Misc Writings and Speeches(米斯克说与写)

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THE MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF LORD MACAULAY

THE

MISCELLANEOUS

WRITINGS AND

SPEECHES

VOLUME I.

LORD MACAULAY

THE MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF LORD MACAULAY

PREFACE.

Lord Macaulay always looked forward to a publication of his

miscellaneous works, either by himself or by those who should represent

him after his death. And latterly he expressly reserved, whenever the

arrangements as to copyright made it necessary, the right of such

publication.

The collection which is now published comprehends some of the

earliest and some of the latest works which he composed. He was born

on 25th October, 1800; commenced residence at Trinity College,

Cambridge, in October, 1818; was elected Craven University Scholar in

1821; graduated as B.A. in 1822; was elected fellow of the college in

October, 1824; was called to the bar in February, 1826, when he joined the

Northern Circuit; and was elected member for Calne in 1830. After this

last event, he did not long continue to practise at the bar. He went to

India in 1834, whence he returned in June, 1838. He was elected

member for Edinburgh, in 1839, and lost this seat in July, 1847; and this

(though he was afterwards again elected for that city in July, 1852, without

being a candidate) may be considered as the last instance of his taking an

active part in the contests of public life. These few dates are mentioned

for the purpose of enabling the reader to assign the articles, now and

previously published, to the principal periods into which the author's life

may be divided.

The admirers of his later works will probably be interested by

watching the gradual formation of his style, and will notice in his earlier

productions, vigorous and clear as their language always was, the

occurrence of faults against which he afterwards most anxiously guarded

himself. A much greater interest will undoubtedly be felt in tracing the

date and development of his opinions.

The articles published in Knight's Quarterly Magazine were composed

during the author's residence at college, as B.A. It may be remarked that

the first two of these exhibit the earnestness with which he already

endeavoured to represent to himself and to others the scenes and persons

of past times as in actual existence. Of the Dialogue between Milton and

THE MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF LORD MACAULAY

Cowley he spoke, many years after its publication, as that one of his works

which he remembered with most satisfaction. The article on Mitford's

Greece he did not himself value so highly as others thought it deserved.

This article, at any rate, contains the first distinct enunciation of his views,

as to the office of an historian, views afterwards more fully set forth in his

Essay, upon History, in the Edinburgh Review. From the protest, in the

last mentioned essay, against the conventional notions respecting the

majesty of history might perhaps have been anticipated something like the

third chapter of the History of England. It may be amusing to notice that

in the article on Mitford, appears the first sketch of the New Zealander,

afterwards filled up in a passage in the review of Mrs Austin's translation

of Ranke, a passage which at one time was the subject of allusion, two or

three times a week, in speeches and leading articles. In this, too, appear,

perhaps for the first time, the author's views on the representative system.

These he retained to the very last; they are brought forward repeatedly in

the articles published in this collection and elsewhere, and in his speeches

in parliament; and they coincide with the opinions expressed in the letter

to an American correspondent, which was so often cited in the late debate

on the Reform Bill.

Some explanation appears to be necessary as to the publication of the

three articles "Mill on Government," "Westminster Reviewer's Defence of

Mill" and "Utilitarian Theory of Government."

In 1828 Mr James Mill, the author of the History of British India,

reprinted some essays which he had contributed to the Supplement to the

Encyclopaedia Britannica; and among these was an Essay on Government.

