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The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay. Vol 1

K >> Knight\'s Quarterly Magazine >> The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay. Vol 1



This etext was prepared by Dr. Mike Alder and Sue Asscher
from the book made available by Dr Mike Alder.




THE MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

OF

LORD MACAULAY.




VOLUME I.


PREFACE.

Lord Macaulay always looked forward to a publication of his
miscellaneous works, either by himself or by those who should
represent him after his death. And latterly he expressly
reserved, whenever the arrangements as to copyright made it
necessary, the right of such publication.

The collection which is now published comprehends some of the
earliest and some of the latest works which he composed. He was
born on 25th October, 1800; commenced residence at Trinity
College, Cambridge, in October, 1818; was elected Craven
University Scholar in 1821; graduated as B.A. in 1822; was
elected fellow of the college in October, 1824; was called to the
bar in February, 1826, when he joined the Northern Circuit; and
was elected member for Calne in 1830. After this last event, he
did not long continue to practise at the bar. He went to India
in 1834, whence he returned in June, 1838. He was elected member
for Edinburgh, in 1839, and lost this seat in July, 1847; and
this (though he was afterwards again elected for that city in
July, 1852, without being a candidate) may be considered as the
last instance of his taking an active part in the contests of
public life. These few dates are mentioned for the purpose
of enabling the reader to assign the articles, now and previously
published, to the principal periods into which the author's life
may be divided.

The admirers of his later works will probably be interested by
watching the gradual formation of his style, and will notice in
his earlier productions, vigorous and clear as their language
always was, the occurrence of faults against which he afterwards
most anxiously guarded himself. A much greater interest will
undoubtedly be felt in tracing the date and development of his
opinions.

The articles published in Knight's Quarterly Magazine were
composed during the author's residence at college, as B.A. It
may be remarked that the first two of these exhibit the
earnestness with which he already endeavoured to represent to
himself and to others the scenes and persons of past times as in
actual existence. Of the Dialogue between Milton and Cowley he
spoke, many years after its publication, as that one of his works
which he remembered with most satisfaction. The article on
Mitford's Greece he did not himself value so highly as others
thought it deserved. This article, at any rate, contains the
first distinct enunciation of his views, as to the office of an
historian, views afterwards more fully set forth in his Essay,
upon History, in the Edinburgh Review. From the protest, in the
last mentioned essay, against the conventional notions respecting
the majesty of history might perhaps have been anticipated
something like the third chapter of the History of England. It
may be amusing to notice that in the article on Mitford, appears
the first sketch of the New Zealander, afterwards filled up in a
passage in the review of Mrs Austin's translation of Ranke, a
passage which at one time was the subject of allusion, two or
three times a week, in speeches and leading articles. In this,
too, appear, perhaps for the first time, the author's views on
the representative system. These he retained to the very last;
they are brought forward repeatedly in the articles published in
this collection and elsewhere, and in his speeches in parliament;
and they coincide with the opinions expressed in the letter to an
American correspondent, which was so often cited in the late
debate on the Reform Bill.

Some explanation appears to be necessary as to the publication of
the three articles "Mill on Government," "Westminster Reviewer's
Defence of Mill" and "Utilitarian Theory of Government."

