found. The work ought to be the serious business of years, and, if executed as, I believe, you could execute it, would live as long as our language. I see no reason to doubt that you are capable of equalling Wallenstein, and I know nothing in the German language so evidently built for immortality as Wallenstein. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO U N I D E N T I F I E D R E C I P I E N T , 16 N O V E M B E R
1842
Text:1 Lettres Autographes Composant la Collection de M. Alfred Bovet, Paris, 1887, I, 430.
. . . I think that you make a mistake as to my interest in the affair to which you call my attention. According to the new law of literary property, that in my articles in the Edinburgh Review belongs to Messrs. Longman for twenty-eight years. It is incumbent upon them to take the measures that seem to them necessary for the protection of their interests. If they think that it is worth the trouble they can easily prevent the importation of Reviews from America. My only feeling in this matter is pleasure at seeing how writings which teem with faults owing to youth and haste and whose object was only to produce a local and temporary effect, obtain a much larger circulation and a much greater popularity than I could possibly have expected. [. . .] Your obedient humble servant T B Macaulay2 1 2
My text is translated from the French version in the Bovet Catalogue. The closing and signature are reproduced in facsimile.
iG November 1842
Mrs Henry Holland
TO M R S H E N R Y H O L L A N D , 16 N O V E M B E R
1842
MS: Mr D. C. L. Holland. Albany Nov. 16, 1842. Dear Mrs. Holland, I shall be most happy to dine with you on Tuesday next. Ever yours most truly, T B Macaulay TO L O R D M A H O N , 18 N O V E M B E R
1842
MS: Stanhope Papers, Chevening. Partly published: Trevelyan, 11, 98m
Albany London / Nov 18. 1842 Dear Lord Mahon, I am truly glad to learn that you have been pleased with my little volume. I should have sent it to you, if I had known where you were to be found. I was of course aware that such a work was not likely to be generally popular. It has had, however, a success far beyond my expectations, and beyond what even my self-love can regard as its merits. Longman tells me that he is quite satisfied with the sale, and is looking forward to a second edition. I shall look anxiously for your book.1 I have little doubt that it will be such that the friends whom you permit to see it will unite in pressing you to make it public. I have not made up my mind as to the character of John Duke of Bedford.2 Hot headed he certainly was. That is a quality which is on the surface of a character and about which there can be no mistake. Whether a man is cold hearted or not is a much more difficult question. Strong emotions may be hid by a stoical deportment. Kind and caressing manners may conceal an unfeeling disposition. Romilly, whose sensibility was morbidly strong, and who died a martyr to it, was by many thought to be incapable of affection. Rousseau, who was always soaking people's waistcoats with his tears, betrayed and slandered all his benefactors in turn and sent his children to the Enfans Trouvees. The real charge against the Duke of Bedford, and one which, I appre1 2
See 7 December. John Russell (1710-71: DNB)9 fourth Duke of Bedford, politician, head of the 'Bloomsbury gang'; Mahon had called the Duke a * cold-hearted hot-headed man' (History of England from the Peace of Utrecht, in [1838], 543). Lord John Russell had just begun the publication of the Duke's letters (3 vols., 1842-6), supplying prefaces in which he sought to vindicate the Duke's political conduct.
72
Henry Holland
23 November 1842
hend, Lord John will not find it easy to refute, is this, - that the party, or rather clique which he formed round him, by which he was governed, and to the interests of which he devoted all the great weight of his rank, possessions and influence, was composed, I think without one exception, of rascals. There was Gower,1 — a rat; Sandwich, 2 -a Jemmy Twitcher, profligate in politics, profligate in private life, a spy and traitor in his debauches; Rigby,3 — the personification of impudence and corruption; Weymouth,4 - a sot and a black leg. I remember no redeeming virtue in the whole set. This is a grave charge. A man whose station enables him to chuse his friends, and who, in the course of a long and eventful life, chuses none but the scandalously unworthy, must be considered as a fit companion for them.5 This is my present view. But I have still much to learn about him and his times.6 / Ever, dear Lord Mahon, Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO HENRY HOLLAND, 23 NOVEMBER 1842 MS; Mr D. C. L. Holland.
Albany N o v 23. 1842
Dear Dr. Holland, Look for a moment, if you can spare time for such a trifle, at Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 15. He says that Germany in his days produced "insignia bourn ferorum genera, jubatos bisontes, excellentique vi et velocitate uros." You will agree with me, I think, that this is sufficient authority for the passage about which you had doubts,7 though the animal of which Pliny 1
2
3
4
5
6 7
Granville Leveson-Gower (1721-1803: DNB), second Earl Gower and first Marquess of Stafford, the Duke of Bedford's brother-in-law. Johnson used his name in the definition of 'Renegado' though the printer deleted the reference (Boswell, Life of Johnson, ed. Hill and Powell, 1, 296). John Montagu (1718-92: DNB), fourth Earl of Sandwich, a member of the Hell Fire Club; called Jemmy Twitcher for his betrayal of Wilkes. Richard Rigby (1722—88: DNB), sometime secretary to the Duke of Bedford and a notable place-hunter. Thomas Thynne (1734-96: DNB), third Viscount Weymouth and first Marquess of Bath, well described in TBM's epithets. In the second volume of the Correspondence of John, Fourth Duke of Bedford, 1843, Russell took notice of Mahon's character of the Duke, accepting the epithet * hot-headed' but rejecting * cold-hearted' (xi). He may have TBM's criticism in mind in observing that 'it was unfortunate for the Duke of Bedford that his political friends had so little of his own disinterested concern for the public good: and the result shows how careful a public man should be in the choice of his political associates' (xx-xxi). See 25 October 1844. Perhaps 'The bison in the stall' in stanza 12 of * The Prophecy of Capys.' 73
\z6 November 1S42]
[Edward Everett]
spoke may have very likely differed in some respects from the American wild-ox to which the name of bison is now appropriated. If the bison was common in Germany when Vespasian was Emperor, it is possible, nay probable, that, before the Punic wars, it may have been found among the Apennines. At all events it would be known to the Romans by report, and its hide would find its way to their marts. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO [ E D W A R D E V E R E T T , 1
26
NOVEMBER
1842]2
MS: Massachusetts Historical Society.
Albany Saturday My dear Sir, I only write to remind you that you breakfast with me on Tuesday at ten. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S ,
[26
NOVEMBER
1842]3
MS: Trinity College.
Albany Saturday Dear Ellis, Remember that you breakfast with me on Tuesday at ten. I have secured the Yankee Envoy, who is, I must say, the best article that I have seen from Massachusetts, not excepting Webster. The Eastern news is as good as possible.4 I wish what I have not wished since I went out, that I were a minister again only in order to read the details of the negociation with the Chinese. I never longed for red boxes before. I understand that there is a very remarkable letter from the Emperor. He says that he hears that the English insist on having his sign1
2
3 4
Everett (1794-1865), statesman, orator, and scholar, had an exceptionally active and varied career; he had been a minister in Boston, Professor of Greek at Harvard (and the first American to receive a German Ph.D.), editor of the North American Review, United States Representative from Massachusetts, and Governor of Massachusetts before he was forty; in September, 1841, he was appointed U.S. Minister to England, where he remained until 1845. After his return to the U.S. he was successively President of Harvard, Secretary of State, and Senator from Massachusetts. Everett had visited Zachary Macaulay in London in 1815 and 1818 (P. R. Frothingham, Edward Everett, Boston, 1925, pp. 38; 49-50). The date has been added in another hand, and is confirmed by Everett's journal: on Tuesday, 29 November 1842, he breakfasted with TBM; the Saturday preceding was 26 November (Frothingham, Edward Everett, p. 212). Dated by reference to preceding letter. News of the treaty of peace concluded with China reached London on 21 November.
74
[Thomas Longman?]
[November? 2842]
manual to the ratification, that this is quite unprecedented, but that he supposes that they place a greater confidence in his word than in that of any subject, that this is honorable to him and that he takes it as a just compliment, and that he will therefore not refuse his signature.1 We are good tutors, and the Chinese promising pupils. We taught them the meaning of a flag of truce first. Now we have initiated them into the mystery of ratifications. They are becoming publicists fast; and I should not wonder if before long some Mandarin of the first class were to find out an answer to the great question "Quid est Protocol?" Ever yours T B Macaulay TO [ T H O M A S L O N G M A N ? , N O V E M B E R ?
1842]2
MS: Trinity College.
[London] P.S. I had written the above when your packet arrived. Many thanks. I have the 5th Volume of Mme. D'Arblay.
TO M R S MARY M I L N E R , 3 [1842?]4 Text: Mary Milner, The Life of Isaac Milner, 1842, pp. 560-1; 595—7; 707-8.
I fear that my recollections of your uncle will be of little use to you. They are, for the most part, the recollections of a child; but, such as they are, I have great pleasure in recalling them. Dean Milner was one of the many valuable friends to whom my dear father was introduced by Mr. Wilberforce: and while Mr. Wilberforce lived on Clapham Common, I once or twice saw the Dean there; but I do not remember, that he ever noticed me. In 1813, and 1814, I was at school, in the neighbourhood of Cambridge. We had holidays at Easter, but so short, that it was not worth 1
2
3 4
I have not found this in print, but it is perhaps that described in the Morning Chronicle, 23 November, as stating the Emperor's willingness * to agree to whatever terms we might demand, that would not compromise the honour of the Celestial Empire.' This fragment is probably to be dated not many days later than the publication of the fifth volume of Mme. D'Arblay's Diary and Letters, advertised as 'just published' in the Athenaeum, 12 November 1842. The recipient may be Napier, but Longman is the person more likely to send TBM packets of books. Mary Milner (1798?-! 863: Boase), Milner's niece and biographer. The Life of Milner appeared in mid-December 1842; there is no evidence to tell how much earlier it was that TBM wrote this letter.
75
[i842-p]
Mrs Mary Milner
while for any boy who resided at a distance, to go home; and I expected to pass three or four very dull days: for nothing is so wretched as a vacation spent at school. I remember with what delight I learned, on Easter Monday, 1813, that the Dean of Carlisle had sent for me, and that I was to pass the week at the Lodge of Queen's College.1 My delight was not indeed unmingled with apprehension. I was only twelve years old; Dean Milner must have been upwards of sixty. His figure, which> to a child, seemed gigantic, inspired me with awe. I had also heard some young men from Cambridge, while praising his great talents and acquirements, speak with dislike of his rigid opinions, and of the sternness with which he exercised his authority. I remember, that, though I enjoyed the thought of rambling about among the Colleges, I anticipated no pleasure in the company of my host, whom I had pictured to myself as a severe and imperious old man. With such feelings I reached the Lodge of Queen's College, and there I was instantly set at ease. The Dean laid himself out to please and amuse me, as if he had been an affectionate grandfather and I a favourite grandchild. In the first place, he insisted on knowing what I should like for dinner. Then he ransacked his library to find entertainment for me. In the long gallery which joined his study and the dining-room I first became acquainted with Moliere and with Richardson. I still remember with what gaiety and interest he talked to me about them. But what I have often since thought most remarkable, was the dexterity with which he extracted from the gravest sciences entertainment for an idle boy. I well remember with what delight I sate by him one morning over a huge volume of the plates of the Encyclopedia^ while he explained to me the principle of one machine after another. Then he turned the conversation to Count Rumford's plans in Bavaria,2 and gave a history of them, so lively, that I have never forgotten it. He had a taste, amounting to a passion, for all those curious exhibitions which border on the marvellous, which ignorant and superstitious people are apt to think preternatural, and which even those who do not think them preternatural, are forced to admit to be quite inexplicable. He loved to strip away the mystery from these things, and to reduce them to simple natural phenomena. It was he who discovered the nature of the machinery by which the Invisible Girl diverted and amazed London.3 He was also eminently successful in detecting the tricks of jugglers. This turn of mind, 1 2
3
See 20 April 1813. The American Benjamin Thompson (1753-1814: DNB), Count of the Holy Roman Empire, was in the service of the Elector Palatine of Bavaria, 1784-95, when he undertook to reform the army, suppress begging, and establish poor relief. In 1802, at an exhibition near Leicester Fields featuring disembodied voices and noises. Milman's letter explaining the means is in his Life, pp. 260-3.
76
Mrs Mary Milner
[2S42?]
it may be easily supposed, made him a delightful companion for a boy. He had an inexhaustible fund of anecdotes about ventriloquism, legerdemain, the performances of automatons, optical delusions, etc. How he talked about science to men I do not know, but to me he made it as agreeable as an Arabian tale.1 In 1814, Dr. Milner again insisted on my passing the Easter holidays with him;2 and he was, if possible, kinder than before. It was a time not to be forgotten by the youngest who were able to comprehend the signs of public joy. The news of the fall of Paris, and of the abdication of Napoleon, arrived, I think, on the very day on which I went on my second visit to the Lodge of Queen's College. Cambridge was illuminated; and my kind old friend was divided between his wish that I should see the shew, and his fear that I might come to some harm in the crowd. He sent me out with all sorts of precautions, and told me, afterwards, that he could not compose himself to sleep till he knew that I was safe at home. In general this visit resembled the last, except that, as was natural at such a season, he talked much more of history and politics, than of natural science. One story which he told at breakfast, over his great bowl of milk, I well remember. "The first time," he said, "that I ever heard about war or the French, was when I was a little child in London. I was taken out of bed late at night, and carried to the window. All the street was alive, though it was midnight. The watchman was calling * Past twelve o'clock - Quebec taken.' The news came late; and the Lord Mayor had given orders that the watchmen should cry it, with the hour, all through the city." He talked of the bearing of the recent events upon religion - of the restoration of the Pope - of the suppression of the order of Jesuits, and of the probability of its revival. Then he went back to the Reformation, and found me, for my age, an intelligent listener; for I had lately been reading his history of that time,3 and Robertson's Charles the Fifth.* I ventured to say some hard things of Luther, which he pronounced to be most unjust; and took down from his bookcase some letters of Melancthon, in order to set me right. He was very severe on Erasmus, though the most distinguished ornament of his own College. He said, "We have no relique of him at Queen's except a huge cork-screw; and I am afraid that there was nothing in his principles to keep him from making very assiduous use of it." Soon after this visit I quitted the neighbourhood of Cambridge, and some years elapsed before I saw the Dean again.5 1
The extract on pp. 560-1 ends here; there is no evidence to show whether it is continuous 2 with what follows. See 11 April 1814. 3 That is, the fourth volume (1809) of The History of the Church of Christ: see 20 April 4 1813. See 12 February 1813. s The extract on pp. 595-7 ends here.
77
[2] December 1842
Thomas Flower Ellis
The last time that I visited your uncle was in January, 1820. He had, as Lucasian Professor, examined three or four of the most distinguished mathematicians among the Bachelors of Arts, for the Smith's Prize. Their papers were lying on the table. He took them up and talked, with great force and animation, of the progress which his favourite sciences had made since his youth. He spoke of his own examination for his degree, and said, that he had been in a very desponding mood, and had feared, till the result was known, that he had completely failed. I was surprised at this: for his appearance on that occasion was still remembered, at the distance of nearly half a century. He was not only Senior Wrangler, but so superior to all his competitors, that the Moderators put the word Incomparabilis after his name. He told me many interesting anecdotes illustrative of the state of the University in his younger days. At last he brought out, with a look of mystery, a portfolio containing a collection of academical pasquinades, written, I think, about the year 1780. "I hardly know," he said, "whether I am right in showing a young fellow in statu pupillari all these squibs on Professors and Heads of Houses. But, I believe, you are a good boy, and that they will do you no harm." Then he read, with peculiar delight, some lively lines upon a dispute between an unpopular Proctor, and a young fellow-commoner of Trinity, who has since risen to the highest honours of the State, and whose name will occupy a distinguished place in English history.1 I then took my leave, and I never saw him afterwards. But I have ever retained a most grateful and respectful recollection of his great kindness to me.
TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , [2]* D E C E M B E R
1842
MS: Trinity College. Albany Dec 3. 1842 Dear Ellis, Longman has been here. The first edition has gone off, and we have a hundred and forty pounds of clear profit to divide. A second edition is to be brought out with all speed. I want to consult you about corrections. I wish that you would dine here either to morrow — Saturday, or on Monday. On Tuesday I shall be engaged, and on Wednesday I should wish the corrected copy to be in the printer's hands. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
2
Dr R. Robson of Trinity suggests that this may have been Lord Grey, who was a fellowcommoner of Trinity and came up in 1781. December 3 was a Saturday, but since TBM calls Saturday * tomorrow' this must have been written on the Friday.
78
Macvey Napier
3 December 2842
TO MACVEY NAPIER, 3 DECEMBER
1842
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Trevelyan, 11, 123-4.
Albany London / December 3. 1842 Dear Napier, I am at work for you, though some hindrances have been in my way. I do not very much like the subject. But I think that I shall send you something readable. How long the article will be I cannot guess; but certainly, I think, within fifty pages. Longman has earnestly pressed me to consent to the republication of some of my reviews. The plan is one of which, as you know, I had thought, and which, on full consideration, I had rejected. But there are new circumstances in the case. The American edition is coming over by wholesale. To keep out the American copies by legal measures, and yet to refuse to publish an edition here, would be an odious course, and in the very spirit of the dog in the manger. I am therefore strongly inclined to accede to Longman's proposition. And, if the thing is to be done, the sooner the better.1 I am about to put forth a second edition of my little volume of Roman Lays.2 They have had great success. By the bye Wilson3 whom I never saw but at your table has behaved very handsomely about them. I am not in the habit of returning thanks for favourable criticism. For as Johnson says in his life of Lyttelton, such thanks must be paid either for flattery or for justice. But when a strong political opponent bestows fervent praise on a work which he might easily depreciate by means of sly sneers and cold commendations, and which he might, if he chose, pass by in utter silence, he ought, I think, to be told that his courtesy and good feeling are justly appreciated. And I should be really obliged to you if, when you have an opportunity, you will let Professor Wilson know that his conduct has affected me as generous conduct affects men not ungenerous. Your Church question is ripe and more than ripe for decision. I am glad that the responsibility lies on Peel and not on me. What are your own views? I do not think that you ever mentioned them to me. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
3
Napier was opposed to the republication of the essays, apparently thinking that it would hurt the sale of the ER. Longman wrote on 28 November that 'we think that the consequent e"clat would rather increase the sale of the current number of the Review.' He adds the interesting detail that TBM apparently thought of making the publication a miscellany, including ' a few papers he has contributed elsewhere as well as a few Poems' (MS, British 2 Museum). A second edition, of 500 copies, was published in December. Professor John Wilson, who reviewed the Lays enthusiastically in Blackwood's, LII (December 1842), 802-24.
79
3 December 2842
Edward Everett
TO E D W A R D E V E R E T T , 3 D E C E M B E R
1842
MS: Massachusetts Historical Society. Albany December 3. 1842 My dear Mr. Everett, I shall have very great pleasure in breakfasting with you on Wednesday. I am truly glad to learn that you like my little volume. It is gratifying to me to think that, in language and in all that regards literature, we are fellow-citizens. I am ashamed to say that what you mention concerning the imagines1 is new to me. But you are undoubtedly right. I have not Schweighauser's notes.2 But I have looked into Polybius's text; and I am quite certain that you have understood him correctly. Indeed I cannot make sense of his words in any other way, and am at a loss to imagine how, when I read him formerly, I could be so dull as to miss his obvious meaning. I suppose that the mumming of which he speaks went out when the Greek arts came in. In the Augustan age the funeral images were, I take it, statues, and not masked and disguised men. But we shall have other opportunities of discussing these curious questions. I own that they have a strange fascination for me. Ever yours most faithfully T B Macaulay TO U N I D E N T I F I E D R E C I P I E N T , 3 D E C E M B E R
1842
MS: Huntington Library.
Albany Dec 3. 1842 Sir, I am very sensible of the honor which you do me by proposing to join my name to the very distinguished names of Sir David Brewster, Professor Pryme,3 Professor Wilson, and Mr. Merivale. But reasons too numerous to be explained by letter, and too weighty to be removed, have determined me to decline the office with which you would invest me. I only beg that you will not suppose me to be actuated by any unfriendly feeling towards the very respectable paper of which you are 1
2 3
Polybius, vi, 3, describing the use of images at Roman funerals. In the introductory note to 'Horatius' TBM had mentioned that Polybius cites the story of Horatius 'as a specimen of the narratives with which the Romans were in the habit of embellishing their funeral oratory.' Everett had evidently called his attention to the earlier discussion of funeral customs in Polybius. Jean Schweighauser, ed., Polybius, 8 vols., Leipzig, 1789-95. George Pryme, Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge: see 4 November 1848. 80
[Thomas Longman]
5 December 1842
proprietor. The considerations which have determined me would have produced the same effect from whatever quarter the proposition had been made. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your most obedient Servant T B Macaulay TO [ T H O M A S L O N G M A N ] , 5 D E C E M B E R
1842
MS: Auckland Public Library.
Albany Deer. 5 / 1842 Dear Sir, I wish that you would send a copy of the Lays to Sir Robert H Inglis M P, 7 Bedford Square, and another, if you can manage it, to the Reverend H E Head,1 Rectory, Feniton, Honiton, in Devonshire. I will call to morrow, and leave with you the corrected copy, from which I wish the second edition to be printed. Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO L O R D M A H O N , 7 D E C E M B E R
1842
MS: Stanhope Papers, Chevening.
Albany London / December 7. 1842 Dear Lord Mahon, I found your book 2 on my table the day before yesterday; and, opening it with eagerness, was startled at finding it to be in French. If the thing were still to do, I should, I must own, be inclined to offer to you the advice which Quirinus gave to Horace, when Horace was tempted to write in Greek.3 But the thing is done; and though I could have wished to see you exert your native vigour without the trammels which are necessarily imposed by a foreign language, yet, since you chuse to run in a sack, I cannot but own that in a sack you run very well. I have turned over the whole volume, pausing on passages of particular interest, and have been greatly pleased with it. But I must give it a more deliberate perusal. The part which surprised me most was that in which you speak of the Man in the Iron Mask.4 I had always thought that Dulort's publication in 1
2
4
Henry Erskine Head (1797?-! 860), B.A., St Mary Hall, Oxford, 1825; Rector of Feniton, Devon, to his death. I know of no connection between him and TBM. Essai sur la Vie du Grand Condi, privately printed, 1842, in an edition of one hundred 3 copies. Satires, 1, x, 31-5. Mahon thinks he was the son of Mazarin and Anne of Austria (Essai, p. 402); in the English translation of the Essai that Mahon published in 1846 this guess is left unchanged. 8l
12 December 1842
Macvey Napier
18251 had settled the question, and that the mysterious prisoner was universally allowed to have been Matthioli. That opinion is at least so general that I can hardly help wishing that, since you reject it, you had indicated your reasons for doing so. Mackintosh, I know, considered Dulort's book as decisive, and indeed publicly expressed that opinion.2 Hallam thinks the same, though he tells me that Daru 3 doubted. It is long since I examined the question, and I have forgotten the details of the evidence. But I thought the case for Matthioli irrefragably made out. If you have satisfied yourself that it can be refuted, you might give us an interesting little treatise on that subject. / Ever, dear Lord Mahon, Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 12 D E C E M B E R MS:
1842
British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, p. 412.
Albany London / December 12. 1842 Dear Napier, Many thanks for your friendly letter. I do not know whether you are aware that, under the late copyright Act, Longman and I have a joint property in my articles in the Edinburgh Review. That is to say Longman cannot print them in a separate form without my consent.4 The bargain between us is on terms very favourable to me. The house takes all risks and the profits are to be equally divided. They seem however quite confident that there is no risk of loss, and even that the profit will be considerable. I am not however in want of money. And I should not have consented to the republication if I were not convinced that the question is now merely this, — whether Longman and I or Carey and Hart of Philadelphia shall have the supplying of the English Market with these papers. The American copies are really coming over by scores; and measures were in progress for bringing them over by hundreds. I do not see therefore what I could do better than agree to Longman's proposal. Much obliged to you for your kindness about Wilson. I am just about to bring out a second edition of my little volume, with only a few verbal changes. My article will be with you certainly before the end of the month, 1
2 3 4
Joseph Delort, Histoire de VHomme au Masque de Fer, Paris, 1825, identified the man in the mask as the Italian Count Ercole Antonio Mattioli. I have not found where he did so. Pierre Daru (1767-1829), French statesman, soldier, and historian. TBM is said to have put into Mahon's copyright bill the clause requiring an author's consent to the republication of articles in magazines (Knight, Passages of a Working Life, in, 29). 82
Sir Edward Bulwer
26 December 1842
which, as I reckon, will be very good time. How much earlier I cannot say. For I am forced to go to Bowood next week; and there it is impossible to do anything but talk, walk, and eat. I hear with pining of the delicious Islay Whiskey, which, I fear, I shall never taste. What an absurd system it is. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO S I R E D W A R D BULWER, 26 D E C E M B E R
1842
MS: Hertfordshire County Council.
Albany Dec 26 / 1842 Dear Bulwer, I have spent half an hour in turning over some books of French history; but I am in great doubt.1 Would not Charles of France, Louis's brother who was known first as Duke of Berri, and afterwards as Duke of Guienne serve your turn. He was of suitable age - just twenty one. I do not think that he was married. If he was he must have lost his wife soon after, for in 1470 he was desirous of making a match with the heiress of Burgundy. It is quite true that Louis XI was on bad terms with the princes. But he would willingly have seen any of them married to Margaret, if such a marriage would have cut out the Duke of Burgundy. Many thanks for your kind expressions about my Lays. You were the first person to speak well of them after they were published. I attribute their success chiefly to the circumstance that the public has been cloyed with bad imitations of Wordsworth. A plain chop is sure to be acceptable to a man who has been long fed with stale pastry from a second-rate confectioner's. Ever yours T B Macaulay As to Charles of France look at Comines,2 the last Chapter of the 2nd book and 8th Chapter of the 3d book. There you will see his age, and also that he was looking out for a wife. 1
2
The subject of this letter is a point raised in Bulwer's The Last of the Barons, published in February 1843. In the 'Dedicatory Epistle' (dated January 1843) Bulwer argues that the enmity between Edward IV and the Earl of Warwick arose when Warwick was sent on an embassy to arrange a marriage between Margaret, Edward's sister, and one of the French princes. Edward meantime arranged a marriage between Margaret and the Duke of Burgundy, whereupon, Bulwer writes, Warwick ' retired in disgust to his castle.' Which of the French princes Warwick had in mind as Margaret's husband was the question. Bulwer accepted TBM's suggestion: a note to the 'Dedicatory Epistle' names the Duke of Guienne as the 'most probable person.' Philippe de Commines, Memoires, 1524.
83
2j December 2842
Macvey Napier
TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 27 D E C E M B E R
1842
MS: British Museum. Albany Deer. 27 / 1842 Dear Napier, To day my article goes to Edinburgh and I go to Bowood. I shall be here again before Monday. The proofs should therefore be sent hither. It will be necessary that I should have them: for the article is very illwritten as respects penmanship, and not very well written, I fear, in any sense. But I hope it will not be found tedious by readers, though it is longer than I could have wished. Ever yours in haste T B Macaulay I have left a blank for the date of Mme. D'A's death. I will supply the omission in the proof.
TO [JAMES F R E E M A N CLARKE], 1 27 D E C E M B E R
1842
MS: Harvard University. Albany London / December 27. 1842 Sir, I am much obliged to you for your very kind and polite attention in sending me the extract from the New World, 2 which I had not seen, and, but for your courtesy, should probably never have seen. It is a great satisfaction to me to find that my poetry has given you pleasure. I rather think that you are right in preferring Virginia to the other Lays; but it is not the general favourite. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your faithful servant T B Macaulay 1
2
James Freeman Clarke (1810-88), minister of the Unitarian Church of the Disciples, Boston, and a prolific writer. A New York weekly journal, it published the whole of the Lays, 26 November- 10 December 1842, stating that they 'will largely increase the fame of the accomplished author' (p. 352).
84
Duncan McLaren
28 December 2842
TO DUNCAN MCLAREN, 28 DECEMBER
1842
Text: Scotsman, 11 March 1843.
Bowood, Dec. 28, 1842. Dear Sir, I should think nothing of quitting a party of friends, or of travelling seven hundred miles, to render a service to the cause of free trade. But I have, after full deliberation, and consultation with persons on whose judgment I rely, come to the opinion, that I shall best serve that cause by not connecting myself with the Anti-Corn-law League. I think, therefore, that my attendance at your meeting1 could do no good, and might do harm. My opinions as to the Corn-laws have already been publicly expressed. They are now stronger than ever; and I shall be prepared, when Parliament meets, to vote, and, if necessary, to speak against all protecting duties on food. I do not know, in the least, where Craig is, and was not aware that he had left Edinburgh. I cannot, therefore, forward your letter to him. 1
On 12 January 1843.
TO THE LAST EDINBURGH 1843-1844
REVIEW
1843 March 9 Speech on Gates of Somnauth - April 1 Collected Essays, 3 vols., published -July 'Life and Writings of Addison,' ER - July 7 Speech on state of Ireland - c. August 21 — September 15 Tour of the Loire valley 1844 February 19 Speech on state of Ireland - April 'Barere's Memoirs,' ER - May 4 Appointed to Fine Arts Commission for decoration of new Houses of Parliament - June 6 Speech on Dissenters' Chapels Bill - October 'Early Administrations of George the Third: the Earl of Chatham,' ER: TBM's last contribution - c. October 7-22 Tour of the Low Countries - December 6 Gives up connection with ER in order to concentrate on History
87
4-2
Macvey Napier
3 January 1843
TO MACVEY NAPIER, 3 JANUARY
1843
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Myron F. Brightfield, John Wilson Croker, Berkeley, 1940, pp. 132-4; 359.
Albany London Jany. 3 / 1843 Dear Napier, I made a slight alteration yesterday in the passage about Croker, but an alteration which in no respect diminished the severity to which you object.1 I must say that I only regret that my expressions were not stronger. Nobody detests lampoons on private character more than I, or has less offended in that way. But I conceive that when there stands recorded in public documents proof of immoral and infamous conduct against a public man, an allusion to such conduct is perfectly justifiable. It is clear from the journals of the House of Commons that Croker played the spy on Mrs. Clarke.2 It was sworn by himself, only the other day, that he was the most intimate confidant of Lord Hertford,3 at a time when Lord Hertford's House was as scandalous a nuisance as ever the Key in Chandos Street or the White House in Soho Square were. It was sworn by the girls of Lord Hertford's harem before Lord Abinger that Croker used to dine with them. By compliances of this sort he has obtained a legacy from an old debauchee whose name is held in as much abhorrence by the country as ever was that of Colonel Chartres.4 Add to this all 1
2
3
4
In his review of Memoirs of Doctor Burney Croker had accused Mme. D'Arblay of pretending that she was only seventeen when she published Evelina (the heroine's, not the author's age); Croker had made a trip to King's Lynn to consult the parish registers to make his point against her. In his article, TBM observed that, though there were plenty of envious critics in Mme. D'Arblay's own day, 'it did not. . . occur to them to search the parish-register of Lynn, in order that they might be able to twit a lady with having concealed her age. That truly chivalrous exploit was reserved for a bad writer of our own time, whose spite she had provoked by not furnishing him with materials for a worthless edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson, some sheets of which our readers have doubtless seen round parcels of better books' (ER, LXXVI, 537). TBM did not remove this passage from later printings of the essay. See below, page 90, note 7. The Duke of York's mistress, who was proved to have taken bribes from officers hoping for promotion, the Duke of York being Commander in Chief; the Duke in consequence was forced to resign in 1809 but was restored to his position in 1811: for Croker's part, which TBM has distorted, see Brightfield, Croker, pp. 29—33. The third Marquess (1777—1842: DNB), a notorious profligate, Thackeray's Lord Steyne. Lord Hertford died in the preceding March. Croker, who received a legacy of £21,000 from Lord Hertford, was also one of Hertford's executors. In that capacity he had sued one of Hertford's servants for the recovery of certain sums. The evidence that TBM refers to in this letter appeared at the trial in July-August 1842: see Brightfield, Croker, pp. 129-31. The parallel between Lord Hertford and Lord Steyne led some people to draw a further parallel between Croker and Mr Wenham of Vanity Fair and Pendennis, Lord Steyne's confidential servant; TBM would no doubt have been among them, though Brightfield argues persuasively that Thackeray could not have intended such an identification (ibid., pp. 386-7). Colonel Francis Charteris (1675-173 2: DNB), a by-word in his time for dissoluteness and vice.
89
3 January 2843
Macvey Napier
the scandals of Croker's literary life, his ferocious insults to women, to Lady Morgan,1 Mrs. Austin and others, - his twitting Harriet Martineau with her deafness,2 — his trying to raise the London mob to hoot Marshal Soult at the Coronation.3 I might add a hundred other charges. These, observe, are things done by a privy-councillor, by a man who has a pension from the country of 2000 £ a year,4 by a man who affects to be a champion of order and religion. To shrink from expressing the sentiments with which such a scandal to letters and society must be regarded seems to me unworthy of the Review. I had written these words "It is merely a speck in the life of one who got a good place by playing the spy on a courtesan in his youth, and a good legacy by turning parasite to a whole seraglio of courtesans in his old age." 5 And I should have printed these words if I had been going to publish with my own name. But it occurred to me that the fellow, dastard as he is, might show fight, and might address himself to you as Wallace did, and that some embarrassment might be the result.6 I have no apprehension that any such step can by possibility follow, if the passage be suffered to stand as I have left it. If these considerations do not satisfy you, you can cut out all that follows the word "better books." 7 Or you may substitute for the words which you wish to omit the following words. "We shall give him the highest gratification which a nature like his is capable of feeling, when we inform him that his attack was most acutely felt by Madame D'Arblay." 8 That Croker asked her for materials and got none was told me by Wilbraham late M.P. for Cheshire, who had it from Mme. D'Arblay's own sister. He told me this, not loosely as people sometimes tell things in conversation, but as a fact which he had ascertained, and which ought to be mentioned in the Review. It is also so probable that I wonder that I never guessed it to be the explanation of Croker's rancour. He went about 1
2
3
4 5 6
7
8
In the Quarterly Review, xvn (April 1817) and xxv (July 1821), reviewing Lady Morgan's France and Italy. Croker reviewed her Morals and Manners in the Quarterly Review, LXIII (January 1839), 61—72, making several sarcastic remarks about how deafness and blindness enhance the power of moral observation. Apparently a Whig legend: see Brightfield, Croker, pp. 326-8. The basis of the charge is that Croker published an article on Soult in the Quarterly, LXII (June 1838), 161-85, stressing Soult's defeat by Wellington at Toulouse. But Croker concludes: * England, we confidently hope, will show more tact on the reception — than France has done in the selection — of the Ambassador Extraordinary? In fact £1,500. These words do not appear in the MS. Brightfield indignantly remarks: * But Macaulay knew that he was personally safe in slandering a man who was sixty-three years old and in infirm health' (Croker, p. i33n). Napier did. The passage reads: *We wonder a little at the severity with which we have heard him censured on this account. In any other man's life this would, we own, have been a serious stain. In his it is hardly a speck' (MS, British Museum). This does not appear in the essay.
90
Duncan McLaren
4 January 2843
to every body, as I know, for materials; and certainly was not likely to pass by such a person as Madame, — the last survivor of the Streatham parties. That he got nothing from her may be seen by a glance at his book. Wilbraham added, what is likely enough, that Croker's letter asking for information was exceedingly rude and imperious.1 A happy New Year to you. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO D U N C A N M C L A R E N , 4 JANUARY
1843
Text: Mackie, Life of McLaren, I, 254-5.
Albany, London, January 4, 1843. My dear Sir, I am not quite sure that I fully understand you; but if I do, I am afraid that I must differ from you. You seem to me to lay down this principle, that no revenue ought to be raised for the exigencies of the State by duties or customs on the importation of any article from abroad, unless an equivalent duty be imposed on the production of that article at home. I have not studied these questions very deeply, but I have a strong impression that no financier or political economist ever maintained such a proposition as this. I hold the doctrines of Free Trade as strongly, I believe, as any person who has ever written about them; but I cannot admit that when a Government wants money, and is under the necessity of raising money by taxation, it ought to reject every tax which may interfere with the freedom of trade. That a tax interferes with the freedom of trade I admit is an objection, and a grave one. But there are, as you well know, objections to all taxes; and the business of the Legislature is to choose the least evil among the evils which present themselves. Though it is an evil that a tax should interfere with the freedom of trade, it may be a greater evil that a tax should be such as can only be levied by a most vexatious process or by means of a very costly machinery. The advantage which the customs have over other modes of taxations is this, that the collection causes scarcely any annoyance to the body of the people, and that the expense of agency is exceedingly small in comparison of the sum raised. Now this seems to me to be a sufficient reason for laying duties or customs on the 1
According to Sir Algernon West, Recollections, 1832-2886, 1899, 11, 74-5, when Trevelyan published parts of this letter in the Life Mrs Croker asked West to remonstrate with Trevelyan: 'to please her I wrote to Trevelyan, who was very kind, and promised to expunge the objectionable passages from his next edition, regretting their insertion.' Trevelyan kept his promise. 91
4 January 1843
Duncan McLaren
importation of many articles, though the production of these articles at home is not taxed. Take timber, for example. I think a duty on the importation of timber defensible in a country which, like ours, requires a large revenue. The duty is got with very little deduction. So bulky an article is not likely to be smuggled. The payment is made at the port, and the body of the people never see the face of the collectors. But suppose that, in order to prevent any interference with the freedom of trade, we were to lay an equivalent tax on British timber, what vexation must inevitably follow, unless, indeed, the tax were to be a mere dead-letter. An army of spies must be paid to fill all our woods and parks, and to besiege the shops of the joiners and builders. I therefore think it right to tax imported timber, and yet not to tax British timber. This, you say, acts as a protection to the British timber. I admit it. I cannot help it. It is not my object to protect British timber. My object is in good faith to get revenue which must be got somewhere, and to get it in the least vexatious and in the least chargeable way. If I cannot do this without incidentally affecting the freedom of trade, this is an evil. But still it may be the less of two evils. I am persuaded that you will, on consideration, agree with me that, in imposing taxes for purposes of revenue, freedom of trade is only one of several important considerations by which the policy of a Government ought to be guided, and that it may be right to lay duties on the importation of an article from abroad without taxing the production of that article at home. Whether corn be an article which ought to be thus dealt with is quite another question — a question respecting which I have still much to learn, and on which I have not given, in Parliament or elsewhere, an opinion. I content myself with saying that on the question of duty imposed for the purpose of protection, my mind is made up. I should be glad to learn whether we differ as to the principles which I have laid down. To me — perhaps from not having thought very much on financial science - they seem impregnable. Yours very truly, T. B. Macaulay.
92
Macvey Napier TO M A C V E Y N A P I E R ,
1 o January 1843 10 J A N U A R Y
1843
MS: British Museum. Partly published: Brightfield, Croker, pp. 360-1.
Albany London Jany. 10 / 1843 Dear Napier, I dare say that you have judged rightly about Croker. The passage has, perhaps, a more contemptuous air as it stands than it had at first: and contempt is the proper weapon against such a creature. Of course we must refer him to Wilbraham, if necessary. But Croker will be quiet. He is bold enough against the helpless. But he knows pretty well that I am not one of that class. Indeed even if the story of his application to Mme. D'Arblay were false, I do not see why he should contradict it. I do not consider it as an aggravation of his guilt. Nay I am not sure that it is not a slight, a very slight, mitigation. That he searched the Register of Lynn in order to taunt her with her age is certain. That this was a base, dirty, spiteful act is certain. If it was not done in consequence of some petty provocation, it must have been done from the mere wanton desire to give pain to an old lady of blameless character and great talents. Now I own that revenge, however mean and intemperate, seems to me rather less odious than malevolence absolutely causeless. If I were to murder a child for driving his hoop against me in the street, I should be a little, a very little, less depraved than if I murdered him solely that I might enjoy the misery of his parents and his own agonies. I did not allude to the story because I thought that it made Croker's conduct morally worse, but because it gave me an opportunity for introducing a sneer at his character as an author, which I thought him likely to feel more acutely than any reflection on his character as a man. I will add one word about my motives for falling on him as I have done. I was under the necessity of paying Lockhart a compliment in the preface to my Lays of Ancient Rome.1 Every body who knows his translations from the Spanish will admit that it would have been unjust to treat of ballad-poetry without some tribute to his distinguished merit. I could not however help fearing that I might be suspected of wishing to bribe the Quarterly Review into civility.2 I was therefore glad to have an early opportunity of shewing that I had no such shabby intention. 1
2
* There is, indeed, little doubt that oblivion covers . . . many Spanish songs as good as the best of those which have been so happily translated by Mr. Lockhart' (Preface, Lays of Ancient Rome, p. 13). Towards the Lays, praised by Milman, Quarterly Review, LXXI (March 1843), 453—77. Lockhart printed the article, after TBM's attack on Croker had been published, but asked Milman whether an editor should 'allow his contributor to be thus handled, and then caress the enemy?' (Andrew Lang, Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart, 1897,11, 214).
93
22 January 2843
Duncan McLaren
My article is on the whole well printed. But there is one vexatious mistake,-not a misprint, but a deliberate alteration. It is in page 533 four lines from the bottom. In a Dictionary of Dramatic Authors published while Samuel Crisp was yet alive I found the author of Virginia described as Henry Crisp. This was a remarkable proof of the degree in which Samuel Crisp had been forgotten in literary circles. Henry was in the M.S. and Henry was also in the proof which I returned to you. Henry has been altered into Samuel, and the whole meaning of the passage destroyed. Nobody will be able to understand why the Dictionary is mentioned. Probably you supposed that I had committed some inadvertence and made the change without fully considering the context. If so, there is no more to be said. You will, I am sure, believe, that I should never think such a trifle worth naming between you and me. But it is just possible that some subordinate authority may have made this alteration. If so, something ought to be done. I really must beg that, after I have corrected my proofs, nobody but yourself may alter any thing. I have not yet had time to read any article but my own. I have an odd story for you about Brougham. He wrote from Paris to my old college friend Professor Maiden the strangest letter that I ever saw. I really would not have believed any evidence except that of his wellknown hand writing which I have actually seen. He puffs my Lays, which I know that he has always abused, pronounces me the fittest person to write a history of Rome, and implores Maiden to induce me to undertake such a work. Whether he is out of his wits, or wants to make up our quarrel, I do not know. One thing I know that under no circumstances whatever will I have any intercourse with him beyond the coldest and most distant civility. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO D U N C A N M C L A R E N , 12 JANUARY
1843
Text: Mackie, Life of McLaren, 1, 255-6.
Albany, London, January 12, 1843. My dear Sir, I am glad to find that we do not differ on any matter of principle. We both think duties imposed for the purpose of protection indefensible. We both think that it may sometimes be fit to impose duties on the importation of articles the home production of which it not taxed. We both see that such duties must to a certain extent operate as a protection. But we think that, for the purposes of revenue, that evil must sometimes 94
William Stradling
13 January 1843
be incurred. Whether any particular article is of such a kind that it ought to be taxed when imported, and not taxed when produced at home, is a question which must be determined, as we both agree, by many considerations of convenience. You think with me that timber, in the present state of our finances, is such an article. The question whether corn be such an article is not to me equally clear. You confidently pronounce that it is not; I must examine into that matter much more deeply before I pronounce. As to the credit which I may gain or lose, it is the smallest part of my care. I will most willingly consent to be called a mere party man all my life, if by taking that name on myself I can promote the abolition, or even the mitigation, of the present system of monopoly. I will not detain you longer, as you must be busy at this time. I wish you a good meeting, and unmolested by the Chartists. Ever yours truly, T. B. Macaulay. TO W I L L I A M S T R A D L I N G , 1
13 J A N U A R Y
1843
MS: Mr F. R. Cowell. Envelope: W Stradling Esq / Roseville / Bridgewater. Subscription: TBM.
Albany London / Jany. 13. 1843 Sir, I retain a most agreeable recollection of my short visit to your very interesting dwelling, and of the kindness with which I was received by you. Your letter is an additional obligation for which I am truly grateful. I shall lay it up with care; and I hope to be able to make good use of much that it contains. I am glad that what you have seen of my little volume of Lays pleased you. I have desired Mr. Longman to send you a copy of them, which you will, I hope, do me the favour to accept. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your faithful Servant T B Macaulay 1
Stradling, of an old Somersetshire family, entertained TBM on his visit to the scenes of Monmouth's rebellion in August of 1842. Stradling lived at Chilton Priory, near Bridgewater, and published A Description of the Priory of Chilton-super-Polden, Bridgewater, 1839, a copy of which was in TBM's library. In chapter 5 of the History of England, TBM acknowledges 'Mr. Stradling, who has taken laudable pains to preserve the relics and traditions of the Western insurrection' (1, 6oon).
95
[ 16 January 1843] TO [THOMAS LONGMAN,
[ Thomas Longman]
16 JANUARY 1843]1
MS: Osborn Collection, Yale University.
Albany Monday Dear Sir, Be so kind as to send me the three articles which I wrote in the 97th, 98th, and 99th Numbers of the Edinburgh Review. The 1st is on Mill's Treatise on Government; the other two on the Westminster Review.2 I am quite satisfied with all your arrangements.3 Yours very truly T B Macaulay
TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 18 JANUARY
1843
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Trevelyan, 11, 126.
Albany London / Jany. 18. 1843 Dear Napier, Your letter and the inclosed bill came safe. Another paper from me is at present out of the question. One in half a year is the very utmost of which I can hold out any hopes. I ought to give my whole leisure to my history; and I fear that if I suffer my self to be diverted from that design as I have done, I shall, like poor Mackintosh, leave behind me the character of a man who would have done something if he had concentrated his powers instead of frittering them away. I do assure you that, if it were not on your account, I should have already given up writing for the Review at all. There are people who can carry on twenty works at a time. Southey would write the history of Brazil before breakfast, an ode after breakfast, the history of the Peninsular war till dinner, and an article for the Quarterly Review in the evening. But I am of a different temper. I never write to please my self until my subject has for the time driven every other out of my head. When I turn from one work to another, a great deal of time is lost in the mere transition. I must not go on dawdling and reproaching my self all my life. Croker is quiet. I told you he would be so. We have evidence enough 1 2 3
Endorsed by Longman: 'Sent Jan 16 / 43/ 16 January was a Monday. The three articles on the Utilitarians that TBM published in the ER, March, June, and October, 1829. He did not reprint them in the collected essays: see 3 October 1829. TBM's contract with Longman for the Essays, dividing the profits equally between author and publisher, was signed on 18 January.
96
Thomas Longman
25 January 2843
against him without Wilbraham. Dr. Holland who attended Madame D'Arblay during the last years of her life heard the same story from her. I must stop. How foolish Dickens has been! *Ever yours T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S L O N G M A N , 25 JANUARY
1843
Text: Trevelyan, 11, 124.
[London] I find from many quarters that it is thought that the article on Southey's edition of Bunyan ought to be in the collection.2 It is a favourite with the Dissenters.
TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 6 F E B R U A R Y
1843
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 425-6.
Albany London / February 6. 1843 My dear Napier, Thanks on thanks for your kindness and care touching the whiskey. I hope to have both the black seals and the red seals soon in safety. The red shall wait till you come, as I hope you will, to the Albany in the approaching summer. You have been too long a stranger to us. Thanks too for your kindness about the Lays. I fully explained to you my feelings long ago. Had I thought that there could be any doubt, I should have written to beg earnestly that my little volume might not be reviewed. I had a letter from Wilbraham this morning expressing his own delight and that of the Burney family at the paper on Madame D'Arblay. Certainly the Burneys are easily pleased. But, I am afraid, the hatred of human beings is generally stronger than their love. Miss Sarah Burney3 seems 1
The Times, 14 January, happening to mention the review of Dickens's American Notes in the ER, Dickens wrote asking that The Times give publicity to his denial of the reviewer's statement that Dickens went to America as 'a kind of missionary in the cause of international copyright' {The Times, 16 January). Dickens then wrote to Napier, 21 January, suggesting that the ER set the matter right in its next number (Napier, Correspondence, pp. 416-18); accordingly, a note of apology appears in the ER, LXXVII (February 1843), 301. 2 It is included in the Essays. 3 The surviving sister: see 27 October 1842. But she was Mrs not Miss, having married her half-brother; her name remained Burney.
97
12 February 1843
Henry Venn
to be quite willing that her father the poor old Doctor shall be cut up, if Croker is cut up too. Pray can you tell me whether the new and complete edition of Goldsmith's works, promised in Prior's Life, has yet been published?1 And would it be too late for a Review of that edition? I have been reading Prior; and it seems to me that a good article might be made on poor Goldy without at all interfering with the line which Empson took some years ago. 2 This for next July. There is in the press, I believe, a life of Addison by Miss Aikin,3 which contains some new and curious information. You must allow me to bespeak that subject. I look on it as peculiarly my own. For I know him almost by heart. As Dante says, "Vagliami il lungo studio e '1 grande amore Che m'ha fatto cercar lo tuo volume." 4 In general what I should like to do for you would be literary biography. It costs me little trouble. It does not interfere with my main design. Nay, in reading with a view to my main design, I perpetually meet with things which, in a history, would be out of place, yet which in a life of Goldsmith or Addison, would be most interesting. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO H E N R Y V E N N , 5 I I F E B R U A R Y
1843
MS: Church Missionary Society.
Albany / February 11. 1843 Dear Venn, I am truly sorry to say that it will be impossible for me to be absent from the House of Commons next Friday, as that day has been fixed for a debate about the Kirk of Scotland.6 It would have given me great pleasure to join your party. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1
2
3
4 5
James Prior, The Life of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B., 2 vols., 1837; Prior also published The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, 4 vols., 1837. TBM gave up the idea: see 27 February. Empson's review was * Prior's Life of Goldsmith, ERy LXV (April 1837), 204-44, which takes a depreciatory view of Goldsmith as both man and author. Lucy Aikin, The Life of Joseph Addison, 2 vols., 1843, reviewed by TBM in *Life and Writings of Addison,' ER9 LXXVIII (July 1843), 193-260. Inferno, I, 83-4. Now Honorary Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, whose work was his main 6 interest for the rest of his life. The debate did not begin until 7 March.
98
Macvey Napier
13 February 2843
TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 13 F E B R U A R Y
1843
MS: British Museum. Albany London / February 13. 1843 Dear Napier, The whiskey came safe. I was not at home. But your sailor seems to have acquitted himself excellently. All the other contributors to the Review here are dying with envy and thirst. Indeed I expect that either Senior or Lord Monteagle1 will inform against us. For I am too proud of the red seals to be discreet. I hope that I shall see you here this spring. I will promise you two or three very quiet and pleasant parties in my cell. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 20 F E B R U A R Y
1843
MS: Trinity College. Published: Trevelyan, II, 137.
Albany February 20. 1843 Dear Ellis, Will you dine here on Wednesday? I suppose that you have heard of the stupid and disgraceful course which Lord John and Palmerston have resolved to take. I really cannot speak or write of it with patience. They are going to vote thanks to Ellenborough, in direct opposition to their opinion, and with an unanswerable case against him in their hands, only that they may save Auckland from recrimination.2 They will not save him however. Cowardice is a mighty poor defence against malice. And to sacrifice the whole weight and respectability of our party to the feelings of one man is - but the thing is too bad to talk about. I cannot avert the disgrace of our party. But I do not chuse to share it. I shall therefore go to Clapham quietly, and leave those who have cooked this dirt-pie for us to eat it. I did not think that any political matter would have excited me so much as this has done. I fought a very hard battle; but had nobody except Lord Minto and Lord Clanricarde to stand by me. I could easily get up a mutiny among our rank and file, if I chose. But as internal dissension is the single calamity 1 2
Spring-Rice had been created Baron Monteagle in 1839. After the disasters of the Afghan war under Auckland the English had taken Kabul and brought the fighting to an end in October, 1842. Ellenborough was now Governor-General, and the Tories proposed a vote of thanks to him. The Whigs, after meeting at Lord John Russell's, determined not to oppose the vote (see Greville, Memoirs, v, 83-4); it was passed unanimously the next day. On 9 March TBM attacked Ellenborough in his speech on the Gates of Somnauth.
99
21 February [j&fj ]
Thomas Flower Ellis
from which the Whigs are at present exempt, I will not add it to all their other plagues. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S ,
21
FEBRUARY
[1843]
MS: Trinity College. Mostly published: Trevelyan, n, 136-7.
Albany Feb 21 Dear Ellis, I will dine with you to morrow. I never thought that I should live to sympathize with Brougham's abuse of the Whigs. But I must own that we deserve it all. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO A D A M BLACK, 22 FEBRUARY
1843
Text: [Black], Biographies by Lord Macaulay; pp. xiii-xvii.
London, February 22, 1843. My dear Sir, I have delayed answering your kind letter till I received Mr. WighamV communication. My mind is quite made up. I am certain that the only chance of our getting any mitigation of the existing evils is to act together cordially against the sliding scale. If the party of the Anti-Corn-Law League choose to separate themselves from the supporters of a moderate fixed duty, and to run down Lord John and those who agree with him, I am inclined to believe that we shall have to wait many years for any real improvement. The truth is, that the friends of perfectly free trade, of whom I am sincerely one, are in general quite mistaken as to their own strength. They live in towns; they herd together; they echo and re-echo each other's sentiments; they are accustomed to see large meetings collected, all animated by the same feeling; and they have got into a habit of repeating that public opinion is for free trade, that monopoly is detested by all except the aristocracy, and so forth. One would think, to hear them, that the United Kingdom had no rural population at all. Take such a county as Essex, with a population and a constituent body more than twice as large as that of Edinburgh; or Devonshire, with a population and a constituent body nearly four times as large as that of Edinburgh; and 1
See next letter. IOO
Adam Black
22 February 1843
let any candidate for those counties talk CobdenV language on the hustings: nay, let him talk Lord John's, or even Gladstone's, and see how he will be received. He will be an object of as much detestation to the body of the farmers and yeomen as the Duke of Cleveland2 would be to our friends of the High Street. The Irish county members form, as you well know, a great part of the strength of the Liberal party in the House of Commons. There is hardly one of them who, whatever his opinion might be, would dare to vote for total repeal. He would infallibly lose his seat. It is to no purpose to say that this is ignorance and prejudice. I know it well; but I also know that you must work with such tools as you have. You are a minority of the people, told by the head. The higher and higher you go, the smaller is your minority. What, under such circumstances, is your clear policy? To consider all as with you who are not against you, to sink as much as possible all differences which exist between people sincerely desirous of extending the freedom of trade, and to supply, by prudence and union, the deficiency of strength. Instead of this, the members of the Ami-Corn-Law League seem to be determined to drive support from them. As if it were not enough to have against them the Government, the Church of England, the Peers, the House of Commons, the majority of the elective b o d y - the majority, I firmly believe, of the people of the United Kingdom - they must attack the very persons by whose help alone they can hope to get any thing at all. Can any man seriously think that any improvement can be made in the Corn Law till some government shall take the question up? Now, what materials are there for a government among the total and immediate repealers? To imagine that we shall have a cabinet excluding Peel, the Duke, Stanley, Graham, Lord Aberdeen, on the one side; excluding Lord John, Lord Palmerston, Lord Lansdowne, on the other, and consisting of leading members of the Corn-Law League, is quite idle. From an appeal to physical force all good men shrink with horror, and all judicious men know that if such an appeal were made, the Anti-Corn-Law League would come by the worse. But if there is to be no appeal to physical force, you can obtain no part of what you have in view, except by the support of one at least of the parties in the state. One of these parties is much nearer to you in sentiment than the other; but your policy, I mean that of the League, seems to be to treat them both alike with every species of indignity and contumely. Some purposes this course may answer. It may fill the bellies of itinerant spouters; it may circulate reams of bad writing; 1
2
Richard Cobden (1804-65: DNB), M.P. from 1841, leader of the Anti-Corn Law League and exponent of world peace through free trade. TBM probably means the first Duke (1766-1842: DNB) as a type of the vast landowner. IOI
22 February 1843
Adam Black
it may very likely put Mr. Sharman Crawford1 or Colonel Thompson 2 into my seat at Edinburgh; but it will not strike off a farthing from the price of the quartern loaf. These are my opinions. I express them to you without the reserve which might be proper in a letter intended for the public eye; but I have only one story for you, for Mr. Wigham, for the Cabinet, for the hustings, and for the House of Commons, though I may vary the phrase according to time and place. You see that, in my opinion, you are all in the wrong - not because you think all protection bad, for I think so too; not even because you avow your opinion and attempt to propagate it, for I have always done and shall always do the same; but because, being in a situation where your only hope is in a compromise, you refuse to hear of compromise; because, being in a situation where every person who will go a step with you on the right road ought to be cordially welcomed, you drive from you those who are willing and desirous to go with you half way. To this policy I will be no party. I will not abandon those with whom I have hitherto acted, and without whose help I am confident that no great improvement can be effected, for an object purely selfish. How could I ever hold up my head, if I did? What change has taken place since last year, when I refused to vote with Villiers.3 The Corn Law has grown no worse; the arguments against it are the same. The only difference is, that the feeling at Edinburgh is stronger; and that I may hazard my seat. Be it so. I am quite resolved to run the hazard; and of this I am certain, that if, holding the opinions which I have expressed, I did not run the hazard, you would despise me heartily. Ever yours, [T B Macaulay] 1
2
William Sharman Crawford (1781-1861: DNB\ Radical politician; M.P. for Dundalk, 1835-7; for Rochdale, 1841-52. T. Perronet Thompson (1783—1869: DNB), after an army career, took up economic subjects as a Utilitarian; he was proprietor of the Westminster Review at the time of TBM's attacks on it and wrote one of the articles in that controversy: see 3 October 1829. He sat for various constituencies, 1835-7; 1847-52; 1857-9, and was active in the agitation against the Corn Laws. Villiers moved a resolution against the Corn Laws every year from 1838 until their abolition.
102
John Wigham
22 February 2843
TO JOHN WIGHAM, 1 222 FEBRUARY
1843
Text: Scotsman, 11 March 1843.
Albany, London, February 22, 1843. My Dear Sir, I have nothing new to say on the subject of the Corn-laws. In speculation, my opinion is, that all protecting duties whatever are bad - that protecting duties on the necessaries of life are of all protecting duties the worst — and that a protecting duty raised on foreign corn, according to a sliding scale, is a protecting duty of the worst sort, raised in the worst way. But I do not, even in speculation, pronounce all duties on foreign corn to be indefensible. For I conceive that there are cases in which such duties, when levied in good faith, solely for the purpose of revenue, may be justified. When I come from the speculative to the practical question, I am met by great difficulties. I am firmly convinced that the total and immediate repeal of the Corn-laws, whether desirable or not, is unattainable; and that the only effect of demanding such repeal, in the way in which some of my friends demand it, and of rejecting all fellowship with the supporters of a moderate fixed duty, will be to prevent all change for the better, and to prolong the existence of the sliding scale. It was on these grounds that, when I was in office, I cordially concurred in the proposition which was brought forward by Lord John Russell. I did not think this proposition by any means unexceptionable. The best laws in our statute-book are not unexceptionable. I am sure that the Reform Bill was not unexceptionable. But I am sure that if everybody who saw faults in the Reform Bill had opposed it, and clamoured against it, Old Sarum would now have had two members, and Manchester none. And I am equally sure, that if all who think, as I sincerely think, that there ought to be no protecting duty on corn, are resolved to run down the supporters of a moderate fixed duty, to refuse all alliance with them, and to act as if there were no difference between the views of Lord John Russell and those of the Duke of Buckingham,3 we shall get nothing at all. The truth is, that you over-rate your strength greatly. The party which is for total and immediate repeal is, I am confident, a minority of the people of the United Kingdom told by the head — a minority of the elec1
2 3
John Wigham (1782?—1862), a shawl manufacturer and a Quaker, was chairman of the Edinburgh Anti-Corn Law Association. He nominated TBM in the election of January 1840, but he is said to have thrown TBM's letters to him into the fire after the appearance of the History, being disgusted by its treatment of Penn and George Fox. In his letter to McLaren of 24 February TBM says that he wrote to Wigham * yesterday' i.e., the 23rd; presumably this letter is meant. The second Duke (1797-1861: DNB), a type of the protectionist. 103
22 February 1843
John Wigfiam
tors of the United Kingdom - a very small minority among the rich, the great, and the chiefs of parties. If, therefore, you are determined to have all or nothing, you will have nothing. If, with the strenuous help of those who are for a moderate fixed duty, you are able, after a struggle of many months, to get rid of the sliding scale, you will have great reason to congratulate yourselves. I could easily hold language more pleasing to you - 1 could easily tell you that the opinion of the whole nation was against the Corn-laws, and that there was nothing on the other side but a handful of landlords; but if I told you this, I should tell you what I know to be false, and what anybody will find to be false, who will offer himself as a candidate for such counties as Lincolnshire and Devonshire, on the principles of the Anti-Corn-law League. The practical question, then, which I have to decide, is, whether, in order to pursue an object which, however good, I believe to be at present unattainable, I am to do what in me lies for the purpose of breaking up an alliance by which I believe that much real good may speedily be attained? Thinking thus, I will not pledge myself to vote for total and immediate repeal; and I am perfectly ready to take the consequences. Of this, at least, I am sure, that neither you nor any of my constituents can accuse me of disingenuousness as to this matter. You must own that I have been even better than my word; that I have given stronger votes and held stronger language against the Corn-laws, than my professions entitled you to expect from me. I never promised to vote for immediate and total repeal, or even for total repeal. I never in any manner, directly or indirectly, encouraged the expectation that I would so vote. Nay, when last I stood before you as a candidate, I was one of the supporters - indeed, one of the authors - of a proposition for a fixed duty of 8s. So standing, I was elected without a contest. The electors may have changed their views. I believe that they have, to a great extent, done so. But I am sure that they are too fair and too intelligent to accuse me of having deluded them; and that they would not think better of me if, solely to curry their favour, and without having seen any reason to change my views, I were to promise that I would change my course. I have only to thank you for your personal kindness to me, and to assure you, that no part which you may feel it your duty to take with respect to my seat in Parliament, will in the smallest degree diminish the esteem and good-will which I feel for you. 1 1
This letter and TBM's earlier letter to McLaren, 28 December 1842, were read at a meeting of the Edinburgh Association on 9 March; the meeting passed a resolution disapproving the position taken by TBM and Gibson Craig on the Corn Laws.
104
William Cabell Rives TO W I L L I A M
CABELL
23 February 1843 RIVES,1
23 F E B R U A R Y
1843
MS: Mr T. S. Blakeney. Albany, February 23, 1843. Mr. Macaulay presents his compliments to Mr. Rives, and begs Mr. Rives to accept his thanks for the very interesting speech of the Senator for Virginia.2 Mr. Rives will not expect Mr. Macaulay to express any opinion on the subjects discussed in that speech.
TO
DUNCAN MCLAREN, 24 FEBRUARY
1843
Text: Mackie, Life of McLaren, 1, 256-7.
Albany, London, February 24, 1843. My dear Sir, . . . The only question between us is one of fact. Is it the fact that a duty on home-grown corn could be collected with as little risk of evasion, as little charge of collection, and as little interference with the freedom and comfort of home life as a duty on foreign corn? If this be so, I at once admit that there ought to be no duty on foreign corn for purposes of revenue without a countervailing duty on home-grown corn. But as to this fact I feel considerable doubt. And that doubt is not removed by the circumstance that most versatile and unscrupulous debaters, whose great object is to defend the sliding scale, take the view contained in the speech which you have sent me. I have been a little misunderstood by you if you think that I am friendly to a duty on corn for purposes of revenue. I have no decided opinion on the fiscal question. All that I say is this, the fiscal question and the commercial question are quite distinct, and must be decided on different principles. As to the commercial question, I have made up my mind fully. As to the fiscal question, I see very much to be said on both sides, and I will not give a decided opinion. As to the question of the Corn-laws generally, I wrote yesterday to Mr. Wigham. I daresay that my conduct will be much censured; but my mind is made up. I am certain that the great object of the Tory squires is 1 2
Rives (1793-1868) was United States Senator from Virginia. No doubt the speech that Rives made in August 1842 in support of the Ashburton treaty, settling the Maine boundary and other disputed points between the United States and Canada (Congressional Globe, xii [1842—3], Appendix, 59-67). TBM attacked the treaty in his speech of 21 March 1843 (Hansard, 3rd Series, LXVII, 1252-67), in the course of which he refers to Rives' speech {ibid., 1263). 105
25 February 2843
Sir Edward Bulwer
to effect a complete breach between the fixed-duty men and the no-duty men. They have for a time succeeded. While that breach continues, the sliding scale is in perfect security. The experience of a very few months will, I hope, teach many of my friends that it is far better to take half, and only half, than to stickle for all and get nothing. But be this as it may, I shall leave with them the responsibility of throwing away what is attainable in the pursuit of what is unattainable, and of dissolving the alliance which at last general election seemed to be firmly established between all who are honestly desirous to give a large extension to the freedom of trade. Ever yours truly, T. B. Macaulay. TO S I R E D W A R D BULWER, 25 F E B R U A R Y
1843
MS: Hertfordshire County Council.
Albany February 25. 1843 Dear Bulwer, Many thanks for the book.1 I have read it with great interest and delight. These might indeed be considered as words of course about anything that you write. But in the present case they are significant. For, to own the truth, I have a distaste to the historical novel, a distaste which I will not undertake to defend, or even to explain, and which is somewhat inconsistent with the very great fondness which I feel for a kindred species of composition, the historical drama. Perhaps the exceedingly bad imitations of Sir Walter Scott which, in my novel-reading days, were poured forth by hundreds, and the feebleness of Scott's own latest performances in that kind, Peveril, Woodstock, Anne of Geierstein, Robert of Paris, Castle Dangerous, may have produced this dislike. It will not last, if you give us three or four such works as The Last of the Barons. I am not much in the habit of analysing the pleasure which I receive from a work of the imagination, particularly on a first perusal. I have therefore little more to say than that I owe to you some hours of great enjoyment. I am inclined to think that on examination the chief merit of the work will be found to lie in the characters. They seemed to be numerous, various, strongly marked, and seldom overcharged. I was most struck by the three Plantagenets, and particularly by Gloucester. A few objections or rather doubts occurred to me here and there which we can talk over when we meet. I was truly sorry to hear from Lady Holland the day before yesterday that you had not been well. I hope that you are not seriously disordered. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
The Last of the Barons, published on 18 February. 106
Macvey Napier
zy February 1843
TO MACVEY NAPIER, 27 FEBRUARY
1843
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 426-7.
Albany Feb 27. 1843 Dear Napier, It is quite true that the booksellers - 1 do not mean Longman - told Elphinstone and many others that the paper on Indian politics1 was mine, and that the Extra Number had been published on account of it. But I have not heard of anybody who, after reading it, believed the story. Hogg 2 was one of those who were taken in; and told the House of Commons so. I do not think that Mangles has by any means made the best of his case. I have put down my name as a supporter of Craig,3 and shall vote for him if I am able to get to the ballot this evening. But I imagine that he is quite safe. His paper is covered with the signatures of respectable people of all parties. As to the subjects which you mention, I think them excellent, except that I could not treat them to my own satisfaction without reading a good deal for them. There is another subject to which the same objection applies, but which I should not dislike, Mahon's Memoirs of Cond£. Bating the folly of writing in French, it is decidedly his best book. And the circumstance that it is not published, and that only a hundred copies exist, would make the article piquant. He would have no objection. I cannot however at present make up my mind. I hear much of a defence of the miracles of the third and fourth centuries by Newman.4 I have not yet read it. I think that I could treat that subject without giving any scandal to any rational person; and I should like it much. The times require a Middleton.5 On full consideration I think that Goldsmith will hardly do. The Anti Corn Law League seems to have pretty well effected the 1
2
3 4 5
R. D. Mangles, * Ministerial Misrepresentations Regarding the East,' ER, LXXVII (February 1843), 261—300; the February number was an extra issue, and the rumor was that it had been rushed into print so that the Indian article could affect the debate on Ellenborough. (Sir) James Weir Hogg (1790-1876: DNB), then M.P. for Beverley and a director of the East India Company, told the House that he took up the Indian article in the ER * thinking that he might be enabled to distinguish the same mastermind which had so admirably described the achievements of a Clive, and of a Hastings, but he had not perused long before he found that the hand that now guided the pen was powerless, and the attack weak and innocuous* (Hansard, 3rd Series, LXVI, 1004: 20 February). Since Craig was already a member of Brooks's and was never a member of the Athenaeum, this must refer to his election to the Reform Club. Newman's translation of Fleury's Ecclesiastical History, 3 vols., Oxford, 1842-4, contained an introductory * Essay on the Miracles Recorded in Ecclesiastical History,' 1, xi-ccxv. Conyers Middleton, A Free Enquiry into the Miraculous Powers, 1748. For TBM's opinion of this, see Trevelyan, 2nd edn, 11, 467m 107
l March 1843
Duncan McLaren
work of separating the friends of a fixed duty from the friends of perfectly free trade, and of putting both at the mercy of the Government and the Squires. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO DUNCAN MCLAREN, I M A R C H 1843 Text: Mackie, Life of McLaren, I, 257-60.
Albany, London, March i, 1843. My dear Sir, It was quite unnecessary in you to assure me that you meant me no personal disrespect. Your expressions were quite within the limits of courteous discussion. Had it been otherwise, I know how to make allowance for a little controversial warmth. You will extend to me the same indulgence if I should happen to need it. I repeat, I consider your proceedings as imprudent and your objects as unattainable; that I believe it to be utterly impossible to obtain at present a perfectly free trade in corn, and that, in my opinion, the only way in which you will be able to obtain any important mitigation of the existing evil is by joining with more moderate reformers to support a fixed duty. I do not say an 8s. duty, but the lowest upon which we can agree to co-operate - perhaps a 6s. duty, perhaps a 5 s. duty. At this you express great amazement, and say that either I must of late have been shut up from the world, or must fancy that you have been so shut up. You are quite right. I do firmly believe that you have been so shut up. A man may be shut up from the world, in my sense, though he lives in a great city, though he reads much, speaks much, hears much, attends meetings of many thousands of people. In a society composed of many elements, he whose converse is with one element alone may properly be said to be subject to all the illusions of a recluse. I say this not of you alone. I have said so to other valuable men, - to my friend Adam Black, for example. You live in a great city, it is true; but great cities do not make up the whole of the United Kingdom. And you seem to me to be under a complete delusion on that subject. You talk of public opinion; but you mean only the public opinion of that portion of the nation which is crowded together by a hundred thousand to the square mile. I need no other proof of what I say than your letter, which is before me. You describe strongly, and I believe justly, the intense feeling about the Corn-laws which exists at Edinburgh and Glasgow; and this feeling seems to you 108
Duncan McLaren
1 March 1843
to be the same thing with the national feeling. I am not, I assure you, so completely shut up from the world as not to be quite aware that a strong feeling in favour of a perfectly free corn trade exists in most towns of 10,000 inhabitants and upwards, and in none more than in Edinburgh. But is the whole rural population to go for nothing? You must admit, I think, that almost the whole strength of the party which is for perfectly free trade in corn lies in towns of 10,000 inhabitants and upwards. The inhabitants of the small market-towns are generally, as far as I have observed, more prejudiced in favour of agricultural protection than even the neighbouring farmers. Now, what proportion of the people of the United Kingdom lives in the towns of 10,000 inhabitants and upwards? In England, I think, not quite a third. In Scotland, certainly not a third. In Ireland, not a tenth. I give you a great deal indeed if I give you seven or eight millions of the people, if told by the head. There remain about twenty millions. Are they with you? Of the counties of England which may be said to be purely agricultural, there are about thirty which have more inhabitants and more voters than Edinburgh. There are several, Devonshire, Kent, Somersetshire, Norfolk, which have more inhabitants and more voters than Edinburgh and Glasgow put together. You tell me of the strong feeling of Edinburgh and Glasgow against a fixed duty, as if that were to decide the question; and there is not one of the thirty counties of which I speak where a candidate who is not for an extravagant amount of protection dares to show his face. At this moment a division of Warwickshire, with more inhabitants than Edinburgh, is vacant. The Tories will walk over the course, I am told, because no gentleman who is even for a modification of the Corn-laws will have the least chance of support. All these circumstances you seem to me to overlook altogether; and you merely repeat, what I admit, that the Liberal electors of Edinburgh have a strong objection to any tax on corn. This is a decisive argument certainly, if the only object which you suppose me to have in view is the keeping of my seat for Edinburgh. But I am sure you think better of me, and that you would not address to me any reasonings grounded on interests merely selfish. Let us then quit all local considerations, and speak, not about my seat, which, God knows, I would gladly resign to-day if by so doing I could make the quarter loaf a farthing cheaper, but about the public interests. I am certain you must mistake the cry of those who surround you, and with whose cry your own is mingled, for the voice of the nation. I know that yours is the stirring party and the noisy party; but I know that it is the weaker party - weaker in numbers, in wealth, in constitutional power, in physical power. What, then, ought to be your course? 109
i March 1843
Duncan McLaren
I should say to my friends, to consider all as with you who are not wholly against you; to be grateful to everybody who is disposed to assist you in getting half or a quarter of what you want. What is your course? To reject all allies who will not go the extreme length with you - to treat Lord John like Mr. Christopher,1 and Lord Fitzwilliam like the Duke of Cleveland. If this policy answers, I am a very bad politician. But, you say, it cannot be wise to support a fixed duty, for no great party is for a fixed duty. The Tories are not for it. The Anti-Corn-Law League are not for it. No public meeting clamours for it. No petition asks for it. A sliding scale has friends; total repeal has friends; a fixed duty has no friends. Surely you are not the dupe of your own fallacy. Might not all this have been said of every compromise that ever took place in the world ? Was ever a compromise made on the terms which either of the contending parties had demanded? Take the boundary dispute between England and the United States.2 "We have a right to all this territory," said England. " N o ; we have a right to it all," answers Jonathan. Neither the one nor the other proposed to halve the territory. At last, after years of bickering, extreme inconvenience and danger induce both to be content with what, at first, would have satisfied neither. Each is grumbling. Each thinks that too much has been ceded. But still the compromise is made. I think this a parallel case to your Corn-law controversy. I know that, at present, a fixed duty is equally detested by you and by the Tories; but I know also that they like it better than a perfectly free trade, and that you like it better than a sliding scale. When the struggle has lasted a certain time, when you are afraid of getting nothing and they of losing everything, you will all, as has happened ten thousand times, be glad to take some intermediate measure. The effect of the course now taken by your party will be that you will have to wait for such an intermediate measure some years longer than is at all necessary. These are my views as to the public. My seat at Edinburgh is not of the least value to me unless I can hold it with honour and independence. Nor shall I ever suffer any selfish considerations to guide my conduct as to a question which is so important to the welfare of the whole Empire. Ever yours truly, T. B. Macaulay. 1
2
Robert Adam Christopher (1804-77: Boase), a protectionist, had been M.P. for Ipswich and for Edinburgh and now sat for Lincolnshire. The Ashburton Treaty had been concluded in August, 1842. TBM was about to speak against it: see 23 February.
no
Duncan McLaren TO DUNCAN MCLAREN, 7 MARCH
j March 2843 1843
Text: Mackie, Life of McLaren, 1, 262.
Albany, London, March 7, 1843. My dear Sir, I agree with you that it would not at present be of any use to continue our controversy. I have given no distinct answer to the question about Villiers' motion, for this simple reason, that I do not know what the terms of the motion are to be. 1 I quite agree with you that "to him who knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." 2 If I vote against Villiers' motion, it will be solely because I am convinced that by supporting it I should be doing not good, but harm. Ever yours truly, T. B. Macaulay. TO G E O R G E C O R N E W A L L L E W I S , 3 8 M A R C H
1843
MS: National Library of Wales.
Albany London / March 8. 1843 My dear Lewis, Many thanks for your book.4 It seems highly interesting; and I foresee that I shall often have occasion to consult it. I cannot quite agree with you about tres.5 The derivation from ultra is, I think, out of the question. Tres does not imply blame, or even the smallest excess. Nay it may be used even while defect is admitted; — as for example: M. de Thiers, quoique tres eloquent, n'est pas un Ciceron. Now the words derived from ultra imply excess deserving of censure, as outrage and outrecuidance. 1
2 3
4
5
On 9 May Villiers moved, as he had done in each of the five years preceding, for immediate abolition of the Corn Laws; TBM voted with him in the small minority on 15 May. James 4:17. Lewis (1806-63: DNB), afterwards second Baronet, was Poor-Law Commissioner, 183947. One of the most highly regarded of Whigs, he held various commissionerships and offices from his entry into public life in 1833, and was M.P., 1847-52; 1855-63. Between 1855 and 1863 he was successively Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary, and Secretary for War. An Edinburgh Reviewer, he succeeded Empson as editor of the ER in 1852, partly on TBM's recommendation, and held the position until 1855. Lewis married TBM's old friend Mrs Thomas Lister in 1844. An Essay on the Origin and Formation of the Romance Languages, new edn, 1839. TBM's copy was item 509 in the sale catalogue of his library. Lewis suggests that the French tres may have been * derived from ultra by the addition of the final s: thus the Ital. has oltracotan^a and tracontan^a, different forms of the same word, (outrecuidance, French.)' (On the Origin and Formation of the Romance Languages, new edn, p. 227n). Ill
io March 1843
[Henry Weekes]
Extra is better.1 But, even supposing the words travalente and tranobile to be derived from extra, you do not shew that in any language a separate word derived from extra has been used as an intensitive. Now in Greek, Latin, and English, to go no further, the word thrice is used as an intensitive. Tpis uocKocpss Aocvccoi says Homer.2 Bead ter says Horace.3 "Thrice potent, grave, and reverend Seignors" says Shakespeare.4 Now I do not believe that we got this from the German; and, if we got it, as I suppose, from the ancient tongues, it must have passed through the French. However, the question is by no means a clear one. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO [ H E N R Y W E E K E S ] , 5
10 MARCH
1843
MS: Manchester Central Library.
Albany March 10 / 1843 Dear Sir, I ought to have earlier communicated to you the great satisfaction which your bust of my father,6 executed under great difficulties, has given to me and to other members of my family. I should be much obliged to you to send by the bearer the portrait which I left with you. / I have the honor to be, / Dear Sir, Your faithful Servant T B Macaulay 1
Lewis offers extra as the likeliest root of tres and cites the Italian travalente and tranobile as parallels (ibid., p. 226). Odyssey, v, 306. 3 Perhaps TBM means the 'felices ter' of Odes, 1, xiii, 17. 4 'Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors' (Othello, 1, iii, 76). s Henry Weekes (1807-77: DNE), sculptor, assistant and successor to Chantrey, had great success in portrait work; his work includes the statue of Bacon at Trinity, the figures on the Martyrs' Memorial at Oxford, and the group of * Manufactures' on the Albert Memorial. 6 In Westminster Abbey. A copy of the resolutions of the committee in charge of the monument and a list of subscribers, dated 30 July 1838, is in the Brougham MSS, University College, London. 2
112
Duncan McLaren
ij March 2843
TO D U N C A N MCLAREN, 13 MARCH
1843
Text: Mackie, Life of McLaren, 1, 265-7.
Albany, London, March 13, 1843. My dear Sir, I do not at all complain of your speech,1 but I do not agree with it. You have not touched my proposition that a perfectly free trade in corn is unattainable, and therefore you have in my opinion done nothing. My facts you acknowledge. You own that we have against us the majority of the people told by the head, the majority of the 800,000 electors, in other words, of the middle class, and, lastly, a very large majority of the rich, the great, and the chiefs of the parties. Then you attack all these majorities in turn. You show that each has its faults and weaknesses, and you give instances in which each has been overpowered. You attack the multitude in the language of an aristocrat, and the rich in the language of a democrat. The people are not to be regarded because they are stupid. The great are not to be regarded because they are oppressors. My answer is this. I know that there have been instances in which numerical majorities have been forced to yield to the upper and middle classes. The refusal of the Charter is an instance. There have been instances in which the majority of the middle and lower classes have been forced to yield to the firm union of all the chiefs of parties, as in the case of the Catholic Bill. There have been instances in which the upper class has been forced to yield to the majority of the middle class. Witness the Reform Bill. But my assertion, admitted, I think, by yourself, is this, that on the subject of the Corn-laws you have against you a majority of all the three classes, low, middle, and high. Now show me an instance of a measure carried against such an opposition, and you will have shaken my argument. But this I may safely defy you to do. One word about the chiefs of parties.2 Perhaps it was unwise in me to mention them in my letter. I might have guessed that an Anti-Corn-Law Association would not feel the force of that argument. But people who know anything of the way in which this country is really governed know 1
2
At a meeting of the Edinburgh Anti-Corn Law Association, 9 March, in which McLaren attacked TBM's arguments for compromise. TBM's letter is in answer to McLaren's note accompanying the newspaper account of the meeting; the note says: 'You will see from the report in the Scotsman . . . that I have made a very easy path for you to go forward, and that to go backward is impossible. In fact, every one expects that you will go forward, and that there can be no doubt about it' (Mackie, Life of McLaren, 1, 265). ' He tells us, last of all — as if it were the most important point in his estimation — that we are in a small minority among the chiefs of parties. Let us tell him in reply that the time has happily gone by when the enlightened public opinion of the middle classes can be turned aside or controlled by the chiefs of parties' (Mackie, Life of McLaren, 1, 265). 113
23 March 2843
Duncan McLaren
that there is in fact a certain small class of men who have a real veto on all public measures which they agree to oppose. There must be a Government. You cannot make a Government out of men without weight, talents, knowledge, or experience; and if you did, they would soon make themselves and everything that they took up odious and ridiculous. It is quite impossible that a Ministry composed of such men as Dr. Browning,1 Colonel Thompson, and Mr. Williams2 of Coventry can ever hold power. It would expose itself to universal contempt within three days. Try to make a list of a Cabinet of Total and Immediate Repealers. I will engage that you will yourself burst out a-laughing at it. Now, that the Corn-laws will not be repealed till a Ministry takes the matter up, you will, I suppose, admit. You must also admit that among the supporters of immediate and total repeal there is not one whom you would not be surprised to see even in the second rank of a Ministry. It is very easy to declaim about throwing the chiefs of parties aside or trampling them down,3 but not so easy to understand how affairs are to be managed with Mr. Wallace4 at the Colonial Office, Mr. Ewart at the Foreign Office, and Mr. Hume made First Commissioner of the Treasury, and sent to lead the House of Lords. Nothing except an outbreak like that which overthrew the old monarchy and aristocracy of France can produce such an effect. I conceive, therefore, that the unanimous declaration of the chiefs of parties against total and immediate repeal is a very grave circumstance, and deserves much more consideration than it has received from you. I have not time to proceed. I can say nothing about Villiers' motion, for he himself seems to know neither what he shall move nor when. Yours very truly, T. B. Macaulay. 1
Thus in the printed text, but TBM must have written Bowring Dr. John Bowring (17921872: DNB), merchant, editor, Benthamite, scholar, linguist, was a founder of the AntiCorn Law League; M.P. for Clyde burghs, 1835-7; for Bolton, 1841-7. He was in the Far East, 1847-60, first as Consul at Canton, then as Governor of Hong Kong. TBM, after meeting him in 1853, wrote: 'Bowring I cannot bear' (Journal, vi, 153: 24 October 1853). 2 William Williams (1789-1865: Boase)> London merchant and Radical M.P. for Coventry, 1835-47; for Lambeth, 1850-65. 3 '. . . if they shall place themselves in our way to obstruct our progress, they need not be surprised if they are either trampled on in our progress or thrown aside, that we may be enabled to proceed in our onward course' (Mackie, Life of McLaren, 1, 265). 4 Robert Wallace (1773-1855: DNB\ Whig M.P. for Greenock, 1832-46, he was a friend of McLaren.
