His letters give pictures of breathless pauses in the House till a majority of one sends them laughing, crying, and huzzaing into the lobby, or of such a state as this: "Toward eight in the morning the Speaker was almost fainting. . . . Old Sir Thomas Baring sent for his razor and Benett for his nightcap; they were both resolved to spend the whole day in the House rather than give way. If the Opposition had not yielded in two hours half of London would have been in Old Palace Yard." Other pictures he gives us of dinners with Lord Grey and Lord John Russell, of breakfasts in the beautiful home of Rogers the poet, of music parties where he heard the first flute player in England and "pianoforte strumming by the first pianoforte strummer," of meetings with Talleyrand and Sydney Smith, Tom Moore and Tom Campbell, and of innumerable courtesies from that haughty old aristocrat, Lady Holland. The political reward for Macaulay's services on the Reform Bill was an appointment on the Board of Control in the East India affairs.

In the midst of these social and political successes which he so frankly enjoyed, his simple creed of voting for the best interest of the country endured several severe tests. In each case he seems to have realized and deplored the consequences to himself, but did not allow them to influence his actions. His own vote

assisted in abolishing the office by which he held his Commissionership of Bankruptcy, at a time when he was not earning much by his writing and within a few months of the expiration of his income from the fellowship. A still stronger temptation to consider self was withstood when he decided to send in his resignation, so that he might go upon the floor of the House and oppose a measure brought in by his own party, a slavery bill that did not come up to the rigid requirements of his father and other Abolitionists. Trevelyan says: "During the crisis of the West India Bill Zachary Macaulay and his son were in constant correspondence. There is something touching in the picture which these letters present of the older man (whose years were coming to a close in poverty, which was the consequence of his having always lived too much for others), discussing quietly and gravely how and when the younger was to take a step that in the opinion of them both would be fatal to his career; and this with so little consciousness that there was anything heroic in the course which they were pursuing, that it appears never to have occurred to either of them that any other line of conduct could possibly be adopted." But Macaulay's honesty was appreciated and he writes jubilantly: "Here I am safe and well at the end of one of the most stormy weeks that the oldest man remembers in Parliamentary affairs. I have resigned my office and my

resignation has been refused. I have spoken and voted against the Ministry under which I hold my place." And again he writes: "I have, therefore, the singular good luck of having saved both my honor and my place."

In 1834 he was chosen by the government to go to Calcutta as their representative in the Supreme Council. To Lord Lansdowne, his friend and political patron, he told his reasons for accepting a position which seemed to all a sacrifice of his political ambitions. "Every day that I live, I become less and less desirous of great wealth. But every day makes me more sensible of the importance of a competence. Without a competence it is not easy for a public man to be honest; it is almost impossible for him to be thought so. I am so situated that I can subsist only in two ways: by being in office and by my pen. ... The thought of becoming a book-seller's hack, of writing to relieve, not the fulness of the mind, but the emptiness of the pocket, . . . is horrible to me. Yet thus it must be if I should quit office. Yet to hold office merely for the sake of emolument would be more horrible still. . . . But this is not all. I am not alone in the world. A family which I love most fondly is dependent on me. An opportunity has offered itself. . . . I may hope by the time I am thirty-nine or forty to return to England with a fortune of thirty thousand pounds. To me that would be affluence." On the first intimation of this

offer he had written to his sister Hannah, telling her of the dignity and consideration attached to the post, and of the high salary, ten thousand pounds a year, and added: “Whether the period of my exile shall be one of comfort, and after the first shock, even of happiness, depends on you. If, as I expect, this offer shall be made to me, will you go with me? I know what a sacrifice I ask of you. I know how many dear and precious ties you must, for a time, sunder. I know that the splendor of the Indian court, and the gayeties of that brilliant society of which you would be one of the leading personages, have no temptation for you. I can bribe you only by telling you that, if you will go with me, I will love you better than I love you now, if I can."

His preparations for the voyage to India were characteristic. He visited the ship to inspect the cabin his sister was to occupy, and ordered it to be made as pretty and comfortable as possible for the long voyage. He wrote to the publishers of the Edinburgh Review that he would continue to furnish articles to them, but he desired to be paid while in India with books. He gave his preference for books on English History, as he had already begun work on his own History at that time.

Among the books which he had provided for his own reading on the voyage were Voltaire's works, Gibbon, Sismondi's History of the French, Don Quixote

in Spanish, Homer in Greek, Horace in Latin, all the Edinburgh Reviews bound, a collection of Greek classics, some books of jurisprudence, some to initiate him in Persian and Hindoostanee, and his favorite novels. He warned his sister that he had brought Gisborne's Duties of Women, Moore's Fables for the Female Sex, Mrs. K.'s Female Scripture Characters and Fordyce's Sermons to keep her in order, - and then asked her to tell him seriously what she would like to have. On the voyage his letters tell that his sister danced with the gentlemen in the evenings and read novels and sermons with the ladies in the mornings; but that he hardly spoke except at meals, keenly enjoying the chance to be alone and, as he puts it, to "devour Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, French, and English, folios, quartos, octavos, and duodecimos."

When the vessel touched at Madras Macaulay found instructions awaiting him from Lord Bentinck, the Governor-General of India, which required his leaving. the coast and travelling by palanquin to the Nilgiris Hills, beyond Mysore. He was thus thrown at once in contact with the natives. At Arcot he visited the deserted gardens of the Nabob of the Carnatic; and at Mysore he was received by the deposed Rajah, whose palaces, furniture, jewels, soldiers, elephants, and idols were subjects for home letters. He digressed from the main road to visit the old town and fortress