In 1828 Mr James Mill, the author of the History of British
India, reprinted some essays which he had contributed to the
Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica; and among these was
an Essay on Government. The method of inquiry and reasoning
adopted in this essay appeared to Macaulay to be essentially
wrong. He entertained a very strong conviction that the only
sound foundation for a theory of Government must be laid in
careful and copious historical induction; and he believed that Mr
Mill's work rested upon a vicious reasoning a priori. Upon this
point he felt the more earnestly, owing to his own passion for
historical research, and to his devout admiration of Bacon, whose
works he was at that time studying with intense attention. There
can, however, be little doubt that he was also provoked by the
pretensions of some members of a sect which then commonly went by
the name of Benthamites, or Utilitarians. This sect included
many of his contemporaries, who had quitted Cambridge at about
the same time with him. It had succeeded, in some measure, to
the sect of the Byronians, whom he has described in the review of
Moore's Life of Lord Byron, who discarded their neckcloths, and
fixed little models of skulls on the sand-glasses by which they
regulated the boiling of their eggs for breakfast. The members
of these sects, and of many others that have succeeded, have
probably long ago learned to smile at the temporary humours. But
Macaulay, himself a sincere admirer of Bentham, was irritated by
what he considered the unwarranted tone assumed by several of the
class of Utilitarians. "We apprehend," he said, "that many of
them are persons who, having read little or nothing, are
delighted to be rescued from the sense of their own inferiority
by some teacher who assures them that the studies which they have
neglected are of no value, puts five or six phrases into their
mouths, lends them an odd number of the Westminster Review, and
in a month transforms them into philosophers;" and he spoke of
them as "smatterers, whose attainments just suffice to elevate
them from the insignificance of dunces to the dignity of bores,
and to spread dismay among their pious aunts and grand mothers."
The sect, of course, like other sects, comprehended some
pretenders, and these the most arrogant and intolerant among its
members. He, however, went so far as to apply the following
language to the majority:--"As to the greater part of the sect,
it is, we apprehend, of little consequence what they study or
under whom. It would be more amusing, to be sure, and more
reputable, if they would take up the old republican cant and
declaim about Brutus and Timoleon, the duty of killing tyrants
and the blessedness of dying for liberty. But, on the whole,
they might have chosen worse. They may as well be Utilitarians
as jockeys or dandies. And, though quibbling about self-interest
and motives, and objects of desire, and the greatest happiness of
the greatest number, is but a poor employment for a grown man, it
certainly hurts the health less than hard drinking and the
fortune less than high play; it is not much more laughable than
phrenology, and is immeasurably more humane than cock-fighting."

Macaulay inserted in the Edinburgh Review of March, 1829, an
article upon Mr Mill's Essay. He attacked the method with much
vehemence; and, to the end of his life, he never saw any ground
for believing that in this he had gone too far. But before long
he felt that he had not spoken of the author of the Essay with
the respect due to so eminent a man. In 1833, he described Mr
mill, during the debate on the India Bill of that year, as a
"gentleman extremely well acquainted with the affairs of our
Eastern Empire, a most valuable servant of the Company, and the
author of a history of India, which, though certainly not free
from faults, is, I think, on the whole, the greatest historical
work which has appeared in our language since that of Gibbon."

Almost immediately upon the appearance of the article in the
Edinburgh Review, an answer was published in the Westminster
Review. It was untruly attributed, in the newspapers of the day,
to Mr Bentham himself. Macaulay's answer to this appeared in the
Edinburgh Review, June, 1829. He wrote the answer under the
belief that he was answering Mr Bentham, and was undeceived in
time only to add the postscript. The author of the article in
the Westminster Review had not perceived that the question raised
was not as to the truth or falsehood of the result at which Mr
Mill had arrived, but as to the soundness or unsoundness of the
method which he pursued; a misunderstanding at which Macaulay,
while he supposed the article to be the work of Mr Bentham,
expressed much surprise. The controversy soon became principally
a dispute as to the theory which was commonly known by the name
of The Greatest Happiness Principle. Another article in the
Westminster Review followed; and a surrejoinder by Macaulay in
the Edinburgh Review of October, 1829. Macaulay was irritated at
what he conceived to be either extreme dullness or gross
unfairness on the part of his unknown antagonist, and struck as
hard as he could; and he struck very hard indeed.

The ethical question thus raised was afterwards discussed by Sir
James Mackintosh, in the Dissertation contributed by him to the
seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, page 284-313
(Whewell's Edition). Sir James Mackintosh notices the part taken
in the controversy by Macaulay, in the following words: "A
writer of consummate ability, who has failed in little but the
respect due to the abilities and character of his opponents, has
given too much countenance to the abuse and confusion of language
exemplified in the well-known verse of Pope,

'Modes of self-love the Passions we may call.'

'We know,' says he, 'no universal proposition respecting human
nature which is true but one--that men always act from self-
interest.'" "It is manifest from the sequel, that the writer is
not the dupe of the confusion; but many of his readers may be so.
If, indeed, the word "self-interest" could with propriety be used
for the gratification of every prevalent desire, he has clearly
shown that this change in the signification of terms would be of
no advantage to the doctrine which he controverts. It would make
as many sorts of self-interest as there are appetites, and it is
irreconcilably at variance with the system of association
proposed by Mr Mill." "The admirable writer whose language has
occasioned this illustration, who at an early age has mastered
every species of composition, will doubtless hold fast to
simplicity, which survives all the fashions of deviation from it,
and which a man of genius so fertile has few temptations to for
sake."

