Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay

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Thomas Babington Macaulay, detail of an oil painting by J. Partridge, 1840; in the National … (credit: Courtesy of The National Portrait Gallery, London)

(born Oct. 25, 1800, Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, Eng. — died Dec. 28, 1859, Campden Hill, London) English politician, historian, and poet. While a fellow at Cambridge University, Macaulay published the first of his essays, on John Milton (1825), and gained immediate fame. After entering Parliament in 1830, he became known as a leading orator. From 1834 he served on the Supreme Council in India, supporting the equality of Europeans and Indians before the law and inaugurating a national educational system. He reentered Parliament on returning to England in 1838. He published Lays of Ancient Rome (1842) and Critical and Historical Essays (1843) before retiring to private life and beginning his brilliant History of England, 5 vol. (1849 – 61); covering the period 1688 – 1702, it established a Whig interpretation of English history that influenced generations.

For more information on Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron Macaulay of Rothley, visit Britannica.com.

The English essayist, historian, and politician Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron of Rothley (1800-1859), was the most popular and dazzling English historian of the 19th century. He was an eloquent spokesman for the liberal English middle classes.

The views of the Tory ascendancy, which had dominated England in the later 18th and early 19th centuries, also gave color to David Hume's History of England, the leading text on the subject after its publication between 1754 and 1761. The growing power of the Whigs, as the party of the middle-class industrialists and businessmen, created the need for a reinterpretation of English history that emphasized the role of the civil war of the 17th century, the Glorious Revolution, and the Hanoverian Settlement as the cornerstones of English freedom, prosperity, and social progress. More than any other writer, Macaulay promulgated this "Whig view of history" and trusted to the maintenance of this tradition for continued national advancement. Macaulay was, therefore, the spokesman for Victorian material advancement; but he was correspondingly somewhat blind to the social and economic evils that followed upon the industrial revolution.

Thomas Babington Macaulay was born at Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, on Oct. 25, 1800. His father, Zachary Macaulay, a Scotsman, had been a governor of Sierra Leone and was a leading figure in the "Clapham sect," a group of Evangelical reformers and abolitionists. The young Macaulay was educated at a private school and then went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow. In 1826 he was called to the bar.

His Essays

At Cambridge, Macaulay's brilliant reputation attracted the attention of Francis Jeffrey, editor of the Edinburgh Review, the leading organ of Whig opinion and the most authoritative literary periodical of the day. He was invited to become a contributor, and his first publication in the Edinburgh was the famous essay on Milton (1825). In it Macaulay's main concern was to defend Milton as a champion of civil and intellectual liberty against tyranny and despotism. The essay was an immediate success and inaugurated a long connection with the magazine.

Macaulay's essays are immensely readable and vigorous. They dispose judgment with majestic ease, but their inability to perceive subtle qualifications and shades of character diminishes their critical value. They are all laced with partisan zeal. The essay on Dr. Johnson, for instance, is unsympathetic to his Tory leanings and violently hostile to John Wilson Croker, the editor of Boswell's Life of Johnson, who was associated with the High Tory Quarterly Review. The essays do, however, show a shrewd awareness of the social context of literature.

Macaulay admitted the occasional and transient value of his essays. However, he did feel that the later ones were markedly superior to the earlier ones. Although the style does improve and the bias becomes less obvious, the point of view is essentially unchanged.

Career in Politics

The essays were composed in the midst of an active political life. In 1830 Macaulay entered Parliament, first as a member for Calne and then for Leeds. He delivered memorable speeches in support of the 1832 reform bill. His brilliant conversational powers and lively social gifts made him popular in the fashionable world. He was appointed a commissioner of the Board of Control and devoted himself to a study of Indian affairs. In 1834 he became a member of the Supreme Council of India. During his 4-year stay in India he helped found a system of national education and was the chief architect of the criminal code.

On his return to England, Macaulay was elected to Parliament to represent Edinburgh (1839-1847). He also had a seat in the Cabinet as secretary of war from 1839 to 1841. But Macaulay's interests had now turned more fully to writing. In 1842 his Lays of Ancient Rome appeared. He continued to write essays, including those on Warren Hastings and Robert Clive, which derived from his Indian experience; one on Addison; and one on William Pitt the Elder.

