The General did not take the hint, and spent the remainder of his life peacefully enough between London, Bath, and the Continental capitals.  He was accustomed to say that his travelling carriage was his only freehold; and, wherever he fixed his temporary residence, he had the talent of making himself popular.  At Geneva he was a universal favourite; he always was welcome at Coppet; and he gave the strongest conceivable proof of a cosmopolitan disposition by finding himself equally at home at Rome and at Clapham.  When in England he lived much with his relations, to whom he was sincerely attached.  He was generous in a high degree, and the young people owed to him books which they otherwise could never have obtained, and treats and excursions which formed the only recreations that broke the uniform current of their lives.  They regarded their uncle Colin as the man of the world of the Macaulay family.

Zachary Macaulay’s circumstances during these years were good, and constantly improving.  For some time he held the post of Secretary to the Sierra Leone Company, with a salary of L500 per annum.  He subsequently entered into partnership with a nephew, and the firm did a large business as African merchants under the names of Macaulay and Babington.  The position of the father was favourable to the highest interests of his children.  A boy has the best chance of being well brought up in a household where there is solid comfort, combined with thrift and simplicity; and the family was increasing too fast to leave any margin for luxurious expenditure.  Before the eldest son had completed his thirteenth year he had three brothers and five sisters.

[It was in the course of his thirteenth year that the boy wrote his “Epitaph on Henry Martyn.”

 Here Martyn lies.  In manhood’s early bloom
 The Christian hero finds a Pagan tomb. 
 Religion, sorrowing o’er her favourite son,
 Points to the glorious trophies that he won. 
 Eternal trophies! not with carnage red,
 Not stained with tears by hapless captives shed,
 But trophies of the Cross.  For that dear name,
 Through every form of danger, death, and shame,
 Onward he journeyed to a happier shore,
 Where danger, death and shame assault no more.”]

In the course of 1812 it began to be evident that Tom had got beyond the educational capabilities of Clapham; and his father seriously contemplated the notion of removing to London in order to place him as a day-scholar at Westminster.  Thorough as was the consideration which the parents gave to the matter, their decision was of more importance than they could at the time foresee.  If their son had gone to a public school, it is more than probable that he would have turned out a different man, and have done different work.  So sensitive and homeloving a boy might for a while have been too depressed to enter fully unto the ways of the place; but, as he gained confidence, he could not have withstood the irresistible