The method of inquiry and reasoning adopted in this essay appeared to

Macaulay to be essentially wrong. He entertained a very strong

conviction that the only sound foundation for a theory of Government

must be laid in careful and copious historical induction; and he believed

that Mr Mill's work rested upon a vicious reasoning a priori. Upon this

point he felt the more earnestly, owing to his own passion for historical

research, and to his devout admiration of Bacon, whose works he was at

that time studying with intense attention. There can, however, be little

doubt that he was also provoked by the pretensions of some members of a

THE MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF LORD MACAULAY

sect which then commonly went by the name of Benthamites, or

Utilitarians. This sect included many of his contemporaries, who had

quitted Cambridge at about the same time with him. It had succeeded, in

some measure, to the sect of the Byronians, whom he has described in the

review of Moore's Life of Lord Byron, who discarded their neckcloths,

and fixed little models of skulls on the sand-glasses by which they

regulated the boiling of their eggs for breakfast. The members of these

sects, and of many others that have succeeded, have probably long ago

learned to smile at the temporary humours. But Macaulay, himself a

sincere admirer of Bentham, was irritated by what he considered the

unwarranted tone assumed by several of the class of Utilitarians. "We

apprehend," he said, "that many of them are persons who, having read

little or nothing, are delighted to be rescued from the sense of their own

inferiority by some teacher who assures them that the studies which they

have neglected are of no value, puts five or six phrases into their mouths,

lends them an odd number of the Westminster Review, and in a month

transforms them into philosophers;" and he spoke of them as "smatterers,

whose attainments just suffice to elevate them from the insignificance of

dunces to the dignity of bores, and to spread dismay among their pious

aunts and grand mothers." The sect, of course, like other sects,

comprehended some pretenders, and these the most arrogant and intolerant

among its members. He, however, went so far as to apply the following

language to the majority:--"As to the greater part of the sect, it is, we

apprehend, of little consequence what they study or under whom. It

would be more amusing, to be sure, and more reputable, if they would take

up the old republican cant and declaim about Brutus and Timoleon, the

duty of killing tyrants and the blessedness of dying for liberty. But, on

the whole, they might have chosen worse. They may as well be

Utilitarians as jockeys or dandies. And, though quibbling about self-

interest and motives, and objects of desire, and the greatest happiness of

the greatest number, is but a poor employment for a grown man, it

certainly hurts the health less than hard drinking and the fortune less than

high play; it is not much more laughable than phrenology, and is

immeasurably more humane than cock-fighting."

THE MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF LORD MACAULAY

Macaulay inserted in the Edinburgh Review of March, 1829, an article

upon Mr Mill's Essay. He attacked the method with much vehemence;

and, to the end of his life, he never saw any ground for believing that in

this he had gone too far. But before long he felt that he had not spoken of

the author of the Essay with the respect due to so eminent a man. In

1833, he described Mr mill, during the debate on the India Bill of that year,

as a "gentleman extremely well acquainted with the affairs of our Eastern

Empire, a most valuable servant of the Company, and the author of a

history of India, which, though certainly not free from faults, is, I think, on

the whole, the greatest historical work which has appeared in our language

since that of Gibbon."

Almost immediately upon the appearance of the article in the

Edinburgh Review, an answer was published in the Westminster Review.

It was untruly attributed, in the newspapers of the day, to Mr Bentham

himself. Macaulay's answer to this appeared in the Edinburgh Review,

June, 1829. He wrote the answer under the belief that he was answering

Mr Bentham, and was undeceived in time only to add the postscript. The

author of the article in the Westminster Review had not perceived that the

question raised was not as to the truth or falsehood of the result at which

Mr Mill had arrived, but as to the soundness or unsoundness of the method

which he pursued; a misunderstanding at which Macaulay, while he

supposed the article to be the work of Mr Bentham, expressed much

surprise. The controversy soon became principally a dispute as to the

theory which was commonly known by the name of The Greatest

Happiness Principle. Another article in the Westminster Review

followed; and a surrejoinder by Macaulay in the Edinburgh Review of

October, 1829. Macaulay was irritated at what he conceived to be either

extreme dullness or gross unfairness on the part of his unknown antagonist,

and struck as hard as he could; and he struck very hard indeed.

The ethical question thus raised was afterwards discussed by Sir James

Mackintosh, in the Dissertation contributed by him to the seventh edition

of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, page 284-313 (Whewell's Edition). Sir

James Mackintosh notices the part taken in the controversy by Macaulay,

in the following words: "A writer of consummate ability, who has failed

THE MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF LORD MACAULAY

in little but the respect due to the abilities and character of his opponents,

has given too much countenance to the abuse and confusion of language

exemplified in the well-known verse of Pope,

'Modes of self-love the Passions we may call.'

