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Shortly after his return to England he began writing on his History of England; but his election to Parliament from Edinburgh, and the acceptance of a seat in the Cabinet, so interfered with this more exacting form of writing that he gave it up for a while, though he continued his contributions of book reviews, or essays, to the Edinburgh Review until 1844. His residence in India had attracted him to Indian subjects. He wrote to the Edinburgh Review that he would send them a life of Lord Clive. "The subject is a grand one, and admits of decorations and illustrations innumerable." Later he wrote: "I see that a life of Warren Hastings is just coming out. I mark it for mine." This refers to Gleig's Life of Warren Hastings that afterward furnished the materials, or rather the occasion, for the essay in this book on Warren Hastings.

From 1839 to 1847 Macaulay spoke on every important question that came up in Parliament. In 1847 he gave offence to his constituents of Edinburgh by some of his broad views, and he was not reëlected. He refused the offer of an election from another borough, welcoming his defeat because it gave him the needed time to devote to his History of England. The first two volumes were published in 1848. Their sale was phenomenal. He said of the History, "It is a work that never ceases and never presses." As he

wrote the third and fourth volumes he became so absorbed that he gave up other writing except some articles for the Encyclopedia Britannica. The History had a more enthusiastic welcome than even he had hoped for it. Its sale in England outnumbered that of the popular novels. On the continent compliments and honors were showered upon him. From America Harper and Brothers wrote that the sixth edition was in the market, and no work of any kind had ever taken America so by storm.

In 1852 Macaulay was again returned to Parliament by the electors of Edinburgh at their own expense. He demonstrated by one brilliant effort that he had not lost his power, for the bill he opposed was "not thrown out, but pitched out." The strain of political life, however, was too great for him, as his health was failing, and in 1856 he applied for the Chiltern Hundreds.1

Many honors were conferred on the great man in his last years. He was elected Lord Rector of the

1 By English law no member of Parliament is at liberty to resign his seat, so long as he is duly qualified; on the other hand a member who accepts an office under the crown must vacate his seat. A member desiring to resign, therefore, applies for the "Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds," an office formerly of importance, but now obsolete and merely nominal. The appointment necessitates his resignation as member of Parliament, and, having thus fulfilled its purpose, is again resigned, so as to be ready for the next member who wishes to use it.

University of Glasgow; made a Fellow of the Royal Society; elected a Foreign Member of the French Academy, and of the Prussian Order of Merit; and High Stewart of Cambridge. He was raised to the peerage as Baron Macaulay of Rothley, the first literary man to receive this honor in recognition of literary work. And yet his last days were sad ones. He once said, “There are not ten people in the world whose deaths would spoil my dinner, but there are one or two whose deaths would break my heart." This "one or two came to mean his sisters Margaret and Hannah. When Margaret died it did almost break his heart; and the marriage of his sister Hannah while he and she were in India seemed almost as hard to bear. His sister Hannah and her husband, Lord Trevelyan, were as devoted to him as he was to them, so they returned to England when he did and he lived with them or near them the remainder of his life. The year 1859 found him failing in bodily health very rapidly, although his friends did not know how ill he was. He continued to write on his History, but was sorrowfully conscious that he could not finish it. "To-day I wrote a pretty fair quantity of history. I should like to finish William before I go. But this is like the old excuses that were made to Charon."

A blow had fallen on him this year that probably hastened his end. His sister Hannah's husband had

been appointed Governor of Madras, and had sailed for India; there the beloved Hannah must soon follow him. Macaulay accepted this, the heaviest trial that could come to him, with a cheerful acquiescence; but in his diary is the entry, "I could almost wish that what is to be were to be immediately. I dread the next four months more even than the months which will follow the separation. This prolonged parting this slow sipping of the vinegar and the gallis terrible."

As he grew weaker his anxiety lest he should grow irritable is expressed, and he adds, "But I will take care. I have thought several times of late that the last scene of the play is approaching. I should wish to act it simply, but with fortitude and gentleness united."

His wish was realized. His friends found him sitting in his easy chair in the library with his book open before him. The end had come before the dreaded parting from his sister.

He was buried in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey on the 9th of January, 1860.

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INDIA

When the British began trading in India they found the native people divided into two great contending forces- the Hindus and the Mohammedans. These two forces may be accounted for, in general, in this way, taking Sir William Wilson Hunter, a vice-president of the Royal Asiatic Society, as authority:— The Hindus, made up of:

Non-Aryans (the Aborigines).
Aryans (from Aryan plateau).

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Scythians (Huns, Tartars). (From Western Asia. Possibly non-Aryans, though probably Aryans.)

These three had formed a settled nation with a common religion; and their pride of birth, learning, and prowess had crystallized into the four great Hindu castes before the year 1000 A.D.

The Mohammedans.

About 1000 A.D. various Tartar tribes of Arabia, who had embraced Mohammedanism, overran India, conquering parts of it and setting up the Mogul Empire.

The Hindus: NON-ARYANS. - Although the nonAryans are called the Aborigines, the weapons and utensils of agate, flint, and iron that are found indicate earlier people than these, of whom there is no

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