When Macaulay selected for publication certain articles of the
Edinburgh Review, he resolved not to publish any of the three
essays in question; for which he assigned the following reason:--

"The author has been strongly urged to insert three papers on the
Utilitarian Philosophy, which, when they first appeared,
attracted some notice, but which are not in the American
editions. He has however determined to omit these papers, not
because he is disposed to retract a single doctrine which they
contain, but because he is unwilling to offer what might be
regarded as an affront to the memory of one from whose opinions
he still widely dissents, but to whose talents and virtues he
admits that he formerly did not do justice. Serious as are the
faults of the Essay on Government, a critic, while noticing those
faults, should have abstained from using contemptuous language
respecting the historian of British India. It ought to be known
that Mr Mill had the generosity, not only to forgive, but to
forget the unbecoming acrimony with which he had been assailed,
and was, when his valuable life closed, on terms of cordial
friendship with his assailant."

Under these circumstances, considerable doubt has been felt as to
the propriety of republishing the three Essays in the present
collection. But it has been determined, not without much
hesitation, that they should appear. It is felt that no
disrespect is shown to the memory of Mr Mill, when the
publication is accompanied by so full an apology for the tone
adopted towards him; and Mr Mill himself would have been the last
to wish for the suppression of opinions on the ground that they
were in express antagonism to his own. The grave has now closed
upon the assailant as well as the assailed. On the other hand,
it cannot but be desirable that opinions which the author
retained to the last, on important questions in politics and
morals, should be before the public.

Some of the poems now collected have already appeared in print;
others are supplied by the recollection of friends. The first
two are published on account of their having been composed in the
author's childhood. In the poems, as well as in the prose works,
will be occasionally found thoughts and expressions which have
afterwards been adopted in later productions.

No alteration whatever has been made from the form in which the
author left the several articles, with the exception of some
changes in punctuation, and the correction of one or two obvious
misprints.

T.F.E.
London, June 1860.



CONTENTS.


CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNIGHT'S QUARTERLY MAGAZINE.

Fragments of a Roman Tale. (June 1823.)

On the Royal Society of Literature. (June 1823.)

Scenes from "Athenian Revels." (January 1824.)

Criticisms on the Principal Italian Writers. No. I. Dante.
(January 1824.)

Criticisms on the Principal Italian Writers. No. II. Petrarch.
(April 1824.)

Some account of the Great Lawsuit between the Parishes of St
Dennis and St George in the Water. (April 1824.)

A Conversation between Mr Abraham Cowley and Mr John Milton,
touching the Great Civil War. (August 1824.)

On the Athenian Orators. (August 1824.)

A Prophetic Account of a Grand National Epic Poem, to be entitled
"The Wellingtoniad," and to be Published A.D. 2824. (November
1824.)

On Mitford's History of Greece. (November 1824.)




MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS OF LORD MACAULAY.


CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNIGHT'S QUARTERLY MAGAZINE.


FRAGMENTS OF A ROMAN TALE.

(June 1823.)


It was an hour after noon. Ligarius was returning from the
Campus Martius. He strolled through one of the streets which led
to the Forum, settling his gown, and calculating the odds on the
gladiators who were to fence at the approaching Saturnalia.
While thus occupied, he overtook Flaminius, who, with a heavy
step and a melancholy face, was sauntering in the same direction.
The light-hearted young man plucked him by the sleeve.

"Good-day, Flaminius. Are you to be of Catiline's party this
evening?"

"Not I."

"Why so? Your little Tarentine girl will break her heart."

"No matter. Catiline has the best cooks and the finest wine in
Rome. There are charming women at his parties. But the twelve-
line board and the dice-box pay for all. The Gods confound me if
I did not lose two millions of sesterces last night. My villa at
Tibur, and all the statues that my father the praetor brought
from Ephesus, must go to the auctioneer. That is a high price,
you will acknowledge, even for Phoenicopters, Chian, and
Callinice."

"High indeed, by Pollux."

"And that is not the worst. I saw several of the leading
senators this morning. Strange things are whispered in the
higher political circles."

"The Gods confound the political circles. I have hated the name
of politician ever since Sylla's proscription, when I was within
a moment of having my throat cut by a politician, who took me for
another politician. While there is a cask of Falernian in
Campania, or a girl in the Suburra, I shall be too well employed
to think on the subject."