114
Thomas Longman TO THOMAS LONGMAN, [MARCH
[March 1843]
Text: Trevelyan, 11, 124-5.
[London] Pray omit all mention of my Prefatory Notice.1 It will be very short and simple, and ought by no means to be announced beforehand as if it were anything elaborate and important.
TO [THOMAS LONGMAN], 21 MARCH
1843
Text: Maggs Brothers Catalogue 253, Christmas 1919, item 605, 2 pp. 8vo: dated Albany, 21 March 1843.
Be so good as to send a copy of the Essays on my account to the Edinburgh Select Subscription Library, and another to Sir Edward Bulwer.
TO D R D A V I D M A C L A G A N , 2 27 M A R C H
1843
MS: University of Kansas. Albany London / March 27. 1843 My dear Sir, I fear that the change in the Direction has not added to my power of serving you. But a vacancy has just been made by the death of Mr. Grant; 3 and a ballot is at hand. If Mangles, whom I have strongly supported, should succeed, I shall have no scruple about applying to him, and I should hope that I might do so with effect.4 Should this fail, I will try, though with very slender hope, what my interest in other quarters may effect. Yours very truly T B Macaulay 1 2
4
The Essays are advertised as 'just published,' Athenaeum, 1 April, p. 300; the Preface is not mentioned. Maclagan (1785-1865: Boase), one of TBM's Whig supporters in Edinburgh, had been an army doctor and now practiced in Edinburgh, where he became President of both the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons. He was now attempting — an effort in which he persisted for a number of years — to obtain an appointment for one or more of his sons in the East India Company's service. One already had a place, and another later received 3 one: see 29 July 1846. I have not identified him. Mangles was not elected to a directorship until 1847.
[2$ March 2843]
William Gibson Craig
TO WILLIAM GIBSON CRAIG, [29 MARCH
1843]
MS: Scottish Record Office. Envelope: W Gibson Craig Esq M P / etc. etc. etc. / 29 St James's Place. Subscription: TBM.
Albany Wednesday Dear Craig, On consideration I think that it would be quite absurd for us to call on Lord Stanley1 for the purpose of lecturing him on emigration, or learning his intentions. The house is the proper place for communication between the Ministers and their opponents on questions of general policy. If we want to know the plans of government, we can ask what they are across the table. If we want to press plans of our own on the government the proper way would be to make a motion. I see that Buller has given notice of a motion on this very subject for Tuesday the 4th of April.2 Surely, while such a notice is in the orderbook, it would be ridiculous in us to go to the Ministers for the purpose of catechising them or arguing with them. I mean to explain this concisely and civilly to the Lord Provost,3 unless you differ from me. Yours ever T B Macaulay TO J O H N C A M P B E L L , 4 [MARCH?
1843]
Text: Roberts, Letters of Hannah More to Zachary Macaulay, p. 210.
[. . .] greatly prized the writer's approval, and all the more, since in speaking as he had done, he had simply been uttering his own heartfelt and very strong conviction. 1 2
3
4
Secretary for War and Colonies. In a long speech on 6 April (not 4), Buller moved for a commission on systematic colonization as a means toward alleviating domestic distress; on learning that the government was opposed, he withdrew the motion: see Hansard, 3rd Series, LXVIII, 484-531. Sir James Forrest (1780-1860: Boase), advocate, was Lord Provost, 1838—43. Forrest was at first one of TBM's political supporters but was active against him in the elections of 1846 and 1847 because of TBM's stand on the Maynooth question. Campbell (1794-1867: DNB), Congregationalist minister in London and religious journalist. Roberts explains that Campbell had * congratulated [TBM] on a speech in which he had advocated the propagation of Christianity in India, and had expressed a noble indignation at the shameful patronage of Hindoo abominations with which the Company was too long chargeable* (Roberts, Letters of Hannah More to Zachary Macaulay, pp. 209— 10). Evidently the speech on the Gates of Somnauth, 9 March, is meant. Letter xn of Campbell's The Martyr ofErromanga, or, the Philosophy of Missions, 1842, is addressed to TBM, urging him to make missions a topic in the ER.
William Whewell
y April 2843
TO WILLIAM WHEWELL, 7 APRIL
1843
MS: Trinity College.
Albany April 7. 1843 Dear Whewell, A thousand thanks for your kindness. I hope that a time will come when I may enjoy your hospitality and with it your society. At present, I fear, I shall not be able to visit Cambridge, even with such an inducement. You really ought to appear now and then at the Club. We have made a great rally since Sir Charles Grey,1 the bore of bores, was sent to govern negroes instead of talking white men to death. Our meetings are quite numerous, and very pleasant, though you are not with us. I saw the subject which you had proposed for the Latin Essay. It is an excellent one, and will, I hope, be well handled. Kind remembrances to Mrs. Whewell.2 Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO L O R D M A H O N , 10 A P R I L
1843
MS: Stanhope Papers, Chevening.
Albany April 10 / 1843 Dear Lord Mahon, Thank you for the very interesting little volume which you have sent me. 3 I am not surprised that the pretty story about the opening of the coffin turns out to be a fiction.4 I always suspected it. For though I have seen very fine specimens of embalming, I never fell in with an embalmed body that had the smallest beauty or that could even be recognized. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1
2 3
Sir Charles Edward Grey (1785—1865: DNB), Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Bengal, 1825-35; Whig M.P., 1838—41; Governor of Barbados, 1841-6, and of Jamaica, 1847-53. Whewell had married in 1841 Cordelia Marshall, daughter of TBM's old sponsor at Leeds, John Marshall. Mahon has endorsed the letter: 'On receiving a copy of "The Court of Spain under Charles the Second,"' i.e., Spain under Charles the Second; or> Extracts from the Corre-
4
spondence of the Hon. A. Stanhope . . . 1690-1699 [ed. Mahon], first published in 1840; Mahon must have sent TBM an advance copy of the second edition, dated 1844. In the new edition of his book Mahon includes a letter describing the opening of the royal tombs at the Escurial, and adds a note saying that the letter discredits the * romantic story told by Ortiz, and after him by Coxe and Mr. Dunlop, that Charles, having on this occasion opened the coffin of his first Queen, found the beauty of her features still unimpaired, and rushed out of the vault exclaiming, " I shall soon be with her in heaven!"' (p. 19m). 5
117
PLT iv
lg April 1843 TO MACVEY NAPIER, 19 APRIL
Macvey Napier 1843
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 427-9.
Albany London April 19 / 1843 Dear Napier, I found your letter on my return from a short trip into the country; and glad I was to find it. You may count on an article from me on Miss Aikin's Life of Addison. Longman sent me the sheets as they were printed. I own that I am greatly disappointed. There are, to be sure, some charming letters by Addison, which have never yet been published. But Miss Aikin's narrative is dull, shallow, and inaccurate. Either she has fallen off greatly since she wrote her former works, 1 or I have become much more acute since I read them. By the bye, I have an odd story to tell you which must remain a secret. I was vexed at observing, in a very hasty perusal of the sheets, a great number of blunders, any of which singly was discreditable, and all of which united were certain to be fatal to the book. To give a few specimens, the lady called Evelyn Sir John Evelyn, transferred Christ Church from Oxford to Cambridge, confounded Robert Earl of Sunderland James the Second's Minister with his son Charles Earl of Sunderland George the First's Minister, confounded Charles Montague Earl of Halifax with George Savile Marquess of Halifax, called the Marquess of Hertford Earl of Hertford, and so forth. I pointed the grossest blunders out to Longman, and advised him to point them out to her, without mentioning me. He did so. The poor woman could not deny that my remarks were just. But she railed most bitterly both at the publishers, and at the Mr. Nobody who had had the insolence to find any blemishes in her writings. At first she suspected Sedgwick.2 She now knows that she was wrong in that conjecture. But I do not think that she has detected me. This, you will say, is but a bad return to me for going out of my way to save her book from utter ruin. I am glad to learn that, with all her anger, she has had the sense to cancel some sheets in consequence of Mr. Nobody's criticisms. My collected Reviews have succeeded well. Longman tells me that he must set about a second edition.3 In spite however of the applause and of 1
2
3
Lucy Aikin (1781-1864: DNB), daughter of a literary physician and niece of Mrs Barbauld, published several popular historical works between 1818 and 1843; in the essay on Addison TBM calls her Memoirs of the Court of James I, 1822, * very pleasing' (ER, LXXVIII, 193)This must mean Adam Sedgwick (178 5-1873: DNB), Woodwardian Professor of Geology at Cambridge and one of the great men of the University. Miss Aikin was acquainted with him, and thought him a man of' wonderful energy and activity of mind, profound in one or two branches of knowledge, and ignorant of none* (Memoirs, Miscellanies and Letters of the Late Lucy Aikin, 1864, p. xxvi). The 1st edition was of 1,000 copies; a 2nd, also of 1,000 copies, was published in June.
Macvey Napier
19 April 1843
the profit, neither of which I despise, I am sorry that it had become necessary to republish these papers. There are few of them which I read with satisfaction. Those few, however, are generally the latest; and this is a consolatory circumstance. The most hostile critic must admit, I think, that I have improved greatly as a writer. The third volume seems to me worth two of the second, and the second worth ten of the first. Jeffrey is at work on his collection.1 It will be delightful no doubt; but to me it will not have the charm of novelty. For I have read and reread his old articles till I know them by heart. We shall send him back to you pretty well in spite of routs and dinners. I breakfasted with him to day and thought him in great force. You must really come, and let us make you a little sick this year. I shall be out of temper with you if you put us off again. Brougham is all but mad. One of his freaks has been making up violently to me. After a complete cut, - for we had not spoken for years, he saw me in the House of Lords, ran to the bar, caught my hand, clapped me on the shoulder, all but embraced me, praised my verses, urged me to speak more in parliament, and so on. I was as dry and cold as possible, and thought that I should have put a stop by this demeanour to his civilities. But no. A few days after this he came to Miss Berry's in the evening, and accosted me again in the same style. I extricated my self as fast as I could, made my bow to my hostess, and walked home. The stories which wander about town respecting his sayings and doings are almost incredible. Yet I have reason to believe that the strangest and most startling of them are true. He is really as well entitled as either Oxford or Macnaughten 2 was to plead insanity to any accusation which may be brought against him. But I must have done. I have just received the new Edinburgh Review, and have read three or four pages of the article on the Puseyites,3 which I like much. I should be glad to know who wrote it. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1 2
3
Contributions to the Edinburgh Review, 4 vols., 1844. Edward Oxford, who shot at the Queen (see 12 June 1840) and Daniel Macnaghten who shot and killed Peel's secretary Edward Drummond by mistake for Peel, 21 January. Macnaghten, at his trial in March, was declared not guilty by reason of insanity. Henry Rogers, 'Puseyism, or the Oxford Tractarian School,' ER, LXXVII (April 1843), 501-62.
119
5-2
19 April 1843
William Gibson Craig
TO W I L L I A M G I B S O N C R A I G , 19 A P R I L
1843
MS: Scottish Record Office. Albany April 19 / 1843 Dear Craig, Here I am again, after a short trip into the country. I have just read your letter and the Scotsman of Saturday. I wish, for Duncan's sake, that I were at Edinburgh. If you think that a letter from me to the Lord Provost would be of any use, I will write one instantly. But I trust that your explanations and the good sense and good feeling of our friends will make all further comment on Maclaren's dirty proceeding quite unnecessary.1 I have another letter from you about which I feel a little puzzled. The matter, I am afraid, is not quite so simple as your correspondent imagines. But that may wait till we meet. I breakfasted this morning with Jeffrey at Rogers's. The learned Lord is really in great force; and I hope that we shall send him down to his duties little the worse for entremets and Champagne. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO L E I G H H U N T , 27 A P R I L
1843
MS: British Museum.
Albany April 27 / 1843 Dear Sir, I am glad to say that I am able without inconvenience to spare the sum which you were so good as to leave at my chambers this morning. I send a cheque for the amount, as I do not like to trust sovereigns to the post, and shall be truly happy if it proves useful to you. I have not had time to read the last Number of the Edinburgh Review. But I expect much amusement from your paper.2 Very truly yours T B Macaulay 1
2
McLaren wrote a report of the proceedings before the parliamentary committee on the Edinburgh Water Bill (see i June) in which he accused TBM and Gibson Craig of acting with * frigid neutrality' and sent the report to Gibson Craig; he then published the report and the ensuing correspondence with Gibson Craig, reserving the last word for himself, a boast that he had done all for the bill and the City members nothing {Scotsman, 15 April). The whole shows McLaren's self-righteousness in an unpleasant light. * Memoirs of the Courts of England.'
120
Leigh Hunt TO L E I G H H U N T , 28 A P R I L
28 April 1843 1843
MS: British Museum. Albany April 28 / 1843 My dear Sir, You must allow me to send back the cheque. I should not have done what I did if it had not been quite consistent with justice to my self and to all connected with me. I cannot indulge in these luxuries often. But when they are within my reach, I hope that you will not deny them to me. / Believe me, / Dear Sir, Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO C O L O N E L C H A R L E S R I C H A R D F O X , [ A P R I L ? 1843?]1 MS: British Museum.
Albany / Saturday Dear Fox, I return the paper about Hampden2 and the Spanish Tract, with many thanks. The paper is certainly curious though it tells nothing which is not already in print. It is evidently the memorandum from which was framed the report of Hampden's evidence presented to the House of Lords on the 20th Deer. 1689. The differences are merely verbal. How the memorandum got into Allen's hands it is now, I suppose, impossible to learn. The Earl of Stamford3 made the report. The paper may have been preserved among the archives of the Stamford family. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1 2
3
John Allen died on 10 April, and this was probably written not long after that date. A two-page MS dated 18 November 1689, giving the history of the examination and confession of John Hampden for complicity in the Rye House plot; it is now among the Holland House Papers. For TBM's account of Hampden, see ch. 6 of the History. Thomas Grey (1654-1720: DNB), second Earl of Stamford, Whig peer; one of the committee charged to inquire into the deaths of Sidney and Russell.
121
i May 1843 T O L E I G H H U N T , I MAY
Leigh Hunt 1843
MS: British Museum. Albany May 1. 1843 My dear Sir, I will not contend with your scruples. But I trust that you will consider me as your banker to the extent of the sum which you have repaid, should you be again in difficulties. / Believe me Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO D R J O H N L E E , 2 MAY
1843
MS: National Library of Scotland.
Albany London May 2. 1843 Sir, I think myself greatly honored by the confidence of the University of Edinburgh. Your petition shall, if possible, be presented this evening. But the press of petitions on the subject of education in factories is so great that some delay may be inevitable.1 I hope and believe that a measure will shortly be introduced which will in the main meet your views. To such a measure, from whatever political party it may proceed, I shall be disposed to give all the support in my power. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your faithful Servant, T B Macaulay. The Very Reverend / Dr. Lee / etc. etc. etc.
TO L A D Y H O L L A N D , 10 MAY
1843
MS: British Museum. Albany May 10. 1843 Dear Lady Holland, I shall have great pleasure in dining with you on Monday, and I hope to be able to call in South Street before that time. But I am just at present 1
TBM presented a petition against the Factories Education Bill on 3 May. The bill, introduced by the government on 7 March, took advantage of existing Poor Laws and Factory Acts to limit the hours of work for factory children and provide schools for them. Well-received inside Parliament, it created a storm outside among the Dissenters, led by TBM's former associate, Edward Baines the younger, and the Leeds Mercury. The education clauses of the bill were withdrawn on 15 June. 122
James Stewart-Mackenzie
22 May 2843
overwhelmed with engagements of different kinds, and shall be under the necessity, while this debate goes on, 1 of attending during the latter part of every evening in the House of Commons. You take so kind an interest in what concerns me that you will be pleased to hear how well my three volumes of Essays have succeeded. Longman has a second edition in the press, and says that the demand does not slacken. Ever yours most truly T B Macaulay TO J A M E S S T E W A R T - M A C K E N Z I E ,
12 MAY
1843
MS: Scottish Record Office.
Albany London / May 12. 1843 Dear Mackenzie, I am truly sorry to learn that you [are] in any respect disagreeably situated,2 and the more so as I have no very cheering news to send you as to the state and prospects of parties. The government has little chance of carrying all its measures, and some chance of being defeated on all. But it will continue, as far as I can judge, to hold office during some years. As far as I am concerned, I rejoice heartily in this; nor indeed do I think that any temptation will again lure me from ease and letters. But I grieve for you and for some other private friends. The public, I think, is not much interested in the matter. The present ministers govern much as we governed. Their views are less liberal than ours; but their power to carry useful measures is greater than ours; so that, on the whole there is as much real reform going on as in our time. There is also, what there never was in our time, general quiet, which is a great blessing. I never saw society so much convulsed by factious animosity as at the beginning of 1841. I never saw it so torpid on political questions as in 1843. But all this you know as well as I. As to your commission, I could have wished that you had chosen a less awkward and ignorant agent. I know no more how to get a packet out to Malta than how to cut for the stone or how to find the longitude. In my difficulties, I had recourse to Longman who is my factotum in all such matters. But Longman has no dealings with any commercial house at Malta. His only connexion with the island is that he sends every month a box of new publications to some officer of rank there for the Garrison Book Society; and he does not like to put a parcel for you into this box 1 2
On the Corn Laws, 9-15 May. Stewart-Mackenzie had been made High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands at Corfu in 1840; he died in September of this year, at Southampton. 123
15 May 1843
Samuel Rogers
without the permission of his military customers. If you will let me know of any place in London to which I can send the books with the certainty of your receiving them, I shall be glad to be of any use to you. Our old office is at this moment without a chief. Poor Fitzgerald1 died last night. Lord Ripon is to succeed him, if report is to be trusted; and Gladstone is to preside at the board of Trade, and to sit in the cabinet. Gladstone's appointment is quite proper. But Lord Ripon is unfit for any post of importance, and singularly unfit to have the conduct of a department which is to deal with so vain, self-willed and insolent a man as Lord Ellenborough. Ever yours most truly T B Macaulay TO SAMUEL R O G E R S , 15 MAY
1843
MS: University College Library, London.
Albany May 15 / 1843 My dear Mr. Rogers, You must let me thank you again for your present. Beautiful as the book is, I value and always shall value the handwriting in the first page more than all the four volumes.2 Ever yours most truly T B Macaulay TO L A D Y H O L L A N D , 19 MAY
1843
MS: British Museum.
Albany May 19 / 1843 Dear Lady Holland, I will with great pleasure dine in South Street next Wednesday. I send by the bearer the volumes3 which you were so kind as to promise that you would accept. / Ever, dear Lady Holland, Yours very truly T B Macaulay 1
William Vesey-Fitzgerald (1783-1843: DNB), Baron Fitzgerald, President of the Board of Control, 1841—3. 2 No four-volume edition of Rogers's work appeared in his lifetime, so this was presumably a mixed collection or a special binding. 3 TBM's Essays.
114
Mrs Thomas Drummond TO MRS THOMAS DRUMMOND,
32 May [2 843]
31
MAY
[1843]1
MS: Trinity College. Envelope: Mrs. Drummond / 18 Hyde Park Gardens. Subscription: TBM.
Albany May 31 Dear Mrs. Drummond, I am engaged on Monday the 12th. But on Wednesday the 14th I shall be most happy to dine with you. Very truly yours T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , [C. MAY 1843?]2 MS: Mr F. R. Cowell.
[London] Dear Ellis, I am extremely surprised and vexed. I do not understand it at all. But there is no more to be said. He is a clever fellow and a good fellow. If he cannot make a figure at Trinity, he is only in the same case with hundreds who are making an excellent figure in life. I send you the volumes which I promised. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO J. F. M A C F A R L A N , 1 J U N E
1843
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library
Albany June 1. 1843 Dear Sir, I do not apprehend that Wilde3 is going to make any motion for inquiry, or at any rate to take the sense of the house on such a motion. His notice is merely that he will call attention to the state of the Post Office. I am glad that the Water question4 is likely to be satisfactorily settled. 1 2 3
4
Postmark. The paper is watermarked 1841. But the likely date is just after the spring examinations at Trinity in Frank Ellis's first year. Sir Thomas Wilde (1782—1855: DNB), afterwards first Baron Truro and Lord Chancellor, was now Whig M.P. for Worcester. His motion on 27 June was for a committee on * Rowland Hill's recommendations for Post-Office improvement* (Hansard, 3rd Series, LXX, 420). A drought in 1842 led to *an uproar for a rival Water Company, in which I wish the people all success' (Cockburn, Journal, 1, 335). Instead, a bill prepared by TBM and Gibson Craig was passed this year enabling the Company to increase its supplies. The sessions of the committee lasted from March until 11 May. 125
6 June 1843
Macvey Napier
As to the Church, I fear that it would now be of very little use for us to discuss the matters on which we formerly differed.1 All my doctrines related to an Established Church. You are no longer a member of an established Church. That it would be tyranny in the civil power to take any notice of any proceeding purely spiritual in the free church, as it is called, I must readily admit. The controversy between us has therefore died a natural death, or least has ceased to be a controversy on a practical question, and has become purely theoretical. Ever yours most truly T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 6 J U N E
1843
MS: British Museum.
Albany London June 6/1843 Dear Napier, I am more concerned for Jeffrey than I can express, and begin to entertain very sad forebodings. It is indeed a blow. I will say nothing to Empson unless he introduces the subject. I shall not take the smallest notice of Mr. Swifte,2 as he calls himself. My statement rests on the strongest evidence. You will find the authority in a letter from Richardson to Lady Bradshaigh.3 Since that letter was printed every biographer of Swift and Temple has considered it as decisive. Sir Walter Scott in his life of Swift, Courtenay in his Life of Temple, tell the story, as I told it. Against Richardson's evidence and against the consent of all the best-informed judges, this fool has literally nothing to say except that no Swift would have stooped to eat at a secondtable. I shall make no reply. By the end of the month I shall send you a long paper on Addison. It will, I think, contain much amusing matter. I shall be as civil to Miss Aikin as I well can. But her blunders are really so numerous and so gross that I cannot let her off without a little gentle correction. Thank you for Hamilton's pamphlet.4 After meat mustard, as the French proverb says. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1
2
3
4
The disruption of the Church of Scotland took place on 18 May, when 395 of the Church's 1,430 ministers seceded to form the Free Church. No doubt the person who had earlier complained about TBM's treatment of Swift: see to Napier, 20 March 1839. ' Sir William never favoured [Swift] with his conversation, because of his ill qualities, nor allowed him to sit down at table with him' (Richardson to Lady Bradshaigh, 22 April 1752: Correspondence, 1804, vi, 173). The story is not now accepted. Sir William Hamilton's pamphlet on the Church question, 'Be not Schismatics, Be not Martyrs by Mistake,' 1843. 126
[/. F. Macfarlan?]
8 June 2843
TO [J. F. M A C F A R L A N ? ] , 8 J U N E
1843
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library.
Albany London / June 8. 1843 My dear Sir, This morning I learned, with great satisfaction, that all the disputes between the Water-Company and the good town were accommodated. I will however be ready to act on the shortest notice if any fresh difficulty should arise. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO E D W A R D E V E R E T T , 9 J U N E
1843
MS: Massachusetts Historical Society.
Albany June 9. 1843 My dear Sir, I am truly sorry that I am engaged next Friday. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 15 J U N E
1843
MS: British Museum. Partly published: Trevelyan, n, 128.
Albany June 15 / 1843 Dear Napier, I am much obliged to you for thinking of my anxiety about Jeffrey, and much gratified by the good news. Thank you for mentioning the Leven and Melville papers.1 Melville,2 who is an old Indian acquaintance, sent them to me, I fear as a bribe to induce me to vote for him at the next election of a Director. I have not had time to give it more than a glance. But it seems to be curious and valuable. I mistrust my own judgment of what I write so much that I shall not be at all surprised if both you and the public think my paper on Addison a failure. But I own that I am partial to it. It is now more than half finished. But I have some researches to make before I proceed. I have all the rest 1 2
See 28 February 1842. William Henry Leslie Melville (178 8-1856), in the East India Company's service, 1808-38; he was Agent to the Governor-General at Moorshedabad during TBM's time in India. He became a director of the East India Company after his return to England. 127
3 July 1843
Charles Smith Bird
in my head and shall write very rapidly. I fear that I cannot contract my matter into less than seventy pages. But you will not, I think, be inclined to stint me. I am truly vexed to find Miss Aikin's book so very bad that it is impossible for us, with due regard to our own character, to praise it. All that I can do is to speak civilly of her writings generally, and to express regret that she should have been nodding. I have found, I will venture to say, not less than forty gross blunders as to matter of fact in the first volume. Of these I may perhaps point out eight or ten as courteously as the case will bear.1 What I hear of her bad temper, of her behaviour about Mackintosh, and of her behaviour towards her aunt Mrs. Barbauld, diminishes my regret. Yet it goes much against my feelings to censure any woman even with the greatest lenity. My taste and Croker's are by no means the same. I shall not again undertake to review any lady's book, till I know how it is executed. At last summer seems to have begun. This looks like a June day. I am delighted to see it. For I began to think that the deluge was coming again in spite of the rainbow. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO C H A R L E S S M I T H B I R D , 3 J U L Y
1843
Text: Claude Smith Bird, Sketches from the Life of the Rev. Charles Smith Bird, 1864, p. 236.
Albany, London, July 3, 1843. Dear Bird, I have already read your book, 2 and been greatly pleased and interested by it. I had heard of Kaye's proceedings with regard to you, 3 and glad I was to hear of them for the sake of the public as well as for yours. I am not the author of the article on Puseyism in the Edinburgh Review. The author is a person named Rogers, who was a Professor in the 1
There are twelve footnotes to the article in which TBM points out Miss Aikin's errors of detail. After the publication of the first two volumes of the History of England TBM learned from Longman that Miss Aikin had abused the work: 'Poor creature,' he wrote in his Journal, * if she knew how little I deserve her ill will. . . . Even now I do not reprint one of my best reviews for fear of giving her pain' (1, 501-2: 13 February 1849). He reprinted it in the next year, but omitted the footnotes calling attention to her errors. 2 A Plea for the Reformed Church; ort Observations on a Plain and Most Important Declaration of the Tractarians, in the British Critic for July, 1841, 1841. 3 John Kaye (1783-1853: DNB), Bishop of Lincoln from 1827; he had just appointed Bird Vicar of Gainsborough. Kaye had been Master of Christ's College, Cambridge, and Professor of Divinity when TBM and Bird were at Cambridge. 128
Macvey Napier
8 July 2843
London University. I am not at all inclined to quarrel with the imputation, for the paper is excellent. Ever yours most sincerely, T. B. Macaulay. TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 8 J U L Y
1843
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 429-30.
London July 8. 1843 Dear Napier, I send the proofs by this day's mail to the printers. I have made a few additions which may perhaps amount to a page in all. Pray look to the printing of page 217. It is at present most ludicrous. People will think that poor John Philips wrote in Macpherson's style.1 I have attended to your remarks, as you will see, except that I have not altered the allusion to the Satirist and the Age.2 When you consider that both those papers have been prosecuted this spring for the most infamous calumnies, that the Editor of one of them has been hissed off the stage of Covent Garden Theatre, and that the names of both have become proverbial all over London, I think you will not object to my mentioning them incidentally in a contemptuous manner.3 If they were unknown the case would be different. But they enjoy a notoriety as great, though by no means as enviable, as the Edinburgh Review itself, and are subjects of conversation every where. Haifa dozen peers were put into the witnessbox in the late cause between the Duke of Brunswick and the Satirist.4 When a nuisance becomes thus conspicuous, I think that we may condescend to utter a short exclamation of disgust and disdain. I am truly glad that you like the paper. I could easily have made it twice as long; and it seems to me here and there a little meagre. But I think that it will be found readable, which is always my first object. 1 2
3
4
TBM quotes thirteen lines on that page from Philips's 'Blenheim, a Poem/ 1705. TBM says that the plot which Pope imagined Addison and Tickell to have made to produce a rival translation of Homer was 'a plan such as the Editor of the Satirist would hardly dare to propose to the Editor of the Age' (ER, LXXVIII, 251). The editor of the Satirist, Barnard Gregory (1796-185 2: DNB), had been sued by the Duke of Brunswick for libel at the end of 1842. While the case was still pending, Gregory, who was also an actor, was hired to appear at Covent Garden. The Duke thereupon packed an audience that shouted Gregory down when he played Hamlet, 13 February 1843. Gregory in turn sued the Duke for damaging his means of livelihood but lost; two days later he pleaded guilty to the charges in the Duke's case against him. The editor of the Age was Charles Westmacott (see 17 October 1831); I cannot find any record of a suit against him in the spring of 1843. That is, in Gregory's suit against the Duke; several peers, including Lord Adolphus Fitzclarence, Lord Beaumont, Lord Gardner, and the Earl of Errol, appeared to testify to Gregory's skill as an actor (The Times, 22 June 1843). 129
[8 July 2843]
Macvey Napier
The paper in the Tatler to which I referred is that on Talicotius's Restoration of Noses. 1 1 think it one of Addison's very best. The papers on the Pleasures of the Imagination2 are certainly very ingenious and pleasingly written. But there has been so much progress, since Addison's time, in the philosophy of taste that, if I were to send a reader to those papers now, he would be disappointed. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO MS:
MACVEY N A P I E R ,
[8
JULY
1843]3
British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, p. 430.
[London] Dear Napier, Thanks for your care. I meant the historical disquisition on India, which I selected because it was Robertson's last work, and might be supposed to be the best specimen of his style. You can alter the word history.* As to the fact, look at Note n at the end of the disquisition. The second sentence runs thus. "When we recollect etc., we will cease to wonder." Ever yours T B Macaulay I could find other examples if I had time.
TO
S I R J O H N CAM H O B H O U S E , 12 J U L Y
1843
MS: British Museum. Athenaeum London / July 12. 1843 My dear Hobhouse, I think you very wise in quitting practical for speculative politics, Peel for Machiavelli. The old Florentine was much the cleverer fellow of 1
2
3 4
Tatler, No. 260. TBM says of this, that, though in its own time the paper was thought 'as edifying as one of Smalridge's sermons, we dare not indicate it to the squeamish readers of the nineteenth century' (ER, LXXVIII, 232). Spectator, Nos. 411—21. TBM calls Addison's critical papers his 'least valuable' contributions to the Spectator (ER, LXXVIII, 238). Napier's endorsement. In the printed text, the passage in question reads: 'And are there not in the Dissertation on India, (the last of Dr Robertson's works,) in Waverley, in Marmion, Scotticisms at which a London apprentice would laugh?' (ER, LXXVIII, 207). Napier's son adds that his father * thought this unjust to Robertson, and quoted Dugald Stewart's opinion, that Robertson was "remarkably free from Scotticisms"' (Correspondence, 43on). 130
William Gibson Craig
IJ July 1843
the two; and at present, I fancy, even the Tories think so. I not only applaud your example, but hope soon to imitate it.1 I never read a line of any translation of the Principe. There are two, and probably more. One of them is by a certain Mr. Ellis Farneworth in William the Third's reign,2 and is, I believe, easily to be procured. I have noticed it in several catalogues formerly. Pray have no scruple about refuting me. My paper was a juvenile essay,3 written while I was in my honey-moon with the Tuscan Muse, and is full of errors and faults which I should not fall into now. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO W I L L I A M G I B S O N C R A I G , 17 J U L Y
1843
MS: Morgan Library.
Albany London / July 17. 1843 Dear Craig, Lord Lincoln4 and Fremantle5 have agreed to put off the committee on the Holyrood Park Bill6 till Friday. By that time any information that is necessary may surely be procured. To me the bill seems quite unexceptionable, as far as the Gude Town is concerned. And indeed I do not see how we could well quarrel with the agreement seeing that it was made by Duncannon. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1
2
3 4
5
6
In his Journal for this day Hobhouse notes that he had been reading both Machiavelli and TBM's article on Machiavelli, that he had written to TBM and had a reply by return of post, ' applauding my preferring the contemplation of the Florentine [word illegible] to that of Peel. . . . I replied by thanking him and telling him what my project was - but adding that 1 did not intend to quit politics — but should " return like the dog etc."' (MS, British Museum). I cannot find that Hobhouse published anything on Machiavelli. His Journal in July contains several references to ' Lay making,' but presumably if he meant to refute TBM he would not do so in verse. TBM means George Ill's reign: Ellis Farneworth, trans., The Works ofN. Machiavel. . ., 2 vols., 1762. 'Machiavelli/ ER, 1827. Henry Pelham Clinton (1811-64: DNB), afterwards fifth Duke of Newcastle; styled Lord Lincoln until 1851; M.P., 1832-51; First Commissioner of Woods and Forests, 1841-6. Sir Thomas Francis Fremantle (1798-1890: DNB), afterwards first Baron Cottesloe, M.P. for Buckingham, 1826-46; he was one of the Secretaries of the Treasury at this time. The bill provided for the purchase of the Earl of Haddington's right of pasturage in order to open Holyrood Park to the public. It received the royal assent on 22 August.
131
20 July 2843
Richard Monckton Milnes
TO RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES, 20 JULY
1843
MS: Trinity College.
Albany July 20 / 1843 Dear Milnes, Can you breakfast with me on Tuesday next at ten? Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 22 J U L Y
1843
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Trevelyan, n, 129—31.
Albany London July 22. 1843 Dear Napier, Thanks for your letter and for the enclosed bill. I hear generally favourable opinions about my article. I am much pleased with one thing. You may remember how confidently I asserted that "little Dicky," in the Old Whig, was the nickname of some comic actor.1 Several people thought that I risked too much in affirming this so strongly on mere internal evidence. I have now, by an odd accident, found out who the Actor was. An old prompter of Drury Lane Theatre named Chetwood published in 1749 a small volume containing an account of all the famous performers whom he remembered, arranged in alphabetical order.2 This volume I picked up yesterday for sixpence at a bookstall in Holborn; and the first name on which I opened was that of Henry Norris,3 a favourite comedian, who was nicknamed Dicky because he first obtained celebrity by acting the part of Dicky in the Trip to the Jubilee.4 It is added that his figure was very diminutive. He was, it seems, in the height of his popularity at the very time when the Old Whig was written. You will, I think, agree with me that this is decisive. I am a little vain of my sagacity, which I really think would have dubbed me a vir clariss: if it had been shown on a point of Greek or Latin learning. But I am still more pleased that the vindication of Addison from an unjust charge which has been universally believed ever since the publication of the Lives of the Poets should thus be complete. Should you have any objection to inserting a short note at the end of the next 1
In refuting the charge that the Little Dicky mentioned in Addison's 'Old Whig' is a contemptuous reference to Steele, TBM conjectured that it 'was evidently the nickname of some comic actor' (ER, LXXVIII, 257). 2 William Rufus Chetwood, A General History of the Stage, 1749. 3 Henry Norris (1665-1730?: DNB). * By Farquhar, 1700. 132
Macvey Napier
22 July 1843
number?1 Ten lines would suffice; and the matter is really interesting to all lovers of literary history. Senior's article2 seems to me very good; nor do I dislike Hayward's,3 though it is rather frivolous. Generally the number is amusing. As to politics, the ministers are in a most unenviable situation; and, as far as I can see, all the chances are against them. In the first place, the chances of life are against them. The immense name of the Duke, though now only a "magni nominis umbra," 4 is of great service to them. His assertion, unsupported by reasons, saved Lord Ellenborough.5 His declaration that sufficient precautions had been taken against an outbreak in Ireland has done wonders to calm the public mind.6 Nobody can safely venture to speak in parliament with bitterness or contempt of any measure which he chuses to cover with his authority. But he is seventy-four, and, in constitution, more than seventy-four. His death will be a terrible blow to these people. I see no reason to believe that the Irish agitation will subside of itself, or that the death of O'Connel would quiet it. On the contrary I much fear that his death would be the signal for an explosion. The aspect of foreign politics is gloomy. The finances are in disorder. Trade is in distress. Legislation stands still. The Tories are broken up into three or more factions which hate each other more than they hate the Whigs. I mean the faction which stands by Peel, the faction which is represented by Vivian7 and the Morning Post, and the faction of Smythe8 and Cochrane.9 I should not be surprised if, before the end of the next Session, the ministry were to fall from mere rottenness. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
Napier obliged with a 'Note to the Article on the Life of Addison,' ER, LXXVIII (October 1843), 550. 2 'Free Trade and Retaliation,' ER, LXXVIII (July 1843), 1-47. 3 'Parisian Morals and Manners,' ERy LXXVIII (July 1843), 114-56. Abraham Hayward (1801—84: DNB), a barrister, editor of the Law Magazine, 1828—44, translator of Faust, gourmet, and prolific essayist for the ER, the Quarterly, Fraser's, and other periodicals. Without much practice as a barrister, and disappointed of political office, Hayward nevertheless made a name with his periodical writing, and was in great request as a diner-out and gossip. 4 Lucan, Pharsalia, I, 135. 5 In the debate on censuring Ellenborough's Somnauth proclamation, 9 March {Hansard, 3rd Series, LXVII, 526-37). 6 In the debate on Ireland, 14 July {Hansard, 3rd Series, LXX, 1113-21). i Sir Richard Vyvyan (1800-79: DNB), high Tory M.P. for Helston. 8 George Smythe (1818-57: DNB), afterwards seventh Viscount Strangford, M.P. for Canterbury; one of the Young England group under Disraeli. 9 Alexander Cochrane-Baillie (1816-90: DNB), afterwards first Baron Lamington, like Smythe a Young Englander.
133
2y July 1843 TO CHARLES CROPPER, 27 JULY
Charles Cropper 1843
MS: Morgan Library. Envelope: Master Charles Cropper / 44 Marine Parade / Brighton. Subscription: T B M.
Albany London / July 27. 1843 My dear Charley, I am very much obliged to you for your letter, and very glad to learn that you are so well entertained at Brighton. I shall miss you to day very much. For Aunt Fanny is going to bring Baba and Georgy to dine with me: and we are going after dinner to see sights; and we should all think the day much more pleasant if we could have you with us. So you are going to read Telemachus. I have not read it these many years. But when I was of your age, or a little younger, I used to delight in it. An old lady who was very kind to me when I was a little boy sent it me while I was lying in bed with the measles: and I was never tired of reading it. At last I almost got it by heart. I am afraid that I should not care much for it now. There is a knock at my door, and a man come to talk with me about business. So I must stop. Love to your Papa and to Mrs. Trevelyan, and give little Miss Alice1 a kiss from Your affectionate Uncle Tom. TO
WILLIAM GIBSON CRAIG, 3 AUGUST
1843
MS: Scottish Record Office.
Albany London / August 3. 1843 Dear Craig, Graham told me yesterday, with some confusion of face, that the pressure of business had put our medical grievance2 quite out of his head, but that he would positively see Lewis, the Poor Law Commissioner, this morning, and see what can be done. I met Lewis in the evening at Lansdowne House, and talked a little with him about the matter. He says that, if they can only get an opinion in favour of the Scotch and Irish practitioners from any good legal authority, they will most gladly set the business to rights. Graham begged me to say nothing in the House till I have heard from him. I thought it best to comply, my only object in 1 2
Alice Trevelyan (i 843-1902) was born on 27 May. See TBM's question to Sir James Graham, in the House, 25 April, asking whether the government had any plan for removing 'that most pressing and crying grievance upon the medical profession, the exclusion of Scotch and Irish practitioners from practising in the union workhouses under the present law' {Hansard, 3rd Series, LXVIII, 890). TBM had first raised the question on 23 May 1842 (ibid., LXIII, 608-9).
Edward Everett
14 August 2S43
this matter being to serve out medical proteges, and not to annoy the government. The Church debate went off well. Ward's motion,1 you will have seen, came to a premature end. The Tories put up Inglis and Hardy to speak the House empty, and then counted it out. 2 I am staying here chiefly on account of the bill respecting the 10th Article of the Treaty of Washington.3 Had Ward's debate gone on, I should have taken part in it. But I now think that it would be most unwise to revive the question of the Irish Church this year. The Edinburgh Water Bill has passed. Heaven be praised therefore! Nothing ever came up to Webster's 4 conduct at the last moment. When the House had ordered me to carry up the billfinallyto the Lords, he pressed me to substitute a clause of his own drawing for a clause which the Speaker had just put from the chair, assuring me that the two clauses were the same in substance, but that his was the more correctly worded. He really seemed quite amazed at my not chusing to commit something very like the forging of an Act of Parliament. This beats even Duncan's morality about private bills.5 Kindest regards to all at Riccarton.6 Ever yours, T B Macaulay TO E D W A R D E V E R E T T , 14 A U G U S T
1843
Text: Copy, Massachusetts Historical Society.
Albany August 14 / 1843 Dear Mr. Everett I shall have great pleasure in breakfasting with you next Friday. Very truly yours T B Macaulay. 1
2 3
4
5
6
H. G. Ward re-opened the debate on the Irish Church on 1 August by moving for state support of the Catholic Church in Ireland. 2 August. The article, rising out of the Creole affair (see 20 July 1842), provided for the extradition of criminals if the crime was recognized as such by the laws of the country to which the criminal fled. TBM spoke against the bill embodying this principle, arguing that such an agreement should be contracted only between countries having reached *a general assimilation of laws, manners, morals, and feelings, as would make it impossible that any conduct should be pursued by one state which would be grossly shocking and startling to the other' {Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXI, 569). Between England and the southern United States no such relation existed. Webster was agent for the Water Company in the hearings on the bill; he is perhaps George Webster (1800-82), Writer to the Signet. TBM probably has in mind McLaren's accusation that TBM and Gibson Craig contented themselves with * frigid neutrality' instead of acting as partisans for McLaren's view of this bill: see to Gibson Craig, 19 April. Gibson Craig's residence, near Edinburgh.
135
[ i 5 August 2843] TO LORD MAHON,
Lord Mahon
[15 AUGUST 1843]1
MS: Stanhope Papers, Chevening.
House of Commons / Tuesday Dear Lord Mahon, You are free to vote for Campbell's Libel Bill.2 You were paired with Lord John, and only up to last Saturday night. Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO M R S C H A R L E S T R E V E L Y A N , 21 A U G U S T
1843
MS: Trinity College. Address: Mrs. Trevelyan / Clapham Common / near London. Subscription: T B M . Partly published: Trevelyan, n, 141-3.
Paris August 21. 1843 Dearest Hannah, What people travel for is a mystery. I have never during the last forty eight hours had any wish so strong as to be at home again. To be sure those forty eight hours have hardly been a fair specimen of a traveller's life. They have been rilled with little miseries, such as made Mr. Testy roar and Mr. Sensitive sigh. I could very well add a chapter to Beresford's book.3 For example — Groan 1. The Brighton railway;-a slow train-; a carriage crowded as full as it would hold; a sick lady smelling of aether; a healthy gentleman smelling of brandy; the thermometer at 1020 in the shade, and I not in the shade but exposed to the full glare of the sun from noon till half after two, the effect of which is that my white trowsers have been scorched into a pair of very serviceable nankeens. Groan 2 — and for this Fanny is answerable, who made me believe that the New Steyne Hotel at Brighton was a good one. A coffee-room ingeniously contrived on the principle of an oven, the windows not made to open; a dinner on yesterday's pease and the day before yesterday's cutlets; not an ounce of ice; and all beverages, wine, water, and beer, in exactly the state of the Church of Laodicea.4 Groan 3. My passage to Dieppe. We had not got out of sight of the Beachy Head lights when it began to rain hard. I was therefore driven into the cabin, and compelled to endure the spectacle, and to hear the unutterable groans and gasps, of fifty sea-sick people. My stomach must be a pretty strong one to stand, not only the sea, but the sight of the 1 2 3
Mahon's endorsement. The bill was in committee, 16 August, when TBM made several brief remarks on various clauses: Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXI, 876-94. 4 The Miseries of Human Life. Revelation 3:15: * neither cold nor hot/
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effects which the sea produces on others. I went out when the rain ceased. But everything on deck was soaked. It was impossible to sit down, so that I walked up and down the vessel all night. The wind was in our faces, and the clear grey dawn was visible before we entered the harbour of Dieppe. Our baggage was to be examined at seven, so that it was too late to go to bed, and yet too early to find any shop open or any thing stirring. All our bags and boxes too were in the custody of the authorities, so that I had to pace sulkily about the pier for a long time without even the solace of a book. Groan 4. The Custom house. I never had a dispute with custom house officers before, having found that honesty answered in England, France, and Belgium, and corruption in Italy. But the officer at Dieppe, finding among my baggage some cotton stockings which had not been yet worn, threatened to confiscate them, and exacted more than they were worth — between thirteen and fourteen franks - by way of duty. I had just bought these unlucky stockings to do honor to our country in the eyes of foreigners, - being unwilling that the washerwomen of Paris and Orleans should see an English member of parliament's stockings either in holes or darned. See what the fruits of patriotism are. Groan 5. Mine inn at Dieppe. I need not describe it. For it was the very same at which we stopped for a night in 1840,1 and at which you ate of a gigot as memorable as Sam Johnson's shoulder of mutton. 2 I did not discover where I was till too late. I had a cup of coffee worse than I thought any French cook could make for a wager. In the bed room where I dressed there was a sort of soap which I had half a mind to bring away that men of science might analyse it. It would be, I should think, an excellent substitute for Spanish flies in a blister. I shaved with it, and the consequence is that I look as if I had that complaint which our mother held in such horror. If I used such cosmetics often I should be forced to beg Queen Victoria to touch me. Groan 6. My journey to Rouen. I would have posted if I could have found a vehicle on reasonable terms. But the rascal at the inn asked, for six hour's hire of the most miserable old thing that ever was made of rusty iron and rotten leather, about as much as would procure the handsomest chariot in London for a week. If he lets his cabriolet one day in the year on such terms, he must find it a valuable property. Indeed I doubt whether, if it were sold by auction, it would fetch as much as was demanded for a loan of a morning. As I was angry at the way in which I had been treated at the custom house, I refused with great vehemence- "J e suis etranger. Je suis Anglais. Je suis presse. Et vous 1 2
In August: see 1 September 1840. ' " I t is as bad as bad can be: it is ill-fed, ill-killed, ill-kept, and ill-drest"' (Boswell, Life 0 Johnson, 3 June 1784). 137
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croyez que vous pouvez me voler sans difficulte. Non — j'irai dans la Rotonde de la Diligence." Then the scoundrel came down, —fivefranks, — ten franks — but I was too angry to give in, and went off in the vilest part of the Diligence — for the coupe was engaged — rather than give him a farthing for his britschka, as he called it. The journey was as uncomfortable as could be, except that the rain of the preceding night had laid the dust. But the jolting, the swinging, the confinement, the heat, were such as no English stage coach equals. However we went quick. In that respect the French diligences have greatly improved since I first knew them. We ran the thirty five miles in four hours. Twelve years ago we should not have done it in seven hours. How the improvement [has]l been effected I do not well understand. For the carriages] I look much as they always did. The roads are as bad as ever; and the coaches are of the same clumsy construction which diverted me when first I saw France. I might groan again for Rouen. For I was wretchedly lodged and fed there. But in truth I was quite out of sorts, having passed the whole of the preceding night in walking about the deck of the steamer, and having tasted nothing for twenty four hours and more but an execrable dish of coffee at Dieppe. I never felt so faint in my life. The ground seemed to roll beneath my feet like the vessel on which I had been pacing for hours, and all objects moved like the waves of the channel. However I made a sort of meal which a little revived me and went to bed at eight, fearing that I was going to be ill. I instantly fell sound asleep, and woke at six this morning as well as ever I was in my life. You have seen Rouen — and yet you have not seen it. For the weather was too bad to allow you to judge of it. It is a noble city, and, as respects Gothic Churches, I really think, unequalled. For though there are finer Gothic Churches than the Cathedral, and a very few finer even than St Ouen, I am not aware that two such Churches as the Cathedral and St Ouen - 1 mean of course Gothic Churches - are to be found in any city in the world. I admired the Cathedral less, and St Ouen more than I ever did. But I was really too unwell to be very observant. At nine this morning I started for Paris and here I am, at Meurice's — for the name remains, though the man is dead.2 I have two small but comfortable rooms, not unreasonably high up — that is to say, not more than half as high as the Monument. Having written to you, I am going to try whether Very's partridges and Burgundy retain their flavour. Kindest love to all. Ever yours TBM Direct to me at the Poste Restante here. 1 2
Paper torn away with seal. TBM had stayed there on his first trip to Paris: see 28 August 1830. 138
Mrs Charles Trevelyan TO M R S C H A R L E S
28 August 1843
TREVELYAN,
28 A U G U S T
1843
MS: Trinity College. Address: Mrs. Trevelyan / Clapham Common / near London. Subscription: T B M. Extracts published: Trevelyan, 11, 143-4; 146.
Paris August 28. 1843 Dearest Hannah, I had been in hopes of hearing before this time from you or from somebody at home. However no news is, as usual, I hope, good news. I have been to Chartres, and am now again in my room at Meurice's. My journey to Chartres was pleasant; for the day was fine and yet cool. I had an excellent place in the coupee by myself; and the country, though by no means picturesque, and indeed little differing from what Suffolk and Norfolk would be with less verdure and no hedges, was not without a certain interest. Immense cornfields, large woods, and sometimes vineyards made the prospect pleasing enough by the light of an August sun in a pure sky. The road also passes by several places of great interest, by the site of Port Royal, by Rambouillet, by Maintenon, by an interesting seat of the Duke of Broglie, and by the remains of the great aqueduct of Louis the Fourteenth. The two towers of the Cathedral of Chartres are seen over the plain at a distance of many miles. In this and in some other respects Chartres is not unlike Lincoln. The Cathedral, which was my chief object, rather disappointed me, — not that it is not a fine Church. But I had heard it described as one of the most magnificent in Europe. Now I have seen finer Gothic Churches in England, France, and Belgium. It wants vastness; and its admirers make the matter worse by proving to you that it is a great deal larger than it looks, and by assuring you that the proportions are so exquisite as to produce the effect of littleness. I have heard the same cant canted about a much finer building, St Peter's. But surely it is impossible to say a more severe thing of an architect than that he has a knack of building edifices five hundred feet long which look as if they were only thiee hundred feet long. If size be an element of the sublime in architecture, and this, I imagine, every body's feelings will prove, - then a great architect ought to aim not at making buildings look smaller than they are, but at making them look larger than they are. If there be any proportions which have the effect of making St Paul's look larger than St Peter's those are good proportions. To say that an artist is so skilful that he makes buildings which are really large look small is as absurd as it would be to say that a novelist has such skill in narration as to make amusing stories dull, or to say that a controversialist has such skill in argument that strong reasons, when he states them, seem to be weak ones. Then too the walls and roof of the Cathedral of Chartres are too bare 139
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for my taste in Gothic architecture. I can admire vastness, though it be naked. But where vastness is wanting, I expect the richness, if not of Henry the Seventh's Chapel, yet at least of New College Chapel; and this is wanting at Chartres. Nevertheless there are very fine things about this Church. One of the towers, though not quite deserving of its fame, nor equal to some that I have seen elsewhere, is very superb, and, I imagine, of later date than the rest of the building. There are also two fine porticoes at the two ends of the transept. But I admire most the painted glass. The windows indeed, separately examined, are not to be named with the windows of King's College Chapel. But on the whole their effect is wonderful. They are very thick, and the colour which predominates is a dark purple, through which the sunbeams can scarcely find their way. The consequence is that it is solemn twilight in the Cathedral of Chartres, even during the brightest day. I stood at the great door in a brilliant afternoon at two-o'clock, and looked in. I could positively see nothing for some minutes. It was as if I had looked into a cellar through a key-hole. Everything was pitch-dark. At last the eye became accustomed to the gloom, and pillars, arches, pictures, and windows, began to be discernible. But it was not till I had passed an hour in the Church that every thing seemed perfectly clear. In this respect I admit that the Cathedral of Chartres is admirable. It is the perfection of "dim religious light."1 But I must own that the indistinct view is, in my opinion, the best, and that the more clearly the interior is seen, the more it loses. On Wednesday I set out on a more extensive tour which will occupy me, I should think, more than a week. If you write, after receiving this, and before next Sunday (the 3d of September,) direct to me at the Post Restante of Nantes[,]2 France; - After Sunday next again at [Paris]2 as before. Will you let me recommend you a novel? Try "Sceur Anne" by Paul de Kock.3 It is not improper, and the comic parts are really delightful. I have laughed over them till I cried. There are tragic parts which I skipped for fear of crying in another sense. You can get it at Cawthorne's.4 I have left orders at the Albany to procure you anything there that you may want. Love to the dear dear little things. I wish that I could find anything here that they would be pleased with. Make my Baba write me a letter, and direct it to Monsieur. M. Macaulay Post Restante Nantes. 1 3
Milton, 'II Penseroso,' 160. 1825.
2 4
Paper torn away with seal. A circulating library in Cockspur Street.
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Love to Fanny and Trevelyan. I suppose that you are on the point of leaving town. There is not a soul here that I know except Strutt and his wife. At least I have not met with any. Yours ever TBM TO MRS C H A R L E S TREVELYAN,
I SEPTEMBER
1843
MS: Trinity College. Address: Mrs. Trevelyan / E Cropper's Esq. / Dingle Bank / Liverpool / Angleterre. Subscription: T B M . Partly published: Trevelyan, 11, 144.
Bourges September 1. 1843 Dearest Hannah, I found your letter at the Post Office before I left Paris, and was glad to have so good an account of you all. I was not sorry to set out on my tour, for this among other reasons, that I caught sight, at Galignani's, of the singularly ferocious eye with which providence, doubtless for some wise purpose, has been pleased to embellish the face of our uncle James.1 As this eye, whatever its uses may be, has clearly not been given him to see with, I was able to hide myself with my newspaper, and to make my retreat unobserved. Otherwise we might have had a scene before all the newsroom. For I am thoroughly sick of his depravity and absurdity, and am resolved, if he attempts to pester me, to tell him so in plain words. But even the plainest words may not answer. His passions are violent. He is insensible to shame; and I should be sorry to have to put my mother's brother into the hands of the Correctional police. In the course of my journey hither, which I performed, comfortably enough, in the coupee of the diligence, I met with one or two amusing 1
James Mills (d. 1859?), the brother of TBM's mother, had been a trouble to the family for years and evoked a very fierce spirit in TBM. He is listed as a Surveyor in the Bristol Directory of 1817; in some notes made about 1840, Henry Macaulay calls him 'a clever and very talented person, a civil engineer' {Memoirs of Clan 'Aulay,' p. 25). He seems to have spent most of his energy in trying to carry out crazy political ideas. A letter from Zachary Macaulay to Hannah More, 11 September 1820, at the time of the Queen Caroline furor, describes James's arrest for ' seditious conduct' after c he had collected a mob in St. James's Square for the purpose of proposing an address to the King' (MS, Huntington). In his Journal for 15 July 1854 TBM writes that James was busy 'after his usual fashion. Lord Aberdeen will not see him, and this is one of his monstrous grievances. He nearly plagued Lord Melbourne out of his life, after getting admittance by using my name with characteristic impudence' (VIII, 82-3). The truth is probably, as Selina Mills Macaulay wrote, that he was 'a poor unfortunate creature, and much to be pitied' (to Mrs Mills, 6 March 1819: MS, University of London). In any case, he often came to TBM for money, and, though he usually got it, he always called forth most violent language from his nephew. He seems to have had some wit: 'James Mills has sent a scurrilous begging letter in his usual style. He hears that I have made 30000 £ by my malignant abuse of good men. Will I not send some of it to him?' (Journal, ix, 49: 26 January 1856). 141
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occurrences. There was a prodigious noise of people talking in English all night on the roof. At Vierzon I found that this noise proceeded from seven English labourers, good-looking fellows enough, who were engaged to work on a line of railroad and were just going to quit the coach. I asked them about their state and prospects, told them that I hoped they would let a countryman treat them to breakfast, and gave them a Napoleon for that purpose. They were really so pleased and grateful for being noticed in that way that I was almost moved too strongly by their thanks. Just before we started one of them, a very intelligent man and a sort of spokesman, came to the window and asked me with great earnestness to tell them my name, which I did. " Oh, Sir, we have all heard of you. You have always been a good friend to the country at home as well as here; and it will be a great satisfaction to us all to know this." He told me, to my comfort, that they did very well, being, as he said, sober men, that the wages were good, and that they were well-treated and had no quarrels with their French fellow-labourers. I could not after this conceal my name from a very intelligent civil goodnatured Frenchman who travelled in the coupee with me, and with whom I had already had some conversation. We talked much on French politics and literature, and agreed in the main exceedingly well. He insisted accordingly on doing the honors of Bourges to me, and has really been officiously kind and obliging. It was only by pleading the necessity of writing to England that I could get rid of him for a moment. Bourges is a hideous town in a hideous country. All round it is dead plain with no trees but poplars. The streets are low, narrow, crooked, illpaved. The shops are wretched. The principal inn is more like a hedge ale-house than like a hotel in a city which was once the seat of the court, which is still the chief place of a department and which contains more than twenty thousand inhabitants. The paper which I have been forced to use is a proof of the state of the shops. I am writing in the best room, which has a brick-floor, a door opened to the street, a blackguard smoking in one corner, an officer reading a newspaper in another, and mine host's little daughter making pothooks and bell-hangers in her copy-book at the same table with me. Yet I am glad that I came. For I have seen the Cathedral, a truly princely Church, and far superior, as a whole, to that of Chartres. The effect of the interior is truly sublime and magnificent. I shall however be glad to get away; and though I do not much like to travel two nights running, shall do so rather than try to sleep in a room festooned with cobwebs, and probably not free from bugs. At eight this evening I set out for Orleans. There or at Blois I will write again. Love to Trevelyan and to my Baba, and Georgy, and little Alice. Love to 142
Mary Berry
2
September 1843
Fanny also and Edward and Charley and Selina if she is with you. Henry I suppose is with the Denmans. Ever yours TBM TO MARY BERRY, I SEPTEMBER
1843
MS: Harvard University. Address: Miss Berry / 8 Curzon Street / May Fair / London. Subscription: T B M.
Bourges September 1. 1843 My dear Miss Berry, I promised you a letter from Bourges, and here it is, Bourges all over, paper, pen, ink, and wafer. I consider my self as having achieved an exploit which fairly entitles me to rank with Mungo Park or with Bruce.* Berri, I believe, is allowed to be the part of France least known to the French themselves, and is certainly less in the track of foreigners than any other part of the kingdom. It is not in the road to Italy, or to Provence, or to the baths of the Pyrenees, or to Bordeaux. Those who come to Bourges must come for the sake of Bourges; and they will find the most miserable of all provincial towns, the houses low hovels, the best hotel a wretched pothouse, the wine sour and the water salt. If they come on a day resembling this, they will find the temperature that of an oven. Of the dirt I will only say that, since I began this letter, I have been forced to shift my seat in order to escape from a spider which hung over me, like the sword over Damocles, by one long slender thread from the ceiling. Yet I am glad that I came, particularly as I shall make my escape this afternoon in the coupee of the Orleans Diligence. It is something to have seen so truly noble and beautiful an edifice as the Cathedral here. On the whole it is certainly thefinestthat I have found in France. Outside it has nothing very striking except a magnificent portico, which is said to be inferior to that of Rheims, but which surpasses any that I have seen. The interior is everything that a Gothic interior ought to be, vast, solemn, magnificent, richly coloured by windows of the most brilliant painted glass. The general air of the place is more like that of an old-fashioned English Cathedral town than you could expect to find in France. There is an unusually great number of large properties held by old families in the neighbourhood, and many of these families, instead of repairing to Paris, pass the months of the winter in queer-looking hotels, of the age of Louis the Fourteenth, in the narrow crooked streets of Bourges. I have seen already two carriages with Count's coronets at the doors of strange dingy 1
James Bruce, like Mungo Park, an eighteenth-century African traveller.
M3
2 September 2843
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
edifices of this kind. The influence of the philosophers seems to have been very little felt here. The people are dreadfully priest-ridden; and the tone of the man who shews the Cathedral resembled that of a devout Fleming rather than that of the French whom I have been accustomed to see. The Archbishop's palace and trim garden reminded me much of some of our quiet venerable closes. Altogether the place carries me back to the time before the revolution, to M. de Sotenville and Mme. de Sotenville, the Countess d'Escarbagnas and M. de Pourceaugnac.l I have no doubt that it would be easy to discover some curious originals here. But for that purpose it would be necessary to stay some days; and I find a few hours enough and too much. To morrow before day I hope to be at Orleans. I shall then run down the Loire by steam first to Blois, then to Tours, then to Angers, then to Nantes. And then I shall hasten back as fast as I can to Paris, and from Paris, I hope, to England. I must finish this letter which is already too long. But if it tires you remember that you asked for it. My kindest remembrances to Miss Agnes Berry. Ever yours most truly T B Macaulay TO M R S C H A R L E S T R E V E L Y A N , 2 S E P T E M B E R
1843
MS: Trinity College. Address: Mrs. Trevelyan / E Cropper's Esq / Dingle Bank / Liverpool / Angleterre. Subscription: T B M. Extract published: Trevelyan, 11, 144-5.
Orleans September 2. 1843 Dearest Hannah, Yesterday I wrote to you from Bourges. It is the strangest place, an ancient city in the very heart of France, of great historical fame, and in size and population not inferior to Worcester or Ipswich. It was the capital of a great province before the revolution. It is still the chief town of a department, and the seat of an Archbishop. And yet one would imagine that the single night which carried me from Paris to Bourges had carried me into a different country, into a country as uncivilised as Lithuania or Servia. Bourges is still the Bourges of Louis the Fourteenth's time. Queer old-fashioned country-gentlemen of long descent who recovered part of their estates on their return from emigration abound in the neighbourhood. They have hotels in Bourges where they often pass the winter instead of going up to Paris. Such strange, dingylooking, antiquated edifices as these hotels I never saw. The shabbiness 1
Moliere, George Dandin; La Comtesse d*Escarbagnas; Monsieur de Pourceaugnac.
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of the streets is like that of the meaner sort of country towns in Scotland. There is a general air of discomfort and a squalidity which seems to proceed not from poverty, but from want of refinement. There is no lack of courtesy. On the contrary the manners of the people are ceremonious. Hats are off at every word. If you ask your way, a gentleman insists on escorting you. Did you ever read Georges Dandin? If not read it before you sleep. There you will see how Moliere has portrayed the old-fashioned provincial gentry. I could fancy that many Messieurs de Sotenville and Madames de Sotenville would be found at Bourges. I was struck by observing, wretched as is the general look of the place, two coroneted carriages at the doors of private houses. Even at Paris you may walk for an hour in the best quarter of the town without seeing a coroneted carriage, unless indeed it be that of an English nobleman. The priests share the chief influence in Bourges with this old-fashioned gentry. The place is quite untainted with modern philosophy, and as submissive to the Archbishop and his clergy as in the days of St Louis. The Archbishop has a palace near the cathedral with a garden laid out in terraces and rows of clipped limes. It reminded me of some of our own cathedral closes. I told you what I thought of the cathedral itself. Outside it disappointed me. Inside it is admirable, quite equal, I think, to that of Amiens, and superior to any other that I have seen in France. During a long burning afternoon I sate in the parlour of my inn, a bad room, but the best in the inn, and a bad inn, but the best in the place. The hostess sate there looking over linen, the children writing copies, the maids hemming, blackguards out of the street smoking, and bearded specimens of young France reading the wretched newspaper of the department, the only journal that was there for them to read. In the middle of the crowd I forgot myself as well as I could over a pleasant novel of Paul de Kock. I dined at the table d'hote, much against my will. But there seemed to be no chance of getting a dinner elsewhere. Nothing could exceed the civility with which I was treated, particularly by one French gentleman who undertook to be my cicerone^ and whose politeness was almost oppressive. He would shew me the curiosities. But his notion of curiosities and mine differed. I wanted to stay in the Cathedral, and he would hurry me to a new market-place, such as every county-town in England contains. I pressed him to take me to the Hotel de Ville. It was the house of Jaques Cceur, a minister of Charles the Seventh. Charles the Seventh, you probably remember, held his court at Bourges, while the English governed at Paris, and thus got the nickname of King of Bourges. The house of Jaques Cceur is one of the most striking reliques of the domestic architecture of the middle ages that I have seen. However my friend forced 145
2 September 1843
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
me away to see some iron-works, which, if they had been first-rate, I would not have crossed the street to look at, and which in our irondistrict would not be accounted tenth-rate. I proposed a walk to the Roman wall. But I was forced to content myself with seeing the barracks of Louis Philippe's dragoons, - very much, I thought, like other barracks. After all I rather took to my companion. For on modern matters he talked like a man of sense and good feeling, and was abundantly kind and civil to me. I judged him to be a landed proprietor in easy circumstances from the neighbourhood of Moulins. The dinner at the table d'hote was middling, the wine bad, and the coffee worse. Glad I was to get at eight o'clock into the coupee of the Orleans diligence. At six this morning, after again traversing the desert of North Berry, for it is a desert, as flat as Cambridgeshire and as barren as Dartmoor, I came to Orleans, got a tolerably comfortable apartment on the first floor of the best hotel, went to bed, had a few hours of sleep after two successive nights of travelling, rose, took my coffee, walked about the town, until the heat became very inconvenient, and then returned to my room to write letters. Orleans is not built so high as the other great French cities which I have seen - Paris, Rouen, Lyons, Marseilles and Havre. The best streets have a great resemblance to the second-rate streets of Bath - 1 mean in architecture, not in situation, - for Orleans is on a dead flat. The worst streets here are much like the worst streets in the old parts of Bristol. The river is a fine one, - as broad I should think as the Thames at Westminster, and never affected by the tide. The Cathedral disappointed me, but very agreeably. I had expected something utterly contemptible. You perhaps are not aware that the old Cathedral was destroyed in the wars of religion, and that the present building is of the seventeenth century. Henry the Fourth laid the first stone in 1600 or 1601, I suppose by way of making atonement for the excesses which had been committed under his lead when he was a Huguenot. I was convinced that no good Gothic Church could possibly be built in that age. In truth taste for Gothic art was then almost extinct. Witness Inigo's attempts at the Gothic. What was my surprise then to find a cathedral, not without faults certainly, but still such as would rank high among ecclesiastical edifices of the thirteenth century. The portico is really very noble. The towers have rather a Saracenic than a Gothic air and reminded me of the buildings which the Tuscan crusaders erected at Pisa. But they produce rather a pleasing effect. The interior is really most stately and beautiful. There are blemishes undoubtedly. But if I had been placed at the door, with the whole long vista of arches before me, and had been desired to guess the age of the building without previous 146
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
[7] September 1843
information, I should have said without hesitation that it was at least a hundred and fifty years older than it is. How capricious are our feelings about works of art. A man's first poem, novel, or speech, is often extolled to the skies, merely because it has some little merit and was not expected to have any. His second performance fails, though it may have great merit, because it was expected to have more. The Cathedral of Chartres is undoubtedly much finer than that of Orleans. Yet I shall always remember my visit to the Cathedral of Chartres with a disagreeable feeling, and my visit to the Cathedral of Orleans with pleasure. To morrow I go to Blois early, and shall stay there during the day. The run is only of two or three hours down the Loire. Love to all. Tell my dear Baba to write to me, and to give me an account of Miss Alice's vaccination and whether the teeth are coming. Has Georgy begun to make as and Is yet? I am impatient to hear that Trevelyan is in Ireland. Tell Edward that an article which appeared in the Journal Des Debats two or three days ago about atmospherical railways1 has made a great sensation here. I should be glad to know what he thinks as to that matter. If I were satisfied that the calculations of the Journal des Debats were well founded, I should lessen my stake in the London and Birmingham.2 For we shall certainly not be long without a rival line, if it be really possible to construct a rival line for a quarter of the expense for which ours was constructed. Where are Selina and Fanny at present? Ever yours TBM TO MRS C H A R L E S T R E V E L Y A N , [J]3 SEPTEMBER
1843
MS: Trinity College. Address: Mrs. Trevelyan / E Cropper's Esq / Dingle Bank / Liverpool / Angleterre. Subscription: T B M . Extracts published: Trevelyan, II, 141; 145.
Nantes September 6. 1843 Dearest Hannah, On the day after I wrote last to you I left Orleans at six in the morning by the steamer which runs down the Loire. The voyage was not unpleasant, though the deck was too much crowded for comfort, and the vessel was far inferior to those of the Seine and the Rhone. The Loire is a shallow, but broad and bright river, difficult of navigation, but agreeable to 1
3
A system of propulsion by atmospheric pressure was tried experimentally in the early 1840s but did not prove satisfactory. A partial vacuum was created in a tube laid between the rails; a piston, connected to the head of the train, then moved through the tube by 2 atmospheric pressure. Of which Edward Cropper was a director. From TBM's account of his movements in this letter he arrived in Nantes on 6 September and wrote this on the next day; the letter also bears a Nantes postmark of 7 September.
M7
[y] September 1843
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
the eye. The banks are here and there bold and rocky. Sometimes the river flows for miles together by gentle hills covered with vineyards. Seats, towns, churches, and ruins of old castles are scattered along the banks. But in general the country is as flat as the Essex shore of the Thames. It is however well wooded and well cultivated, and when seen on a brilliant day, - and I have had a succession of brilliant days, — has some picturesque beauty. The scenery too is varied by numerous islands covered with willows and poplars; nor are there any of those mudbanks which, during great part of every day, disfigure rivers affected by the tide. The Loire at Orleans is as broad, I should say, as the Thames at Vauxhall. It is not much broader at Nantes than the Thames at Blackwall, at least to my eye. I mean the Thames at high water. At half past ten we reached Blois, and I landed there. I passed a pleasant day in visiting Chambord, and returning. Chambord, you perhaps know, was a favourite palace of the old French Kings. It was built, at enormous cost, for Francis the First by Italian architects. In one of the halls there the Bourgeois Gentilhomme was acted for the first time before Louis the Fourteenth. Versailles superseded it however in the good graces of the Court. And indeed Chambord is too far from Paris to be the chief residence of a French Sovereign. Accordingly it has several times been bestowed on persons whom the government wished to honor. It was given to Stanislaus of Poland when he was forced to take refuge with his sonin-law Louis the Fifteenth. When Stanislaus became Duke of Loraine Chambord reverted to the French Crown and was given to Marshal Saxe, after the battle of Fontenoy, as Anne gave Woodstock palace to Marlborough, after the battle of Blenheim. When Saxe died it reverted to the Crown again. I think, but I am not sure, that Louis the Eighteenth promised it to Pichegru as a reward for performing the part of General Monk, which Pichegru attempted to do. 1 Buonaparte gave it to his favourite Berthier. Berthier left it to his widow, and she offered it for sale. It was just after the assassination of the Duke of Berri.2 The royalists got up a subscription to purchase it for the Duke's posthumous son, whom they still call Henry the Fifth. The project was not popular, but by dint of bullying and telling all who objected that they would be marked men as long as they lived, a sufficient sum was extorted. I read to you in India an incomparable pamphlet which Paul Louis Courier, who lived near Chambord, wrote against this plan.3 Chambord is now the property of the exiled prince. He, I suppose, has no money to spare, and it has been suffered to fall into utter decay. The domain is however magnificent 1 3
2 In 1795. 1820. Simple Discours de Paul Louis, Vigneron de la Chavonniere, Paris, 1821, for which Courier was fined and imprisoned.
148
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twenty square miles of forest within a ring-fence, swarming with partridges, pheasants and hares, and not without wild boars. The house is a vast building of a most extraordinary description, something between an Elizabethan mansion and a Mahometan mosque. The desolation is quite heartbreaking. If it belonged to one of our grandees, to the Duke of Sutherland or the Duke of Devonshire, it would be as magnificent and infinitely more comfortable than when it was occupied by Kings. Now however it is going fast to ruin. There is not a trace of furniture. The walls which were once hung with tapestry and gilded leather are now bare, and nettles and funguses have covered what should have been the flowerbeds of the terrace. I walked some miles in the woods. The ground is too level for picturesque effect. But a path winding through fine trees is always pleasing. The road between Blois and Chambord is detestable, as indeed all the cross-roads of France are. But I was interested by the country. I travelled mile after mile through vineyards, not separated from the highway by any hedge, but touching the wheels sometimes on both sides. On the whole vine-cultivation is very beautiful, quite as beautiful as the hop-cultivation of Kent; and that is saying a great deal. The only very remarkable sight at Blois is the castle, and that is of the highest historical interest. It was there that Henry the Third held the famous States General of 1588. The hall where the States sate is still entire. So is the room where the council was held. The chimney in that room is the chimney at which Henry Duke of Guise sate down for the last time to warm himself. The room where the assassins were hidden, the room where the King concealed himself during the murder, the room where the Duke was attacked are all in perfect preservation. There is the alcove in which the King's bed stood. It was at the foot of that bed that Guise expired. The apartments of Catherine de' Medici, and her observatory — an observatory designed rather for astrological than for astronomical observation, also remain. I have not seen anything of greater historical interest in France. The next day at half after ten I left Blois and glided down the Loire to Tours, a much finer city than Blois, and most delightfully situated in a valley laughing with plenty. The principal street is not unlike Milsom Street at Bath. There is one fine Gothic Church, and there are also the ruins of a still larger which was destroyed at the time of the Revolution. The number of English at Tours is said to be very great. But I fell in with none of them. By the way nothing surprises me more than the way in which an Englishman is discovered in France, often before he speaks, certainly as soon as he speaks. The word "Combien?" the words "En route," seem sufficient to betray him. I am not surprised that my accent should shew me at once to be a foreigner. But I am surprised that two 6
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syllables should prove me to be, not a German, or Pole, or Dutchman, or Spaniard, or Italian, or American, but an Englishman.1 Whether they distinguish between us and the Yankees, indeed, I have not discovered. At four I rose, and at five left Tours by the steamer for Angers. The voyage is about seventy miles, and we did not arrive at Angers till past two in the afternoon. The vessel was crowded, so that it was difficult to find a seat, and next to impossible to get a breakfast. The Coffee disappeared before I thought of taking any thing. It was necessary therefore to breakfast a la fourchette, a thing of which I am not fond, and of which I seldom fail to feel the bad effects for some hours. However I could not starve. After two hours' delay, I procured at near twelve o'clock, a beef-steak with mushrooms, a crust of bread, and a pint of very indifferent claret. We stopped for a few minutes at Saumur to take in passengers. One of them greeted me very heartily and shook me by the hand. I was surprised to find that it was Lord Ingestrie,2 with whom I never exchanged a word except once in discussion on a private bill in a Committee of the House of Commons. He is a violent Tory, and passes for a rough surly man. Nor would there have been the least discourtesy in his taking no notice of me. However he was extremely cordial and insisted on introducing me to his wife,3 an agreeable and rather handsome young woman, with whom I had some pleasant chat. Indeed I induced them to stop at Angers. For they had intended to proceed straight to Nantes. We came at last to the point where the Mayenne joins the Loire, the Mayenne blue and healthy-looking, the Loire yellow with sand. We turned up the Mayenne, and in half an hour were at Angers. Angers is a striking city. The tower of the Cathedral is fine. But the great sight is the castle. I have never seen such a castle in any part of the world. It was begun by Philip Augustus, and finished by St Louis. It is of a black stone and is founded on a solid dark rock. Its dimensions are gigantic. It is, I should think, about four hundred feet square and rises to the height of near a hundred feet above the river. It has seventeen huge round towers near thirty feet in diameter. The moat remains, and the drawbridge, and the portcullis, and the furnace where lead and pitch were melted to be thrown on the heads of assailants. Before the invention of gunpowder this fortress must have been, I think, impregnable. It is certainly by far the noblest thing of 1
2
3
TBM remembered this in his speech on Ireland, 19 February 1844: *Go where you will upon the Continent, dine at any table d'hote, tread upon any steam-boat, enter any conveyance, from the moment your speech betrays you to be an Englishman . . .' (Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXII, 1186). Henry lohn Chetwynd Talbot (1803-68), styled Lord Ingestre, 1826-49; succeeded a distant cousin as eighteenth Earl of Shrewsbury, 1858 (see 6 August 1857); Tory M.P., 1830-2; 1837-49. Lady Sarah Elizabeth Beresford (1807-84), daughter of Lord "Waterford. married Lord Ingestre in 1828. 150
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the kind that I know. You might make out of it four or five Warwick castles. At seven yesterday morning I was again on board, and we were soon running down the Mayenne to the Loire. Sir George Head1 an officer, of some note, if I recollect my war-office information rightly, joined us here. The voyage to Nantes was pleasant. I had much agreeable talk with Lady Sarah, who seems very amiable and well informed. The towns, castles, and churches on the banks, and the Vendean war,- for we were now passing along the shore of the department of La Vendee, - furnished us with topics. At a little after one we reached Nantes; and I took possession of a tolerable room in the best hotel. I then hastened to the Post Office, and was delighted to find a letter from Fanny inclosing one from Baba. How vexed I am that it did not occur to me to ask at the post office of Orleans if there was any thing for me. But I shall be at Orleans again on Saturday and then I will obtain Fanny's letter. I am truly obliged to her. I am not quite without hope of finding a letter from you at the Post Office to day. But I do not much expect it, considering the delays of the mails, first at London and then at Paris. I know nothing about politics except what I gl[ean]2 from French newspapers in the coffee-houses. The people here seem to be in very ill humour about the Queen's visit: and I think it, I must own, an illjudged step.3 Propriety requires that a guest, a sovereign, and a woman, should be received by Louis Philippe with something of chivalrous homage, with an air of deference. To stand punctiliously on his equality in intercourse with a young lady would be uncourteous and almost insulting. But the French have taken it strongly into their heads that their government is acting a servile part towards England, and they are therefore disposed to consider every act of hospitality and gallantry on the part of the King as a national humiliation. I see that the journals are crying out that France is for ever degraded because the band of a French regiment played " God save the Queen," when Her Majesty landed. I fear that Louis Philippe cannot possibly behave, on this occasion, so as at once to gratify his guest and his subjects. They are wretched creatures, that is the truth, - and will not be wiser till they have another lesson like that of 1815. I must stop. Love and thanks to Fanny. Love to all at Liverpool, Selina, Trevelyan, Edward, Charlie. My loves to Georgy and Alice I send through Baba. To night I leave Nantes. Late on Saturday or very early on Sunday I hope to be at Paris again. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
2 3
Sir George Head (1782—1855: DNB), a commissary officer who served in the Peninsular campaign and in Canada; he published several volumes of travels and reminiscences. Paper torn away with seal. Victoria visited Louis Philippe, 2-7 September, at the Chateau d'Eu. 151 6-2
7 September 2843 TO L A D Y H O L L A N D , 7 SEPTEMBER
Lady Holland 1843
MS: British Museum. Address: The / Lady Holland / 33 South Street / Grosvenor Square / London. Subscription: T B M. Extract published: Sonia Keppel, The Sovereign Lady, p. 370.
Nantes September 7. 1843 Dear Lady Holland, I write to you because you charged me to write to you, though I have little or nothing to say but what you either know or would not care to know. But I would rather send you a dull letter than appear to have forgotten your request, or to be insensible to the kindness which induced you to make it. I have wandered far since we parted. I have seen Chartres and have been a little disappointed. The Cathedral is fine, but hardly deserves to be placed, as it generally is, in the highest rank among Gothic Churches. I had expected too much, and was therefore perhaps unable to do justice to what I found. At Orleans the case was directly reversed. There I expected nothing. I knew that the Cathedral was begun in the seventeenth Century, when all taste for the architecture of the middle ages was extinct even in men of such capacity as Inigo and Wren. That any really fine Gothic Church should have been built in such an age seemed to me altogether impossible. I expected something like the Gothic building, as it is called, in the grounds at Stowe. I found, to my astonishment, a fine Church, worthy on the whole of the thirteenth Century, disfigured undoubtedly in one or two places by ornaments in the Italian style, but not more disfigured in that way than many fine Churches of the thirteenth Century have in the course of time been. If I had been placed in the interior and asked to guess without previous information in what age those fine arches were built, I should with confidence have assigned a date earlier than even 1500.1 cannot help thinking that some picture or model of the old Church which was destroyed in the religious wars must have guided the architect. But I have no means of knowing how this was. I have seen Bourges too, with a mixture of admiration, interest, and disgust. The Cathedral is indeed superb. The exterior has often been surpassed. But I am not sure that I ever saw so fine an interior in that style; and I have seen all the finest Gothic Churches in England and France except Rheims. But the town is the strangest old place. The Revolution seems to have never touched it. It lies on no great road. It is cut off by a dreary barren tract of several hours' journey from the Orleannois. I have heard several Parisians say that Berry is a Terra Incognita to the rest of France. And certainly Bourges seems to belong to the age of Louis XVI, or rather of Louis XIV. The streets are mean, narrow and crooked, the shops and inns a hundred years behind those of any large city that I
Lady Holland
y September 1843
have seen in France. There is, I understand, in the neighbourhood an unusually great number of old and noble families. They have been so lucky as to keep or to recover a large part of their ancestral estates. Bourges is their Paris. They come thither to pass the winter, and have mansions there which look like the hotels of the Fauxbourg St Germain on a smaller scale, and which have moreover an indescribable queerness of appearance, and a squalidity which seems to be caused, not by poverty, but by aversion to change and by ignorance of modern usages. I saw at the door of one of these hotels, in a street like those occupied by Jew clothesmen in Wapping, a carriage with a Count's coronet and a most ostentatious coat of arms. I half expected to see M. de Sotenville and his lady step out of it. These great gentry and the clergy of the Cathedral seem to bear rule in Bourges. The self-importance and the bigotry of the lowest hangers on of the priesthood surpasses anything that I saw in Flanders. I was at the best inn, and there was no want of courtesy or disposition to oblige. But the discomfort was almost insufferable. The only salon was rilled with all the inmates of the house and all the comers and goers of the town, mine host casting up accounts, mine hostess looking over linen, the dogs from the street fighting for a bone, two handmaidens stitching, a little girl learning to write, a little boy learning to read, a coxcomb with a long beard and a cigar in his mouth, an old pantaloon reading a paper three weeks old, a beggar who had poked in his head and a wen larger than his head at the window, and was whining his "Pour l'amour de Dieu, Messieurs." Lastly there was the Englishman, myself, trying to forget his ill humour in a very naughty but very amusing novel by Paul de Kock. My observations on the beds at Bourges led me to think that, if I slept there, I should make acquaintance with a portion of the zoology of Berry about which I was not curious. The men and dogs had been quite enough for me. Accordingly I set off by a night coach for Orleans, resolving that not even the Cathedral should ever tempt me thither again, at least until the projected rail-road has introduced civilisation among the savage inhabitants.1 I have said so much about Bourges that I have no time to say anything about my voyage down the Loire. It interested me greatly. I was much pleased with Chambord, still more by the castle of Blois. But on the whole the castle of Angers is the finest sight that I have looked on since I left Orleans. I am happy to say that this evening I begin my journey home1
TBM revisited Bourges in 1858 to find that an * immense improvement* had been made in the intervening fifteen years: 'the railway and the increasing resort of strangers have doubtless produced the change. They have not yet however deprived Bourges of its peculiar character; and I am glad of it' (Journal, x, 244—5: 10 September 1858).