History of England

However, the principal labor of Macaulay's later years was the celebrated History of England, to which he sacrificed both his political career and his life in society. The first two volumes of the History appeared in 1848, volumes 3 and 4 in 1855, and the last installment posthumously in 1861. The success of the History was enormous.

Macaulay intended to write the history of England from the accession of James II (1685) through the reign of George IV. However, it was also his aim to emphasize the art of narrative and evoke the drama and scenic quality of historical events. His methods prevented the realization of his plan, for despite the rapidity with which he worked and notwithstanding the help of a miraculous photographic memory, he could barely bring his work to 1700. The common taste of today is unlikely to respond to the oratorical style of the work or to its optimistic presentation of the historical origins of Victorian prosperity and the grandeur of its imperial power. Nevertheless, the discerning reader will still admire the vigor of the work. And, finally, the History remains a valuable index of the style and values of its age.

In 1857 Macaulay was raised to the peerage. He died on Dec. 28, 1859, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Further Reading

The standard biography of Macaulay is by his nephew, Sir George Otto Trevelyan, The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay (2 vols., 1876; repr. 1932). Other useful introductions to his life and work are Arthur Bryant, Macaulay (1933), and Richmond C. Beatty, Lord Macaulay, Victorian Liberal (1938). Recommended for general historical and intellectual background are George Peabody Gooch, History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century (1913; rev. with a new intro., 1961); George Macaulay Trevelyan, British History in the Nineteenth Century, and After, 1782-1919 (1938); David Churchill Somervell, English Thought in the Nineteenth Century (1929); and Walter Houghton, The Victorian Frame of Mind, 1830-1870 (1957).

Additional Sources

Bryant, Arthur, Sir, Macaulay, New York: Barnes & Noble, 1979, 1932.

Clive, John Leonard, Macaulay, the shaping of the historian, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1987, 1973.

Edwards, Owen Dudley, Macaulay, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988.

Hamburger, Joseph, Macaulay and the Whig tradition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.

Roberts, S. C. (Sydney Castle), Lord Macaulay, the pre-eminent Victorian, Philadelphia: R. West, 1977.

Trevelyan, George Otto, Sir, The life and letters of Lord Macaulay, Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.

Young, Kenneth, Macaulay, Harlow Eng.: Published for the British Council by Longman Group, 1976.

Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 1st Baron (1800-59). Poet, historian, and politician. Of Scottish presbyterian ancestry, he was the son of Zachary Macaulay, the evangelical anti-slaver and co-founder of the Clapham sect. Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, he acquired an early reputation as a Whig orator and a later reputation as a formidable contributor to the Edinburgh Review. A Whig MP for Calne, Leeds, and Edinburgh, he became secretary at war, paymaster-general, and was involved in drafting a new penal code for India. His Lays of Ancient Rome appeared in 1842, four years after he had projected the future History of England. Originally intended as a history of England since 1688, Macaulay had only reached 1702 by the time of his death. It set the terms of a new Whig historiography which survived until the middle of the 20th cent.

Quotes:

"The reluctant obedience of distant provinces generally costs more than it [The Territory] is worth. Empires which branch out widely are often more flourishing for a little timely pruning."

"Generalization is necessary to the advancement of knowledge; but particularly is indispensable to the creations of the imagination. In proportion as men know more and think more they look less at individuals and more at classes. They therefore make better theories and worse poems."

"Nothing is so galling to a people not broken in from the birth as a paternal, or in other words a meddling government, a government which tells them what to read and say and eat and drink and wear."

"We must judge a government by its general tendencies and not by its happy accidents."

"And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods?"

"History, is made up of the bad actions of extraordinary men and woman. All the most noted destroyers and deceivers of our species, all the founders of arbitrary governments and false religions have been extraordinary people; and nine tenths of the calamities that have befallen the human race had no other origin than the union of high intelligence with low desires."

See more famous quotes by Thomas B. Macaulay

"Baron Macaulay" redirects here. For the British Labour politician, see Donald Macaulay, Baron Macaulay of Bragar.

