country when the masses have gained political power, as they surely will at some time, and even speedily, if the policy inaugurated by Gladstone is to triumph?  For England Macaulay had unbounded hope, because he believed in progress,—­in liberty, in education, in the civilizing influence of machinery, in the increasing comforts of life through the constant increase of wealth among the middle classes, and especially through the power of Christianity, in spite of the dissensions of sects, the attacks of crude philosophers, socialists, anarchists, scientists, and atheists, from one end of Christendom to the other.  Why should he not have equal faith in American civilization, which, in spite of wars and strikes and commercial distresses and political corruption, has yet made a marked progress from the time of Jefferson, the apostle of equality, down to our day,—­as seen especially in the multiplication of schools and colleges, in an untrammelled and watchful press, and in the active benevolence of the rich in the foundation of every kind of institution to relieve misery and want?  The truth is that he, in common with most educated Englishmen of his day,—­and of too many even of our own day,—­cherished a silent contempt for Americans, for their literature and their institutions; and hence he was not only inconsistent in the principles which he advocated, but showed that he was not emancipated, with all his learning, from prejudices of which he ought to have been ashamed.

As time made inroads on Macaulay’s strong constitution, he gave up both politics and society in the absorbing interest which he took in his History, confining himself to his library, and sometimes allowing months to pass without accepting any invitation whatever to a social gathering.  No man was ever more disenchanted with society.  He begrudged his time even when tempted by the calls of friendship.  When visitors penetrated to his den, he bowed them out with ironical politeness.  He had no favors to ask from friends or foes, for he declined political office, and was as independent as wealth or fame could make him.  In 1849 he was made Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, and the acclamations following his address were prodigious.  Lord John Russell gave to Macaulay’s brother John a living worth L1100.  Macaulay himself was offered the professorship of History at Cambridge.  In one year he received for the first edition of his third and fourth volumes of the History, published in 1855, L20,000 in a single check from Longman.  At the age of forty-nine, he writes in his diary:  “I have no cause for complaint,—­tolerable health, competence, liberty, leisure, dear relatives and friends, and a very great literary reputation.”