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ward. On Sunday I hope to be in Paris, and on the following Friday in London. I have nothing to tell you in the way of news. You in London are indeed far better informed about the proceedings of her Majesty than we at Nantes. I confess that I think the visit to Eu ill-timed. My reason is this. I fear that Louis Philippe will find it impossible to pay to the Queen the respect due to her rank and sex without irritating his own subjects. A royal guest, particularly a woman, ought to be received with something like homage; and, in the present temper of the people here, any departure on the part of Louis Philippe from the punctilious assertion of equality is considered as a national humiliation. The Nantes papers are furious because a French band has been ordered on French ground to play " God save the Queen." They are furious because a tricolor flag has been cut down to the same dimensions with the English flag displayed before her Majesty. Every galanterie to her is construed into a degradation of France. I wish, for my own part, that she had never come hither, and I hope that she will soon take her leave. / Ever, dear Lady Holland, Yours most truly T B Macaulay TO M R S C H A R L E S T R E V E L Y A N , 9-10
SEPTEMBER
1843
MS: Trinity College. Extracts published: Trevelyan, 11, 145-6.
Tours September 9. 1843 Dearest Hannah, I found Nantes a fine city, much of the same kind with Havre and Marseilles. I have now seen all the great French ports of trade, except Bordeaux. They have some features in common which distinguish them from our commercial towns. There is a far greater air of gaiety about them than would be found in any place of the sort in England. The cafes are brilliant and crowded. You hear the frequenters of these cafes talking much over their liqueurs and lemonade about dances and plays. The theatres seem to thrive. There is not that earnest, sober, air which every thing wears at Liverpool, Bristol, and Hull. At Liverpool, for example, you could never for a moment imagine that you were at Brighton. But at the great French outports which I have visited, you might walk about a whole day without discovering that you were not at a watering-place, except indeed for the shipping. I rather suspect that business is done here in a more slovenly manner than with us. I judge however only from one or two facts which may very possibly mislead me. The post-office at a great commercial town ought to be managed with the utmost punctuality. A 154
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
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loss of an hour may easily cause half a dozen bankruptcies. I saw a notice in the Post Office window at Nantes that the Poste Restante was open from, I think, eight to four. At a quarter to one I went to ask for my letters. The office was shut; and a clerk very coolly said that the gentleman who looked after the Poste Restante had gone to a breakfast and that it would not be open till one. At one I came. Still the door was shut. Fifteen or twenty people, some of them apparently travelling agents of commercial houses, assembled round it. There was much grumbling and some swearing. One of the malecontents addressed some observation to me. I said that I was surprised at such want of regularity in so great a commercial community. He, as a French man does when he has nothing to say, elevated his eye brows, spread his hands, and shrugged his shoulders. At half after one the functionary for whom we were waiting appeared, with an enormous beard, after the fashion of young France. Now I cannot think that such a thing could possibly happen at Liverpool or Bristol without the most violent complaints and the dismission of the offending clerk. It is however, as I said, dangerous to draw inferences from single facts however significant. Nantes is not so large as Marseilles, nor so busy and full of movement as Havre. It is, I imagine, among the French commercial cities what Bristol is among ours; and has, during half a century, been stationary or perhaps a little retrograding, while Havre, like Liverpool, though in a far inferior degree, has been advancing. There are at Nantes very handsome streets, squares, public buildings, public gardens, quays, bridges, and arcades. The Cathedral and the Castle are very ancient and have some historical interest. The Cathedral is like that which you saw at Beauvais, but far inferior. The Castle is striking. But the Castle of Angers has spoiled me for all other buildings of the kind. I left Nantes by the diligence for Angers on Thursday evening. The Ingestries were really wonderfully civil, and invited me to their house at Dieppe, if I should go home by that route, Lord Ingestrie saying in a gruff professional tone "Now don't run away without seeing me." I imagine that I shall be in England before they reach Dieppe again, as they are going thither through Britanny, and will halt at Rennes for a day and perhaps visit Brest. It was just four in the morning when I reached Angers. But I found a cafe open, made a tolerable breakfast, and before five was on board of the steamer for Tours. I had now to run against the stream. The voyage was therefore prolonged to fourteen hours. I had run down from Tours to Angers in about eight hours. It was a lovely day. The banks were seen to every advantage, and, without possessing beauty of the highest class, presented an endless succession of pretty and cheerful landscapes. With the scenery and a book, I was in no want of company. A Frenchman how155
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ever began to talk to me, and proved a sensible and well-bred man. We had much conversation. He had been in England and, when ill, had been kindly treated by the people among whom he was, particularly, he said, by a clergyman at Liverpool whose name he could not remember. He always therefore, he said, made a point of paying attention to Englishmen. I could not help telling him that he might easily get himself into a scrape with some swindler or worse, if he carried his kindness to our nation too far. "Sans doute," said he, "il faut distinguer." And then he paid me the highest compliment that was ever paid me in my life. For he said that nobody who knew the world could fail to perceive that I was what the English call gentleman, homme comme ilfaut. That you may fully appreciate the value of this compliment, I must tell you that, having travelled all the preceding night, I had a beard of two days' growth, that my linen was the linen of the day before, that my hair was unbrushed, my boots dirty, my coat like a miller's, and my waistcoat which had been white when I left Nantes, in a state which filled me with selfabhorrence. Nor had he the least notion who I was. For I gave no hint: and my name was not on my baggage. I shall therefore henceforth consider myself as a person of singularly noble look and demeanour. At seven I reached Tours, and repaired to my old inn, where I was most eagerly welcomed, being, as you know, one of those travellers who order good things and pay good prices. I am sorry to say that the weather which had been glorious during my tour, begins to be threatening. As a steamer in rain is the most destestable of all conveyances, I have taken a place for Paris this evening, by one of the diligences which communicates with the rail-road at Orleans. I hope that there will be delay enough at Orleans to enable me to get Fanny's letter. I am well, but a little knocked up, as you will easily believe when I tell you that since I left Paris on the 31st of August I have had, on an average, barely five hours a night in bed. My stomach too begins, as it usually does, when I have been three weeks in France, to protest against made dishes and light wines. But I have no doubt that I shall be the better for my trip. I was going to send this letter off, when I remembered that I shall be in Paris as soon as the post. I therefore determined to keep it open, and finish it to morrow. The day seems to be clearing up. So I shall sally forth and walk about Tours. Paris September 10. 1843 I left Tours in the coupee of the diligence at six yesterday evening, and reached Orleans at five in the morning. I was truly sorry that it was too early to get Fanny's letter from the post-office. I consoled my self by thinking that I had later news of you all than that letter could have 156
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contained. We drove to the railway station and there a process was performed which I have never seen in England, though it might be useful among us. The body of the diligence, weighing I should think twice as much as a heavy English stage-coach, was unscrewed from the wheels, slung in the air by machinery, and set down on a railway car. This was done so expeditiously that, with two machines, six diligences, conveying perhaps a hundred passengers and an immense load of baggage, were placed on the train in less than ten minutes, without our quitting our seats or having to look after our trunks. When we came to Paris every diligence was met by horses drawing wheels and axles. The machinery was put in motion. We were hoisted off the car, screwed to our wheels, and instantly drawn away. The country between Orleans and Paris I now saw for the first time. It was dark when I went through it on my way to Bourges: and I might as well have gone through it in the dark again: for it is not worth seeing. It is a good country for laying down rails. That is to say it is not good for a traveller in search of the picturesque. Nature has done as little for it as for Cambridgeshire; and art a great deal less. As soon as I reached Meurice's, I washed, dressed, drank a cup of coffee, and set out for the Post Office. There I found your letter of the 2nd, which, according to the orders left by me at Nantes, had been sent after me to Paris. I am delighted to hear so good an account of the dear children. How I love them! — I wonder whether I should ever have loved children of my own better. I have made all my arrangements for returning. On Wednesday evening 1 I start for Havre. I hope to arrive there by daybreak on Thursday. At four on Thursday afternoon I embark at Havre, and hope to reach Portsmouth soon after midnight. I shall probably be in town early on Friday. I wish that you would send a line on Thursday to the Albany to say how you all are. This is the last letter that you will in all probability receive from me till I am at home again. Love to Trevelyan and Fanny. Love to my sweet Baba and to Georgie and a kiss to little Alice. Love, regards, kind remembrances to Edward and Charlie, and Selina and Henry and Mrs. Henry, in short to all to whom they ought to be given. I do not quite make out whether Selina is at the Dingle or not, or where Henry and his wife are. By the bye — I cannot say a propos — for certainly it is a matter which has nothing to do with loves and kind regards - 1 have this morning seen my Uncle James again. But he saw not me. The same benevolent wisdom which gave a rattle to the most poisonous of snakes has provided the most importunate, unreasonable, and impudent of men with remarkably bad eyes, and me, his victim, with remarkably quick ones. He seems to pass 1
13 September.
157
15 October 2843
Henry Macaulay
his whole life at Galignani's; and go thither I must. For it is the only place where all the English papers are taken in. Ever yours, dearest T B Macaulay TO HENRY MACAULAY, 15 OCTOBER 1843 MS: University of Texas.
Albany London / October 15. 1843 Dear Henry, Your deed is safe in my keeping. I shall have no objection of course to send it to Mr. Richard Denman,1 if you will tell me where he now is. Pray let me know as soon as anything is decided about your passage.2 I hope to have about forty pounds for you from Sierra Leone before you sail. We hear that the last remittance, of 315 £ , is on its way. Love to your wife and baby.3 Ever yours T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 20 O C T O B E R MS:
1843
British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 447—8.
Albany London October 20. 1843 Dear Napier, I had actually begun to write to you when I received your kind letter. I cannot, I am sorry to say, do anything for the next Number. I have got into the midst of the stream with my history; and I do not like to intermit my labours at present. When parliament meets more desultory work will suit me better. I will try to do something for the April Number. But what? I cannot say that I much fancy either of the subjects which you suggest. There would, I apprehend, be little to say about Drake. The conquest of Mexico is a noble theme indeed.4 But it would require much delving in Spanish books; and the reading of Spanish is not quite so easy to me as to be a pleasure. I think that you had better at once close with the gentleman who offers to write on Drake.5 I will wait a few weeks, and see what 1
Henry's brother-in-law, Richard Denman (1814-87), was a barrister. Henry had been appointed the English Commissioner to the Court of Mixed Commission just established at Boa Vista, in the Cape Verde Islands, at a salary of £1,200 per annum. 3 Henry Denman Macaulay, born 10 August 1843. 4 Prescott's Conquest of Mexico was published in the next week. s Herman Merivale, 'Sir Francis Drake,' ER, LXXX (October 1844), 376-406. 2
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comes out. Several books are announced which promise well. At the worst I could take Mahon's Life of Conde. There is military adventure, political intrigue, a crowd of characters, a picture of the Court of Louis XIV in its best days. Something might be made of it; and I have my head full of Chambord and Versailles. You once mentioned Hobbes. On the whole I think that a subject which would hardly suit me. Merle D'Au-bigne's fourth volume1 cannot be long delayed. It is to contain the history of the Reformation in England, and cannot fail to give opportunity for much interesting discussion. Then the new volumes of Horace Walpole's letters might furnish a heading to a view of the ministerial revolutions of the first ten or twelve years of George III, 2 a time about which few people know anything and about which I have a great deal of curious information which has never been printed. Newman announces an English hagiology in numbers,3 which is to contain the lives of such blessed saints as Thomas a Becket and Dunstan. I should not dislike to be the Avvocato del Diavolo on such an occasion. You see that I have many plans in my head. At present I cannot decide to my satisfaction. Your new Number is very good. Empson's article4 is excellent. To say the truth I and everybody here gave it to Stephen, which, without any disparagement to Empson, is rather a compliment. Brougham's absurdities are merely pitiable while he confines himself to his pen. He is a formidable orator, but a very middling writer, and has never written anything poorer than his last pamphlet.5 As to his political philosophy,6 I cannot meet with a soul who has read it. As Juvenal says " Utinam his potius nugis tota ilia dedisset Tempora saevitae."7 I think of going quietly to Edinburgh at Christmas, if there be no political objection, and if I am likely to find my friends there. What say you to both these points. I really want to have some talk with you and others about Scottish history. I am ashamed to say how grossly ignorant I am of it, except where it is intermingled with the history of England. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
2
Jean Henri Merle d'Aubigne, Histoire de la Reformation du Sei^ieme Siicle, Paris, 4 vols.,
1835-47. The idea for what became the essay on Chatham: see 24 February 1844. The new Walpole letters are Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Offord', to Sir Horace Mann . . . , ij6o—
3
4 5 6 7
178 5, 4 vols., 1843-4. Lives of the English Saints, in 15 parts, 1844—5; t n e ^ r s t t w o Par*s only were edited by Newman. William Empson, 'Jeremy Bentham,' ER, LXXVIII (October 1843), 460-516. * Letters on Law Reform, to the Right Hon. Sir R.R.G. Graham,' 1843. Political Philosophy, 3 vols., 1842-3. Satires, IV, 150-1.
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27 October 1843
Unidentified Recipient
TO UNIDENTIFIED RECIPIENT, 27 OCTOBER
1843
MS: University of Iowa.
Albany October 27. 1843 Sir, I beg to assure you that nothing could be further from my intention than to requite your good will and courtesy with incivility. I hope that you will have the kindness to excuse my scruples. I still think them well founded. At all events they are invincible. The dates of the few events of my life which are in the least worth recording will be found, I imagine, in the Cambridge Calendar and in the Parliamentary History. 1 1 have no portrait of my self. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your faithful Servant, T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 31 O C T O B E R
1843
MS: British Museum.
Albany Oct 31 / 1843 Dear Napier, Since you wish it I will at once fix on Walpole for April. I wrote six weeks ago to Lord Stair,2 and directed my letter to Cousland Edinburgh. That is his country address as given in the Court Guide. There was no address prefixed to his letter to me. If therefore my answer has miscarried the fault is his own. I now send an answer to him with full explanations. Pray have the kindness to take care that he gets it. I should be exceedingly sorry to be under the imputation of requiting courtesy and kindness with rudeness. I shall but barely catch the post. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
2
TBM, having published the Lays and the collected Essays, was now beginning to attract biographical notice: Richard Hengist Home's A New Spirit of the Age, for example, published in March 1844, begins a chapter on TBM with a highly inaccurate biographical sketch. Sir John Dalrymple (1771-1853: DNB\ eighth Earl of Stair, general, and Whig M.P. for Midlothian, 1832-40.
160
Sir James Gibson Craig
24 November 2843
TO SIR JAMES GIBSON CRAIG, 24 NOVEMBER
1843
MS: Scottish Record Office.
Albany London / Nov 24. 1843 My dear Sir, I shall be guided by your opinion, with which indeed my own entirely agrees. Edinburgh, in my opinion, is, for the present, lost. The demands of the liberals, heated as they are by religious fanaticism, are such as I will not comply with. I will not vote for the abolition of the Churches now established in this island; and I will support any well-digested plan for establishing the Catholic Church in Ireland. I do not wish to proclaim these opinions prematurely; but I am resolved to act on them and, if necessary, to suffer for them when the proper time comes. If I visit Edinburgh now I must either declare my sentiments, and thus excite an immediate storm, or suppress them at the risk of being afterwards accused of dissimulation. I think it better to stay away. My impression is that, at the next election, neither William nor my self will be returned.l One Tory and one ultra-radical will occupy our places. How long this will last is another question. For my own part I shall accept my dismission, not merely with fortitude, but with sincere delight. / Ever, my dear Sir, Yours most truly T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 25 N O V E M B E R
1843
MS: British Museum. Published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 448-51.
Albany London / November 25. 1843 Dear Napier, Many thanks for your excellent letter. I have considered it fully: and I am convinced that, by visiting Edinburgh at present, I should do unmixed harm. The question respecting the Catholic clergy2 is precisely in that state in which a discussion at a public meeting can do no good and may do great mischief. It is in a state requiring the most painful attention of the ablest heads; nor is it by any means certain that any attention or any ability will produce a satisfactory solution of the problem. 1
2
In his reply to this, 27 November, Gibson Craig says that' I entirely agree with what you say. . . . No one deserving the characters of a Liberal Whig or a Gentleman, can submit to the dictation, which, I have no doubt, will, at next Election, be attempted to be forced on the Representatives of the City of Edinburgh* (copy, Scottish Record Office). Whether they should be paid by the state; the government did not dare to propose such a
25 November 2843
Macvey Napier
My own view is this. I do not on principle object to the paying of the Irish Catholic priests. I regret that such a step was not taken in 1829. I would even now gladly support any well digested plan which might be likely to succeed. But I fear that the difficulties are insurmountable. Against such a measure are all the zealots of the High Church and all the zealots of the Low Church, the Bishop of Exeter and Hugh Macneil,1 Oxford and Exeter Hall, all the champions of the voluntary system, all the English dissenters, all Scotland, all Ireland, both Orangemen and Papists. If you add together the mass which opposed the late government on the education question,2 the mass which opposed Sir James Graham's education-clauses last year,3 and the mass which is crying out for repeal in Ireland, you get something like a notion of the force which will be arrayed against a bill for paying the Irish Catholic clergy. What have you on the other side? You have the statesmen, both Tory and Whig. But no combination of statesmen is a match for a general combination of fools. And even among the statesmen there is by no means perfect concord. The Tory statesmen are for paying the Catholic priests, but not for touching one farthing of the revenue of the Protestant Church. The liberal statesmen, — I, for one, if I may lay claim to the name, - would transfer a large part of the Irish Church revenues from the Protestants to the Catholics. For such a measure I should think it my duty to vote, though I were certain that my vote would cost me my seat in parliament. Whether I would vote for a measure which, leaving the Protestant Church of Ireland untouched, should add more than half a million to our public burdens for the maintenance of the Popish priesthood, is another question. I am not ashamed to say that I have not quite made up my mind, and that I should be glad, before I made it up, to hear the opinions of others. As things stand, I do not believe that Sir Robert, or Lord John, or even Sir Robert and Lord John united, could induce one third part of the members of the House of Commons to vote for any plan whatever of which the object should be the direct payment of the Irish Catholic priests. Thinking thus, I have turned my mind to the best indirect ways of effecting this object; and I have some notions which may possibly bear fruit. To explain them would take too much time. I shall probably take an opportunity of submitting them to the House of Commons.4 1
2 3 4
Hugh McNeile (179 5-1879: DNB), Evangelical clergyman, anti-Catholic orator and writer. TBM singles him out as a type of violent anti-Catholic bigotry in his speeches on the state of Ireland, 19 February 1844, and on Maynooth, 14 April 1845. See 15 June 1839. I assume that TBM means in the last session, not the last year: see 2 May 1843. He did not; in his speech on the state of Ireland, 19 February 1844, TBM said that he would reserve his remarks on the Church for another occasion; this, Greville wrote, 162
Macvey Napier
25 November 2843
Now I can conceive nothing more inexpedient than that, with these views, I should, at the present moment, go down to Edinburgh. If I did, I should certainly take the bull by the horns. I should positively refuse to give any promise. I should declare that I was not, on principle, opposed to the payment of Catholic priests: and I should reserve my judgment as to any particular mode of payment till the details were before me. The effect would be a violent explosion of public feeling. Other towns would follow the example of Edinburgh. Petitions would pour in by thousands as soon as parliament had assembled; and the difficulties with which we have to deal, and which are great enough as it is, would be doubled. What I have written will serve as an answer to your question about Senior.1 You see what my view of the question is. Lord Lansdowne's is a little, and but a little different. He is most strongly for paying the Catholic priests, and is fully prepared to do so, without touching the Established Church, by laying on fresh taxes. He agrees with me in thinking that the revenues of the Established Church would be the proper fund for the purpose. But he reasons thus - " To pay the priests is matter of life and death. We cannot do it without the help of the Tories. The Tories will never consent to touch the Protestant Establishment. We must therefore compromise the matter, and take what is second best, since we cannot have what is best." This, as I have said, is not exactly my view. I do not however think that the Edinburgh Review ought to be under the same restraints under which a Whig cabinet is necessarily placed. The Review has not to take the Queen's pleasure, to count votes in the Houses, or to keep powerful supporters in good humour. It should expound and defend the Whig theory of government, a theory from which we are forced sometimes to depart in practice. There can be no objection to Senior's arguing in the strongest manner for the paying of the Catholic priests. I should think it very injudicious to lay down the rule that the Whig Review should never plead for any reforms except such as a Whig ministry could prudently propose to the legislature. I have a plan in my head which, I hope, you will not dislike. I think of reviewing the memoirs of Barrere.2 I really am persuaded that I could make something of that subject. Ever yours T B Macaulay
1 2
* meant that he was in dread of his constituents' {Memoirs, iv, 163). In the next year TBM declared his conviction that the Irish Church was an 'absurd' institution requiring 'strong measures,' but did not specify (23 April 1845: Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXIX, 1180-98). See 13 December. Memoires de Bertrand Barire, 4 vols., Paris, 1843, reviewed by TBM in 'Barere's Memoirs,' ER, LXXIX (April 1844), 275-351.
163
25 November 1843
Robert Cadell
I may as well say that I am quite convinced that neither Craig nor I can expect to be again returned for Edinburgh. The two next members will be a Tory and an Ultra Radical. The place is in a foam with all sorts of fanaticism, political and religious; and I am neither fit nor desirous to represent men out of their wits. So much the better. My history will go on faster.
TO R O B E R T C A D E L L , 1 25 N O V E M B E R
1843
MS: National Library of Scotland. Albany London Nov 25 / 1843 My dear Sir, Thanks for your very kind and very important letter.2 If I could hope that I should be suffered to pass a quiet fortnight at Edinburgh, and to communicate on important public questions with such men as yourself and my excellent friend the new Lord Provost,3 I should certainly pay you a visit. But I find that, if I do down, public meetings will be called, and that I shall be expected to make declarations not only respecting the Corn-laws, but respecting other questions at least equally exciting. To me personally this is matter of indifference. I am ready to say what I think before any audience in the world. But I am convinced that discussion such as we should inevitably have respecting the established Church and above all respecting the granting of a public provision to the Irish Catholic priests would have very pernicious consequences. I have therefore resolved not to go down to Edinburgh at present; and I have reason to believe that both Sir James Craig and the Lord Provost, whatever they may formerly have thought, are now of opinion that I am right in staying away. As to my chance of again representing Edinburgh, I regard it as worth nothing. I see that the town is mad with every sort of fanaticism political and religious; and I am no representative for fanatics. At the next election you will chuse a Tory and an Ultra Radical. I am sorry for it; but not on my own account. For I shall accept my dismissal with sincere pleasure. / Ever, my dear Sir, Yours most truly T B Macaulay 1
2
3
Cadell (1788-1849: DNB), Edinburgh publisher, was a partner in Constable's firm in the years when it was bringing out Scott's novels. After Constable's failure, Cadell continued to publish Scott, and after Scott's death secured the copyright of his works. Cadell wrote on 23 November analyzing the state of parties in Edinburgh and urging TBM to visit the city in order to reach an understanding * on the great general question of the Corn Laws* (copy, National Library of Scotland). Black was elected Lord Provost in this year.
164
Robert Cadell
30 November 2843
TO R O B E R T C A D E L L , 30 N O V E M B E R
1843
MS: National Library of Scotland. Albany London / Novr. 30. 1843 My dear Sir, I am truly sensible of the kindness which has led you to write to me again.1 Your letter satisfies me that I do wisely in staying away at present. My feeling about the Corn-laws has been a hundred times expressed, and is unchanged. I am for free trade. But I know that at present I cannot get it. I am therefore for a small fixed duty, not as the best thing conceivable, but as the best thing attainable. I will not disguise this opinion for fear of any consequences. A man whose object is merely to get or keep a seat in parliament may flatter the multitude. My object is the public good; and I will not stir to right or left for the sake of any personal object. 1 wish for the sake of the public to prevent, as far as in me lies, any breach in the ranks of the reformers. If I go to Edinburgh, I must speak the truth. If I speak the truth I shall be hissed and clamoured down. To me hissing and applause are matters of perfect indifference. But the effect of such a scene, exaggerated as it would be by all the Tory papers, would be to widen a schism, already too wide, between two classes of men whose union is necessary to the public welfare. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO R I C H A R D M O N C K T O N M I L N E S , 2 D E C E M B E R
1843
Text: James Pope-Hennessy, Monckton Milnes, 11 (1951), 4n.: dated Albany, London, 2 December 1843.
I do not know why you call your country the English Thrace.2 Three hundred years ago Thomas Cromwell told Henry the Eighth that the country round Ferrybridge was the most flourishing part of the whole realm of England; and, for my own part, though I have seen finer scenery, I have never seen a more thriving population than that among which you live. 1
2
On receiving TBM's letter of 25 November, Cadell wrote again to reiterate his notion that TBM should declare himself on the Corn Laws (28 November: copy, National Library of Scotland). Fryston Hall, Milnes' country house, was near Ferrybridge, Yorkshire. TBM would have known the region from the days when he attended the Quarter Sessions of the West Riding.
165
13 December 1843
Macvey Napier
TO MACVEY NAPIER, 13 DECEMBER
1843
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 451-3.
Albany London / Dec 13. 1843 Dear Napier, You shall have my paper on Barere before parliament meets. I never took to writing anything with more hearty good will. " Facit indignatio versum."1 If I can, I will make the old villain shake even in his grave. Some of the lies in which I have detected him are such as you, with all your experience in literary matters, will find it difficult to believe without actual inspection of the authorities. Senior sent me his proof sheets.2 I told him that I chiefly objected to two things. One was the tone of authority which he assumed, as if speaking in the name of the whole liberal party. The other was his declaration in favour of keeping the existing Church of Ireland untouched.3 I told him that every body would know him to be the author of the paper, that every body would instantly guess, what I at once guessed, and what he did not deny, that the passage respecting the Irish Church was inserted at the request of his friend the Archbishop of Dublin,4 and that, much as I respected Whateley's abilities and integrity, I could not think it desirable that the Edinburgh Review should become the organ of the Irish Episcopal Bench in direct opposition to the feeling of the whole liberal party. He promised to alter his article, in such a way as to remove both my objections. I have other objections less serious. I think the proposition for holding parliaments at Dublin5 utterly absurd, and I shewed him that it was absolutely impossible to conduct anywhere but in London the business of the only two departments of the Government with which I am experimentally acquainted, the War-Office and the India Board. He promised to modify this passage. But I imagine that he will retain the main body of it. I am more and more satisfied that the paying of the Catholic clergy, however desirable, is at present absolutely impossible. If Peel proposes it, 1
Juvenal, Satires, 1, 79. Of his article * Ireland,' ER, LXXIX (January 1844), 189-266. * Our own opinion is decidedly against any interference with the present Protestant endowment' {ER, LXXIX, 222). Senior wrote to Napier on 7 January 1844 that 'If Macaulay had not protested against it, I certainly was prepared to say that the protestant establishment, reduced as it should be by our proposals, to about £470,000 a year would not be extravagant. But he maintained that, true or false, such a statement must not be made, it being one of the 39 articles of Whiggism that the Irish church affords a surplus' (MS, British Museum). 4 Richard Whately (1787-1863: DNB), Archbishop of Dublin, 1831-63. 5 Senior suggests the idea, though allowing that there would be many obstacles to it: ER, 2
3
LXXIX, 259.
166
Macvey Napier
13 December 1843
down he goes. And, if he cannot carry it, nobody can. Things look blacker in Ireland than ever: and I greatly fear that the disputes with America, thanks to Lord Ashburton's dastardly negotiation,l are coming fast to an unfavourable crisis. A few days more will bring us the President's Message; and then we shall see. I am truly sorry to hear that you have been poorly. What do you hear of Jeffrey's book? Longman speaks well of the sale. The criticisms in the London papers, of which I think little indeed, are coldly civil. My own general impression is this, that the selection is ill made, and that a certain want of finish which in a periodical work is readily excused and has sometimes even the effect of a grace, is rather too perceptible in many passages. On the other hand the variety and fertility of Jeffrey's mind seem to me more extraordinary than ever. I think that there are few things in the four volumes which one or two other men could not have done as well. But I do not think that any one man, except Jeffrey, nay that any three men could have produced such diversified excellence. When I compare him with Sydney and myself, I feel, with humility perfectly sincere, that his range is immeasurably wider than ours. And this is only as a writer. But he is not only a writer. He has been a great advocate, and he is a great judge. Take him all in all, I think him more nearly an universal genius than any man of our time; certainly far more nearly than Brougham, much as Brougham affects the character. Brougham does one thing well, two or three things indifferently, and a hundred things detestably. His parliamentary speaking is admirable, his forensic speaking poor, his writing, at the very best, second-rate. As to his hydrostatics, his Political Philosophy, his Equity Judgments, his Translations from the Greek,2 they are really below contempt. Jeffrey on the other hand has tried nothing in which he has not succeeded except parliamentary speaking, and there he obtained what to any other man would have been great success, and disappointed his hearers only because their expectations were extravagant. But I must stop. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1 2
The Treaty of Washington of August, 1842: see 23 February. Brougham's translation, The Oration of Demosthenes upon the Crown, 1840, was severely criticized for its inaccuracy.
167
22 December 1843 TO W I L L I A M G I B S O N
William Gibson Craig C R A I G , 21 D E C E M B E R
1843
MS: Scottish Record Office. Envelope: W Gibson Craig Esq M P / etc. etc. etc. / Riccarton / Edinburgh. Subscription: T B M.
Albany London / December 21. 1843 Dear Craig, Thanks for your letter. I agree with all that you say. Nothing shall induce me to shackle my self by any further pledge on the subject of the corn-laws. Indeed I have no conceivable inducement to give any such pledge: and if I were inclined to give it, I should not take the present opportunity of doing so. I do not chuse to sit in parliament as Bright's or Cobden's nominee. But, though I say this, I must add that, in my opinion, the government has very nearly outstayed the season of compromise. At present a fixed duty of 5 s. would be thankfully received by a great mass of people; and the League would be unable to agitate against it with effect. But in 1845 the difficulties will be great, and may, in 1846, be insurmountable. They will, I am satisfied, be quite insurmountable if another general election should take place with the present sliding-scale. On the other hand what can the government do? I never could understand how a man so cautious as Peel, and so averse to binding himself by declarations of an explicit kind should have been so foolish as to make the sliding-scale a fundamental principle of his policy. Indeed his declarations on that subject have been so frequent, so clear, and so earnest, that he cannot go back from them without the greatest disgrace. Of his intentions I, of course, know no more than you. But I feel quite sure that he will never, under any circumstances, propose a fixed duty. He would certainly lose less character by proposing a perfectly free trade. I am inclined to think, with you, that all hope of making a public provision for the Irish priests must be given up. But, though I think thus, I am exceedingly unwilling to see an outbreak of Protestant fanaticism on that subject; - and therefore I thought it right not to go to Edinburgh. Had I done so there would have been a meeting. I should have been questioned. My answers would have given no satisfaction. For I should have taken the bull by the horns, and declared positively that I had no objection on principle to the paying of a Papist clergy. Then would have come resolutions worthy of Balfour of Burley.1 And, when once such an impulse is given, who knows where it may stop. There would have been meeetings at half the large towns in England. High Church and Low Church, Established Church and Free Church, Methodists, Baptists, Jumpers, Shakers, Ranters, would all be signing petitions against 1
Scott, Old Mortality.
168
Thomas Flower Ellis
22 December 1843
the woman who sits on the beast with seven heads and ten horns: and all the difficulties of our present position would be greatly increased. Remember me kindly to Sir James and to Mrs. Craig 1 - indeed to all at Riccarton. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 22 D E C E M B E R
1843
MS: Mr F. R. Cowell and Trinity College.2 Partly published: Trevelyan, 1, 86.
Albany London / Deer. 22. 1843 Dear Ellis, I am glad that Frank has done better. It will put him in heart. Besides, it shews that the really important part of his education is proceeding. If he brings away from Cambridge self-knowledge, accuracy of mind and habits of strong intellectual exertion, you will have reason to be better pleased than if he had made a display of shewy superficial Etonian scholarship, like poor Praed's, got three or four Brown's medals, and gone forth into the world a schoolboy and doomed to be a schoolboy to the last. After all what a man does at Cambridge is, in itself, nothing. If he makes a poor figure in life, his having been senior wrangler or university scholar is never mentioned but with derision. If he makes a distinguished figure, his early honors merge in those of a later date. I hope that I do not over rate my own place in the estimation of society. Such as it is, I would not give a halfpenny to add to the consideration which I enjoy all the consideration that I should derive from having been Senior Wrangler. But I often regret, and even acutely, my want of a Senior Wrangler's knowledge of physics and mathematics; and I regret still more the want of some habits of mind which a Senior Wrangler is pretty certain to possess. Thank you for Lewin's judicial performances. He beats Arabin.3 If the story be true, and you think that there would be [the] least chance of success, I would subscribe towards a writ of error with the greatest pleasure. As to Christina,4 her amours have long been matter of notoriety. 1 2 3
4
Craig married Elizabeth Sarah Vivian (d. 1895) in 1840. The MS has been separated. William St Julien Arabin (1775?-!841), Judge of the Central Criminal Court, London: 'his Obiter Dicta collected by members of the Bar, under the title Arabiniana [1843], has been described as "a lasting tribute to the incoherence and muddle headedness of his observations"* (Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses). Maria Christina of Spain, fourth wife and widow of Ferdinand VII, regent for her daughter Isabella, 1833-40. Shortly after Ferdinand's death she had secretly married one of her bodyguard.
169
23 December 1843
Duncan McLaren
Clarendon has told me some good stories about them, and could, unless he is greatly belied, have told still better. I am writing a review of Barere's memoirs, a regular screamer, I calculate. I will try whether I can give him a little touch of the second Philippic. By the bye, I went the day before yesterday to the British Museum in order to make some researches. There I found, among many other curious pamphlets on the French revolution, some of the Pere Duchesne - Hebert, as you doubtless know. I own that my notions of the impudent blackguardly ruffianism of that period were faint indeed compared with the reality. The title, printed at full length, runs thus. "Almanach du Pere Duchesne, bougrement utile et amusant." 1 1 will venture to say that, in the body of the work, foutre and bougre are repeated four times at least in every page. And this was by a considerable man, a partyleader, whose name still lives in history. I shall be in town when you come back, and shall hope to see you soon after your return. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO D U N C A N M C L A R E N , 23 D E C E M B E R
1843
Text: Scotsman, 13 January 1844.
Albany, London, Dec. 23, 1843. Dear Sir, I have often expressed my opinion on the subject of the Corn-laws, and am not aware that I have anything to add, to retract, or to explain. You will not, therefore, be surprised at my saying that I do not think it fight to attend the meeting of the n t h of January.2 I have the honour to be, etc. T. B. Macaulay. 1
2
Perhaps the same as 'Almanach du Pere Duchesne, ou le Calendrier des bons citoyens, ouvrage bougrement patriotique...,' Paris, 1791 (catalogue of the BibliothequeNationale). The language is standard in the journalism of Jacques Rene" Hebert (1757-94). TBM's letter is in reply to McLaren's invitation to speak at a meeting of the Edinburgh Anti-Corn Law Association at which both Cobden and Bright were present. McLaren read the letter at the meeting, where, the Scotsman says, it was greeted with * general hissing.' TBM later regretted his curtness: see 5 September 1844.
170
David Mdclagan
25 December 1843
TO D A V I D MACLAGAN, 25 D E C E M B E R
1843
MS: University of Kansas. Albany London / Dec 25. 1843 My dear Dr. Maclagan, Perhaps I ought to apologize for not having written to you earlier.1 The truth is that I had no good news to tell you, and felt a natural reluctance to say what must give you pain. I applied to two Directors, John Abel Smith2 and Galloway.3 I also requested the influence of one of the most distinguished servants of the company, Macleod. I grieve to say that hitherto every attempt has been unsuccessful; and I hardly know what more I can do. I sympathize however so strongly with your very laudable feelings that I will make another effort, and try whether Mountstuart Elphinstone will be kind enough to use his powerful interest in your son's behalf. If this card fails, I am afraid that I must relinquish all hope. And I would strongly advise you not to trust exclusively to me in this matter. Craig, I know, is sincerely desirous to serve you; and is quite as likely as I am to have friends at the India House. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO D A V I D MACLAGAN, 17 JANUARY
1844
MS: University of Kansas.
Albany London / Jany. 17 1844 My dear Dr. Maclagan, I do not myself know either Sykes4 or Willock.5 But I will try to influence them, if I can, through some intermediate channel. Elphinstone's voice, I am sorry to learn, goes for little in matters of this sort. I will write to Colvin,6 Lord Auckland's private Secretary, who stands well at the India House and happens to be now in England; and I am not without some faint hopes in that quarter. 1 2
3
4
5
6
On the matter of an appointment for Maclagan's son: see 27 March 1843. Smith (1801—71: DNB), was a banker with the family firm of Smith, Payne, and Smith, and a Whig Member of Parliament since 1830. General Sir Archibald Galloway: see 17 October 1834. He had been a director of the East India Company since 1840. William Henry Sykes (1790-1872: DNB), retired from the East India Company's army; he was elected a director of the Company in 1840 and Chairman in 1856. Sir Henry Willock (1790-1858: Boase), of the East India Company's army, served as charge* d'affaires at Teheran, 1815-26. He was a director from 1835 and Chairman in 1846. Colvin (see 24 August 1835) was Auckland's private secretary, 1836-42, when he returned with Auckland to England. 171
18 January 1844
[Sir Thomas Coltman]
I am quite easy about the League.11 will never be their nominee. What I have to say against the Corn Law I will say in perfect freedom and not as their slave or Duncan Maclaren's. / Ever, my dear Sir, Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO [ S I R T H O M A S C O L T M A N ] , 2 18 JANUARY
1844
MS: John Rylands Library.
Albany Jan 18 / 1844 My dear Sir, I am truly sorry to say that I shall be at Woburn on Wednesday next, and shall therefore be unable to have the pleasure of waiting on you and Lady Coltman to dinner. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 26 JANUARY
1844
MS: British Museum.
Albany London/Jany. 26. 1844 Dear Napier, The paper on Barere is very nearly ready. I will send it in the course of next week. I cannot judge as yet of the general effect which it is likely to produce. But I think that it will be found readable. I am quite easy about Edinburgh. I am by no means certain that I would, under any circumstances, go again into parliament. And I certainly will never sit there as B right's 3 or Maclaren's nominee. Yours ever in haste T B Macaulay 1
2
3
TBM's refusal to attend the anti-corn law meeting at Edinburgh on 11 January had given great offence. The Scotsman, 24 January, predicted that if he remained in public life such conduct would * deprive him of all power of being really useful.' Coltman (1781-1849), like TBM, had passed through Trinity, Lincoln's Inn, and the Northern Circuit. He became a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, 1837. John Bright (1811-89: DNB), M.P., 1843-85, the friend and associate of Cobden and the leader, with him, of the anti-corn law agitation. McLaren was a friend of Bright and married Bright's sister Priscilla as his third wife in 1848.
172
Macvey Napier TO MACVEY NAPIER, 31 JANUARY
32 January 2 844 1844
.MS.- British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 458-9.
Albany London / Jany. 31. 1844 Dear Napier, I send by this day's post two packets containing my article on Barere. I shall have many corrections, I suspect, to make in the proofs. You will, I hope, be able to let me have a revise. As to the expediency of publishing an extra number, I have my doubts, which I merely submit to your judgment. My own impression is that a periodical work of the bulk of the Edinburgh Review must necessarily, under the very ablest management, contain a large proportion of matter which does not rise above mediocrity. I call a number either of the Edinburgh Review or of the Quarterly Review a very good one, if one half of it be good, and the rest tolerable. I am content if one third of it be good. I do not think, I confess, that our valuable matter will bear to be more diluted than at present. I would infinitely rather bring out in a year four good numbers than five middling numbers: and I confess that I am afraid that we shall scarcely be able to furnish even middling numbers, if there are to be five. I admit that there may be a paper of such pressing importance as may make it proper to anticipate the ordinary period of publication. But I imagine that such papers are very rare. As to literary and historical articles, they may wait any length of time. The review which I send you to day will be just as seasonable in 1845 a s a t t n e present moment. And even as to political articles, such articles are seldom of such a sort that they are likely to affect any particular division in parliament. I own that I recollect scarcely one which might not as well have been published in April as in January or in July as in April. As to the Scinde question, I am certain that no paper on that subject, however well executed, can be a sufficient ground for publishing an extra number.1 Longman of course looks at this matter merely in a commercial view. Yet, after all, the commercial point of view, if it be well chosen, coincides with the literary and political point of view. For whatever raises the character of a journal, and increases its power over public opinion, must in the long run be beneficial to the proprietors. However of all this you are a better judge than 1.1 merely tell you quite frankly what occurs to me. Is Stephen doing nothing? His papers were generally very much liked, 1
No extra number of the ER was published this year. William Strachey's ' Conquest of Scinde' appeared in the regular number for April.
l February 1844
Sir Thomas Dick Lauder
so much that they have been reprinted in America.1 The last time that I saw him I asked if he was writing for you. He said no. I asked why. He said that you did not seem to want anything from him at present, and that you had a superabundance of matter. I made no answer. But I determined to tell you this. For the Review seldom contains matter which ought to exclude his articles. I am truly concerned to hear so poor an account of Jeffrey. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO S I R T H O M A S D I C K L A U D E R , 2 I FEBRUARY
1844
MS: National Library of Scotland.
Albany London / February 1. 1844 Dear Sir Thomas Lauder, I can venture to offer only a general opinion on the subject to which your letter relates. Undoubtedly the monument of Sir Walter Scott ought to be made worthy of the most illustrious British writer of our age, and of the most beautiful of British cities. In any measures which the meeting of next Monday may think necessary for that end I shall with great pleasure concur.3 / Believe me ever, / Dear Sir Thomas, Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 13 F E B R U A R Y
1844
MS: British Museum.
Albany London / February 13. 1844 Dear Napier, I send by this day's post the proofs of the article on Barere. I shall be obliged to you for a revise. As to an extra number, I own that my opinion remains unchanged. No 1
2
3
Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, Philadelphia, 1843. Stephen contributed nothing to the ER between July 1842 and July 1844. Lauder (1784—1848: DNB), scientific and descriptive writer; Secretary to the Board of Scottish Manufactures from 1839. Cockburn says of him that * strangers judging from newspapers might suppose that he rules everything in Edinburgh. He does not rule, however; he is only a very active and useful assistant, chiefly at meetings, and as a canvasser* {Journal, 1, 102). Lauder was chairman of the Appeal Committee for the Scott monument, which met on 5 February * to devise means for making up the deficiency occasioned by the expense of the substructure and the dimensions of the monument' {Scotsman, 7 February 1844). TBM was on the London committee for the Scott monument, which iricluded the Duke of Sutherland, Dickens, Harrison Ainsworth, and William Jerdan, and first met on 27 March {Scotsman, 30 March). 174
Unidentified Recipient
22 February 1844
periodical work can have a more skilful or attentive editor than the Edinburgh Review possesses. But the state of literature is such, the competition is so great, that even the best editor cannot give to the public a thousand thickly printed pages of very good matter annually. Our regular numbers, like those of the Quarterly, contain a large proportion of matter not rising above mediocrity. Still our means, if well husbanded, amount to a highly respectable competence. But they will cease to do so if we resort to measures which nothing but a redundance of wealth could justify. If all that was good in the last four numbers had been divided among five numbers, every one of those five numbers would, I am afraid, have been below the average of merit. I tell you exactly what I think, as I ought to do. But I beg you to believe that I do not mean in the least to give myself the airs of a principal contributor, or to claim the smallest right to do more than offer advice. I am sensible that you understand the management of a Review much better than I. You are also much more deeply interested in the success of the Review than I. For you are answerable for the whole. I am answerable only for my own papers, which are always pretty well known, and which, while it is the fashion to like them, will not be the less liked because they are accompanied by other matter which may not be attractive. On every account, therefore, the decision ought to rest entirely with you. We are just clearing decks for our great Irish action.1 Ever yours T B Macaulay TO U N I D E N T I F I E D R E C I P I E N T , 21 F E B R U A R Y
1844
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library.
Albany London Feb 21 / 1844 Dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for the little work which you have sent me. I have looked at the pages to which you refer me, and find there much from which I dissent, but certainly not a word of which I have the smallest reason to complain. As to Archbishop Cranmer, let me only ask to what part of the narrative which I have given of his life you object.2 Is there a word which you can pronounce incorrect in my statement of the facts? If not, I really 1
2
The debate on the state of Ireland ran for nine nights, 13-23 February. TBM spoke on 19 February, making a strong attack on the failure of government policy {Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXII, 1169-94). See the essay on Hallam, where Cranmer is represented as 'a supple, timid, interested courtier* (ER, XLVIII, 108).
175
21 February 1844
Unidentified Recipient
should be glad to know how such a course of conduct can be reconciled, I do not say with the exalted piety of a father of the Church, but with the principles and feelings of an honest man. As to the other passage to which you refer,1 I quite agree with you in thinking that the accumulation of wealth and the progress of civilisation would be no blessings if accompanied by intellectual and moral deterioration. But I dispute your facts. My habits and studies have been of such a nature that I think myself not ill qualified to compare the past state of our country with its present state. I am confident that I could prove that the ignorance of the populace of our time is knowledge and their vice virtue when compared with the ignorance and vice of their great grandfathers. I will venture to say that if only the London of 1744 could be called up before us, and if we were to take a Sunday walk through it from St James's Street to Moor-fields, the spectacle of irreligion, of bestial stupidity, of obscenity, of barbarity, would utterly appal us, and make us thankful for living in the age in which we live. On the other hand I am confident that if John Wesley could see London as it now is, he would say that he could not have imagined so great a change for the better. His own early journals furnish plenty of evidence of what I say. This is no reason for not exerting ourselves to improve the moral and spiritual condition of the labouring classes. God forbid. But it is fit that the truth should be known, and that we should not imagine that the world is becoming worse and worse, when in reality our standard of excellence is becoming higher and higher. To go into the evidence on this subject would be a long, indeed an endless, business. I have said enough to shew that we differ, if I understand you rightly, as to a question of fact which can be determined only by much historical research. With many thanks for your kind mention of my dear father believe me ever Yours very faithfully T B Macaulay 1
Since I cannot identify the book that TBM is talking about, I can only guess at what essay of his is meant: the most probable are those on Southey and on Mackintosh, both of which contain passages of panegyric on English progress.
176
Macvey Napier
24 February 1844
TO MACVEY NAPIER, 24 FEBRUARY MS:
1844
British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, p. 465.
Albany London / Feby. 24. 1844 Dear Napier, Monteagle mentioned to me the subject on which he has written to you. 1 1 have also talked it over with Lord Fitzwilliam. My own notion is this; and Lord Fitzwilliam highly approves of it. I think that I told you formerly that I meditated a paper on the administrations of the earlier part of George the Third's reign.2 Such a paper ought to precede the paper on Burke, as he did not enter parliament till the Rockingham ministry of 1765 was in power. The first paper for which it will be easy to find a heading - Walpole's last batch of letters to Mann will do - may go down to about 1773. Then the second paper on Burke's letters would take the subject up and carry it on through the American war as far as might be convenient, Burke himself being the principal figure. But I can engage for nothing till October: and indeed it will be some months, I imagine, before all the four volumes of Burke's letters are published.3 I am glad that you liked my speech. It has had great success both here and in Ireland. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO D A V I D MACLAGAN, 24 F E B R U A R Y
1844
MS: University of Kansas.
Albany Feby. 24/1844 Dear Dr. Maclagan, Colvin has just sent me a note which he has received from the Director on whose interest he placed some reliance.4 I am truly concerned to say that it is unfavourable. On second thoughts I inclose it to you. I have really done all that I 1
2 3
4
Monteagle wrote to Napier, 20 February, proposing that TBM review the new edition of Burke's letters about to be published by Lord Fitzwilliam and Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Bourke: 'The proofs are at my disposal. . . . Macaulay told me at breakfast the other day that he would like to undertake it' (MS, British Museum). See 20 October 1843. TBM later planned to divide the paper on Burke into two parts: see to Napier, 28 June. But the project of a series of papers based on the Walpole and Burke letters was finally given up and the material converted to a review of the last years of Lord Chatham, published as' Early Administrations of George the Third: the Earl of Chatham/ ER, LXXX (October 1844), 526-95. This was TBM's last contribution to the ER. See 17 January. 177
i March 2844
Cornelius Mathews
can do, and know not whither to turn. I hope that your other friends may have better success. Yours ever truly T B Macaulay TO C O R N E L I U S M A T H E W S , 1 I M A R C H
1844
MS: Harvard University. Envelope: Cornelius Mathews Esq. / New York / U S . Subscrip-
tion: TBM.
Albany London / March 1. 1844 Sir, I have just received a book for which I beg to return you my thanks. I have only had time to bestow a very hasty glance on it. But what I have seen leads me to believe that I shall read the whole with great pleasure, though with less pleasure doubtless than I should feel if I were acquainted with the originals from which your pictures are taken. You were of course well aware, when you undertook to delineate American life and manners, that your merits could be fully appreciated only by the American public. In this however I think that you have judged well. For I am sure that your countrymen will never create a national literature while their first object is popularity in Europe. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your obedient humble Servant T B Macaulay TO M R S T H O M A S D R U M M O N D , 4 M A R C H
1844
MS: National Library of Ireland.
Albany March 4 / 1844 Dear Mrs. Drummond, I am truly sorry that I cannot dine with you on Saturday week. But on that day I shall be at Cambridge.2 I am delighted to learn that you were pleased with the part which I took in the Irish debate. Ever yours most truly T B Macaulay 1
2
Mathews (1817—89), editor and miscellaneous writer, is identified in the Dictionary of American Biography as a 'literary nationalist.' The Various Writings of Cornelius Mathews . . . , N.Y., 1843, which includes' Poems on Man in His Various Aspects under the American Republic,' is in the sale catalogue of TBM's library, item 17. Saturday week was the 16th. For TBM's remarks on the visit see to Ellis, 27 March.
178
Thomas Flower Ellis
6 March 1844
TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 6 M A R C H
1844
MS: Trinity College. House of Commons / March 6. 1844 Dear Ellis, I have this moment learned what has happened.1 The blow, I hope, has fallen as light as such a blow can fall. You were prepared for it; and it was attended by many soothing circumstances. I do not suppose that I can be of the smallest use to you. If I can, you know that you may command me. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 25 M A R C H
1844
MS: British Museum.
Albany London / March 25. 1844 Dear Napier, The Dean of Salisbury,2 an old acquaintance of mine, called on me a day or two ago, to say that he was very desirous to obtain the professorship of Music at Edinburgh for his son.3 I know nothing about music. But I know that the young gentleman was from an early age music-mad, that he left the University, physic, and law, successively for music, that for music he settled in Germany, and that his musical compositions are enthusiastically praised in German reviews as among the most brilliant and original of our time. The election is, I understand, in the body of Professors. I could not refuse to mention to you these things, which are certainly true, leaving you to act, as of course you will, in the way which may seem to you most likely to promote the credit of the University. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1
Ellis's father died on 4 March, aged 82, at Bedford Priory, Streatham. Hugh Pearson. 3 Henry Hugo Pierson (1815-73: DNB) was elected Reid Professor of Music at Edinburgh in June 1844, after the election had been postponed in order to give him an opportunity to apply. But he never entered on his duties, and in the next year the place was declared vacant and a successor elected. Pierson remained in Germany, where he spent the rest of his life. He changed the spelling of his name, either to secure the right pronunciation in Germany or to conceal his relation to his father, who disapproved of the son's writing operas under his own name.
2
179
zy March 1844
Thomas Flower Ellis
TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 27 M A R C H
1844
MS: Trinity College. House of Commons / March 27. 1844 Dear Ellis, I am kept here day after day and all day long by a stupid railway-bill which commonsense might settle in an hour, but which seems likely to drag on a whole fortnight only for the benefit of the lawyers. You need not plague yourself about Pakington's bill.1 It has not been read a second time yet. It will certainly not be committed before Easter; and you will then be in town and able to explain your objections. I should be very glad to know what you think about Ashley's clauses.2 I never felt more painfully the weight of responsibility in any public matter. On the first debate I was so doubtful that I did not vote. After much thought and much communication with others, I at last gave a hesitating vote with Ashley. I now feel much confirmed in my opinion, and think that I could defend the side which I have taken on the soundest principles of legislation and political ceconomy. Perhaps before the end of the session I may take an opportunity of explaining my views.3 At present I am thinking chiefly of a very grave motion of censure on Lord Ellenborough which I am to bring forward soon after Easter.4 I do not know whether it is an advantage or a disadvantage that there are not ten members of the House who know one tenth of what I know about Indian politics. And yet I know shamefully little, my opportunities considered. I dare say that you may have heard from Frank of my visit to Cam1
2
3 4
The County Coroner's Bill, introduced on 14 February, passed its third reading on 21 June. The only objections to it in debate were to the proposed increase in travel allowance. To the government bill introduced on 5 February to restrict the hours of work of children Ashley moved an amendment which, in rather complicated form, called for a general 10-hour limit. The first division took place on 18 March, when TBM did not vote; on 22 March the House passed contradictory votes, first giving a majority of 3 against the government's 12-hour clause, and then a majority of 7 against Ashley's 10-hour clause: it was, as Greville wrote, 'a very queer affair' (Memoirs, v, 169). Party lines were crossed and confused, but it was regarded as a bold and striking move for Lord John Russell and TBM to vote with Ashley. Anthony Ashley Cooper (1801-85: DNB), styled Viscount Ashley until he succeeded as seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, 1851, was in the House of Commons, 182(5-51, where he took the lead in such reforms as the protection of factory workers and others. His philanthropy was mingled with an intense Evangelicanism. TBM did not speak on the question until 22 May 1846. TBM intended to move for Ellenborough's recall. As Trevelyan says, * he had a notice of motion on the books of the House, and his speech was already in his head, when, on the 26th of April 1844, Sir Robert Peel announced that Her Majesty's Government had received a communication from the Court of Directors "stating that they had exercised the power which the law gives them to recall at their will and pleasure the GovernorGeneral of India"' (11, 139). He did speak briefly on the subject on 7 May: Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXIV, 808-12. 180
Thomas Flower Ellis
2j March 1844
bridge. I found him well and cheerful and pleasant. I hope that you will have good news of him soon. The number of scholarships is such that I should think his chance good. I ought to tell you that Peacock has taken a great liking to him, and described him to me as one of the most promising young men that he knew. The hospitality of Whewell was most generous; and he was also uniformly gentle and polite, a thing less to be expected. The lodge is perfection. I never saw a more perfect restoration, except perhaps that of the Round Church, for the sake of which I forgive Thorpe 1 one half of his fooleries. I do most deeply regret that the great rage for building at Cambridge came precisely when it did. Twenty years ago the taste for the Gothic architecture was in its infancy. Witness the new Court of Trinity. Witness even Corpus Christi College and the new Court of St John's which are the best things of that period. Witness the Pitt Press and the screen of King's College which are the worst.2 If the same works were to be executed now, I am confident that Cambridge would soon be the most beautiful city in England, — far superior even to Oxford. There is much talk of rebuilding Pembroke: and the general impression is that Pembroke will be the beau ideal of a college. Have you heard of the ill luck of Dr. Black3 the feelosofer of the Chronicle? I have not time to tell you the story. But it beats the adventure of Nearchus.4 When shall you be in town again? Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
2 3
4
Thomas Thorp (1797-1877: Boase), was Fellow, Assistant Tutor, Tutor, Dean, and ViceMaster of Trinity, 1820-45, and Archdeacon of Bristol, 1836-73. The Round Church was restored, 1841—3, under the direction of the Cambridge Camden Society, of which Thorp was president. The Society, which had Puseyite tendencies, was taken to court by the rector of the church for installing a * Popish' stone altar. All of these were begun between 1823 and 1831. John Black (1783-185 5: DNB\ editor of the Morning Chronicle, 1817-43. * Doctor Black, the feelosopher' was Cobbett's nickname for him after Black had quarrelled with Cobbett. Black had been made to resign his editorship in 1843 and in consequence had had to sell his library. But I do not know what * ill luck* TBM refers to. The voyage of Nearchus, Alexander's admiral, from the Indus to the Tigris, is recounted in Arrian's Indica.
PLT4
2j March 1844
Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton
TO SIR EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON, 1 27 MARCH
1844
MS: Hertfordshire County Council. Extract published: Lytton, Life of Edward Bulwer, First Lord Lytton, 11, 31.
House of Commons / March 27. 1844 Dear Sir Edward, Thank you for your volumes.2 The translations are excellent, - none better, to my taste, than those of the love verses. Nevertheless I think that you might be better employed than in translating. We differ too a little as to Schiller's literary rank.3 He was a noble fellow, inspired with a pure and generous ambition to excel in his Art. And he did attain to no mean place. But his genius seems to me to have been essentially historical rather than poetical. His histories are master-pieces: and his dramas are good exactly in proportion as he adhered to history. Wallenstein, which is historically the most exact, stands at the top. At the bottom stands the Robbers, a piece of pure invention. The rest, I think, rank in poetical merit as they rank in historical accuracy. In his smaller poems there are undoubtedly beauties; and you have revealed to me many beauties which I had overlooked. But those beauties seem to me to be produced by great effort. As a ballad-writer I should place Schiller below Burger.4 In every department of poetry, the historical drama excepted, I should place him very far below Goethe. However I ought not to obtrude on you the opinions of a very superficial German scholar. I cannot end without telling you with how much pleasure and interest I have just read one of your books which I did not read, I scarcely know why, at the time when it first appeared, Night and Morning.5 It moved my feelings more than anything that you have written, and more than a man of forty three who has been much tossed about the world is easily moved by works of the imagination. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1
2 3
4 5
On the death of his mother and his inheriting Knebworth Bulwer had added his mother's name to his own in February 1844. The Poems and Ballads of Schiller, 2 vols., published on 30 March. Bulwer's introductory 'Life' is full of enthusiastic praise of Schiller as a philosophic poet (privately, Bulwer put Schiller above Goethe). Gottfried August Burger (1748-94), author of'Lenore.' Published January 1841.
182
David Maclagan
y April 1844
TO D A V I D MACLAGAN, 7 A P R I L
1844
MS: University of Kansas. Hereford1 April 7. 1844 Dear Doctor Maclagan, Your letter followed me hither. I shall return to London in a day or two, and I will then see what can be done. If the information which you have received be authentic, I should not be without hope of success. I am glad that you approve of my notice about Gualior.2 Of all our Indian crimes I think this the worst. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R ,
10 A P R I L
1844
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Trevelyan, 11, 150.
Albany London / April 10. 1844 Dear Napier, I have but a moment to thank you for your letter and the inclosure. I am glad that you like my article. It does not please me now by any means as much as it did while I was writing it. It is shade unrelieved by a gleam of light. This is the fault of the subject rather than of the painter. But it takes away from the effect of the portrait. And thus to the many reasons which all honest men have for hating Barere, I may add a reason personal to my self, — that the excess of his rascality has spoiled my paper on him. Ever yours T B Macaulay The Scinde paper is very good. I only wish that it had appeared before parliament met.3 The Scinde business was disposed of early in February, and is now, I imagine, asleep for ever.4 1
2
3 4
TBM's trip to Hereford was perhaps the first of the Easter tours to English cathedral towns that became an annual event for him and the Trevelyan family. That is, for the recall of Lord Ellenborough: see 27 March. The invasion of the Mahratta state of Gwalior in late 1843 had given Ellenborough's enemies their occasion for his recall. See 31 January. The annexation of Sind in 1843 was officially disapproved but accepted as a fait accompli; debate on the matter in Parliament in February came to nothing.
183
7-2
13 April 1844 TO S I R E D W A R D
Sir Edward Ryan RYAN,
13 A P R I L
1844
MS: Trinity College. Envelope: Right Hon Sir E Ryan / etc. etc. etc. / Garden Lodge / Kensington. Subscription: T B M.
Albany April 13 / 1844 Dear Ryan, Thoby 1 may say what he likes. But I will bet ten to one that the ministers do not carry a bill this Session for altering any part of the Indian government.2 He talks with the Secretaries of the Board of Controul, who tell him the plans of their department. But the Cabinet will think twice before they add another bill, not required by any pressing exigency, nor in the least serviceable to them as a government, to the mass of bills which they must go through with. It is the middle of April; and we have done absolutely nothing. The Factory Bill is all to begin again. The Poor Law is not launched. The Irish Registration Bill, a measure which will not get out of Committee in a month, is only just printed. The Ecclesiastical Bill has not, I think, been once read. The Bank question, an interminable question, has not even been opened to the House; and that is a question which cannot wait. The Medical Reform Bill is positively promised.3 Every evening is of the greatest value to the government: and I feel confident that they will not be inclined to throw away several nights on a debate about the Indian government. For observe that, if they open the question, they will produce a discussion about the absences of the Governor General from his Council, the checks on his authority, his demeanour towards the civil service, and a hundred other matters which they will wish to keep quiet. A short time will shew whether I am wrong. Should they propose any bill, of course we must call for papers. Ever yours truly, T B Macaulay 1
Henry Thoby Prinsep. The government did not introduce any India bill in this session. 3 5By the end of the session the Factory Bill (the second), the Poor Law Bill, and the Bank Charter Bill had passed, the Irish Registration Bill and the Ecclesiastical Courts Bill had been given up, and the Medical Reform Bill had not been introduced. 2
184
John Howison TO JOHN HOWISON, 1 I MAY
1 May 1844 1844
Text: Scotsman, 11 May 1844.
Albany, London, May 1, 1844. Dear Sir, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, and of the resolutions enclosed in it.2 Under ordinary circumstances I should have thought it sufficient to say, in reply, that I wished to see the Corn-laws totally repealed, and should vote this year, as I voted last year, for Mr Villiers's motion. But I learn from the public papers, that the meeting which passed the two resolutions enclosed in your letter, passed also a third resolution, conveying a censure which I am not conscious of deserving, and a threat which, you must permit me to say, will have no influence on my public conduct.3 I have therefore thought it desirable to write you at some length, and I am the more disposed to do so, because I have been blamed for returning a brief answer to a communication which was made to me on the same subject a few months ago. 4 1 then expressed myself briefly, for this reason, that I had a short time before declared my own opinion fully, and having no change of sentiment to announce, thought it unnecessary to repeat what I had recently said.5 As, however, there seems to be still some doubt as to my views, I will try to explain them in such a way as may make them clear to all reasonable and candid men. To give any explanation which will not be misrepresented by envious and interested cunning, is, I well know, impossible.6 We have two questions to consider - a question of political economy, and a question of practical prudence. The first question relates to ends, the second to means. The first question is this - on what footing would it be best for the country that the Corn-laws should be placed? The second question is this - by what line of conduct are we most likely to succeed in placing the Corn-laws on a good footing? Now, as to the first question there is, I apprehend, little or no dispute between us. I am, like you, for perfectly free trade. I have been represented as maintaining the doctrine that duties on the import of foreign corn may 1 2 3 4 5 6
Howison, a Quaker, was secretary of the Edinburgh Anti-Corn Law Association. Resolutions passed at a meeting of 22 April in favor of immediate and total repeal of the Corn Laws {Scotsman, 24 April). The third resolution called for the city representatives to be dropped if they refused to support total and immediate repeal. His letter of 23 December 1843. The reference is probably to his letter to John Wigham, 22 February 1843. The phrases are meant for Duncan McLaren.
185
7 May 2844
John Howison
properly be imposed for purposes of revenue. But this is not quite a fair representation. I have indeed said, both in the House of Commons and in letters to my constituents, and I now say again, that the question of protection and the fiscal question are perfectly distinct, and must be decided on different principles. In no age or country, I conceive, can it be right to lay an import duty on foreign corn for the purpose of raising the price of home grown corn. But it is easy to conceive states of society in which an import duty on foreign corn, imposed in good faith for purposes of revenue, would be a very proper resource for the financier. Whether in this kingdom, and at this time, such a duty would be proper, is a question on which I have never yet given an opinion. I will now plainly say that, having heard the question very ably argued on both sides, I have come to the conclusion that it is not desirable to lay a tax on foreign corn for the purpose of raising revenue. It is clear that such a tax would, in this country, take out of the purse of the consumer a sum many times greater than the sum which would come into the purse of the state; and this, I think, is an unsurmountable objection. In theory, then, we are agreed; and now comes the question of prudence. Our end is the same. What means ought we to employ in order to attain it? This is a point with which a lecturer on free trade has nothing to do. His business is to inculcate abstract truth. But the business of a member of Parliament is to effect practical good. Abstract truth does not admit of compromise. But he who wishes to effect practical good must often be content to obtain it by instalments, to purchase support by concessions, and to mitigate evils which he would gladly destroy. I know that there will not be wanting detractors to tell you that this is the cant of party, the shuffling of a man who wishes to compound matters between his conviction and his interests. I shall make no protestations. But I write you calmly to consider in what manner all the most important reforms in our legislation have been carried. Is there one which has not been brought about by means such as those which I recommend? The history of our country would furnish me with innumerable examples; but I will take only one or two with which we are all familiar: — Sixteen years ago, Lord John Russell succeeded in obtaining the abolition of the test act. Now, I conceive that the arguments for freedom of trade, strong as they are, are not stronger than the arguments for freedom of conscience. I hold that no theological test whatever ought to be imposed on any candidate for civil office. But in the year 1828 the Parliament was not prepared, and, I fear, is not yet prepared, to legislate on this sound principle. The sacramental test — the worst, in all points of view, of all tests — was abolished. But another test was substituted, a test less objectionable, yet still indefensible in theory and mischievous in practice. A 186
John Howison
1 May 1844
person taking office was required to make a declaration on the faith of a Christian.1 In this manner our Jewish countrymen were excluded from many situations which they might hold with great advantage to the public. Nevertheless, all the most eminent defenders of the rights of conscience accepted the measure, imperfect as it was, with joy and gratitude. They knew that it made an irreparable breach in an unsound system; and that such a breach, when once made, would gradually be widened. They knew also, that if they rejected all compromise, and drove from them every coadjutor who was not prepared to go the whole length with them, they would, with religious liberty on their lips, have done the work of the worst class of bigots, and would, instead of removing the grievances of the Jew, have perpetuated the grievances of the Presbyterian and of the Independent. I will give you one more instance. Call to mind the history of the Reform bill - a great and salutary law - but not perfect even as originally framed, and grievously injured by subsequent alterations. I could not think it reasonable that Sudbury with 4000 souls should have twice as many members as Perthshire with 150,000 souls. I could not think it reasonable that while the old scot-and-lot franchise was abolished, the freemen - the worst of all classes of electors - should be suffered to remain, and to infect with their inveterate corruption the new and sound parts of the constituent body. I disliked the Chandos clause.21 had many other objections. But in spite of all these objections, was it not my duty to give zealous support to that noble law which swept away venal and servile boroughs by scores — which bestowed the franchise on hundreds of thousands who were excellently qualified to use it, and which first gave to Scotland anything that deserved the name of representation? If I, and all who, like me, saw defects in the Reform bill, had set ourselves to attack i t - i f we had, at the general election of 1831, put up, in every county and town, candidates of our own way of thinking to oppose Lord Grey's supporters, would you have had a better Parliamentary reform? My firm belief is, that you would have had no reform at all. The effect of our disunion would have been, not that the bill would have been carried without its blemishes, but that Gatton and Old Sarum would have retained their privileges, that Manchester and Leeds would have remained without members, and that Edinburgh would still have been a close borough. These are mere examples. I may safely challenge you to produce a single case in which a great reform has been effected in opposition to 1 2
See to Napier, 16 October 1830. An amendment to the Reform Bill, successfully supported by Tories and Radicals against the government, enlarging the county franchise. 187
l May 1844
John Howison
powerful interests, without co-operation among persons who did not entirely agree in opinion, and who, in order that they might act together, were under the necessity of making mutual concessions. Why am I to believe that, in this respect, the reform of the Corn-laws will be found to differ from all other reforms? Is the party which is arrayed in defence of the existing system so small and weak — so destitute of wealth and power - so timid and flexible, that we may here safely adopt a course which, if adopted with regard to the repeal of the test act, or with regard to the reform bill, would have been fatal? Have we such a superfluity of force that we can, without any risk, spare from our own ranks, and drive over to the ranks of our enemies, a great body of persons, some of whom have by their talents and virtues justly acquired the public confidence, only because, while they are prepared to co-operate with us to a great extent, they will not pronounce the shibboleth-"total and immediate." It is easy for the members of the Anti-Corn-law League to deceive themselves about their strength. They are generally inhabitants of great towns. Everybody with whom they converse is for free trade. If they attend a meeting on the subject of the Corn-laws, they see every hand held up for total and immediate repeal. No supporter of the sliding scale, no supporter of a fixed duty, can obtain a hearing. It is not strange that even people so intelligent as my constituents should go home from such meetings with a conviction that the voice of the nation is on the side of the League, and that the good cause is on the point of triumphing. I am certain that you deceive yourselves. The House of Lords is against you almost to a man. But this is the smallest of the obstacles which lie in your way. If the House of Commons were with you, the House of Lords might find it necessary to yield. But you have against you a great majority of the House of Commons. If the constituent body were with you, you might hope to procure, at the next election, a House of Commons favourable to your views. But you have against you, I grieve to say, a majority of the constituent body. The electors who return the supporters of the present Corn-law may be less intelligent, but are at least as numerous as those who return the friends of free trade. The population of Wiltshire is double of the population of Edinburgh. There was an election a few weeks ago for North Wiltshire; and no friend of free trade ventured to show his face.1 The population of Exeter is double of the population of Durham. The return of Mr Bright for Durham was represented as a great victory of the principles of free trade.2 But Exeter has just returned a supporter 1
2
A candidate for the League was put forward but withdrew before the poll on 12 February, when T.H.S. Sotheran was returned. Bright entered Parliament in July 1843 after Lord Dungannon, who had earlier defeated him, was unseated on petition. 188
John Howison
1 May 1844
of the present law by an overwhelming majority.* You have not even the West Riding. You have not even the great town of Liverpool. Remember, too, that the gentlemen who represent the Irish counties, though they in general support a liberal policy, are on this subject opposed to us, and would not be favourable even to such a bill as the late Government proposed to introduce. Under these circumstances, what is the policy which those who hold, in the fullest extent, the doctrines of free trade, ought to adopt? My advice is this - assert your principle and defend it; do your best to convince the rural population that you are not seeking for a benefit at their expense, and that their interest is, in truth, the same with yours; but as it is probable that a long time may elapse before reason achieves a complete victory over prejudice, do not, during the interval, refuse to accept anything, because you cannot obtain everything. Consider as a friend every man who endeavours to put the law on a better footing, though that footing may not be the best. The day may come when the difference between the supporters of free trade and the supporters of a fixed duty will be a serious practical difference. At present it is a mere speculative difference, and will continue to be so till sound principles have made much greater progress. What course may be expedient in the session of 1850 we need not now discuss. In 1844, our wisdom is to treat the supporters of a moderate fixed duty as allies. You have advisers who urge you to a very different course - to a course which never did and never will, end in anything but disappointment and disgrace. They say to you, "Regard all who do not join a calling for total and immediate repeal as enemies alike. Make no distinction between the Duke of Buckingham and Lord John Russell — between the Duke of Cleveland and Lord Howick. Nay, let no supporter of total repeal who is inclined to tolerate the supporters of a moderate fixed duty, be himself tolerated. It is not enough that as a member of Parliament he has redeemed, and far more than redeemed, every pledge that he ever gave. It is not enough that in every division he has voted exactly as you wished him to vote. Persecute him unless he consents to persecute others. If he dares to recommend union and mutual forbearance among reformers - if, despairing of at present accomplishing all that he desires, he is willing to co-operate cordially with those who are willing to assist us in obtaining half or even a quarter of our demands, eject him from his seat." Such counsels have often brought gain to the demagogue who gives them; they never brought anything but disaster to the ignorant whom they have misled. 1
Sir William Follett, the Attorney-General, defeated a League candidate at Exeter on 22 April.
189
l May 1844
John Howison
Have I misrepresented the language which has lately been held to you? Have I even exaggerated its absurdity? Of what do you complain? Of my opinions respecting free trade? They are your own. Of my votes? They have been such as you requested me, and are now requesting me, to give. In what division on the Corn-laws have I been in a different lobby from Mr Villiers and Mr Cobden? I remember none. 1 My crime is simply this, that I have recommended union, that I have refused to concur in a policy which tends to divide against itself a force already too weak. As I have acted I will continue to act. When a motion is made for the total repeal of the Corn-laws, I think it right to mark my opinion by my vote. But I am certain that the total repeal will never take place till the views of a large part of the agricultural population have undergone a change, and I apprehend that such a change in the views of such a population must be gradual. Being unable at present to obtain the whole of what I desire, I will try at least to obtain a part, and that I may obtain a part, I will thankfully accept the aid of persons who are not yet prepared to assist me in obtaining the whole. Towards those persons I will strictly observe the obligations of good faith and amity. I will not attempt to gain popularity at their cost; and I will exert myself, in conjunction with them, to effect reforms which, though not altogether such as I could wish, may yet be calculated to diminish the evils inseparable from monopoly, and to extend the commercial relations of the empire. If this exposition of my sentiments is unsatisfactory to my constituents, I regret it. But they must do their pleasure - my mind is made up, and I am ready to abide the consequences. I see that one gentleman who harangued the late meeting favoured his hearers with new definitions of Toryism, of Liberalism, and of hypocrisy.2 According to this teacher of politics and morals, a member of Parliament who does not submissively conform to the voice of his constituents is essentially a Tory, and if he calls himself a Liberal, is guilty of adding hypocrisy to Toryism. My notions of right and wrong have been learned in a different school. I have been in the habit of considering a man who injures his country in order to curry favour with his constituents, not as a Liberal, but as a knave. I do not believe that Edinburgh will ever send to the House of Commons a man abject enough to sit there on such terms; at all events I will not be that man. If you wish to be so represented, you can have no difficulty in rinding an intriguing sycophant 1
2
TBM laid himself open to MoLaren here; he may not have voted against Villiers's motion in 1842, but, as McLaren pointed out, he had refused to support it (Scotsman, 11 May). Duncan McLaren, who said that 'any men, although professing Liberal principles, who set at defiance the opinions which their constituents had formed on the great public question of the day, exhibited the very essence of Toryism — and that they superadded to it a piece of practical hypocrisy by their profession of Liberalism' (Scotsman, 24 April). 190
Sir Robert Peel
3 May 1844
every way qualified for the purpose. It will be for you to consider whether your dearest rights can be safely intrusted to the care of one who is destitute of honesty, courage, and self-respect. As for myself, while I continue to be honoured with the confidence of the electors of Edinburgh, I will attempt to show my gratitude, not by adulation and obsequiousness, but by manly rectitude; and if they shall be pleased to dismiss me, I trust that, though I may lose their suffrages, I shall retain their esteem. I have the honour to be, dear Sir, your faithful servant, T. B. Macaulay.
TO S I R R O B E R T P E E L , 3 MAY
1844
MS: British Museum. Albany May 3. 1844 Sir, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of yesterday. I am much gratified to find that you think my advice concerning the decoration of the Houses of Parliament likely to be in any respect useful.1 Should Her Majesty be graciously pleased to add my name to the Commission, I shall feel the discharge of my duties to be not only an honor, but a pleasure. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your obedient Servant T B Macaulay The Rt Hon Sir R Peel Bart / etc. etc. etc.
TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 12 MAY
1844
MS: Trinity College. Albany May 12. 1844 Dear Ellis, I send Frank's papers. I think that I told you what had struck me about them. Hampton Court is out of the question at present. I am detained at Westminster every day and all day long by three railway-bills.2 May 1
2
TBM was added on 4 May to the Fine Arts Commission originally appointed in 1841 to superintend the decoration of the new Houses of Parliament. The Commission was headed by Prince Albert and included Peel, Hallam, Samuel Rogers, Palmerston, Melbourne, and Lansdowne. Lord Mahon was added at the same time as TBM. I have not found what railway committees TBM served on in this session, except one whose work was completed before the date of this letter. 191
21 May 1844
John Howison
he-asses defile the mothers, sisters, wives and daughters of the parties, counsel, solicitors, and witnesses in all three! I have touched up the pun which you told me; and it now takes wonderfully. Why is Mr. O'Connell like the harp of Erin when it has been scathed by fire from heaven? Ever yours T B Macaulay TO J O H N H O W I S O N , 21
MAY
1844
Text: Scotsman, i June 1844.
Albany, London, May 21, 1844. Dear Sir, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter conveying to me a resolution passed by the Anti-Corn-law Association of Edinburgh, on the 9th of this month.1 The sense put on my letter by the majority of the Association is correct. It is only as compared with a fluctuating duty on foreign corn that I think a fixed duty of low amount entitled to support. I have no doubt that a perfectly free trade is preferable to a fixed duty, and it is my intention to act in strict conformity with these views. I learn from your resolution that there is much in my letter of which the Association disapprove. I think it right to say that I have carefully reconsidered that letter, and that it contains not a single statement or argument to which I do not deliberately adhere. I am, etc., T. B. Macaulay. J. Howison, Esq., Edinburgh. 1
At its meeting then the Association heard TBM's letter of 1 May read and resolved ' that while there is much in Mr Macaulay's letter of which the Association disapprove' they interpreted it to mean that he was prepared to support 'the total and immediate repeal of the Corn-laws' (Scotsman, 11 May).
192
Unidentified Recipient
24 May 1844
TO UNIDENTIFIED RECIPIENT, 24 MAY
1844
Text: Notes and Queries, 27 May 1876, p. 426.
Albany, London, May 24th, 1844. Dear Sir, On receiving your letter I sent for the League,1 which but for you I should never have seen. I cannot guess who it is that has attacked me, and I rather suspect that you misunderstand his opening sentence. When he says that he has received my letters, he means only that as a member of the Anti-Corn-Law Association he has received the letter which I addressed to that body. The only private correspondence that I have lately had on the subject of the corn laws has been with men of much more sense and much better natures than this scribbler. Let me beg that you will not suffer yourself to be provoked by this poor creature's folly. I am truly grateful to you for the interest which you take in what concerns me. But why should you be moved to resentment by what moves me only to mirth? If abuse, unaccompanied by either argument or wit, had power to disturb me, it would now be many years since I should have enjoyed a cheerful meal or a quiet night's rest. I assure you that I would not give sixpence to turn all the scurrility with which I have been assailed during my whole life into panegyric. Depend upon it that, as old Bentley said, no man was ever written down except by himself.2 Ever yours truly, T. B. Macaulay. TO U N I D E N T I F I E D R E C I P I E N T , 5 J U N E
1844
MS: New York Public Library.
Albany June 5. 1844 My dear Sir, The two deputations very much overrate my services. But I am truly glad to find that they do justice to my sincere wish to be of use. I give you joy most heartily on the successful result of our exertions: and I hope 1
2
The League — the journal of the Anti-Corn Law League — calls TBM's letter to the Edinburgh Association of 1 May a * sort of Whig manifesto' consisting of' false philosophy and pernicious counsel' (18 May, pp. 541-2). See Boswell, Tour to the Hebrides, i October 1773. Trevelyan says that TBM 'at all times and under all temptations, acted in strict accordance with Bentley's famous maxim, (which in print and talk alike he dearly loved to quote,) that no man was ever written down, except by himself (11, 239). TBM quotes it in his essays on Atterbury and on Johnson (1856).
193
io June 2844
Edward Everett
that the public interests of Edinburgh as well as the private interests of the two companies will be greatly promoted by what has been done.1 Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO E D W A R D E V E R E T T , 10 J U N E
1844
MS: Massachusetts Historical Society.
Albany June 10. 1844 Dear Mr. Everett, I shall have great pleasure in breakfasting with you on Saturday. I am very much gratified by what you say of my speech on the Dissenters' Chapels' Bill.2 But I am ashamed to think that any speaking on such a subject should have been necessary. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay
TO [ C A R E Y AND H A R T ] , 15 J U N E
1844
MS: Massachusetts Historical Society.