The Right Honourable  The Lord Macaulay  PC
Secretary at War
In office 27 September 1839 – 30 August 1841
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	The Viscount Melbourne
Preceded by	Viscount Howick
Succeeded by	Sir Henry Hardinge
Paymaster-General
In office 7 July 1846 – 8 May 1848
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	Lord John Russell
Preceded by	Hon. Bingham Baring
Succeeded by	The Earl Granville
Born	25 October 1800 (1800-10-25) Leicestershire, England
Died	28 December 1859 (1859-12-29)
Nationality	British
Political party	Whig
Spouse(s)	Unmarried
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge
Signature

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay PC (25 October 1800 – 28 December 1859) was a British poet, historian and Whig politician. He wrote extensively as an essayist and reviewer, and on British history. He also held political office as Secretary at War between 1839 and 1841 and Paymaster-General between 1846 and 1848.

Contents 1 Background, education and early life 2 Political career 2.1 India 2.2 Government minister 3 Literary works 4 Works 5 Arms 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

Background, education and early life

The son and eldest child of Zachary Macaulay, a Scottish Highlander who became a colonial governor and abolitionist, Thomas Macaulay was born in Leicestershire, England. He was noted as a child prodigy. As a toddler, gazing out the window from his cot at the chimneys of a local factory, he is reputed to have put the question to his mother: "Does the smoke from those chimneys come from the fires of hell?" He was educated at a private school in Hertfordshire and at Trinity College, Cambridge.^[1] Whilst at Cambridge he wrote much poetry and won several prizes, including the Chancellor's Gold Medal in June 1821.^[2] In 1825 he published a prominent essay on Milton in the Edinburgh Review. In 1826 he was called to the bar but showed more interest in a political than a legal career. It was once rumoured^[3] that Macaulay had fallen for Maria Kinnaird, the wealthy ward of "Conversation" Sharp, but in fact he never married and had no children.

Political career

In 1830 the Marquess of Lansdowne invited Macaulay to become Member of Parliament for the pocket borough of Calne. His maiden speech was in favor of abolishing the civil disabilities of the Jews. However, Macaulay made his name with a series of speeches in favour of parliamentary reform. ^[2] After the Great Reform Act of 1832 was passed, he became MP for Leeds.^[2] In the Reform, Calne's representation was reduced from two to one; Leeds had never been represented before, but now had two members. Though proud to have helped pass the Reform Bill, Macaulay never ceased to be grateful to his former patron, Lansdowne, who remained a great friend and political ally.

India

Macaulay was Secretary to the Board of Control under Lord Grey from 1832 until 1833. After the passing of the Government of India Act 1833, he was appointed as the first Law Member of the Governor-General's Council. He went to India in 1834. Serving on the Supreme Council of India between 1834 and 1838 he was instrumental in creating the foundations of bilingual colonial India, by convincing the Governor-General to adopt English as the medium of instruction in higher education, from the sixth year of schooling onwards, rather than Sanskrit or Arabic then used in the institutions supported by the East India Company. His final years in India were devoted to the creation of a Penal Code, as the leading member of the Law Commission.

In the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Macaulay's criminal law proposal was enacted. The Indian Penal Code (1860) was followed by the Criminal Procedure Code, 1872 and the Civil Procedure Code, 1909. The Indian Penal Code was later reproduced in most other British colonies – and to date many of these laws are still in effect in places as far apart as Singapore, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

The term Macaulay's Children is used to refer to people born of Indian ancestry who adopt Western culture as a lifestyle, or display attitudes influenced by colonisers^[4]. It is used as a pejorative term, and the connotation is one of disloyalty to one's country and one's heritage. This frame of mind or attitude is also referred to as Macaulayism

Thomas Babington Macaulay at the age 50 years — after an engraving by W. Holl, from a drawing by George Richmond

The passage to which the term refers is from his Minute on Indian Education, delivered in 1835. It reads,

“

It is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population.[5]

”

Government minister

Returning to Britain in 1838, he became MP for Edinburgh. He was made Secretary at War in 1839 by Lord Melbourne and was sworn of the Privy Council the same year.^[6] In 1841 Macaulay addressed the issue of copyright law. Macaulay's position, slightly modified, became the basis of copyright law in the English-speaking world for many decades. Macaulay argued that copyright is a monopoly and as such has generally negative effects on society.^[7] After the fall of Melbourne's government in 1841 Macaulay devoted more time to literary work, but returned to office as Paymaster-General in 1846 in Lord John Russell's administration.