"You will do well," said Flaminius gravely, "to bestow some
little consideration upon it at present. Otherwise, I fear, you
will soon renew your acquaintance with politicians, in a manner
quite as unpleasant as that to which you allude."

"Averting Gods! what do you mean?"

"I will tell you. There are rumours of conspiracy. The order of
things established by Lucius Sylla has excited the disgust of the
people, and of a large party of the nobles. Some violent
convulsion is expected."

"What is that to me? I suppose that they will hardly proscribe
the vintners and gladiators, or pass a law compelling every
citizen to take a wife."

"You do not understand. Catiline is supposed to be the author of
the revolutionary schemes. You must have heard bold opinions at
his table repeatedly."

"I never listen to any opinions upon such subjects, bold or
timid."

"Look to it. Your name has been mentioned."

"Mine! good Gods! I call Heaven to witness that I never so much
as mentioned Senate, Consul, or Comitia, in Catiline's house."

"Nobody suspects you of any participation in the inmost counsels
of the party. But our great men surmise that you are among those
whom he has bribed so high with beauty, or entangled so deeply in
distress, that they are no longer their own masters. I shall
never set foot within his threshold again. I have been solemnly
warned by men who understand public affairs; and I advise you to
be cautious."

The friends had now turned into the Forum, which was thronged
with the gay and elegant youth of Rome. "I can tell you more,"
continued Flaminius; "somebody was remarking to the Consul
yesterday how loosely a certain acquaintance of ours tied his
girdle. 'Let him look to himself;' said Cicero, 'or the state
may find a tighter girdle for his neck.'"

"Good Gods! who is it? You cannot surely mean"--

"There he is."

Flaminius pointed to a man who was pacing up and down the Forum
at a little distance from them. He was in the prime of manhood.
His personal advantages were extremely striking, and were
displayed with an extravagant but not ungraceful foppery. His
gown waved in loose folds; his long dark curls were dressed with
exquisite art, and shone and steamed with odours; his step and
gesture exhibited an elegant and commanding figure in every
posture of polite languor. But his countenance formed a singular
contrast to the general appearance of his person. The high and
imperial brow, the keen aquiline features, the compressed mouth;
the penetrating eye, indicated the highest degree of ability and
decision. He seemed absorbed in intense meditation. With eyes
fixed on the ground, and lips working in thought, he sauntered
round the area, apparently unconscious how many of the young
gallants of Rome were envying the taste of his dress, and the
ease of his fashionable stagger.

"Good Heaven!" said Ligarius, "Caius Caesar is as unlikely to be
in a plot as I am."

"Not at all."

"He does nothing but game; feast, intrigue, read Greek, and write
verses."

"You know nothing of Caesar. Though he rarely addresses the
Senate, he is considered as the finest speaker there, after the
Consul. His influence with the multitude is immense. He will
serve his rivals in public life as he served me last night at
Catiline's. We were playing at the twelve lines. (Duodecim
scripta, a game of mixed chance and skill, which seems to have
been very fashionable in the higher circles of Rome. The famous
lawyer Mucius was renowned for his skill in it.--("Cic. Orat." i.
50.)--Immense stakes. He laughed all the time, chatted with
Valeria over his shoulder, kissed her hand between every two
moves, and scarcely looked at the board. I thought that I had
him. All at once I found my counters driven into the corner.
Not a piece to move, by Hercules. It cost me two millions of
sesterces. All the Gods and Goddesses confound him for it!"

"As to Valeria," said Ligarius, "I forgot to ask whether you have
heard the news."

"Not a word. What?"

"I was told at the baths to-day that Caesar escorted the lady
home. Unfortunately old Quintus Lutatius had come back from his
villa in Campania, in a whim of jealousy. He was not expected
for three days. There was a fine tumult. The old fool called
for his sword and his slaves, cursed his wife, and swore that he
would cut Caesar's throat."

"And Caesar?"

"He laughed, quoted Anacreon, trussed his gown round his left
arm, closed with Quintus, flung him down, twisted his sword out
of his hand, burst through the attendants, ran a freed-man
through the shoulder, and was in the street in an instant."

"Well done! Here he comes. Good-day, Caius."

Caesar lifted his head at the salutation. His air of deep
abstraction vanished; and he extended a hand to each of the
friends.