Albany London / June 15. 1844 Gentlemen, I am greatly obliged by your splendid present.3 I hope that it will escape the Custom house Officers: and I will try to get it out of their hands if it is detained.4 I have not yet seen your fourth volume.5 The three last reviews which I have published are on Madame D'Arblay, on Miss Aikin's Life of Addi1
2
3 4
5
Perhaps this refers to the railway bills that TBM mentions in 12 May 1844. There were three Edinburgh railway bills passed in this session. 6 June: Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXV, 338-51, reprinted in Parliamentary Debates on the Dissenters1 Chapels Bill, 1844, and in the authorized edition of the Speeches, where TBM's note explains: *An attempt having been made to deprive certain dissenting congregations of property which they had long enjoyed, on the ground that they did not hold the same religious opinions that had been held by the purchasers from whom they derived their title to that property, the Government of Sir Robert Peel brought in a bill fixing a time of limitation in such cases.' TBM spoke for the bill on its second reading, which passed by 307 to 117. Part of this, at least, was a copy of Prescott's works: see 19 July. The Copyright Act of 1842 forbade the importation into England of any works in English copyright printed abroad. Of Carey and Hart's five-volume edition of TBM's Essays, 1841—4; volume 4, dated 1843, contains the essays from January 1841 through April 1842 as well as Lays ofAncient Rome; volume 5, which presumably appeared late in 1844, contains the three essays that TBM mentions here, and five earlier essays omitted from the first volumes.
194
Edward Everett
iy June 1844
son, and on the posthumous Memoirs of Barere. /1 have the honor to be, / Gentlemen, Your faithful Servant T B Macaulay TO E D W A R D E V E R E T T , 17 J U N E
1844
MS: Massachusetts Historical Society.
Albany June 17. 1844 Dear Mr. Everett, I cannot tell you with what shame I remember Saturday. The truth is that the division at two 1 put my engagement for ten out of my head; and I never recollected it till Lord Lansdowne reproached me with my forgetfulness, and told me how much I had lost. To prove that you are in charity with me, come and breakfast here on Saturday next at ten. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO [MRS C H A R L E S T R E V E L Y A N ? , 2
18?
JUNE
1844]3
MS: Morgan Library. [London] Well, the ministry is saved, but at the expense of the house of Commons. 4 A pretty figure we make. I voted without hesitation against rescinding on Monday what had been done on Friday. I am glad that there is not a change of administration. But I see that the Peel government has received a mortal wound. The agony will be long and lingering as ours was. But dissolution has commenced. I do not envy any of the ministers, and least of all Sir Robert and Gladstone. There was one odd circumstance on Monday. There was Knatchbull voting, chatting and laughing, just after receiving the news that his brother had been hanged for murder in New South Wales.5 All the evening papers were full of the story. And observe - a legitimate brother, who 1
2
3
4
5
TBM's name is not in the division list on the sugar duties for the night of Friday, 14 Julne, printed in Hansard. This is certainly to either Hannah or to Fanny; both were then at Dover; Hannah later went on to the continent with her husband. Dated from internal evidence, especially the reference to the death of Campbell, reported in The Times, 18 June. In the debate on the sugar duties the government lost the division on Friday, 14 June, by a majority of 20 but won the division on Monday, 17 June, by 22. John Knatchbull, hanged on 13 February, was Sir Edward Knatchbull's half brother. The story, copied from the Hampshire Independent^ is in The Times, 17 June.
20 June 2844
David Maclagan
had been a captain in the navy, and who, failing the elder, would have been baronet. Should Charles be hanged at Mauritius, I shall certainly shut my self up at least twenty four hours after the arrival of the intelligence. So poor Tom Campbell is dead.1 His wits had long been drunk away. There is talk of Westminster Abbey. If so, his remains will be brought, I suppose, by Dover.2 It is melancholy to think that, having lived to be sixty-four, and having gone on multiplying volumes of verse and prose to the last, he has never written a line worth reading since he was twenty eight. Hohen-Linden, the Battle of the Baltic, the Seaman's song, Lochiel, Gertrude of Wyoming were all published more than five and thirty years ago.3 Since that time he has been doing nothing but writing down his early reputation, and at last very nearly succeeded, by the help of morning draughts of gin and water. I did not like him personally. He was vulgar, coarse and swaggering; and was the only man whom I ever heard talk against Christianity boisterously and indecently in a large mixed company, not one of whom answered him. Perhaps he was tipsy, though it was at breakfast. For the argument, "it is but the third hour of the day," 4 however forcible when used by St Peter, was by no means decisive as to Tom Campbell's sobriety. Love to all. Ever yours TBM TO D A V I D MACLAGAN, 20 J U N E
1844
MS: University of Kansas.
Albany June 20. 1844 Dear Dr. Maclagan, I have written to General Galloway. I heartily hope that this application may succeed. Yours in haste T B Macaulay 1 2 3 4
15 June, at Boulogne. Where the Trevelyans, with Fanny, then were. All of these appeared in Campbell's Gertrude of Wyoming and Other Poems, 1809. Acts 2:15.
196
David Maclagan
24 June 2844
TO D A V I D MACLAGAN, 24 J U N E
1844
MS: University of Kansas. Albany London / June 24. 1844 Dear Dr. Maclagan, I have just received General Galloway's answer, which I send you with much concern. I really do not at present know what to do in this matter. We will hope that something may turn up. / Believe me ever Yours truly T B Macaulay TO [ H E N R Y D R U M M O N D ] , 1 24 J U N E
1844
MS: Trinity College.
Albany June 24 / 1844 My dear Sir, "Faction detected" is the title of Lord Egmont's pamphlet.2 It is not rare. I see it in Rodd's catalogue of Historical Literature for 1843. It: stands as no. 6741. You probably know Rodd's shop in Great Newport Street. It is one of the best for such purposes in London.3 I fear that when I am able to quit London, I shall be forced to turn in a direction less agreeable than towards Albury. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO F R A N C E S MACAULAY, 28 J U N E
1844
MS: Trinity College. Extract published: Trevelyan, 11, 156.
Albany London / June 28. 1844 Dearest Fanny, Let me know how you all are, and whether Trevelyan and his wife set off as they proposed.4 You will have seen my speech of Monday.5 I assure you that it fell 1
Identified by the reference to his residence at Albury, Surrey. * Faction Detected by the Evidence of Facts/ Dublin, 1743. Thomas Rodd (1796-1849) was known not only for the stock of his store but for his learning. 4 On a tour to Holland. s On opening letters at the post office, 24 June: Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXV, 1274-80. Mazzini and others had petitioned Parliament complaining that their letters were opened at the post office, as in fact they were. Lord Aberdeen, as Foreign Secretary, was anxious to cooperate with foreign governments in providing information about plots forming in England, and had requested Sir James Graham, as Home Secretary, to use his lawful 2
3
197
28 June 2844
Macvey Napier
like a shell in a powder-magazine. I shall very likely be at them again next Tuesday.1 I am just going to Westminster Hall. The frescoes and sculptures are all arranged. The Queen visits the collection to day; and her Commissioners of the Fine Arts are summoned to be in attendance on her.2 There is a great deal of rubbish. But there are a few jewels, which is quite as much as we had a right to expect. Two excellent fresco-painters have certainly been called forth by this great occasion; and this is much. For England never produced a good fresco-painter before.3 The sculpture is, on the whole, superior to the painting. I saw Sarah Anne yesterday. She is plagued by a sciatica, and seems in bad spirits about the prospect of having to settle at Rome. 4 Kindest love to Baba and Georgy and little Alice. God bless you all. TB M
TO MACVEY NAPIER, 28 JUNE MS:
1844
British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, p. 466.
Albany London / June 28. 1844 Dear Napier, Burke's Letters are out at last. They will disappoint many readers. But to me they are full of interest. They seem to give an excellent opportunity for a review of Burke's life and writings. I feel however some difficulty as to this matter. The article, to be complete, must be inordinately long. I should wish for example to say a good deal about the ministerial revolutions of the early part of George the Third's reign, about the characters of Bute, Mansfield, Chatham, Townshend, George Grenville, and many others, about Wilkes's and Churchill's lampoons, and so forth. I should wish also to go into a
1 2
3
4
authority to order letters to be opened. The sensation raised by the discovery was great, and Punch, especially, had a field day with the subject. TBM's speech is a party affair, but also an argument for the repeal of the law under which Graham acted. He was: see 4 July. Portrait sculpture and frescoes entered in the competition for the decoration of the new Houses of Parliament went on public exhibition in Westminster Hall on 1 July. Victoria and Albert's visit is reported in The Times, 29 June. The competition to determine who should paint the frescoes intended to be the chief glory of the new Palace of Westminster began in 1844 and continued for several years. One can only guess who TBM means by the ' two excellent fresco-painters,' but from the evidence of the awards the Commissioners especially favored J. C. Horsley and C. W. Cope: see T. S. R. Boase, 'The Decoration of the New Palace of Westminster/ Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, xvil (1954), 338. George Babington had been in Italy for his health and was about to return.
198
Macvey Napier
3 July 1844
critical examination of the Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful, and to throw out some hints on the subject which have long been rolling up and down in my mind. But this would be enough for a long article. And when this is done we have only brought Burke to the threshold of the House of Commons. The American war, the coalition, the impeachment of Hastings, the French Revolution, still remain. On full consideration, it seems to me that I must ask you to do what you did respecting the Duke of Wellington's despatches1 and what you thought of doing with my paper on Lord Bacon. I mean that I must ask you to let me divide what I have to say about Burke into at least two parts. If you feel an insurmountable objection to this course, we will chuse some other subject. For I cannot, with satisfaction to my self, undertake to exhibit my view of the literary and political character of Burke, if I am to be under the necessity of counting lines and pages. Let me hear what you think as to this matter. I should wish to finish my first paper before parliament rises, and to send it you for the October number. I have little news for you beyond what you will see in the papers. I am just going down to Westminster Hall to attend Her Majesty who is about to visit the frescoes and casts exhibited there. There is much that is bad. But we have two excellent painters in fresco, — men who may safely be trusted with the office of decorating the new Houses of Parliament. And this is a great thing. For two years ago there was not, I believe, in the kingdom an artist who had ever painted a single fresco. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 3 J U L Y
1844
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 466-7.
Albany London July 3. 1844 Dear Napier, I quite agree in what you say. I will take Walpole's last series of letters to Mann as my subject for October. Thus I shall clear away all the political matter preliminary to Burke's appearance on the political stage. I will certainly not fail you. But I cannot immediately say how long my paper is likely to be, or whether it will be in time for the first place in the October number. I never thought of reviewing Churchill's poems.2 I should merely 1
2
Wellington's Indian and European Despatches were separately reviewed by Sir George Murray in the ER, October 1838 and July 1839. A new edition of Churchill's Poetical Works, 3 vols., had been published in June.
199
3 July 1844
Henry Macaulay
have referred to them incidentally. It would hardly be possible indeed to give a sketch of the politics of that period without mentioning the name of the poet of the opposition. I had not received the July number when I wrote to you last. It arrived a few minutes after I had sent my letter to the post. I have been greatly pleased with Stephen's article; 1 -the more so from having known, as far as a boy can know men, all the people to whom it relates, and from retaining the most lively impressions of their looks, voices, and manners. I think this paper Stephen's best, which is saying not a little; and I am inclined to augur that it will be very popular. I must positively go to Edinburgh this summer. To stay away after what has passed would be cowardice. Entre nous I think of appearing among you at the beginning of August and staying a fortnight. Then perhaps I may run to the highlands, or visit Glasgow and cross to Ireland. But I have not made up my mind as to that. I will learn from Stephen what his plans are. Hallam is, I imagine, now on his way to Edinburgh with his son, a very intelligent and amiable young fellow. I suppose that you will see them. Ever yours most truly T B Macaulay TO H E N R Y MACAULAY, 3 J U L Y
1844
MS: University of Texas.
Albany London / July 3. 1844 My dear Henry, I have just received your letter of the 21st of May, after a passage about as long as if you had written from Bombay. I was truly glad to learn how comfortably on the whole you are situated, and how good the health of your party has been. I certainly never expected that your hospitality at Sierra Leone would have brought you any such returns as seem to have followed it. As to public news you will learn it from the papers. The government stands in a ricketty, tottering, sort of way. Every week the ministers are either defeated by the desertion of their supporters or saved from defeat by the generosity of their opponents. They have been during this session in minorities twice on the factory bill, in a minority on the sugar-duties, in a minority on the Bishopric of St Asaph. And, but for the Whigs, they would have been in a minority on the Dissenters' Chapels' Bill and on the Poor Law. They have been forced to give up the Ecclesiastical Courts' Bill and the Irish Registration Bill. They have been forced, after 1
'The Clapham Sect/ ER, LXXX (July 1844), 251-307. 2OO
Frances Macaulay
4 July 1S44
refusing a Committee on the Post Office, to grant it for fear of being beaten. In short, though they have a majority of ninety on the mere naked question, Whig or Tory, they are quite as helpless in respect of legislation as we ever were. This cannot last long. As to private affairs, all is well and quiet. Hannah and Trevelyan are, at this present writing, I believe, wandering about the Hague. Fanny with the children is at the Marine Parade, Dover. Selina is on the point of going down with Edward and Charley to visit John at Bovey Tracy. Charles is well and remits money fast and plentifully. George Babington has come back from Rome in very fair health. But I believe that he will not venture to face the winter of England. I rather think that he will finally resolve on settling at Rome and practising there. He has had great encouragement to do so; and would, I doubt not, make a very handsome income. There are generally hundreds of wealthy English families at Rome during a great part of the year. When I was there, I remember we had the Dukes of Devonshire, Sutherland, Buccleuch, I think Manchester, the Earls of Caernarvon, Cadogan, Burlington, Shrewsbury, and a crowd of other people of rank and fortune. If George were to settle at Rome he would be quite without a rival, and would pocket all the fees of these great families. The main objection is Sarah Anne's feeling. She hates Italy, and nothing but absolute necessity will induce her to settle there. I believe that the Denmans are all well. Lord Denman has been speaking excellently in the House of Lords on the Post Office question, and has greatly raised his popularity by doing so. Let us hear from you as often as is convenient to you. You seem to have no avocations which should interfere with your duties as a correspondent. My love to your wife and child. Ever yours affectionately T B Macaulay TO F R A N C E S MACAULAY, 4 J U L Y
1844
MS: Trinity College.
Albany July 4. 1844 Dearest Fanny, I am glad that you approved of my answer to Graham. l 1 spoke under the disadvantage of not having heard his attack on me. Be assured that the story about O'Connell's letters is a senseless lie. 1
2 July: Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXVI, 248-51. On the same day Graham had complained of TBM for * pointing out to the indignation of the House and the public— not the law— not the system- but me' (ibid., 224). TBM's reply denies that he intended any personal attack on Graham but criticizes the illogic of Graham's refusing to tell the House on what principles he acted yet allowing a secret committee to do so. 2OI
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I wonder that a man of Glenelg's sense and experience should believe such trash. If the letters were opened, it was not by any authority from the late government, but by some rascally Orangemen in the Post Office. Those scoundrels opened, I am assured, the letters of the Lord Lieutenant himself, in the hope of rinding something which might serve the turn of their party. I have a letter from Henry dated May 21. All quite well and comfortable. I saw Edward, and called at the Victoria in the afternoon in the hope of seeing Selina, but was disappointed, as she kept her bed all day. Campbell's funeral1 was miserably mismanaged. I put my self to charges on the occasion for a black suit, and, after waiting an hour in the Jerusalem Chamber, where the atmosphere resembled that of the Black Hole, was very coolly shut out of the Abbey, in company with the Belgian Minister,2 with Sheil, Christopher, D'Israeli, Hobhouse,3 and a crowd of other people. Such gross negligence I never knew. To day the executors have sent me an apology, which I have received civilly, but very drily. Horace Twiss has sent me his Life of Lord Eldon, 4 - amazingly amusing, but most indiscreet in its revelations. There are passages which will make the Duke of Wellington very angry. Yesterday I dined at Lord Westminster's. The entertainment was splendid; and the pictures are excellent, particularly the Flemish pictures.5 Miss Eden6 was there, — very civil to me; — but I was as distant as possible. They have asked me to dinner. But I sent an excuse. I will never enter 1
In Westminster Abbey, 3 July. Sylvain Van de Weyer (1802-74), Belgian minister to England, 1831-67; he had married a rich Anglo-American wife and was intimate in the Whiggish-literary society that TBM belonged to. He was a member of The Club. A notable bibliophile, he founded the Philobiblon Club with R. M. Milnes. Lady Holland described him as 'very clever, good & popular* (Lord Ilchester, Lady Holland to Her Son, p. 172). 3 Hobhouse describes the funeral in his Recollections of a Long Life, vi, 122-3: 'There was a good deal of talk not very appropriate between some of us. Macaulay said that if the crowd increased much we should be stifled, and quoted "In that Jerusalem shall Harry die. . . ." Monckton Milnes asked which we thought Campbell's best poem. Macaulay said "The Pleasures of Hope" was a good prize poem, "Gertrude of Wyoming" was better, but the "Odes" were his masterpiece. . . .We talked of the man himself. . . . Macaulay repeated Byron's lines in "Don Juan" in reference to "Gertrude of Wyoming." "The bard I quote from does not sing amiss"; and so we went on some time. 4 The Life of Lord Chancellor Eldon, 3 vols., published 4 July. 5 The Grosvenor Gallery, formed by Lord Westminster, is described in Gustav Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 1854, II, 161-74. 6 Emily Eden (1797-1869: DNB), Lord Auckland's sister, accompanied her brother to India, where she presided over his household in Calcutta, 1835-42. She published two volumes about her Indian experiences, as well as a couple of novels. Her Indian books contain only a few bare references to TBM. I know nothing of her 'insolence' to Hannah.
2
202
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$44
their house again till she makes an apology for her insolence to Hannah. Love to the dear children. Let me know what you hear from Hannah. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO F R A N C E S MACAULAY, 6 J U L Y
1844
MS: Huntington Library.
Albany London July 6. 1844 Dearest Fanny, Stephen's paper, like all other human things, has its faults. But I like it much. So does Napier; and so does Jeffrey. The complaints of the Thorntons disgust me, but do not surprise me. What possible impropriety can there be in mentioning, as part of the description of their father's way of life, his oval saloon and his lawn ? I am quite sure that, if you were left to your own taste and judgment, you would find no fault with these allusions. When I wrote that little eulogy on poor Lord Holland, I brought in the library at Holland House; and the family did not think that I had done any thing indelicate or unfriendly. The widow and every one of the children thanked me with tears. Where, I should be glad to know, is the difference? If I were to write an account of Hannah More, should I not mention the root-houses and China roses of Barley Wood? If I were to write an account of my uncle Babington, should I be justly censured if I were to introduce something about the Temple, the old oak, the Chapel, and the family portraits? If there had been any sarcasm thrown on the taste of the villa at Battersea Rise, I could understand Miss Isabella's1 indignation. But to be angry because an old friend describing her father has, in the kindest spirit and most graceful manner, brought in the library and tulip-trees as a back ground to the portrait, would, in any other people, be an incredible instance of folly and perverseness. It does not however amaze me. There is a certain odd, shy, irritable fastidiousness about the Thorntons where their parents are concerned, which I never saw in any other people. The only safe course with them is absolute silence. Praise they spurn as an insult. All effusions of affection to the memory of either their father or their mother, are met with supercilious coldness, if not with resentment. What right have they to complain of what is said about their father's fortune?2 Is it false? Is it discreditable to him? Can it possibly be injurious to them? Was it not necessary to the correct exhibition of his char1
2
Isabella Thornton (1803-93), the fifth of the Thornton children, later married Benjamin Harrison, Archdeacon of Maidstone. Stephen says that Henry Thornton had an easy fortune; he then describes Thornton's practice of giving six sevenths of his income to the poor before his marriage and of one third after, a sum never less than £2,000 (ER, LXXX, 254). 203
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acter? And was not his character public property? He was a Senator, a writer, a party-leader. He has been thirty years in his grave. Was it not fit that facts which strongly illustrated the vigour of his principles and the magnificence of his spirit, and which could do no harm to any living being, should be known ? But in fact you have yourself completely vindicated Stephen from the absurd charge of having acted indelicately towards the Thorntons. For you say; " We personally have nothing to complain of, though the Thorntons have;" and again; "The few pages about our dear father are the best and least objectionable." Now, I am certain of this, that, if the Thorntons have a right to complain, we have ten times as good a right. In the first place our father has been dead only six years. His circumstances therefore ought to have been spoken of with more reserve than the circumstances of a person who has been dead thirty years. Stephen says plainly that our father died poor. This, I am sure, is much beyond any thing that he says of Mr. Thornton's money-matters. Then he says that our father had an ungraceful figure and an ineloquent tongue. Now I really think that this is much worse than saying of a man that he has an oval saloon and massive tulip-trees. Yet you complain of his account of Mr. Henry Thornton, and do not complain of his account of our father. The truth is that you look at his account of our father with your own eyes, and at his account of Henry Thornton with your friend Isabella's eyes. If you looked at the whole paper with your own eyes, you would see that neither the Thorntons nor we have the smallest reason to complain; but that, if the feeling of the Thorntons were justifiable, we should have far more reason to complain than they. I hope that you will not encourage your friend's folly, though I do not in the least suppose that you can cure it. Remember what we owe to James Stephen. Remember that, but for him, Hannah and her children would now be fifteen thousand miles from us, 1 if indeed they had escaped the tropical maladies. This is always present to my mind, and may perhaps make me partial. But weigh what I have said; and tell me whether I do him, on this occasion, more than bare justice. I breakfasted with Sydney to day. There were Lord Lansdowne, the American and Belgian Ministers, Milman,2 Senior, and that bore Mac1
2
This passage is the only evidence that Stephen was instrumental in obtaining Trevelyan's appointment to the Treasury: see 23 January 1840. Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868: DNB), Dean of St Paul's, dramatic poet, translator, editor, and historian. He was Rector of St Margaret's, Westminster, at this time, preferment coming slowly to him because of what were regarded as the unorthbdoxies of his History of the Jews, 1830. Milman and TBM moved in the same society and so saw each other constantly in the 1840s and 1850s. Milman's * Memoir of Lord Macaulay,' Proceedings of the Royal Society, xi (1860-2), xi-xxvi, is a sympathetic but not very vivid account that has been frequently reprinted with TBM's History of England. 204
Horace Twiss
9 July 2844
culloch, who however held his tongue, the best thing that he could do. Pray let me know whether you have heard from the travellers, and when they return. If they come from Rotterdam they must land in the Thames, I imagine. I cannot learn that there is any packet between Rotterdam and Dover. Perhaps therefore I may see them before they rejoin you. Kindest love to the dear children. Ever yours TBM The railway disputes have been accommodated: and Birmingham shares have risen five or six per Cent at once. I am three hundred pounds richer than I was yesterday.
TO H O R A C E T W I S S , 9 J U L Y
1844
MS: Bodleian Library. Albany July 9. 1844 My dear Sir, Many thanks for your book.I I have read it with the greatest interest. Your part is excellently done. I need not say that I do not agree in your political doctrines, or that my estimate of your hero differs widely from yours. There is one passage which I should be glad to see corrected when the book reaches, as it will reach, a second edition. You seem not to believe that, during the King's illness in 1788-9, Thurlow betrayed his colleagues, and made terms for himself with the Prince and Mr. Fox. 2 The story is not idle gossip, as you think. It is as certain as that Thurlow was Lord Chancellor. The evidence is overwhelming. The letters of Fox, Loughborough, and others on the subject are in print. See too Tomline's book, 3 a worthless book indeed, but, on such a point, quite decisive. Look too at Wilberforce's private memorandum on the subject in the appendix to the first volume of his memoirs, and at his letter to Lord Muncaster dated November 7. 1789.4 Wilberforce, / know, had his 1 The Life of Eldon. Twiss calls the story 'political gossip': 1, 197. George Tomline, Memoirs of the Life of William Pitt, 2 vols., 1821. In his article on Pitt contributed to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, TBM calls this ' the worst biographical work of its size in the world' (Works, ed. Lady Trevelyan, 1866, vn, 360). 4 Robert and Samuel Wilberforce, The Life of William Wilberforce, 1, 385-7, a circumstantial account of Thurlow's double-dealing. Wilberforce's letter to Muncaster is in the same editors' Correspondence of William Wilberforce, 2 vols., 1840, 1, 72. 2
3
205
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information both from Mr. Pitt and from Lord Camden. His words to Lord Muncaster are - " Thurlow, as you know, was on the point of putting out as long a tail as the veriest rat in either house of parliament. His conduct, if ever it be made public, must cover him with confusion." Lord Eldon's defence of his friend and benefactor is surely very feeble.1 He indeed seems to admit that Thurlow was prepared to remain as Lord Chancellor with Mr. Fox. But he says that there could have been no discreditable intrigue: for, had there been such an intrigue, Thurlow would have been reproached with it in parliament. Now I can allow no weight whatever to this argument, and that for a very sufficient reason; namely that, to my certain knowledge, there have, within the last few years, been several very disgraceful negotiations of the same sort, and that these negotiations, not having been consummated by the acceptance of office, are not generally known, and have never been alluded to in parliament.2 Pray forgive me this criticism, and believe me Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO F R A N C E S MACAULAY, 10 J U L Y
1844
MS: Trinity College. Partly published: Trevelyan, I, 67-811.
Albany London / July 10. 1844 Dearest Fanny, I am rather surprised at hearing nothing either directly or circuitously from our travellers. They meant to be in England again to day; and I had thought of passing Sunday at Dover. But, as I can learn nothing of their movements, I have, after declining a score of invitations for next Saturday, at last accepted one, and shall remain quietly here. Who should come to the Albany this morning but our brother John, with Charley Cropper. I took them over the houses of parliament, and round the works of art in Westminster Hall. We had a morning sitting of the Commons in consequence of the press of business. So I put Charley under the gallery, and showed him the Speaker, Mr. Muntz3 with his long beard, Sir James Graham, Gladstone, and other notabilites. To morrow 1 2
3
Twiss, Eldon, 1, 197: summarized by TBM in what follows. TBM must be thinking, in part at least, of Brougham, who was suspected by the Whigs of playing for office in 1839 and 1841: see Lord Campbell, Lives of the Lord Chancellors, New York, 1875, x, 475 and 499. Palmerston, too, was suspected after his quarrels with his colleagues late in 1840 (Henry Reeve's note in Greville, Memoirs, iv, 345n: 9 January 1841). George Frederick Muntz (1794-1857: DNB), Radical M.P. for Birmingham, 1840-57; his bushy black beard, large size, and deep voice, made him one of the sights of the House. 206
Frances Macaulay
20 July 1844
Charley, his father, and John, are to breakfast with me. I wish Baba and Georgy were of the party. You cannot think how much Lord Monteagle is charmed by Stephen's article. He thinks it out and out the best thing that Stephen ever did: and so do I. I do not think with you that the Claphamites were men too obscure for such delineation. The truth is that from that little knot of men emanated all the Bible Societies and almost all the Missionary Societies in the world, the Prayer Book and Homily Society, the African Institution, the Antislavery Society. The whole organization of the Evangelical party was their work. The share which they had in providing means for the education of the people was great. They were really the destroyers of the Slave trade and of Slavery. Many of those whom Stephen describes were public men of the greatest weight. Lord Teignmouth governed India at Calcutta. Grant governed India in Leadenhall Street. Stephen's father was Percival's right hand man in the House of Commons; - more is the pity; — for between them they got up the last war with America.1 It is needless to speak of Wilberforce. As to Simeon, if you knew what his authority and influence were, and how they extended from Cambridge to the most remote corners of England, you would allow that his real sway in the Church was far greater than that of any primate. And I am sure no statesman of our time has ever been more satirised or caricatured. Thornton, to my surprise, thinks the passage about our father unfriendly. "I do not mean," he said, "that you can complain. But Stephen should not have written it." I defended Stephen. The truth is that he asked my permission to draw a portrait of our father for the Edinburgh Review. I told him that I had only to beg that he would not give it the air of a puff; - a thing which, for my self and for my friends, I dread far more than any attack. I am certain that indiscriminate praise does no good to the person praised: and my influence over the Edinburgh Review is so well known that a mere fulsome eulogy on my father appearing in that work would only call forth derision. I therefore am really glad that Stephen has introduced into his sketch some little characteristic touches which, in themselves, were not beauties. But I must stop. Love to the dear children. I have another letter from Charles and another 200 £ . Ever yours TBM 1
By maintaining the Orders in Council of 1806, declaring a continental blockade.
207
io July 1844
[Thomas Longman]
TO [THOMAS LONGMAN], 10 JULY
1844
MS: Trinity College.
Albany / July 10. 1844 My dear Sir, I must trouble you for the two former Volumes of Walpole's Letters to Mann.1 Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO J. F. MACFARLAN, 10 J U L Y
1844
Text: Scotsman, 13 July 1844.
Albany, London, July ic, 1844. My Dear Sir, The Lord Advocate2 assured me that he shall keep his eye on the bills which have excited your apprehensions;3 and I do not doubt that the interests of Scotland as to this matter will be safe in his hands. He has communicated with the authors of the bill, who profess their readiness to adopt his amendments. He has promised to let me know before any step is taken. This, I hope, will put you at ease. I presented the petition respecting the mail yesterday,4 and had some talk about it with Sir George Clerk.5 He assures me that the change which you demand will soon be made. But there are difficulties, which he did not explain, in making the alterations instantly. Believe me, yours very truly, T. B. Macaulay. J. F. Macfarlan, Esq. 1
See 23 October 1843. Duncan McNeill (1793-1874: DNB), afterwards first Baron Colonsay and Oronsay, M.P. for Argyllshire, 1843-51, and Lord Advocate, 1842-6. 3 Bills for England and Ireland ' by which persons resident in Scotland might be sued at the Courts of Common Law, at Westminster or Dublin, as the case might be' (Scotsman, 13 July). The English bill was brought in by Lord Campbell on 18 April and was sent down to the Commons on 20 May. 4 From the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, praying for more rapid delivery of the mail, especially ' to obviate the disadvantage of passengers arriving from London many hours before communication by letter' (Commons Journals, 1844, p. 481). s Clerk (1787-1867: DNB), at this time M.P. for Stamford, was Secretary to the Treasury, 1841-5. 2
208
[Carey and Hart]
19 July 1844
TO [ C A R E Y AND H A R T ] , 19 J U L Y
1844
MS: Morgan Library. Albany London / July 19. 1844 Gentlemen, I have this moment received your very handsome and acceptable present. Part of it indeed is wanting. Neither my own works nor Mr. Prescott's could pass the custom house.1 But what I have succeeded in obtaining is valuable on its own account, and will also be valued by me as a mark of your good-will. Pray accept my cordial thanks, and believe me, / Gentlemen, Your faithful Servant, T B Macaulay TO E D W A R D E V E R E T T , 21 J U L Y
1844
Text: Copy, Massachusetts Historical Society.
Albany July 21. 1844 My dear Mr. Everett, If Friday morning would suit you, I should have great pleasure in breakfasting with you. On Thursday and Saturday I am engaged. Yours most truly, T. B. Macaulay. TO J. F. MACFARLAN, 2 A U G U S T
1844
Text: Scotsman, 5 October 1844.
Albany, London, August 2, 1844. My Dear Sir, The bills relating to the process of the Common-Law Courts of England and Ireland passed our House, with amendments framed by the Lord Advocate.2 The effect of these amendments was to exempt Scotland from the operation of the bills. The Lords yesterday, on Lord Campbell's motion, rejected the amendments, and are to inform us of what they have done at a conference. As soon as I heard this, I went to the SolicitorGeneral,3 and to Sir James Graham. They both assure me that they will adhere to the Lord Advocate's view, and that either the bills shall pass 1 2 3
See 15 June. See to Macfarlan, 10 July. Sir Frederick Thesiger (1794-1878: DNE) was Solicitor-General, 1844-5, and then Attorney-General to the end of Peel's administration. He was Lord Chancellor in Derby's second administration, when he was created Baron Chelmsford. 209
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with his amendments, or shall not pass at all.l You need not, therefore, be under any alarm. I am, etc. T. B. Macaulay. TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 8 A U G U S T
1844
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 467-8.
Albany London / August 8. 1844 Dear Napier, I hope to be at Edinburgh on Monday the 19th or Tuesday the 20th. At so dead a time of the year, I should think that it might be possible for me to escape speeches and meetings, particularly as I mean to go quietly and without sending notice to any of our political managers. It is really very hard that I cannot visit your city as any other gentleman and man of letters can do. My intention is to stay about a fortnight; and I should like to go to you on Saturday the 26th2 and to return to Edinburgh on the Monday. I wish to avoid, if possible, passing a Sunday in the good Town. For to whatever Church I go, I shall give offence to somebody. If you would be kind enough to secure me my old rooms from Monday the 19th, I should be much obliged to you. I fear that Stephen has quite given up all thought of an expedition northward this year. I will however try to see him and to learn his intentions. You may depend on my article. Some of it is written. I will go on with it during my travels. But I cannot promise that it shall be finished till pretty late in September. I must therefore apply for the last place. When my visit to Edinburgh is over I shall be guided partly by the state of the weather as to my further movements. I am in doubt between Ireland and the Scotch Highlands. I am truly sorry to hear of Sir William Hamilton's calamity.31 scarcely knew him by sight: and his favourite studies were not of a kind in which I take much interest. But I hope that I did justice to his immense attainments and vigour of mind. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1 2 3
The bills went no further in this session. Saturday was the 24th. A paralytic stroke.
2IO
Macvey Napier
10 August 1844
TO MACVEY NAPIER, 10 AUGUST
1844
MS: British Museum. Published: Napier, Correspondence, p. 468.
Albany London / August 10. 1844 Dear Napier, I find that I must put off my journey northward for a week. I shall not be at Edinburgh till Monday the 26th. I should like to go to you on the Saturday following. One of my reasons for this postponement, — but let it rest between ourselves, — is that on Wednesday the 21st Hume is to lay the first stone of a monument to the republicans who were transported by Pitt and Dundas.I Now, though I by no means approve of the severity with which those people were treated, I do not admire their proceedings, nor should I chuse to attend the ceremony. But if I arrived just before it, I should certainly be expected by a portion of my constituents either to attend or to explain the reasons of my absence: and thus we should have another disagreeable controversy. You may therefore expect me on the 26th at Edinburgh, unless something unforeseen should prevent my going. I write by this post to tell Sir James Craig2 of my intention, and to ask his advice. You were kind enough to say that you would engage rooms for me. I think that you had better not do so till the time draws near. I do not wish it to be known that I am coming. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO L A D Y H O L L A N D , I I A U G U S T
1844
MS: Osborn Collection, Yale University.
Albany August n / 1844 Dear Lady Holland, Your summons did not reach me till late yesterday evening: and to day I am engaged. The time of my departure from London depends on letters which I expect from Scotland. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1
2
The monument to Muir, Skirving, Gerrald, Palmer, and Margarot, at the foot of the Calton Hill. Craig presided at the banquet given on the occasion.
211
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Macvey Napier
TO MACVEY NAPIER, 14 AUGUST
1844
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, p. 469.
Albany London August 14 / 1844 Dear Napier, I have been working hard for you during the last week, and have covered many sheets of foolscap: and now I find that I have taken a subject altogether unmanageable. There is no want of materials. On the contrary facts and thoughts, both interesting and new, are abundant. But this very abundance bewilders me. The stage is too small for the actors. The canvass is too narrow for the multitude of figures. It is absolutely necessary that I should change my whole plan. What I propose is this. I will not try to write for you a history of England during the earlier part of George the Third's reign; but an account of the last years of Lord Chatham's Life. I promised or half promised this ten years ago at the end of my review of Thackeray's book. 1 Most of what I have written will come in very well; and I shall easily finish the paper in time for the October Number. You cannot, I think, have any objection to this course. In that confidence I shall directly set to work on my new plan. The 4th volume of the Chatham Correspondence2 has not, I think, been reviewed. It will furnish a heading for the article, unless you can think of some other. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 21 A U G U S T
1844
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Trevelyan, 11, 152.
Albany London / August 21. 1844 Dear Napier, Many thanks for your kind letters. The article on Chatham goes on swimmingly. I fear that it will be long. But I must huddle it up at the end, if it seems likely to exceed bounds. I shall bring what I have done to Edinburgh, and go on working there at odd moments. But I must carry it back with me to London. For it can only be finished here. A great part of the information which I have is still in manuscript, — Horace Walpole's memoirs of George the Third's reign which were transcribed 1 2
Francis Thackeray's William Pitt, reviewed by TBM in January 1834. The Correspondence of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, 4 vols., 1838—40, is substituted for the Burke correspondence at the head of TBM's article. 212
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zy August 1844
for Mackintosh, the first Lord Holland's Diary which Lady Holland permitted me to read, and so forth. I mean to be at Edinburgh either on Monday evening or on Tuesday morning- with you on Saturday the 31st. I would gladly stay with you, as you propose, till the Tuesday. But I shall not be quite my own master. I hope to get away at the end of a fortnight. It is certainly more agreeable to represent such a place as Paisley or Wolverhampton than such a place as Edinburgh. Hallam or Everett can enjoy the society and curiosities of your fine city. But I am the one person to whom all those things are interdicted.1 Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 27 A U G U S T
1844
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, p. 470.
Edinburgh / August 27. 1844 Dear Napier, Here I am safe and well. I found every thing ready, thanks to your kindness. What is your dinner-hour on Saturday, - and how far are you from Charlotte Square? I have been working for you on the road, and shall go on working here. Never was a paper produced with so much difficulty. I have now found it necessary to write the whole over again a third time. I think however that the article will at last be very curious and interesting, not from the skill of the workman, but from the rarity and value of the materials. Even to you I really believe that much of it will be as new as a history of the Moon. What then must it be to common readers? Ever yours, T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 4 S E P T E M B E R
1844
MS: British Museum.
Edinburgh Septr. 4. 1844 Dear Napier, I have just received a letter from Professor Christison who tells me that he has proposed to you a paper for the December Number on Medi1
This trip was at least quietly managed. TBM arrived on Tuesday the 27th and stayed until Friday, 6 September, but the only public notice I have found is a brief statement that he is in the city in the Scotsman, 4 September. 8
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5 September 2844
William Gibson Craig
cal Reform.1 The subject is really one which ought to be treated in the Review. It concerns Scotland deeply, Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh deeply, science and humanity, if possible, more deeply still. I shall not be surprised if the monopolists in England should try to make a national quarrel out of the question. The general ignorance on the subject is such that a clear and popular statement is required by the majority even of Members of Parliament.2 I hope therefore that your engagements will admit of your complying with Christison's request. I set off for London before sunrise on Friday morning. Many thanks for all your hospitality and friendship. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO
W I L L I A M G I B S O N CRAIG, 5 SEPTEMBER
1844
MS: Scottish Record Office. Envelope: W Gibson Craig Esq M.P. / etc. etc. etc. / Riccarton. Subscription: T B Macaulay.
Oman's Hotel Edinburgh Septr. 5. 1844 Dear Craig, You have heard, I suppose, of my visit to our constituents. I arrived ten days ago, and shall return to London to morrow. On the whole I have been much pleased. Indeed, as far as I am my self concerned, nothing could possibly have been kinder or more cordial than the reception which I found. Even those whom I had regarded as the tools of Duncan Maclaren, Howison, for example, and Gray3 the Quaker, have assured me of their approbation and support. The only drawback on my satisfaction is this, — that I perceived, in a small section only, it is true, of the liberal party, a disposition to make a distinction between you and me. I do not in the least doubt that, if there were a dissolution to morrow, we might both go to the poll with full confidence, and that we should have more votes than a Tory and a Complete-Suffrage man together. Still it is proper to be cautious; and I think that we have both in turn a little forgotten this, and exposed ourselves alternately to the attacks of our cunning enemy.4 He, I am certain, cares not one straw which of us he injures. It is enough for his purpose 1
2
3 4
This appeared as * Medical Reform/ ER, LXXXI (January 1845), 235-72. Robert Christison (1797-1882: DNB), first Baronet, was Professor of Medicine at Edinburgh, 1822-77. Sir James Graham introduced a bill for medical reform, 7 August, seeking to regulate the training and licensing of medical practitioners by repealing all existing legislation and replacing it by a new comprehensive act; the bill proposed a new central medical authority responsible to government. TBM spoke briefly in support of the bill on its introduction (Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXVI, 1903-4). For the bill's fate, see 20 February 1845. John Gray was treasurer of the Edinburgh Anti-Corn Law Association. That is, McLaren. 214
William Gibson Craig
5 September 2844
that at the moment, be it what it may, when a dissolution shall take place, one of us may be under a cloud. It was your turn last autumn; mine in the spring; now it is yours again and may be mine again before Christmas. We ought therefore, I think, to take particular care that the just scorn and disgust with which we regard him may never lead us to do anything which may look like disrespect to any knot of well-meaning liberal electors. I frankly own that I erred in this respect last winter. When I was invited to attend the corn-law-meeting by a letter from Duncan, my contempt for his dirty artifices impelled me to write very shortly and almost tartly in reply.1 This did me harm, and, if there had been a general election soon after, would perhaps have cost me my seat, and would at all events have produced a contest. Now I am afraid that you have committed a slip, not so bad as mine, but of much the same kind, in not answering the last letter of the Anti Corn law league.2 This is the topic of the few, for they are but few, - who grumble at you. And some of our staunchest friends have expressed to me a wish that you had not given our enemies this handle. Any answer written now would clearly be too late. But I think that you should lie on the watch for some opportunity of shewing to the honest and friendly Leaguers, such as Howison and Wigham seem to be, such civility as may put the notion of an affront out of their heads. Opportunities are likely to offer in plenty long before the next general election. I have a great deal more to tell you. But what with merchants anxious about one pound notes and Doctors anxious about the medical bill, dissenters railing at the annuity-tax3 and painters railing at Sir Thomas Lauder,4 I can scarcely call a moment my own. I stole yesterday to Riccarton, saw your house and pleasure-grounds in high beauty, and made acquaintance with the children who were in high beauty too. I was glad to find Sir James in such excellent health. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1 2
3 4
23 December 1843. Craig was addressed by the Edinburgh Anti-Corn Law Association at the same time as TBM on 16 May (see 21 May for TBM's response) but did not answer at first. To a second application he replied shortly on 15 June, refusing to be committed to the Association's policy of total and immediate repeal. He left unanswered further letters of 26 June and 10 July. The Association formally resolved that this conduct was 'not satisfactory' (Scotsman, 3 August). See to Craig, 15 July 1852. Lauder was Secretary to the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts.
215
8-2
21 September 1844
Macvey Napier
TO MACVEY NAPIER, 21 SEPTEMBER 1844 MS: British Museum. Extract published: Napier, Correspondence, p. 47011.
Albany London Septr. 21. 1844 Dear Napier, I send you my article with the exception of a very few concluding pages, which I will dispatch on Monday. I never took so much trouble with any thing as with this paper. But I feel that the success has been by no means answerable to the labour. There is however much in the narrative that will be new, and I think interesting, to common readers.1 Pray let me have proofs; and let the words " To be forwarded" be put on the envelope, as I may perhaps be out of town when they arrive.2 I shall not go to the continent till the first week of October. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO M R S CHARLES TREVELYAN, 9 OCTOBER 1844 MS: Trinity College. Partly published: Trevelyan, 11, 153-5.
Rotterdam October 9. 1844 Dearest Hannah, After a very pleasant day at Antwerp I started at seven yesterday morning by the steamer. I had, after much consideration, determined to take a servant with me. The landlord of the hotel St Antoine recommended one very strongly, and said that he would answer for the man's fidelity, that he was pere de famille, and would be ruined if he misconducted himself. I liked the fellow's round, red, honest Flemish face, and was very desirous to have with me somebody who knew Holland and its language. I therefore struck the bargain, and have hitherto had every reason to be satisfied with my attendant's honesty, intelligence, and respectful behaviour. I dare say that he will save me in one way or other as much as his board and wages will amount to. And if not four or five pounds are well expended in buying comfort. A Dutch gentleman on board of the steamer recognised my servant, and told me that he was a highly respectable man of his class. But I had an odder conversation than this on board the steamer, and 1
2
Marianne Thornton writes in September that * Tom is reviewing Horace Walpole which I shall enjoy very much. He is reading it at this moment to his sister " over the wall," [the Trevelyans lived next to Battersea Rise] and if I weren't writing to you I might be listening' (to Fanny Wedgwood: MS, Cambridge University Library). * Macaulay writes me a few lines from Bristol, with his proofs before him' (Empson to Napier, 2 October 1844: MS, British Museum). 216
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
9 October 1844
one which, I think, will amuse both you and Trevelyan. As we passed Dordrecht, which is, as you may remember, the first Dutch town of any consequence on the voyage, one of the passengers, an Englishman, said that he had never seen any thing like it. Parts of it reminded me of some parts of Cape Town; and I said so. An elderly gentleman immediately laid hold of me. "You have been at the Cape, Sir?" "Yes, Sir." "Perhaps you have been in India?" "Yes Sir." "My dear, here is a gentleman who has been in India." So I became an object of attention to an illlooking vulgar woman, who appeared to be the wife of my questioner, and to his daughter, a pretty girl enough, but by no means lady like. "And how did you like India? Is it not the most delightful place in the world?" "It is well enough," I said "for a place of exile." "Exile," says the lady, "I think people are exiled when they come away from India." " I have never," said the old gentleman, "had a day's good health since I left India." A little chat followed about mangoes and mango-fish, punkahs and palanquins, white ants and cock roaches. I maintained, as I generally do on such occasions, that all the fruits of the tropics are not worth a pottle of Covent Garden strawberries, and that a lodging up three pair of stairs in London is better than a palace in a compound at Chowringhee. My gentleman was vehement in asserting that India was the only country to live in. "I went there," he said, "at sixteen in 1800, and staid till 1830, when I was superannuated. If the Company had not chosen to superannuate me, I should have been there still. I should like to end my days there." I could not conceive what he meant by being superannuated at a time when he could have been only forty six years old, and consequently younger than most of the field-officers in the Indian army and than half the Senior Merchants in the Civil Service. However I was too polite to interrogate him. That was a politeness, however, of which he had no notion. "How long," he asked, "were you in India"? "Between four and five years." "A clergyman, I suppose." Whether he drew this inference from the sanctity of my looks, or from my olive-coloured coat and shawl waistcoat, I do not pretend to guess. But I answered that I had not the honor to belong to so sacred a profession. "A mercantile gentleman, no doubt." "No." Then his curiosity got the better of all the laws of good breeding, and he went straight to the point. " May I ask, Sir, to whom I have the honor of talking?" I told him. "Oh, Sir," said he, you must often have heard of me. I am Mr. Ricketts.1 I was long at Lucknow." " Heard of you, - " thought I - , "yes, and a pretty account I 1
Mordaunt Ricketts (1786-1862), entered the East India Company's service in 1802 and was Resident at Lucknow, 1822-9. 1° t n e face °f charges of corruption, he left India in December 1829, having obstructed the Company's efforts to investigate his accounts. The case presented several anomalies, since he had evaded trial in India and there was not sufficient evidence against him to justify a trial in England. But the Company refused his resignation, 217
9 October 2844
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
have heard of you." I should have at once turned on my heel and walked away if his daughter had not been close to us, and, scoundrel as he is, I could not afFront him in her presence. I merely said with the coldest tone and look " Certainly I have heard of Mr. Ricketts." "And doubtless you know my friend Mr. Turton." Like to like, thought I, — a well matched pair. "No, Sir," I said pretty scornfully, "I do not know Mr. Turton." He went on: "You are related, I think, to a civil servant who made a stir about Sir Edward Colebrook." It was just at my lips to say "Yes; - it was by my brother-in-law's means that Sir Edward was superannuated." But I commanded myself, and merely said that I was nearly related to Mr. Trevelyan; and then I called to the Steward, and pretended to be very anxious to settle with him about some coffee that I had taken. While he was changing me a gold William I got away from the old villain, went to the other end of the poop, took out my book, and avoided looking towards him during the rest of the passage. And yet I could not help thinking a little better of him for what had happened. For it reminded me of what poor Macnaghten once said to me at Ootacamund. " Ricketts," he said, "has excuses which Colebrook and others have not had. For he is really so great a fool that he can hardly be called a responsible agent." I certainly never knew such an instance of folly as that to which I had just been witness. Had he been a man of common sense and feeling he would have avoided all allusion to India; 01 at any rate would have talked about India only to people who were likely to be unacquainted with his history. If he knew anything about me, he must have known that I was Secretary to the Board of Control when that Board expressed its entire concurrence in the measures taken by the Company against him. Then too the senseless folly of his turning the conversation to the case of Sir Edward Colebrook. To do him justice however he seemed at last to understand what I thought of him, and kept out of my way as carefully as I kept out of his. A dirty dog! But he is not worth any expense of anger. You have so recently been over the ground which I am now traversing that I shall not plague you with my travels. I am in the highest degree delighted with Holland. This afternoon I proceed to the Hague. Pray let me find a letter from you at Antwerp. I shall be there, I hope, this day week, and in London on the 21st. Love to all. Ever yours, TBM stopped his pension, and formally suspended him on 30 June 1834, directing that the dismissal be advertised in 'the most public manner' (Bengal Hurkaru, 10 November 1834). Among other things, it was established that Ricketts had remitted from Lucknow more than the whole of his authorized allowance for the seven years of his residency. 218
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
13 October 1844
TO MRS CHARLES TREVELYAN, 13 OCTOBER
1844
MS: Trinity College. Extract published: Trevelyan, 11, 155-6.
Amsterdam October 13. 1844 Dearest Hannah, I need not write a book of travels for your instruction and amusement, as you have lately gone over the same ground, or rather puddle, over which I am going now. I have been greatly amused and interested, but little surprised. My idea of Holland, formed from books and pictures, was exceedingly like the reality. The number, extent and stateliness of the handsome private mansions has indeed surpassed my expectation, though that was pretty high. The wetness of the soil too is beyond my anticipations. I knew of course that the whole region was low and watery, intersected by natural and artificial rivers and rivulets, and secured against the sea only by embankments. But I was not prepared for such a soaked, rotten, dripping, steaming, spunge of a country. One might as well pass one's life on board of a leaky ship. For in truth the whole kingdom is kept above water only by indefatigible pumping. The endless succession of canals, with mud at the bottom, duck weed at the top, and green trees and red houses on each side is amazing, and indeed at last becomes almost wearisome. The galleries of pictures both at the Hague and here are very good. The best, I think, is that at the King's palace. But, after all, there is nothing in Holland that can stand a comparison with the great works of Rubens at Antwerp. I never found so much comfort in any continental inn, not even at Schneiderff's at Florence, as I have found here and at the Hague. My accommodations have been equal to those of a very good hotel at Brighton or Cheltenham; and the charges have not been by any means exorbitant. I have found the attendance of my Flemish servant a very great convenience. I am surprised to find how easily I make out Dutch. I understand, I think, half the notices and inscriptions that I see in the streets. I went yesterday to the exhibition of modern artists. The catalogue was in Dutch; and I could, with little difficulty, make out the greater part of it. I will give you a few specimens. See if you will be as quick as I was. "Een boomrijk landschap." "Eeen binnenhuis met beelden." "Eeen roofvogel met zijn prooi." " D e boetdoende Majdalene." "Dood gevogelte en vruchten." "Eeen bloemstuk met een doode faisant." "Twee paarden voor een herberg." I really think of giving a few days to learning the language enough for the purpose of reading common books. It will be of great use to me in the history of William the Third and Anne. By the bye, I have been pestered by those Rickettses all the way from 219
25 October 1844
Frances Macaulay
Rotterdam hither, and shall probably be pestered by them the whole way back. We are always in the same inns. We always go to Museums at the same hour; and we have been as near as possible to travelling in the same diligence. I resolutely turn away from the old rogue, and pretend not to see him. He perfectly comprehends my meaning, and looks as if he were in the pillory. But it is not pleasant to have such scenes daily in the presence of his wife and daughter. To morrow I shall go to the Hague, stopping two hours at Leyden by the way. On Tuesday I shall go to Rotterdam, probably by the trekschuit,1 and shall stop an hour at Delft on the way. On Wednesday I shall go by the steamer from Rotterdam to Antwerp; on Thursday to Brussels. Next Sunday I shall spend at Ghent, the Monday after at Bruges. On the evening of Tuesday the 22nd I hope to be in London. I count on rinding a letter from you at Antwerp. I wish that you would on Friday next send a line to the Post Office at Bruges to say how you all are. Love to all. Many, many happy birthdays2 to my little girl. Ever yours T M TO FRANCES MACAULAY, 25 OCTOBER 1844 MS: Huntington Library.
Albany London / October 25. 1844 Dearest Fanny, Thanks for your kind letter. I am not surprised at the admiration which you felt for Edinburgh. I do not suppose that you had ever seen so beautiful a city; - nor indeed have I, though I have seen Genoa and Naples. I shall be delighted to see your journal. I only regret that I was not with you. For you are so good a sight-seer that it is a pleasure to be your Cicerone. I was greatly amused and interested by what I saw of Holland. It is an admirable country to travel in, but must be a vile one to live in. I think that Temple who was long minister there says something to the same effect.3 Whatever is not red brick or white and green paint is mud and duck-weed. You know Voltaire's farewell to the country. Adieu, canaux, canards, canaille.4 It may be very well translated. Farewell, dykes, ducks, and Dutchmen. 1 3
4
2 Canal boat. Margaret's birthday, 14 October. At the end of ch. 4 of his Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands, Temple says of Holland that it is a country ' where a man would chuse rather to travel than to live' (Works, 1814, 1, 150). Attributed to Voltaire by the Baroness d'Oberkirch: see J. Vercruysse, Voltaire et la Hollande, Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, XLVI (1966), 25—6.
22O
Frances Macaulay
25 October 1844
I am glad that you like my paper. As far as I can learn, it is generally popular. The title conferred on Lady Esther Pitt in her own right was Baroness Chatham.I When Pitt afterwards went to the House of Lords he was created Earl of Chatham, so that his wife's title merged in his. I rather expect to be attacked by the descendants of some of those about whom I have written. A son of George Grenville2 and a daughter of Lord Bute3 are still living, both to be sure at an immensely advanced age. The Duke of Grafton's son died while the article was in the press.4 I should not in the least wonder if Basil Montague were to take up the cudgels for his father, — though to be sure the relationship is not one which of itself does much honor to Jemmy Twitcher's morals.5 As to the Duke of Bedford I have said little more about him than Lord John himself had said.6 In one case only I have refrained from speaking out. The truth is that the coalition between Fox and Bute was brought about by Lord Shelburne,7 who acted on that occasion with a perfidy which earned for him the name of Malagrida. I could have told a strange story about that business. But it would have inflicted a cruel wound on Lord Lansdowne who is to the last degree sensitive about his father's character. I therefore suppressed the anecdote altogether. When are you to be in this part of the world again? Can I do anything for you? Love to Charley. Edward, I imagine, is here or coming up directly. I wish that our railway-directors would keep out of hot water. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
2
3 4 5
6
Hester, nee Grenville (1720-1803), wife of William Pitt, was created Baroness Chatham in 1761. Grenville's son still living was Thomas Grenville (1755-1846: DNB), statesman and book collector, whose books now form the Grenville Library in the British Museum. Abraham Hayward wrote to Napier that Sydney Smith * spoke very highly of Macaulay's article, but said that Mr Grenville was very angry at the freedom with which his family and friends were discussed. Sydney ridiculed this sensitiveness — saying it was Mr G's fault to live so long — "According to this, Methuselah might have accused an historian of indelicacy for speaking of people who lived 750 years a g o ' " (4 November [1844]: MS, British Museum). Louisa, Lord Bute's youngest daughter, died unmarried in 1851, aged 94. The fourth Duke of Grafton (1760-1844) died on 28 September. The fourth Earl of Sandwich (see 18 November 1842); Basil Montagu was his illegitimate son. In the introduction to the Correspondence of John, Fourth Duke of Bedford, vol. 2 (see 18 November 1842). TBM said merely that Bedford *had many good qualities of head and heart, and would have been certainly a respectable, and possibly a distinguished man, if he had been less under the influence of his friends, or more fortunate in choosing them' (ER,
7
LXXX,
532).
William Petty (1737-1805: DNB), Lord Shelburne, afterwards first Marquess of Lansdowne; TBM does not mention Shelburne in his account of the coalition between Bute and Henry Fox. The story of Shelburne's perfidy to Fox is not now accepted. 221
22 November 1844
Frances Macaulay
TO FRANCES MACAULAY, 12 NOVEMBER
1844
MS: Trinity College. Extract published: Trevelyan, 11, 381.
Albany Nov 12 / 1844 Dearest Fanny, Thanks for your letter. I fear that we shall not be able to travel together. I shall probably go down for two days into Nottinghamshire1 at the end of the month. I do not much like the prospect; and I shall be impatient to be back. I am working at my history with great satisfaction; and have almost made up my mind to do nothing for the Edinburgh Review till I have brought out at least a volume or two. I find it very pleasant to have a daily literary employment which never presses, and which never ceases. I asked Richard Potter 2 and Baxter3 to breakfast here on Monday. We had a long talk about Charles's pecuniary affairs which are, on the whole, in a very encouraging state. As to railway matters, I am not disposed to take fright. But I shall go on quietly and gradually hedging when I have a good opportunity. Love to Charly, and Edward, if he is with you. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO U N I D E N T I F I E D R E C I P I E N T , 12 N O V E M B E R
1844
MS: Massachusetts Historical Society.
Albany London / November 12. 1844 Madam, The Battle of Ivry and the lines on the Armada are quite at your service. As to the Lays of Ancient Rome, I should be much obliged to you to let me know what extracts you propose to make. It will give me great pleasure to meet your wishes if, after consulting with Mr. Longman, I think that I can with propriety do so. / I have the honor to be, / Madam, Your obedient Servant T B Macaulay 1 2
3
To John Evelyn Denispn's: see 25 November. Potter (1817—92: Boase) was Charles Macaulay's brother-in-law; he later became chairman of the Great Western Railway. Beatrice, one of his nine daughters, became Mrs Sidney Webb. Richard Baxter, of a Manchester merchant family associated with the Potters in business and politics. Baxter, Richard Potter, and TBM were the trustees of the marriage settlement between Charles and Mary Potter Macaulay. 222
Leigh Hunt
19 November 2844
TO LEIGH HUNT, 19 NOVEMBER
1844
MS: Trinity College. Published: Hunt, Correspondence, II, 35-6.
Albany November 19 / 1844 My dear Sir, Thanks for your note and for your very pleasing and interesting little volume.1 I do not know that we differ in judgment about Spenser.2 But there is a liking which does not depend on the judgment. I see Rousseau's genius as clearly as any of his admirers. But he does not attract me. I read Gil Bias once a year: and I do not care if I never see Rousseau's novel again. It is the same with painting. I know that the Raising of Lazarus3 in the National Gallery is a great work; and I partly feel its merit. But I look at it with little or no pleasure, and should be very little concerned if I heard that it was burned. On the other hand there are pictures of much less fame and power which, if I could afford it, I would hang over my fire-place, and look at half an hour every day. So with female beauty. If a man were to say that Mrs. Siddons was not a fine woman, we should think that he must have no eyes. But a man might well say that, though a fine woman, she did not attract him, that she did not hit his taste, and that he liked Miss Foote's or Miss O'Neil's looks better. Just so I say about Spenser. To deny him the rank of a great poet would be to shew utter ignorance of all that belongs to the art. But his excellence is not the sort of excellence in which I take especial delight. I shall be most happy to see you when you are passing by. I had heard of your windfall,4 and heartily rejoiced at the news. Yours very truly T B Macaulay 1 2
3 4
Imagination and Fancy; or, Selections from the English Poets, 1844. Spenser receives the most space and the most enthusiastic remark in Hunt's book: * With the great poet of the Fairy Queen the Editor has taken special pains to make readers in general better acquainted' (Preface). By Sebastiano del Piombo, the first painting acquired for the National Gallery. Sir Percy Shelley gave Hunt a pension of £120 in 1844.
223
[22 November 2S44] TO BENJAMIN HAWES, 1
Benjamin Hawes
[21
NOVEMBER
1844]2
MS: Trinity College.
Athenaeum Dear Hawes, I think with you that an article in the Edinburgh Review on the Irish State trials,3 - popular and not too technical, - might do immense good. Charles Buller is the very man. I have no doubt that Napier would be grateful for a paper from such a hand on such a subject.4 Ever yours T B Macaulay TO J O H N E V E L Y N D E N I S O N , 25 N O V E M B E R
1844
MS: University of Nottingham.
Albany London / November 25. 1844 Dear Denison, Would it be quite convenient to you and Lady Charlotte5 to receive me on Monday next, the first of December?6 On Thursday the fourth I must positively be in London again. I am a good deal mortified at the issue of the American elections.7 If Clay had been chosen we should have been sure of peace with Jonathan during four years. Now I would not give a Pensylvanian bond8 for one chance of avoiding a war. I am vexed too about Everett. He will be recalled, I understand, without delay.9 Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1 (Sir) Benjamin Hawes (1797-1862: DNB\ Whig M.P., 1832-52; Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1846-51; Deputy Secretary for War, 1851-7; Permanent Undersecretary, 1857-62. Hawes was writing to TBM at the instance of Andrew Doyle, editor of the Morning Chronicle, who proposed the topic mentioned in this letter (Doyle to Longman, 22 November: MS, British Museum). 2 A copy of this letter in the Napier papers is enclosed with a letter from Longman to Napier, 22 November 1844; TBM's letter is evidently from the day before. 3 The trial of O'Connell and others, 15 January— 12February 1844, for sedition. O'Connell was convicted and imprisoned, but the judgment was reversed by the Lords in September. 4 No article on the subject appeared in the ER. s Lady Charlotte Cavendish Bentinck (1806-89), a n * ece of Lord William Bentinck, married Denison in 1827. 6 At Ossington, Nottinghamshire. 7 The expansionist Polk defeated Clay. 8 Pennsylvania had repudiated its debts in 1841 and resumed payment in 1845. 9 Though Everett was recalled on the change of administration, the process was slow; he remained Minister until 8 August 1845.
224
Carey and Hart
29 November 2844
TO CAREY AND HART, 29 NOVEMBER
1844
Text: Copy, Harvard University.
Albany London Nov 29 / 1844 Gentlemen, I had great pleasure in making Mr Inman's acquaintance and in sitting to him.1 How he has succeeded with me I am not of course competent to judge. But every body praises his portrait of Mr Wordsworth which I much regret that I have not seen. I never corrected any Speech for Hansard except the following six:2 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
A Speech on the first reform bill in March 1831 A Speech on the passing of the second reform bill in Sept 1831 A Speech on Lord Ebrington's motion in October 1831 A Speech on the second reading of the 3d reform bill in December 1831 A Speech on the India Bill in June 1833 A Speech on the Copy Right Bill in Feb 1841.
None of these Speeches in my opinion deserves to be reprinted. But they stand as they were spoken almost word for word. My other Speeches have no claim whatever on public attention. They are very ill reported. For all the reporters complain that I am the hardest speaker to follow in the whole House of Commons, nor do I believe that they have ever taken down ten lines together verbatim from my lips. If therefore you should think fit to reprint any of these uncorrected Speeches,3 which I own, I should very much regret, you will, I hope, have the goodness to state in the most distinct manner that the reports are imperfect and have never been revised by me. Indeed I persuade myself that the difference between the corrected and uncorrected reports will be perceptible at a glance. /1 have the honor to be Gentlemen Your faithful servant T B Macaulay Messrs Carey & Hart / Phila. 1
2
3
Henry Inman (1801-46), American painter, had been commissioned to paint portraits of TBM, Wordsworth, and Dr Chalmers. The portrait of TBM, engraved by J. Sartain, appears as the frontispiece to TBM's Essays Critical and Miscellaneous (* The Modern British Essayists,' vol. 1), Philadelphia, Carey and Hart, 1847; engraved by A. B. Walter, it is the frontispiece to Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, New and Revised edn., Philadelphia, A. Hart (late Carey and Hart), 1854, vol. 1. The original is in the collection of the University of Pennsylvania. The six that follow are those of 2 March, 20 September, 10 October, and 16 December 1831;10 July (not June) 1833; 5 February 1841. TBM may also have corrected his speech of 5 July 1831 for Hansard: see 6 July 1831. They did not. 225
6 December 2844
Macvey Napier
TO MACVEY NAPIER, 6 DECEMBER
1844
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 476-7.
Albany London / December 6. 1844 Dear Napier, Thanks for your kind letter. I am glad that you have such an abundance of materials for the Review.1 By the bye I hope that you will make your arrangements for some three or four numbers without counting on me. I find it absolutely necessary to concentrate my attention for the present on my historical work. You cannot conceive how difficult I find it to do two things at a time. Men are differently made. Southey used to work regularly two hours a day on the history of Brazil, then an hour for the Quarterly Review, then an hour on the life of Wesley, then two hours on the Peninsular War, then an hour on the Book of the Church. I cannot do so. I get into the stream of my narrative and am going along as smoothly and quickly as possible. Then comes the necessity of writing for the Review. I lay my history aside; and when, after some weeks I resume it, I have the greatest difficulty in recovering the interrupted train of thought. But for the Review I should already have brought out two volumes at least. I must really make a resolute effort. Or my plan will end as our poor friend Mackintosh's ended. My last article, as far as I can learn, has been generally liked here.2 Brougham, I see, has been abusing it and indeed the Review generally, in the Morning Herald.3 But he has found nothing worse to say of it than that the phrase "Pleasant boon-companion,"4 is incorrect. For, says this great master of the language, boon is bon; and bon is pleasant; therefore a pleasant boon-companion is a pleasant pleasant companion, which is a pleonasm. To what degradation spite can reduce very considerable parts. There is however one of his criticisms, not on myself, to the truth of which I cannot help assenting. I was very sorry, I own, to see such a 1 2
3
4
Probably Napier had refused the offer of an article from Buller: see [21 November]. * I saw Sydney Smith yesterday.... He said he preferred the style of Macaulay's last article to all his others because it was more like the language of good conversation' (Abraham Hayward to Napier, 9 December [1844]: MS, British Museum). The Morning Herald-and the style seems certainly Brougham's - describes TBM's article on Chatham as * tawdry' (25 October) and scurrilous (2 November); the criticism that TBM repeats below is from 6 November, when TBM - ' Thomas the Rhymer' — is attacked for exhibiting such a style as Gibbon, Hume, and Robertson would never have used. It was about this time that Brougham was writing a life of Voltaire: 'Macaulay said he wished it was the other way: and that it was Voltaire who was writing the life of Brougham' (Empson to Napier, 30 December [1844]: MS, British Museum). * Sandwich and Rigby were able debaters, pleasant boon companions, dexterous intriguers . . .' (ER,
LXXX, 532).
226
Edward Everett
6 December 2844
paper as that on storms1 within the blue and yellow cover. I hope that there is no danger of our having any more eloquence from the same quarter. Such execrable bombast taints every thing that comes near it. I agree with Lord Dunfermline2 and Stephen in thinking the first article3 excellent. I do not understand why the public does it so little justice. As to the Lord Rectorship, I should of course not refuse it. But I shall take no step whatever relating to it. For God's sake let nothing be done which can in the smallest degree hurt Rutherford's feelings or compromise his interests.4 I found the n o £ at my banker's. All is quite right. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO
EDWARD EVERETT, 6 DECEMBER
1844
MS: Mr Roy Mottahedeh.
Albany Dec 6. 1844 My dear Mr. Everett I will with the greatest pleasure join your party on Tuesday next at ten. Will you breakfast here on Thursday. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO
E D W A R D E V E R E T T , [7 D E C E M B E R
1844]
MS: Massachusetts Historical Society.
Albany / Saturday My dear Mr. Everett, I am very much ashamed to say that I quite forget whether it was for Tuesday or for Wednesday that I accepted your invitation to breakfast next week. A verbal answer by the bearer will be sufficient. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
2 3 4
David Brewster, * Harris on Thunderstorms and Protection from Lightning,' ER, LXXX (October 1844), 444~73James Abercromby. Henry Rogers, * Recent Developments of Puseyism,' ER, LXXX (October 1844), 309-75. Rutherfurd had been elected Lord Rector of Glasgow University on 15 November; TBM succeeded him in 1848.
227
23 December 2844
Lord Palmerston
TO L O R D P A L M E R S T O N , 23 D E C E M B E R
1844
MS: National Register of Archives. Albany London / December 23. 1844 My dear Lord Palmerston, I am sorry to be forced to deny myself the pleasure of a visit to Broadlands.1 I am engaged to pass my holidays, which must be but short, at Bowood. I do not know whether it be true that the ministers mean to send Pottinger2 to Turkey. If he remains here, I should exceedingly like to have him in parliament. I know little of his opinions on general politics. But, as far as I am able to judge, he is a liberal man, and would be with us. He would certainly bring an accession of weight to our side. It is likely, I hear, that a seat will soon be vacant. Hardy, the Tory member for the great manufacturing town of Bradford, is in great danger.3 Should he die, Pottinger, who is now making a triumphal progress through the manufacturing districts, would, I should think, be returned without difficulty, if he would stand. I do not know him well enough to sound him. You will judge whether there is anything in this hint. Ever truly yours T B Macaulay 1 2
3
Palmerston's seat in Hampshire. General Sir Henry Pottinger (1789-1856: DNB), had just returned from China, where he conducted the negotiations leading to the treaty of 1842 and served as first Governor of Hong Kong. Pottinger, who received a hero's welcome in England, had been given a testimonial dinner in London, 11 December, at which Palmerston spoke. Pottinger did not enter Parliament but served as Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, 1846-7, and Governor of Madras, 1847-54. See 7 January 1845.
228
RETURN TO OFFICE AND DEFEAT AT EDINBURGH, 7 JANUARY 1845-30 JULY 1847
1845 February 26 Speech on Sugar Duties - April 14 Speech on Maynooth - April 23 Speech on the Church of Ireland - July 9 Speech on Scottish University Tests - December 2 Speech at Edinburgh on Corn Laws - December 19 Offered cabinet office as Paymaster General, but Russell's effort to form ministry collapses 1846 May 22 Speech on Ten Hours Bill - July 2 Accepts office of Paymaster General in Russell's cabinet - July 14 Re-elected at Edinburgh - September 24 Death of Henry William Macaulay - November 4 Speech at Edinburgh Philosophical Institution 1847 January Moves to new chambers in the Albany - c. January Appointed trustee of the British Museum - April 19 Speech on Education - July 30 Defeated at Edinburgh following dissolution of Parliament; does not resign from office 229
Lord Palmerston
7 January 1S4S
TO LORD PALMERSTON, 7 JANUARY
1845
MS: National Register of Archives.
Albany London / January 7. 1845 My dear Lord Palmerston, Your letter of the 2nd, after chasing me up and down, has at last caught me here. I dare say that Pottinger judges rightly. Hardy, I find, is better, and does not mean to resign his seat. So Guizot has rallied his broken majority, and seems to be as strong as ever.1 I quite agree with you in thinking that it matters little to England whether he stands or falls,2 and that it would be absurd to concede to him anything that would be refused to Thiers or Mole.3 A Jacobin ministry I take to be quite out of the question. And any ministry not Jacobin, I imagine, would act towards England just as Guizot does. I hope that our conduct and language during the next Session will completely do away the notion that we are a war party, and that Peel and Lord Aberdeen stand between the nation and an European war. Unjust as this opinion is, I cannot help seeing that it prevails among a large class of people who are decidedly friendly to our commercial policy and our Irish policy; and I am seriously apprehensive that unless we carefully avoid offending these weaker brethren, there will some day be a very unpleasant schism.4 / Believe me ever Yours most truly T B Macaulay TO L O R D P A L M E R S T O N , 9 J A N U A R Y
1845
MS; National Register of Archives.
Albany London January 9. 1845 My dear Lord Palmerston, Many thanks for your most interesting letter. I agree with almost every word of it. That your foreign policy was energetic and brilliant is allowed even by your detractors. I am firmly convinced that it was also 1
2
3 4
In the first week of the year the Soult-Guizot ministry was in danger, but on 6 January The Times could report that the ministry was 'completely re-established/ The trouble was over the Tahiti affair: see 16 January. Guizot in fact pursued a friendly policy towards England, but Palmerston held that any French government was hostile to England since, he argued, the King and the permanent officials of the French Foreign Office were the real makers of French foreign policy. Louis Mathieu, Comte Mole (1781-1855), Prime Minister, 1836-9, with Thiers the leader of the dynastic opposition in France. Palmerston has endorsed the letter thus: 'real war Party in this Country is present govt who by truckling have led on French off[ice]rs to do things which by speeches from Throne are stated to have placed Peace in Danger/ 231
g January 1845
Lord Palmerston
wise and truly pacific. I concur too in your opinion that we have not, since we were in opposition, done anything to merit the imputation that we are a war party. Nevertheless that imputation, as you are aware, has been thrown on us by the men now in power here, by the French tribune, by the press both of France and of Germany, and perhaps, as you suspect, by intriguers in our own ranks. l It has as you observe found credit with many foolish and ignorant members of our party. I should go farther, and should say that it has found credit with many members of our party who, however unjust and ill informed on this point, cannot be called generally foolish or ignorant. Nobody, I am sure, knows better than yourself that, of all imputations which can be thrown on a body of politicians, that of being a war party is, in the present temper of the public mind, the most damaging. If this be so, we ought, I think, seriously to consider by what means, compatible with the faithful discharge of our duty to our country, we can get rid of this imputation. And indeed to clear ourselves from unjust aspersions and to keep our friends united is a part, and not an unimportant part, of our duty to our country. You will think that I am too much inclined to look at foreign politics with reference to their bearing on domestic politics. The truth is that, with respect to foreign politics properly so called, I should not venture to offer you any advice. For I know that you understand them infinitely better than I. But I have some opportunities of observing the temper of our party both in parliament and out of it. Now the temper of our party is one of the circumstances, though only one of the circumstances, which we ought to consider when we debate questions touching foreign policy. An English statesman cannot take his own way like Richelieu or Alberoni.2 It is to no purpose that he concerts the best plans for the security and glory of the empire, that he sees to the very bottom of the designs of all the courts of Europe, that he knows exactly how far he may safely dare and where it will be prudent to stop, unless he carries with him the parliament and the country. It may be an evil that a man of your eminent capacity for the conduct of great affairs should be under the necessity of consulting the prejudices of people who do not know the difference between the Texas question and the Oregon question, and who confound Doost Mahommed with Mehemet Ali. But this is the price which we pay for the advantages of representative government. It is vain to complain of the stupidity and ignorance of our friends. If they were all as stupid and ignorant as Joseph Hume or Williams of Coventry, it would still be necessary for us to win their confidence, because without that confidence we can effect little or nothing for the public. 1 2
Palmerston believed that Edward Ellice led the * intrigues' against him within the Whig party. Giulio, Cardinal Alberoni (1664-1752), Prime Minister of Spain, 1716-19.
232
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
9 January 1846
I am therefore very deeply mortified when I see indiscretions committed which tend to alienate our friends and to accredit the calumnious assertions of our enemies. The last or almost the last move which we made in the late Session was an indiscretion of this sort. I allude to that unlucky notice given by Shiel. He actually announced his intention to move for a select Committee to inquire into the whole conduct of France with regard to Algeria, and into the effects which such conduct might produce on British interests. If men of distinguished talents, who were in office with us, and who are still closely connected with us, take such steps, how can we wonder that the malicious should call us and the undiscerning think us a war party? I implored Shiel to give up his design, and told him plainly that, if he persisted, I would speak against his motion. He withdrew the notice.1 But it had appeared in the votes, and had done us incalculable harm. Some of our staunchest supporters in the House of Commons were furious. When I was at Edinburgh in the Autumn, the subject was mentioned by several of my most respectable constituents, and always in language indicating great uneasiness. But I must stop; and indeed I ought to ask pardon for my prolixity. I am not aware that your views and mine are at all incompatible. You have certain opinions as to the course which England ought to take in her dealings with foreign powers: and in those opinions I generally concur. But, in order that those opinions may find favour with parliament and with the country, I hold it to be indispensable that we should appear before the public as what we really are, sincere friends of peace. / Ever, dear Lord Palmerston, Yours most faithfully T B Macaulay TO M R S C H A R L E S T R E V E L Y A N , 9 JANUARY
1845
MS: Trinity College. Extracts published: Trevelyan, n, 212-13; 3o6n.
Albany London Jany. 9. 1845 Dearest Hannah, Fanny shewed me yesterday a letter from you. 2 I was much vexed to learn that your head still plagues you. For God's sake take care of yourself; and have the best advice when you return. I am sorry also to find 1
2
On 22 July 1844 Sheil said that he would not move, as announced, for a committee of inquiry into the commercial effects of French action in Africa but would call for papers; in the debate that followed Palmerston spoke on the necessity for naval preparedness (Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXVI, 1192-246). TBM no doubt deplored Sheil's notice as bad party tactics, since the question would reveal division among the Whigs regarding policy towards France. Hannah and Trevelyan were probably at his family hornet n Somersetshire. 233
c) January 2S4S
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
that you are anxious about Georgy. I did not perceive that anything was the matter with him. Fanny brought him and Baba with Charley Cropper to the Albany at one yesterday. I gave them some dinner, fowl, ham, marrowbones, tarts, ice, olives, and Champagne.1 We have an odd companion at table; no other than Mohun Lai,2 who came just as we were going to sit down. The last ten years have changed him so much that I should not have known him in the least. He is positively ugly; and I used to think him good-looking for a Hindoo. He is also marked by small pox; and I did not recollect that he was so in old times. He ate the fowl and drank the Champagne in a way which, if he had any caste to lose, must most effectually have deprived him of every shred. I found it difficult to think of any sight for the children. It was growing dark indeed before we rose from table. However I took them to the National Gallery, and was excessively amused with the airs of connoisseurship which Charley and Baba gave themselves, and with poor Georgy's honestly avowed weariness. "Let us go. There is nothing here that I care for at all." When I put him into the carriage he said half sulkily. "I do not call this seeing sights. I have seen no sight to day." Many a man who has laid out thirty thousand pounds on paintings would, if he spoke the truth, own that he cared for the art as little as Georgy. Charley on the other hand was charmed. How ripe his judgment on such matters is you may judge from his pronouncing that the finest thing in the gallery beyond all comparison was a Canaletti of the grand canal at Venice. Baba shewed her historical knowledge by instantly making out the subject of Rubens's picture of the Romans carrying off the Sabine ladies. I owe poor Georgy another day of sight-seeing. I had a great breakfast-party to day, Hallam, Rogers, Luttrell, Baron Rolfe, Mahon, Glenelg, Milman, etc. We did not break up till one. Then came a knock at the door, and in walked that miserable old charlatan, who, I hoped, had been hanged or guillotined years ago: - you must have heard of him, though I do not think that you ever saw h i m , - Leo,3 a hanger-on of Henry Drummond, a votary of Spurzheim, a compound of all the quackeries, physiological and theological, of half a century. I 1
2
3
Some of these delicacies,1 Trevelyan says, TBM * invariably provided with the sole object of seeing us reject them with contemptuous disgust' (11, 212). Mohan Lai (d. 1870), a Munshi, or interpreter and secretary, in English service. He published a narrative of an expedition into Persia (Calcutta, 1834), and his Life of the Amir Dost Mohammed Khan of Kabul, 2 vols., 1846, is item 499 in the shelf list of TBM's library. Dr Frederick Le*o, a German clergyman familiar in Evangelical circles in the generation of Wilberforce. Zachary Macaulay, in a letter of 1815, speaks of Le"o as engaged in translating for the Bible Society and calls him * vain and egotistical, but a most useful man' (Knutsford, Zachary Macaulay, p. 326). His main work seems to have been in circulating his translations of the New Testament among the French; he claimed to have lost 20,000 francs in this cause by 1820 (J. C—j, 'Report upon the Favorable Disposition of the French Public for the Reception of the Holy Scriptures,' 1820).
234
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
9 January 2S4S
always detested the fellow; but I could not turn him out of the room. For he came up with, "Do you not remember me? You are so like the dear man, Zachary. It was just so that he used to look on me" (I looked, by the bye, as sulky as a bear). "I felt your dear scull when you was a child, and I prophesied that you should be minister of state. Paff! That is demonstration. I keep mine eye on you ever since. Paff! It come true." So I desired the man to sit down, and was as civil as I could be to one whom I knew to be a mere Dousterswivel.1 He then began a long story which I have quite forgot, except that he was in England for the purpose of making phrenological researches. "I hoped," he said, "for your great help. But this very morning, I have seen some phrenologists that told me that you would do me no good." "Pray who were they?" said I. "You shall forgive me. I shall not say the names. But they tell me you shall do me no good." I said with a very bitter smile that they were right, that I was a fixed unbeliever, and that he had nothing to expect from me in that line. Then he told me that he wished for my help in another way. I guessed what he meant, hesitated between five and ten pounds, and was looking for my cheque-book, when he pulled out an odd-looking packet. He had brought with him, he said, a most precious book to sell, an unique, Martin Luther's own psalter, with some notes by Martin's own hand. He had heard that there was some Duke who would give a great deal for it. Would I give him a letter to this Duke? I was glad to get off so cheap. I told him that I did not know to what Duke he alluded, that we had several Dukes bitten with Bibliomania, but that I would give him a letter to Panizzi at the British Museum, and that, if Panizzi did not buy the book, he would at least give a direction to some wealthy amateurs. To say the truth I am by no means satisfied that the book is genuine. Leo is a complete humbug, and is likely enough to have forged the devotional notes which he wants to sell as Luther's. However Panizzi will judge as to that matter. I sent Leo away with a letter of introduction, and hope, from the bottom of my soul, that I have seen the last of him. How I run on. And I could run on an hour longer and over several more sheets. I have had a most curious correspondence with Palmerston; and I received to day a letter from him which, I think, gives a higher idea of his talents than anything that I ever heard or read of his. But this between ourselves-or as I suppose it must be, between you, me, and Trevelyan. Love to him. Kind and civil messages to all. Ever yours TBM 1
The German charlatan in Scott's Antiquary.
2
35
9 January 284S
Anthony Pani^i
TO ANTHONY PANIZZI, 9 JANUARY
1845
MS; British Museum.
Albany Jany. 9 / 1845 Dear Panizzi, A German gentleman named Leo, who knew my father many years ago, has asked me to give him a letter of introduction to you. He is possessed of a very curious book which he wishes to sell, Martin Luther's psalter, with manuscript notes by Martin's own hand. You will be a better judge than I of the genuineness and of the value of such a relique. If you cannot deal, have the kindness to tell the poor man the names of some great Bibliomaniacs, who may be inclined to pay largely for such a rarity.1 Ever yours T B Macaulay TO M R S C H A R L E S T R E V E L Y A N , 13 JANUARY
1845
MS: Trinity College.