In the election of 1847 he lost his seat in Edinburgh. He attributed the loss to the anger of religious zealots over his speech in favour of expanding the annual grant to Maynooth College in Ireland, which trained young men for the Catholic priesthood; some observers also attributed his loss to his neglect of local issues. In 1849 he was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow, a position with no administrative duties, often awarded by the students to men of political or literary fame; he also received the freedom of the city. In 1852, the voters of Edinburgh offered to re-elect him to Parliament. He accepted on the express condition that he need not campaign and would not pledge himself to a position on any political issue. Remarkably, he was elected on those terms. However, he seldom attended the House, due to ill health; indeed his weakness after suffering a heart attack caused him to postpone for several months making his speech of thanks to the Edinburgh voters. He resigned his seat in January, 1856. In 1857 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Macaulay, of Rothley in the County of Leicester,^[8] but seldom attended the House of Lords.

Literary works

Lays of Ancient Rome, 1881 edition

During his first period out of office he composed Lays of Ancient Rome, a series of very popular ballads about heroic episodes in Roman history. The most famous of them, Horatius, concerns the heroism of Horatius Cocles. It contains the oft-quoted lines:

Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods?"

During the 1840s he began work on his most famous work, "The History of England from the Accession of James the Second", publishing the first two volumes in 1848. At first, he had planned to bring his history down to the reign of George III. After publication of his first two volumes, his hope was to complete his work with the death of Queen Anne in 1714. The third and fourth volumes, bringing the history to the Peace of Ryswick, were published in 1855. However, at his death in 1859, he was working on the fifth volume. This, bringing the History down to the death of William III, was prepared for publication by his sister, Lady Trevelyan, after his death.^[9]

Macaulay's political writings are famous for their ringing prose and for its confident, sometimes dogmatic, emphasis on a progressive model of British history, according to which the country threw off superstition, autocracy and confusion to create a balanced constitution and a forward-looking culture combined with freedom of belief and expression. This model of human progress has been called the Whig interpretation of history. This philosophy appears most clearly in the essays Macaulay wrote for the Edinburgh Review. But it is also reflected in the History; the most stirring passages in the work are those that describe the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688. Macaulay's approach has been criticised by later historians for its one-sidedness and its complacency. Karl Marx referred to him as a 'systematic falsifier of history'.^[10] His tendency to see history as a drama led him to treat figures whose views he opposed as if they were villains, while characters he approved of were presented as heroes. Macaulay goes to considerable length, for example, to absolve his main hero William III of any responsibility for the Glencoe massacre. On the other hand, this outlook, together with his obvious love of his subject matter and of English civilization, helps to place the reader within the age being described in a personal way that no cold neutrality could, and Macaulay's History is generally recognized as one of the masterpieces of historical writing and a magisterial literary triumph only comparable as such to Gibbon and Michelet.

Macaulay sat on the committee to decide on subjects from British history to be painted in the new Palace of Westminster. The need to collect reliable portraits of noted figures in British history for this project led to the foundation of the National Portrait Gallery, which was formally established on 2 December 1856. Macaulay was amongst its founder trustees and is honoured as one of only three busts above the main entrance.

During later years his health made work increasingly difficult for him. He died in December 1859, aged 59, leaving his major work, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second incomplete. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. As he had no children, his peerage became extinct on his death.

Macaulay's nephew, Sir George Trevelyan, Bt, wrote a best-selling "Life and Letters" of his famous uncle, which is still the best complete life of Macaulay. His great-nephew was the Cambridge historian G. M. Trevelyan.