"How are you after your last night's exploit?"

"As well as possible," said Caesar, laughing.

"In truth we should rather ask how Quintus Lutatius is."

"He, I understand, is as well as can be expected of a man with a
faithless spouse and a broken head. His freed-man is most
seriously hurt. Poor fellow! he shall have half of whatever I
win to-night. Flaminius, you shall have your revenge at
Catiline's."

"You are very kind. I do not intend to be at Catiline's till I
wish to part with my town-house. My villa is gone already."

"Not at Catiline's, base spirit! You are not of his mind, my
gallant Ligarius. Dice, Chian, and the loveliest Greek singing
girl that was ever seen. Think of that, Ligarius. By Venus, she
almost made me adore her, by telling me that I talked Greek with
the most Attic accent that she had heard in Italy."

"I doubt she will not say the same of me," replied Ligarius. "I
am just as able to decipher an obelisk as to read a line of
Homer."

"You barbarous Scythian, who had the care of your education?"

"An old fool,--a Greek pedant,--a Stoic. He told me that pain
was no evil, and flogged me as if he thought so. At last one
day, in the middle of a lecture, I set fire to his enormous
filthy beard, singed his face, and sent him roaring out of the
house. There ended my studies. From that time to this I have
had as little to do with Greece as the wine that your poor old
friend Lutatius calls his delicious Samian."

"Well done, Ligarius. I hate a Stoic. I wish Marcus Cato had a
beard that you might singe it for him. The fool talked his two
hours in the Senate yesterday, without changing a muscle of his
face. He looked as savage and as motionless as the mask in which
Roscius acted Alecto. I detest everything connected with him."

"Except his sister, Servilia."

"True. She is a lovely woman."

"They say that you have told her so, Caius"

"So I have."

"And that she was not angry."

"What woman is?"

"Aye--but they say"--

"No matter what they say. Common fame lies like a Greek
rhetorician. You might know so much, Ligarius, without reading
the philosophers. But come, I will introduce you to little dark-
eyed Zoe."

"I tell you I can speak no Greek."

"More shame for you. It is high time that you should begin. You
will never have such a charming instructress. Of what was your
father thinking when he sent for an old Stoic with a long beard
to teach you? There is no language-mistress like a handsome
woman. When I was at Athens, I learnt more Greek from a pretty
flower-girl in the Peiraeus than from all the Portico and the
Academy. She was no Stoic, Heaven knows. But come along to Zoe.
I will be your interpreter. Woo her in honest Latin, and I will
turn it into elegant Greek between the throws of dice. I can
make love and mind my game at once, as Flaminius can
tell you.

"Well, then, to be plain, Caesar, Flaminius has been talking to
me about plots, and suspicions, and politicians. I never plagued
myself with such things since Sylla's and Marius's days; and then
I never could see much difference between the parties. All that
I am sure of is, that those who meddle with such affairs are
generally stabbed or strangled. And, though I like Greek wine
and handsome women, I do not wish to risk my neck for them. Now,
tell me as a friend, Caius--is there no danger?"

"Danger!" repeated Caesar, with a short, fierce, disdainful
laugh: "what danger do you apprehend?"

"That you should best know," said Flaminius; "you are far more
intimate with Catiline than I. But I advise you to be cautious.
The leading men entertain strong suspicions."

Caesar drew up his figure from its ordinary state of graceful
relaxation into an attitude of commanding dignity, and replied in
a voice of which the deep and impassioned melody formed a strange
contrast to the humorous and affected tone of his ordinary
conversation. "Let them suspect. They suspect because they know
what they have deserved. What have they done for Rome?--What for
mankind? Ask the citizens--ask the provinces. Have they had any
other object than to perpetuate their own exclusive power, and to
keep us under the yoke of an oligarchical tyranny, which unites
in itself the worst evils of every other system, and combines
more than Athenian turbulence with more than Persian despotism?"

"Good Gods! Caesar. It is not safe for you to speak, or for us
to listen to, such things, at such a crisis."

"Judge for yourselves what you will hear. I will judge for
myself what I will speak. I was not twenty years old when I
defied Lucius Sylla, surrounded by the spears of legionaries and
the daggers of assassins. Do you suppose that I stand in awe of
his paltry successors, who have inherited a power which they
never could have acquired; who would imitate his proscriptions,
though they have never equalled his conquests?"

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