said a competent critic, “for the amount of conciliation which he evinces in dealing with irritable colleagues and subordinates, and for the strong, sterling, practical common sense with which he sweeps away rubbish, or cuts the knots of local and departmental problems.”  The mastery which a man exercises over himself, and the patience and forbearance displayed in his dealings with others, are generally in proportion to the value which he sets upon the objects of his pursuit.  If we judge Macaulay by this standard, it is plain that he cared a great deal more for providing our Eastern Empire with an educational outfit that would work and wear than he ever cared for keeping his own seat in Parliament or pushing his own fortunes in Downing Street.  Throughout his innumerable Minutes, on all subjects from the broadest principle to the narrowest detail, he is everywhere free from crotchets and susceptibilities; and everywhere ready to humour any person who will make himself useful, and to adopt any appliance which can be turned to account.

“I think it highly probable that Mr. Nicholls may be to blame, because I have seldom known a quarrel in which both parties were not to blame.  But I see no evidence that he is so.  Nor do I see any evidence which tends to prove that Mr. Nicholls leads the Local Committee by the nose.  The Local Committee appear to have acted with perfect propriety, and I cannot consent to treat them in the manner recommended by Mr. Sutherland.  If we appoint the Colonel to be a member of their body, we shall in effect pass a most severe censure on their proceedings.  I dislike the suggestion of putting military men on the Committee as a check on the civilians.  Hitherto we have never, to the best of my belief, been troubled by any such idle jealousies.  I would appoint the fittest men without caring to what branch of the service they belonged, or whether they belonged to the service at all.” [This, and the following extracts, are taken from a volume of Macaulay’s Minutes, “now first collected from Records in the Department of Public instruction, by H. Woodrow, Esq., M.A., Inspector of Schools at Calcutta, and formerly Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge.”  The collection was published in India.]

Exception had been taken to an applicant for a mastership, on the ground that he had been a preacher with a strong turn for proselytising.

“Mr. —–­ seems to be so little concerned about proselytising, that he does not even know how to spell the word; a circumstance which, if I did not suppose it to be a slip of the pen, I should think a more serious objection than the ‘Reverend’ which formerly stood before his name.  I am quite content with his assurances.”

In default of better, Macaulay was always for employing the tools which came to hand.  A warm and consistent advocate of appointment by competitive examination, wherever a field for competition existed, he was no pedantic slave to a theory.  In the dearth of schoolmasters, which is a feature in every infant educational system, he refused to reject a candidate who mistook “Argos for Corinth,” and backed the claims of aspirants of respectable character who could “read, write, and work a sum.”