Albany London Jany. 13 / 1845 Dearest Hannah, I am delighted to learn that your head has ceased to plague you. On Sunday I hope to see you again. Yesterday I walked to Clapham though the day was detestable, and passed two hours with Fanny and the children. The dear little things are very good and happy. The baby gives many signs of recollecting and wanting you and her Papa. When I was going away yesterday and bade her good bye she called out Mamma, mamma, several times. I believe that she fancied that I was going to you and should bring you back with me. Baba amused me amazingly. She seems to delight in Miss Franks's society out of school hours. This excited some surprise. "Oh," said Baba, "I assure you she drops the Governess." This made us laugh; so Baba went on. "I don't mean that she tolerates any impropriety." Georgy does not seem to me to be much amiss. But I am no great judge. I am overwhelmed with invitations. I do not know when I shall have an evening at home. This day I dine at Lady Holland's to meet Palmerston who is passing through town; - to morrow Mrs. Drummond's; Wednesday Ellis's; Thursday that odd fellow Murchison's;2 for Friday Miss Berry has asked me; but I shall excuse myself. 1 2
This book is not among the collections of the British Museum (information from Miss J. M. Backhouse, British Museum). (Sir) Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871: DNB), in the army until 1814; took up scientific study in 1824 and began producing papers on geology in the next year; elected President of the Geological Society, 1831; of the Geographical Society, 1843; Director of the Geological Survey from 1855; created Baronet, 1866.
236
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
2 3 January 1845
All the world is talking about the 3d and 4th Vols of Lord Malmesbury's Diary and Letters.1 They are amusing and curious in the highest degree, though very little to his honor. The part which most people read with the greatest eagerness is his journal of his mission to the Court of Brunswick in 1795, when he was sent to demand the Princess Caroline in marriage for the Prince of Wales. It is certainly very strange. He gives such a description of the Princess that nobody can wonder at what followed. She was then good looking and good humoured, but coarse to the last degree, a slattern even to such a point as to excite disgust, and in her conversation vulgar and indelicate beyond all belief. She had a tooth drawn while he was at Brunswick, and sent it to Lord Malmesbury as a sort of love-token; for she seems to have been much inclined to flirt with him. The gift however does not seem to have softened his heart. "Nasty creature!" he writes in his journal on this occasion.2 Among other proofs of feminine delicacy, she was very anxious to know what they would do to her if she proved unfaithful to the Prince, and seemed quite taken aback when Lord Malmesbury told her that both she and her lover would be guilty of high treason. George the Fourth had faults enough. But his loathing for such a woman can hardly be reckoned among them. He seems to have taken an unutterable disgust to her from the first moment at which they met. Lord Malmesbury presented her to him at the palace — nobody else, I think, present. After the first salutation, his royal highness called for a glass of brandy, swore at Lord Malmesbury and ran out of the room. The Princess on her side broke out. "Is that the Prince? Does he always behave in that way? What a fat man! How ugly he is!" And so forth. A pretty beginning!3 There is in the 4th Volume, which I value more than the other 3 together, a great deal of curious information about the ministerial revolutions from 1801 to 1807, and many very interesting letters from eminent people, particularly from Canning. Not a word is said about the book at Lady Holland's; and this is the more remarkable because, till it came out, she could talk of nothing else. But there is a single line about herself which makes the whole work an interdicted subject.4 1
2
3
4
Diary and Correspondence of James Harris , First Earl of Malmesbury . . . , edited by His Grandson, the Third Earl, 4 vols., 1844. ' Princess Caroline has a tooth drawn - she sends it down to me by her page - nasty and indelicate' (HI, 201). *"Mon Dieu! est ce que le Prince est toujours comme cela? Je le trouve tres gros, et nullement aussi beau que son portrait"' (in, 218). Malmesbury writes of Lady Holland: * strange woman, sensible, learned, flighty and coquettish - they say not gallant' (in, 19). Lady Holland wrote of this to her son: 'You may be surprised at Ld Malmesbury's grand-son retaining that passage concerning me; & the more so, when you hear that he had sent me a message of enquiry to know whether I should dislike my name being mentioned in a very complimentary manner' (Lord Ilchester, Lady Holland to Her Son, pp. 225-6).
237
16 January 1845
Lord Paimerston
Love to Trevelyan. Kind messages to all. I shall be delighted to have the honor of entertaining Mrs. Trevelyan when she visits London. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO L O R D P A L M E R S T O N , 16 JANUARY
1845
MS: National Register of Archives.
Albany London Jany. 16 / 1845 My dear Lord Palmerston, I rather expected to receive a triumphant letter from you. For to be sure the government makes but a poor figure in the Tahiti correspondence; so poor a figure indeed that I cannot help suspecting Guizot of having suppressed some papers in order to raise his own reputation for spirit at Lord Aberdeen's expence.1 If the whole transaction has been fairly exhibited, I must attribute the conduct of our ministers to the unprotected state of our dockyards. The negligence of the Admiralty is the best plea for the meanness of the Foreign Office. Of course I never meant to recommend a pusillanimous course on any occasion, and least of all on such an occasion as this. I do indeed think that we ought carefully to avoid language which the country would be disposed to condemn as too warlike. But on the Tahiti question the country would have applauded language much stronger, not only than Lord Aberdeen's, but than any which you would have thought it discreet to use. Indeed the excitement was strongest in that sober and quiet class which is generally careless about foreign affairs and conscientiously scrupulous about war. The case would be very different if the question were whether our Consul at Algiers should take out an exsequatur.2 If we were to hold pugnacious language on that question we should be called incendiaries by the very people who were eager for an armed intervention in defence of Queen Pomare. I think that Mole understands this. For his speech3 seems to indicate that, if he becomes minister, he will withdraw altogether from the 1
2
3
England and France had, among other causes of quarrel in 1844, a crisis over Tahiti; the French, after deposing Queen Pomare and after proclaiming their authority over the Society Islands, expelled the former British consul, named Pritchard. The affair was composed when the French agreed to pay an indemnity to Pritchard (from Louis Philippe's private purse) but kept their position in Tahiti. The official correspondence appears in Parliamentary Papers, 1845, LH, 289-93. 'An official recognition of a c o n s u l . . . by the government of the country to which he is accredited, authorizing him to exercise his functions * {Shorter OED). The British government had not yet formally recognized French sovereignty in Algiers. Mold's speech of 13 January attacks Guizot but not the policy of rapprochement with England (The Times, 16 January).
238
Richard Monekton Milnes
23 January 1S4S
Tahitian business, and in return demand from us a recognition of the French authority in Algeria. I cannot help thinking that this would be a very adroit game. France would get rid of an island which must always be a mere plague to her, and yet the national pride of the French would not suffer. And a very large and noisy part of the English people would not only admit the French title to Algiers in order to rescue Tahiti, but would throw Tunis and Morocco into the bargain. But you are a better judge than I whether this is likely to be Mole's plan. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO R I C H A R D M O N C K T O N M I L N E S , 23 J A N U A R Y
1845
MS: Trinity College.
Albany London/Jan 23. 1845 Dear Milnes, I understand that Lord Ashley does not mean to make any motion respecting Indian affairs. What course we shall take is not yet determined, and can scarcely be determined till the Session opens. That there should be any division on the address seems almost impossible. Your own political friends however are better able than I can be to advise you as to your motions.1 I am sorry to hear so bad an account of the temper of the Prussians.2 Here we are tolerably quiet. Railways and surplices are the only matters that agitate the country. The Board of Trade is besieged by speculators, and Puseyite parsons, dressed in fine white linen, are hooted and pelted every week down the High Street of Exeter.3 We seem therefore to be serving both God and Mammon with vigour. Yours ever T B Macaulay 1
2
3
Milnes was still officially a Tory, but he came over to the Whigs in the next year. He did not bring up any motions in the coming session. In December 1844 Milnes began a visit to Berlin, where he found political reaction and unrest: see James Pope-Hennessy, Monckton Milnes: The Years of Promise, 1809-i85i, 1949, ch. 10. Large mobs hooted the minister of St Sidwell's, Exeter, on 12 and 19 January in the socalled * surplice riots.'
239
4 February 2S4S
George Henry Lewes
TO GEORGE HENRY LEWES, 1 4 FEBRUARY
1845
MS: Yale University.
Albany February 4. 1845 My dear Sir, One line more, positively the last, as the play bills say. I do not think that you quite take Plutarch's meaning. You observe that a physician would not be likely to dance. Certainly not: and that is exactly what Plutarch says. I understand him thus. A friend, he tells us, may be under the necessity of administering reproof. But he should reprove without insult, acrimony, or sarcastic display of wit; just as a surgeon, when he has to make an incision, makes it with exquisite nicety and delicacy, and does not flourish his weapon and lay about him like a man dancing a slashing sword-dance.2 This illustration, if I am not much mistaken, is quite in Plutarch's manner. I see no reason for thinking that Qpyr\o\^ in either of the two passages which you quote from Athenaeus,3 means gesticulation without dancing. Why do you, in the first passage, translate TOC Trp&yiicrrcx the whole play?4 The meaning is that Telestes danced in the Chorus of the STTTCC with such exquisite skill that his movements conveyed to the spectators a notion of all the emotions which the odes were intended to express. Read the first Chorus: and I think that you will agree with me that there never was a composition which would harmonize better with pantomimic dancing of a high order. Terrified women, in their agitation, wring their hands and run about with the noise of the battle in their ears, anticipating all the horrors of a sack. They fly from the shrine of one God to that of another, cling at one time to the statue of Mars, at another to that of Minerva. Indeed that the Chorus must have moved to and fro about the 1
2
3 4
Lewes (1817—78: DNB), a man of many professions — literary, philosophical, theatrical, and scientific — is now best remembered as George Eliot's * husband' and literary counsellor from 1854 until his death. This letter discusses some points of evidence for the argument that Lewes had used in his article 'Was Dancing an Element of the Greek Chorus?* (Classical Museum, 11 [1845], 344-67), in which he asserted that dancing was no part of Greek tragedy and that * whenever you meet with the word 6pxt|<ns applied to the tragic chorus, you must translate it by gesticulation, not by dancing' (p. 358). Plutarch, 'De Adulatore et Amico,' 27: 'Just as a certain orderliness and neatness should pervade the work of a surgeon when he performs an operation, but his hand should forbear all dancing and reckless motions, all flourishes and superfluity of gesticulation . . .' (Loeb Library translation). Lewes does not refer to this passage in his article, but he cites it in an undated letter to Bulwer-Lytton, saying that it 'settles the question of 6pxr|cns being gesticulation' (information from Professor Gordon S. Haight). Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, 1, 22 and 21 (Classical Museum, 11, 357-8). Lewes translates 1, 22, thus: 'Telestes Aeschylus' dancer was so accomplished in his art, that in dancing the Seven against Thebes, he made the whole play intelligible by his dancing* (ibid, 357). 240
Unidentified Recipient
4 February 2845
stage on this occasion, whatever they did ordinarily, is clear from the mere perusal of the text. I must have done. Very truly yours T B Macaulay TO U N I D E N T I F I E D R E C I P I E N T , 4 F E B R U A R Y
1845
MS: Liverpool City Library.
Albany London / February 4. 1845 My Lord, I beg you to accept my thanks for your present. The only fault which I have to find with your pleasing and interesting Leaves is that there are not more of them. I shall value them both for their own sake and for the sake of the giver. / I have the honor to be, / My Lord, Your faithful Servant, T B Macaulay TO J. F. MACFARLAN, 8 FEBRUARY 1845 Text; Scotsman, 15 February 1845.
Albany, London, Feb. 8, 1845. My Dear Sir, I shall, of course, present the petition on an early day. l You will have seen what passed between Sir Robert Peel and me in the House on Thursday. 2 My own strong impression, which is shared by others in whose judgment I place very much confidence, is, that the Ministers are going to impose some restrictions on your banks, but that they are not going to do away with the small-note circulation. Nevertheless, you will act wisely in meeting, remonstrating, and petitioning as vigorously as if you were sure that the measure in contemplation would be everything that you dread. Ever yours truly, T. B. Macaulay. 1
2
A petition from the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce against any change in the system of Scottish banking; TBM presented it on the n t h . TBM asked whether the government planned any measure * affecting the 1 £. note currency of Scotland' but Peel refused to explain his intentions until the measure was brought before the House (Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXVII, 165-6): see 18 April.
241
20 February 2845
Unidentified Recipient
TO UNIDENTIFIED RECIPIENT, 20 FEBRUARY
1845
MS: Trinity College.
Albany London / February 20. 1845 My dear Sir, I have spoken to Bethune1 about the residence of candidates for the degree of M.D. He assures me that all will be found quite right. As soon as the day for the second reading is fixed, or perhaps even earlier, it will be very desirable that the representatives of the Scotch medical bodies should be in London. Every Scotch member ought to be at his post. I do not much expect that the second reading will take place before Easter.2 / Believe me, / My dear Sir, Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 22 FEBRUARY
1845
MS: British Museum. Published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 482-3.
Albany London / February 22. 1845 Dear Napier, Till I received your letter this morning I had not the slightest notion that any paragraph respecting my connection with the Edinburgh Review had appeared in the Athenaeum.3 I am much vexed by the occurrence, for which however I am not in the least responsible. I never, except to very particular friends, talk about my own writings or literary projects, unless I am absolutely forced to do so. I have told two or three people who wanted me to review their works that it would be out of my power to do anything of that kind for some months. And hence I suppose has arisen the report which the Athenaeum has given to the public. I own that I am more and more convinced of the wisdom of my resolution. If I had not taken that resolution my history would have perished in embryo like poor Mackintosh's. As soon as I have finished my first two volumes I shall be happy to assist you again. But when that will be 1
2
3
TBM's friend from Trinity and the Northern Circuit, John Drinkwater, now Drinkwater Bethune, was counsel to the Home Office and thus concerned with the Medical Bill. In view of the strong opposition excited by his Medical Bill (see 4 September 1844) Graham had framed a new bill that he introduced on 25 February; it made various concessions but retained the main features of the first bill. It had its second reading on 25 April, but was so much altered in committee that Graham at last dropped it. * Mr. Macaulay, it is understood, intends devoting his leisure for the next two years, to the completion of his History of the Revolution of 1688 - and in consequence, the Edinburgh will be deprived of his contributions during that period' (Athenaeum^ 15 February 1845, p.
172).
242
James Tod
24 February 1845
it is difficult to say. Parliamentary business at present prevents me from writing a line. I am preparing for Lord John's debate on sugar1 and for Joseph Hume's debate on India; 2 and it is one of my infirmities - an infirmity, I grieve to say, quite incurable - that I cannot earnestly and heartily apply my mind to several subjects together. When an approaching debate is in my head, it is to no purpose that I sit down at my desk to write history; and I soon get up again in disgust. I am truly concerned to learn that you are uneasy about your health. I hope however that on this subject your friends are better judges than yourself. They assure me that you are, to all outward appearance, extremely well. Nothing would give me more pleasure than to see you here in the spring and to be able to consult you on some points on which I greatly need good literary counsel. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO J A M E S T O D , 3 24 FEBRUARY
1845
MS: National Library of Scotland.
Albany, London / February 24. 1845 Sir, If the government should propose a grant to the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, I shall be most happy to give you my best support.4 You are probably aware that no individual member can, without the consent of the Crown, make any such motion. I will consult my friend and colleague Mr. Craig as to the course which it may be expedient for us to take respecting the subject of your memorial. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your faithful Servant, T B Macaulay 1
2
3
4
TBM's speech on this question, 26 February (Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXVII, 1288-1306), was reprinted in Edinburgh, and is included in Speeches, 1853. Hume had given notice of a motion respecting the recall of Lord Ellenborough but first postponed and then abandoned it. Tod (d. 1858), Writer to the Signet, was Secretary of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts; he had written to ask TBM's support for the Society's memorial (next note). The Society sent a memorial to Peel on 21 February asking for money but without success (MS draft, National Library of Scotland).
243
[J March 2S45]
William Ewart Gladstone
TO WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, [I MARCH
1845]
MS; British Museum.
Albany Saturday My dear Sir, I do not in the least question the accuracy of your statement.1 In truth I have no interest in questioning it. For I would much rather have the benefit of your assistance than succeed in convicting you of having contradicted yourself. I did not on Wednesday refer to any particular speech lately delivered by you as inconsistent with the speech of 1833. But I certainly did suppose that you considered yourself as solidaire for doctrines which the Cabinet has repeatedly and emphatically proclaimed respecting an important question in your own department. I am truly glad to find that I was wrong, and that you agree with me as to the futility of an argument which has produced much effect on the public mind, which is constantly in the mouths of those with whom you generally act, and which the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the day before yesterday, put forward as constituting the main strength of his case.2 I need not say, I am sure, that when, in the House, I disclaimed all intention of imputing insincerity to you, I was not merely using the language of parliamentary courtesy.3 I perfectly acquit you, and always have acquitted you, of that charge. That your opinions have received a bias from your own connections and interests is a charge of a very different kind, and one which ought not to wound your feelings. If you retort it on me, I shall not be offended. I never happened to fall in with a Lancashire manufacturer who was not for a free trade in corn, or with a Lincolnshire squire who was not for protection. How is it possible for me to doubt that the views of both are coloured by their interests. Yet I call 1
2
3
In his speech on the sugar duties, Wednesday, 26 February, TBM, in ridiculing the inconsistency with which the government applied its sanction against slave-grown produce, singled out Gladstone for special attention. In the debates on the abolition bill of 1833, he recalled, Goulburn and Gladstone, both West Indian proprietors, defended the slave interest; now that the West Indian slaves were freed they defended free labor: * Inconstant in everything else, they are constant in demanding protection for the West Indian planter' {Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXVII, 1306). He quoted from Gladstone's speech of 3 lune 1833 {Hansard', 3rd Series, xvm, 333) to the effect that slave labor was no more destructive than factory labor in England and that the question of emancipation should be left to the West Indian legislatures. At this point Gladstone interrupted: 'Really, I never said so. You are not quoting me at all correctly' (ibid., LXXVII, 1305). After TBM sat down Gladstone denied that he now represented slave labor as worse than he had done in 1833. Not the day before yesterday (the 27th) but the 26th, the same day as that on which TBM spoke in the debate. The peroration of Goulburn's speech is an appeal to the anti-slavery principle of the Biitish people (ibid., 1260-1). ' I do not question their sincerity; but I know that the most honest men are but too prone to deceive themselves into the belief that the path towards which they are impelled by their own interests and passions is the path of duty' (ibid., 1305).
244
Thomas Flower Ellis
10 March 2845
neither squire nor manufacturer dishonest. On the contrary I firmly believe that each of them thinks that the public interest coincides with his own. / Believe me, / My dear Sir, Yours very truly T B Macaulay P.S. I went out of town on Thursday afternoon and did not find your letter till late yesterday night.
TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 10 M A R C H
1845
MS: Trinity College. Albany London / March 10. 1845 Dear Ellis, I feel for you more than I can tell you; — not that I infer from your letter that there is any reason for serious apprehension about either of the invalids.1 But I know by experience that, in such cases, the anxiety is out of all proportion to the risk. It is to no purpose that a man repeats to himself that the chances are immensely in his favour when the stake is so desperately high. Let me know how things go on. I hope for a better account very soon. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO L A D Y C H A R L E V I L L E , 2 12 M A R C H
1845
MS: University of Nottingham.
Mr. Macaulay extremely regrets that it will be out of his power to have the honor of waiting on Lady Charleville this day fortnight, as he expects to be then out of town. 3 Albany / March 12. 1845 1 2
3
Probably one of them was Ellis's son Henry: see 22 May. Harriet Charlotte Campbell (d. 1848), daughter of Lady Charlotte Bury: * a very handsome woman, and somewhat loose, but as she is dying of consumption, we will spare her' (Thomas Creevey, October 1834: quoted in GEC). Lord Charleville (1801-51) was Tory M.P., 1826-35, and a representative peer, 1838—51. TBM made an Easter tour with the Trevelyans (see to Ellis, 24 March); but Easter Sunday was the 23rd, and he was back in town on the 24th.
245
[i5 March 2845] TO L O R D M A H O N , [15
Lord Mahon M A R C H 1845]1
MS: Stanhope Papers, Chevening.
Albany Saturday Dear Lord Mahon, Look over the accompanying list,2 and tell me what you think of it. All the figures will suit the architecture well; and there will be room for much variety in the costume. The names are all great names. You will observe that I have introduced all the noblemen who have governed England as protectors during a minority, and this I think is rather an advantage. It is also an advantage, I think, that the list includes the lineal ancestors of the two first Dukes, Norfolk and Somerset, of the premier Marquess, Winchester, and of the first Earl who signs the roll as an Earl, Lord Shrewsbury. It includes also the ancestor of one of the noblest Scottish families. No Irish name occurs to me. For as to Strongbow and De Burgh, the mention of their names would be offensive to our Irish colleague.3 [no signature] Peers of the Blood Royal* 1. Edward the Black Prince 2. John of Gaunt 3. Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, Protector of the Realm 4. John Duke of Bedford, Regent Spiritual Lords 5. Cardinal Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury 6. William of Wykeham, Lord High Chancellor and Bishop of Winchester 7. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Lord High Chancellor and Archbishop of York 8. Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury Temporal Peers not of the Blood Royal 9. Robert Fitzwalter, Marshal of God and Holy Church 10. William Mareschal Earl of Pembroke, Protector of the Realm 11. Simon de Montfort Earl of Leicester 1 2
4
Mahon*s endorsement. Of names proposed as subjects for statues to be placed in the Chamber of the House of 3 Lords. Thomas Wyse, Catholic M.P. for Waterford. The list is a copy by Mahon, endorsed: * Copy of Mr. Macaulay's inclosure March 15. 1845: for the 18 niches in the new H. of Lords.' The list that was finally carried out is, for reasons explained in to Mahon, 24 March, based on a different principle and restricted to the barons of Magna Carta. 246
Thomas Flower Ellis 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.
24 March 2S4S
John Chandos, Lord Chandos John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury Richard Nevile, Earl of Warwick Thomas Howard, second Duke of Norfolk William Paulet Lord High Treasurer, first Marquess of Winchester Edward Seymour first Duke of Somerset Protector of the Realm James Stuart, Earl of Moray, Regent of Scotland
TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 24 M A R C H
1845
MS: Trinity College. Albany London / March 24. 1845 Dear Ellis, I am truly glad that your troubles are so well over. When do you come back to London? I have just returned from a short tour with Trevelyan and his wife. We saw Salisbury, Wilton, Stonehenge, and Winchester. I was very much pleased. I am now quietly at my desk again. What you say about Lord Ellenborough is perfectly true. But I can do no more than I have done.1 To be dragged through dirt by others is among the many inconveniences which no man who meddles with politics can wholly avoid. Happily I have other pursuits in which success or failure depends on my self alone. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO L O R D M A H O N , [24 M A R C H 1845]2 MS: Stanhope Papers, Chevening.
Albany Monday Dear Lord Mahon, Your note of Thursday followed me into Wiltshire. I would follow your advice, but for a conversation which I had with Barry just before I left town, and which has thrown all my notions into confusion. He wants, besides the eighteen statues, ninety six figures painted on glass for the 1
2
Empson wrote to Napier, 4 February, that * Macaulay will evidently give Ellenborough time to take the initiative on his Indian Administration* (MS, British Museum). But the Whigs had no intention of raising the question of Ellenborough's Indian policy and left the subject alone, even though on 17 March Ellenborough had angrily challenged Lord Campbell to do his worst (Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXVIII, 949). Endorsed by Mahon: 'Reed. March 26. 1845': Monday was 24 March. 247
9-2
24 March 1S4S
J. F. Macfarlan
decoration of the House of Lords.1 There are to be twelve windows; and in each he proposes to introduce eight heads. I have begged him to explain this fully in time for our next meeting, and he has promised to do so. If we are to have a hundred and fourteen portraits in the House of Lords alone, it will be necessary to go to work in a very different way from that in which we have hitherto proceeded. Ever yours T B Macaulay
T O J. F. M A C F A R L A N ,
24
MARCH
1845
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library.
Albany London / March 24. 1845 Dear Sir, When the house reassembles,2 I will present the petition against the privileges of incorporated trades.3 There can be no doubt that you are right in principle. I have not heard a word on the subject till now, and am really not aware to what extent the grievance is practically felt by the people of Scotland. I should be glad to be better informed. As to Lord Campbell's bills,4 the Lord Advocate assures me that we may be easy; and I repose confidence in him. For I see that he is alive to the importance of the subject; and he has no party motive for suffering an error of Campbell's to pass unchallenged. But I will keep my eye on the bills. I am glad that you thought my arguments on the Sugar question5 satisfactory. Very truly yours T B Macaulay 1 2 3
4
5
See 2 May 1845. Parliament adjourned for the Easter holidays, 20-31 March. The exclusive trading rights of guilds and incorporated societies in Scotland were under attack; a bill abolishing their privileges was passed in the next session. Campbell introduced a series of bills in the Lords on 3 February to allow courts in England, Scotland, and Ireland uniform authority to serve processes on absent debtors; they got through the Lords but were dropped in the Commons. The speech of 26 February: see [1 March].
248
Edward Everett
4 ^pril 1S4S
TO EDWARD EVERETT, 4 APRIL
1845
MS: Massachusetts Historical Society.
Albany April 4. 1845 Dear Mr. Everett, I am truly sorry that I am engaged to dinner on the 16th. If I can, I will call in the evening. Could you breakfast here next Wednesday morning at ten? Ever yours T B Macaulay TO [ D R J O H N L E E ] , 7 A P R I L
1845
MS: National Library of Scotland.
Albany April 7. 1845 Sir, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter and of the petition of the Senatus Academicus. The second reading of the Medical Bill has, in consequence of the press of business, been deferred. I shall therefore, with your permission, defer the presenting of the petition. I have observed that petitions, particularly those of bodies so respectable as the University of Edinburgh, produce most effect when they are laid on the table just before the debate to which they have reference.I j I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your faithful Servant T B Macaulay P.S. Pray has not the Senatus Academicus a common seal? As the petition now stands, it will be entered in the journals as your private and individual petition. It would be much better that it should bear the seal of the University. 1
The Reports of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Public Petitions, 1845 (House of Lords Record Office), a comprehensive listing, have no record of this petition.
249
y April 184S
J. F. Macfarlan
TO J. F. MACFARLAN, 7 APRIL
1845
Text: Maggs Brothers Catalogue 551, Christmas 1930, item 2118.1
[London] The medical bill has been postponed in consequence of the press of business. There will be ample time for considering the details of the measure. I do not apprehend that the bill will in the least interfere with the power of your Senatus Academicus to exact any qualifications, however high and rare, for a degree. A minimum will be fixed. But if you determine that nobody shall be an M.D. who cannot dispute on medical questions in Sanscrit, it will be perfectly within your competence to do so.
TO A D A M BLACK, 8 A P R I L
1845
Text: Scotsman, 23 April 1845.
Albany, London, April 8, 1845. My Dear Lord,2 The two petitions have arrived safe, and shall be duly presented.3 I will attend to the suggestion respecting the Medical bill. You are well aware that my opinion about the grant to Maynooth is very different from that of the majority of the Town Council.4 I am truly sorry that I should be unable to agree with gentlemen whom I so much respect; but I must act according to my own views of my duty and of the public interest. Ever, my dear Lord, yours very truly, T. B. Macaulay. 1 2 3 4
This extract, undated in Maggs' catalogue 551, reappears in their catalogue 586, Summer, 1933, where it is dated 7 April 1845. Black was now Lord Provost. At its meeting of 25 March the Town Council voted to petition against the Maynooth grant and in favor of Graham's medical bill. The Maynooth bill proposed to triple the annual grant to the Irish Roman Catholic seminary at Maynooth and to give £30,000 for rebuilding the college. It raised a frantic opposition from all Protestant quarters, produced a blizzard of petitions, and caused Gladstone's resignation, but was carried by large majorities. TBM spoke for the bill on its second reading, 14 April, calling Maynooth, a * miserable Dotheboys Hall' and describing the opposition thus: 'The Orangeman raises his howl, and Exeter-hall sets up its bray, and Mr. M'Neile is horror-stricken to think that a still larger grant is intended for "the priests of Baal" at the table of "Jezebel"' {Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXIX, 657). These words (which are somewhat revised in the authorized Speeches) were not forgiven him in Edinburgh. 250
Edward Everett
15 April 1845
TO [EDWARD EVERETT], 15 APRIL
1845
MS: Massachusetts Historical Society.
Albany April 15/1845 My dear Sir, I shall have very great pleasure in breakfasting with you on Saturday. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S L O N G M A N , 16 A P R I L
1845
MS: Longman Group Ltd.
Albany April 16 / 1845 Dear Mr. Longman, I am truly sorry that this interminable debate1 will prevent me from having the pleasure of dining with you. Having made an attack on the ministers,2 I must in decency be present when they reply to it. Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO J. F. M A C F A R L A N , 18 A P R I L
1845
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library.
House of Commons / April 18. 1845 My dear Sir, As to the Privileges of the Trades, it is as I told you. The information which you want is not to be had, except through the medium of a parliamentary committee or of a Royal Commission. The Lord Advocate says, what indeed I knew before, that the government has not the returns required, and has no legal means of getting at them. I regret this the less because I think, as I told you, that the subject is already ripe for legislation.3 I agree in the main with the resolution of the Scotch Lords and Members of Parliament; though I think it a bad practice to resolve that any system cannot be altered for the better, before you have heard what alteration is proposed, and what reasons are assigned for that alteration.4 1
On the Maynooth question. In his speech of the 14th TBM attacked Peel for the inconsistency and irresponsibility of 3 his policy on the Catholic question. See to Macfarlan, 24 March. * A meeting in London on 16 April of' Scotch Lords and gentlemen' on the banking question resolved 'to resist any change whatever from the present system' {Scotsman, 26 April). TBM is a bad prophet in this letter. On 25 April Peel outlined a scheme designed to secure greater uniformity between English and Scottish banking in the control of currency; the bill subsequently brought in was quickly passed and received the royal assent on 21 July. 2
251
18 April 1845
David Maclagan
My own impression is that, in the very disturbed state into which the parliament and the country have been thrown by the Maynooth question, Sir Robert Peel will not be disposed to meddle with the Scotch banks. I think - but this is merely my own opinion, - that you are safe for this Session. I shall be truly glad to hear from you about the Poor's Bill.1 Ever yours faithfully T B Macaulay TO D A V I D MACLAGAN, 18 A P R I L
1845
MS: University of Kansas.
House of Commons April 18 / 1845 Dear Dr. Maclagan, Thanks for your friendly letter. How things may go at the next election I cannot guess. But I will take care that, whether I am victorious or vanquished, those who, like you, have honored me with their esteem shall have no reason to blush for me. These disputes about Maynooth have adjourned the medical bill, I fear, sine die. Some time in June we may perhaps get to the second reading.2 I have never forgotten your wishes about your son, though you may perhaps have thought so. But, having tried all the Directors whom I could address twice round, I have thought it best to remain quiet for a time. At present indeed I must remain quiet. For till Hume's motion about Lord Ellenborough's recall is decided,3 there are many public and private reasons which prevent me from asking anything of the Directors. When that question is disposed of, I will try my chance again. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1
Relief in Scotland had been the business of the Established Church, but the disruption made the old system unworkable. The government proposed a new Scotch Poor Law on the English model, whose main innovation was the legal right of the poor to relief and which provided a central authority in place of the Church.
2
See 20 February. See 22 February.
3
252
Unidentified Recipient
30 April 1846
TO U N I D E N T I F I E D R E C I P I E N T , 30 A P R I L
1845
MS: Mr F. R. Cowell. Albany London / April 30. 1845 Sir, Whatever the merits of Mr. Chadwick's plan1 may be, it is a plan which ought to be introduced with the utmost caution and delicacy, and which, if brought forward in the way in which he would bring it forward, would excite, I firmly believe, one of the most terrible storms that we have ever witnessed. At present every house in London where a death takes place is visited by females called searchers who make some inquiry as to the cause of the decease. Out of London, I believe, no such practice exists. The investigation is performed in a very superficial manner. The sex of the searchers prevents all objection on the ground of female delicacy. Yet even so these visits are, as I know, held in abhorrence by many people. Mr. Chadwick, if I understood him rightly, wishes to subject every corpse in the kingdom to the examination of a medical officer of the government. This may be an excellent measure in itself. But it is an innovation which, unless the public mind be prepared for it by long discussion, will be to the last degree unpopular. That a functionary should be entitled to knock at the door of every house of mourning, just at the moment when misery is most acute and when the minds of the sufferers are most irritable and unreasonable, and to insist on satisfying himself by ocular inspection as to the maladies of the sister, the daughter, or the wife who has just expired, is a proposition against which a vast mass of prejudice will be arrayed. And I do not apprehend that the prejudice will be less strong because the proposition is made by the present Home Secretary at the suggestion of the Secretary to the Poor Law Commission. Thinking thus of Mr. Chadwick's plan, I need hardly say that I should most strongly object to the introduction of this plan into the Medical Bill.2 1
2
(Sir) Edwin Chadwick (1800-90: DNB), Benthamite creator of the English public health system; he was Poor-Law Commissioner, 1832-4, Secretary to the Commission, 183446, and Commissioner of the Board of Health, 1848—54, an organization that his own reports on the health of towns had done much to establish. Chadwick, one of the heroes of Victorian reform, had the tactless and quarrelsome nature of the zealot; it is clear that TBM, in common with most of those who had anything to do with him, disliked Chadwick. The 'plan' discussed in this letter was the proposal made by Chadwick in his report on 'The Practice of Interment in Towns* {Parliamentary Papers, 1843, xn, 395—681) to institute a corps of health officers whose business would be ' the verification of the fact and cause of death, and its due civic registration' (561). The general intention was to turn the whole supervision of burial over to the government. Chadwick's plan does not appear among the original provisions of Graham's medical bill nor in the amendments as recorded in Parliamentary Papers, 1845, iv, 485—530. It was embodied in a bill introduced in the next session but not proceeded with. 2
53
30 April 1845
Sir James Forrest
It would be a most eccentric and a most indiscreet course to make such a measure as Mr. Chadwick contemplates a mere parenthesis in a law which aims at quite different objects. Whether his scheme be good or bad, it is new; it is of high importance; it interests every family in the kingdom; and it surely ought to be brought before parliament with ample notice and in the most solemn manner, and not tacked to a measure much less important than itself. I have not the slightest doubt that, if Mr. Chadwick's advice should be followed, the fate of the Medical Bill is sealed. I do not entertain any fears for the University of Edinburgh. At the same time I am inclined to think that a concise answer to Quain's pamphlet1 might be useful at this conjuncture. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your faithful Servant T B Macaulay TO S I R JAMES F O R R E S T , 30 A P R I L
1845
Text: Scotsman, 3 May 1845.
Albany, London, April 30, 1845. My Dear Sir, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, and of the accompanying document.2 I have no apologies or retractions to make. I have done what I believed and believe to be right. I have opposed myself manfully to a great popular delusion. I shall continue to do so. I knew from the first what the penalty was; and I shall cheerfully pay it.3 / I have the honour to be, / My Dear Sir, Your faithful servant, T. B. Macaulay. 1
2
3
Richard Quain,' Observations on the Education and Examination for Degrees in Medicine, as Affected by the New Medical B i l l . . . , ' 1845. Quain (1800-87: DNB) was Professor of Clinical Surgery, University College, London; his pamphlet is an attack on the low standards of medical education in Scotland and on Graham's bill for accepting them. An address from 'about a thousand electors* {Scotsman, 3 May) deploring TBM's vote for the Maynooth grant, calling the measure ' sinful and unconstitutional' and threatening that * we cannot possibly vote for any one at a subsequent election by whom such a measure will not be strenuously opposed' (Scotsman, 16 April). Two days after this letter was written, an anti-Maynooth delegation called on TBM in London. Their reception was later described at a public meeting in Edinburgh by the Reverend Mr Robertson: 'We were introduced, and on the conversation being started by one of our number, the member immediately took it up, and poured out one ceaseless stream of words, clear and beautiful in its flow. We waited for a time, like the clown in Horace, expecting the river to run past; but at length we found it necessary to obstruct the torrent, and this, at intervals, was the policy I found it necessary to pursue during the whole course of the interview. Mr Macaulay, as we expected, declared that he would vote for the grant at all hazards' (Scotsman, 11 June).
254
Lord Mahon TO L O R D M A H O N , 2 MAY
2 May 1S4S 1845
MS: Stanhope Papers, Chevening. Albany May 2. 1845 Dear Lord Mahon, I have been put on a railway committee which will require my daily attendance.1 It will therefore be impossible for me to be at Gwydir House2 on Monday. I send you a paper containing what has occurred to me. You will, I have no doubt, be able to make great improvements in my list.3 But you will find that there are considerable difficulties in our task. It is not enough to select ninety six good names. Those names must divide into good groups of eight each. You must not put man and wife into different windows, or English and Scotch into the same window. While your Kings and Queens stand lovingly side by side all is well. But an old bachelor like William Rufus or an old maid like Elizabeth throws everything into confusion. You must leave somebody out or bring somebody in to restore the balance, and that speedily; or the figures will stand in most unmatrimonial order. Thus I was forced to leave out Philip; or the seventh window would have stood as follows Elizabeth of England Robert Bruce Elizabeth De Burgh (Robert's Queen) David II Joanna of England (David's Queen) Robert II and so on. In the tenth window I inserted, with many misgivings, Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia, the root of the Hanoverian family, as a counterpoise to her brother Henry. Otherwise the window would have stood thus Henry Prince of Wales Henrietta Maria Katherine of Braganza Anne Hyde
Charles I Charles II James II William III
You will see that as I have arranged the names, the six right hand windows will contain English princes from the Conquest to the Union of the 1
2 3
TBM was chairman of the committee appointed to report on the group of railway bills designated *N f ; it sat for nineteen days beginning on 5 May and made its last report on 10 July {Parliamentary Papers, 1845, xxxvi, 115). In Whitehall, where the Fine Arts Commissioners held their meetings. The list enclosed with the letter is of subjects for the portraits of kings and queens in the stained glass windows of the Chamber of the House of Lords. TBM's list was almost exactly followed (see [6? May]), but the windows, designed by Pugin, were destroyed by blast in World War 11 and have been replaced by windows of different design. 2
55
Lord Mahon
2 May 1845
Crowns. On the left hand the three first windows will contain Scottish princes from Robert Bruce to the Union of the Crowns, and the three last will contain British Princes since the Union of the Crowns. I left out the Queen of George the First, who was divorced before he became King of England, and was never prayed for or recognised in any public instrument. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay Window 1 William the Conqueror William Rufus Matilda (Queen of Henry Beauclerc) Stephen
Matilda of Flanders Henry Beauclerc The Empress Matilda Matilda of Boulogne
11
Henry II Richard I
Eleanor of Aquitaine Berengaria Isabella of Angouleme Eleanor of Provence
John Henry III in Edward I Edward II Edward III The Black Prince
Eleanor of Castile Isabella Philippa The Damsel of Kent IV
Richard II Henry IV Henry V Henry VI
Anne Mary Bohun Katherine Margaret of Anjou V
Edward IV Edward Prince of Wales (Son of Henry VI) Richard III Henry VII
Elizabeth Edward V Anne Elizabeth 256
2 May
Lord Mahon VI
Arthur Prince of Wales Henry VIII Jane Seymour Mary
Katherine of Aragon Anne Boleyn Edward VI Elizabeth VII
Robert Bruce David II Robert II Robert III
Elizabeth De Burgh Joanna Elizabeth Annabella VIII
David Duke of Rothsay James I James II James III
Marjory Douglas Joanna Mary of Guelders Margaret of Denmark IX
James IV James V Mary James VI
Margaret Mary of Guise Darnley Anne of Denmark X
Henry Prince of Wales Charles I Charles II James II
Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia Henrietta Maria Katherine of Braganza Anne Hyde XI
William III Anne William Duke of Gloucester George II
Mary George of Denmark George I Caroline XII
Frederic Prince of Wales George III George IV William IV
Augusta Princess of Wales Charlotte Caroline Adelaide 257
1845
[6? May J84S]
Lord Mahon
TO L O R D M A H O N , [6? MAY 1845]1 MS: Stanhope Papers, Chevening.
House of Commons Dear Lord Mahon, I quite approve of the proposed changes.2 It will be impossible for me to attend to morrow. Yours ever T B Macaulay
TO A N D R E W R U T H E R F U R D , 20 MAY
1845
MS; National Library of Scotland.
House of Commons / May 20. 1845 Dear Rutherfurd, I spoke to Graham yesterday about our bill.3 He said only, as you say, that nothing can be done till after the session of the General Assembly.4 I have put off the second reading till next Monday, when it can be postponed again. I will make some inquiries about the Scotch poor-bill. I am very ill informed on the subject; and my constituents have not sent me any petition or remonstrance against what is proposed. I am therefore unwilling to express a decided opinion, and would rather be at present a hearer than a speaker.5 I have read your long trial. It is a disgraceful case. I entirely approve of the decision of the jury.6 I am worked to death by a railway-bill. I have the very leavings of 1
2
3
4 5
6
The date must be just after the meeting of the Fine Arts Commissioners on Monday, 5 May. The following changes were made in TBM's list of 2 May: Henry, Prince of Wales, and Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia (window x), were omitted; Princess Charlotte and the Duke of Kent were added to xn; Mary of Modena was substituted for Anne Hyde (x); and the Princess Sophia for William, Duke of Gloucester (xi). The Scottish Universities Bill, introduced by Rutherfurd on 1 May, was intended to abolish the law requiring the holders of secular chairs in Scottish universities to adhere to the Church of Scotland. The law dated from 1690 but had long been a dead letter; the disruption of 1843 had brought it back to life. TBM calls it * our bill' because he had been added to the committee responsible for preparing and bringing it in on 6 May. On 27 May the General Assembly passed a resolution in favor of the existing law. See 18 April. The bill passed, though Rutherfurd and others opposed it. TBM's name does not appear in any of the division lists in the debate on the bill. Rutherfurd was counsel for the plaintiff in the case of a disputed will; it was decided in his client's favor on 16 May (Scotsman, 17 and 21 May).
258
Thomas Flower Ellis
22 May J84S
Westminster Hall1 prating to me against time for ten guineas a day; and I really see no hope of termination. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 22 MAY
1845
MS: Trinity College.
Albany May 22. 1845 Dear Ellis, I am, as you supposed I should be, much more grieved than surprised by the death of poor Henry. 2 I need not tell you how much I feel for you all. I would call, but that I must pass the day in the chair of a railway Committee. Let me know whether you would like to see me, or whether I can do anything for you. Kindest regards to Marian.3 Ever yours T B Macaulay TO C H A R L E S G A V A N D U F F Y , 4 26 MAY
1845
MS: National Library of Ireland.
Albany London / May 26. 1845 Sir, I have just found on my table a volume of songs5 accompanied by a letter from you. Some of those songs I already know; and I have been much struck by their energy and beauty. Those which I have not yet read possess, I doubt not, similar merit. But I cannot refrain from saying with how much pain the pleasure which I have received from these com1
2 3
4
5
One of them was a Mr Carpenter Rowe: see 28 November. Another was TBM's old college friend Charles Austin, who is said to have made as much as £100,000 for his services in one year of the railway boom. Henry Ellis (i826?~45), Ellis's third child, died of rheumatic fever, 21 May. Marian Ellis (1828-94), the older of Ellis's two daughters. On a visit to Ellis at Bedford Place in 1847, Sir John Le Couteur described Marian as * an elegant highly cultivated young person. Macaulay was making dignified love to her in language most sublime; it was real fun to see her shrink from the embrace of Jupiter. Without being a beauty, she is an enchanting girl' (Joan Stevens, Victorian Voices: An Introduction to the Papers of Sir John Le Couteur . . . , St Helier, Jersey, 1969, p. 194). Marian never married. (Sir) Charles Gavan Duffy (1816-1903: DNB), journalist and politician, proprietor and editor of the patriotic weekly paper, the Nation, had been tried and sentenced with O'Connell in 1844. As a leader of the Young Ireland party he continued political agitation in and out of Parliament until 1856. He then emigrated to Victoria, Australia, rose to become Prime Minister, was knighted, and in 1880 returned to Europe. The Spirit of the Nation: Ballads and Songs by the Writers of* The Nation,* Dublin, 1845, now in the library at Wallington. The book first appeared as a 6d. pamphlet in 1843.
259
26 May 2S4S
Thomas Longman
positions has been mingled. I would intreat you to consider whether genius be worthily employed in inflaming national animosity between two countries, which, from physical causes such as no political revolution can remove, must always be either blessings or curses to each other. For your great courtesy to my self I thank you. And I beg you to do me the honor of accepting some volumes which I have requested my publisher, Mr. Longman, to transmit to you. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your most obedient Servant T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S L O N G M A N , 26 MAY
1845
MS: Longman Group Ltd.
Albany May 26 / 1845 Dear Mr. Longman, Be so good as to send a copy of my Essays and of the Lays of Ancient Rome to C G Duffy Esq Nation Office Dublin You will perhaps be surprised at my having such a correspondent. But the poets of the Nation have presented me with their ballads in a very handsome volume. I cannot without churlishness send the present back, though I was tempted to do so: and I do not chuse to be in their debt. Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 2 J U N E
1845
MS: Trinity College.
Albany June 2 / 1845 Dear Ellis, I have just received from Longman a set of sketches for my Lays, by an artist of whom I never heard named George Scharf.1 The designs are unfinished, and some are no more than scrawls. Yet they have, in my opinion, very great grace and spirit, and are distinguished by a very wide interval from those vulgar illustrations which are my aversion. I wish that you could dine with me to morrow, Tuesday, and look over them. If 1
(Sir) George Scharf (1820-95: DNB), son of a German artist in London, specialized in book illustration. Scharf *s main work was as the first Director of the National Portrait Gallery 1857-95, an appointment that he partly owed to TBM: see 25 February 1857. 260
[Adam Black]
5 June 2 845
not on Tuesday come on Thursday. Those are my only disengaged days. At all events send an answer by post as soon as you receive this. Longman is impatient for my opinion.1 Yours ever T B Macaulay TO [ADAM BLACK], 5 J U N E
1845
MS; Yale University.
House of Commons June 5/154) My dear Lord, I will take care to present the petition on the Test Bill before the debate on the second reading.2 I need not assure you that Mr. Rutherfurd will have my cordial support. / I have the honor to be / My dear Lord, Yours very faithfully T B Macaulay TO A N D R E W R U T H E R F U R D , 24 J U N E
1845
MS; National library of Scotland.
Albany London / June 24. 1845 Dear Rutherfurd, I hope that you will be satisfied with the course which I have taken respecting our bill. I yesterday fixed the second reading for Wednesday the 9th of July. By putting it so long off, I secured the precedence for that day, so that we are quite certain of coming on. The blood of our friends is up, and they assure me that they will take care to make and keep a house. Labouchere promises to come a hundred miles to support us. Howick will be in town. Charles Buller says that, if he is wanted, he will take part in the debate. Lord John, Craig, Bannerman,3 Patrick Stewart,4 in short every person whom I have consulted approves of this arrangement. The only objection which I can conceive to it is that the day is so remote. But if I had put it earlier, I could not have secured precedence. There would have been a doubt whether the question would have come on; and people would not have staid in town for it, or have come up to 1
2
3
4
Scharf's work was accepted and appeared in Lays of Ancient Rome . . . with Illustrations, Original andfrom the Antique, Drawn on Wood By George Scharf Jun., 1847. The Town Council of Edinburgh approved a petition in favor of the Universities Bill, to be forwarded immediately to TBM, on 3 June {Scotsman, 4 June). (Sir) Alexander Bannerman (1788-1864: Boase), M.P., Aberdeen, 1832-47; Governor of Prince Edward Island, of the Bahamas, and of Newfoundland, 1851-63; knighted, 1851. Patrick Maxwell Stewart (1798?-!846), Liberal M.P., Lancaster, 1831-7; Renfrewshire, 1841-6.
261
2 0 July 1845
Andrew Rutherfurd
town for it, as they will when they know that they will certainly be wanted. I need not tell you how glad we shall all be to see you at our head, if that can be. If not we must fight the battle as well as we can without you. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO A N D R E W R U T H E R F U R D , 10 J U L Y
1845
MS: National Library of Scotland.
Albany London / July 10. 1845 Dear Rutherfurd, You will see in the newspapers what passed yesterday night.1 If I regarded the question merely in a party light, I should say that there never was a more satisfactory discussion. Our men were zealous and in the highest spirits. The tone of the ministers was humble and deprecating. Every speech on our side told. Every speech on the other side failed. Graham made a wretched figure. Peel could hardly be heard for the talking on the benches and the confusion at the bar. Finally the division was a very good one, and at this time of the year particularly. For, as the official men are tied to their seats, the ministerial strength is always greater when London begins to thin than in February and March. But after all the first object was to save the Scotch Universities. And I fear that their doom is sealed. Every body regretted your absence, and did justice to your merits. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO A N D R E W R U T H E R F U R D , 16 J U L Y
1845
MS: National Library of Scotland.
Albany London / July 16. 1845 Dear Rutherfurd, I am truly glad that you are satisfied with the way in which I represented you last Wednesday. Rely on it that I will stand by you firmly in the fight on the parochial schools.2 About the principle I have no doubt. But I am in need of much information as to details. 1
2
The Scottish Universities Bill was defeated on its second reading by a vote of 116 to 108. TBM's speech leading off the debate is in Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXXII, 227-42; it is included in the authorized Speeches. The disruption had meant the dismissal of many nonconformist teachers, since the parochial schools were protected by a strict test. A part of the Free Church determined to build an independent system, but another part, under Thomas Guthrie, hoped to develop a national system; Rutherfurd was on Guthrie's side. 262
Lord Mahon
28 July 1
If you think it worth while to reprint my speech,1 the report in the Times is, I am told, the best. I read over only the peroration, and thought it very well given. Yesterday we had our last serious parliamentary battle.2 Nothing remains but the winding up: and I consider my holidays as begun. London is emptying fast. I delight in the prospect of six months of quiet study which, I hope, may bear some fruit. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO L O R D M A H O N , 28 J U L Y
1845
MS: Stanhope Papers, Chevening.
Albany London / July 28. 1845 Dear Lord Mahon, Thanks for your letter. I shall be glad to mark, — that is, in a modest and quiet way, — my opinion of Flaxman's genius.3 The idle brawl between French and Brougham has blown over.4 Nobody stopped French, or could stop him. For the few who heard him, of whom I was one, had not the faintest notion about whom or what he was talking till he sate down. I wish that you were here to share in the last duties of hospitality and friendship which we are performing to Everett. He had a farewell breakfast at Milman's on Saturday. He will breakfast on Wednesday with me, and on Friday with Lord Lansdowne. If London had been fuller I would have proposed a dinner at Greenwich where some ten or twelve of us might have entertained him before his departure. He seems to feel the separation much; and it is plain that his wife and daughter would gladly end their lives in England. I feel towards him as the sorrel nag did towards Gulliver. For a Yahoo, he is a wonderful creature, and has profited much by living with Houyhnhms. Have you seen Lord Lyttelton's life?5 It contains some interesting 1
It was reprinted as * Speech Delivered in the House of Commons, Wednesday, July 9, 1845, on the Bill for the Abolition of Scottish University Tests, by the Right Hon. T. B. Macaulay,' Edinburgh, 1845. 2 A debate on the duties on Spanish colonial sugar. 3 I have not been able to learn what this refers to. * Fitzstephen French, M.P. for Roscommon, who was interested in a railway project that Brougham had demolished in a committee of the Lords, angrily accused Brougham of misconduct in a speech to the Commons on 21 July. The speech was printed next day in The Times and Morning Chronicle, and Brougham thereupon claimed breach of privilege. On 23 July French withdrew his personal remarks and on the next day Brougham accepted the apology. 5 Memoirs and Correspondence oj George, Lord Lyttelton, from iy34 to iyj3^ 2 vols., 1845, ed. by R. J. Phillimore. 263
ii August 1845
Macvey Napier
information; but it is ill written: there are many blunders: and there is a great deal of that childish Puseyite cant which is becoming as nauseous as ever the Puritanical cant was. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , I I A U G U S T
1845
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 499-501.
Albany London / August n . 1845 Dear Napier, I am truly glad to see your handwriting again. Though we do not at present interchange letters of business there is no reason for our not sending letters of friendship. As to the Review, you must really go on, as you well can, without me. I have made my arrangements for working with vigour and with scarcely any interruption during the next six months.1 I shall probably go down to Cambridge in the course of the autumn to rummage the Pepysian Library. But I shall at no time intermit my work for more than a day or two now and then. The truth is that I begin to fear the fate of poor Mackintosh. Unless I make some strenuous exertion I shall, like him, be pointed at as a man who began to build and was not able to finish. In any case I should not think it expedient to go to Edinburgh at present. I have very little expectation that I shall ever represent the Good Town again. The best chance is to let the fanaticism which was boiling last May and which is still at blood heat cool quietly. You have had some very good articles in the Review lately. If I were to offer any suggestion, it would be that you would be on your guard against Senior's views of our relations with America,2 particularly when his views are directly opposed to those of all the Tory and all the Whig Statesmen in the Kingdom. The truth is that he is too deeply interested in 1
2
TBM apparently did manage to do concentrated work on the History of England in these months. I have found no letters from him in September and October, suggesting that he was too much occupied to write as usual. Jeffrey reported to Napier that Trevelyan, returning from a tour of France, 'found our mighty Tom in great force, and very well pleased with the progress he had made on his history' (22 [August 1845]: MS, British Museum). And Empson wrote that 'Macaulay is in London: and only going out to look up historical papers, at the Pepysian Library, Cambridge etc' (to Napier [2 September]: MS, British Museum). Senior published 'The Oregon Question,' ER, LXXXII (July 1845), 238-65, in which he argued that the Oregon territory being worthless, the boundary dispute between the U.S. and Great Britain should be quickly settled by reference to an arbitrator. 264
[Thomas Longman]
*7 August
i845
the credit of the American states to be impartial.1 At all events nobody gives him credit for impartiality. And it a little derogates from the character of the review to have it universally known, as it is, that the office of pronouncing judgment on a grave international question is confided to a person who cannot be unbiassed. If this were the feeling of Palmerston only, I should not mention it. For he is thought, justly or unjustly, by many of our own friends, to be too pugnacious on all points of controversy with foreign powers. But Clarendon, who has always been on the pacific and conceding side, Charles Greville, who is an excellent representative of good conservative society, and others have made the remark which I mention to you. Many thanks for your kind expressions about the last Session. I have certainly been heard with great favour by the House whenever I have spoken. As to the course which I have taken I feel no misgivings. Many honest men think that there ought to be no retrospect in politics.2 I am firmly convinced that they are in error, and that much better measures than any which we owe to Peel would be very dearly purchased by that utter ruin of all public virtue which must be the consequence of such immoral lenity. I was glad to hear the other day from Empson that you have been pretty well of late. You say nothing of your own health. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO [ T H O M A S L O N G M A N ] , 27 A U G U S T
1845
MS: Knox College.
Albany August 27 / 1845 My dear Sir, Be so kind as to send a copy of the Lays of Ancient Rome to Alexander Smart3 Esq 5 South College Street Edinburgh. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1
2
3
Napier must have reported TBM's remark to Senior, for Senior wrote Napier, 27 August, that his only interest in America was *£i 500 in the New York Trust Company producing me about £90 a year - less than a fortieth part of my income * (S. Leon Levy, Nassau W. Senior, Boston, 1943, p. 284). The reference is to TBM's attacks on Peel's inconsistency in the speech on Maynooth, 14 April— * there you sit, doing penance for the disingenuousness of years' — and again in the conclusion of his speech on the Irish Church, 23 April. Smart (1798-1866: Boase) was author of Rambling Rhymes, Edinburgh, 1845 (a copy is item 126 of the sale catalogue of TBM's library); probably TBM was responding to the gift of the book.
265
[i6 October 2845]
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
TO MRS CHARLES TREVELYAN,
[16 OCTOBER 1845]1
MS: Trinity College.
Albany Thursday Dearest Hannah, To morrow I will dine with you, and will carry some manuscript with me. I have a great deal to tell you. I have been wandering over half London with Thiers, and helping him to shop; for he knows not a word of English. We have become quite friends. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO E D W A R D E V E R E T T , 2 N O V E M B E R
1845
MS: Massachusetts Historical Society. Extract published: P. R. Frothingham, Edward Everett, Boston, 1925, p. 308.
Albany London November 2 / 1845 My dear Everett, I was truly glad to see your handwriting again, and to learn that you had not forgotten me. I have seen Holland twice or thrice and have talked much with him about you. There are many here who miss you as much as I do, and who are gratified by every mark of public respect which is paid you in your own country. Holland has come back to us in a most grateful frame of mind.2 He tells me that he has been treated with constant kindness and courtesy. Of your jurists and men of Science he speaks very highly. He has also silenced some of your detractors by testifying that towels are multiplied and basons greatly enlarged since Stanley and Denison brought back their report.3 If he has any evil to tell, he keeps it to himself. The best proof that he has been well pleased is his intention to visit you again some years hence. I should much like to accompany him. You will not expect much London news at this season. Our autumn has been a little animated by a visit from Thiers, who came apparently in order to make his peace with the Whigs. 4 I paid him a compliment which 1 2
3 4
Thiers arrived in London on Thursday, 9 October, and left on Wednesday the 22nd; Thursday the 16th is thus the probable date of this letter. Holland had just returned from an eight weeks' tour, * in which he crossed and recrossed the Atlantic, and travelled three thousand miles on the Western Continent' (Lucy Aikin, Memoirs, Miscellanies and Letters, p. 162: 4 November 1845). Lord Derby, then Edward Stanley, made an American tour with John Evelyn Denison and others in 1824-5. Thiers called on Palmerston during this visit; according to Greville his * flirtation' with Palmerston was ' matter of notoriety and amusement at Paris' as early as January {Memoirs, v,
201).
266
George Gulland
6 November 2845
I have paid to nobody else for a long time. I got up at seven in the morning to take a three hours' walk with him in the parks, and had the pleasure of hearing him relate, with wonderful spirit and clearness, a long history, important, if true, and, whether true or not, very entertaining. After conversing with him, I cannot wonder at his success in the tribune. For not only is his flow of language wonderful. But he has an extraordinary talent for arranging his thoughts on any subject, at a moment's notice, into a neat, plausible, system, which will not endure long or close inspection, but which, at the first glance, is not to be distinguished from a complete and deeply meditated theory. But, though this is the talent of a great debater, it is not the talent of a great historian. For my part I would much rather talk with Thiers than with Guizot. But I had much rather read a history of the Empire by Guizot than by Thiers. Why should not you undertake to give us a history of the United States, such as might become classical, and be in every English as well as in every American library? In some way or other you will, I hope, keep us mindful of you, till we see you again, as surely we shall. Pray remember me very kindly to Mrs. and Miss Everett. / Ever, my dear Everett, Yours most truly T B Macaulay TO G E O R G E G U L L A N D , 1 6 N O V E M B E R
1845
Text: Scotsman, 22 November 1845.
Albany, London, November 6, 1845. Sir, I shall certainly do everything in my power to assist you in getting rid of the exclusive privileges of which you complain, and I shall be much obliged to you, whenever the time arrives at which I can be of any service, to let me know. 2 I have the honour to be, etc., T. B. Macaulay. 1
2
Gulland (1803-50), an Edinburgh baker, was chairman of the Non-Freeman's Association, founded to agitate against the privileges of incorporated trades (see to J. F. Macfarlan, 24 March). According to a manuscript account of Gulland in the National Library of Scotland the bill abolishing the exclusive privileges of the incorporated trades, though a measure of Peel's government, was brought in * through the influence of Lord Macaulay.'
267
28 November 2S4S
John Evelyn Denison
TO JOHN EVELYN DENISON, 28 NOVEMBER
1845
MS: University of Nottingham.
Albany Nov 28. 1845 Dear Denison, I ought to have answered and thanked you earlier. Illness must be my apology; not that I have been very ill; but I have had indisposition enough to make idleness, short trips, and sea breezes necessary.1 I am at present pretty well again, and ready to endure, with your help, another month of Mr. Carpenter Rowe. 2 I have heard directly from Everett, and have learned much about him from Doctor Holland who has recently visited the United States. I have little doubt that our friend will become Principal of Cambridge the Less. 3 I will stop here. For if I once begin on politics I shall write a half crown pamphlet without being able to stop. I will only say that Lord John's letter4 has gone off like a shell in a powder-mill. It was certainly a very clever move, — almost too clever to be honest. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO U N I D E N T I F I E D R E C I P I E N T , 6 D E C E M B E R
1845
MS: National Library of Scotland.
Albany London / December 6. 1845 My dear Sir, My knowledge of Dr. Schmitz5 is derived altogether from his contributions to the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.6 I have occasionally consulted that work; and I have seen enough to satisfy me that his learning is solid and extensive. He is undoubtedly more than 1
2
3
4 5
6
In his speech of 2 December (see 10 December) TBM asked for indulgence 'if it should happen that my voice should fail m e . . . . I am hardly equal to the exertion of public speaking' (Speeches, 1853, p. 421). (Sir) William Carpenter Rowe (1801-59: Boase), a barrister, Recorder of Plymouth, 183756; Chief Justice of Ceylon, 1856-9. He was one of the lawyers appearing before TBM's railway committee, of which Denison had been a member: see 2 and 20 May. The reports of the committee's hearings in The Times show that Rowe monopolized entire days. Everett had been offered the presidency of Harvard before he left London, and in February 1846 the appointment was officially confirmed. He continued in the office only through 1848. Announcing his conversion to the repeal of the Corn Laws, in a letter to his constituents dated 22 November; it appeared in The Times, 27 November. Leonhard Schmitz (1807—90: DNB), German classical scholar in England since 1837, was elected in this month Rector of the Edinburgh High School. He held the position until 1866, when he became Principal of the London International College, Isleworth. William Smith, ed., Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 1842. 268
Selina Macaulay
10 December 1845
competent, as far as classical knowledge goes, to be master of any school in Scotland. I can have no objection to say as much to the Lord Provost if you wish me to do so. But here my testimony must end. For, though I am of course disposed to think very favourably of a gentleman who appears to possess the esteem of some excellent persons, you must be sensible that I could not vouch for the temper or character of one who is utterly unknown to me. / Believe me, / My dear Sir, Very truly yours T B Macaulay TO S E L I N A MACAULAY, 10 D E C E M B E R
1845
MS: Trinity College.
Albany London / December 10. 1845 Dearest Selina, If I had been aware how ill you were off for news, I would have sent you a paper. But I took it for granted that you must have seen an account of the Edinburgh meeting.1 I do not know whether I can now find a number of the Scotsman or of the Caledonian Mercury which contains the report. If I can, I will send it to you. Edinburgh is in excellent temper, and my seat at present safe. [no signature]
TO M R S C H A R L E S T R E V E L Y A N , I I D E C E M B E R
1845
MS: Trinity College. Mostly published: Trevelyan, 11, 160-3.
London December 11. 1845 Dearest Hannah I am detained for a few minutes at Ellis's chambers with nothing to do. I will therefore employ my leisure in writing to you on a sheet of paper meant for some plea or replication. Yesterday morning I learned that the ministers had gone down to the Isle of Wight for the purpose of resigning, and that Lord John had been sent for. This morning all the world knows it.2 There are many reports. But my belief is that the Duke of 1
2
On 2 December TBM had addressed an Anti-Corn Law meeting at the Music Hall, Edinburgh; the speech is included in the authorized edition. How long TBM was in Edinburgh is not clear: the Scotsman, 29 November, says that' Mr Macaulay is in town'; but Cockburn, in his account of the meeting on 2 December, says that * Macaulay came from London for that single day* (Journal, 11, 133). The Scotsman was probably anticipating. Peel, moved by the crisis of impending famine in Ireland, had determined to suspend the Corn Laws and to prepare for their ultimate repeal in the next Parliament; failing to carry his Cabinet he privately submitted his resignation. The Queen sent for Russell on 6 December, but he being in Edinburgh and she at Osborne Russell had not been able to respond to the summons until now.
269
ii December 184S
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
Wellington, after having consented to support Peel, was alarmed by the symptoms of opposition among the Lords of the Tory party, and retracted. How this is we shall probably soon learn.1 In the meantime London is in confusion. The politicians run from club to club picking up and circulating rumours, and nobody knows exactly what to expect. All discerning men, among whom I rank myself, are anxious and melancholy. What is to befall the country? Will Lord John attempt to form a government? Can such a government abolish the corn duties? Can it stand three months with the present House of Commons ? Would even a dissolution give the Whigs a working majority in the Commons? And, even if we had such a majority in the Commons, what could we do with the Lords? Are we to swamp them as Lord Grey's ministry proposed to do? Have we sufficient support in the country to try so extreme a measure? Are we to go on, as Lord Melbourne's ministry did, unable to carry its own bills, and content with holding the executive functions and distributing the loaves and fishes? Or are we, after an unsuccessful attempt to settle the corn question, to go out? If so, do we not leave the question in a worse posture than at present? Or are Peel and Lord John to unite in one government? How are personal pretensions to be adjusted in such an arrangement? How are questions of foreign policy and of Irish policy to be settled? How can Aberdeen and Palmerston pull together? How can Lord John himself bear to sit in the same cabinet with Graham? And, supposing all these difficulties got over, is it clear that even a coalition between Peel and the Whigs could carry the repeal of the corn-law through the Lords? What then remains except an Ultra Tory administration composed of such men as the Dukes of Buckingham and Richmond? Yet how can such an administration look in the face an opposition which will contain every statesman and orator in the house of Commons? What too will be the effect produced out of doors by such an administration? What is there that may not be apprehended if we should have a year of severe distress, and if the manufacturers should impute all their sufferings to the selfish tyranny and rapacity of the ministers of the Crown? It is difficult, I think, to conceive a darker prospect than that which lies before us. Yet I have a great confidence in the sense, virtue, and self-command of the nation; and I therefore hope that we shall get out of this miserable situation as we have got out of other situations not less miserable. I have spent some hours in carefully considering my own position, and determining on my own course. I have at last made up my mind; and I send you the results of my deliberations. If, which is not absolutely impossible, though improbable, Peel should 1
Wellington steadily supported Peel; Stanley and the Duke of Buccleuch were the obstacles. 270
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
22 December 2845
still try to patch up a Conservative administration, and should, as the head of that administration, propose the repeal of the Corn Laws, my course is clear. I must support him with all the energy that I have till the question is carried. Then I am free to oppose him. if an Ultra Tory ministry should be formed my course is equally clear. I must oppose them with every faculty that God has given me. If Lord John should undertake to form a Whig ministry and should ask for my assistance, I cannot in honor refuse it. But I shall distinctly tell him and tell my colleagues and constituents that I will not again go through what I went through in Lord Melbourne's administration. I am determined never again to be one of a government which cannot carry the measures which it thinks essential. I am satisfied that the great error of Lord Melbourne's government was that they did not resign as soon as they found that they could not pass the Appropriation Clause.1 They would have gone out with flying colours had they gone out then. This was while I was in India. When I came back I found the liberal ministry in a thoroughly false position. I did not think it right to separate myself from them. But now the case is different. Our path is still clear before us: and I never will be a party to any step which may bring us into that false position again. I will therefore, supposing that Lord John applies to me, accept office on this express condition that, if we find that we cannot carry the repeal of the corn laws, we will forthwith resign, or, at all events, that I shall be at liberty forthwith to resign. I am quite sure that this is the right course: and I am equally sure that, if I take it, I shall be out of office at Easter. There remains another possible case. What if Lord John and Peel should coalesce, and should offer me a place in their cabinet? I have fully made up my mind to refuse it. I should not at all blame them for coalescing. I am willing as an independent member to support them as far as I can, and, as respects the question of the corn-laws, to support them with all my heart and soul. But, after the language which I have held respecting Peel,2 and which I am less than ever disposed to retract, I feel that I cannot, without a loss of personal dignity, and without exposing myself to suspicions and imputations which would be insupportable to me, hold any situation under him. The circumstance that my fortune, though amply sufficient for my wants, is small when compared with the fortunes of all the other cabinet ministers of our time, makes it fit that I should avoid with punctilious care, every thing which the multitude may attribute to sordid motives. There are other reasons which do not apply to Lord John, to Lord Lansdowne, to Palmerston, to Baring, to Labouchere, or to Grey,3 but which would prevent me from holding office in 1 3
2 In the Irish Tithe Bill of 1836. See 11 August. Howick had succeeded as third Earl Grey on 17 July.
271
13 December 2S4S
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such an arrangement. My opinions about the Irish Church are stronger than those of my friends, and have recently been expressed in a manner which has excited attention. The question of the ballot would also be an insuperable obstacle. I do not indeed attach much importance to that question; and I am aware that it excites little public interest. But, as it was an open question in Lord Melbourne's time, and as I then spoke and voted for it, I will not vote against it for a place. And I am certain that Peel will never consent to let it be an open question. This is an objection which does not apply to Lord John and to others whom I have named; for they always opposed the ballot. My full resolution therefore is, if a coalition ministry should be formed, to support it, but not to be a member of it. I hope that you will not be dissatisfied with this long exposition of my views and intentions. I must now make haste home to dress for dinner at Milman's and for the Westminster play.1 Love to Trevelyan and to my dear Baba. Kind remembrances to all. Ever yours TBM TO MRS C H A R L E S TREVELYAN, 13 D E C E M B E R
1845
MS: Trinity College. Mostly published: Trevelyan, 11, 164-6.
Albany December 13. 1845 Dearest Hannah, I am glad that you sympathize with me and approve of my intentions. I should have written yesterday. But I was detained till after post time at a consultation of Whigs which Lord John had summoned. We were only five, Lord John, Lord Cottenham,2 Clarendon, Palmerston, and my self. This morning we met again at eleven, and were joined by Baring, by Lord Lansdowne, and by the Duke of Bedford. You must remember that what I tell you is strictly confidential. Except to Fanny and to your husband, I wish not a syllable to be communicated. The posture of affairs is this. Lord John has not consented to form a ministry. He has only told the Queen that he would consult his friends, and see what could be done. We are all most unwilling to take office, and so is he. I have never seen his natural audacity of spirit so much 1
2
The play produced each year at this time by the Westminster School boys. One of Milman's sons performed in this year's production, Terence's Andria. TBM met Greville at Milman's dinner and told him that the feeling among the Whigs was that they could do nothing against the opposition of the Lords and that Wellington would lead the party against them {Memoirs, v, 251). Charles Christopher Pepys (1781-1851: DNB), first Earl of Cottenham, Lord Chancellor, 1836-41; 1846-50. 272
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
23 December 1845
tempered by discretion and by a sense of responsibility as on this occasion. The question of the corn-laws throws all other questions into the shade. Yet even if that question were out of the way, there would be matters enough to perplex us. Ireland, we fear, is on the brink of something like a servile war, the effect, not of repeal agitation, but of the severe distress endured by the peasantry. Foreign politics look dark. An augmentation of the army will be necessary. Pretty legacies to leave to a ministry which is in a minority in both houses. I have no doubt that there is not a single man among us who would not at once refuse to enlist, if he could do so with a clear conscience. Nevertheless our opinion is that if we have a reasonable hope of being able to settle the all important question of the corn laws in a satisfactory way, we ought, at whatever sacrifice of quiet and comfort, to take office, though only for a few weeks. But can we entertain such a hope? That is the point: and till we are satisfied about it, we cannot positively accept or refuse. A few days must pass before we are able to decide. It is clear that we cannot win the battle with our own unassisted strength. If we win it at all, it must be by the help of Peel, Graham, and their friends. Peel has not seen Lord John, but left with the Queen a memorandum containing a promise to support a bill founded on the principles of Lord John's famous letter.1 Graham has had both a correspondence and a personal conference with Lord John and with Lord Lansdowne, and has given similar assurances. But we all feel that this is too vague, and that we may still be left in the lurch. Lord John has asked for a sketch of Peel's own plan. This we cannot get. In fact, strange as it seems, the plan was never drawn up in a distinct form or submitted to the late cabinet in detail. As soon as the general nature of it was stated, the opposition became so strong that nothing was said as to minor points. We have therefore determined on the following course. All our friends who are likely to be cabinet ministers are summoned to London, and will, with scarcely an exception, be here in a day or two. We shall then resolve on the heads of a corn-law such as we think that we can with honor introduce. When this is done, we shall send it to Peel and Graham, and demand categorically whether they will cordially support such a bill, — aye or no. If they refuse or use vague language, we shall at once decline to form a government. If they pledge themselves to stand by us, we must undertake the task.2 This is a very strange, indeed an unprecedented, course. But the situation is unprecedented. We are not coming into office as conquerors, 1 2
Of 22 November. Peel declined to look at Russell's plan but did promise support: see G. P. Gooch, ed., The Later Correspondence of Lord John Russell, 1925, II, 105.
273
i5 December 1845
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
leading a majority in parliament and driving out our predecessors. Our predecessors, at a most critical moment, throw up the reins in confusion and despair, while they have a strong majority in both houses, and implore us who are a minority to extricate the country from its troubles. We are therefore entitled, if we consent, to demand their honest support as a right, not to supplicate it as a favour. My hope is that Peel will not accede to our terms, and that we shall thus be set at liberty. He will then be forced to go on with a ministry patched up as well as he can patch it up. In the meantime nothing can be more public spirited or disinterested than the feeling of all our friends who have yet been consulted. This is a good sign. If I do come in, I shall take a carriage by the month from Newman,1 and remain at the Albany for some weeks. I have no doubt that we shall all be out by Easter in any event. If we should remain longer, I must of course take a house. But nobody can expect that I should be provided with a house at a day's notice. Love to dearest Baba. Kind regards to all. I shall see Trevelyan and the children to morrow. Lord John is now on his road to Windsor to tell the Queen the result of our deliberation. Ever yours TBM TO MRS C H A R L E S TREVELYAN, 15 DECEMBER
1845
MS; Trinity College.
Albany Dec 15. 1845 Dearest Hannah, Our friends who have been summoned from all parts of the country are arriving in rapid succession. Lord Auckland came on Saturday. Lord Grey and Edward Ellice have since made their appearance. Sir George Grey reached town only two hours ago. Labouchere is expected in Belgrave Square this evening. Meanwhile Lord John has been drawing up the heads of a corn-law. They will be submitted to us to morrow afternoon. If we come to a decision before post-time, I will let you know the result. You would not, I imagine, be much interested if I told you the details of the scheme. It is undoubtedly quite in harmony with the terms of Lord John's letter to the Electors of London. It would, three months ago, have been accepted by the League with the greatest thankfulness. But it may be regarded by some persons, in the present excited state of public feeling, as too favourable to the agriculturists.2 Lord Grey and 1 2
John Newman, coachmaker, Bishop's Mews, Bayswater. On the next day it was agreed to propose total and immediate repeal. 274
William Gibson Craig
16 December 284S
my self think that it is so, and have urged objections to it, though in very different ways. Lord Grey is angry and obstinate, and, I am afraid, may make Lord John as angry and obstinate as himself. I have taken a milder course, and have succeeded in obtaining some modifications. Lord John said to me an hour ago, "If you will stand by me I can do without Howick. But if you side with Howick, I must throw the whole matter up." This lays a heavy responsibility on me. In the mean time some of my friends - particularly Lord Lansdowne - think that the plan is not favourable enough to the agricultural interest. These are the points which are to be discussed and determined to morrow. I am anxious, as you may well suppose, but quite confident in the rectitude of my intentions. Love to Baba. Ever yours TBM TO W I L L I A M G I B S O N C R A I G , 16 D E C E M B E R
1845
MS: Scottish Record Office. Envelope: W Gibson Craig Esq M P / etc. etc. etc. / Riccarton / Edinburgh. Subscription: T B M .
Albany London / Dec 16. 1845 Dear Craig, Thanks for your letter. I wish that I could with propriety give you the history of all that has lately been passing. A very few hours will decide the question whether we go in or stay out. And for my part I care not at all how it is decided. I have had my share of perplexities and anxieties: but they are all over. I am now certain that we are going to do what is right and honorable,1 and that, whether in office or in opposition, we shall have the confidence and support of the whole liberal party, united as it has not been united for many years. While I have this assurance even the prospect of being in place again cannot depress my spirits. I am glad to hear that there will be no difficulty about re election. You are aware, I suppose, that the writ cannot issue till parliament meets. There will be a week during which there will be no minister in the House of Commons. I suppose that the time will be occupied by scoldings between the high Tories and the Ex-Ministers. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1
That is, to propose a simple repeal of the duties.
2
75
[JS December 1845}
Frances Macaulay
TO F R A N C E S MACAULAY, [18 DECEMBER
1845]
MS: Trinity College. Albany Thursday Dearest Fanny, I cannot at present leave town even for one night. We shall, I have no doubt, accept; and to morrow will be spent in negotiation about arrangements. But this is a secret. You may tell Trevelyan who is used to official secret-keeping. But do not mention it to anybody else at present. I shall write to Hannah. Ever yours TBM TO M R S C H A R L E S T R E V E L Y A N , 19 DECEMBER
1845
MS: Trinity College. Partly published: Trevelyan, n, 166-7.
Albany Deer. 19. 1845 Dearest, It is an odd thing to see a ministry making. I never witnessed the process before. Lord John has been all day in his inner library. His antechamber has been filled with comers and goers, some talking in knots, some writing notes at tables. Every five minutes somebody is called into the inner room. As the people who have been closeted come out, the cry of the whole body of expectants is "What are you?" I was summoned almost as soon as I arrived, and found Lord Auckland and Lord Clarendon sitting with Lord John. After some talk about other matters Lord John told me that he had been trying to ascertain my wishes, and that he found that I wanted leisure and quiet more than salary and business. Labouchere had told him this. He therefore offered me the Pay Office, - one of the three places which, as I told you, I should prefer. I at once accepted it. The tenure by which I shall hold it is so precarious that it matters little what its advantages may be. But I shall have two thousand a year for the trouble of signing my name. I must indeed attend parliament more closely than I have of late done. But my mornings will be as much my own as if I were out of office. If I give to my history the time which I used to pass in transacting business when I was Secretary at War, I shall get on nearly as fast as when I was in opposition. Some other arrangements are less satisfactory to me. Palmerston will hear of nothing but the Foreign Office. Lord Grey therefore declines taking any place. And I can see that all those who have been in the cabinet with him before are rather pleased than vexed at not having him among 276
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
19 December 284S
them. Clarendon said to me, " Before Lord Grey has been a fortnight in the House of Lords, he will be more hated than any peer who has sate there within the memory of men." Another appointment I and every body else who has heard of it must regret and condemn. Hobhouse is to go to the India Board again. I own that this makes me very angry. The best arrangement that has been made is that for the government of Ireland. The Lord Lieutenancy is to be offered to Lord Besborough.1 Labouchere has agreed to take the Secretaryship with the cabinet - a suggestion of mine by the bye. The Chancellor of Ireland is to be an Irish lawyer. This will be a most popular measure in Ireland. But I fear that Lord Campbell's resentment will be extreme, and not altogether unreasonable. He is to be offered the Duchy of Lancaster without the Cabinet, - a poor compensation. Fox Maule will be Secretary at War. I told Lord John that he was quite right to send a new man thither. Nobody will ever go twice. Lord Auckland will have the Admiralty. At least it is all but settled. Napier2 will be one of the Lords. Lord Clarendon will be President of the Board of Trade. The Vice-Presidentship will be offered to Cobden. Of course Cottenham will be Lord High Chancellor and Baring Chancellor of the Exchequer. I have now, I think, told you all that, as far as I am aware, is yet settled. You will therefore not be taken in by newspaper reports. What a strange occurrence has just taken place. While we were wondering where Morpeth was to find a seat, Lord Wharncliffe unexpectedly dies. John Wortley 3 goes to the House of Peers; and the West Riding - Morpeth's old seat, and his favourite object, — becomes vacant. We have no doubt of his carrying it with ease.4 It will be a fortunate circumstance for us that our administration will begin with elections of great importance in all of which we expect to be successful. Three in particular, that for the West Riding, that for the city of London,5 and that for Edinburgh, are likely to pass without even the shew of opposition. It will therefore be clear that we have a great mass of support in the country. I am sorry that Fanny gave you a bad account of my looks. She saw me, I think, when I was really very uneasy, that is to say, while it was undecided that we should propose total and immediate repeal. From the moment that we determined that point rightly I have been as much at my ease as ever I was in my life. 1
Lord Duncannon became fourth Earl of Bessborough in February 1844. Admiral Sir Charles Napier (1786-1860: DNB\ then M.P. for Marylebone. 3 Wortley (1801-55: DNB), second Baron Wharncliffe, entered the House of Commons in 1823 and sat for the West Riding, 1841-5. 4 Morpeth was elected for the West Riding, February 1846. 5 For which Lord John Russell sat. 2
10
277
PLTiv
20 December 2845
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
Of course you will say nothing about the arrangements till they appear in the newspapers. It is possible that changes may still be made. I hope that Lord John will give one of the Secretaryships of State to George Grey. It would be a great elevation. But I am sure that it is the right thing to do. I have told Grey that I look to him as our future leader in the Commons, and that no pretensions of mine shall ever interfere with his. Labouchere feels exactly as I do. Labouchere and Baring are at least as good men of business as Grey: and I may say without vanity that I have made speeches which were out of the reach of any of the three. But, taking the talent for business and the talent for speaking together, Grey is undoubtedly the best qualified among us for the lead: and we are perfectly sensible of this. Indeed I may say that I do not believe that there ever was a set of public men who had less jealousy of each other or who formed a more correct estimate of themselves than the younger members of this cabinet. But I must have done. Love to Baba. Kind regards to all. Ever yours TBM TO MRS C H A R L E S TREVELYAN, 20 DECEMBER
1845
MS: Trinity College. Partly published: Trevelyan, 11, 168—9.