'We know,' says he, 'no universal proposition respecting human nature

which is true but one--that men always act from self- interest.'" "It is

manifest from the sequel, that the writer is not the dupe of the confusion;

but many of his readers may be so. If, indeed, the word "self-interest"

could with propriety be used for the gratification of every prevalent desire,

he has clearly shown that this change in the signification of terms would

be of no advantage to the doctrine which he controverts. It would make

as many sorts of self-interest as there are appetites, and it is irreconcilably

at variance with the system of association proposed by Mr Mill." "The

admirable writer whose language has occasioned this illustration, who at

an early age has mastered every species of composition, will doubtless

hold fast to simplicity, which survives all the fashions of deviation from it,

and which a man of genius so fertile has few temptations to for sake."

When Macaulay selected for publication certain articles of the

Edinburgh Review, he resolved not to publish any of the three essays in

question; for which he assigned the following reason:--

"The author has been strongly urged to insert three papers on the

Utilitarian Philosophy, which, when they first appeared, attracted some

notice, but which are not in the American editions. He has however

determined to omit these papers, not because he is disposed to retract a

single doctrine which they contain, but because he is unwilling to offer

what might be regarded as an affront to the memory of one from whose

opinions he still widely dissents, but to whose talents and virtues he

admits that he formerly did not do justice. Serious as are the faults of the

Essay on Government, a critic, while noticing those faults, should have

abstained from using contemptuous language respecting the historian of

British India. It ought to be known that Mr Mill had the generosity, not

only to forgive, but to forget the unbecoming acrimony with which he had

been assailed, and was, when his valuable life closed, on terms of cordial

friendship with his assailant."

THE MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF LORD MACAULAY

Under these circumstances, considerable doubt has been felt as to the

propriety of republishing the three Essays in the present collection. But

it has been determined, not without much hesitation, that they should

appear. It is felt that no disrespect is shown to the memory of Mr Mill,

when the publication is accompanied by so full an apology for the tone

adopted towards him; and Mr Mill himself would have been the last to

wish for the suppression of opinions on the ground that they were in

express antagonism to his own. The grave has now closed upon the

assailant as well as the assailed. On the other hand, it cannot but be

desirable that opinions which the author retained to the last, on important

questions in politics and morals, should be before the public.

Some of the poems now collected have already appeared in print;

others are supplied by the recollection of friends. The first two are

published on account of their having been composed in the author's

childhood. In the poems, as well as in the prose works, will be

occasionally found thoughts and expressions which have afterwards been

adopted in later productions.

No alteration whatever has been made from the form in which the

author left the several articles, with the exception of some changes in

punctuation, and the correction of one or two obvious misprints.

T.F.E. London, June 1860.

THE MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF LORD MACAULAY

FRAGMENTS OF A ROMAN

TALE.

(June 1823)

It was an hour after noon. Ligarius was returning from the Campus

Martius. He strolled through one of the streets which led to the Forum,

settling his gown, and calculating the odds on the gladiators who were to

fence at the approaching Saturnalia. While thus occupied, he overtook

Flaminius, who, with a heavy step and a melancholy face, was sauntering

in the same direction. The light-hearted young man plucked him by the

sleeve.

"Good-day, Flaminius. Are you to be of Catiline's party this

evening?"

"Not I."

"Why so? Your little Tarentine girl will break her heart."

"No matter. Catiline has the best cooks and the finest wine in Rome.

There are charming women at his parties. But the twelve- line board and

the dice-box pay for all. The Gods confound me if I did not lose two

millions of sesterces last night. My villa at Tibur, and all the statues that

my father the praetor brought from Ephesus, must go to the auctioneer.

That is a high price, you will acknowledge, even for Phoenicopters, Chian,

and Callinice."

"High indeed, by Pollux."

"And that is not the worst. I saw several of the leading senators this

morning. Strange things are whispered in the higher political circles."

"The Gods confound the political circles. I have hated the name of

politician ever since Sylla's proscription, when I was within a moment of

having my throat cut by a politician, who took me for another politician.

