G. O. T.

December 1876.

PREFACE

TO

The first edition,

This work has been undertaken principally from a conviction that it is the performance of a duty which, to the best of my ability, it is incumbent on me to fulfil.  Though even on this ground I cannot appeal to the forbearance of my readers, I may venture to refer to a peculiar difficulty which I have experienced in dealing with Lord Macaulay’s private papers.

To give to the world compositions not intended for publication may be no injury to the fame of writers who, by habit, were careless and hasty workmen; but it is far otherwise in the case of one who made it a rule for himself to publish nothing which was not carefully planned, strenuously laboured, and minutely finished.  Now, it is impossible to examine Lord Macaulay’s journals and correspondence without being persuaded that the idea of their being printed, even in part, never was present to his mind; and I should not feel myself justified in laying them before the public if it were not that their unlaboured and spontaneous character adds to their biographical value all, and perhaps more than all, that it detracts from their literary merit.

To the heirs and relations of Mr. Thomas Flower Ellis and Mr. Adam Black, to the Marquis of Lansdowne, to Mr. Macvey Napier, and to the executors of Dr. Whewell, my thanks are due for the courtesy with which thhey have placed the different portions of my Uncle’s correspondence at my disposal.  Lady Caroline Lascelles has most kindly permitted me to use as much of Lord Carlisle’s journal as relates to the subject of this work; and Mr. Charles Cowan, my Uncle’s old opponent at Edinburgh, has sent me a considerable mass of printed matter bearing upon the elections of 1847 and 1852.  The late Sir Edward Ryan, and Mr. Fitzjames Stephen, spared no pains to inform me with regard to Lord Macaulay’s work at Calcutta.  His early letters, with much that relates to the whole course of his life, have been preserved, studied, and arranged, by the affectionate industry of his sister, Miss Macaulay; and material of high interest has been entrusted to my hands by Mr. and the Hon. Mrs. Edward Cropper.  I have been assisted throughout the book by the sympathy, and the recollections, of my sister Lady Holland, the niece to whose custody Lord Macaulay’s papers by inheritance descend.

G.O.T.

March 1876.

LIFE AND LETTERS OF LORD MACAULAY

By

SIR GEORGE OTTO TREVELYAN

CHAPTER I

1800-1818.