INTRODUCTION LIFE OF MACAULAY (1800-1859) Probably no writer in any language has given so much historical and literary information and misinformation in so entertaining a style to so many persons as Thomas Babington Macaulay. He had a positive passion for facts. Nevertheless, in his thirty-four years as a writer he exhibited such an interesting and brilliant antithetical style that he sometimes gave misinformation, unconsciously, in his desire to say something strongly and entertainingly. Very likely he gathered more information before he was twenty-five years old than he did in the last thirty-four years. At any rate, it proves convenient in studying the events of his busy, happy, and mostly prosperous life to consider them in two periods: the period of preparation, from 1800 to 1825; and the period of productiveness, from 1825 to 1859. During the second half of the second period he wrote his essays on Clive and Hastings - reviews of the lives of men prominent in Indian affairs. Macaulay's youth was singularly fortunate. His father, Zachary Macaulay, was of good Scotch descent. He is buried in Westminster, along with several other noted English advocates of the abolition of slavery. Except for Macaulay there is scarcely an Englishman of fame buried in Westminster whose father is also buried there. The place of Thomas B. Macaulay's birth was Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, England. He was the eldest of eight children. In 1803 the family moved to Clapham, near London, where they continued to reside for eighteen years. Tom's mother thought that he was a wonderful child, but, in spite of his superior powers of language, she would not permit people to tell him that he was unusually bright for one so young. When only three he enjoyed reading serious books or sitting by the fire conversing with his elders. When only four he had a copious vocabulary. A cup of coffee was spilled on him one day. Solicitously the hostess inquired whether it hurt. He replied, "Thank you, madam, the agony is abated." Tom would often listen, with the consent of his father, to the talk that went on in the Macaulay home when prominent members of Parliament and abolitionists met to discuss ways of advancing the cause of abolition of slavery in the West Indies. As a mere boy Tom wrote an article which he desired should be translated into an Indian dialect so as to persuade the people of Travancore to embrace the Christian religion. By the time he was twelve he had memorized a large part of Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel" and "Marmion," Milton's "Paradise Lost," and Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," besides a good deal of the Bible, for he had a wonderful knack of taking in pages at a glance and remembering the contents and the very language for all time. A letter written by him at the age of thirteen shows better than anything else the kind of boy he was, and by implication the kind of parents he had: My dear Mamma: Shelford, August 14, 1813 I must confess that I have been a little disappointed at not receiving a letter from home to-day. I hope, however, for one to-morrow. My spirits are far more depressed by leaving home than they were last half year. Everything brings home to my recollection, Everything I read, or see, or hear brings it to my mind. You told me I should be happy when I once came here, but not an hour passes in which I do not shed tears at thinking of home. Every hope, however unlikely to be realized, affords me some small consolation. The morning on which I went you told me that possibly I might come home before the holidays. If you can confirm that hope, believe me when I assure you there is nothing which I would not |