MACAULAY, THOMAS BARINGTON, Lord, son of Zachary 3Iacaulay, a 'West India merchant and eminent philanthropist, and grandson of the rev. John Macaulay, a Presby• terian minister in the w. of Scotland, was b. at Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, Oct. 2o, 1800. He entered Trinity college, Cambridge, at the age of 18, where he acquired a brilliant reputation both as a scholar and debater. Ile twice won the chancellor's, medal—first in 1819, for a poem on Pompeii, and again in 1820, for :mother on livening, both of which were published. In 1821 lie obtained the second Craven scholarship, took the degree of B.A. 111 1822, was shortly' after elected a fellow of Trinity, and then began to devote himself zealously to literature. The periodical to which lie first contributed was Knight's Quarterly Magazine; for this he wrote several of his ballads, e.g., l'he Spanish Armada, Moncontour, and De Battle of Itn, besides essays and critiques. In 1825 he took the degree of M.A., and in the same year made his appearance in the col umns of the F,dinburgh. Review by his famous essay on 31ilton, the learning, eloquence, penetration, brilliancy of fancy, and generous enthusiasm of which quite fascinated the educated portion of the public. For nearly 20 years he was the popular, peri;aps also the most distinguished, contributor to the Blue and Yellow. In 1826 he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, but it does not appear that he practiced. The tide of political 'agitation was beoinnino. to rise high, and Macaulay was borne along with the current. There can be nedoubnhat Macaulay was an immense accession to the wing party, for he believed in whiggism with a profound sincerity that has never been questioned; and he was able to present the grounds of his belief in a manner so powerful and attractive that his very opponents were charmed, and ahnost convinced. In 1830 lie entered par. liament for the pocket-borough of Caine (whiel»vas placed at his service by the marquis of Lansdowne) just in time to take part in the memorable struggle for reform, in favor of which he made several weighty aud effective speeches. When the first reformed parlia ment assembled in 1832 3Iaeaulay sat as member for Leeds, and at once took a promi nent position in the house. He was now made secretary of the board of control for India; and in the following year went out to India as a member of the supreme council. IIere lie remained till 1838. IIis chief labor was the preparation of a new Indian penal code_ A conspicuous feature of this code was the humane consideration it displayed for the natives (which drew down upon its author the hostility of the Anglo-Indians). On his return to England lie resumed his political career, and was elected M.P. for the city of Edinburgh in 1839. In 1840 lie was appointed war-secretary. 1Vhile holdino. office he composed, appropriately enough, those magnificent martial ballads, the Lays6of Ancient Rome (1842); and in the following year published a collected series of his L'ssays in 3 vols. In 1846 lie was made paymaster-general. _Macaulay had always been one of the most courageous and unflinching advocates of religious freedom: accordingly' he had defended the Roman Catholic relief bill; his first speech in the house of coinmons was in support of the bill to repeal the civil flisabilities of the Jews, and now lie supported the 3laynooth grant. At this period, unfortunately for 3Iaeaulay, Edinburgh was the
arena of great ecclesiastical fermentation; and because he advocated a measure intended to moderate the natural discontent of Roman Catholics, he was ousted from his seat at the general election in 1847. Five years later (1852) Edinburgh did what it could in the Nvay of reparation by re-electing. 31acaulay without a single movement made by him on his own behalf. In 1848 appeared the first two volumes of his Ilistory of England from the Accession of James II., the popularity of which must have inachi even successful novelists envious; next year lie was chosen lord-rector of the university of Glasgow, on which occasion he received the freedom of the eity. When the third and fourth volumes of his History were published in 01855, they occasioned a furore of excitement among publishers and readers, " to which, ' it is said, " the annals of Paternoster row hardly furnish any paralla" In 1857 the French academy of moral and political sciences made him a foreign associate; and in the course of the same year he was raised to the peerage of Great Britain under the title of baron...Macaulay of Hothley. Ilis health, however, had long been failing, and on Dec. 28, 1859, he expired somewhat suddenly at his residence, Holly Lodge, Campden IIill, Kensington, London. fie was buried in West minster abbey. Vol. V. of his iii,ytory, a fragment, was published in 1861; and a com plete edition of his -works, by his sister, lady Trevelyan appeared in 1866. The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, by his nephew, George Otto Trevelyan, m.r., an able and fascinating biography, WaS published in 1876.
Macaulay was indisputably a man of splendid talent. His scholarship—in the strictly classical sense of the term—was admirable; his miscellaneous literary acquisitions were something prodigious; his knowledge of modern European, and especially of English, history from the age of Henry VIII. clown to his own, was unsurpassed—we might-with safety say, unequaled; in addition, he had a sagacity- and swiftness of understanding that enabled him to comprehend and rapidly methodize his vast array of facts; and what is perhaps more wonderful than all, his style is not in the least affected by the immensity of his attainments. He " wears all his load of learning lightly as a flower." In ease, purity, grace, force, and point, he rivals those who have made felicity of style their chief study. He has been accused of partiality, of exaggeration, and of gratifying his passion for epiwram at the expense of truth; his History' has been termed a " huge whig pamphlet ;" an% strong exception has been taken to particular passages, where his views appear to some to be biased by personal antipathies, such as his description of Scotland, the Highlands, the massacre of Glencoe, Marlborough, Penn, etc.; but the essential truth and accuracy of his narrative, as a whole, has never been disproved.