Works

• Works by Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay at Project Gutenberg
  • Lays of Ancient Rome
  • The History of England from the Accession of James II, 5 vols. (1848) [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]
  • Critical and Historical Essays, 2 vols., edited by Alexander James Grieve. [6],[7]
  • The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, 4 vols. [8], [9], [10], [11]
  • Machiavelli
  • The Letters of Thomas Babington Macaulay, 6 vols., edited by Thomas Pinney.
• Macaulay index entry at Poets' Corner
  • Lays of Ancient Rome (Complete) at Poets' Corner with an introduction by Bob Blair

Arms

Arms of Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay Notes The arms, crest and motto allude to the heraldry of the MacAulays of Ardincaple; however Thomas Babington Macaulay was not related to this clan at all. He was, instead, descended from the unrelated Macaulays of Lewis. Crest Upon a rock a boot proper thereon a spur Or.[11] Escutcheon Gules two arrows in saltire points downward argent surmounted by as many barrulets compony Or and azure between two buckles in pale of the third a bordure engrailed also of the third.[11] Supporters Two herons proper.[11] Motto Dulce periculum[11] (translation from Latin: "danger is sweet").

See also

• Whig history further explains the Whig interpretation of history that Macaulay espoused.

References

1. ^ Macaulay, Thomas Babington in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
2. ^ ^{a b c} William Thomas, 'Macaulay, Thomas Babington, Baron Macaulay (1800–1859)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 25 Jan 2008
3. ^ Macaulay, Margaret: Recollections (see entry for 22nd November, 1831)
4. ^ Think it Over: Macaulay and India's rootless generations
5. ^ Macaulay's "minute on education" arguing for the use of English in India
6. ^ London Gazette: no. 19774, p. 1841, 1 October 1839.
7. ^ Macaulay's speeches on copyright law
8. ^ London Gazette: no. 22039, p. 3075, 11 September 1857.
9. ^ Macaulay, Thomas Babington, History of England. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1878. Vol. V, title page and prefatory "Memoir of Lord Macaulay".
10. ^ Karl Marx, Das Kapital, ch. 27, p.877: "I quote Macaulay, because as a systematic falsifier of history he minimizes facts of this kind as much as possible"
11. ^ ^{a b c d} Burke, Bernard (1864). The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. London: Harrison & sons. p. 635. 

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External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Thomas Babington Macaulay
• Thomas Macaulay, "Lord Clive," Edinburgh Review, January 1840.
• Thomas Macaulay, "Warren Hastings." Edinburgh Review, October, 1841.
• Macaulay on Copyright
• Lord Macaulay's Habit of Exaggeration
• Macaulay on copyright law
• Macaulay's Minute revisited: An article in The Hindu, an Indian newspaper
• Thomas Babington Macaulay at Find a Grave
• Thomas Babington Macaulay at Find a Grave (memorial statue, antechapel, Trinity College, Cambridge, UK)

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Hon. James Abercromby Sir James Macdonald, Bt	Member of Parliament for Calne 1830 – 1832 With: Sir James Macdonald, Bt to 1831 Charles Richard Fox 1831–1832	Succeeded by The Earl of Kerry
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Leeds 1832 – 1834 With: John Marshall	Succeeded by John Marshall Edward Baines
Preceded by Sir John Campbell Hon. James Abercromby	Member of Parliament for Edinburgh 1839 – 1847 With: Sir John Campbell to 1841 William Gibson-Craig from 1841	Succeeded by Charles Cowan William Gibson-Craig
Preceded by Charles Cowan William Gibson-Craig	Member of Parliament for Edinburgh 1852 – 1856 With: Charles Cowan	Succeeded by Charles Cowan Adam Black
Political offices
Preceded by Thomas Hyde Villiers	Secretary to the Board of Control 1832–1833	Succeeded by Thomas Gordon
Preceded by Viscount Howick	Secretary at War 1839–1841	Succeeded by Sir Henry Hardinge
Preceded by Hon. Bingham Baring	Paymaster-General 1846–1848	Succeeded by The Earl Granville
Academic offices
Preceded by William Mure	Rector of the University of Glasgow 1848—1850	Succeeded by Sir Archibald Alison, Bt
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baron Macaulay 1857–1859	Extinct

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