Albany London Dec 20. 1845 Dearest, All is over. Late at night, just as I was undressing, a knock was given at the door of my chambers. The messenger had come from Lord John with a short note. The quarrel between Lord Grey and Lord Palmerston had made it impossible to form a ministry. I went to bed and slept sound. In the morning I went to the corner of Belgrave Square which is now the great place for political news,1 and I found that Lord John had gone to Windsor to resign his trust into the Queen's hands. I have no disposition to complain of the loss of office. On the contrary, my escape from the slavery of a placeman is my only consolation. But I feel that we are in an ignominious position as a party.2 After agreeing on the principles of our measure, after agreeing that our public duty required us to take office, we have now thrown the game up, not on account of any new matter affecting the national interests, but solely because we are, as the French say, mauvais coucheurs, and cannot adjust ourselves 1 2
Russell lived in Chesham Place, Belgrave Square. TBM told Le Marchant about this time that the Whigs had * staid in when we ought to have gone out, and now we stay out when we ought to have gone in' (Greville, Memoirs, v, 272: 23 December). 278
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
20 December 284S
to accommodate each other. I do not blame Lord John. But both Lord Grey and Lord Palmerston are deeply to blame. I think Lord Grey the more to blame of the two. For he has acted in an offensive manner. Besides, if he had fully determined not to hold office with Palmerston as foreign Secretary, he ought to have told us so before we voted on the question whether we would take the government at all. If we had known that we should have to undertake the government either without Lord Grey or without Palmerston, the votes would have been very different. I therefore think Lord Grey, highly as I esteem his integrity and ability, chiefly responsible for the unfortunate situation in which we are now placed. But I suspect that Palmerston will be made the scape-goat. He is no favourite with the public. A large portion of our own friends think him a dangerous minister. By the whole continental and American press he has been represented as the very Genius of war and Discord. People will now say that, when every other place was within his reach, when he might have had the home-office, the Colonies, the Admiralty, a peerage, in short his own terms, he declared that unless he was allowed to be where he was generally considered as a firebrand, he would blow up his party at a crisis when the fate of his party involved the fate of his country. I suspect that a great storm of public indignation will burst upon him, and that he will sink under it. In the meantime what is to happen? Some talk of Peel - some of the Duke of Wellington. A few more hours will enable us to see our way. This is my last letter to you at Ventnor. We shall meet on Tuesday. I have bespoken a turkey of the first class, and a chine, less large, but better than that of last year.1 For my tradespeople tell me that the excellence of a chine is by no means proportioned to its size, and that the monstrous ones are rarely good. I have had an anxious time since you were away. But I can truly say that I have done nothing through all these troubles which I should be ashamed to hear proclaimed at Charing Cross, or which I would not do again. Love to my dear Baba. I am sorry that I have no time to write to her before the post goes out. Kind regards to all. Ever yours TBM 1
For Christmas Eve TBM regularly sent to the Trevelyans *a cod-fish, a barrel of oysters, and a chine, accompanied by the heaviest turkey which diligence could discover and money could purchase' (Trevelyan, 11, 400).
279
[22 December 2845]
Thomas Flower Ellis
TO THOMAS FLOWER ELLIS, [22 DECEMBER
1845]
MS: Trinity College. Partly published: Trevelyan, 11, i68n.
Albany Monday. Dear Ellis, I expect you at seven on Friday. I have a good deal to tell you, but nothing that will not keep. On the whole I am inclined to think that what has happened, though most discreditable to Grey and not altogether creditable to Palmerston, will do more good than harm. Peel is now forced to undertake the settlement of the question. It is certain that he can settle it. It is very doubtful whether we could have settled it. Every man who would have voted with us will vote with him. But many a man will vote with him who would never have voted with us. By steady and upright conduct we may, I hope, efface the remembrance of folly and perverseness which, after all, cannot be ascribed to more than one or two persons. Perhaps the pleasure with which I have this morning looked round my chambers, and resumed my history, has something to do in making me thus cheerful. Ever yours T B Macaulay Let me advise you to put forth a little tract after the fashion of the seventeenth century, entitled "A secret history of some late passages, as they were communicated by a person of honor to T F E, a gentleman of the Inner Temple."
TO J. F. MACFARLAN, 22 DECEMBER 1845 Text: Scotsman, 27 December 1845.
London, Dec. 22, 1845. You will have heard the termination of our attempt to form a Government. All our plans were frustrated by Lord Grey. I hope that the public interests will not suffer. Sir Robert Peel must now undertake the settlement of the question. It is certain that he can settle it. It is by no means certain that we could have done so. For we shall to a man support him; and a large proportion of those who are now in office would have refused to support us. On my own share in these transactions I reflect with unmixed satisfaction. From the first, I told Lord John that I stipulated for one thing only —total and immediate repeal of the Corn-laws; that my objections to gradual abolition were insurmountable; but that, if he 280
Selina Macaulay
2.5 December 1845
declared for total and immediate repeal, I would be, as to all other matters, absolutely in his hands; that I would take any office or no office, just as suited him best; and that he should never be disturbed by any personal pretensions or jealousies on my part. If everybody else had acted thus, there would now have been a Liberal Ministry. However, as I said, perhaps it is best as it is. I do not think that, if we had formed a Government, we should have entertained the question of paying the Roman Catholic priests of Ireland. I cannot answer for others; but I should have thought it positive insanity to stir the matter. I will send your petition to the Secretary of State for the Home Department as soon as it is clear that the Government is settled. Ever yours truly, T. B. Macaulay. J. F. Macfarlan, Esq., Edinburgh.
TO S E L I N A MACAULAY, 25 D E C E M B E R
1845
MS: Trinity College. Albany London / Dec 25. 1845 Dearest Selina, I was about to write to you on the subject of your shares. Send me the circular; and I will do what is needful. I have quite money enough of yours to answer the call. Indeed there will still be about 60 £ left, as Edward and I agreed to divide our last shares of the money from Sierra Leone between you and Fanny. I inclose a cheque for the quarter. As to politics, if I write a page I shall write a pamphlet. Why do you not manage to see the papers? Would you like to have the Times? I take it in, and should be very glad to send it you daily. You really ought to know something more of the world that we live in than you will learn from the Record, which we take in at the Athenaeum solely to laugh at. I am exceedingly flattered by the praise of your young friend. Ever yours T B Macaulay
281
30 December 1845
Lady Theresa Lewis
TO L A D Y T H E R E S A L E W I S , 1 30 D E C E M B E R
1845
MS: New York Public Library. Albany December 30 / 1845 Dear Lady Theresa, I should be most happy to obey your summons. But on New Year's day I am to be at Bowood. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay Let me beg that you will not send this note to the newspapers. I dare write nothing for fear of seeing it in print. 2
TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 4 JANUARY
I84[6]
MS: British Museum. Published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 516-17.
Bowood Jany. 4. 1845 My dear Napier, Your letter followed me hither. In a day or two I shall be in town again. I am, as ever, grateful for your kindness. Of course you were perfectly right in supposing that I was altogether taken by surprise when I saw my letter to Macfarlan in print.3 I do not think that I was ever more astonished or vexed. However it is very little my way to brood over what is done and cannot be helped. I am not surprised that many should blame me. And yet I cannot admit that I was much to blame. I was writing to an active friendly constituent who had, during some years, been in almost constant communication with me. We had corresponded about Duncan Maclaren's intrigues, about the free Church, about Maynooth, and I had always written with openness and had never found any reason to complain of indiscretion. After all I wrote only what every body at Brookes's and at the Reform Club was saying from morning to night. I will venture to affirm that, if 1 2 3
Lady Theresa had married George Cornewall Lewis in October 1844. See 4 January 184I/S]. TBM's letter to Macfarlan, 22 December 1845; Macfarlan, thinking that TBM's declaration in favor of * total and immediate repeal of the Corn-laws' would do him good with his constituents, published the letter in the Scotsman, 27 December. Fanny Macaulay, in her Notes on Trevelyan's Life of TBM, says * I shall never forget his look of horror almost despair when the letter appeared in the papers' (MS, Trinity). 282
William Gibson Craig
y January 1846
the post bags of the last fortnight were rummaged, it would appear that Lord John, Lord Morpeth, Lord Grey himself, in fact everybody concerned in the late negotiations has written letters quite as unfit for the public eye as mine. However I well know that the world always judges by the event; and I must be content to be well abused till some new occurrence puts Macfarlan's prank out of people's heads. As to the suppressed passage1 I am perfectly easy. The words which I used are not in my recollection. But I am quite sure that I threw no imputation on Lord Grey's honor or uprightness. As to his temper and judgment I can have said nothing about them which the public opinion would not confirm, if all that has lately passed were known. I would much rather not come forward as his accuser. But I shall have no difficulty in vindicating all that I have ever said or written about him in the most intimate confidence. I should be much obliged to you, whenever an opportunity offers, to say from me that I am surprised and indignant at the unauthorised publication of a private letter unguardedly written, but that whatever I have written, guardedly or unguardedly, is the truth by which I am prepared to stand. We are impatient for the Edinburgh Review. It is understood that the article on Lord Grey and Lord Spencer is Lord John's. 2 You may as well tell him this, lest he should fancy that you have let me into the secret, if he means it to be one. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO W I L L I A M G I B S O N C R A I G , 7 J A N U A R Y
1846
MS: Scottish Record Office. Envelope: W Gibson Craig Esq M P / etc. etc. etc. / Riccarton / Edinburgh. Subscription: T B M .
Albany London / January 7. 1846 Dear Craig, The insupportable folly of Macfarlan has now, I think, done its worst. Perhaps you may think that he was not the only fool in this business. Yet it is hardly fair to judge after the event. Macfarlan had been in the habit 1
2
The Edinburgh Evening Post reported that * the parties who deemed it their duty to give to the public the recent letter of Mr Macaulay in reference to the conduct of Earl Grey . . . ventured to suppress an important passage in that document, of course wholly without the authority of its right hon. writer. . . . One sentence particularly was to the effect that the Noble Lord, in Mr. M.'s opinion, is "the most arrogant, most capricious, and most wayward of mankind." . . .' (3 January). Since I have not found the MS of TBM's letter to Macfarlan I do not know how close to the original these words are. TBM acknowledges some part of them in 27 January. * Earls Grey and Spencer/ ER, LXXXIII (January 1846), 240-73.
283
7 January 2846
William Gibson Craig
of writing to me about the Free Church politics, about Duncan Maclaren's intrigues, and other matters of some delicacy. I had got into the habit of answering him freely, and had never found him indiscreet. Just after the termination of the negotiations I received a letter from him urging me not to take office except on proper principles, and warning me that, if there were the least chance of our attempting to endow the Roman Catholic Church of Ireland, there would be an opposition to my return at Edinburgh. I answered him hastily as you saw. I said nothing but what every body at every club was saying. I have not the least doubt that the mails of that day carried out five hundred letters on the same subject quite as unfit as mine for the public eye. It had never for a moment occurred to me that any man well disposed towards me and sensible enough to be out of a strait waistcoat would send such a letter to the press. However the thing is done; and I must meet the consequences. Of those consequences there is only one which gives me serious pain. Lord Grey and I can scarcely meet again as friends. It is painful to be separated for life from an associate who, with some infirmities, has many noble and valuable qualities, and all this on account of a sharp word or two written in a moment of vexation and forgotten in half an hour. But I am resolved that, though he may become my enemy, I will not be his. As to the rest, the noise made by this letter will go down, as all noise goes down, in a short time. Any step on my part would keep up a sensation which had better be suffered to die. I should however be glad to have it known that what I wrote was strictly private and that the publication was a breach of confidence. I can scarcely suppose indeed that any body thinks me such an idiot as to have authorised the publication. But as the Edinburgh Evening Post affects to believe that I did so, some contradiction might be proper. I should be much obliged to you to consider this.1 I shall be in London till Parliament meets, except that I shall now and then go into the country for a day. I have just returned from Bowood, and on Monday I shall pay a short visit to Broadlands.2 I hope that you will be able to be in your place on the first day. Stirring times are before us. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
2
Gibson Craig advised that no notice should be taken of the story (Gibson Craig to TBM, 9 January: MS, Trinity). In confirming his invitation to TBM on 8 January, Palmerston added that, though the publication of TBM's letter to Macfarlan was * a great Breach of Confidence . . . it is a good Rule for men engaged in public life to make up their minds that every letter they write . . . may find its way into a newspaper' (MS, Trinity). 284
Macvey Napier
10 January 1846
TO MACVEY NAPIER, 10 JANUARY
1846
MS: British Museum. Published: Napier, Correspondence, p. 518.
Albany London / January 10. 1846 Dear Napier, Thanks for all your kindness. I am sorry to be the cause of so much trouble to my friends. I have received a penitent letter from Macfarlan offering to do anything in his power. I have desired him to be absolutely guided by the Lord Provost. The business is very disagreeable but might have been worse. To say of a man that he has talents and virtue but wants judgment and temper is no very deadly outrage. That I should have expressed myself strongly is not strange when it is considered that I was writing in a moment of extreme vexation. That I should have expressed my self unguardedly is not strange when it is considered that I was writing a private letter. I declare that I should not have scrupled to put this unlucky sentence, with a little softening, into the Edinburgh Review. For example " W e cannot but regret that a nobleman whose talents and virtue we fully acknowledge should have formed so high an estimate of his own pretensions and should be so unwilling to make any concession to the opinions of others that it is not easy to act in concert with him." - There is nothing here that I would not say in the House of Commons. I do not know whether it is worth while to mention the following circumstance. Macfarlan, soon after he got this unlucky letter, wrote to tell me that he thought that the publication of it would be of use to me. I instantly wrote to beg that he would not think of such a thing, and gave as my reason the great esteem and admiration which, in spite of the recent events, I felt for Lord Grey. The first letter was published before the second arrived. You can get this second letter, I doubt not, and you will see that the two taken together shew a feeling anything but hostile to Lord Grey. Whether any good use can be made of this suggestion I do not know. I am very unwilling to be on bad terms with a man whom, in spite of some faults, I greatly respect and value. I rely implicitly on your discretion. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay
285
12 January 1846
William Gibson Craig
TO WILLIAM GIBSON CRAIG, 12 JANUARY
1846
MS: Scottish Record Office. Envelope: W Gibson Craig Esq M P / etc. etc. etc. / Riccarton / Edinburgh. Subscription: T B M.
Albany London / January 12. 1846 Dear Craig, Thanks for your kind and judicious note. Since I wrote to you last I have been furnished with a precise copy of the words which the Edinburgh Evening Post pretended to quote.1 They had quite escaped my recollection; and I am glad to find that they are such as Lord Grey, if he have as much good sense and good feeling as I give him credit for, cannot seriously resent. There is a censure indeed in warm words on his want of temper and on his pride. But, even when writing about him confidentially and in a moment of vexation, I have added that he is nevertheless a man of talents and a man of virtue. Now really I would put it to the common sense of all mankind whether a person who finds himself thus described in a private letter written under the influence of great and just irritation, ought not to be flattered rather than provoked. I believe that very few letters so complimentary to Lord Grey were written that week at Brookes's. I do not chuse to address him directly. But I much wish that in some way or other this fact which seems to me important could be made known to him. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay I am quite vexed that my indiscretion should cause so much trouble and anxiety to my friends.
TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 19 JANUARY
1846
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence•, pp. 518-19.
Albany London / January 19. 1846 Dear Napier, Many thanks. I do not doubt that you judged wisely. The letter is now forgotten here. If Lord Grey chuses to revive the recollection of it, I must vindicate my own veracity. But I hope that a public altercation will be averted. 1
See 4 January. 286
Unidentified Recipient
*9 January 1846
I think that the last Number of the Edinburgh is generally pronounced to be solid and valuable, but deficient in entertainment, and this is my own opinion. Lord John's article is hardly quite striking enough to be Lord John's. It is not worth the while of an eminent statesman to write reviews unless they stand conspicuously out from the surrounding matter. I think too that the party spirit which pervades the whole paper is not quite graceful in a party leader. I should have liked to see some frank admissions of the great errors which the Whigs, like all other men, have committed. I hope that we shall see you in town during the spring. I am working a little at my book, and hope to find some time for it even during the Session. As to any remarks which I may make on Peel's gross inconsistency, they must wait till his bill is out of all danger. On the Maynooth question he ran no risk of a defeat; and therefore I had no scruple about attacking him. But to hit him hard while he is fighting the landowners would be a very different thing. It will be all that he can do to win the battle with the best help that we can give him. A time will come for looking back. At present our business is to get the country safe through a very serious and doubtful emergency. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO U N I D E N T I F I E D R E C I P I E N T , 1
19 JANUARY
1846
MS: Mr T. S. Blakeney.
Albany London, Jany. 19, 1846. My dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for introducing the Archaeological Institute 2 to my notice. I am quite unworthy to be one of your officers, nor would my avocations permit me to attend to the business of the society. But, as I have the happiness of knowing some of the gentlemen whose names are on the list and I am likely soon to meet them, I will try to obtain from them some information about the probable advantages of the scheme. Should it seem to me likely to be useful, I shall have great pleasure in becoming a member. / Believe me, / My dear Sir, Your faithful Servant, T B Macaulay 1
2
Perhaps the 'resident secretary* of the Archaeological Institute, T. Hudson Turner (181552: DNB). A splinter from the earlier Archaeological Association, the Archaeological Institute, founded in 1845, included Hallam, Milman, and Kemble among its members.
287
2j January 1846 TO L O R D G R E Y , 27 JANUARY
Lord Grey 1846
MS: University of Durham. Albany January 27. 1846 My dear Lord Grey, I thought it best, for many reasons, not to write to you on a subject which has caused me much pain, till the explanations which were made necessary by Peel's resignation and resumption of office had been given in both houses. Now that there seems to be an end of all parliamentary discussion respecting Lord John's unsuccessful attempt to form an administration, I do not think it right to let a single day pass without frankly expressing to you my feelings.1 I can truly say that I have always entertained a very high opinion of your abilities, that there is no politician living with whom I more nearly agree in opinions, and that I respect you as a man eminently upright and honorable. There is no person with whom I have been in the habit of conversing who cannot attest that I have always expressed these sentiments. But I should be guilty of insincerity if I were to say that I approve of your conduct during the late negotiations. I am firmly convinced that your motives were pure. But I cannot help thinking that the course which you took was one which, on calm reflection, must have seemed to yourself very questionable. It appears to me that it was of comparatively little importance whether Lord John resolved to undertake or to decline the task of forming a government, but that it was of the greatest importance to the character and interests of our party that, if he undertook that task, he should accomplish it. If this view be correct, it follows that every person whom he consulted, and who was cognizant of any circumstance likely to prevent the attempt from being successful, ought to have distinctly stated that circumstance before it was determined to make the attempt. You were cognizant of such a circumstance. I therefore cannot but think that you should have stated it in such a way that neither Lord John nor any of the fifteen persons2 whom Lord John consulted on the 18th of December should have been ignorant of it. Had we then known that you meant to make the exclusion of Lord Palmerston from the Foreign Office a sine qua non, I am confident that we should almost unanimously have advised Lord John to decline the task of forming a ministry. We gave our votes however in ignorance of a fact which it was most material that we should know. The consequence was that, within 1
2
On the assembling of Parliament, 22 January, Lord John Russell had explained his failure to form a government, naming Grey as one having * objections which it was impossible to overcome' (Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXXIII, 105). They are named in Russell, Later Correspondence, 11,105. 288
Lord Grey
2j January 1846
forty eight hours after it had been announced that we felt it to be our duty to undertake the government, it was announced that our internal dissensions made it necessary for us to abandon the enterprise. I own that I was greatly mortified at this event. While I was still in the first soreness of my disappointment, I received a letter from one of my constituents, an active local politician, a Town Councillor of Edinburgh, Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, and an aspirant to the office of Lord Provost. He had taken it for granted that I should soon be under the necessity of vacating my seat, and he had written to say that my reelection was quite certain if the new ministry would take a decisive course about the corn-laws, and would avoid the question of a Roman Catholic establishment in Ireland. I had been in the habit of corresponding with him freely about election politics, and had found him useful in managing the Free Church party to which he is strongly attached. I answered his letter very hastily and much too garrulously, in the fit of vexation caused by our recent failure. Respecting your part in the business, which was no secret and had already been mentioned in all the newspapers, I wrote three or four petulant and angry words accusing you of imperiousness and impracticability. I added that Lord Grey was nevertheless a man of talents and a man of virtue. The words dropped from my pen as they might have dropped from my lips in conversation. In five minutes I had forgotten them. My correspondent, who is now ready to hang himself, was fool enough to send this letter to the Scotsman newspaper, suppressing a few words. The suppressed words however were repeated till they reached the editor of a Tory journal, who cut out the eulogy, inserted some abusive epithets of his own, and published the passage in this garbled form. I should have cared little or nothing about this matter if I had not, in spite of a little temporary irritation, a sincere and high esteem for you. But to be exhibited before the world as the accuser of one whom I honor and to whom I wish every thing good is a cruel trial, and has caused me more suffering than I can easily express. I would however appeal to you as to a man who knows the world, and who can, I believe, be just even where he is himself concerned, whether you have any serious reason to complain. Is there a single human being who, when he has just been crossed in some important matter by what he thinks the crotchet of a friend, may not break out into some such exclamation as t h i s - " D i d you ever see anything so unreasonable? He is an able man and an excellent man. But did you ever know any body so perverse?" Could any good will be left in society if two or three unguarded words, accompanied too by other words which shewed that there was no real malevolence, should be regarded as a grave offence? Would it not be the height of 289
29 January 1846
Lord Grey
absurdity and injustice to examine and comment on phrases used in a hasty private note as if they were in a treaty or in an Act of Parliament? If indeed I had, in the most private note or in the most careless talk, thrown any imputation on your morals or your honor, the case would be quite different. But it was utterly impossible that, feeling towards you as I did, I could, even when angry, impute to you anything worse than an infirmity of temper from which very noble natures have not always been exempt. Some of the words which I used were indeed unjust to you, and were the expression, not of my deliberate judgment, but of my passing ill humor. For those words I ask your pardon. And now it is for you to decide on what footing we shall hereafter be. It would give me true pleasure to shake you again by the hand. But if, in consequence of this affair, you chuse to be my enemy, I can only say that I am not and never shall be yours. 1 / Believe me, / Dear Lord Grey, Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO L O R D G R E Y , 29 JANUARY
1846
MS: University of Durham.
Albany January 29. 1846 Dear Lord Grey, I thank you very sincerely for the kind and generous way in which you have acted. I return your letter to Lord John. 2 I had seen it before. I have no doubt that you considered it a sufficient notification of your 1
2
Grey replied to this letter on the same day. *I can assure you,' he wrote, 'that after the explanation you have now made to me what has passed shall make no difference in my feelings towards you and I hope we may continue to consider each other as friends. . . . I thought and still think that the proper course for me was to state distinctly the principle to be adopted in forming the Government if my assistance in it were desired, but to abstain from naming particular appointments until asked to do so or informed of the intended arrangements. Whether I was right in this view of the subject or not at least I clearly informed Lord John that I entertained it, and that I did not conceive that I should be warranted in giving my opinion upon any particular appointment, until I should be asked to join the administration and should be told how it was to be composed. I must add, for this is very material, that when I declined (in consequence of Lord John's determination to adhere to his intended recommendation of Lord Palmerston for the foreign office) taking any part in the new Government, I had not the most distant idea that this would lead to the result that followed . . . ' (copy, University of Durham). Grey's role in the crisis has been analyzed by F. A. Dreyer,' The Whigs and the Political Crisis of 1845,' English Historical Review, LXXX (July 1965), 514-37. Explaining * my views as to the mode in which the Government ought to be constituted and distinctly warning him that if not so formed I could not belong to it' (Grey to TBM, 27 January 1846: copy, University of Durham). The correspondence of Grey and Russell during the crisis was published by [J. R. Thursfield], English Historical Review, 1 (1886), 124-33. 290
David Greig
jo January \
intentions. But unfortunately Lord John did not understand it, nor did others to whom he shewed it. You may think me very stupid: but I assure you that I and two or three more fancied that the person whom you had particularly in view was Lord Minto, and that, on account of his near connexion with Lord John, you did not like to express yourself distinctly.1 The circumstance that you were not aware of the effect which your refusal to take office would produce is indeed, as you say, most material. I was not aware of it till Charles Buller mentioned it to me three or four days ago. I admit that it changes the whole aspect of the case. / Believe me, / My dear Lord Grey, Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO
DAVID GREIG,2
30
JANUARY
[1846]
Text: The Times, 26 February 1846.
Albany, London, Jan. 30. Sir, You quite misunderstood my sentiments about the elective franchise. I never in my life said that you who have no votes were not interested in the public weal. God forbid! My reasons for objecting to universal suffrage are very different. I believe that the non-electors are as deeply interested as I am in the security of property and the maintenance of order; but I believe that a very large portion of them do not understand their own interest, and might easily be induced, by the pressure of immediate distress, to act in opposition to their own interest. That this is so, I have proof under their own hands. I refer to the petition which Mr. Duncombe presented to the House of Commons in 1842.3 In that document some hundreds of thousands of Chartists asked for the franchise, and told us how they meant to use it. They avowed that their objects were national bankruptcy, confiscation of the soil, of canals, of railroads, of 1
2
3
Russell was popularly regarded as dominated by his wife, daughter of Lord Minto; as to Minto, Greville, among others, is very violent against him: 'He is in all respects incompetent, cannot speak, and never opens his lips but to blunder, expose himself, and injure the Government' (Memoirs, iv, 247). Not further identified except by TBM's statement, when this letter was quoted by Thomas Duncombe in a speech to the House of Commons on 10 March, that it was written 'in answer to a private letter from one of my constituents, informing me of some scrupulous feelings which he and others entertained respecting the proposed calling out of the militia' (Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXXIV, 888). The Chartist petition, allegedly containing nearly 3,500,000 signatures, presented on 3 May 1842. TBM's speech on this occasion argued that the Chartist demand for universal suffrage would entail 'national bankruptcy' and a general 'confiscation of property' (Hansard, 3rd Series, LXIII, 43-52). 291
j o January [i 846]
David Greig
machinery — in short, the destruction of all property. I was firmly convinced, and am firmly convinced, that such measures would produce indescribable misery to the great majority of the petitioners themselves. I refused them the franchise, not from disregard of their interests, but from the same feeling which would lead me to refuse a razor to a man who told me that he wanted it in order to cut his throat; and I assure you that I have never inquired of any inhabitant of Edinburgh who complained to me of a grievance, whether he was an elector or not. And now to the main subject of your letter. I shall give my best consideration to the measures which may be proposed respecting the militia; but I must frankly tell you that my conduct will be guided by principles which differ widely from yours. 1 I hold defensive war to be lawful and necessary. I conceive that the state has a right to call on every citizen to bear a part in protecting his native soil against assailants. That the exertion and burden ought to be reduced as much as possible, and divided as fairly as possible, is quite true. But I suspect that all the inconveniences which even a vexatious enrolment can produce would be small indeed when compared with the misery which would be caused by the appearance of a hostile armament in the Forth. I cannot at all understand your scruple about joining a protection society. You pay taxes, I presume, directly or indirectly. You must be aware that a large part of these taxes goes to support the regular army and navy. Now, if you may lawfully contribute to the support of a kind of force which has been and may be employed in offensive war, surely you may, without any twinge of conscience, contribute to the support of a force which is, by its nature, strictly defensive, and which is not likely ever to shed a drop of blood, unless danger of the most fearful kind should come near to our own hearths. I persuade myself that your aversion to the use of arms does not go to such height that you would hold yourself morally bound to see Edinburgh sacked by invaders without striking a blow for your home and family. Now the militia is meant to be peculiarly a security against invaders. It is not an instrument of aggression. You must therefore admit it to be, as compared with the regular army, an innocent institution. If, then, you refuse to pay any thing towards the militia, while you are paying the soldiers and sailors who have just been fighting at Buenos Ayres,2 I must say that you strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. 1
2
England and the United States were nearly at war over the Oregon question, and it was widely rumored that the militia would be called up. A combined English and French fleet, engaged in a blockade against the regime of the dictator at Buenos Aires, General Rosas, had fought an engagement in November; the news had just reached England. 292
Secretary, Liberation Committee
26 February [2 846]
If you have any special hardship to complain of, it shall receive my best attention. / I have the honour to be, Sir, Your faithful and obedient servant, T. B. Macaulay. TO THE SECRETARY OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE LIBERATION OF FROST, WILLIAMS, AND JONES, 1 16 FEBRUARY [1846] Text: The Times, 26 February 1846.
Albany, London, Feb. 16. Sir, I cannot agree with you in thinking that the law has, as respects Frost and his accomplices, been thoroughly satisfied. Consider what they did, and what they have suffered. They raised a rebellion, which you admit to have been unjustifiable - led thousands of ignorant labouring men into guilt and danger - fired on the Queen's troops, wounded a magistrate in the discharge of his d u t y - caused the deaths of several unhappy creatures - and would, if their attempt had not been stopped in the outset, have caused such a destruction of life and property as has not been known in England for ages. This is their offence. What has been their punishment? Transportation for about five years - a lighter punishment than has been inflicted on many poor lads for picking pockets. You disclaim very properly all projects of insurrection. But rely on it that there will be insurrections enough, if turbulent and designing men are apprised that the penalty of raising a civil war is henceforth to be less than the penalty of robbing a hen roost. Thinking this, I cannot hold out any hope that I shall vote for any address in favour of these great criminals. I have the honour to be, Sir, your faithful servant, T. B. Macaulay 1
John Frost (1794-1877: DNB), one-time mayor of Newport, Monmouthshire, was the reluctant leader of a Chartist mob that marched on Newport in 1839, when fourteen of the Chartists were killed in a brief encounter with troops. Frost and his associates, Zephaniah Williams (1795.^-1874: Boase), and William Lloyd Jones, were sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to transportation for life. Various committees were now agitating for their release, and notice of a motion for an address to the Queen, praying for a pardon for the convicts, had been given by Thomas Duncombe. TBM spoke against the motion on 10 March, which was defeated 196 to 31 (Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXXIV, 888-96).
293
25 February 1846
Unidentified Recipient
TO UNIDENTIFIED RECIPIENT, 25 FEBRUARY
1846
MS: Mr Thomas B, Brumbaugh. Published: Notes and Queries, November 1972, p. 408.
Albany London Feby. 25. 1846 Dear Sir, I am afraid that you will not succeed in vindicating Niebuhr. There can be no doubt that the penultimate syllable of the name Porsena might, without any blunder, be made either long or short.1 To charge either Virgil or Horace with not knowing the quantity of such a word is unpardonable presumption in a modern scholar. In the first book of the Iliad you have the line Mfjviv aeiSe, Oea, ITnAr|i&6ao ' In the same sentence you have WrpeiSris TE avoc^ &v5pcov KCCI 810s In the first book of the Odyssey you have vocrrfjcrcxi 'OSvcrofia 8af9povcc 6v8e and four or five lines after vocrrov 'O8uaaf^os TaAocai9povos a>s *e ver|Tca. What should we think of a German critic who should tell us that Homer did not know how to pronounce the name of either of his heroes? The truth is that Niebuhr was a most learned and acute man, but drunk with arrogance and with the spirit of paradox. I wish that I had more time to amuse myself with these matters. But I must attend to things more pressing. / Believe me, / Dear Sir, Your faithful Servant T B Macaulay 1 2 3
See 29 May 1835. Line 1; the next is line 7. Line 83; the next is line 87.
294
Mrs Sarah Austin
2j February 1846
TO MRS SARAH AUSTIN, 27 FEBRUARY
1846
Text: Janet Ross, Three Generations of English Women^ rev. edn, pp. 211—12.
Albany, London, Feb. 27, 1846. My Dear Mrs. Austin, Many thanks for you kind letter. I must beg you to convey to M. Cousin1 my acknowledgments for his politeness. I have read his speech2 with great interest, though with less interest than I should, no doubt, have felt if I had been well acquainted with the history and system of the university. I am truly gratified to learn that so eminent a man thinks well of me. But I am afraid that I should sink fast in his estimation if he knew how little I have troubled myself about metaphysics since I was a lad at college, and how profoundly sceptical I am about all the great metaphysical questions. You must be mistaken, I think, in saying that he owes me a grudge about Descartes. I could swear that I never wrote a line either praising or blaming Descartes. It would have been very foolish and presumptuous in me to do so. For I know scarcely anything of Descartes except at second-hand. I should very much like to visit Paris during the full season.3 I have often been there. But, as I could go only when our Parliament was not sitting, my visits have been paid in September and October. I therefore know the quays, boulevards, streets, churches, gardens, and coffeehouses extremely well. I am acquainted with every picture in the Museum. I have also a shamefully vivid recollection of the cookery and wine at the Rocher de Cancale and the Freres Provengaux. But of the society of Paris I know next to nothing. In general, I have been as much alone there as if I had been in the Isle of Skye. I used to put a book in my pocket and to sit reading four or five hours together in the garden of the Tuileries or of the Luxembourg. In fact, all my knowledge of good French society has been acquired in London. Nothing would give me more pleasure than to see, under your guidance, something of the interior of agreeable Parisian houses. I fear, however, that these are not times for such schemes. No English Member of Parliament must dare to think of a holiday before August. Again, thanks for your kindness. I need not tell you how much 1
2
3
Victor Cousin (i792-1867), French philosopher; the most popular and influential professor at the Sorbonne and the dominant public figure in the intellectual life of the era of Louis Philippe. He was a member of the Council of Public Instruction, a Counsellor of State, a Peer of France, Minister of Public Instruction, Director of the Normal School, and Member of the Institute. Perhaps the * Discours Prononce par M. Cousin . . . dans la Discussion Relative aux Cours du College de France,' Paris, 1845. The Austins settled in Paris in 1843.
295
12 March 1846
Colonel Charles Richard Fox
you are missed here, and by how many. / Believe me ever, dear Mrs. Austin, Yours most truly, T. B. Macaulay. TO C O L O N E L C H A R L E S R I C H A R D F O X , 12 M A R C H
1846
MS: Fitzwilliam Museum.
Albany March 12 / 1846 Dear Fox, Thanks for the little Lucan. I shall value it much for your sake and for poor Allen's.1 Lucan is a great favourite of mine; and I shall often use this convenient and clearly printed copy. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 20 M A R C H
1846
MS: Trinity College.
London March 20. 1846 Dear Ellis, I have little or no news for you. What the Lords will do cannot as yet be certainly known. But the prevailing opinion is that they will pass the bill.2 The ministry is just chin above water, and it is all that we can do to keep them so. If we withdraw our support, down they go like a stone. I fear that we shall have a hard struggle in India.3 But I have no misgivings as to the final result. We are anxiously expecting the mail. All that I can tell you about the Yankees is that they have sent us a bullying bragging blockhead of a stump-orator as Secretary of legation.4 A stump-orator, you know, answers to what we should call a tub orator. I will tell you some droll things about this fellow some day over a glass of Champagne. 1
2
3
4
Fox may have been making a general distribution of memorabilia following his mother's death in the preceding November. By obstructionist tactics, the opposition delayed the passage through the House of Commons of Peel's Corn Law Bill until 15 May; it passed the Lords on 25 June. The first Sikh war broke out in December 1845, and was ended in February, following the battle of Sobraon. The news of victory did not reach London until 1 April. Gansevoort Melville (1815—46), appointed Secretary of Legation, 8 July 1845. He was Herman Melville's elder brother, a' fiery Tammany Hall orator who had earned his position by screaming "fifty-four forty or fight" along the length of the American frontier' (Leon Howard, Herman Melville, Berkeley, 1951, p. 96). He so embarrassed MacLane, the American minister, that he repeatedly tried to get Melville sent elsewhere. Melville fell ill of brain disease and died in May of this year.
296
[Margaret Trevelyan]
26 March 1846
Grote has brought out two volumes of his history.1 I have dipped here and there. There is no want of reading, but, I think, little originality or talent. The style is bad, and the spelling worse. Take an example. "The education of a citizen of Phocis consisted in the mythes relating to his gens." 2 Nothing was ever so capricious as the orthography. You have Socrates, Solon, Demokritus, Aktor, Kyme, Diomedes. And yet you have Cycnus, yEacus, and Thucydides. Then there is a lamentable want of poetical feeling in the criticisms on Homer. Grote pronounces the ninth book an excrescence added in a later age. The character of Achilles, he says, is not understood. It is caricatured. He never would have withstood the intreaties and offers of the Greeks.3 The absurd condemnation which Wolfe passes on the last six books is adopted.4 Now if there be any thing more Homeric than another, it is the chariot race in the 23d book. But these are very hasty remarks, and there may be a great deal of excellent matter which I have not read. Let me know when you return. Yours ever T B Macaulay TO [ M A R G A R E T T R E V E L Y A N ] , 26 M A R C H
1846
MS: Duke University.
Albany / March 26. 1846 My dearest little girl, I send you two letters, one from Mr. Longman to me, and one fiom Mr. Leslie,5 the famous painter, Miss Leslie's brother, to Mr. Longman. 1
George Grote, A History of Greece, 12 vols., 1846-56; the first two volumes were published in the first week of March. Rephrased from the end of Part 1, ch. 16: 'If we analyse the intellectual acquisitions of a common Grecian townsman, from the rude communities of Arcadia or Phokis . . . we shall find t h a t . . . it consisted chiefly of the various mythes connected with his gens. . . .' According to Trevelyan, * Macaulay used to say that a lady who dips into Mr. Grote's history, and learns that Alcibiades won the heart of his fellow-citizens by the novelty of his theories and the splendour of his liturgies, may get a very false notion of that statesman's relations with the Athenian public' (1, 444n). 3 History of Greece, n, 244-5. * Friedrich August Wolf, Prolegomena ad Homerum, Halle, 1795, p. cxxxvii; and Grote, History, 11, 262-3. Wolf's book established the popular origin and multiple authorship of the Homeric poems. TBM later changed his mind about the theory: * I confess that the Wolfian theory gains ground in my mind in my own despite. . . . I am more and more certain that bits of different works have been joined, with great art no doubt, to make a whole' (Journal, iv, 198; 207-8: 9 and 15 August 1851). See also the letters of 12 and 21 August 1851 to Ellis. 5 Charles Robert Leslie (1794-1859: DNB), painter specializing in scenes from literature and a great Victorian favorite. His sister Eliza (1787-18 5 8), of Philadelphia, was a popular writer of stories for juveniles and of books on domestic economy. 2
297
26 March 1846
Selina Macaulay
You will see that I have not neglected your wishes. God bless you, my darling. T B Macaulay
TO S E L I N A MACAULAY, 26 M A R C H
1846
MS: Trinity College. Albany London / March 26. 1846 Dearest Selina, I inclose a cheque for the quarter. Have you not received a letter from the London and Birmingham company calling for a new payment? If you have, send it me; and I will do what is necessary. I have still a sufficient sum of yours in my hands. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO D A V I D MACLAGAN, 13 A P R I L
1846
MS: University of Kansas.
Albany April 13. 1846 My dear Sir, On returning from a short excursion into the country1 I found your letter here. I will write to day to Loch,2 and I hope with better success than heretofore. Very truly yours T B Macaulay TO W I L L I A M W H E W E L L , 15 MAY
1846
MS: Trinity College.
Albany London / May 15. 1846 My dear Whewell, I have to thank you for your lectures3 which I found on my table when I returned last night, or rather this morning, from the House of Commons. I studied them while undressing, and at breakfast this morning. And I now lay them down in order to write a line to you before I go to a 1
2 3
Probably the tour to Malvern and Worcester mentioned in 10 August 1851. Easter was on the 12th this year, and it was TBM's habit to return to town on the Monday following each of his Easter tours. John Loch, director of the East India Company: see 31 October 1833. WhewelFs Lectures on Systematic Morality, published in May, are written on what TBM calls, in this letter, the ' sentimental * system.
298
Mr Kemble
26 May 1846
Committee on an Edinburgh Water Bill. I see that the book contains, as might have been expected, much that is striking and valuable. I shall read it with great interest. But I am afraid that it will not terminate the state of suspense in which I have long been between the Utilitarian and Sentimental Systems. If I should ever invade your province, and write a book on moral obligation, I shall take a motto from Cervantes. "Quien lo duda?" dijo Don Quijote. "Yo lo dudo," dijo Sancho.- 1 I had written thus far when your kind letter arrived. I hope and trust that we shall meet while you are in London. I should extremely like to dine in the hall on Whitsunday. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO M R KEMBLE, 26 MAY
1846
Text: Extract in American Art Association Catalogue, 12-13 March 1920, item 564, 2 pp. 8vo: dated London, 26 May 1846.
I stand in need of some encouragement. For I am much vexed at being under the necessity of opposing many whom I greatly respect and with whom on commercial questions I have been accustomed to act. And the pain which their disapprobation gives me is by no means compensated by the cheers and eulogies of the protectionists.2 1 2
Don Quixote, 1, ch. 7. This fragment refers to TBM's speech in support of the Ten Hours Bill, 22 May, the speech that he regarded as his best (Trevelyan, 11, i75n). The issue split the Whigs between those who allowed and those who utterly denied the right of the state to intervene in matters regarding the general welfare. Thomas Matthew wrote of it to Napier that 'it was painful to me to hear Macaulay, and Lord John, cheered to the rafters by George Bentinck and the protectionists - with dead silence in all other parts of the House. Macaulay's speech was well and truly described by Peel as a great rhetorical effort. Very full of matter, and of eloquence of the highest order — but I never can think his view sound, that it is quite safe to regulate the hours of labor by law, provided the question can be brought to one of social health, morality, or comfort* ([24 May 1846]: MS, British Museum); Lord Shaftesbury wrote that TBM made the speech ' at my request . . . on behalf of the factory children!' (Edwin Hodder, Life and Work of Shaftesbury, 1886, ill, 73).
299
2j May 1846
Alexander Campbell Fraser
TO A L E X A N D E R C A M P B E L L F R A S E R , 1 27 MAY
1846
MS: National Library of Scotland. Albany London / May 27. 1846 Sir, Your petition has arrived safe. I will take care that it shall be presented in good time.2 I am sorry that there should be any necessity for such a measure as that which Mr. Fox Maule has proposed.3 But, if the grievance continues, I shall feel it my duty to support the general principle of his bill. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your faithful Servant T B Macaulay TO THE ELECTORS OF EDINBURGH, 3 JULY 1846 MS: Draft, National Library of Scotland. Published: Caledonian Mercury, 6 July 1846.
To the Electors of Edinburgh Gentlemen, I have thought it my duty to accept the office of Paymaster General of Her Majesty's Forces.4 My seat in parliament is consequently vacant; and a new writ has this day been issued. Before the day of election I shall be among you. I shall come prepared to give such explanations as a representative who solicits a renewal of his high trust owes to his Constituents. At present therefore I will only express a respectful hope that the confidence with which your great and enlightened city has repeatedly honored me, and of which I can never think without gratitude and pride, will not, at this important crisis, be withdrawn. / I have the honor to be, / Gentlemen, Your faithful friend and Servant, T B Macaulay Albany London / July 3. 1846 1
Fraser (1819—1914: DNB), a minister of the Free Church, was Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in the Free Church College, 1846-56; he succeeded Sir William Hamilton at the University of Edinburgh in 1856. His major work was as the editor and interpreter of Berkeley. 2 The petition was probably one of the many from the Free Church listed in the Commons Journals, 1846, * complaining of the refusal of proprietors of lands to grant sites for building Churches.' See next note. 3 A bill to enable Free Church congregations to obtain building sites; it was brought in on 20 May and withdrawn on 26 June, after its second reading. 4 On the passage of the Corn Bill all the opposition to Peel had combined to defeat the government's Irish Coercion Bill; Peel announced his resignation to the House of Commons on 29 June. On 2 July Lord John Russell asked TBM to 'have his writ moved next day' (Broughton, Recollections of a Long Life, vi, 180). 3OO
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
9 July 1846
TO MRS CHARLES TREVELYAN, 9 JULY
1846
MS: Trinity College. Partly published: Trevelyan, 11, 173-4.
Royal Hotel Edinburgh / July 9. 1846 Dearest Hannah, I reached Edinburgh last night, and found the city in a storm. The lower dissenters and free churchmen have got up an opposition on the old ground of Maynooth, and have sent for Sir Culling Smith.1 He is to be here this evening. Comically enough, we shall be at the same inn. But the inn, — landlord, waiters, chambermaid, and boots — are all with me. About the result I have no doubt. We had to day a great meeting of electors. The Lord Provost presided. Near three thousand well dressed people, chiefly voters, were present. I spoke for an hour, as well, they tell me, as I ever spoke in my life,2 - certainly with considerable effect. There was immense cheering mingled with a little hissing. A shew of hands was called for. I had a perfect forest. The other side not fifty. To morrow the nomination takes place. It is probable that there will be no poll. If so, I shall probably be in town on Sunday morning before daybreak. If there is a poll, I shall hardly be able to be in London till Friday the 17th. For the votes will be taken on Tuesday: the result will be declared on Wednesday: and I shall not be able to start before Thursday. I rather wish - much as I dislike this detention - that these stupid fanatical brutes would go to a poll. They will never be quiet till they have tried their strength and been soundly beaten, and it is better to have the struggle now than at the general election when they may have organized themselves. I am exceedingly well and in high spirits. I had become somewhat effeminate in literary repose and leisure. You would not know me again, 1
2
Sir Culling Eardley Smith (1805-63: DNB), who later took the name of Eardley, was a leader of the Anti-Maynooth agitation. Cockburn writes of Smith on this occasion that 'he has no natural connection with this place or country, and his being invited to come forward shows the strange way in which all parties are at present jumbled' (Journal, 11, 159). Cockburn also doubted that the hostility to TBM was owing to his stand on Maynooth, since Craig, who also supported the Maynooth grant, was not challenged on the question. 'The truth is, that Macaulay, with all his admitted knowledge, talent, eloquence, and worth, is not popular. He cares more for his history than for the jobs of his constituents, and answers letters irregularly, and with a brevity deemed contemptuous; and above all other defects, he suffers severely from the vice of over-talking, and consequently of underlistening' (Journal, II, 158-9). TBM's speech, at the Music Hall, appears in the Scotsman, 11 July, and in The Times of the same date, * From Our Own Reporter.' In it he ridicules the argument that the Maynooth question is a question of principle, and praises the conduct of the Whigs in opposition as * a model of constitutional opposition — (cheers) — pure from faction — pure from interest — acting under a strong sense of responsibility — and aiming not to obtain power, not toflatterprejudice, but to simply serve the country. (Great applause)' (Scotsman). 301
2
4 July 1846
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
now that my blood is up. I am such as when, twelve years ago, I fought the battle with Sadler at Leeds. I dine to day at the new Lord Advocate's,1 - on Saturday, if I stay so long, at Napier's. The Sunday I shall probably pass at Riccarton. But it is impossible to make any arrangements definitively till we see [. . . . ] 2
TO M R S C H A R L E S T R E V E L Y A N , 14 J U L Y
1846
MS: Trinity College. Edinburgh / July 14. 1846 Dearest Hannah, I wrote to you by the morning mail to tell you that we were going on well. The numbers which I sent were wrong, in consequence of a blunder of the poll-clerks. The votes at the close of the poll stood thus: Macaulay Smith Majority
1735 832 903.
I have just been haranguing some thousands of people from the window of my committee-room with immense applause. The Irish clamour has been particularly loud. The bill will be heavy, I fear, though Craig insists that all expenses shall be common. I shall be glad to get off for 400 £. I must stay in the Albany till Xtmas. Yet I am glad that we have had this fight. It may save us three or four more. - 3 I had written thus far when news came that six or seven thousand people had assembled round the hustings in the High Street, and that I 1 3
2 Rutherfurd. The rest is missing. Marianne Thornton, [18] July, reports the news of this election as it reached Clap ham: 'We have been in rather a breathless state here . . . about the Edinburgh election, our " over the wall" neighbours running in each morning with Tom's letters, which were rather panic struck at first, not that he was ever in danger, but he was surprised at the strength of the Maynooth feeling there, and says he wrote to Lord John to say he verily believed that to pay the Cats would drive Scotland mad. He returned yesterday with his laurels, in high spirits, though poorer by £500 which his election has cost; but I am glad rather, as it will keep him at the Albany till Christmas, and the "Paymistress of the,Forces" as we call Fanny, won't go to live with him till then, and she is too pleasant a neighbour — and indeed he too - to make one wish them away. They all keep saying they shant stay in, but I cant see whats the use of going out, when there's nobody to come in - unless it is young England, who are turning low Rads they say' (to Fanny Wedgwood: MS, Cambridge University Library).
302
Captain Charles Gray
15 July 1846
must address them. I did so, and was again immensely cheered. I am sick to death of this foolery. - l It is now five. At 1/2 after six I am to dine with James Gibson Craig2 and his wife, our old acquaintance Mrs. Pennington.3 To morrow I am to be at a great breakfast party of my conveners, as the chairmen of committees are called here. Then I must return thanks in form, the Sheriff presiding. And then I shall be a freeman. Love to all. Ever yours TBM. TO C A P T A I N C H A R L E S G R A Y , 4 15 JULY
1846
MS: National Library of Scotland. Address: Captain Gray.
Royal Hotel / July 15. 1846 Sir, I am much obliged to you for the Muckomachy.5 It seems to be executed with great spirit and skill, as far as I can judge from the pages over which I have been able to cast a glance in the midst of the hubbub of the election. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your faithful Servant T B Macaulay TO G E O R G E COMBE, 6 15 JULY
1846
MS: National Library of Scotland.
Royal Hotel / July 15. 1846 Sir, I have been, ever since I received your note, too busy to send you an answer, or to read the papers to which you have called my 1
2
3
4
5
6
TBM had already spoken on the hustings, 10 July {Scotsman, 11 July), and 13 July {Scotsman, 15 July); his speeches on this day are printed in the Scotsman, 15 July, and his speeches of 15 July in the Scotsman, 18 July. James Thomson Gibson Craig (1799-1886: DNB), younger brother of William, a Writer to the Signet and a noted bibliophile. Jane Grant (d. 1863), daughter of Sir John Peter Grant and widow of Colonel Jervase Pennington (1762?-! 83 5), married Gibson Craig in 1841. TBM and Hannah no doubt knew her in India. Gray (1782—1851: DNB), a retired captain of the Marines, lived in Edinburgh * devoting himself zealously to the production and the criticism of Scottish song' {DNB). * The Muckomachy; or, the Midden-fect... A Poem, in Three Cantos . . . With Enlargements by the Moderns,' Edinburgh, 1846; an edition of the burlesque poem in dog-Latin ascribed to William Drummond. TBM's copy is item 389 in the sale catalogue of his library. Combe (1788-1858: DNB), was the chief sponsor and interpreter of phrenology in Great Britain.
303
18 July 1846
The Electors of Edinburgh
attention. 1 1 shall now study and weigh your arguments with the respect which anything coming from you deserves. But I ought not to conceal from you that my opinion is at present in some degree different from that which I understand that you entertain. / Believe me, / Sir, Your most faithful Servant T B Macaulay TO THE E L E C T O R S OF E D I N B U R G H , 18 J U L Y
1846
Text: Scotsman, 22 July 1846.
Gentlemen, On Wednesday last, before the excitement of conflict and victory had abated. I returned my warm thanks to thousands of you in the High Street of your City.2 Those thanks I would now, at a distance from the scene of contention, more calmly and deliberately repeat. But it is not, I well know, by professions that you expect me to prove my gratitude. I shall attempt to show how deep a sense I have of your kindness by maintaining strict fidelity to those principles in defence of which you have stood so manfully by me. / I have the honour to be, / Gentlemen, Your faithful friend and servant, T. B. Macaulay. London, 18th July 1846.
TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 20 J U L Y
1846
MS: Trinity College. Extract published: Trevelyan, II, 177.
London July 20 / 1846 My dear Ellis, I sometimes thought of writing to you from Edinburgh. But I had not time to give you a full account of what was going on; and I knew that you would learn the most important particulars from the newspapers more speedily than from my letters. I have many things to tell you. But they will keep till we meet, which will be, I hope, in little more than a week. I by no means like Dundas's appointment.3 Yet it was not easy to find 1
2
A series of papers arguing for the abolition of capital punishment, published in the Scotsman, 4, 8, and 11 July. The English phrenologists were active in social reform generally, and Combe had made a special subject of the treatment of criminals. TBM's speeches on the day of the declaration of the poll, 15 July, appear in the Scotsman, 3 18 July. Dundas was appointed Solicitor-General in Russell's ministry.
304
Thomas Flower Ellis
20 July 2846
any other person in the House of Commons to fill the office. Wilde's promotion1 and the insecurity of Romilly's seat,2 made it difficult to chuse. I was not in town when the matter was settled; as I should have spoken to Lord John on the subject. I mentioned it to Campbell on Friday. He made light of it; and said in a half sneering w a y - "Oh, he'll get on. He'll not be much worse than others." You may suppose that I feel some delicacy about objecting to a law appointment in which two such lawyers as Campbell and the Chancellor acquiesce. For Dundas's own sake I should have wished that he had taken some other place. He will have, I am afraid, the fate of Garrow3 and Home. 4 A worthier than he will be put over him; and he will begin with shame to take the lowest room.5 He might now be made a Master in Chancery or something of that kind without degradation. After he has been Solicitor and Attorney such an appointment would be a degradation. Yet surely no minister will think of making a Chief Justice of him. I have at this moment the disposal of a tolerable piece of patronage, the Chaplainship of Chelsea Hospital,6 light duty, a nice house, coal, candles, and three hundred pounds a year. It would be an exceedingly pleasant situation for a literary man. But he must also be a man of piety and feeling. For the Hospital being full of old battered soldiers, the duty, though by no means onerous, consists chiefly in attending sick beds; and I would not for any consideration assign such a duty to a person who would hurry through it in a perfunctory manner. Is there any among the junior fellows of Trinity who would suit? I do not want a politician; and nothing shall induce me to take a Puseyite.7 The only difficulty with which we now have to deal is the sugar question.8 If we have a good majority on it, London will empty fast, and we shall be able to wind up the business of the Session expeditiously. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1
To the Chief Justiceship of the Court of Common Pleas. Romilly's election for Bridport in 1846 had been challenged; Romilly succeeded Dundas as Solicitor-General in 1848. 3 Sir William Garrow (1760-1840: DNB), after terms as Solicitor-General and AttorneyGeneral, accepted the post of a puisne Baron of the Exchequer. 4 Sir William Home, Solicitor-General and Attorney-General in 1830-4, became a Master in Chancery, 1839. s Cf. Luke 14:9. 6 As Paymaster-General, TBM presided over the Chelsea Hospital Board. 7 The post went to the Rev. George Mathias (1797—1884: Boase), who, like his predecessor G. R. Gleig, entered the Church from the army. 8 The bill adjusting the sugar duties and preparing for their gradual equalization received the royal assent on 18 August. 2
305
2
9 July 2 846
David Maclagan
TO DAVID MACLAGAN, 29 JULY
1846
MS: University of Kansas.
Albany London / July 29. 1846 Dear Dr. Maclagan, I am truly glad that we have now the hope - indeed, I may say, the certainty of success.1 In general the influence which office gives is a mere torment to the possessor. If once in five years he is able to use his patronage or that of his colleagues in a way thoroughly gratifying to him, he should be satisfied. I assure you that nothing which has happened since I came last into place has given me half the pleasure which I felt in obtaining Hobhouse's promise that he would do all in his power for you. 2 Craig has been most kind and zealous; and so has Rutherfurd. I will see whether what you wish as to Bengal can be managed. Of course you are aware that the Bengal army is distributed over so vast an extent that your sons are not likely to have more than occasional glimpses of each other; 3 and such glimpses they might have if they were in different Presidencies. From Madras to Calcutta, in the good season, is a pleasant voyage of four days. But from the Punjab to Calcutta is a journey of a month. With kind regards to your son believe me Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO S I R J O H N CAM H O B H O U S E , 7 A U G U S T
1846
MS: British Museum.
House of Commons August 7 / 1846 My dear Hobhouse, I have read the papers; and, though I am disposed to make great allowances for a man who has received such unjustifiable provocation as the Napiers have given to Outram, 4 I was at first inclined to agree entirely 1
2 3 4
Maclagan had been among the party on the hustings on the day of TBM's nomination at Edinburgh earlier this month. He made the speech nominating Craig then, and no doubt had an opportunity to renew his long-continued siege of TBM for a bit of patronage. TBM now had the promise of an Indian appointment for Maclagan's fifth son, William Dalrymple (1826—1910: DNE). William sailed in February 1847 to join the Madras Cavalry and was invalided home in 1849. He then entered the Church and ultimately became Archbishop of York. Hobhouse was once again President of the Board of Control. Maclagan's son Robert (1820-94) had been in the Bengal Corps of Engineers since 1839. General Sir James Outram (1803-63: DNB), Indian army officer, had served under Sir Charles James Napier in the campaign against Sind, 1843, but disagreed with Napier over the necessity for the war. In 1845 General William Napier published the Conquest ofScinde^ a celebration of his brother's campaign, and incidentally a vilification of Outram; to this Outram had just replied with his Conquest ofScinde, a Commentary, published in two parts
306
Sir John Cam Hobhouse
y August 1846
with you, with the Duke, and with Lord John. 1 But some considerations have since occurred to me which I very much wish that you would weigh with care. The Bombay government, it seems, takes Outram's side, and will not remove him without orders from home. The Directors also take his side and will not give those orders without a Mandamus. You propose to elude the difficulty by sending out instructions through the Secret Committee. I doubt whether you can legally do this. The only instructions which the Charter Act of 1833 authorises you to send through the Committee are instructions which are of a nature to require secrecy, and which concern the levying of war, the making of peace, and the conduct of negotiations with foreign powers. Can you, under such a provision, send out a direction that an officer shall be dismissed for publishing in London a libel on another officer? I really do not think that your proposed orders respecting Outram are either within the letter or within the spirit of the law. I should be sorry to see a power which was given, as you well know, for the purpose of enabling the general government of the empire, in grave emergencies, to provide with speed, secrecy and energy ne quid respublica detrimenti capiat,2 at once perverted and degraded by being employed to punish a public servant who in the heat of a quarrel with another public servant, has been betrayed into forgetfulness of decorum. Now if these objections occur to me, they are not likely to escape the Chairs. Suppose that the Chairs should refuse to transmit your dispatch on the ground that you are exceeding the powers given you by the Charter Act. What in such a case are you prepared to do ? There has as yet been no instance of such a refusal, at least to my knowledge. If the difficulty should now arise, you will be forced either to submit or to apply for a Mandamus. Now if there be the least chance of your having to apply for a Mandamus, you would do much better to apply for it against the Court of Directors without trying to effect your end through the Secret Committee. But I have no hesitation in saying, that, much as I disapprove of Outram's conduct, I would rather leave him where he is than remove him at the cost of a public dispute with the Company before the Queen's
1
2
in July. He blames Sir Charles Napier for impolitic and unjust conduct towards the Amirs of Sind and the two brothers for grossly calumniating himself. The threat of dismissal discussed in this letter was not carried out, and Outram continued to perform important military and political service, becoming Resident at Baroda in 1847 and later distinguishing himself at the relief of Lucknow. They advised Hobhouse to 'discipline' Outram, but Auckland, Lansdowne, and Palmerston thought Outram should only be reprimanded. Hobhouse finally concluded, as TBM here argues, that he lacked the power to discipline Outram (Broughton, Journal, 8 August 1846: MS, British Museum). A legal formula giving unlimited power to the consuls to see 'that the state sustains no damage/
307
20 August 1846
[/. F. Macfarlanf]
Bench, - a dispute in which the civil service almost to a man would very naturally be against you. These difficulties seem to me very serious. And I beg you to consider them fully before you take any step which cannot be revoked with honor. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO [J. F. M A C F A R L A N ? ] , 10 A U G U S T
1846
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library.
Albany August 10 / 1846 Dear Sir, I write in haste to catch the post. I have explained to Mr. Baildon1 what the Chancellor of the Exchequer wishes as to the Spirit Licenses Bill.2 It is very desirable that you should act promptly. I shall be glad to be of any use. Very truly yours T B Macaulay TO L A D Y M O R G A N , 15 A U G U S T
1846
Text: [W. H. Dixon, ed.], Lady Morgans Memoirs: Autobiography•, Diaries and Correspondence^ 1862, 11, 491.
Albany, / August 15 th, 1846. Dear Lady Morgan, I have received a copy of the Wild Irish Girl,3 of which the value is increased by a line which tells me that the author has been kind enough to think of me. I shall always value the book for its own sake, and for the sake of the giver. / Believe me, / Dear Lady Morgan, Your faithful servant, T. B. Macaulay. 1
2
3
The Edinburgh Post Office Directory, 1846-7, lists an H. C. Baildon, chemist and druggist, and a William Baildon, druggist. Designed to prevent the illegal sale of spirits by chemists and druggists and hence opposed by many of them; introduced on 27 July and quickly passed. Originally published in 1806 and now just reprinted in * Colburn's Standard Novels.'
308
Sir Edward Ryan
2j August 1846
TO S I R E D W A R D R Y A N , 27 A U G U S T
1846
MS: Trinity College. Albany August 27 / 1846 Dear Ryan, I return Cameron's letter. His arguments are very cogent, indeed decisive; and I am glad of it. For I should be sorry to see anything proved which would give him pain. At the same time I must say that his feelings are rather inconsistent with his philosophy. When I read his letter I was tempted to cry " L'Aristocrate a la lanterne." What is it to a true Benthamite whether his ancestor who died near a century ago was a rogue or an honest man? 1 Our friend is certainly on this occasion rather a sentimentalist than an Utilitarian. How old Mill would have shuddered to see his favourite disciple2 grubbing among the Stuart papers for materials which might furnish a vindication of a Jacobite who was hanged before our fathers were born! Alas for the weakness of human nature! Yet I like Cameron all the better for it. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO L E I G H H U N T , 10 S E P T E M B E R
1846
MS: British Museum.
Albany September 10 / 1846 My dear Sir, I have great pleasure in inclosing a cheque for ten pounds. I should be glad to be able to render you some more important service. But many months may elapse before Lord John has any pension for literary merit at his disposal; and when there is a vacancy the competition is most violent. I will however try what I can do. As to the Edinburgh Review, I have ceased to write in it, not from any unkindness between myself and my friend the editor, but because I am engaged in an extensive work which proceeds very slowly, and will not proceed at all if I give any portion of my leisure to periodical criticism. / Believe me, / My dear Sir, Yours very truly T B Macaulay 1
2
Cameron was the great-grandson of Dr Archibald Cameron (1707-53: DNB), a Jacobite hanged in 1753 for his part in the rising of 1745; Cameron erected a monument to his great-grandfather's memory in the Savoy Chapel, 1846; it has since been destroyed. Cameron had been a friend of Grote since youth and, through Grote, of James Mill. On the founding of the London University Mill and Grote had proposed Cameron for the chair of Moral and Political Philosophy but had been defeated by a group led by Zachary Macaulay (Alexander Bain, James Mill, pp. 263—4; M. L. Clarke, George Grote, 1962, P- 152)-
22 September 2846
Frances Macaulay
TO F R A N C E S MACAULAY, 12 SEPTEMBER
1846
MS: Trinity College. Albany London / September 12. 1846 My dearest Fanny, I mean to go down to the Temple on Monday. On Wednesday I must return. I suppose that you have received a communication from the London and Birmingham. I have taken my shares, but mean to sell them as soon as the certificates are delivered out, and I advise you to do the same. You will clear, I imagine, near a hundred pounds by the operation. Hannah and Trevelyan start to day. I hope that he will have his full month. But I have my doubts. The whole weight of the business of feeding Ireland and Western Scotland lies on him.1 Since Joseph was at the Egyptian board of Treasury during the seven bad years no public functionary has been so hard worked. Ever yours TBM TO SELINA MACAULAY, 14 SEPTEMBER
1846
MS: Trinity College.
Albany Septr. 14. 1846 Dearest Selina, One line to say that Charles is come with his wife and child.2 They are in good health, but much disturbed by learning since their arrival the death of Mrs. Anson.3 They are at present at Rapp's Hotel. Can I do anything for you about railway matters? Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
As the chief permanent official of the Treasury, Trevelyan was effectively in charge of government measures for famine relief through his superintendence of the commissariat department. His doctrinaire conviction that a policy of unrestricted free trade was the correct one had unfortunate consequences for Ireland: see the account of Trevelyan's role in Cecil Woodham-Smith, The Great Hunger, 1962. To this economic dogma he added an Old Testament conviction of divine judgment: * Trevelyan believed the Irish famine was the judgment of God on an indolent and unselfreliant people, and as God had sent the calamity to teach the Irish a lesson, that calamity must not be too much mitigated: the selfish and indolent must learn their lesson so that a new and improved state of affairs would arise' (Jennifer Hart, 'Sir Charles Trevelyan at the Treasury,' English Historical Review, LXXV [i960], 99). 2 Charles was evidently back from Mauritius on leave. When he returned, his wife did not accompany him: see 24 October 1848. 3 Mrs Charles Macaulay's sister Sarah Anne, wife of Captain T. V. Anson, died on 5 May 1846. 310
Sir Edward Ryan
i5 September 1846
TO S I R E D W A R D R Y A N , 15 S E P T E M B E R
1846
MS: Trinity College. Rothley Temple1 Leicestershire / September 15. 1846 My dear Ryan, I will try to learn what has been done about the Stuart Papers when I return to town. 2 I am ashamed of not having written to Cameron. I will try to repair my fault. He is quite welcome, as far as I am concerned, to reprint the article on Addison.3 I will try to obtain Longman's permission. I will try to learn also what is in contemplation at the India House and at the Board of Control on the subject of native education. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO S E L I N A MACAULAY, 17 S E P T E M B E R
1846
MS: Trinity College. Albany London / Septr. 17. 1846 Dearest Selina, Pray send your railway papers by return of post, properly signed. If I do not receive them on Saturday, I must leave town without doing anything about them; and you will be a loser. I stay a day longer on this account. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO S E L I N A MACAULAY, 19 S E P T E M B E R
1846
MS: Trinity College. Albany London / Septr. 19. 1846 Dearest Selina, I have filled up the blank with the word Cash. You will receive £16.12.6, for your portion of a tenth share, and this will very nearly enable you to pay the 18 £ for the other nine. 1 2
3
TBM left for Rothley Temple on the 14th and returned on the 16th. Cameron was no doubt inquiring through Ryan for information about his Jacobite ancestor (see 27 August). The Stuart Papers were at Windsor Castle, having been acquired by George IV when Prince of Wales; TBM consulted them there in 1848 and 1854: see 22 September 1854. A selection from them (Atterbury's correspondence) was published by J. H. Glover in 1847. Probably for use in Indian schools, but I have not found any such reprinting of the essay. Cameron was now president of the Committee of Public Instruction, in succession to Ryan, as Ryan had been to TBM. 311 11-2
[20 September 1846]
Sir Edward Ryan
I shall pay the 18 £ for you. When the Company sends you your £16.12.6, you may pay me again if it suits you. I shall have no scruple about receiving the money, now that I see how rich you are. Indeed all my brothers and sisters are becoming as rich as Jews. Charles who, this day five years, had not a halfpenny, is now worth 15000 £ , and will have 2500 £ more when his mother in law dies. Half of his property came with his wife. The other half is the fruit of his own industry and economy. He will immediately have near 700 £ a year; and I dare say that some way of doubling his income may be found out. As to Fanny she has opened a separate account at Thornton's Bank, and has a cheque book of her own. I wish that poor foolish Henry would learn from his brothers and sisters how to thrive.1 I think of rambling round the Isle of Wight during the next week. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO S I R E D W A R D R Y A N ,
[20
SEPTEMBER
1846]2
MS: Trinity College.
Albany Sunday Dear Ryan, I send you the papers which I received from Cameron. Will you be so good as to send them on to Mill? I leave town to morrow for a week. When I return, I hope that you will come and hold a council, as we used to do, with poor Malkin, at Calcutta, over a breakfast table. I have treated Cameron shamefully. I dare not think on the number of months or years which has gone by since I wrote to him. However I will write now, and criticize his epitaph.3 My chief criticism is that it is too long by near fifty lines for an inscription. It is not an epitaph, but an elegy. It contains much that is very good. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1 2
3
Henry died of fever five days later, at Boa Vista, 24 September. The Sunday between TBM's return from Rothley Temple, 14-16 September, and his departure for the Isle of Wight was the 20th. No doubt for the monument to his great-grandfather: see 27 August.
312
[Selina Macaulay]
[Late September? 2846]
TO [SELINA MACAULAY?,1 LATE SEPTEMBER?
1846]
MS: Fragment, Trinity College.
[London ?] [. . .] of the highest interest. The letter2 ran thus. "My dearest brother, It is a great satisfaction to me, on renewing my correspondence with you, to be able to communicate to you tidings which will be as agreeable to you as they have been to all the dear ones at home. Not to keep you longer in suspense, Wilber Pearson's railway shares have turned out better than we could have anticipated. His Great Westerns were bought at 83. They are now at 127. His North Midlands are in a still more gratifying s t a t e " - Did you ever hear of anything like it? Ever yours, T B Macaulay TO M R S CHARLES TREVELYAN, 5 OCTOBER 1846 MS: Trinity College. Extract published: Trevelyan, 11, 210.
Albany October 5. 1846 Dearest Hannah, I am truly glad that you got safe and well to Enmore.3 Pray how long is your stay there to be? I am divided between my wish to make progress with my book and my wish to inhale country air. I think that after the next board day at Chelsea I shall start on a short tour. The plague is that my work cannot be spun out of my own brains. I must have my materials around me. The last paragraph which I wrote could not have been written without the Journals of the House of Lords, Barillon's despatches in manuscript,4 the London Gazettes for 1687, and several other books. There will be however some passages which will not require constant reference to authorities; and such passages I may be able to compose and polish in my chaise or at an inn. I dined again at Holland House yesterday. I am afraid that my kind friends there are inclined to be a little exacting. The present Lady gives 1 2 3 4
This fragment is filed at Trinity with letters mostly written to Selina, but it might just as well be addressed to Fanny or Hannah. What follows is evidently part of the letter from Henry to Charles Macaulay mentioned in 14 October 1846. Where Trevelyan's mother now lived, near Bridgewater. Paul Barillon d'Amoncourt, French ambassador in the reign of James II; TBM makes extensive use of his despatches, copied from the French archives for Charles James Fox and loaned to TBM by Lord Holland: see History of England, 1, 29cm. and C. H. Firth, Commentary on Macaulay*s History of England, p. 57.
313
5 October 1846
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
herself, - this is entre nous, - too many of the airs of her predecessor, calls every body by his surname, and seems to think that she has a right to command attendance whenever it suits her. I must be resolute; or I shall be forced, in this dead time of the year, to dine with her thrice a week. She also, like her mother in law, examines and cross examines me when I plead an engagement. She will find herself mistaken if she imagines that the mere name of Holland, or the red brick and gilded carvings of Holland House, will give the right to take the tone which my old friend took. I met yesterday at dinner the son of Jerome Buonaparte.11 could almost swear that he was the son of Napoleon. For the resemblance is quite wonderful. I really should not know the profiles from one another. Such, I am told, is the universal remark at Paris. Clarendon has asked me to go to the Grove again.2 But I have excused my self. I am afraid that he is poorly. I will tell you more about him when we meet. Have you seen the first Number of Dickens's new work.3 There is not much in it. But there is one passage which made me cry as if my heart would break. It is the description of a little girl who has lost an affectionate mother and is unkindly treated by everybody. Images of that sort always overpower me, even when the artist is less skilful than Dickens. Perhaps Baba and Alice are in my head when I read of such things. Give them both my love. My kind regards to Mrs. and Miss Trevelyan.4 Ever yours TBM Charles is going to Liverpool where his wife is. They seem to dislike their new relations the Heyworths5 most heartily. Nor can I blame them. 1
2
3 4 5
Jerome Napoleon (1814-47), e^er son of Jerome Bonaparte (1784-1860), youngest brother of Napoleon. Clarendon's estate in Hertfordshire; TBM was there on 5—7 September. Greville was of the party, which also included Lord John Russell, Sir Charles Wood, and Lord Grey: * Macaulay in great force. If it were possible to recollect all the stories, anecdotes, jests, and scraps of poetry and prose he has given us, it would all be well worth writing down * {Memoirs, v, 346). Dombey and Son began publication this month. Harriet Louisa Trevelyan; she died unmarried. Richard Potter married in 1844 Lawrencina, daughter of Lawrence Heyworth (17861862: Boase), Liverpool merchant and M.P. for Derby, 1848-57.
William Gibson Craig TO W I L L I A M
GIBSON
JO October 1846 CRAIG,
10
OCTOBER
1846
MS: Scottish Record Office. Envelope: W Gibson Craig Esq M P / etc. etc. etc. / Riccarton / Edinburgh. Subscription: T B M.
Albany London / October 10. 1846 My dear Craig, You will have learned that the Post-Office appointments have been given according to Sir James's wish.1 You are quite right about Millar. But you must remember that, when I was in office before, I was in the habit of corresponding with him on all such matters. You were not my colleague. The Attorney General knew nothing of Edinburgh. That wretched creature Forrest was Provost. Under such circumstances Millar became, naturally enough, the chief agent between me and the good town in all little jobs. I therefore felt some delicacy about discarding him. The best course that I can take, I think, will be to communicate on all questions of patronage with you, while you stay at Edinburgh. Millar cannot be hurt by my referring such points to my colleague, especially when that colleague is a Lord of the Treasury. You can then consult with the Provost. He has, I know, so much widsom and good feeling that he will perfectly understand the difficulty of my position. When you come up to town we will consider this matter further. I think that I judged rightly in determining to go to Edinburgh early in November.2 My stay will not be long. I thought of remaining there from the 3d to the 9th. Indeed I must be in London on the 10th. — Kindest regards to Sir James and the Ladies. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO S I R J O H N
CAM H O B H O U S E ,
10 O C T O B E R
1846
MS: British Museum.
Albany Oct 10 / 1846 Dear Hobhouse, The inclosed letter was sent by a bloody Popish priest to Lord Shrewsbury, 3 and by Lord Shrewsbury to me. His Lordship has taken it into his head, why I cannot conceive, that it is my duty to send Roman Catho1
3
The names in this paragraph have all been identified before, but may be briefly rehearsed here: Sir James Gibson Craig; Andrew Millar, Edinburgh merchant; Lord Campbell, Attorney-General to 1841; Sir James Forrest, Lord Provost to 1843; Adam Black, Lord Provost from 1843. Craig had been appointed a Lord of the Treasury in Russell's 2 ministry. See to Hannah, 5 November. John Talbot (1791—1852), sixteenth Earl of Shrewsbury, leading English Catholic layman. The priest, it appears from Hobhouse's reply to this letter, was the Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Maynooth (11 October: copy, Broughton Correspondence, India Office Library).
14 October 1846
Frances Macaulay
lie clergymen to India. I have informed him, with all delicacy, that the Pay Office is pure from such idolatrous jobs, but that there is a den of Antichrist in Cannon Row 1 where something may perhaps be done for the worshippers of graven images. I really think that the matter deserves consideration. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO FRANCES MACAULAY, 14 OCTOBER 1846 MS: Trinity College. Partly published: Trevelyan, 11, 176—7.
Albany Octr. 14. 1846 Dearest Fanny, I am glad that you are so comfortable at Bovey Tracy. You half tempt me to run down for a day. When do you mean to come up to town? I fear however that I shall not be able to go in that direction. I am to be at Edinburgh, and to spout at the opening of a public library in the beginning of November, and, till then, I think that I must confine my self to very short suburban excursions. I think that you had better sell your new allotments. I have always thought so. I do not think that it would be wise in you to buy more London and North Western stock. Remember that you have staked every thing on that one venture. If I were you I would wait till it rises a little, as I hope that it will, and then I would sell largely. But you must judge for yourself. I inquired at the Bank about your deposits, and found that the needful had been done. I have received the most disgusting letter by many degrees that I ever read in my life from old Mrs. Money.2 I can give you no idea of it but by transcribing it, and it is too long to transcribe. However, I will give you the opening. " My dear friend, Many years have past away, since my revered husband and your excellent father walked together as Xtn friends, and since I derived the sweetest comfort and pleasure from a close friendship with both your blessed parents." After a great deal more about 1 2
I.e., the Board of Control, where Hobhouse presided. Eugenia, widow of Sir William Taylor Money (1769—1834), a director of the East India Company and an old friend and associate of Zachary Macaulay in the Anti-Slavery Society; he was Consul-General at Venice at the time of his death, and the father of six sons, three of them clergymen. The parts of this letter that Trevelyan printed, though deleting Mrs Money's name, gave hints enough to enable her identification. Charles Macaulay wrote that *the name of this "old hag" has leaked out— and great is the wrath of the Evangelicals, - for the lady (I knew her well), though an odious creature, is regarded by the Saints as a Saint pur sang' (to Mary Booth, 8 July 1876: MS, University of London).
316
Mrs William Taylor Money
24 October 1846
various revered and blessed people she comes to the real object of her epistle, which is to ask for three livings and a bishoprick. I have been accustomed to unreasonable and importunate suitors. But I protest that this old hag's impudence fairly took away my breath. What am I to say to her? I cannot well tell her the truth, which is that of all crawling things, next to an Elliott and a cock roach, I detest a Money. In order to recommend her brats still more, she assures me that one of them has been curate to that blessed man Mr. Close.1 She is so moderate as to say that for her son James2 she will accept, nay very thankfully accept, even a living of five hundred a year. Another proof of her moderation is that, before she asks for a Bishoprick, she has the grace to say " I am now going to be very bold." Really the comedy of actual life is beyond all Comedy. Three things within the last month have tickled me more than anything on the stage — Henry's letter to Charles about Wilber's railway shares, Zachary's genealogical tree, and this application of Mrs. Money. Answer her however I must. — What can I say? Let me see — Huzza — I have done it. I am so proud of my performance that I will send you a copy. Is it not capital ? — Love to John, his wife, and his children. Ever yours TBM TO MRS W I L L I A M T A Y L O R MONEY,
14
OCTOBER
18463
MS: Trinity College.
Albany London / October 14. 1846 Dear Madam, It is out of my power to be of use to your sons in the profession which they have embraced. The only ecclesiastical situation in my gift is the Chaplainship of Chelsea Hospital; and that situation is not vacant, nor likely to be vacant speedily. The chief dispensers of crown benefices are the First Lord of the Treasury and the Chancellor: and they are so constantly besieged by powerful and importunate applicants that I should think my self very lucky, if, at the end of several years, I should be able to obtain from either of them a comfortable provision for my own brother.4 1
2
4
Francis Close (1797—1882: DNB)y Evangelical preacher, Rector of Cheltenham, 1826-56, and author of such works as 'The Evil Consequences of Attending the Racecourse,' 1827; 'The Restoration of Churches is the Restoration of Popery,' 1844; 'Tobacco; Its Influence, Physical, Moral, and Religious,' 1859; and ' Teetotalism the Christian's Duty,' i860. Charles Money was his curate at Cheltenham, 1845—6. James Drummond Money (1805-75), Rector of Sternfield, Suffolk, 1834-61, had married into the Noel family and was thus connected with Thomas Gisborne Babington and 3 Baptist Noel, two of TBM's aversions. Enclosed with the preceding. Perhaps there was no signature to this, but the lower half of the leaf has been cut off.
24 October 1846
Frances Macaulay
TO F R A N C E S MACAULAY, 24 O C T O B E R
1846
MS: Trinity College. Albany Octr. 24 / 1846 My dearest Fanny, I am truly glad to find that the arrangement which I am, I may say, forced to make will not be disagreeable to you. 1 I think it highly improbable that I shall be a year in office. I have had one contested election which has cost me more than 500 £. Next autumn I have every reason to expect another. The lease of my chambers is drawing to a close. If therefore I were to take a house now, and to quit it in a few months, I should have all the expense of furnishing new apartments. The result of all this would be that I should go out of place about 1000 £ poorer than I came in. The whole interval would be, both to you and to me, a time of constant anxiety. We should never, at least during the Session of parliament, be able to make any arrangement six weeks beforehand, with the smallest confidence. On the other hand, by the course which I now propose to take, I shall be able to settle my self in very handsome and airy chambers, to furnish well, and to pay the charge of both my elections without breaking in on my capital, even if we should be turned out before Easter. If, by any chance, we should remain long in office, I shall be able to save a clear 1500 £ a year. Whenever I resign, I shall make no change whatever in my way of life, except laying down my carriage, dismissing my page, and ceasing to give handsome dinners to my friends. The only difficulty which I have felt was about you. But I was fully convinced that you would see that what I am about to do is for the general interest of us all. Every body whom I have consulted applauds the plan, and tells me that it would have been absurd in me to have acted otherwise. Egenus's advertisement is delightful. You know, I suppose, that Egenus means a man who is starving. Next week I leave town for Edinburgh. I must be back by the Lord Mayor's day. Love to John, his wife and children. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
There was, evidently, a plan for TBM to take a house, as he had done in 1839 during his earlier period as a Cabinet minister, and to have Fanny keep house for him (see Marianne Thornton to Fanny Wedgwood in the notes to 14 July 1846). However, in December TBM took the lease of the Albany chambers numbered F.3 and moved there from his chambers at E.i in January. The new chambers were on the second floor (Anglice) and looked into the gardens of Lord Anglesey's house. Empson called on TBM about the middle of December to find him ' in the act of moving to the next Stair Case - to the chambers of 318
William Gibson Craig
29 October 1846
TO W I L L I A M G I B S O N C R A I G , 29 O C T O B E R
1846
MS: Scottish Record Office. Albany London / October 29. 1846 Dear Craig, I spoke to Hobhouse yesterday about Maclagan's affair.11 do not entertain any doubt that the thing will be done. Hobhouse repeatedly and earnestly said that it should be done if possible, and that he had never lost sight of it. But it seems that the apportionment of patronage does not take place till November, and that therefore he does not yet know exactly what he will have to give. I mentioned our wishes about Bengal; and he told me that he would try to do what we wanted. Be so kind as to let Maclagan know. If I had not promised to go down, I should certainly stay in London at present. For the ministers are all here, and our deliberations, as you may suppose, are of much interest.2 I must start on Friday morning, as there will in all probability be a cabinet on Saturday. Did you ever know anything so infamous as the conduct of the Morning Post about the letters of your two brother Lords. It seems that Worsley3 - Yarborough we must call him now - left some of his papers by accident in a railway carriage. Some scoundrel rummaged them, and found two letters, one from Rich and one from Ebrington. These he sent to the daily papers, none of which, with the single exception of the Morning Post, would do so dirty a thing as to publish them.4 There was certainly nothing very awkward in them, but much which the writers must have been vexed to see in print. Kind regards to all at Riccarton. Yours ever T B Macaulay Craufurd5 asked me to dine with him on Tuesday. But I excused my self- considering my self engaged to you.