While there is a cask of Falernian in Campania, or a girl in the Suburra, I

shall be too well employed to think on the subject."

"You will do well," said Flaminius gravely, "to bestow some little

consideration upon it at present. Otherwise, I fear, you will soon renew

THE MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF LORD MACAULAY

your acquaintance with politicians, in a manner quite as unpleasant as that

to which you allude."

"Averting Gods! what do you mean?"

"I will tell you. There are rumours of conspiracy. The order of

things established by Lucius Sylla has excited the disgust of the people,

and of a large party of the nobles. Some violent convulsion is expected."

"What is that to me? I suppose that they will hardly proscribe the

vintners and gladiators, or pass a law compelling every citizen to take a

wife."

"You do not understand. Catiline is supposed to be the author of the

revolutionary schemes. You must have heard bold opinions at his table

repeatedly."

"I never listen to any opinions upon such subjects, bold or timid."

"Look to it. Your name has been mentioned."

"Mine! good Gods! I call Heaven to witness that I never so much as

mentioned Senate, Consul, or Comitia, in Catiline's house."

"Nobody suspects you of any participation in the inmost counsels of

the party. But our great men surmise that you are among those whom he

has bribed so high with beauty, or entangled so deeply in distress, that they

are no longer their own masters. I shall never set foot within his

threshold again. I have been solemnly warned by men who understand

public affairs; and I advise you to be cautious."

The friends had now turned into the Forum, which was thronged with

the gay and elegant youth of Rome. "I can tell you more," continued

Flaminius; "somebody was remarking to the Consul yesterday how loosely

a certain acquaintance of ours tied his girdle. 'Let him look to himself;'

said Cicero, 'or the state may find a tighter girdle for his neck.'"

"Good Gods! who is it? You cannot surely mean"--

"There he is."

Flaminius pointed to a man who was pacing up and down the Forum at

a little distance from them. He was in the prime of manhood. His

personal advantages were extremely striking, and were displayed with an

extravagant but not ungraceful foppery. His gown waved in loose folds;

his long dark curls were dressed with exquisite art, and shone and steamed

THE MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF LORD MACAULAY

with odours; his step and gesture exhibited an elegant and commanding

figure in every posture of polite languor. But his countenance formed a

singular contrast to the general appearance of his person. The high and

imperial brow, the keen aquiline features, the compressed mouth; the

penetrating eye, indicated the highest degree of ability and decision. He

seemed absorbed in intense meditation. With eyes fixed on the ground,

and lips working in thought, he sauntered round the area, apparently

unconscious how many of the young gallants of Rome were envying the

taste of his dress, and the ease of his fashionable stagger.

"Good Heaven!" said Ligarius, "Caius Caesar is as unlikely to be in a

plot as I am."

"Not at all."

"He does nothing but game; feast, intrigue, read Greek, and write

verses."

"You know nothing of Caesar. Though he rarely addresses the Senate,

he is considered as the finest speaker there, after the Consul. His

influence with the multitude is immense. He will serve his rivals in

public life as he served me last night at Catiline's. We were playing at

the twelve lines. (Duodecim scripta, a game of mixed chance and skill,

which seems to have been very fashionable in the higher circles of Rome.

The famous lawyer Mucius was renowned for his skill in it.--("Cic. Orat."

i. 50.)--Immense stakes. He laughed all the time, chatted with Valeria

over his shoulder, kissed her hand between every two moves, and scarcely

looked at the board. I thought that I had him. All at once I found my

counters driven into the corner. Not a piece to move, by Hercules. It cost

me two millions of sesterces. All the Gods and Goddesses confound him

for it!"

"As to Valeria," said Ligarius, "I forgot to ask whether you have heard

the news."

"Not a word. What?"

"I was told at the baths to-day that Caesar escorted the lady home.

Unfortunately old Quintus Lutatius had come back from his villa in

Campania, in a whim of jealousy. He was not expected for three days.

There was a fine tumult. The old fool called for his sword and his slaves,

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Misc Writings and Speeches(米斯克说与写)

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