magazine; and here were published Ivry, Songs of the Huguenots, the Essay on the Athenian Orators, the Conversation between Mr. Abraham Cowley and Mr. John Milton, besides some other poems and prose pieces. Knight, however, had disagreements with his contributors, and, after a brief existence, the Quarterly came to a sudden end. Just at this time, the Edinburgh Review was at the zenith of its glory and influence, and Francis Jeffrey, its editor, anxious to keep its power from waning, wrote to a friend in London: "Can you not lay your hands on some clever young man who would write for us? The original supporters of the work are getting old, and are either too busy or too stupid, and here the young men are mostly Tories." Tories Jeffrey did not want, for the Edinburgh Review was decidedly Liberal in its tendency. The "clever young man was easily found in the person of Macaulay, and his Essay on Milton, the first of a long series, took the world by storm in August, 1825.

Two incidents show the interest of the intelligence of the day in this famous article. Jeffrey wrote in his letter acknowledging the receipt of the paper: "The more I think, the less I can conceive where you picked up that style"; and the great preacher of the day, Robert Hall, was found spread on the floor with Italian grammar and dictionary, tracing out Macaulay's comparison of Dante and Milton. Other essays, some

of them long and elaborate, upon many subjects connected with literature, history, or politics, followed in easy succession, until when the last one was printed, in 1844, he had furnished the Edinburgh Review with about forty papers. Macaulay's Essays were most of them nominally reviews of recently published books; but, according to the habit that had come into vogue a little before Macaulay's time, the book served as a mere pretext for launching into the subject at large, and was itself, in many cases, seldom mentioned after the opening paragraphs. That Macaulay clearly recognized and followed this practice is shown both by his Essays themselves and by his letters. Thus he writes to the editor of the Review: "I will try the Life of Lord Burleigh if you will tell Longman to send me the book. However bad the work may be, it will serve as a heading for an article on the times of Elizabeth"; and again, "The fourth volume of the Chatham Correspondence has not, I think, been reviewed. It will furnish a heading for the article."

In his later years, Macaulay sent five articles to the Encyclopædia Britannica. The titles of these will be found in the list of his writings, pages xxxii-xxxiii. Macaulay's poems are instinct with fire and spirit, written with force and freedom of style; but they lack that touch of tender pathos that comes closest to the human heart. Professor John Wilson ("Christopher

North"), in a very flattering review of the Lays of Ancient Rome, finds but one passage in which there is any attempt at "pathetic emotion," that describing the death of Virginia. Macaulay was not unduly proud of his essays and poems. He speaks very modestly especially of the former: ". . . I am not successful in analyzing the effect of works of genius. I have written several things on historical, political, and moral questions, of which, on the fullest consideration, I am not ashamed, and by which I should be willing to be estimated; but I have never written a page of criticism on poetry, or the fine arts, which I would not burn if I had the power." He estimated his essays so lightly, indeed, that he was at first very unwilling to republish them in more permanent form, and finally consented to their republication only after repeated solicitation, coupled with the fact that the English market was flooded with edition after edition by an enterprising American publishing house.

The work, however, upon which he labored with most diligence, and upon which he prided himself most, was his History of England. He began work upon this late in 1841, and was still engaged upon it when he died. It was to cover the period, in his own words, ". . . from the Revolution to the Accession of the House of Hanover," but the death of William III (March 8, 1702) is the last event it records. The first

and second volumes were published in 1848, and were greeted with " an ebullition of national pride and satisfaction." The third and fourth volumes appeared late in 1855, and the edition of twenty-five thousand copies was sold by advance orders before publication. Few works were ever more popular. The fifth and last volume was published after his death. The History has been translated into almost every language that learned men read.

Public Life. Macaulay's articles in the Edinburgh Review, of course, brought him clearly into public notice; and, in January, 1828, Lord Lyndhurst offered him a position as Commissioner of Bankruptcy. This position paid about four hundred pounds per annum ; besides which he already had his fellowship at Trinity College, paying about three hundred pounds; and his writings in the Edinburgh Review brought him about three hundred more: so that his income at this time must have approached very close to one thousand pounds per annum.

He now began to think seriously of politics, to which he had a decided tendency; and, in 1830, through the influence of Lord Lansdowne, who had been attracted to him because of his paper on Mill, he entered Parliament to represent the borough of Calne. He made but two speeches during the session of 1830, but the independence of thought and the fearlessness

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of statement used in these made a strong impression upon the House, and his rank was thenceforward assured. When Lord John Russell's bill for Parliamentary Reform was before the House, in 1831, Macaulay supported it in a speech into which he put all his powers. At the conclusion of the address, the Speaker called Macaulay to his desk and told him that he had never known a speech to excite the House to an equal degree; and Sir Robert Peel said that parts of this speech were as beautiful as anything I ever heard or read. It reminded me of the old times." The reputation thus established Macaulay upheld throughout his long parliamentary career. Yet he was not an orator in the popular sense of the word, for he used few gestures, and spoke with little attempt at forensic effect. The matter, however, of what he had to say, and his peculiar power of expressing his ideas with clearness, distinctness, and force, seemed to be wonderfully effective. The Reform Bill, however, did not become a law until the following year. From the very first, Macaulay had been one of its chief supporters, and to his eloquence may the passage of the bill, in large part, be attributed. His services received governmental recognition a few months afterward by an appointment as a Commissioner of the Board of Control, whose duty it was to look after the interests of the government in its relations with the East India Company.