2
3
4
5
another Tom, as celebrated in Finsbury and among the ladies: Tom Duncombe — whom a 4th. execution is driving away, I suppose. Macaulay is averse to a House: and his Sisters were averse to his sleeping on the ground floor' (to Napier, 25 December [1846]: MS, l See 29 July. British Museum). Russell gave a Cabinet dinner on 27 October and held a Council on this day. Empson wrote to Napier, 8 October, that 'the Cabinets had been purely Irish: they meet again on the 25th. I suppose to settle whether we must have an Irish meeting of Parliament on this side Xmas' (MS, British Museum). Charles Pelham (1809-62), second Earl of Yarborough, styled Lord Worsley, 1837-46, had succeeded to the title on 5 September. He was Whig M.P., 1830-46. The letters, published without names, and filled only with innocuous political gossip, appear in the Morning Post, 26 October. James Craufurd (1805-76: DNB), advocate; Solicitor-General under Aberdeen, 1853—5; made a judge of the Court of Session as Lord Ardmillan, 1855. He was prominent among the liberals of Edinburgh.
319
29 October 1846
Unidentified Recipient
TO UNIDENTIFIED RECIPIENT, 29 OCTOBER
1846
Text: Extract in Anderson Galleries Catalogue, 3-4 November 1915, item 704, 3 pp. 8vo: dated London, 29 October 1846.
The Committee of Council1 gives a decided preference to schools in which persons of different religious persuasions receive instruction together. TO M R S C H A R L E S T R E V E L Y A N , 5 N O V E M B E R
1846
MS: Huntington Library.
Edinburgh Nov 5. 1846 Dearest Hannah, This letter and the writer of it will probably reach London together. I start by the mail at four to morrow. At five on Saturday morning I hope to be in my bed at the Albany. On Sunday I mean to see you again at Clapham. Yesterday we held our meeting at seven in the evening.2 The Music Hall, a very fine room, not so large as Exeter Hall, but superior to any other similar place that I have seen in London, was crowded. I was on the left hand of the Lord Provost; the Archbishop of Dublin3 on the right. I spoke with immense applause, but without the least self-applause. For it was all poor debating-society stuff, a bad thing well done, a degree and but a degree better than Morpeth's trash.4 However the people hallooed, and waved their hats and handkerchiefs, and talked about my eloquence ringing in my ears, and told me that I was at once a legislator, a statesman, an orator, a wit, a critic, a philosopher and a poet, till I did not know which way to look. The Archbishop kept me in countenance. For he made a much greater fool of himself than I, and that without having my excuse. I was exhibiting in order to please my constituents, in order to secure my seat, in order to save my self the anxiety and the expense of a contest next summer. He was spouting for the mere pleasure 1 2
4
The committee on education of the Privy Council (see 15 June 1839), of which TBM was a member, administered an annual parliamentary grant. TBM spoke on * The Literature of Britain' at the opening of the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution on 4 November. The speech is printed in the Edinburgh papers of 7 November, and in the * Report of the Speeches Delivered at the Public Entertainment in Celebration of the Opening of the Philosophical Institution, Edinburgh, 4th November 1846/ Edinburgh, 1847. Despite his low opinion of the speech, TBM chose to reprint it in his Speeches, 1853. 3 Richard Whately. Morpeth spoke at the opening of the Bradford Mechanics' Institution on 7 October. His speech puts in a good word for history, biography, poetry, fiction, and music in turn, and recommends a drawing school as a means of meeting foreign competition in commercial design {The Times, 8 October 1846). 32O
Mrs Charles Trevelyan
5 November 1846
of spouting. All his duties required his presence in his own province, suffering as it is from famine and from disturbances. What had he, at such a time, to do on a platform at Edinburgh ? And such nonsense as he talked! — I was quite ashamed to see Macleod's face in the crowd. There he was, taking the gauge of our minds and regarding us all with unutterable contempt. When I came to my fine peroration I wished him from my soul as deaf as a post. Just as I wrote these words in came two of my constituents, an artist, and a merchant. The merchant you have seen, Millar, the chairman of my Committee, a shrewd fellow, goodnatured and a staunch Whig, but a little too fond of his dinner and bottle, and much too fond of a job. " O h Mr. Macaulay," cries the artist, "yere Gulliver was the finest thing that I ever heard." 1 "Oh, Mr. Macaulay," responds the merchant, "but yon was a splendid harangue." Thought I, — My good friends you teach me a very useful lesson of economy. What a spend thrift I should be to go to the cost of diamonds for you, when paste serves the turn so well! I am almost sorry that you could not make this trip with me. You would have been overwhelmed with kindness. You would also have found Edinburgh perfectly free from all political excitement, which is of course seldom the case during my visits. However it would have been impossible for you to travel two nights running. I was amused by what I heard from Craig about Impey's book. 2 One single copy is at Edinburgh. Several of my enemies borrowed it in the hope of finding something against me. But it has been too much for them. No person has held out beyond the twentieth page. Mr. Park has brought my bust hither and is exhibiting it.3 Many people to go see it, and it is generally admired. It is not worth while to complain. But surely to carry about and to shew my property — for I have paid the whole price — without asking my permission is hardly an 1
2
3
TBM's speech includes a passage using Gulliver to illustrate the relativity of human standards, with reference especially to 'a little learning.* Elijah Barwell Impey, Memoirs of Sir Elijah Impey . . . Compiled. . . in Refutation of the Calumnies of T. B. Macaulay, 1846. The younger Impey, in seeking to refute what TBM had said of his father in the essay on Hastings, had justice on his side but no skill in bookmaking. Abraham Hayward wrote to Napier that' the man must be an ass to think such a thing could set up his father. Macaulay of course laughs at it' (10 November: MS, British Museum). Patric Park (1811-5 5: DNB\ Scottish sculptor. His marble bust of TBM, now at Wallington, is described thus in the Scotsman, 21 October 1846: 'the sculptor has succeeded admirably in fixing in the marble the prevailing expression of his highly expressive countenance. The general air or carriage of the shoulders and neck, the slight habitual elevation of the head, with the compressed lips, and the frank, fearless expression of the eye, all indicative of the manly independence, the daring honesty, and the unflinching firmness of opinion, which characterise the original, are excellently brought out in Mr Park's bust.' An engraving of it appears in the Illustrated London News, 20 April 1850, p. 280. 321
5 November 1846
Macvey Napier
honest, and certainly not a delicate or gentlemanly proceeding. One of the orators yesterday night was declaiming about the progress of the arts in Scotland. "Have we not," said he, "produced a sculptor worthy to hand down to posterity the features of our honored representative?" I hope that this eulogium will make you value the bust more. How I go on gossiping. I must stop. The waiter announces Jeffrey is below. Goodbye. Love to all. Ever yours TBM TO
MACVEY N A P I E R ,
5 NOVEMBER
1846
MS: British Museum. Mostly published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 537-8.
Gibbs's Royal Hotel / Edinburgh / November 5. 1846 My dear Napier, I had hoped that I should find you here. But on my arrival I learned that you were still in the country. I must absolutely start to morrow morning before day break; and in truth at this time I ought not to be where I am even now. I must therefore give up the expectation of seeing you. Besides the pleasure of your society I had a particular motive for wishing at this moment to have some talk with you. I am charged with a sort of embassy from Palmerston. I had some talk with him a few hours before I left London; and I found that he was very desirous to lay before the world an explanation of the late transactions in Spain. The January number of the Edinburgh Review would, he thinks, be the very thing. The article would be written by Bulwer at Madrid, and would be revised by Palmerston before it was transmitted to you.1 Of course secresy would be necessary. Now have you any objection to keep the last place in the Jany. number for such an article? Be so kind as to let me have an answer immediately. For the distance between London and Madrid is such that there is no time to lose; and, if the paper does not appear in January, it may as well not appear at all. If you approve the scheme, let me know what is the latest day on which the manuscript ought to be in your hands. I need not tell you how much pain the bad accounts of your health have lately given to me and to your other friends in the South. The late reports have a good deal reassured and comforted us. Let me know exactly how you are, and what chance we have of seeing you in London next spring. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1
See 15 December. 322
William Gilson Humphry
2 December 1846
TO W I L L I A M G I L S O N H U M P H R Y , 1 2 D E C E M B E R
1846
MS: Trinity College. Albany London / December 2. 1846 Sir, I am most grateful for the invitation with which the Master and Fellows of our College have honored me. I will not fail to be at Cambridge on the 22nd.2 / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your faithful servant T B Macaulay TO S I R E D W A R D B U L W E R - L Y T T O N ,
14 D E C E M B E R
1846
MS: Hertfordshire County Council. Published: Lytton, Life of Edward Bulwer, First Lord Lytton,
11, 92—3.
Pay Office / December 14. 1846 Dear Sir Edward, On returning last week from the country I found Lucretia3 on my table; and glad I was to see that you had not taken leave of that species of composition for which, in my opinion, you are most eminently qualified. In power I should place Lucretia very high among your works. I doubt whether it will be so popular as some of them for this reason, that the excitement which it produces sometimes approaches, at least with me, to positive pain. The exhibition of excessive moral depravity united with high intellect in three different forms, - with the talents of the great philosopher in Dalibard with the talents of the great politician and Ruler 1
2
3
The letter is among those addressed to Humphry as Steward of Trinity College in response to invitations to attend the College's tercentenary. Humphry (1815-86: DNB), was Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, 1855-86. TBM's brief speech at the tercentenary dinner is reported in the Illustrated London News, 2 January 1847, p. 6. Two accounts of TBM at the tercentenary give a good picture of him at this time: Lord Teignmouth describes *a party at breakfast, consisting of Bishop Blomfield, Bancroft the American minister, Lord Monteagle, Macaulay, and others. Macaulay arrived late, but nevertheless, before betaking himself to his tea and toast, turned round in his chair, and exclaimed, addressing his host [Whewell], as he pointed to the portraits hanging on the wall: "Ha! whom have you got there?" and then in his own rapid way alluded to some of the characteristic traits of each, as they passed successively before him in review' (Reminiscences, 1, 25-6). Empson wrote to Napier of the dinner that 'we dined nearly 400. Whewell, as Master, had the small speeches and toastings: Bishop London, Macaulay, Monteagle, Sedgewick, and Bancroft, the American Minister, were our principal speakers afterwards.... Macaulay was looking fine and stout. He never talks more than he can help about things, which touch his feelings. But, from what one of the young Denmans said, he must have very much felt his Brother Henry's death. . . . I had no talk with Macaulay: to signify at least. For, when we had got aside into a Bow Window for the purpose, somebody came to interrupt us, — the Ladies being impatient to have Macaulay out a [sic] spectacle' (25 December [1846]: MS, British Museum). Lucretia; or, The Children of the Night, 3 vols., published 1 December.
323
i5 December 1846
Macvey Napier
in Lucretia, and with the talents of the great artist in Varney, is frightfully gloomy. It is some years since any fiction has made me so sad. The effect resembles that of Poussin's massacre of the Innocents in the Lucca Collection, or of Salvator's Prometheus in the Corsini Palace.1 It is real suffering to look, and yet we cannot avert our eyes. I hope that we shall not wait long for another work as powerful and more cheerful. Remember your favourite SchillerErnst ist die Wahrheit; heiter ist die Kunst.2 The state of Ireland makes us sorrowful enough without the help of your Children of night. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO MACVEY N A P I E R , 15 D E C E M B E R
1846
MS: British Museum. Published: Napier, Correspondence, pp. 538-9.
Albany London / Dec 15. 1846 My dear Napier, I was sitting down to write to you when I received your letter. Things have turned out most unluckily. But you must not think that I have neglected you. As soon as I received your assent I went to the foreign office and wrote to Bulwer myself by the courier who started that day. He answered that he was about to leave Madrid for the country where he hoped to pass a few days in preparing his paper for you, and that he should carry all the official documents with him. I fully expected therefore that he would be able to do what was wished. To day I have received a few lines from him written evidently in great discomposure. It seems that in his rural retreat he heard of the late ministerial crisis at Madrid,3 and was forced to hurry back to his post. He declares that he had not had even the time necessary to draw up his weekly despatches to the Foreign Office. I do most earnestly hope that this vexatious business will not really be injurious to the Review. I am encouraged by remembering that you had an ample supply of matter, and that the Foreign Office Article would have been a superfluity.4 I shall see Palmerston to morrow, and shall condole with him on this disappointment. I am truly sorry that you speak mournfully of your own health. Ever yours most truly T B Macaulay 1
2 3 4
TBM saw this painting on 6 December 1838: *I thought it painted with great truth and energy. But it was so loathsome that I could hardly bear to look at it' (Journal, 1, 219). Prologue, Wallensteins Lager', last line: 'Ernst ist das Leben. . . .' The cabinet resigned on 29 November but was recalled the next day. Bulwer's article, duly revised by Palmerston, appeared as 'The Spanish Marriages,' ER> LXXXV (April 1847), 490-520.
324
John Leycester Adolphus
18 December 1846
TO J O H N L E Y C E S T E R A D O L P H U S , 18 D E C E M B E R
1846
MS: Free Library of Philadelphia. Burlington Hotel / Cork Street / December 18. 1846 Dear Adolphus, I am living here for the present while my old chambers are half dismantled, and my new chambers not half furnished. Will you come and take a quiet dinner on Wednesday next at seven? Ever yours T B Macaulay TO [ S I R J A M E S F O R R E S T ? ] , 1 22 D E C E M B E R
1846
MS: Northumberland Record Office. Published: The Times, 28 December 1846.
Cambridge2 / Dec 22 1846 Sir, I agree to a great extent in the views which you entertain respecting Mr. Fielden's bill.3 But it would be impossible for me, consistently with my engagements, to be at Edinburgh the day after to morrow. 4 I have the honour to be / Sir Your faithful servant T B Macaulay TO L E I G H H U N T , 27 D E C E M B E R
1846
MS: British Museum.
Burlington Hotel / Deer. 27. 1846 Dear Sir, I will not refuse the note which you sent yesterday.5 But I hope that you will consider it as merely held in bank for you against any pressing occasion. 1
2 3
4
5
Forrest presided at the meeting to which this letter refers and at which other letters addressed to him were read. Where TBM was for the Trinity tercentenary: see 2 December. The Ten Hours Bill, introduced by Ashley in 1846 and, after his resignation, taken in charge by John Fielden. TBM spoke in its favor on 22 May (see 26 May), when the bill was defeated on its second reading. Re-introduced by Fielden in the next session, it was passed in May 1847. John Fielden (1784—1849: DNE)y M.P. for Oldham, was himself a wealthy cotton mill owner. When a meeting was held at the Waterloo Rooms to hear W. B. Ferrand, M.P., and TBM's old Leeds adversary, Richard Oastler, speak in favor of the bill. No doubt in repayment of die £10 that TBM sent on 10 September.
325
3 January i8^y\
David Maclagan
I am at present in transitu between two sets of apartments, and can live in neither, though I am paying rent for both. I am therefore forced to take up my quarters at a hotel, where I shall [. . . J 1
TO D A V I D MACLAGAN,
3
JANUARY
184(7]
MS: University of Kansas.
London Jany. 3 1846 Dear Dr. Maclagan, I have, during the last fortnight, been little in London; and, when I have been there, my time has been so fully occupied by public and private business that I have been unable to call on your son. I shall now have a little more leisure, and I shall try to see him. Craig will have informed you of what passed when he and I went together to the India Board. I really hope that you will ultimately have no reason to regret the arrangement which has, in some measure, disappointed your wishes.2 Your son cannot be at a loss for introductions. But if there should be any person to whom you would wish me to give him letters, you know that you may command me. I am sorry that I was out when Dr. Douglas Maclagan3 called. I should have wished to see him, if only to tell him how much I was gratified by his speech two months ago at the meeting of the Philosophical Institution.4 Very truly yours T B Macaulay 1 2
3
4
The rest is missing. Perhaps the disappointment lay in his son's assignment to Madras rather than Bengal: see 29 July 1846. Maclagan's eldest son, Douglas (1812—1900: Boase), afterwards Sir Douglas, took his M.D. in 1833; he was Professor of Medical Jurisprudence and Public Health in the University of Edinburgh, 1862-96, and became, like his father before him, President of both the Royal Colleges of Physicians and of Surgeons, Edinburgh. Reported in the Scotsman, 7 November 1846, just after TBM's speech at the opening of the Institution.
326
Mrs Sydney Smith TO MRS SYDNEY SMITH, 17 JANUARY
*7 January 1843 1847
MS: New College, Oxford. Published: Lady Holland, Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, i855, h M3-4.
Burlington Hotel / January 17. 1847 Dear Mrs. Sydney Smith, I am truly grateful to you for suffering me to see the sketch of Irish history drawn up by my admirable and excellent friend.1 I perfectly understand the generous feeling with which it was written; and I also think that I see why it was never published. While the Catholic disabilities lasted, he whom we regret did all that he could to awaken the conscience of the oppressors and to find excuses for the faults of the oppressed. When those disabilities had been removed, and when designing men still attempted to inflame the Irish against England by repeating tales of grievances which had passed away, he felt that his work would no longer do any good, and that it might be used by demagogues in such a way as to do positive harm. You will see from what I have said that, though I think this piece honorable to his memory, I do not wish to see it published. Nor do I think that, though it would raise the reputation of almost any other writer of our time, it would raise his. In truth nothing that is not of very rare and striking merit ought now to be given to the world under his name. He is universally admitted to have been a great reasoner, and the greatest master of ridicule that has appeared among us since Swift. Many things therefore which, if they came from an inferior author, would be read with pleasure, will produce disappointment if published as works of Mr. Sydney Smith. I return the papers with most sincere thanks. / Believe me ever, / Dear Mrs. Sydney Smith, Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO U N I D E N T I F I E D R E C I P I E N T , 17 J A N U A R Y
1847
MS: University of Iowa.
Burlington Hotel / Jany. 17. 1847 My dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for the Atlas. Any mark of your kindness and favourable opinion must be gratifying to me. Very truly yours T B Macaulay 1
An account by Sydney Smith * of English misrule of Ireland . . . forming so fearful a picture that he hesitated to give it to the world when done* (Lady Holland, Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, 1855, 1, 142). TBM's letter is in answer to Mrs Smith's question whether the essay should be printed. 327
28 January i 847 TO
Leigh Hunt
L E I G H H U N T , 28 JANUARY
1847
MS: British Museum. Albany Jany. 28 / 1847 My dear Sir, I should hope that you might be able to obtain assistance from the Royal Bounty1 without prejudice to your claims on the pension fund. But I very much fear that two hundred pounds can scarcely be expected from the Bounty; and I do not think, - but here I may be wrong, - that it has been usual to give even 100 £ in a single grant. I will however try to obtain better information. Very truly yours T B Macaulay TO
MRS CHARLES TREVELYAN, 3 FEBRUARY
1847
MS: Trinity College.
Albany Feby. 3 / 1847 Dearest Hannah, I write to say that Trevelyan ought to send a few lines of thanks to Peel for the singularly handsome speech of last night.2 I expressed my own gratitude very warmly as we were going into the lobby after the debate, and told Peel that I should always remember his conduct. He shook hands with me cordially and spoke most highly of Trevelyan. "I had not time to see much of him. But I saw enough to form the highest opinion both of his abilities and of his trustworthiness." Those were his exact words to me.3 1
*A part of the Civil List out of which the British sovereign makes gifts to charities and pays for official subscriptions' (Ivor H. Evans, ed., Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1970). 2 In the debate on an Irish Relief Bill Peel complimented the Irish Board of Works as * inspired by the untiring activity, the integrity, and the devotedness of Mr. Trevelyan' (Hansard, 3rd Series, LXXXIX, 761). Trevelyan's activity in supervising Irish relief is summarized thus by Jennifer Hart, on the evidence of Trevelyan's Letter Books: 'he worked literally all hours, late at night and early in the morning, starting often at 6 a.m. and once at 3 a.m. He even moved into lodgings to save two hours a day for his public duties, sending his family away from home. He hardly took any annual leave during the Irish crisis, and if he did go away his work went with him' (* Sir Charles Trevelyan at the Treasury,' English Historical Review, LXXV [i960], 94). In his letter of thanks to Peel on 3 February Trevelyan concluded by taking the opportunity to enclose 'a confidential Document containing a general view of the measures which have been adopted' (Trevelyan Letter Books, University of Newcastle). 3 Peel did not always speak so highly of Trevelyan: in 1843, after Trevelyan had persisted in publishing what he had earlier told Peel and Graham in confidential interviews about Ireland, Peel wrote: 'He must be a consummate fool. Surely he might have asked us what we thought of his intended proceedings?' (Cecil Woodham-Smith, The Great Hunger, 1962, p. 60).
328
Leigh Hunt
23 February 284?
The blue books are safe, I think, from all serious criticism. I hear murmurs about one or two passages. But those passages are not in Trevelyan's letters.1 I have been working like a slave all the morning. The books are all in the shelves, though not yet all in their proper places. The pictures are hung. The bed stead is up; and to morrow curtaining [. . . . ] 2
TO L E I G H H U N T , 13 F E B R U A R Y
1847
MS: British Museum. Albany Feb 13. 1847 My dear Sir, I have been so constantly occupied since I received your note that I have not till this moment been able to write to you. I will not send back the money which you have transmitted, because I am sure that you will apply to me without scruple if so small a sum would be of use to you. I spoke strongly in your favour this afternoon to Lord John, and he tells me that the next grant from the Royal Bounty shall be to you. Just at present, if I understand him rightly, the fund is very low, and some weeks must pass before it is replenished. I will take care to remind him. I am glad that you have fallen in with so liberal a bookseller.3 Very truly yours, T B Macaulay TO S I R E D W A R D B U L W E R - L Y T T O N , 20 F E B R U A R Y
1847
MS: Hertfordshire County Council. Partly published'.-Lytton, Life of Edward Bulwer, First Lord Lytton, II, 93-4.
Albany London / February 20. 1847 My dear Sir Edward, The nomination of a successor to Napier4 rests absolutely with Longman's house; nor have I any right to interfere, except with my advice when it is asked. For I have during some years desisted from writing articles, and have no intention at present of resuming my character of contributor. I do not believe that residence in Scotland will be required. 1
The reference is to the two volumes of Correspondence . . . Relating to the Measures Adopted for the Relief of Distress in Ireland, Parliamentary Papers, 1847, L-LI. The rest is missing. 3 George Smith (1824—1901: DNB), one of the most successful and liberal of Victorian publishers, published all of Hunt's books from 1844. 4 Napier died on 11 February and was succeeded by Empson. 2
329
3 March i84y
Thomas Flower Ellis
But from what I have gathered from Mr. Thomas Longman I should say that there are two, if not three persons, to whom he would be disposed to apply before addressing himself to Mr. Forster.1 Mr. Forster's talents and knowledge are unquestionable. I have not the honor of knowing him personally, though I once met him at your house; and therefore I am not competent to judge whether he possesses some other qualities which, though less important to a writer, are scarcely less important to an editor whose throne, as I have heard Jeffrey say, resembles that of a feudal King surrounded by powerful, proud, and turbulent Barons, impatient of controul and ready on the slightest provocation to make war on their Sovereign or on each other. But I cannot doubt that Longman would give most respectful attention to any communication made to him by you. I ought to have earlier thanked you for your Word to the Public.2 It was not needed as far as I was concerned. For, though, as I honestly told you, the effect of your last work on me was, like the effect of some fine Martyrdoms which I have seen in Italy, more painful than a great artist should try to produce, I utterly detest and despise that cry of immorality which was raised against you. The names of those who raised it I do not know; but I cannot doubt that they wrote under the influence of personal enmity. Your vindication is undoubtedly well written and with great temper and dignity. But I am not sure that I should not have recommended silence as the best punishment for malignant scurrility. Very truly yours T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 3 M A R C H
1847
MS: Trinity College.
House of Commons / March 3. 1847 Dear Ellis, I have to sit here from noon till six; and, as a great fool is at present speaking, I may as well write to you as listen to him. 3 1 have just received 1
2
3
John Forster (1812-76: DNB), the friend and biographer of Dickens, was also a close friend of Bulwer-Lytton. He was a contributor to the Examiner, and later in this year became its editor. Forster wrote much for many different periodicals, published several studies of eighteenth-century literary subjects, and was widely acquainted among the writers of his day. He had published a few things in the ER, but was not one of its inner circle. TBM seems to hint in this letter at the well-known fact that Forster was pugnacious, arbitrary, and possessive. 'A Word to the Public: Containing Hints toward a Critical Essay upon the Artistic Principles and Ethical Designs of Fiction,' a pamphlet published in reply to the critics of BulwerLytton's Lucretia and reprinted as an appendix to later editions of that novel. Since there were twelve speakers in the debate on the Factory Bill on this day, it is impossible to say which one was the fool.
330
Thomas Flower Ellis
3 March 184J
a letter from Mrs. Trevelyan which will give you pleasure. After saying how happy she shall be to take Marian to Cambridge if you should be unable to go, she adds " Marian called here yesterday, and sate some time. I was extremely pleased." (The underlining is Hannah's own, after the fashion of ladies.) "I think her one of the most admirable girls I ever met with, — very superior both morally and intellectually." I asked Trevelyan what he would recommend you to do about this Irish distress. He says that, if you know an Irish proprietor in whose judgment and humanity you can really confide, you cannot do better than to send your contribution to such a person. He thinks however that at present the Committee in London is acting well and is doing much to relieve the misery. On Saturday Dundas gives a legal dinner at the Clarendon and has asked me. I hope that he will prove as pleasant a host as he is a guest. The Prince has accepted in form. 1 I wish that you would employ your spare hours on the circuit in composing an Ode or pastoral on the occasion. The pastoral is the best form. Two swains lament the death of Damcetas who ruled Arcadia so well, and who dedicated to the Muses the beautiful carved bowl. Then describe the vase which the late Chancellor placed in front of the Schools.2 Then comes the question who is to succeed Damcetas. Menalcas sings the praises of Damon the Cambrian goatherd, the pious worshipper of the Gods.3 Lycidas on the other side magnifies Thyrsis, the most beautiful of shepherds, and the favoured lover of the Dryad who protects the flocks and herds of the region from wolves and bears. At length the rustics by acclamation pronounce for Thyrsis. The Dryad comes in person to the inauguration, and promises to bless the supporters of her lover with fruitful seasons. She pronounces a curse on his opponents, and dooms their fields to sterility and their live stock to murrain. This, I think, will do well in Greek, Latin, or English. Ever yours, T B Macaulay 1
The Duke of Northumberland, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, died on 12 February. Despite his refusal to stand if there should be a contested election, Prince Albert was put in nomination for the Chancellorship by the liberals of Cambridge under Whewell in opposition to the Tory candidate Lord Powis. TBM was a member of the Prince's London Committee, formed on 22 February. After a close and acrimonious contest, in which the press was hostile to Albert, he was elected on 27 February by a majority of 117 votes, a narrow margin in an unprecedentedly large vote. Albert accordingly hesitated to accept election but did so on 2 March: see Winstanley, Early Victorian Cambridge,
2
A bronze copy, given by the Duke of Northumberland in 1842, of the marble vase at Warwick Castle found in a lake at Hadrian's villa; it stands in the center of Senate House Yard. Powis was a Tractarian.
pp. 106-20.
3
331
i5 March 184J
Thomas Flower Ellis
TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 15 M A R C H
1847
MS: Trinity College. Albany London / March 15. 1847 Dear Ellis, I hope that I have used your ten pounds well. I have sent it to the Highlands where it will do good rather than to Ireland where it would probably have been useless. Of all the Scotch proprietors who have behaved well at this conjuncture, the Chief of the Macleods1 is allowed to have behaved the best. He spent all that he had on his people, and was at last forced to ask assistance in the way of seed for next year. The Treasury on principle was unwilling to send public money for the purpose. But the Chancellor of the Exchequer2 and Trevelyan got up a private subscription which has had great success. Trevelyan shewed me the list yesterday. He has actually raised near 8oo£; and he is confident that every farthing will be applied judiciously and economically in sowing the land. He says that it is the way in which a man may lay out his alms with the greatest certainty of benefiting the country. I have given ten pounds for myself, though I had previously contributed as much as I meant to contribute; and I have also paid ten pounds for you. I do not think that there will be an Irish article in the forthcoming Edinburgh Review.3 But I am not quite certain. It would be too late for anybody to begin on such an article now. I will mention Adair's tract4 to Empson. The riddle is very good. As to the installation, I only hope that it may not fall at the same time with the general election.5 Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
2 3 4
5
Norman Macleod (1812-95), twenty-second chief of the clan, * encumbered his estates in giving relief during the great famine of 1847* (Harrow School Register), and took a position as assistant secretary to the Head of the Department of Science and Art, South Kensington, 1852-73. Sir Charles Wood. There is none. Robert A. S. Adair, 'The Winter of 1846-7 in Antrim, with Remarks on Out-door Relief and Colonization,* 1847. Albert was installed at Cambridge on 6 July; the general election came at the end of the month.
332
William Whewell
25 March 1843
TO W I L L I A M W H E W E L L , 25 M A R C H
1847
MS: Trinity College. Albany London / March 25. 1847 Dear Whewell, I have just received your charming volume.1 You and Herschel have not quite satisfied me that the ancient metres are well suited to our language. But you have satisfied me of what is much more important that a genius for poetry and a genius for the severest sciences are perfectly compatible. When we meet, I will explain my doubts about the use of hexameters and pentameters in English. I own that I wish to see you employed in cultivating indigenous plants instead of exotics. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO S E L I N A MACAULAY, 26 M A R C H
1847
MS: Trinity College. Albany London / March 26. 1847 My dearest Selina, I send you ten pounds. You will have thirty to receive at Midsummer. Your shares shall be looked after in proper time. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 29 M A R C H
1847
MS: Trinity College. House of Commons / March 29. 1847 Dear Ellis, I got both your letters this morning. I have made some inquiries, and I am sorry to say that the result is not encouraging. It is believed that Glyn,2 the great banker and Chairman of the London and North Western Railway Company means to start. Now, if this be so, he must be acting in concert with Edward Cropper who is his intimate friend and his favourite colleague in the railway direction. The Wakefield3 interest is therefore 1
2
3
English Hexameter
Translations from Schiller, Go'the, Homer,
Callinus, and
Meleager,
published in March, with contributions from Whewell, Herschel, J. C. Hare, and E. C. Hawtrey. George Carr Glyn (1797-1873), afterwards first Baron Wolverton, a partner in Glyn, Mills, Currie and Co., was returned for Kendal in this year's general election. The Wakefield family of Kendal, to whom Edward Cropper was connected by his first marriage.
333
4 April 184J
Lord Morpeth
engaged, and Tufnell,1 whom I pumped without mentioning your name, says that the government interest will be on the same side. As it is possible that the arrangement may, in some way or other, be broken off, I have written to Edward in terms as strong as I could find to bespeak his good offices for you in that event. I leave town on Thursday with the Trevelyans for Lincoln and York. We must all be in London again on Monday. Dine with me on Tuesday or Wednesday, and let me know which. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO L O R D M O R P E T H , 4 A P R I L
1847
MS: The Honorable George Howard.
York April 4. 1847 My dear Morpeth, I assure you that, if it had been in my power to accept your kind invitation, I should have had the greatest pleasure in doing so. There is no sight which I should more wish to shew to Trevelyan and my sister than Castle Howard. But we must absolutely be in town to morrow evening. Pray tell Lady Carlisle2 that I am most sensible of her kindness. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , [17 A P R I L 1847]3 MS: Trinity College. Extract published: Trevelyan, II, 14m
Albany Saturday Dear Ellis, Our visit to the Museum must be postponed for a short time. Yesterday morning we received news of the death of poor little Charley Cropper,4 - a good, clever, promising boy of thirteen. What his father will do I do not know. For the loss is to him what the loss of all your children at once would be to you; and his mind has no elasticity. I feel the calamity much, and am little in the humour to exert myself, which however I must do as the government look to me for help in the education debate,5 1
2 3 4 5
Henry Tufnell (1805-54: DNB), Whig M.P. for Ipswich and Secretary to the Treasury, served as a Parliamentary Whip under Russell. Georgiana (1783—1858), Countess of Carlisle, Morpeth's mother. Dated by the reference to Charles Cropper's death, which occurred on 15 April. He died, like his mother, of scarlet fever at Dingle Bank (see 8 February 1835). The government proposed to increase the annual grant administered by the Committee on Education of the Privy Council to £100,000, to support the training of teachers. The proposal met the usual opposition from Dissenters and other groups fearful of the influence of the Established Church but was successfully passed. TBM's speech in favor of the grant, 19 April (Hansard, 3rd Series, xci, 1006-26), was separately reprinted and is included in the authorized Speeches.
334
[/. F. Macfarlan?\
20 April 184J
and the crisis is not one for shirking. Clapham was a sad place yesterday. Margaret and George who were very fond of their poor cousin did nothing but cry from morning to night. I had left the dear boy my library, little expecting that I should ever wear mourning for him. I wish that you would come and dine here on Wednesday. By that time I hope that the education debate or at least my share of it which at present annoys me much will be over. We shall also be then able to settle about the Museum. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO [J. F. M A C F A R L A N ? ] , 20 A P R I L
1847
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library.
Albany April 20. 1847 My dear Sir, Business both public and domestic has prevented me from answering your letter of the 15 th till to day. I have had a glimpse of the Lord Provost, and I hope soon to be able to talk over with him fully the matters to which your letter relates. But to day we can think of nothing but education. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 14 MAY
1847
MS: Trinity College.
Albany / May 14. 1847 Dear Ellis, I am sorry that you should be prevented from joining our party, and prevented in so shocking and distressing a manner. - 1 have talked with Le Marchand1 and others about Dover. I did not mention your name. They all said that it was the last seat which they would advise any friend to aim at. Reid,2 they tell me, manages to keep in by means of patronage without direct bribery. But nobody could unseat him without a large expenditure of money, three thousand pounds, Le Marchand said. And even this is not the worst. The Dover people are notorious for perfidy to their representatives. They have repeatedly pocketed their wages, and 1
2
Sir Denis Le Marchant (1795—1874: DNB), was Under-Secretary for the Home Department. Sir John Rae Reid (1791—1867: Boase), M.P. for Dover since 1830; his firm failed in this year, and Reid did not sit in Parliament again.
335
14 May 284?
Thomas Flower Ellis
then peached. The opinion of Le Marchand is that anybody who succeeds in unseating Reid runs great risk of being himself unseated on petition. I attach more value to this information because it is certainly not given from any tenderness for Reid, whom all our people abhor. Your position, I find, is by no means singular. I have heard lately of two or three Whigs who are, like you, desirous to come into the next parliament, but who had scruples about paying for votes. Slaney is watching Shrewsbury just as you have been watching Oxford, in the hope that, just at the last moment, he may be able to slip in without corruption. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 14 MAY
1847
MS: Trinity College.
Albany May 14. 1847 Dear Ellis, I see that Cardwell1 gives up Clitheroe. I may not have an opportunity of learning anything about the seat till to morrow. But you may know something, or may, through Lancashire people, have means of knowing something. I do not believe that there are freemen there, or that the place is in bad repute as corrupt. But I am writing in ignorance. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 31 MAY
1847
MS: Trinity College.
House of Commons / May 31. 1847 Dear Ellis, A single line to say that Sandon, as well as Sir Howard Douglas,2 leaves Liverpool. Both seats are vacant at once. Can you do anything there? Ever yours TBM 1
2
Edward Cardwell (1813-86: DNB), afterwards first Viscount Cardwell, was Peelite M.P. for Clitheroe, 1842-7; in the coming general election he was returned for Liverpool. Cardwell held office under Peel, Aberdeen, Palmerston, Palmerston and Russell, and, most notably, under Gladstone, as Secretary for War, 1868—74. He was remotely connected to the Macaulays through his marriage to Annie, sister of the James Parker who married Mary Babington. General Sir Howard Douglas (1776-1861: DNB), M.P. for Liverpool, 1842-7.
336
Leigh Hunt TO L E I G H H U N T , [25 J U N E
[25 June 2843] 1847]
MS: British Museum. [London] Dear Sir, I give you joy with all my heart. 1 1 will not send back the note, though I meant it as a gift and not as a loan. If you should want any little accommodation before your pension falls due, I trust that you will let me know. I will ask Lord John whether he would wish his letter to be kept secret. I imagine that you will draw the first quarter of your pension at Michaelmas. But I will inquire. Very truly yours T B Macaulay TO L E I G H H U N T , 26 J U N E
1847
MS: The Carl H. Pforzheimer Library. Partly published: Hunt, Correspondence, 11, 7.
Albany June 26. 1847 My dear Sir, I spoke to Lord John yesterday about you. He asked me to decide whether there would be any impropriety in publishing his letter and I told him that in my opinion it could do him nothing but honor. You may therefore use your discretion.2 One thing I must ask of you as a personal favour. Let all your acknowledgements be to the Queen and to Lord John. Indeed your real benefactor is Lord John. The pension fund is absolutely at his disposal, and he selected you from among twenty people whose claims were pressed on him by different solicitors. He ought therefore to have the undivided credit. The first quarter of your pension will be due, the Secretary of the Treasury tells me, on the 1st of October. Very truly yours T B Macaulay 1
2
Lord John Russell wrote to Hunt on 22 June to inform him that he had been granted a pension of £200 (Hunt, Correspondence, 11, 94). This is the letter referred to below. Apparently Hunt did not publish the letter at the time, but items about Hunt's pension in the Athenaeum and the Examiner both paraphrase Russell's compliments to Hunt.
337
28 June 184J TO LEIGH HUNT, 28 JUNE
Leigh Hunt 1847
MS: British Museum.
Albany June 28 / 1847 Dear Sir, I inclose you a cheque for 50 £. I have not seen Lord John since I heard from you last. But I cannot doubt that your letter has reached him safely. I will shew him what you have written on the subject of amateur performances.1 Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO J. F. M A C F A R L A N , [ J U N E ? - J U L Y ? 1847]2 Text: Maggs Brothers Catalogue 551, Christmas, 1930, item 2118: dated London, 1847.
No bill for regulating the trade in medicines is before parliament; nor, as far as I know has any motive [notice?] been given on the subject. Perhaps, if the medical committee3 of which I am chairman should be renewed next session, it might be proper to refer to that committee the question whether Chemists and Druggists ought not to be registered and whether their skill ought not to be ascertained by some examination. TO U N I D E N T I F I E D R E C I P I E N T , 7 J U L Y
1847
MS: Bodleian Library.
House of Commons / July 7. 1847 Sir, The clerkships in my own office are not in my gift, but are bestowed by the Board of Treasury; and at the present moment it is extremely difficult to procure such situations in any department of the government. 1
2 3
Hunt wrote to TBM on 26 June to say that some friends of his had planned to give amateur performances for Hunt's benefit at Covent Garden, Manchester, and Liverpool. News of Hunt's pension determined them to give up the Covent Garden performance, but they still planned the others. Hunt wished, through TBM, to inform Lord John Russell that they were intended only to give ' my numerous zealous friends . . . their desired opportunity of "congratulating" me on her Majesty's goodness' (copy, University of Iowa). The committee to which TBM refers in this letter was appointed on 21 May; the session of Parliament ended on 23 July: the letter must thus fall between the two dates. A select committee appointed to consider the question of a plan for medical registration included, besides TBM, Thomas Wakley, Sir James Graham, Sir Robert Inglis, George Hamilton, Benjamin Hawes, and others. The committee sat eight times between 4 June and 15 July to hear evidence, the minutes of which constitute its Report, dated 16 July {Parliamentary Papers, 1847, IX, 283—564).
338
Thomas Flower Ellis
23 July 184?
I hope however to see you in no long time, and to learn from you more accurately what your son's age, habits, and education have been. I shall then be better able than I now am to say that hopes I can hold out to him. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your faithful Servant T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 13 J U L Y
1847
MS; Trinity College.
Albany London / July 13. 1847 Dear Ellis, In all probability the prorogation will take place on Friday the 24th, and the dissolution on the following day.1 You may be quite easy about your report.2 The vote for the charge of the Commission has passed the Committee of Supply, and has been reported. Nothing more will be said on the subject this Session. Let me know on what day you expect to be in town. I wish to see you before I start for Edinburgh that we may make arrangements for our tour. 3 Ever yours T B Macaulay TO THE E L E C T O R S O F E D I N B U R G H , 19 J U L Y
1847
Text: Scotsman, 21 July 1847.
Gentlemen, It is probable that our connexion - a connexion which, while I live, must ever be respectfully and gratefully remembered by me - will in a few days be dissolved, and that you will be free to determine whether it shall be renewed. When my duties cease to detain me here, I shall hasten to present myself before you. I shall then offer such explanations of my conduct and of my opinions as may enable you to decide whether you will commit to me once more that high and honourable trust which I have already received from you four times in the short space of eight years. In the mean time, I think it sufficient to assure you that I adhere, and 1 2
3
Both prorogation and dissolution took place on 23 July. The State of the Criminal Law in the Channel Islands; Jersey, Parliamentary Papers, 1847, xv, 101. Ellis was one of the two commissioners appointed to this inquiry. To Holland: see to Russell, 6 August.
339
22 July 184J
Anthony Pani'tfi
shall adhere, in office as in opposition, to those principles which first recommended me to your favour. / 1 have the honour to be, / Gentlemen, Your faithful servant, T. B. Macaulay. London, July 19, 1847.
TO A N T H O N Y P A N I Z Z I , 21 J U L Y
1847
MS: Harvard University. House of Commons / July 21. 1847 Dear Panizzi, Remember to be at the Trafalgar Hotel,1 Greenwich, on Saturday at seven precisely. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO M A R G A R E T T R E V E L Y A N , 28 J U L Y
1847
MS; Trinity College. Edinburgh2 July 28 / 1847 My dearest Baba, I received your pretty letter this morning; and I thank you for it. I assure you that I care a great deal more about you than about my election, and am more pleased at having such a dear good little niece than at being a member of parliament and a minister. On Friday the election will be over; and on Saturday evening you may hear the result at Broadstairs. My friends think that I am safe. But I care very little about the matter. Whether I am in parliament or not, I hope to visit you at Broadstairs, and to read the Italian work which you have done me the honor to dedicate to me. Give my love to Aunt Fanny and George and Alice. I want to hear how Alice likes bathing. Ever yours, my darling T B Macaulay 1 2
One of TBM's favorite places, where he often dined alone or entertained his friends. TBM arrived in Edinburgh for the election between 24 and 27 July; on the latter date he made a speech to the electors at the Music Hall {Scotsman, 28 July).
340
Mrs Charles Trevelyan TO MRS CHARLES TREVELYAN, 30 JULY
30 July 284J 1847
MS: Trinity College. Partly published: Trevelyan, 11, 187.
Edinburgh July 30. 1847 Dearest Hannah, I hope that you will not be much vexed; for I am not vexed, but as cheerful as ever I was in my life. I have been completely beaten.1 The poll has not closed; but there is no chance that I shall retrieve the lost ground. Radicals, Tories, Dissenters, Voluntaries, Free Churchmen, spirit drinkers who are angry because I will not pledge myself to repeal all taxes on whiskey,2 and great numbers of persons who are jealous of my chief supporters here and think that the patronage of Edinburgh has been too exclusively distributed among a clique, have united to bear me down. I will make no hasty resolutions. But everything seems to indicate that I ought to take this opportunity of retiring from public life. Indeed many months must in all probability pass before I could get into parliament for any other place, even if I were so inclined: and it seems to me to be the most dignified course at once to retire, and finally. However I will take a few days for consideration. To morrow I shall start by the express train at seven in the morning, and shall reach my chambers, I hope, between nine and ten in the evening. I am much more concerned about my dear Baba's eyes than about the loss of my election. I hope and trust that she will not be forced to forego the journey from which she promised herself so much pleasure. Thank her from me for her acrostic. Mr. Cowan's3 name will do very well for the blank space. On Monday I shall run down to Cambridge4 and back again. Let me hear from you before you leave England. Love to all. Ever yours TBM Thanks to Fanny for her kind letter. I shall write to her soon. 1
2 3
4
TBM and Gibson Craig were opposed by Charles Cowan and Peter Blackburn, a Tory. Cowan and Craig were elected; TBM stood third. As Marianne Thornton reported it, * Tom Macaulay says he is a martyr to his attachment to Bishops, they made an effigy one and burnt it at him at Edinburgh, but he said " those Kirk fellows dont understand dressing Bishops, for they made him a white stomach and black sleeves'" (to Fanny Wedgwood, n.d.: MS, Cambridge University Library). TBM's defeat was a surprise, since on the issues in question his record was indistinguishable from Craig's. TBM was opposed by the wine and spirit merchants, but over a question of the method of collecting the excise, not the tax itself. Charles Cowan (1801-89: Boase), an Edinburgh paper manufacturer and an elder in the Free Church, sat for Edinburgh, 1847-59. Cowan devotes a few pages to the contest in his privately-printed Reminiscences, 1876. For the University election: see 3 August. TBM's early departure from Edinburgh meant that he was absent from the declaration of the poll on the 31st; Gibson Craig excused him by saying that he had gone to Cambridge to serve on Shaw-Lefevre's committee (Scotsman, 4 August). 12 341 PLT IV
j o July 184J
Thomas Flower Ellis
TO THOMAS FLOWER ELLIS, 30 JULY
1847
MS: Trinity College. Partly published: Trevelyan, n, 187
Edinburgh / July 30. 1847 Dear Ellis, I am beaten, but not at all the less happy for being so. 1 1 will make no hasty resolutions. But I think that having once been manumitted, after the old fashion, by a slap in the face, I shall not take to bondage again. But there is time to consider that matter. I shall be in town to morrow night. On Monday I mean to go down to Cambridge and back again. Send a line to the Albany to let me know when I can see you. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
Hannah wrote that 'from his letters I should not have guessed he felt it as much as he did' (Memoir of TBM, p. 70).
342
THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND, 2 AUGUST 1847-30 DECEMBER 1848
1847 September Tour in Holland with Ellis; examines Dutch archives for History 1848 April 25 Resigns from office - Early September Tour in France with Ellis - November 15 Elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow - December 2 History of England^ vols. 1 and 2, published
343
The Electors of Edinburgh
2. August 284?
TO THE ELECTORS OF EDINBURGH, 2 AUGUST
1847
Text: Scotsman, 7 August 1847.
London, August 2, 1847. Gentlemen, You have been pleased to dismiss me from your service, and I submit to your pleasure without repining. The generous kindness of those who to the last gave me their support I shall always remember with gratitude. If anything has occurred of which I might justly complain, I have forgiven and shall soon forget it. The points on which we have differed I leave with confidence to the judgment of my country. I cannot expect that you will at present admit my views to be correct; but the time will come when you will calmly review the history of my connection with Edinburgh. You will then, I am convinced, acknowledge that if I incurred your displeasure, I incurred it by remaining faithful to the general interests of the Empire, and to the fundamental principles of the Constitution. I shall always be proud to think that I once enjoyed your favour. But permit me to say, I shall remember not less proudly how I risked and how I lost it. With every wish for the peace and prosperity of your City, / I have the honour to be, / Gentlemen, Your faithful servant, T. B. Macaulay. TO F R A N C E S MACAULAY, 3 A U G U S T
1847
MS: Trinity College. Extracts published: Trevelyan, 11, 191-2.
Albany London / August 3. 1847 Dearest Fanny, My table is covered with letters of condolence and with invitations to stand for half the places which have not yet chosen members. I never knew how great a politician I was till my Edinburgh friends chose to dismiss me from politics. I mean to do nothing rash, but to wait till the elections are over and the prospects of the government clear. I shall also hear what my friends have to say. But after all I must decide for my self. For it is my happiness and not theirs that is at stake; nor can they possibly know as well as I know in what my happiness consists. At present my wishes point towards retirement. But perhaps, - though I do not think it,-vexation at the perverseness and stupidity with which I have lately had to deal may have some share in producing this effect. 345
12-3
3 August 1843
Lord Mahon
I have so many letters to answer that I must be short. Pray let me know how you are going on. Love to George and Alice. Ever yours T B Macaulay I have been to Cambridge: We cannot carry Lefevre; but we have saved Goulburn; and that is something.1
TO L O R D M A H O N , 3 A U G U S T
1847
MS: Stanhope Papers, Chevening. Albany London / August 3. 1847 My dear Lord Mahon, I am, as I always have been, very sensible of your kindness. On the whole my defeat has been a source of more pleasure than pain. For it has brought me many testimonies of esteem and good will from quarters where I had imagined that my name was hardly known. I will make no rash resolutions. But at present all my wishes point towards retirement and literature. I do not at all envy you the pleasure of hearing George Thompson 2 and David Urquhart3 at four o'clock in the morning. I live in hope of visiting Chevening.4 But just at present I am tied to London by engagements which will keep me here till I start for Holland where I propose to see the last of the flower-beds. I have been learning Dutch; and I now read it with tolerable ease. As for speaking it, I have not even made an attempt. Kindest regards to Lady Mahon and to Lord and Lady Dalmeny.5 Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
In the University election, the incumbents Goulburn and C. E. Law defeated Lord Feilding and John Shaw-Lefevre. TBM voted for Goulburn and Shaw-Lefevre (The Times, 4 August). 2 Thompson (1804-78: DNE), began life as a shopman's assistant; he made a name for himself in England as an orator for the Anti-Slavery Agency Committee and carried on agitation in the United States. He was forced to flee for his life from Boston in 1835; back in England he was active in the National Parliamentary Reform Association and in the Anti-Corn Law League. He had just been returned to Parliament for the Tower Hamlets. George Stephen wrote that despite Thompson's abilities * his entire ignorance of the tone of that high society from which the great bulk of our parliamentary men are taken, may account for his lamentable failure in the House' (Anti-Slavery Recollections, p. 151). 3 Urquhart (1805-77: DNB), newly-elected for Stafford. He was a passionate enthusiast in the causes that he took up and a violent opponent of Palmerston. 4 The Stanhope estate in Kent: TBM's first visit did not take place until July 1851. s Archibald Primrose (1809-51), styled Lord Dalmeny, elder son of the fourth Earl of Rosebery, was Whig M.P., 1833-47. He married Lord Mahon's sister Catherine.
346
Lord John Russell
6 August 1847
TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL, 6 AUGUST
1847
MS: Public Record Office. Published: Russell, Later Correspondence•, 1, 179.
Albany August 6. / 1847 Dear Lord John, Thanks for your kind letter.1 I will do nothing hastily; nor will I do anything that, on full consideration, seems to me likely to add to your difficulties. I hope however that I may be able, without causing you any inconvenience, to avail myself of the opportunity which I now have of exchanging politics for letters. In the meantime I shall take a short trip to the Netherlands, and forget our troubles among Cathedrals and picture galleries. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO J O H N E V E L Y N D E N I S O N , 6 A U G U S T
1847
MS: University of Nottingham.
Albany London / August 6. 1847 Dear Denison, Whether my old friends at Edinburgh have shewn good or bad taste, I leave others to decide. But this I can truly say, that they have done me no injury. I only wish that I were quite sure of being able to follow my own inclination and to relinquish politics, for letters. How delightful it will be to undress at eleven over the new novel, and to think that just then Mr. George Thompson is rising to make a four hour speech on the Rajah of Sattarah.2 As soon as I am able to leave London I am off for the continent. I want to see Holland again, and the more because I have lately picked up a smattering of Dutch. But I live in hope of seeing Ossington again. Kindest regards to Lady Charlotte. Yours ever T B Macaulay 1
2
' There has been no parallel to your defeat since Burke resigned Bristol. And I hope you will bear your rejection as he bore his, by coming in for another place, and fighting as stoutly for the liberties of your country as if the modern Athens had not rivalled the ancient in fickleness and ingratitude' (Russell to TBM, 5 August: MS, Trinity). Thompson had gone to India in 1840, had taken up the cause of the natives against the East India Company, and had made a special case of the Rajah of Sattara, deposed in 1839. He had recently published * Case of Pertaub Shean, the Raja of Sattara, . . . Dethroned by the East India Company, on the Testimony of False Witnesses . . .,' 1846.
347
6 August 184J
Frances Macaulay
TO FRANCES MACAULAY, 6 AUGUST
1847
MS: Huntington Library. Extract published: Trevelyan, n, 191-2.
Albany London August 6 / 1847 Dearest Fanny, I am here in solitude reading and writing with great satisfaction to myself. My quiet is interrupted however by innumerable letters which are all of a flattering character. I had no notion that I was so great a man. I have been invited to stand for Ayr, for Wigton, and for Oxfordshire. At Wigton and in Oxfordshire I was actually put in nomination without my permission; and my supporters were with difficulty prevented from going to poll. From the Sheffield Iris which was sent me to day I see that a party wishes to put me up for the West Riding.1 Craig tells me that there is a violent reaction at Edinburgh, and that those who voted against me are very generally ashamed of themselves and wish to have me back again. I really think that I never can leave public life with more dignity or grace than at present. However this is a matter to be maturely considered. I have a few lines from Lord John which I may as well inclose to you. But the strangest communications that I receive are from Brougham. After an enmity of seventeen years' standing he has suddenly begun to write to me daily, — and such letters, all fondness and flattery, — applauding my writings, — adjuring me not to leave public life. And it is not to me alone that he holds this language. For he has written to my friend the Lord Provost in the same style. Surely, as poor Sydney used to say, he hath a Devil. 2 I answer him courteously but very guardedly. I inclose my farewell Address cut out of the Caledonian Mercury. There were some stinging sentences in it which Craig and the Lord Advocate thought it advisable to omit. As far as I am concerned the precaution was needless. For no consideration shall induce me to be again a candidate for Edinburgh. By the bye it is probable that there will be an immediate vacancy. Cowan, if the Times is correct, has a contract with the government for stationery, and no contractor can sit in the House of Commons under a penalty of, I think, 500 £ for every vote that he gives.3 Love to George and Alice. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
2 3
The paper expresses a hope rather than an intention: if the present member were only sent home, * Macaulay might then be brought forward with confidence as a candidate for our suffrages* (Sheffield Iris, 5 August). See 1 September 1838. Cowan was disqualified for the reason that TBM gives, but he cleared himself and was reelected without opposition on 17 December.
348
[Adam Black?}
i* August 1847
TO [ADAM BLACK?], I I A U G U S T
1847
MS: Edinburgh Central Public Library. Albany London / August 11. 1847 My dear Sir, I quite approve of the change which was made in the Address. If the facts be as I understand that Mr. Cowan admits them to be, there is no doubt that his election is void. Whether you will petition or not is a question which you will do well to consider carefully. It is one in which I have no interest. For under no circumstances will I ever again be a candidate for Edinburgh. I am going to the continent for a few weeks. I shall be here again before the end of September. By that time I hope that the accounts will be ready. I shall always remember your kindness to me with gratitude, and I hope to have many opportunities of seeing you. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 16 A U G U S T
1847
MS: Trinity College.
Albany London / August 16. 1847 Dear Ellis, I suppose that you are now beginning to see pretty clearly before you as to the business of this circuit. I shall be glad to hear when you think that you shall be ready to start for the Netherlands.1 I am free for five weeks commencing on Tuesday the 25th of this month: and the sooner we can be off after that day, the better I shall be pleased. I had a pleasant afternoon at Richmond with Lord John and two or three friends, but nothing important passed. Indeed he and I were not tete-a-tete a moment. Every day strengthens my inclination to retirement. I am working with great pleasure to myself, and with a good hope. I have now and then felt a little lonely during the past week. But to morrow the Trevelyans return to Clapham; and then I shall be in no want of society. I have been looking out for a courier; and hope to find one in a day or two. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
They appear to have spent the first three or four weeks of September on this tour, during which TBM consulted the Dutch archives for his History.
349
16 August 184J
Margaret Trevetyan
TO M A R G A R E T T R E V E L Y A N , 16 A U G U S T
1847
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library. Albany London / August 16. 1847 My dearest Baba, I am very much obliged to you for your journal. Did you get a letter which I wrote to you and directed to Meurice's Hotel? Your travels have been a good deal curtailed. I hoped that you would have seen Bourges, Angers, and Nantes. But it is something to have visited Blois and Tours. They are perhaps the two most pleasing provincial cities in France. I am sorry that Chambord did not please you. To me it is one of the most interesting houses in Europe. It is profanation to paper the walls. To morrow I hope to see Mamma and Papa, and to hear from them how good you have been and how much you have added to the pleasure of their trip. I hope that I shall be able to visit you at Broadstairs. But I cannot yet be positive. My love to dear Aunt Fanny and to Georgy and to Alice. Ever yours, my darling T B Macaulay TO F R A N C E S MACAULAY, 19 A U G U S T
1847
MS: Trinity College.
Albany London / August 19. 1847 Dearest Fanny, I was delighted to see Hannah again, and to find that Trevelyan was so well after his complaints. I am in some doubt whether I shall be able to see you at Broadstairs. But, if I possibly can get to you between my arrival at Ramsgate and the sailing of the Ostend packet, I will. I am not quite sure when I shall start, certainly not till after the Chelsea Board which is to sit on Tuesday next. Thank my darling Baba for her last letter. I will write to her in a day or two. I am happy to hear how very good she has been. But she must take care of her eyes. Love to George and Alice. I have talked fully over my plans with Hannah, and I think that there is little practical difference between us. She is more desirous than I am that I should remain in parliament. But she thinks with me that I ought to resign my office unless I get a seat in parliament as soon as the Session opens, and also that I ought not to incur the expense of another contest. The result will be, I have little doubt, that in February at latest,1 I shall be a private man again; and, in my view, so much the better. Ever yours TBM 1
TBM did not give up his key of office until 25 April 1848.
350
Margaret Trevelyan
21 August 1843
T O M A R G A R E T T R E V E L Y A N , 21 A U G U S T
1847
MS: Trinity College. Partly published: Trevelyan, 11, 204—5.
Albany London / August 21. 1847 Dearest Margaret, I must begin sooner or later to call you Margaret; and I am always making good resolutions to do so, and then breaking them. But I will procrastinate no longer. I will really be good. "Procrastination is the thief of time" says Dr. Young. He also says "Be wise to day. 'Tis madness to defer" and "Next day the fatal precedent will plead."1 That is to say, I shall go on calling my darling Baba till she is as old as her mamma, and has a dozen Babas of her own. Therefore I will be wise to day, and call her Margaret. I should very much like to see you and Aunty and Alice at Broadstairs, and to have a walk on the sands, and a talk about Mr. Elton and Miss Crawford.2 But I fear, I fear that it cannot be. Your Aunt Fanny asks me to shirk the Chelsea Board. I am staying in England chiefly in order to attend it; and I cannot with decency absent myself. When parliament is not sitting my duty there is all that I do for two thousand four hundred pounds a year. We must have some conscience. However it is not absolutely impossible that I may be able to run to Broadstairs between my arrival at Ramsgate and my embarkation for Ostend. At any rate I shall soon be back. Michaelmas will, I hope, find us all at Clapham over a noble goose, or rather over two noble geese;3 - for one will hardly be enough. Do you know the beautiful Puseyite hymn on Michaelmas day. It is a great favourite with all the Tractarians. You and Alice should learn it. It begins. "Though Quakers scowl, though Baptists howl, "Though Plymouth Brethren rage, "We Churchmen gay will wallow to day "In apple sauce, onions, and sage. "Ply knife and fork, and draw the cork, "And have the bottle handy: "For each slice of goose will introduce "Athimblefullofbrandy." 1 2 3
Night Thoughts, Night 1, lines 393, 389, 390. In Jane Austen, Emma and Mansfield Park. 'A Michaelmas Day on which he did not eat goose, or ate it in solitude, was no Michaelmas to him* (Trevelyan, 11, 400).
351
24 August 1847
Thomas Flower Ellis
Is it not good? I wonder who the author can be. Not Newman, I think. It is above him. Perhaps it is Bishop Wilberforce. His good father taught him to like brandy: and that is one of the lessons which, when impressed on the young and ductile mind by parental precept and example, seldom fails to leave permanent traces. So we will suppose that it is the Bishop. My dear little girl, I was so glad to hear from your Mamma how good you had been on your travels, and how much you were amused. I am impatient to hear all about them, and particularly about the funny little French miss that you travelled with. But we must wait patiently. In the meantime give my love to Aunt Fanny, and to George and to Alice. I expect to see George on Monday at Clapham. Ever yours my love T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 24 A U G U S T
1847
MS: Trinity College.
Albany August 24 / 1847 Dear Ellis, I have ordered a foreign office passport. I did so because I could get it by writing a note, and could save you the plague of personal attendance. I ordered only one, because the charge is between two and three pounds; and I can scarcely foresee any occurrence that can make it necessary for us to have separate passports in any part of the Low Countries. I will leave Scribe1 out for your messenger. Will you breakfast with me on Thursday, that we may make our final dispositions. Let me know. Brougham has sent me his history2 or part of it. I have sent it back with praise which he will think most grudging, and which yet it went grievously against my conscience to give. His friendship has caused me more vexation in a fortnight than his enmity in seventeen years. I know nothing of the Ramsgate Inns. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
2
Eugene Scribe (1791-1861), the most fecund of French dramatists. TBM's copy of Scribe's Theatre Complete 9 vols., Paris, 1834, is at Wallington. History of England and France under the House of Lancaster, published anonymously in 1852. Just before its publication TBM wrote: 'Odd letter from Brougham. He wants me to keep the secret of his being the author of that trumpery history of H[enry] IV etc. which he sent me some years ago. He cannot refrain from publishing. Yet he is conscious that the book is trash, as it is; and he cannot bear the contrast between his failure and my success: and therefore he begs me to keep his secret' (Journal, iv, 322: 3 December 1851). Brougham republished the History with his name in 1861.
352
James Stephen
25 August 184J
TO J A M E S S T E P H E N , 25 A U G U S T
1847
MS: Cambridge University Library. Albany Augt. 25 / 1847 Dear Stephen, I send a parcel of newspapers for Robert Mackintosh.1 Will you, as you kindly promised, take the trouble to forward them? Yours ever T B Macaulay TO S E L I N A MACAULAY, 29 S E P T E M B E R
1847
MS: Trinity College.
Albany London / Septr. 29. 1847 Dearest Selina, I inclose a cheque which I shall be obliged to you to acknowledge. The call shall be provided for in time. Fanny and the girls breakfasted with me here the day before yesterday and we were a very happy party. It was the first occasion on which Alice had breakfasted out, and she gave herself indescribable airs. Margaret's eyes are, as far as I [. . . . ] 2
TO U N I D E N T I F I E D R E C I P I E N T , 25 O C T O B E R
I84[7?]3
MS: Boston Public Library. London October 25. 184I?] Sir, Your letter reached London while I was at Lord Lansdowne's in Wiltshire: or it should have been answered without the delay of a post. I am much gratified to learn that a portion of the students of your University have thought me worthy of the chair of Lord Rector. I cannot 1
2 3
Mackintosh (1806-64), son of Sir James Mackintosh and his father's biographer, was an attache of the embassy in the United States. The rest is missing. The last numeral of the date of this letter is obscured in the original. Probably it belongs to 1847, and probably it is addressed to some student representative from the University of Glasgow, just after TBM's defeat at Edinburgh, when the students at Glasgow would have enjoyed the opportunity of electing the candidate so scandalously defeated by the rival city. The evidence also suggests that TBM could not have been at Bowood just before 25 October in 1846, the only other year after 1841 in which he might have figured as a member of government. For TBM's election as Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, see 16 November 1848.
353
2y October 184J
[Sir Edward Disbrowe]
however but feel that it would be highly inexpedient for me to engage in a competition in which the risk of defeat would be great. The credit of the government must be to a certain degree affected by the failure of any of its members in such a competition. Highly therefore as I should value the honor of presiding over your university, I ought not, I think, to become a candidate without clearer and fuller information than I possess as to the state of parties and the chances of success. For the kind and flattering expressions of your letter I beg to return my sincere thanks. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your faithful Servant T B Macaulay TO [ S I R E D W A R D D I S B R O W E ] , 1 27 O C T O B E R
1847
MS: Bodleian Library.
London October 27 / 1847 My dear Sir, I have found at the Pay Office a packet of books from Derbyshire. They are not what I wanted. For it seems that there are no volumes of the Gazette de Leyde so old as the time of James II in your collection. I have however to thank you most sincerely for your kind intentions. The books shall be returned with care. I have also to thank you for the extracts from the Dutch Archives which I have just received. They are evidently of great value. Will you have the kindness to convey the inclosed letter to Mr. De Jonge. 2 It contains a five pound note. The charge for transcription was only 31 florins. But I thought that I could not give offence by desiring Mr. De Jonge to distribute a somewhat larger sum among the copying clerks, with my thanks for their care and diligence. I should be obliged to you also to assure Mr. Zwann,3 — that, I think, is his name, - of my gratitude, and to remember me kindly to Mr. Holtrop. 4 1
2
3
4
Sir Edward Cromwell Disbrowe (1790-1851: Boase), of Walton, Derbyshire, was British Minister at The Hague, 1835-51. Johannes Cornelis de Jonge (1793—1853), Archivist of the Dutch National Archives. In a note to ch. 4 of the History of England TBM writes: 'The Dutch archives have been far too little explored. They abound with information interesting in the highest degree to every Englishman. They are admirably arranged; and they are in the charge of gentlemen whose courtesy, liberality, and zeal for the interests of literature, cannot be too highly praised. I wish to acknowledge, in the strongest manner, my own obligations to Mr. De Jonge and to Mr. Van Zwanne' (1, 440). Another note mentions the * enlightened men who have charge of the noble collection of Archives at the Hague' (iv, 417). J. A. de Zwaan (1799-1862), clerk in the Archives from 1816 and the oracle of the place on questions of reference. Johannes Willem Holtrop (1806-70), of the Royal Library, The Hague.
354
Thomas Flower Ellis
12 November 184J
I beg you to believe that I shall always remember the trouble which you have taken to serve me. Ever yours very truly T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , I I N O V E M B E R
1847
MS: Trinity College.
Albany Nov 11 / 1847 Dear Ellis, There is in the British Museum a Manuscript (Harl. 6272) entitled "Les loix, coustumes, et usages de l'isle de Guernezcy, differentes du Coustumier de Normandie, d'antiennete observees en la dite isle, redigees et mises par estat par noble homme, Syre Thomas Leighton Chevalier Capitaine Garde et Gouverneur en la dite isle" —33 pages. I do not know whether it would be worth your while or your colleagues to look at it. It seems to me that as a Governor took the trouble to codify the Guernsey usages which were at variance with the Grand Coustumier, you should just look at what he did.1 Ever yours T B Macaulay TO A U G U S T U S DE M O R G A N , 2 27 N O V E M B E R
1847
MS: University of London.
Albany Nov 27. 1847 Sir, I have to thank you for your Treatise on Formal Logic,3 and for the very courteous manner in which you have in that work expressed your dissent from the opinions which I hold touching the practical value of the Aristotelian and Baconian Organa.4 I am sorry that I have not leisure for 1
2
3
4
The Grand Coustumier de Normandie is a collection of customary laws from which the codes of the Channel Islands derive. The second report of the Commission on Criminal Law in the Channel Islands, to which Ellis belonged (see 13 July), covered Guernsey {Parliamentary Papers, 1847-8, xxvn, 215). The report, pp. viii—ix, discusses the work by Leighton that TBM refers to, calling it 'the principal authority* for the law in Guernsey. De Morgan (1806-71: DNB), a graduate of Trinity, was the first Professor of Mathematics at the London University. An energetic, independent man, with many varied interests, he was active in various societies, including the SDUK, and wrote voluminously on both technical and popular subjects. His A Budget of Paradoxes; 1872, p. 83, has an amusing anagram on 'Thomas Babington Macaulay - Mouths big: a Cantab anomaly.' But there are many admiring references to TBM scattered through De Morgan's writings. Formal Logic: or, The Calculus of Inference, Necessary and Probable, published in November. De Morgan disputes a passage from TBM's essay on Bacon ridiculing the formal study of reasoning {Formal Logic, pp. 216-24).
355
4 December 184J
Unidentified Recipient
an amicable controversy with so honorable an antagonist. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your faithful Servant T B Macaulay TO UNIDENTIFIED RECIPIENT, 4 DECEMBER
1847
MS: National Library of Australia.
Albany London / Deer. 4. 1847 Sir, I should, as I told Mr. Scholefield,1 be glad to have an opportunity of serving you. But my patronage is very small, and, such as it is, is not of a kind which could be useful to you. The only situations in my gift are those at Chelsea Hospital; and those must be filled from the half pay list. The clerks at the Pay Office are named, not by me, but by the Board of Treasury; and years may very likely elapse before I have it in my power to provide for you in that way. You must also remember that a clerkship in a public office is by no means a desirable situation unless a man obtains it at an early period in his life. I am sorry that I cannot write in a more encouraging way. But there would be no kindness in deceiving you. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your most obedient Servant T B Macaulay TO L O R D M A H O N , 15 D E C E M B E R
1847
MS: Stanhope Papers, Chevening. Mostly published:2 Earl Stanhope, Miscellanies, 1863, pp. 131-2.
Albany Dec 15. 1847 Dear Lord Mahon, I know nothing of Gieseler3 but the passage which you have sent me; and, if I am to form my judgment of him from that passage, I must pronounce him a dunce or something worse. 1 2
3
Perhaps William Scholefield (1809-67: DNB), just elected Radical M.P. for Birmingham. This and TBM's other letters to Mahon on the question of human sacrifices among the Romans were printed earlier but not published in a pamphlet by Stanhope, * Were Human Sacrifices in Use Among the Romans? . . . , ' i860. Stanhope, Miscellanies, pp. 114-15, explains that at a breakfast on 13 December *I mentioned a note in a German work which I had lately been reading, the "History of the Church,'* by Dr. Gieseler, Professor of Theology at Gottingen. The note, I said, alleges in substance that human sacrifices existed in the classic days of ancient Rome, and that, as Lactantius states, a man was still in his time immolated every year at the festival of Jupiter Latialis.* TBM doubted the fact, so Mahon sent him the passage in question, J. C. L. Gieseler, Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte, 2 vols., Bonn, 1831—2, 1, 26.
356
Lord Mahon
i5 December 284?
In the first place he misquotes Lactantius. He makes Lactantius say positively, "Jupiter Latiaris is even now propitiated with human blood." But Lactantius's words are these "Ne Latini quidem hujus immanitatis expertes fuerunt, si quidem Jupiter Latiaris etiam nunc sanguine colitur humano." 1 I should translate the sentence thus, "Nor have even the Latins been free from this enormity, if it be true that even now Jupiter Latiaris is propitiated with human blood." It is quite plain to me that Lactantius wished to insinuate what he dared not assert. Suppose that there were discovered in the British Museum a Puritan pamphlet of 1641 containing the following passage, "Nor is even Lambeth free from the worst corruptions of Antichrist, if it be true that the Archbishop of Canterbury and his Chaplains pray to an image of the Virgin." And suppose that I were to quote the passage thus. "The Archbishop of Canterbury and his chaplains pray to an image of the Virgin." - What would you think of my sense or honesty? But this is not all. Where did Gieseler find that these human sacrifices were annual rather than triennial, quinquennial, or decennial? Where did he find that they were performed at Rome and not at Tibur or Praeneste? Where did he find that the victim was a man and not a woman? 2 Not in Lactantius, I am sure. Yet he quotes no other authority; and I firmly believe that he has none. As to the rest, I should certainly never admit the fact on Lactantius's authority, even if he had asserted it in the most positive manner. He was a rhetorician at Nicomedia writing a party pamphlet in a time of violent excitement. I should think it as absurd to give credit to an affirmation of his in contradiction to the whole literature and history of antiquity as to believe MacHale3 when he tells the Irish that the English government starved two millions of them last year. But, as I have said, Lactantius affirms nothing. He was evidently afraid to do so. Had he had the courage of Gieseler, he would have come out with a gallant barefaced lie. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1 2 3
Divinae Institutiones, i, 21: Gieseler quotes only the last seven words. Gieseler says ' mensch' — i.e., * human' not 'man.' John MacHale (1791—1881: DNE)^ Archbishop of Tuam, anti-English at all times and on all occasions.
357
2j December 184J
Lord Mahon
TO LORD MAHON, 27 DECEMBER 1847 MS: Stanhope Papers, Chevening. Published: Stanhope, Miscellanies, 1863, pp. 140-2.
Albany Dec 27. 1847 Dear Lord Mahon, I return the extract from Porphyry. 1 It is very strong. But I am not convinced. I have spent half an hour in looking into my books, and I feel quite satisfied that there is no foundation for this Eastern story about the Italian worship. The best account of the origin of the feast of Jupiter Latiaris - otherwise called Feriae Latinae, - which I have found is in Dionysius. The object of the institution seems to have been political. The solemnity was common to all the cities of Latium and was meant to bind them together in close alliance. The rites, says Dionysius, were celebrated on the Alban Mount. Every member of the confederation furnished a contingent towards the expenses. Now observe. TCCUTCCS T&S sopTocs TE KCCI T&S Oucrias I^XP1 T & v
Koc
^' 'HM^s XP°VCOV
Pcoucctoi, Aorrivas KccAouvTes, KCCI
iepcov TTOAEIS, ai [xkv apvccs, ai 8e Tupous, di Se ydAoacros TI ueTpov, di 8e ouoiov TI TOUTOIS TTEACCVOU y^vos* evds 8e Tccupou KOIVGOS UTTO -rraacov
0uou£vov \xipos EKdoTrj TO TETocyuevov
Now can any body believe that Dionysius, who had been at Rome, would have written thus, if a human sacrifice had been part of the rite? You mentioned Cicero's strong expressions about the aversion of the Romans to human sacrifices. But observe that Cicero himself had officiated as Consul at the feast of Jupiter Latiaris. He described the solemnity incidentally in his poem on his own Consulship. You will find the passage in the first book De Divinatione. He introduces Urania speaking to him " Tu quoque, cum tumulos Albano in monte nivales Lustrasti et laeto mactasti lacte Latinas."3 1
2
3
Mahon had sent TBM a passage from Porphyry, De Abstinentia Carnis, 11, 56, also cited by Gieseler in his Kirchengeschichte in support of the allegation that the Romans practised human sacrifice in classic times. The passage reads: *And even at present who is ignorant that in the great city of Rome, in the festival of Jupiter Latialis, they cut the throat of a man?' (trans. Thomas Taylor). Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, iv, 49: * These festivals and sacrifices the Romans celebrate to this day, calling them the * Latin Festivals'; and some of the cities that take part in them bring lambs, some cheeses, others a certain measure of milk, and others something of like nature. And one bull is sacrificed in common by all of them, each city receiving its appointed share of the meat' (Loeb translation). 1, xi, 20-1.
358
William Home Liiars
27 December 1847
This mention of the milk exactly agrees with Dionysius's account. But can you believe that, in this occasion, Cicero sacrificed a man, and then described the ceremony as one performed Ice to lacte? In short do you believe that Cicero ever sacrificed a man? I must stop. I have to preside at the Chelsea Board to day. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO W I L L I A M H O M E L I Z A R S , 1 27 D E C E M B E R
1847
MS: National Library of Scotland.
Albany London / Dec 27. 1847 Sir, It would be improper for me to interfere in any way with the appointment of a Professor in the University of Edinburgh.2 Of the scientific value of the works 3 which you have done me the honor to send me I am incompetent to judge. I see that the plates are beautiful and costly, so beautiful and costly indeed that I must beg you to excuse me from accepting them. If you will have the goodness to tell me where I can send them in London, I will take care to have them safely conveyed thither. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your most obedient Servant T B Macaulay TO L O R D J O H N R U S S E L L , 2 F E B R U A R Y
1848
MS: Public Record Office.
Albany Feb 2. 1848 My dear Lord John, I have read with great interest the paper which the Prince permitted you to shew me. 4 1 am truly glad to find that His Royal Highness takes so strong an interest in the welfare of Cambridge. 1 2
3
4
Lizars (1788-1859: DNB) was an Edinburgh painter and engraver. Lizars had applied to TBM on behalf of his brother John Lizars (1787?-! 860: DNB), surgeon and Professor of Surgery in the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, and now a candidate (unsuccessful) for the chair of clinical surgery in the University of Edinburgh. These must have included A System of Anatomical Plates of the Human Body, with Descriptions, Edinburgh, 1822-6, the text by John Lizars and the plates, in folio, engraved by William Home Lizars. Probably the proposed reforms for Cambridge drawn up by Dr Philpott (see next note) at the suggestion of Albert, who, as Chancellor, aimed to promote reform from within the University. Russell himself wished to appoint a commission of inquiry into the universities but had agreed to wait to see what Cambridge itself might propose.
359
2 February 1848
Lord John Russell
The views of Dr. Philpotts 1 are those of a truly liberal man. But I cannot help doubting whether the reforms which he recommends would produce much practical effect. Those prizes which are the chief motives to exertion at Cambridge are in the gift, not of the University, but of the Colleges. I therefore apprehend that no change in the University examinations will produce any material effect on the studies of the place while the Colleges adhere to the old system. At present fellowships, that is to say honorable provisions for life, are to be gained by proficiency in Greek, Latin, and mathematics. The consequence is that many young men, every year, come forth from Cambridge excellently skilled in Greek, Latin, and mathematics. What can the University offer to draw them away from these pursuits? Absolutely nothing in the way of patronage. The poorest of our seventeen colleges has more to give than the Senate. The University might indeed make some knowledge of French, of modern history, or of mineralogy indispensable to a Bachelor's degree. But the quantity of knowledge indispensable to a degree must necessarily be fixed at a very low point, as indeed is now the case with mathematical knowledge. Consequently, men will pick up just as much French, just as much modern history, and just as much mineralogy as will suffice to save them from plucking, and will reserve all their serious efforts for those pursuits which lead to independence. I could say much more on this subject, and could shew, I think, that the history of the University strongly confirms my opinion. But I have already detained you too long. / Ever, my dear Lord John, Yours very truly T B Macaulay 1
Henry Philpott (1807-92: DNE), Master of St Catharine's, was Vice-Chancellor in the year that Albert was elected Chancellor and remained an adviser on University affairs to the Prince. In i860 he was made Bishop of Worcester. In order to give greater effect to the University professorships and to encourage instruction in subjects other than mathematics and classics Philpott proposed examinations for honors in modern history, English, law, natural sciences, and oriental languages (Winstanley, Early Victorian Cambridge, p. 204). A part of these proposals was adopted by the University in October, but the reform did not save it from a commission of inquiry: one was appointed in 1850 with TBM's approval (ibid., pp. 220-1).
360
John Mitchell Kemble
19 February 1848
TO JOHN MITCHELL KEMBLE, 1 19 FEBRUARY
1848
MS: University of Bergen Library. Published: Enkvist, British and American Literary Letters in Scandinavian Public Collections, p. 97.
Albany Feb 19/1848 Dear Kemble, I am much obliged to you for the very interesting memoranda which you have sent me. - 1 received the diplomas2 three days ago; but I did not then know whither to direct a letter in answer to yours. It would be of great service to you, I think, to obtain the good word of some of the liberals of note who reside at Cambridge. I observe in my friends an almost timorous respect for the opinion of the resident Academicians. And I really believe that Peacock - who may be considered as resident- or Lamb,3 or Graham,4 or even our master could be of more use to you than I. Very truly yours T B Macaulay TO [ P A T R I C P A R K ] , 6 M A R C H
1848
MS: New York Public Library.
Albany March 6/1848 Dear Sir, I should be much obliged to you to let me have my bust as soon as you conveniently can.5 / Believe me, / Dear Sir, Your faithful Servant T B Macaulay 1
2 3 4 5
Kemble (1807-57: DNB), son of the actor Charles Kemble, was a graduate of Trinity, where he had been one of the Apostles in the time of Hallam and Tennyson; he studied philology in Germany and became the leading Anglo-Saxon scholar in England; he edited the British and Foreign Review, 1835—44, but at this time was living without regular employment. Kemble was evidently preparing to apply for the Regius Professorship of Modern History at Cambridge, held by the venerable William Smyth, who died in the next year. Kemble never succeeded in obtaining a university appointment: see 3 September. Perhaps TBM means Kemble's pioneering collection of Anglo-Saxon charters, Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici, 6 vols., 1839—48. John Lamb (1789—1850: DNB), Master of Corpus Christi, distinguished in University politics by his support of the movement to admit Dissenters to degrees. John Graham (1794-1865: DNB), Master of Christ's College, was a leader in the efforts to introduce reform at Cambridge. He was appointed Bishop of Chester, 1848. See 5 November 1846.
361
13 March 1848 TO SELINA MACAULAY, 13 MARCH
Selina Macaulay 1848
MS: Huntington Library. Partly published: Trevelyan, 11, 19311.
Albany London / March 13. 1848 Dearest Selina, I have nothing to do with the government of Chelsea Asylum. My name may be in the Commission. But I take no part in the management. My authority is confined to Chelsea Hospital which is altogether a different institution. Strangely troubled times these.1 But ours is the best nook of the earth after all. I left a card with Guizot,2 but did not ask to see him. I purposely avoided meeting him on Friday at Lord Holland's.3 The truth is that I like and esteem the man. But I think the policy of the minister both at home and abroad detestable. At home it was all corruption, and abroad all treachery. I could not hold to him the language of entire respect and complacency without a violation of truth; and, in his present circumstances, I could not bear to shew the least disapprobation. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO L O R D J O H N R U S S E L L , 23 A P R I L
1848
MS: Public Record Office. Published: Spencer Walpole, Life of Lord John Russell, 1889,11, 91-2.
Oxford April 23. 18484 Dear Lord John, The proposal which you made yesterday5 took me so much by surprise that I could not come to an immediate decision. I have since thought 1 2 3
4 5
The revolution in France broke out in February; Louis Philippe abdicated on the 24th and the republic was proclaimed on the 26th. Guizot, after some days of hiding in Paris, fled to Belgium and arrived in London on 3 March. Greville was there: 'I met Guizot at dinner at the Hollands'; he goes about everywhere, is very cheerful, and puts a good face on it; everybody is very civil to him, and he feels the kindness of his reception, especially as he knows he has been personally obnoxious since the Spanish marriages' (Memoirs, vi, 36). Parliament had adjourned the day before for the Easter recess; the 23rd was Easter Sunday. An offer to bring TBM in for Lord Zetland's borough of Richmond. At Russell's request, TBM, though without a seat after his defeat at Edinburgh, had remained in the Cabinet as Paymaster-General. Sometime before 19 April, when he mentioned the fact to Hobhouse, he had informed Russell of his decision to retire: 'he said he had told Lord John Russell that he would retain his office until Easter, and would make every suitable effort to get into Parliament, but one scheme after another had failed, and he could not consent to hold any longer a sinecure which could be only kept justifiably by a man who rendered parliamentary services' (Broughton, Recollections of a Long Life, VI, 219).
