LIFE.  Macaulay was born at Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, in 1800.  His father, of Scotch descent, was at one time governor of the Sierra Leone colony for liberated negroes, and devoted a large part of his life to the abolition of the slave trade.  His mother, of Quaker parentage, was a brilliant, sensitive woman, whose character is reflected in that of her son.  The influence of these two, and the son’s loyal devotion to his family, can best be read in Trevelyan’s interesting biography.

As a child, Macaulay is strongly suggestive of Coleridge.  At three years of age he began to read eagerly; at five he “talked like a book”; at ten he had written a compendium of universal history, besides various hymns, verse romances, arguments for Christianity, and one ambitious epic poem.  The habit of rapid reading, begun in childhood, continued throughout his life, and the number and vari ety of books which he read is almost incredible.  His memory was phenomenal.  He could repeat long poems and essays after a single reading; he could quote not only passages but the greater part of many books, including Pilgrim’s Progress, Paradise Lost, and various novels like Clarissa.  Once, to test his memory, he recited two newspaper poems which he had read in a coffeehouse forty years before, and which he had never thought of in the interval.

At twelve years of age this remarkable boy was sent to a private school at Little Shelford, and at eighteen he eqgered Trinity College, Cambridge.  Here he made a reputation as a classical scholar and a brilliant talker, but made a failure of his mathematics.  In a letter to his mother he wrote:  “Oh for words to express my abomination of that science....  Discipline of the mind!  Say rather starvation, confinement, torture, annihilation!” We quote this as a commentary on Macaulay’s later writings, which are frequently lacking in the exactness and the logical sequence of the science which he detested.

After his college course Macaulay studied law, was admitted to the bar, devoted himself largely to politics, entered Parliament in 1830, and almost immediately won a reputation as the best debater and the most eloquent speaker, of the Liberal or Whig party.  Gladstone says of him:  “Whenever he arose to speak it was a summons like a trumpet call to fill the benches.”  At the time of his election he was poor, and the loss of his father’s property threw upon him the support of his brothers and sisters; but he took up the burden with cheerful courage, and by his own efforts soon placed himself and his family in comfort.  His political progress was rapid, and was due not to favoritism or intrigue, but to his ability, his hard work, and his sterling character.  He was several times elected to Parliament, was legal adviser to the Supreme Council of India, was a member of the cabinet, and declined many offices for which other men labor a lifetime.  In 1857 his great ability and services to his country were recognized by his being raised to the peerage with the title of Baron Macaulay of Rothley.