'Critical and Historical Essays.'

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Boswell's 'Life of

Macaulay's critical and historical essays, contributed to the Edinburgh Review, having been pirated in America, Messrs. Longman & Co., in order to protect their home market, caused the essays to be republished in three volumes. The Athenæum mentions this circumstance in its review on the 1st of April, 1843. "Avery pretty quarrel' about nothing," in which "A very "very small facts are swelled into undue import- quarrel." ance from the skill and reputation of the combatants," is dealt with by the Athenæum of the 1st of January, 1848, in its review of Boswell's Life of Johnson: including their Tour to the Johnson.' Hebrides,' a new edition, by the Right Hon. J. Wilson Croker. The Athenæum states: "In the present edition, we have, for the first time, Mr. Croker's replies on the subject of the errors of the edition of 1831 which Mr. Macaulay exposed in the Edinburgh Review......The edition of 1831, considering the multitude of minute facts. which it contains, is really a well-edited book. So the public have thought it, for it is out of print-and whenever it occurs for sale, it sells for more than the publishing price. The article in the Edinburgh, since acknowledged by its writer and included in his 'Collection of Critical and Historical Essays,' is written with great asperity of manner and something like a personal feeling-as if an old grudge were about

Sale of

letters of

to be paid off. Mr. Croker's replies are much in the same style......The Index affords us a ready clue to the points at issue. Under the head of 'Blundering Criticism' we are referred to 'Macaulay, T. B.'-and under 'Indecency and Indelicacy,' to the same individual."

On November 11th it is stated that "Mr. Macaulay is busy with a history of the reign of William III." The same paragraph says that "one hundred and forty unpublished letters William III. addressed by King William III. to Henry de Lorraine, Prince of Vaudemont, were recently sold by Messrs. Puttick & Simpson, for something like 6s. 6d. apiece!" Forty-six pounds one shilling was all that the letters realized. Among the letters was one from Kensington in 1696, in which the king writes:"I see that you have the same intelligence that we have here from France, that they have formed a great design for a descent on this kingdom, and the Jacobites (as they call them here) speak quite publicly of it, and although the thing is not too easy, it is only prudent to take every possible precaution. This will prevent me from sending to the Low Countries so many troops as I had thought of doing at the beginning of the campaign, which is a sufficiently provoking contre-temps.' The letters are entirely in the king's own handwriting: a cha

racteristic hand-not unlike the Duke of Wellington's, but finer."

On the 18th of November it is stated that Mr. Macaulay has been elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, "by a majority in all the nations."

Three articles are devoted to the first two volumes of 'The History of England from the Accession of James II.' The first article appears on the 9th of December. The Athenæum says: "Mr. Macaulay bids 'the dry bones live.' He renders us as familiar with the men of the Revolution as if they had been personal acquaintances. We estimate this quality highly, because the course and the consequences of the Revolution of 1688 were guided and moulded more by the character of the persons engaged in it, and less by the mere force of circumstances, than any event of equal magnitude recorded in history. In all probability that revolution would never have taken place if James II. had been either a better man or a worse-had he been more scrupulous in his politics or less conscientious in his religion he need not have exchanged St. James's for St. Germain's. Still, the crisis would have only been adjourned. It had become necessary to fix with precision the place which the sovereign ought to hold in a constitutional kingdom.

Macaulay Lord Rector of Glasgow University.

History of England,' Vols. I.

and II.

century.

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Whenever the farce of Every Monarch his own Minister' is played in a country, either the irresponsibility of the king renders his rule arbitrary and despotic, or the attempt made to fix responsibility on him by his subjects perils the foundations of his throne." The third notice, on December 23rd, closes as follows: "We perceive with pleasure that the extracts from these volumes which have rather prematurely appeared in some of the American papers have been welcomed with more than ordinary favour by our brethren beyond the Atlantic. They feel as much interested as ourselves in that period of our history when England and the Union had yet a common ancestry:-and this may well inspire the hope that the kindred races will not forget that they have a common heritage of fame, of interest, and of duty." It is stated in the same number that the first edition of three thousand copies is out of print.

The clergy 'Mr. Macaulay's Character of the Clergy in in the seventeenth the Latter Part of the Seventeenth Century considered by C. Babington, M.A.,' is the subject of a review on the 25th of August, 1849. On the 29th of September it is stated that Mr. Macaulay has returned from a careful survey of the field of the battle of the Boyne.

The Penn

controversy.

'William Penn: an Historical Biography. With an extra Chapter on "The Macaulay

Charges," by William Hepworth Dixon, is noticed on the 22nd of March, 1851; and on the 26th of June, 1852, 'The Life of William Penn with Selections from his Correspondence and Autobiography,' by Samuel M. Janney, published in Philadelphia. 'Speeches of the Right Hon. T. B. Macaulay, M.P., corrected by Himself,' is reviewed on the 17th of December, 1853. The third and fourth volumes of the 'History of England' are reviewed at great length on the 22nd and 29th of December, 1855, twenty-seven columns being devoted to the work.

Lord Macaulay died at Campden Hill on Wednesday, the 28th of December, 1859, but, strangely enough, his death was not known in London until the Friday. The Athenæum contains an obituary notice on January 7th, 1860.

The following communication from Mr. J. C. Hotten, the publisher of Piccadilly, appears on the 4th of February, 1860: "But few persons are aware, indeed, many of his most intimate friends, I have no doubt, never before heard, that Macaulay composed verses while yet in a pinafore, and at a preparatory school. When ten years of age he wrote poems on every conceivable subject, and before he had entered his twelfth year some verses, entitled 'An Epitaph on Martyn' (the celebrated missionary to Persia), were inscribed in his sister's album, and copies

'History of England,' Vols. III.

and IV.

Death.

Early compositions.