Lord John Russell
23 April 1848
the matter over fully. I will not say that my tastes and wishes may not, unperceived by myself, have biassed my judgment. But I can truly say that I have done my best to ascertain what is the right, honorable and useful course; and the result is that I have determined not to be member for Richmond. A few weeks ago I should have felt very differently. But the events which have lately taken place on the continent and in this island have placed me and all of us in a new position.1 It will soon be necessary for you to deliberate seriously on the propriety of removing some evils and anomalies which the reform-bill spared. What the issue of your deliberations may be I cannot tell. My own opinion is that some concessions ought to be made with a good grace to the middle classes, and that, at the same time, all innovations dangerous to order and property ought to be firmly resisted. Now I feel that it would be quite impossible for me, as member for a pocket borough, to be of any service to my country in the approaching contest. On the one hand, if I should differ from the government and from Lord Zetland,2 I should be bound in honor to take the Chiltern Hundreds. On the other hand, it would be impossible for me to speak with weight against violent innovators. I should make a very poor figure in opposition to a new Schedule A, while sitting for a borough which would probably appear in a new Schedule A. I should be constantly accused of holding, as the nominee of a great nobleman, language very different from that which I had held as the representative of a hundred and twenty thousand people. In short I should bring discredit on myself, and be useless to you. The situation in which I am placed with respect to the question of the ballot is alone a sufficient reason for my determining not to come into parliament at the present time and in the proposed manner. My opinions on that question have undergone some change, and perhaps do not now differ very widely from yours. But I feel that if I were now, on taking my seat for Richmond, to vote against the ballot, I should destroy my public character and with it all my public usefulness. Two months ago there was no excitement in the country about organic reforms. If a motion had been made in favour of secret voting, I might have absented myself or divided silently with the Ayes, and no newspaper would have thought the 1
2
The events of 1848 had stirred up Ireland and renewed the Chartist agitation; the latter had failed to make any effect through a monster procession on 10 April but had aroused great fears in London. On 8 April the cabinet called in the Duke of Wellington to consult on the defense of the capital against the Chartist demonstration; TBM was present, and told Lord Campbell * that he considered it the most interesting spectacle he had ever witnessed, and that he should remember it to his dying day* {Life of Lord Campbell, 11, 236). Thomas Dundas (1795-1873), second Earl of Zetland; Whig M.P., 1818-39, when he succeeded to the earldom. He sat for Richmond for most of those years. 363
i May 1848
Sir Charles Wood
matter worth noticing. Now the case is very different. That at this conjuncture a member of your cabinet should, on such a question, separate himself from all his colleagues would, in my judgment, greatly weaken your government. Peel and Graham, Stanley and D'Israeli, Hume and Cobden, would all join to deride and condemn a ministry which shewed such signs of disunion. If any of the radicals were to praise me at the expense of my colleagues, I need not say that such praise would be more painful to me than censure. Yet, if I do not vote for the ballot, the universal cry would be, "You declared for the ballot on the hustings of Edinburgh; you voted for it; you spoke for it. You never said a word about your change of opinion till a great city turned you out, and an aristocratical borough proprietor put you in." And what could I say in reply? I am confident therefore that, if I now come into the House of Commons as member for Richmond, I shall very soon go out again. By so going out I should probably inflict a serious wound on the government. By quietly dropping out of public life I inflict no wound at all. The truth is that there is only one way of escape from all these inconveniences. I must therefore beg you to consider my resignation as final. I will call in Chesham Place on Tuesday, and give you my key. l / Ever, dear Lord John, Yours very faithfully, T B Macaulay TO S I R C H A R L E S W O O D , I MAY
1848
MS: The Earl of Halifax.
Albany May 1. 1848 My dear Wood, Thanks for your very kind letter. The only regret which I have in quitting political life is that I shall henceforward see less of my old political friends. It has been my good fortune to have for colleagues the very men whom I should have wished to have for companions. However I hope that I shall still see something of them. From my heart and soul I desire their honor and prosperity. They have difficulties before them, but no difficulties which may not be surmounted. As for me, I would never have deserted at such a crisis. But I may be permitted to rejoice that, without deserting, I have been removed from a way of life for which I had little aptitude to pursuits in which I may expect to find as much happiness as man is permitted to enjoy. The last red box is gone. I have 1
Nevertheless, The Times, 28 April, lists TBM among the ministers at a cabinet council on Thursday the 27th.
364
Lady Trevelyan
1 May 1848
tied red tape for the last time. My table is still covered with despatches to be sure. But there is not on it one despatch of later date than 1689. Ever yours most truly T B Macaulay TO L A D Y T R E V E L Y A N , 1 I MAY
1848
MS: Trinity College.
Albany May 1 / 1848 Dearest Hannah, I have ordered dinner at the Trafalgar for six precisely on Wednesday. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO S E L I N A MACAULAY, 9 MAY
1848
MS: Trinity College.
Albany May 9. 1848 Dearest Selina, Thanks for your kind letter. Your congratulations are by no means out of place. I have not been happier in the whole course of my life than since I got rid, for ever I trust, of the anxieties of office. I am hard at work on my book which promises to be a source of wealth as well as of enjoyment. Longman has offered me most tempting terms with which I mean to close.2 I have been at Hastings [. . . . ] 3
TO L O R D M A H O N , I I
MAY
1848
MS: Stanhope Papers, Chevening. Albany May 11 / 1848 Dear Lord Mahon, I have asked a Mr. Hillard4 from Boston to breakfast here on Wednesday. Everett writes to me about him in the highest terms-"one," he 1
2
3 4
Trevelyan was made a K.C.B. on 28 April in recognition of his services during the Irish famine. TBM's contract with Longman, signed on 1 September, provided £500 a year for five years and 2/3 profits after 6,000 copies. The draft of Longman's letter offering these terms is dated 28 April; in it Longman says that he makes the offer, knowing it to be more than usually generous, to insure the connection between his firm and TBM (Longman archive). The rest is missing. George S. Hillard (1808-79) had been Everett's student at Harvard; a lawyer in practise with Charles Sumner, he acquired a minor reputation as politician, writer, and orator. Hillard delivered a brief eulogy of TBM at a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 26 January i860.
365
22 May 1848
John Barlow
says, "of our best scholars, best men, and best fellows." Will you meet him for Everett's sake? Ever yours T B Macaulay TO J O H N B A R L O W , 1 22 MAY
1848
MS: University of California, Los Angeles.
Albany May 22 / 1848 Dear Barlow, I am sorry that on Friday I must dine, - author like - with my bookseller. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO L O R D M A H O N , 26 MAY
1848
MS: Stanhope Papers, Chevening.
Albany May 2 6 / 1848 Dear Lord Mahon, I have been forced by some symptoms akin to gout to consult Brodie, who, not content with barbarously interdicting Champagne, has sentenced me to discipline which must keep me from your breakfast table and from her Majesty's drawing room to morrow. I regret your party a great deal more than the crowd at St James's. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO G E O R G E N E V I L L E - G R E N V I L L E , 2 26 MAY
1848
MS: Mr D. Pepys-Whiteley.
Albany London. May 26. 1848 Sir, I am engaged in historical researches which must be very incomplete if I do not obtain access to the Pepysian Library.3 My recollection of the kindness with which you treated me when I was a freshman and when you were Vice-Chancellor of our University leads me to believe that you 1 2
3
TBM's friend from undergraduate days, now Secretary of the Royal Institution. Neville-Grenville (1789—1854: DNB) was Master of Magdalene, 1813—53, Vice-Chancellor in TBM's first year, 1818-19, and Dean of Windsor from 1846. TBM writes as though he had not yet visited the Pepysian Library; he had certainly intended to do so as early as 1845 (see 11 August 1845). He made the visit proposed here on 7 June (see 6 June 1848).
366
William Whewell
6 June 1848
will have pleasure in granting my request. Three or four mornings would, I think, be sufficient. I could go down to Cambridge at any time which would be most convenient to the Librarian during the months of June and July. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your most obedient humble servant T B Macaulay The Honorable and Very Reverend / The Dean of Windsor
TO W I L L I A M W H E W E L L , 6 J U N E
1848
MS: Trinity College. Albany London / June 6. 1848 Dear Whewell, Many thanks for your kindness. I mean to run down to Cambridge to morrow. I shall pass the day in rummaging the Pepysian library; and I have engaged myself to dine at Magdalene. I should be most happy to dine with you on Thursday, if that would suit you. On Friday morning I must be in London again. / Believe me Yours ever truly T B Macaulay TO B E N J A M I N H A W E S , 19 J U N E
1848
MS: Trinity College.
Albany June 19. 1848 Dear Hawes, My sister in law, Lord Denman's daughter,1 has begged me to give Mr. Ingram2 a letter of introduction to you. He was extremely kind to her in her distress at the Gambia. - 1 do not know what his claims may be, or what he may have to ask: and I do not doubt that, without my letter, he would have obtained justice; nor do I wish him to have more. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1 2
Henry's widow, Margaret. T. L. Ingram was Colonial Secretary and Accountant in the British settlement at the Gambia and had several times served as acting Governor. Earlier this year he had been accused of embezzlement but had defeated investigation by obtaining sick leave to England and by taking his records with him. In the next year he was dismissed from the service.
367
[21 June 1848] TO LORD MAHON,
Lord Mahon
[21 JUNE 1848]1
MS: National Library of Scotland.
Albany Wednesday Dear Lord Mahon, I am truly sorry that I am engaged to breakfast on Saturday. Yours ever T B Macaulay TO M R S H E N R Y MACAULAY, 22 J U N E
1848
MS: Royal College of Surgeons.
Albany June 22. / 1848 My dear Mrs. Henry Macaulay I inclose a few lines for Hawes,2 though I do not suppose that an introduction is at all necessary. You did not put any address to your letter, and I did not know where to direct to you, till I learned yesterday that you were in town. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO S I R E D W A R D B U L W E R - L Y T T O N , 22 J U N E
1848
MS: Hertfordshire County Council.
Albany June 22. / 1848 Dear Sir Edward Lytton, I should have acknowledged your kind present3 earlier, had I not learned with great concern that you had been suffering from one of those cruel blows which make literary triumphs and failures seem matters of very small account.4 At such a time I did not like to obtrude my thanks and felicitations. You are already, no doubt, aware that your tale is generally thought eminently eloquent and striking even among your works. I read it too eagerly for criticism. All the criticisms which did occur to me were historical; and, after all, if your narrative be not history, it deserves to be so. I am told to expect an excellent paper on Goldsmith in the next number of the Edinburgh Review.5 Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1
2 Dated in Mahon's hand. No doubt those of 19 June. Harold, or the Last of the Saxon Kings, 3 vols., published on 10 June. 4 Bulwer-Lytton's daughter, Emily Elizabeth, died on 29 April 1848, aged nineteen 5 Bulwer-Lytton, * Goldsmith,* ER, LXXXVIII (July 1848), 193-225. 3
368
Thomas Longman
22 June 1848
TO THOMAS LONGMAN, 22 JUNE
1848
Text: Extract in Trevelyan, 11, 231.
[London] If you wish to say, ' History of England from the Accession of James II.,' I have no objection; but I cannot consent to put in anything about an Introductory Essay. There is no Introductory Essay, unless you call the first Book of Davila, and the first three chapters of Gibbon, Introductory Essays.
TO W I L L I A M C O X B E N N E T T , 1 28 J U N E
1848
MS: Trinity College. Envelope: W C Bennett Esq / Osborne Place / Blackheath. Subscription: T B M.
Albany June 28. 1848 Sir, I am much gratified by your favourable opinion, expressed as it is with great energy and liveliness. I only wish that I deserved your compliments better. The passage which has affected you so much is merely a faint echo,-how faint nobody knows better than my self,-of the glorious war songs of Homer.2 I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your faithful Servant, T B Macaulay TO L O R D M A H O N , 6 J U L Y
1848
MS: Stanhope Papers, Chevening.
Albany July 6. 1848 Dear Lord Mahon, You will find the story in Carte's Life of Ormond, Vol 11 page 555-3 1
2 3
Bennett (1820-95: DNB) was employed as a watchmaker at Greenwich; he later worked as a journalist and published a number of poems and songs aimed at stimulating the development of a national ballad-literature. His * Sonnet Written in Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome' (Poems, 1850, p. 211) concludes: *O wondrous art! so giving one to look / On Rome's fierce life! O marvel of a book!' Bennett's sonnet refers to no specific passage in the Lays but is evidently inspired mainly by the 'Battle of the Lake Regillus.' Mahon's note to this letter explains that he had written to ask where' the story of Ormond's love-making at Holland House was to be found.' The reference is to Thomas Carte, An History of the Life of James, Duke of Ormonde, 1736. The story, illustrating the * perfect harmony' between the Duke and Duchess of Ormonde, tells how the Duchess, learning that the Duke had had an illegitimate child by her old friend Lady Isabella Rich, informed Lady Isabella that she hoped this ' might not occasion any breach between them.'
369
y July 1848
Henry Hallam
I do not quite agree with you about Holland House.1 The real way to preserve is, in this as in many other cases, to reform. You would have kept Old Sarum and Gatton till they brought our whole constitution down about our ears. And, on the same principle, you would have refused to alter Hatfield, Longleat and Warwick Castle into commodious residences, the consequence of which would have been that they would long ago have been deserted and have gone to ruin. The best way to save an ancient building is to make it a pleasant residence for a modern family. Ever yours, T B Macaulay TO H E N R Y H A L L A M , 7 J U L Y
1848
MS: Christ Church, Oxford.
Albany July 7. 1848 Dear Hallam, I owe you many thanks which I would rather pay in person than by writing. Will you breakfast here on Tuesday at ten? Milman comes after a long absence from our parties. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 17 J U L Y
1848
MS: Trinity College. Partly published: Trevelyan, n, 216-17.
Albany London / July 17. 1848 Dear Ellis, Many thanks for your kindness. Pray let Dr. Hook 2 know, whenever you have an opportunity, how much I am obliged to him. The information which he has procured for me, I am sorry to say, is not such as I can use. But you need not tell him so. I feel convinced that he has made some mistake. For he sends me only a part of the Leeds burials in 1685. And yet the number is double that of the Manchester burials in the same year. If the ordinary rules of calculation are applied to these data, it will be found that Leeds must in 1685 have contained 16000 souls or thereabouts. Now at the beginning of the American war Leeds contained only 1
2
The extensive alterations carried out by the fourth Lord Holland in 1847-8 are summarized in Hudson, Holland House in Kensington, pp. 107—8. Dr Walter Farquhar Hook (1798-1875: DNB), then Vicar of Leeds and later Dean of Chi Chester. Ellis was Recorder of Leeds. TBM met Hook in 1852 and found him 'a very tolerable companion' (Journal, v, 64).
370
Thomas Flower Ellis
2j July 1848
16000 souls, as appears from Dr. Hook's own letter. Nobody can suppose that there had been no increase between 1685 and 1775. Besides, neither York nor Exeter contained 16000 inhabitants in 1685, and nobody who knows the state of things at that time can believe that Leeds was then a greater town than York or Exeter. Either some error has been committed, or else there was an extraordinary mortality at Leeds in 1685. In either case the numbers are useless for my purpose.1 I met the other day with a glorious non sequitur in a pamphlet of Anne's reign. "Your foul mouthed way of railing, so unworthy of your gown, is known to all the world. How savagely did you insult Mr. Dolbein. I grant that he is a puppy. But is that any reason for your calling him a son of a bitch?" The best reason in the world, I think. I shall be heartily glad to have you here during the months of quiet and emptiness. I have no doubt that I shall begin to print in September. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 27 J U L Y
1848
MS: Trinity College. Mostly published: Trevelyan, 11, 217.
Albany July 27 / 1848 Dear Ellis, Many thanks. Wardell2 is the man. He gives a much better thing than a list of burials, - a list of the houses returned by the hearthmoney collectors. It appears that Leeds contained, in 1663, just 1400 houses. And observe; all the townships are included. The average number of people to a house in a country town was, according to the best statistical writers of the seventeenth century, 4.3. If that estimate be just Leeds must, in 1663, have contained about six thousand souls. As it increased in trade and wealth during the reign of Charles II., we may well suppose that in 1685 the population was near 8000, — that is to say, about as much as the population of Manchester.31 had expected this result from observing that by the writers of that time Manchester and Leeds are always mentioned as of about the same size. But this evidence proves to demonstration either that there was some mistake about the number of burials, or that the year 1685 was a singularly unhealthy year from which no inference can be drawn. One person must have died in every third house within twelve months, a rate of mortality quite frightful. 1 2 3
See the next letter. James Wardell, The Municipal History of the Borough of Leeds, 1846. *. . . from the returns of the hearth money it seems certain that the whole population of [Leeds] . . . did not, in the reign of Charles the Second, exceed seven thousand souls' {History of England, I, 341-2: ch. 3). 371
22 August 2848
Thomas Flower Ellis
Will you dine with me next Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and so forth? Name your time. You shall have a tolerable lobster curry and a bottle of Champagne. For my leprosy is so completely removed that I think of shewing myself to the priest.1 Ever yours T B Macaulay TO T H O M A S F L O W E R E L L I S , 22 A U G U S T
1848
MS: Trinity College. Extract published: Trevelyan, II, 218.
Albany London / August 22. 1848 Dear Ellis, On the whole the Lancaster plan is the best. Nothing unforeseen preventing I will be at Lancaster soon after six on Monday.2 I shall be glad to see Derwentwater in fine weather. I have been there thrice, and always in mist and drizzle. I am working intensely, and, I hope, not unsuccessfully. My third chapter which is the most difficult part of my task is done, and, I think not ill done. On Monday week I begin to print. I am quite alone. Trevelyan is hunting red deer on the Devonshire moors; and London is so empty that I have not a single dinner engagement, having till now had generally four a week. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO S E L I N A MACAULAY, 22 A U G U S T
1848
MS: University of California, Berkeley.
Albany London / August 22. 1848 Dearest Selina, Enmore, Bridgewater, is all that is necessary in directing to Hannah. I heard from her to day. I find that Trevelyan is enjoying himself greatly, and is likely to pass some days in hunting the red deer on the moors. I am afraid that Hannah's duties prevent her from deriving much enjoyment from her holiday. However she is well. 1 2
See Leviticus 13 and 14. 28 August; I have found no evidence to show that TBM made this tour; he was in London on 3 September. He and Ellis then seem to have gone to France, for in his Journal for 11 September 1853 TBM reports that he met Sir George Napier and his wife at Nantua: • We met last in France as inmates of the same hotel, five years ago almost to a day, he travelling with his wife, and I with Ellis' (vu, 67).
372
Prince Albert
3 September 1848
Do not let croakers frighten you. All will go well. I have seen really dangerous times; and I do not call the present time at all dangerous. I shall stay here almost without any interruption till Xtmas. I send my first sheets to press in a very few days. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO P R I N C E A L B E R T , 3 S E P T E M B E R
1848
MS: Royal Archives, Windsor Castle. Partly published: The History of the Times, 11 (1939), 129.
Albany London / September 3. 1848. Sir, I am most deeply sensible of the great honor which Your Royal Highness has done me by condescending to ask my opinion.1 It would be unpardonable in me, on such an occasion, not to be perfectly ingenuous. My personal wishes, I will frankly own, are not with Mr. Woodham 2 who is almost a stranger to me, but with Mr. Kemble whom I have long known, and whose attainments in Anglo Saxon learning I believe to be almost unrivalled. Nevertheless I am bound to say that, if Her Majesty's choice should fall on Mr. Woodham, he will, I am convinced, prove an eminently able and useful professor. His knowledge is extensive and accurate, his faculties vigorous, and his opinions sound. I am assured also that he has paid particular attention to the history of the British empire in India, a subject which is too much neglected, and which is every day becoming more and more important. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, / With profound respect, Your Royal Highness's most faithful and obedient Servant, Thomas Babington Macaulay His Royal Highness / Prince Albert. 1
2
About the appointment to the Regius Professorship of Modern History at Cambridge: in the next year Albert offered it to TBM, who * gratefully and respectfully declined' (Trevelyan, 11, 261). The chair was then given to Sir James Stephen. Henry Annesley Woodham (1813-75: Boase), fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, 18418, and, after his marriage, made honorary fellow, 1861. From sometime before 1845 until 1874 he was one of the most important leader-writers for The Times, though continuing to reside in Cambridge: see The History of the Times, 11 (1939), 127—9.
373
22 September 1848
John Hill Burton
TO J O H N H I L L B U R T O N , 1 22 S E P T E M B E R
1848
MS: National Library of Scotland. Albany London / Septr. 22 / 1848 Dear Sir, I am truly grateful for your kindness. I hope that it will not cost you much trouble. What I wish to ascertain is whether there is any record proving that James, when he resided at Edinburgh in his brother's reign, was present at the infliction of torture. See Burnet 1. 583 of the folio and 11. 428 of the Oxford Edition.2 / Believe me, / Dear Sir, Yours very faithfully T B Macaulay TO J O H N H I L L B U R T O N , 26 S E P T E M B E R
1848
MS; National Library of Scotland.
Albany London / Septr. 26. 1848 My dear Sir, I am truly obliged to you for the trouble which you have taken. If the Acta are wanting from 1679 t o 1682, of course no information can be expected from that source.3 For the Duke of York did not arrive at Edinburgh till the end of November 1679, and took his final departure early in March 1682. I should be truly glad if, whenever you happen to be in town, you would favour me with a call and let me have the pleasure of renewing our acquaintance. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1
2
3
Burton (1809—81: DNB), was an Edinburgh advocate and miscellaneous writer; his major work is The History of Scotland, 8 vols., 1853-70, mentioned as *Mr. Burton's valuable History of Scotland' in TBM's History of England, in, 25 5n. He was appointed Historiographer-Royal of Scotland in 1867. Burton contributed to the ER from 1846, and was one of die liberal party in Edinburgh. Burnet, History of His Own Time, 6 vols., Oxford, 1823. TBM more than once repeats Burnet's charge that James, when he was governing Scotland, enjoyed watching the infliction of torture (History of England, e.g., 1, 271). Sir Charles Firth remarks on this subject that Burnet's is the only authority for the charge, which is * not confirmed by other evidence' (Commentary on Macaulay*s History of England, p. 190). * Unfortunately the Acts of the Scottish Privy Council during almost the whole administration of the Duke of York are wanting' (History of England, 1, 494m ch. 4). This volume has now been recovered (Firth, Commentary on Macaulay*s History of England, p. I9on).
374
John Hill Burton
30 September 1848
TO JOHN HILL BURTON, 30 SEPTEMBER
1848
MS: National Library of Scotland.
Albany Septr. 30 / 1848 My dear Sir, I am truly obliged by your great kindness. But I am certain, whatever your Privy Council Book may say, that the Duke of York was not in Scotland in July 1684. On May the 12th 1684 he was appointed Lord High Admiral of England. On the 28th he took his seat at the Council Board, by an exercise of the dispensing power. On the 6th of June he wrote from Windsor a letter to the Prince of Orange which you may see in Dalrymple.1 On the second of July, two days before the date of your minute, he wrote a letter from Windsor to the Earl of Rochester which may be seen in the Clarendon Correspondence.2 On the 5th of August Lord Godolphin saw him at Hampton Court, as appears by another letter in the Clarendon Correspondence. I am confident that there is some mistake or other. Pray was there such a thing as a constructive presence of a Lord High Commissioner in your Privy Council, like the constructive presence of the Queen in parliament and in the Court of Queen's Bench with us? If not, I am quite at a loss. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay Fountainhall3 and Wodrow 4 mention the torturing of Spence. But it is plain both from FountainhalPs notes and from Wodrow's narrative that the Duke was not then in Scotland.
TO J O H N H I L L B U R T O N , 6 O C T O B E R
1848
MS: National Library of Scotland. Albany London / Octr. 6. 1848 My dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for the extracts. My opinion however remains unchanged. Just look at FountainhalPs Decisions; and say whether 1 2 3
4
Sir John Dalrymple, Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, 1771-3. The Correspondence of Henry Hyde, Earl ofClarendon, and of His Brother, Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, ed. S. W. Singer, 2 vols., 1828. Sir John Lauder, Lord Fountainhall, The Decisions of the Lords of Council and Session . . . Containing also the Transactions of the Privy Council, of the Criminal Court, and Court of Exchequer, Edinburgh, 1759-61. Robert Wodrow, The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, 1721-2.
375
24 October 1848
Lady Trevelyan
it is possible to believe that James paid a flying visit — a flying visit it must have been—to Edinburgh in July 1684, and took his seat at the head of the Council Board on the 15 th of that month. There is FountainhalPs account of what passed on that day. Lord Perth and Lord Queensberry had just returned from England. A new Commission of Council was produced. Lord Perth was received as Chancellor. He made a speech acknowledging his own unfitness for so great a post and begging for the indulgence of the board. Not one word about the Duke of York. Is this conceivable if the Duke, after an absence of more than two years, had really reappeared on that day in the Council Room as Lord High Commissioner. The silence of the London Gazette too which in those days was tediously minute about the movements of the royal family is alone sufficient to prove that James did not run down to Scotland that summer. How the mistake arose I do not pretend to guess. But I feel the firmest conviction that there is some mistake, and that James was never on the north of the Tweed after 1682. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO L A D Y T R E V E L Y A N , 24 O C T O B E R
1848
MS: Iowa Historical Library. Partly published:1 Trevelyan, 11, 232.
Albany Oct 24. 1848 Dearest Hannah, I inclose a letter which I have just received from Charles,2 and a copy of one [of] his first performances as a journalist. I think his sentiments highly creditable to him. Bring the paper back with you that Trevelyan may see it. Our uncle John has just been here. Poor man, he looks a mere ruin. He came up to consult Brodie. I fear that he has very little life in him, and that his remaining days will be days of suffering. I was quite shocked to see him.3 1
The letter is fully printed in an unidentified newspaper clipping in the Iowa Historical Library. 2 Charles was preparing to return to England, where his wife and children already were (his second child, Mary, born in England in 1847, he had not yet seen). Charles had been offered a position as commissioner of the new government bank in Mauritius but had decided against remaining there longer (C. E. Trevelyan to Charles, 22 October 1847: Trevelyan Letter Books, University of Newcastle). Early in 1849 he was offered the secretaryship of the colony but refused it: see 3 March 1849. 3 John Mills died on 17 March 1849, * after a long and painful illness* (Bristol Gazette, 22 March 1849).
376
[Frances? Macaulay]
[Late October 2848]
I do not know whether you have heard how pleasant a day Baba passed with me. We had a long long walk, a great deal of pleasant chat, a very nice dinner, and a quiet happy evening. She is really the very best girl in the world. That was my only holiday last week, and indeed the only fine day that we had last week. I work with scarcely any intermission from seven in the morning to seven in the afternoon, and shall probably continue to do so during the next ten days. Then my labours will become lighter, and, in about three weeks, will completely cease. There will still be a fortnight before the publication. I have armed myself with all my philosophy for the event of a failure, though Jeffrey, Ellis, Marian, Longman and Mrs. Longman1 seem to think that there is no chance of such a catastrophe. I might add Macleod, who has read the third Chapter, and, though he makes some objections, professes to be on the whole better pleased than with any other history that he has read. The state of my own mind is this: when I compare my book with what I imagine that history ought to be, I feel dejected and ashamed: but when I compare it with some histories which have a high repute, I feel reassured. But Alice will say that this is boasting. Love to her and to Mrs. Charles, and to Charles's bairns. Ever yours T B Macaulay
TO [ F R A N C E S ? MACAULAY, 2 L A T E O C T O B E R
1848]
MS: Trinity College. Partly published: Trevelyan, 11, 231—2.
[London] [.. ,] 3 time to miss any[thin]g, [for?] I am up at seven over proof sheets, and my work does not end till dinner time. My only recreations [. . . ] 4 concludes. I publish certainly on the 4th of December. Longman seems content with his bargain. Jeffrey, Ellis, Macleod, and Hannah, all agree in predicting that the book will succeed. I ought to add Marian Ellis's judgment. For her father tells me that he cannot get the proof sheets out of her hand, and that she finds them as entertaining as a novel. These things keep up my spirits. Yet I see every day more and more clearly how far my performance is below excellence, and how much better I could make it if I took another year. 1 2 3
4
Georgiana Bates (1815-90) married Thomas Longman in 1838. Trevelyan assigns this letter to Selina; Fanny seems more likely. About two-thirds of the first leaf have been torn off, and parts of words in the first remaining line have been removed with it. Two-thirds of the verso of the first leaf are missing here. 13
377
PLT
iv
4 November 1848
George Pryme
On Saturday Hannah comes back from Hastings. On Sunday I shall go to Clapham, my first holiday for many days. I shall be most happy to see you there again. Kindest love to John, his wife, and his children. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO G E O R G E P R Y M E , 1 4 N O V E M B E R
1848
MS: Trinity College. Published: George Pryme, Autobiographic Recollections•, Cambridge, 1870, p. 195.
Albany London / Nov 4. 1848 My dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for your kind suggestion, of which I will hereafter avail my self.2 The two volumes which I am now about to publish must, I am afraid, stand as they are. I hope and believe that few important pamphlets relating to the times of which I have hitherto treated have escaped me. I have rummaged the British Museum and the Pepysian Library, and have, during some years, carefully examined the catalogues of those booksellers who deal in such works. The greater part however of my materials has never yet been printed. I occasionally see Mr. Hartwell Home. 3 1 will speak to him about the Queen's College Collection. / Believe me, / My dear Sir, Yours very faithfully T B Macaulay TO A N D R E W R U T H E R F U R D , 4 N O V E M B E R
1848
MS: National Library of Scotland.
Albany London / November 4. 1848 Dear Rutherfurd, I showed your letter and Lord Zetland's to Trevelyan who would, I am sure, be glad to be of use to anybody whom you recommend. But 1
2
3
Pryme (1781-1868: DNB), a graduate and Fellow of Trinity, resided in Cambridge, where he practised as a barrister and lectured informally at the University on political economy. In 1828 he became Professor of Political Economy. Both a Whig and an Evangelical, he was M.P. for the borough of Cambridge, 1832-41. TBM's library contained a presentation copy of Pryme's Memoirs of the Life of Daniel Sykes, 1834 (sale catalogue, item 199). Apparently an offer to lend a collection of pamphlets and tracts that Pryme had assembled when he intended to write a history of England: see his Autobiographic Recollections, p. 194. Thomas Hartwell Home (1780-1862: DNB), assistant librarian in the department of printed books at the British Museum; he had made a subject catalogue of the library at Queens* College, Cambridge, 2 vols., 1827. One of the occasions on which TBM saw him was 4 July 1849, when, while working at the Museum, he was * bored by Hartwell Home who took his stand at my table and prosed unmercifully. Panizzi passed by grinning. I find that H. H. is the bore of the Museum' (Journal, 11, 54).
378
Lord Lansdowne
23 November 1848
you are mistaken as to the nature of his connection with the Commissariat department. He has not the patronage. That is in the hands of Tufnell, who, if I remember rightly, fills up the vacancies of the year at Christmas. I should have no doubt that a recommendation from Lord Zetland to Tufnell would have great weight. Trevelyan told me that he thought that the service wanted young men bred like Mr. George Claudius Dickson.1 I am now putting the last hand to the last chapter of my book. I heartily wish that I could keep it a year longer. But I know that I should see as many faults then as now; and life is too short for eternal polishing. So, rude and imperfect as it is, I must venture it. It will be published, I believe, this day month. Craig by word of mouth and Black by letter give me but poor accounts of Edinburgh politics. Thank God I have something better to mind. Ever yours, T B Macaulay TO L O R D L A N S D O W N E , 13 N O V E M B E R
1848
MS: The Marquess of Lansdowne.
Albany November 13 / 1848 Dear Lord Lansdowne, My old college friend Derwent Coleridge, who is now at the head of St Mark's College, had heard that the education department of the Privy Council office is about to be reinforced, and is very anxious that, if possible, his son should be appointed a clerk.2 I do not know whether my friend's information be correct. But, if there are vacancies, it would seem to me that the appointment of a Coleridge would be thought creditable to the government, and would tend to put the Church in good humour. I believe that the young man would be found well qualified. / Believe me ever, / My dear Lord Lansdowne, Yours most truly T B Macaulay 1
2
A George Claudius Dickson attended the Edinburgh Academy, 1835—41; I do not find him in the lists of Commissariat officers. Derwent Moultrie Coleridge (1828-80), Derwent Coleridge's only son, graduated from Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1853 and then emigrated to Australia.
379
16 November 1848
Andrew Rutherjurd
TO A N D R E W R U T H E R F U R D , 16 N O V E M B E R
1848
MS: National Library of Scotland. Albany London / Nov 16. 1848 Dear Lord Advocate, I hoped when I breakfasted this morning that I had done for ever with elections and orations; and I cannot but wish that the ingenuous youth of Glasgow had been content with Colonel Mure.1 However, as I have been chosen by all the four nations, I do not see that I can without being accused of insolence or of affectation refuse an honor which my betters have thankfully accepted. I will go down on any day in January or February which may suit the University. Nothing could be more friendly or judicious than your way of dealing with the silly calumny put about by the Tory students.2 I send off to day the last sheets of my book to America.3 In a fortnight or very little more the publication will take place here. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO [ J O H N P R I N G L E N I C H O L ? ] , 4 18 N O V E M B E R
1848
MS: Morgan Library.
Albany London / Nov 18. 1848 Sir, I beg you to accept my thanks for your kind letter. I propose to visit Glasgow in January, at any time which may be most convenient to the University. I cannot at present venture to say how long I may be able to stay, or how my time may be occupied. But I look forward to the pleasure of seeing your observatory, and of becoming personally acquainted with you. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your faithful Servant, T B Macaulay 1
2
4
TBM was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow on 15 November, defeating Colonel William Mure 255 to 203. Mure (1799-1860: DNB), classical scholar, Colonel of the Renfrewshire Militia, and Tory M.P. for Renfrewshire, 1846-55, was Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, 1847—8. 'The election literature on this occasion seems to have been very bitter, and the faculty admonished the students on the gross impropriety of the imputations against individuals of high character and official position made and repeated in the handbills which had been circulated' (James Coutts, A History of the University of Glasgow ^ Glasgow, 1909, pp. 3 409-10). To Harpers: see 27 November. Nichol (1804-59: DNB) was Professor of Astronomy at the University of Glasgow from 1836; a new observatory for the University was erected in 1841.
380
John Evelyn Denison
18 November 2848
TO JOHN EVELYN DENISON, 18 NOVEMBER
1848
MS: University of Nottingham.
Albany London / Nov 18. 1848 Dear Denison, I do not know whether Grimblot1 is now at Paris or at Marseilles. He meant to revisit London in a few weeks. When he comes I shall certainly see him, and I will convey your thanks to him. Or rather I will take them for my self, seeing that it was by my direction that Longman sent you the volumes which owe so large a part of their value to your kindness. I have been very hard worked. But I now begin to see the end of my labours. Yet the end of one labour is the beginning of another. As soon as I have done with printer's devils in London I must go and harangue the students at Glasgow. I almost wish that I were again listening to Mr. Carpenter Rowe. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO F R A N C I S H A Y W O O D , 2 21 N O V E M B E R
1848
MS: Trinity College. Albany London / November 21. 1848 My dear Sir, I beg you to accept my thanks for your present and for the kind lines which accompanied it. I shall, I hope, soon find time to read Kant's text and your notes with the necessary attention. 3 1 cannot, I am afraid, hold out to you much hope that you will make a proselyte of me. I was once a disciple of Locke: but I long ago withdrew my allegiance from him without transferring it to any other master. My metaphysical system is and will, I think, continue to be the ccKonrccAriyta of the second Academy. I 1
Paul Grimblot, French historian; he had just published through Longman an edition of Letters of William III, and Louis XIV. and of Their Ministers . . . 169J—IJ00, 2 vols., dedicated to ' The Right Hon. T. B. Macaulay/ TBM notes in his Journal for 2 June 1849: 'read Grimblot- very good collection indeed. He makes the history quite pellucid' (11,
2
3
20).
Haywood (1796-1858: DNB), a Liverpool merchant, translator, and scholar, published a translation of Kant's Critick of Pure Reason, 1838, and a revised edition, 1848. Haywood was one of Panizzi's earliest friends in England, and was well-known to Ellis and other members of the Northern Circuit: at assize time he was 'uniformly hospitable in entertaining the bar, and getting the best men to come to him* (Pollock, Personal Remembrances, 1, 238). TBM wrote in his Journal that he found Kant's text 'utterly unintelligible . . . . it seems odd that in a book on the elements of metaphysics by a Liverpool merchant I should not be able to comprehend a word. I wrote my acknowledgments with a little touch of the Socratic irony' (Trevelyan, 11, 243-4).
381
2j November 2848
Charles Macaulay
am not therefore open to the censure thrown by Kant on the Naturalists page 589.1 I do not say "Non ego euro Esse quod Arcesilas." For I am exactly of Arcesilas's mind. / Believe me, / My dear Sir, Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO C H A R L E S MACAULAY, 27 N O V E M B E R
1848
MS: University of London. Published: Rae, Temple Bar, LXXXVI, 199.
Albany London / November 27. 1848 My dear Charles, I should have written to you more than once, if I had not apprehended that my letters might not reach Mauritius till you were on your voyage to England: and even now I write in doubt. We have all been much interested by your political and literary labours, and think them highly creditable to you and likely to be useful to the public. I have been working intensely during some months on my history, rising at day break, and sometimes sitting at my desk twelve hours at a stretch. This work is for the present over. On Friday next, the 1st of December, we publish.2 I hardly know what to anticipate. Every body who has seen the book, that is to say, Lord Jeffrey, Ellis, Trevelyan, Hannah, and Longman, predict complete success, and say that it is as entertaining as a novel. But the truth is that, in such a case, friends are not to be trusted, and booksellers, after they have struck a bargain, are even less to be trusted than friends. The partiality of an author for what he has written is nothing compared to the partiality of a publisher for what he has bought. However a few weeks will show. I am in doubt about sending you a copy, though I have ordered one to be reserved for you. You will probably see the book first in the Yankee edition. A New York house3 has given me £200 for early proof sheets. Longman is to pay me five hundred a year for five years in consideration of the privilege of printing six thousand copies. This is a very pleasant addition to my income: and, if the book suc1
2
3
The Naturalists ' follow common reason, without boasting themselves of their ignorance, as a method, which is to contain the secret of drawing the truth from the deep well of Democritus. Quod satis est sapio mihi: non ego euro esse, quod Arcesilas aerumnosique Solones.' Longman delivered the two volumes of the History, whose title page is dated 1849, to TBM on 23 November (Journal, 1, 417); the decision to change the publication date from 5 to 1 December must have been made quite late, for it is advertised for publication on the 5th in the Athenaeum, 25 November. On 1 December TBM wrote that 'the book is not to be out till to morrow. It seems that the great number of orders causes the delay* (Journal, 1, 426). The first edition was of 3,000 copies and was sold out by 11 December. Harpers.
382
Lord Mahon
[i December 1848
ceeds, I shall probably find literature not only a more pleasant but a more gainful pursuit than politics. We are all well - Hannah very much improved in health, I think - but she has been forced of late to play the nurse much more than does her good. I hope soon to meet your wife at Clapham, and to make acquaintance with the children. I could say a great deal about Edward Cropper and his marriage:1 but that may wait till we meet which I hope will be early in the summer. This strange and awful year is ending better than a few months ago there seemed reason to expect. England, Scotland, even Ireland, are quiet. In France and Germany the friends of order are getting the upper hand. In the United States the spectacle which Europe has lately presented seems to have strengthened the moderate party. We learn to day that Taylor has been elected President in opposition to the odious firebrand Cass. Peace, I hope, is now tolerably secure, and you may return without being afraid either of the stars and stripes or of the tricolor. Ever yours affectionately T B Macaulay TO L O R D M A H O N , [ I D E C E M B E R
1848]2
MS: Stanhope Papers, Chevening.
Albany Friday Dear Lord Mahon, On Thursday, I grieve to say, I dine with Dr. Holland.3 So you see that a fate like that which the Greek dramatists loved to describe is upon us. TT|V Tr£*rrpco|Jievr)v 5e ypr\ ocicjocv cpepEiv cos p a o r d yiyvcooxovO' O T I TO TT|S CCVOCyKTIS SOT* a5r|piTOV CT06VOS.4
Ever yours T B Macaulay 1 2 3
4
Cropper married Henry Macaulay's widow Margaret on 10 August. Dated by Mahon. Where the company was Lord Aberdeen, Mrs Sydney Smith, and her daughter and sonin-law, Mr and Mrs Nathaniel Hibbert (Journal, 1, 435: 7 December). Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, 102-4: 'My allotted doom I needs must bear as lightly as I may, knowing that the might of Necessity brooketh no resistance* (Loeb Library translation).
383
6 December 1848
David Laing
TO D A V I D L A I N G , 1 6 D E C E M B E R
1848
MS: Edinburgh University Library. Albany London / December 6. 1848 Sir, I received about a week ago a letter from you informing me that the Bannatyne Club had done me the great honor of sending me some volumes of Lord Fountainhall's works. 2 This present, which I should value most highly, has not yet reached me; and I am afraid that it may have miscarried. I should be greatly obliged to you to give the necessary directions. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your faithful Servant, T B Macaulay TO S I R C H A R L E S W O O D , 7 D E C E M B E R
1848
MS: The Earl of Halifax.
Albany Dec 7. 1848 Dear Wood, I am delighted by your approbation, and shall be greatly obliged by your criticisms. Trevelyan mentioned one of them to me. You seemed to doubt to what Earl of Derby I alluded in speaking of the great English captains of the thirteenth century. 3 1 meant Henry Plantagenet, grandson of Edmund Crouchback, and second cousin of Edward the Third. Henry died Duke of Lancaster: but it was as earl of Derby that he took Bergerac, raised the siege of Auberoche, and with a handful of men conquered the south of France. It was as earl of Derby too that he showed the humanity and courtesy which, according to Froissart, gained the hearts of the vanquished people. "Si acquit tant leur grace qu'ils disoient communement de luy que c'estoit le plus noble prince qui peust chevaucher sur pallefroy."4 I did not call him Duke of Lancaster that he might not be confounded with his son in law, John of Gaunt, whom I take to have been a much less heroic and accomplished person. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
Laing (1793-1878: DNB)9 Edinburgh bibliophile and antiquary, was secretary and chief editor for the Bannatyne Club, founded by Sir Walter Scott for the publication of unpublished or rare materials in Scottish history and literature. Laing succeeded Macvey Napier as librarian to the Writers to the Signet in 1837. 2 Laing's editions for the Bannatyne Club of Fountainnall's Historical Observes of Memorable Occurrents, 1840, and Historical Notices of Scottish Affairs, 1848, are items 625 and 603 in the sale catalogue of TBM's library. 3 4 History of England, I, 20. Chronicles, Book 1, ch. 136.
384
Sir Charles Wood
8 December 2848
TO S I R C H A R L E S W O O D , 8 D E C E M B E R
1848
MS: The Earl of Halifax. Albany Dec 8. 1848 Dear Wood, Thanks for your suggestions. You are right about the word cudgel.1 It would have been grossly improper, if it had not been Danby's own. Perhaps I ought to have added a note to say that it was so. I doubt about debruised.2 As to pricking* you are right; and the word shall be altered in the next edition. Ever yours, T B Macaulay TO N A T H A N I E L H I B B E R T , I I D E C E M B E R
1848
MS: The Viscount Knutsford.
Albany December 11. / 1848 Dear Hibbert, Remember Thursday, seven o'clock, and Grillion's. Ever yours T B Macaulay We shall be six old Northern Circuit men. You will find everybody glad to meet you. 4
TO S I R C H A R L E S W O O D , 13 D E C E M B E R
1848
MS: The Earl of Halifax. Albany Dec 13. / 1848 Dear Wood, Thanks upon thanks for your kindness. I am very sorry that it will be impossible for me to leave town before the 8th of January, and that I 1
2
3
4
Danby's * dearest wish was to cudgel the French into a proper respect' (History, 1, 225-6: ch. 2). Monmouth's arms were exhibited * without the baton sinister under which, according to the law of heraldry, they were debruised in token of his illegitimate birth' (1, 252: ch. 2). *The Life Guards and Blues came pricking fast from Weston Zoyland' (1,609: ch. 5). The word was not changed. * To Grillion's — gave a handsome dinner to a small party of old circuit friends — an immense bill - particularly for turtle' (Journal, 1, 441: [14] December).
385
13 December 1848
Sir Charles Wood
must therefore give up for the present the hope of seeing you in the country. Some of your corrections are quite right; but I am afraid that they come too late for the second edition.I I must however stand up for one word to which you object "perfunctory." 2 It is an old word, used by Clarendon and by many good writers since his time. It is a necessary word; for it has no synonyme, and expresses concisely what must otherwise be expressed by long circumlocution. I am particularly surprised that any objection to this word should come from you, who, I should have thought, must have been using it every day and all day long during more than two years. At least the public impression is that no word but "perfunctory" adequately expresses the manner in which a considerable number of well born and well paid gentlemen at the Treasury discharge their duties. As to "educe," 3 remember that it has been used in exactly the sense in which I use it by both Pope and Thomson. "Th'eternal art educes good from ill":* and "From seeming evil still educing good." 5 "Simulate" 6 I give up to you; and will strike it out whenever I find it. But as to "makebate" 7 I am more doubtful. It is vigorous old Anglo Saxon, familiar to the purest writers of Elizabeth and Anne. You who object to the introduction of Latin words into our language should encourage the use of these genuine English words. To lay a prohibition on our own produce is to give a bounty on importation. If I must not say makebate, I shall be forced to say incendiary. Some day or other we will have a long and pleasant talk over these trifles. In the mean time, thanks and more thanks for your friendship. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1
2 3
4 5 6
7
A second edition of 3,000 copies was subscribed on 1 January 1849 and exhausted by the 10th. TBM began correcting for it on 4 December (Journal, 1, 429). I have not been able to find this word in the History, * The man who first educed out of the chaos anciently called by the name of equity a new system of jurisprudence' (History, 11, 248); 'but, if God, whose providence perpetually educes good out of evil' (11, 403). Essay on Man, II, 175: 'Th'Eternal Act. . . .' James Thomson, 'Hymn' (1730), 114. E.g., 'all this compassion was simulated' (History, 11,18);' simulated' becomes * feigned* in later editions. ' Barillon was therefore directed to a c t . . . the part of a makebate' (History, 11, 22).
386
David Laing
13 December 1848
TO D A V I D L A I N G , 13 D E C E M B E R
1848
MS: Edinburgh University Library. Albany Deer. 13 / 1848 Sir, I wrote some days ago to acknowledge, with cordial thanks, the safe arrival of the books. I am truly glad to learn from you that I was right as to the absence of the Duke of York from the Scottish Privy Council in July 1684.1 I was convinced, by the silence of the London Gazette which in that age carefully indicated the movements of royal persons, by the dates of letters which the Duke wrote just at the beginning and just at the end of July, and, above all, by that passage of Fountainhall which you mention, and which I had noticed in the British Museum, that the entry of the Sederunt could not be correct. Yet how such an entry could be erroneous I found it difficult to imagine. My difficulty has now been solved by you. 2 The question is in itself unimportant. But it is always pleasing to a historian to find that he has, in a case perplexed by conflicting evidence, come to a right determination. / I remain, Sir, Yours very faithfully T B Macaulay TO L O R D M A H O N , 13 D E C E M B E R
1848
MS: National Library of Scotland.
Albany Dec 13. / 1848 Dear Lord Mahon, Pray breakfast with me on Monday next at ten.3 Ever yours T B Macaulay 1 2
3
See 6 October. Apparently Laing told TBM that the disputed entry was in a different and probably later hand from those in which the other entries in the minutes of the Council were made: see 14 March 1849. The guests were Hallam, Milman, Glenelg, Mahon, and Guizot (Journal, 1, 444).
387
20 December 1848
Peter Cunningham
TO PETER CUNNINGHAM, 1 20 DECEMBER
1848
MS: Huntington Library. Published: [A. W. Thibaudeau, ed.], Catalogue of the Alfred Morrison Collection, Privately Printed, 1890, iv, 3-4.
Albany December 20 / 1848 Sir, I am truly obliged to you for your suggestions. You are quite right about the place of Russell's execution, which indeed I had my self mentioned (Vol 1. page 425). Tower Hill was a slip of the pen. I am afraid that your correction comes too late for the second edition.2 As to Nelly I am not so clear. Can you direct me to any authority for your assertion that Dorset was only her Charles the Second? The suppressed passage in Burnet does not bear you out. Burnet only says, "She called the King her Charles the Third, since she had been formerly kept by two of the name." Pepys tells a story which seems to prove that Dorset was her first keeper. Beck Marshall called Nell Buckhurst's mistress. Nell answered, "Well, I was but one man's mistress; and you have been mistress to three or four." (Diary Oct 26. 1667) This would seem to indicate that Hart did not succeed with Nell till she had left her first lover and returned to the stage.3 As to the flogging of players look at ScobelPs Collection of the Ordinances of the Long Parliament (1658). You will see that by ordinance number 1094 of 1647 it was enacted that every actor who should perform in any play or interlude should, for the first offence be publicly whipped in a market town on a market day, and should, for the second offence, be treated as an incorrigible rogue and vagabond. I differ from you as to the comparative splendour of the theatrical decorations employed in the seventeenth century and in the nineteenth.5 Do you imagine that there was any scenery in the time of Charles the Second equal to that painted by Stanfield?6 Who was to paint it? There 1
Cunningham (1816-69: DNB\ son of the writer Allan Cunningham, was a clerk in the Audit Office and a busy editor and antiquary. He was at this time working on his life of Nell Gwynn (see 10 May 1852). a This clearly seems to mean that TBM put Tower Hill instead of Lincoln's Inn Fields as the place of Russell's execution, but I cannotfindthe error in thefirstedition, whereas the correct place is twice given: I, 425, and 11, 178. 3 TBM had repeated the story from Burnet that Nell Gwynn always called Dorset her * Charles the First' {History of England, 11, 323). In the fourth edition he added this note: * The King was only Nell's Charles III. Whether Dorset or Major Hart had the honour of being her Charles I. is a point open to dispute. But the evidence in favour of Dorset's claim seems to me to preponderate. See the suppressed passage of Burnet, i. 263.; and 4 Pepys's Diary, Oct. 26. 1667' (ch. 8). I.e., 106. s TBM wrote of the Restoration theater that 'scenery, dresses, and decorations such as would now be thought mean and absurd . . . dazzled the eyes of the multitude * (1, 402). 6 Clarkson Stanfield (1793-1867: DNB)y painter, began as a theatrical scene-painter.
388
Andrew Rutherfurd
22 December 2848
was not an artist in England able to produce such gorgeous landscapes. No doubt to that generation the Conquest of Granada and Albion and Albanius1 seemed to be magnificently got up. I believe that those plays would have looked poor indeed when compared with the pomp of many modern melodramas and pantomimes. It may be true that the old actors sometimes got fine cast off clothes which had been worn at court, and acted Julius Caesar and Aurungzebe in the Duke of Buckingham's wig and the Duke of Ormond's laced coat. But I own that I can hardly conceive anything meaner than a Roman Dictator or an Indian Sultan tricked out in the finery of an English peer. Pray do not let the pertinacity with which I maintain some of my opinions deter you from making any further criticisms which may occur to you. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your faithful Servant T B Macaulay TO A N D R E W R U T H E R F U R D , 21 D E C E M B E R
1848
MS: National Library of Scotland.
Albany Dec 21. 1848 Dear Rutherfurd, I really am in great need of your advice. I do not wish to requite the favour of the University of Glasgow with disrespect; and yet I am afraid that I shall be forced to do so. It seems to be expected that, when I go down to be inaugurated, I am to be shown like General Tom Thumb. 2 The Directors of the Glasgow Athenaeum propose to call a great meeting for no public object whatever, but simply for the purpose of staring at me and hearing me speak about nothing at all. There is a similar institution at Stirling which invites me to make a similar exhibition of myself: and there may be twenty more such invitations on the road. Now you know, or perhaps you do not fully know, how hateful such displays are to me. Nothing but a sense of duty surmounted my reluctance to harangue the house of Commons, or my own Constituents, when I had Constituents. The business of delivering my inaugural address is by no means an agreeable one. But as to playing the mountebank like George Thompson or Silk Buckingham,3 it is what, to speak plainly, I will not do, come what may. 1 2 3
Both by Dryden: 1670 and 1685. Tom Thumb had appeared in London in 1844 and 1846. James Silk Buckingham (1786-1855: DNB)9 had had a checkered career as journalist, traveller, politician, temperance leader, and lecturer. Lord Houghton says that TBM was 'fond of comparing William Penn with Mr. Silk Buckingham' because both were courtiers and bores (Academy, 29 April 1876, p. 397).
389
2 5 December 2848
Bishop Robert John Eden
Now will you consider this matter, and give me your counsel. Is there any way in which I can, without long previous notice, and without making a stay of more than a few hours at Glasgow, deliver my address and go through the ceremony of entering on my functions? Could I make my headquarters at some place in the country, and just run to Glasgow for the day? I had meant to take my sister Lady Trevelyan with me in the hope that I might have passed two or three days in seeing a great city and associating with its eminent men. But all notion of pleasure is at an end; and to escape without being exhibited like a Bengal tiger or an ourang outang is all that I can hope for. If there is no other way I shall go to Paris without visiting Glasgow; and shall leave the students to punish me as they punished Lord John. 1 Ever yours T B Macaulay TO B I S H O P R O B E R T J O H N E D E N , 2 25 D E C E M B E R
1848
MS: Huntington Library.
Albany Dec 25 / 1848 My dear Lord, I am truly glad to find that I have been able to give you some pleasure in your desert island. No historian, I believe, was ever so fortunate in episcopal approbation. The post which brought me your kind note brought me also tidings from the West. Henry of Exeter3 has pronounced me a most impartial writer and a sincere lover of truth. If I have his suffrage and yours, I may fairly venture to hope that all the six and twenty Right Reverend Fathers who lie between you will be of the same mind. But seriously I am most grateful for your kindness. Pray remember me to Mrs. Eden,4 and accept all the best Christmas wishes for her and for yourself. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1
2
3 4
Russell had been elected Rector of the University in 1846 but had never appeared for his installation; the students elected Colonel Mure in the next year, though the convention was to re-elect the incumbent to a second term. Eden (1799-1870: DNB), then Bishop of Sodor and Man, was Lord Auckland's younger brother and succeeded as the third Baron Auckland in the week after this letter. He was translated to the see of Bath and Wells, 1854. When Eden was Rector of Battersea he established a school for the poor where TBM once visited and examined the boys (Greville, Memoirs, v, 15: 19 February 1842). Bishop Phillpotts: see 8 January 1849. Mary, nee Hurt (i8o5?-72), married Eden in 1825.
390
John Finlaison
2 5 December
TO JOHN FINLAISON, 1 25 DECEMBER I84[8] MS: Trinity College.
Albany Dec 25. 1845 Sir, I am most grateful for your friendly suggestion. I am afraid that it is now too late to make any correction in the second edition. But, before the third edition appears, I will make strict inquiry. The Keeper of the records of the Admiralty certainly showed me no such document as that which you mention. But I will ask Lord Auckland to give directions that a careful search may be made. I am not quite without hopes that we may both prove to be in the right. There may have been an Order in Council settling the rate of half pay down to Lieutenants: and yet the state of the Treasury may have been such that the Admiralty may have been forced to confine the allowances to flag officers and Captains of first rates and second rates.2 I shall be much obliged to you for any criticisms which may occur to you. Of course it is utterly impossible that a writer who attempts to give a view of the financial, military, naval, agricultural and commercial system, of the state of town and country, of the manners of the gentry and clergy, of the literature and of the science of England a hundred and sixty years ago should not commit many mistakes, at which fools will laugh, and for which enlightened and candid men like you will make large allowance. / I have the honor to be, / Sir, Your faithful servant T B Macaulay TO A N D R E W R U T H E R F U R D , 26 D E C E M B E R
1848
MS: National Library of Scotland.
Albany London / Dec 26. 1848 Dear Rutherfurd, You are, as usual, very kind and very wise. Do you fix the day for my inauguration to suit your own convenience. Only it must not be earlier than January the eleventh. I will go down to you on the preceding day, 1
2
' I had yesterday a letter from Finlaison thanking me for my mention of him and pointing out an error or what he thinks so in my account of the noneffective charge of the Admiralty under Charles II.' (Journal, 1, 449: 26 December). Finlaison (1783—1860: DNB), a statistician in the service of the Admiralty and an actuary in commercial practice, is mentioned in chapter 3 of the History of England as ' an actuary of eminent skill' (1, 283). 'A very small number of naval officers, who were not employed in the public service, drew half pay. No lieutenant was on the list, nor any captain who had not commanded a ship of the first or second rate' {History of England, 1, 306). The statement is not altered in subsequent editions. 391
26 December 2848
Sir James Stephen
and, on the morning after the ceremony, will start again from Glasgow for London. I must revisit Scotland in the course of the year for the purpose of seeing Glencoe and Killiecrankie, and then I will make a sojourn of a few days at Glasgow. Many thanks for your congratulations. It would be affectation in me to deny that the success of my book and the happiness of those whom I love most has been exceedingly gratifying to me. I have really great reason to feel obliged to Mr. Cowan, Duncan Maclaren, Sir James Forrest, and other gentlemen whose names I have very ungratefully forgotten. If I had been still member for Edinburgh and Paymaster of the Forces, I should not have been able to bring out these volumes before 1850. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO S I R JAMES S T E P H E N , 26 D E C E M B E R
1848
MS: Cambridge University Library.
Albany London / Dec 26. 1848 Dear Stephen, I am truly glad to find that you mean at least to defer a step which, I am confident, would be unmixedly injurious to you. We have gained time; and with time it will be found, I hope, that we have gained everything. The zeal of Lord John and of Lord Grey to serve you may not have been so ardent as I could wish or as you undoubtedly deserve. But that it is sincere I cannot doubt. You know, I dare say, that one of the best colonial governments, that of Mauritius, has been offered to several persons whom the government had no wish to promote, solely in order that room might be made at home for you, and that Lord Grey ran down to Woburn at a moment's notice solely to confer with Lord John about the best means of promoting your interests. I cannot doubt that any opportunity of serving you will be gladly seized. I can truly say that, if ever I regret my seat in the cabinet, it is when I think that there I might have been a little more useful to you than I can now hope to be.1 I am amused by what you tell me of Henry of Exeter.2 I should never have expected a good word from him. His criticism, I cannot help thinking, is unfounded. I have not said a word about any Commission given by Henry the Eighth to Cranmer. The only Commission given to Cran1
2
Stephen had retired from the Colonial Office in 1847 and had not yet been appointed to the Professorship of History at Cambridge. He was, as his son Leslie writes in the DNB, 'anxious for employment' in the meantime. A plan to provide for him 'in a paid office of Assessor to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council' did not succeed (Henry Taylor, Autobiography, 1885, II, 28). ' The Bishop of Exeter of all men praises my love of truth!!!' (Journal, 1,449:26 December).
392
Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton
30 December 1848
mer which I have mentioned is that which he took out after Henry's death. I have indeed said (page 55) that Henry ordered his seal to be put to Commissions by which Bishops were appointed who were to exercise their functions during his royal pleasure. I meant here, not Cranmer, but Bonner.1 Bonner's Commission is in the Appendix to Burners history of the reformation, and is exactly such as I have described. The preamble runs thus "Quandoquidem omnis jurisdicendi auctoritas, tarn ilia quae ecclesiastica dicitur quam secularis, a regia potestate velut a supremo capite primitus emanavit" Then Bonner is authorised to act as the King's officer for ordination "Tibi vices nostras committendas fore, teque licentiandum esse decernimus ad ordinandem." I do not cite every word, but I omit nothing necessary to the sense. The letters are distinctly made revocable "Praesentes ad nostri bene placiti duntaxat duraturas." 2 I do not well see how Erastianism can go further. With kind remembrances to Lady Stephen believe me ever yours T B Macaulay
TO
S I R E D W A R D B U L W E R - L Y T T O N , 30 D E C E M B E R
1848
MS: Hertfordshire County Council. Albany Dec 30. 1848 My dear Sir Edward, Your praise is always delightful to me, and your censure always useful. I at once admit the justice of some of your criticisms, and should probably admit the justice of all, if, after hearing what I have to offer, you should still be of the same mind. I should much like to talk over with you some of the questions which you raise. For it is not easy to discuss them fully by letter. I will only say that the practice of repeating nouns, which you justly note as a peculiarity of my style, and which sometimes, I do not doubt, amounts to a vice, was adopted by me on principle. I repeat nouns that I may not misuse pronouns. There is no fault so common even in our best writers as that of putting he and it in wrong places. I 1 2
Edmund Bonner (i5oo?-69: DNB), Bishop of London. The document appears as number 14 in the appendix to Part 1, Book 3, of Burnet's History of the Reformation of the Church of England. Stephen misreported what Phillpotts had said: s e e Correspondence between the Bishop of Exeter a n d . . . T. B . Macaulay, 2nd edn, 1861, p . 7-
393
30 December 1848
Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton
have taken down Johnson's Lives of the Poets, and I transcribe absolutely at random, the very first paragraph on which I open. "from this time Pope lived in the closest intimacy with his (Pope's) commentator, and amply rewarded his (Warburton's) kindness and zeal; for he (Pope) introduced him (Warburton) to Mr. Murray, by whose interest he (Warburton) became preacher at Lincoln's Inn, and to Mr. Allen who gave him (Warburton) his (Allen's) niece, and his (Allen's) estate, and by consequence a bishopric. When he (Pope) died, he (Pope) left him (Warburton) the property of his (Pope's) works." 1 The whole book, and nine tenths even of the good books in our language are written in this way. Only look at the last sentence. There is no reason whatever for connecting the hes and hints with Pope and Warburton rather than with Allen, except that the context guides the reader to the sense. I have a horror almost morbid of this fault. I could compose twice as fast as I do if it were not for the extreme scrupulosity with which I arrange my pronouns. I do not believe that in my two volumes, thick as they are, you will find one sentence resembling that which I have quoted. But it is not possible to avoid the abuse of pronouns except by a copious use of nouns. In the passage which I have quoted I should have repeated the names of Pope and Warburton; and you will, I think, allow that I should have been right in doing so. I do not doubt that there is good ground for your criticism, and that I sometimes repeat nouns unnecessarily. But I cannot help thinking that I err on the right side. It seems to me that clearness and precision are the very first of all the graces of style. Rather than place words in such an order as to puzzle the reader I would copy the diction of an Act of Parliament or of a mortgage deed, and give you over and over again "the said Alexander Pope," "the said William Warburton, Clerk," and "the said Ralph Allen." Excuse this garrulity. I wish to place my case fairly before so excellent a judge. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1
The passage quoted appears about midway in the life of Pope.
394
LETTERS OF UNCERTAIN DATE 1830-1847
Unidentified Recipient
[2830—4j\
TO U N I D E N T I F I E D RECIPIENT,
[1830-47]1
MS: Thomas Pinney. Dear Sir, I send the speech corrected. Pray let me have a revise. I think that now stands very nearly indeed as it was spoken. Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO LADY HOLLAND, 12 MAY [1831-45]2 MS: British Museum.
London May 12 My dear Lady Holland, I am very sorry that I am engaged both to day and to morrow. I need not say that I am much gratified by what you tell me, and much gratified also by the kindness with which it is told. What times! — But whatever is lost, we have kept our honor. / Ever, my dear Lady Holland Your most faithful Servant T B Macaulay TO LADY HOLLAND, [1831-45]3 MS: Trinity College.
House of Commons Dear Lady Holland, I am truly sorry to say that I am engaged on Saturday next. / Ever, dear Lady Holland, Yours most faithfully T B Macaulay 1
2
3
It is conceivable that this refers to TBM's inaugural address at the University of Glasgow in March 1849, the latest of the speeches that we know him to have corrected for separate publication. But it is much more likely that this note refers to one of his parliamentary speeches or election speeches, made at any time between the dates given. The limiting dates are those of TBM'sfirstmeeting with Lady Holland in May 1831 and her death in November 1845. The formal style suggests the earlier part of this range. See note on preceding letter; this is probably of later date.
397
[June 1838 - December 183$]
Richard Monckton Milnes
TO RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES, [JUNE
1838- DECEMBER 1839]1
MS: Trinity College.
Dear Milnes, I am sorry to say that I am engaged on Tuesday. Yours very truly T B Macaulay 3 Clarges Street / Friday.
TO L O R D M A H O N , [1838]2 MS: University of Nottingham.
Dear Lord Mahon, To morrow I must be in the city at one. But on Saturday or Monday I shall be at your command whenever you please. / Ever, dear Lord Mahon, Yours very truly T B Macaulay Thursday afternoon
TO R I C H A R D M O N C K T O N M I L N E S , [ I 8 3 8 ? - 4 4 ? ] 3 MS: Trinity College.
[London] Dear Milnes, I am sorry to say that on Tuesday morning I shall be constantly engaged. Yours very truly T B Macaulay 1 2 3
The dates of TBM's residence at 3 Clarges Street. The date has been added in Mahon's hand; the note is on mourning paper. The formal style of the closing suggests the early years of TBM's acquaintance with Milnes, but he varies between * yours very truly* and 'ever yours* as late as 1844.
398
Sir Denis Le Marchant
[1839-41]
TO S I R D E N I S L E M A R C H A N T ,
[1839-41]1
MS: Trinity College. Dear Le Marchant, The bearer is a respectable constituent of mine. He comes to town about the Edinburgh and Leith Bank. Pray be so kind as to give him a courteous audience. Ever yours T B Macaulay TO L A D Y T H E R E S A L I S T E R , [1840-1]2
MS: New York Public Library. 12 Great George Street / Sunday Dear Lady Theresa, A thousand thanks for your charming present. I shall send it down immediately to my little girl in Lancashire.3 The last thing that she said to me when we parted last week was to beg me to remember Cinderella. Yours most truly T B Macaulay TO L A D Y T H E R E S A L I S T E R , [ I 8 4 0 ? - I ? ] 4 Text: Extract in Maggs Brothers Catalogue 863 (1959), item 636, 21/2 pp. 8vo: n.d.
I send you my little niece, who has formed the highest expectations of your conjurer and has during the last two days been showing everybody the fine green letter that she has received from a dear little boy. 1
2
3 4
Le Marchant was Secretary to the Board of Trade, 1836-41; the letter would not be earlier than TBM's election for Edinburgh in June 1839. The only evidence for the date is the Great George Street address, between January 1840 and August 1841. 1840 is most likely, when the Trevelyans were living with TBM in Great George Street. Presumably Dingle Bank, Liverpool. Like the preceding letter, this probably belongs to the Great George Street days. Maggs's catalogue identifies the recipient as Lady Theresa Villiers, but she presumably never used that name. On her brother's succession as fourth Earl of Clarendon in 1838, Mrs Lister was granted the precedence of an earl's daughter and became Lady Theresa Lister until her marriage to George Cornewall Lewis in 1844.
399
[Early 1842 ?]
Mrs Henry Hart Milman
TO MRS HENRY HART MILMAN, 1 [EARLY
1841?]2
MS: Mrs Michael Millgate.
12 Gt. George St. Dear Mrs. Milman, I send a haunch of venison, - the last Queen's venison that I expect to have the power of sending. I hope that it will prove better than I have generally found the flesh of the royal deer. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO [J. F. M A C F A R L A N ] ,
1841
Text: Maggs Brothers Catalogue 547, Autumn 1930, item 1582: dated London 1841.
The Lord Advocate assures me that he fully purposes to bring in a bill respecting the Heritable Securities which will be found satisfactory.3 I have not the smallest doubt that he is perfectly in earnest.
TO R I C H A R D M O N C K T O N M I L N E S ,
[i84i?-2?] 4
MS: Trinity College. [London] Dear Milnes, I shall have great pleasure in breakfasting with you on Tuesday. Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO J. F. MACFARLAN, [ J U N E ? 1842]5 Text: Maggs Brothers Catalogue 525, Autumn 1929, item 1665.
I am altogether without hope for the Kirk. I shall myself vote for a measure founded on the principles of the Veto. But the other pretensions 1
Mrs Milman (d. 1871), ne'e Mary Anne Cockell, married Milman (see 6 July 1844) in 1824. TBM left Great George Street in the summer of 1841, but the letter is presumably not later than the end of the venison season in March, when TBM had long since been expecting to lose his office. The Milmans, in the Cloisters, Westminster, were TBM's near neighbors while he was living in Great George Street. 3 Rutherfurd had brought in a bill on this subject in 1839 and did so again in 1843, but not in 4 1841. The paper is watermarked 1841. s The letter seems clearly to refer to the General Assembly's * Claim of Right' of 25 May and perhaps continues the discussion begun with Macfarlan in the letter of 11 June.
2
4OO
Lord Mahon of the Clergy seem to me quite inconsistent with the first principles of civil Society. If I understand their claim rightly they go to this length, that they have a legal right to exclude or eject every minister who shall vote for a Whig or a Tory candidate, and that there is no civil power which could question an exclusion or an ejection grounded on such a reason. I think this quite clearly a consequence from their principles. For the exclusion and ejection of ministers is, they say, a spiritual act and the vote which a man gives for a member of parliament is, in one respect, a spiritual matter. A man is bound, as a Christian, to vote, according to the will of God, for the benefit of the Church and the nation. TO L O R D M A H O N , [1842?]1 MS: Trinity College.
Albany Tuesday Dear Lord Mahon, I will with great pleasure join your party on Sunday week. Pray remember me on Friday morning. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay TO J. F. MACFARLAN,
[I842?~4?]2?
Text: Maggs Brothers Catalogue 525, Autumn 1929, item 1665.
I do not anticipate any change for the worse as to the Post Office; at all events not without notice and opportunity for remonstrance.
TO E M I L Y E D E N , 6 J U N E [1843?]3
MS: Mr W. Hugh Peal. Albany June 6. Dear Miss Eden, I am truly sorry to say that I am engaged on Saturday the 17th. Ever yours truly T B Macaulay 1 2
3
The paper is watermarked 1842. The post office is a recurring subject in the correspondence of TBM with Macfarlan between these dates; I have no evidence beyond that. June 17 fell on a Saturday in 1843, 1848, and 1854; there is no evidence to determine which of these dates the note belongs to. 401
[i843i-4-\
Richard Monckton Mikes
TO RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES, [I843?-4?] X MS: Trinity College.
Albany Sunday Dear Milnes, On Friday I breakfast with Sydney. Otherwise I should be most happy to join your party. Yours very truly T B Macaulay TO [J. F. M A C F A R L A N ] ,
1844
Text: Maggs Brothers Catalogue 547, Autumn 1930, item 1582: dated London, 1844.
I will give any assistance to yr. Heritable Securities Bill,2 as far as lies in my power. With the Ld. Advocate and Rutherford you will hardly want any help in a legal question. As to the Corn Laws, I believe that we differ, if we do differ, solely as to means and not as to ends. You say that the time is gone by for a fixed duty. I am certain - would that I were not so - that the time is not come and will not soon come for total repeal. The thing is impossible. It never can pass until the agricultural classes are more enlightened. Cobden and Bright may swagger about the impression which they have made on the Owners. It is all a delusion.
TO R I C H A R D M O N C K T O N M I L N E S , [ I 8 4 4 ? - 5 ? ] 3 MS: Trinity College.
Albany Monday Dear Milnes, I shall have great pleasure in breakfasting with you on Monday. Ever yours T B Macaulay 1 2
3
The paper is watermarked 1843; Sydney Smith was on his death-bed in January and February of 1845, so that this letter can hardly be later than the fall of 1844. The Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce had been pressing for an act reforming the Scottish procedure in this matter for some years. Three bills were unsuccessfully introduced between 1839 and 1844; the one brought in in 1845 was passed. The paper is watermarked 1844.
402
Edward Everett
[2 S4S?]
TO EDWARD EVERETT, [1845?]1 Text: Copy, Massachusetts Historical Society.
Albany Monday Mr dear Mr. Everett, Will you breakfast here on Thursday? Ever yours truly, T. B. Macaulay.
TO UNIDENTIFIED RECIPIENT,
1846
Text: Extract in Anderson Auction Company Catalogue 436, 16 February 1906, item 153, 1 p. 8vo: dated Albany, 1846.
My friend, Mr. Longman (the publisher) wishes to see you respecting a matter in which he thinks and I think that he has had very hard measure from your office.
TO M R AND M R S G E O R G E B A N C R O F T , 2 [1847]3
MS: Mr W. Hugh Peal. Mr. Macaulay is extremely sorry that he has an engagement which will prevent him from having the honor of waiting on Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft to dinner on Tuesday week. Albany / Monday 1
2
3
The date, with a question, has been written on the copy. There is no other evidence to show at what point during Everett's years in England this note might have been written. Bancroft (1800-91), the historian and statesman, was American Minister in London, 1846-9, and one of the few Democrats among the Bostonians of TBM's acquaintance. The date has been added in another hand.
403
INDEX
A full index will be published at the end of the work. For the convenience of the reader in the interim this list is given of TBM's contemporaries, with a reference to the place where they are first noted. Persons who clearly need no identification - e.g., Byron, Napoleon George IV - are not included. Neither are those whom I have been unable to identify. Abdy, Edward Strutt, 50 Abdy, Thomas Neville, 50 Aikin, Lucy, 118 Ainsworth, Harrison, 174 Anson, Mrs T. V., 310 Arabin, William St Julien, 169 Arnold, Thomas, 37 Ashley, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord, afterwards 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, 180 Austin, John, 44 Baillie, Alexander Cochrane-, afterwards 1st Baron Lamington, 133 Bancroft, George, 403 Bannerman, Sir Alexander, 261 Baxter, Richard, 222 Bennett, William Cox, 369 Black, Dr John, 181 Bonaparte, Jerome Napoleon, 314 Bowring, Dr John, 114 Brewster, Sir David, 20 Bright, John, 172 Buckingham, 2nd Duke of, 103 Buckingham, James Silk, 389 Burney, Sarah Harriet, 63 Burton, John Hill, 374 Cadell, Robert, 164 Campbell, John, 116 Cardwell, Edward, afterwards 1st Viscount Card well, 336 Cardwell, Mrs Edward (Annie Parker), 336 Carlisle, Georgiana, Countess of, 334 Chad wick, Sir Edwin, 253 Charleville, Harriet, Lady, 245 Christison, Robert, 214 Christopher, Robert Adam, n o Clarke, James Freeman, 84 Clerk, Sir George, 208
Cleveland, 1st Duke of, 101 Close, Francis, 317 Cobden, Richard, 101 Coleridge, Derwent Moultrie, 379 Coltman, Sir Thomas, 172 Combe, George, 303 Cope, C.W., 198 Cottenham, Charles Christopher Pepys, 1st, Earl of, 272 Cousin, Victor, 295 Cowan, Charles, 341 Craig, James Thomson Gibson, 303 Craig, Mrs James Thomson Gibson (Jane Grant), 303 Craig, Mrs William Gibson, 169 Craufurd, James, 319 Craven, Augustus, 8 Craven, Pauline, 8 Crawford, William Sharman, 102 Cunnigham, Peter, 388 Dalmeny, Archibald Primrose, Lord, 346 Dalmeny, Lady (Catherine Stanhope), 346 De Morgan, Augustus, 355 Denison, Lady Charlotte, 224 Denman, Richard, 158 Disbrowe, Sir Edward, 354 Douglas, General Sir Howard, 336 Doyle, Andrew, 224 Duffy, Sir Charles Gavan, 259 Eden, Emily, 202 Eden, Robert, afterwards 3rd Baron Auckland, 390 Eden, Mrs Robert, 390 Ellis, Henry, 259 Ellis, Marian, 259 Ellis, Thomas Flower, Sr, 179 Everett, Edward, 74
405
Index Fielden, John, 325 Finlaison, John, 391 Fitzgerald, William Vesey, 1st Baron, 124 Forrest, Sir James, 116 Forster, John, 330 Fraser, Alexander Campbell, 300 Fremantle, Sir Thomas Francis, afterwards 1st Baron Cottesloe, 131 French, Fitzstephen, 263 Frere, Bartholomew, 67 Frere, John Hookham, 67 Frere, William, 67 Frost, John, 293 Garrow, Sir William, 305 Glyn, George Carr, afterwards 1st Baron Wolverton, 333 Grafton, 4th Duke of, 221 Graham, John, 361 Gray, Captain Charles, 303 Gray, John, 214 Gregory, Barnard, 129 Grenville, Thomas, 221 Grenville, George Neville-, 366 Grey, Sir Charles Edward, 117 Grimblot, Paul, 381 Gulland, George, 267 Hallam, Henry Fitzmaurice, 66 Harrison, Benjamin, 203 Hawes, Sir Benjamin, 224 Hayward, Abraham, 133 Haywood, Francis, 381 Head, Sir George, 151 Head, Henry Erskine, 81 Hertford, 3rd Marquess of, 89 Heyworth, Lawrence, 314 Hillard, George S., 365 Hogg, Sir James Weir, 107 Holtrop, Johannes Willem, 354 Hook, Walter Farquhar, 370 Home, Thomas Hartwell, 378 Horsley, J. C , 198 Howison, John, 185 Humphry, William Gilson, 323 Impey, Elijah Barwell, the younger, 321 Ingestre, Henry John Chetwynd Talbot, Lord, afterwards 18th Earl of Shrewsbury, 150
Ingestre, Lady, 150 Ingram, T. L., 367 Inman, Henry, 225 Jerdan, William, 174 Jones, William Lloyd, 293
Jonge, Johannes Cornells de, 354 Kaye, John, Bishop of Lincoln, 128 Kemble, John Mitchell, 361 Knatchbull, John, 195 Laing, David, 384 Lamb, John, 361 Lauder, Sir Thomas Dick, 174 Le Marchant, Sir Denis, 335 Leo, Dr Frederick, 234 Leslie, Charles Robert, 297 Leslie, Eliza, 297 Lewes, George Henry, 240 Lewis, Sir George Cornewall, 111 Lizars, John, 359 Lizars, William Home, 359 Longman, Thomas, 52 Longman, Mrs Thomas, 377 Lytton, Emily Elizabeth Bulwer-, 368 Maberley, William Leader, 36 Macaulay, Henry Denman (TBM's nephew), 158 Macaulay, Margaret Denman (Mrs Henry Macaulay), 34 Macaulay, Mary (TBM's niece), 376 Macaulay, Mary Potter (Mrs Charles Macaulay), 9 MacHale, John, Archbishop of Tuam, 357 Mackintosh, Robert, 353 Maclagan, Dr David, 115 Maclagan, Sir Douglas, 326 Maclagan, Robert, 306 Maclagan, William Dalrymple, 306 Macleod, Norman, 332 Macnaghten, Daniel, 119 McNeile, Hugh, 162 McNeill, Duncan, afterwards 1st Baron Colonsay and Oronsay, 208 Mahon, Emily, Lady, 53 Maria Christina, Queen of Spain, 169 Mathews, Cornelius, 178 Mathias, George, 305 Melville, Gansevoort, 296 Melville, William Henry Leslie, 127 Mills, James (TBM's uncle), 141 Milman, Henry Hart, 204 Milman, Mrs Henry Hart, 400 Milner, Mary, 75 Milnes, Richard Monckton, afterwards 1st Baron Houghton, 8 Mohan Lai, 234 Mole, Louis Mathieu, Comte, 231 Money, Charles, 317 Money, James Drummond, 317
406
Index Stewart, Patrick Maxwell, 261 Stradling, William, 95 Sykes, William Henry, 171
Money, Mrs William Taylor, 316 Money, Sir William Taylor, 316 Muntz, George Frederick, 206 Murchison, Sir Roderick, 236 Mure, Colonel William, 380 Napier, Admiral Sir Charles, 277 Newcastle, Henry Pelham Clinton, 5 th Duke of, 131 Newman, John, 274 Nichol, William Pringle, 380 Oliphant, Major James, 54 Outram, General Sir James, 306 Park, Patric, 321 Peacock, George, 60 Pennington, Colonel Jervase, 303 Philpott, Henry, 360 Pierson, Henry Hugo, 179 Plumptre, John Pemberton, 38 Potter, Richard, 222 Potter, Mrs Richard (Lawrencina Heyworth), 314 Pottinger, General Sir Henry, 228 Pryme, George, 378 Quain, Richard, 254 Reid, Sir John Rae, 335 Ricketts, Mordaunt, 217 Rio, Alexis Francois, 32 Rives, William Cabell, 105 Rodd, Thomas, 197 Rowe, Sir William Carpenter, 268
Taylor, Sir Henry, 39 Thesiger, Sir Frederick, afterwards Baron Chelmsford, 209 Thompson, George, 346 Thompson, T. Perronet, 102 Thornton, Isabella, 203 Thorp, Thomas, 181 Tod, James, 243 Trevelyan, Alice (TBM's niece), 134 Trevelyan, Harriet Louisa, 314 Tufnell, Henry, 334 Turner, T. Hudson, 287
1st
Urquhart, David, 346 Van de Weyer, Sylvain, 202 Vyvyan, Sir Richard, 133 Wakley, Thomas, 35 Wallace, Robert, 114 Webster, George, 135 Weekes, Henry, 112 Wharncliffe, John Wortley, 2nd Baron, 277 Whately, Richard, Archbishop of Dublin, 166 Whewell, Mrs William (Cordelia Marshall), 117
Wigham, John, 103 Wilbraham, George, 63 Wilde, Thomas, afterwards 1st Baron Truro, 125
Scharf, Sir George, 260 Schmitz, Leonhard, 268 Scholefield, William, 356 Sedgwick, Adam, 118 Shrewsbury, John Talbot, 16th Earl of, 315 Smart, Alexander, 265 Smith, Sir Culling Eardley, 301 Smith, George, 329 Smith, John Abel, 171 Smythe, George, afterwards 7th Viscount Strangford, 133 Stair, Sir John Dalrymple, 8th Earl of, 160 Stanfield, Clarkson, 388
Williams, Sir John, 69 Williams, Lady, 69 Williams, William (M.P.), 114 Williams, Zephaniah, 293 Willock, Sir Henry, 171 Woodham, Henry Annesley, 373 Worsley, Lord, see Earl of Yarborough Yarborough, Charles Pelham, 2nd Earl of 319 Zetland, Thomas Dundas, 2nd Earl of, 363 Zwaan, J. A. de, 354
407
