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Love for
Milton.

were sent off to Bristol and to the Babington family in Leicestershire. Macaulay's idolatry of Milton is well known. His first and famous essay in the Edinburgh, and the numerous anecdotes narrated by Sydney Smith and Moore of his fondness for reciting whole books of the 'Paradise Lost' have long made his admirers acquainted with the fact, but few know that whilst yet a child he produced in excellent verse 'An Address to Milton.' When not quite fourteen he wrote The Vision.' Soon after, the memorable defeat of Napoleon engaged his youthful attention, and the family received from his pen a poem entitled 'Waterloo,' and another 'An Inscription for the Column of Waterloo,' on occasion of the obelisk being erected on the famous battle-field. Political subjects appear to have engaged his attention from an early period, for before he went to school at Shelford he indited some Lines to the Memory of Pitt,' 'A Radical Song,' and 'A New Ballad.' The poem called 'A Tory,' which has already been published, was written about this time. Macaulay's character is popularly believed to have been stern and his affections cold-perhaps from the fact of his never marrying;-but some of his schoolboy-pieces betray a sympathy with the tender passions that few of those who knew him in after life would have expected. He wrote a

little love-song called 'Venus crying after Cupid,'-some 'Verses on the Marriage of a Friend,' others in 'Imitation of Lord Byron,' -'Tears of Sensibility,'-'A Translation of a French Song,'-and 'Lines written in a Lady's Album.' A much graver subject was treated of in a poem entitled 'A Sermon written in a Churchyard.' These particulars of Lord Macaulay's youthful compositions have been gleaned from an old album, recently discovered, which contains, besides Macaulay's pieces, some verses by Coleridge, and other poems by gentlemen and ladies not known to the literary world." This brought a letter in the following week Letter from from Lyon, Barnes & Ellis, solicitors to Macau- the solicitors lay's executors: "We think it right to inform you that what is called in Mr. Hotten's letter an album is, in fact, a manuscript belonging to a member of his Lordship's family; and that the manuscript had very recently got by mistake out of the hands of the owner, to whom it has been since restored, and who has no intention of publishing any of the contents of the MS. which have not yet been published. Should any such publication be attempted by others, it would be at once restrained."

66

to the trustees.

Biographies. By Lord Macaulay. Contri-Biographies.' buted to the Encyclopædia Britannica.' With Notes of his Connexion with Edinburgh, and

Letters.

Extracts from his Letters and Speeches," is reviewed on the 17th of March. The Athenæum says: "Mr. Black supported his friend [Lord Macaulay] against powerful and watchful enemies; and when his friend had retired from the more active responsibilities of public life he repaid his staunch supporter with the copyright of five little biographical essays, on Francis Atterbury, on John Bunyan, on Oliver Goldsmith, on Samuel Johnson, and on William Pitt." In the same volume are included a number of Macaulay's private letters, "a perusal of which will probably warn the reader how very fallacious are the best of human judgments." The Athenæum then quotes one letter, dated February 22nd, 1843, in which Macaulay refers to the impossibility of obtaining a repeal of the Corn Laws, and consequently the uselessness of his voting for their repeal, though he believes the repeal to be good in principle and in policy. The letters of "the good old gossip" Hannah to Zachary More to Zachary Macaulay are noticed on the Macaulay. 5th of May, 1860. The letters are, as is well known, full of references to "Tom." In one, dated June 28th, 1808, she sends her "particular love to Tom. I am glad to perceive that his classicality has not extinguished his piety. His hymns were really extraordinary for such a baby."

Letters of Hannah More

'The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay,'

by his nephew, George Otto Trevelyan, M.P., is reviewed in the Athenæum of the 8th of April, 1876.

CHARLES DICKENS.

'The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club,' edited by Boz,* Nos. I. to IX., form the subject of the first review on the 3rd of December, 1836. On the 31st, 'Sketches by Boz: Second Series,' is also noticed. The article closes with the remark: "Next week we shall have to welcome Boz as a brother editor-in which, and in all other characters and undertakings, we wish him success."

Life, by George Otto Trevelyan.

Charles Dickens.

"The Pickwick Papers.'

On the 7th of January, 1837, this promise is fulfilled, and the new comic periodical work edited by Boz and illustrated by George Cruikshank, Bentley's Miscellany, receives kindly Bentley's notice. Dickens's contribution, 'The Public Life of Mr. Tulrumble,' "is Boz every line of it."

Miscellany.

The following appears on the 3rd of March, 1838: "Among the literary announcements of the week the one which will spread the widest, Announceand the work which will, in all probability, fare the best, is the proclamation† 'of the only true Nickleby.'

* The nickname of a pet child, his youngest brother Augustus.

+ Proclamation on the eve of 'Nickleby.' See Forster's 'Life of Dickens,' vol. ii. pp. 76 and 77.

ment of

'Nicholas

'Oliver Twist.'

'Master Humphrey's

and lawful Boz,' heralding the appearing of his new child 'Nicholas Nickleby.' This worthy's adventures, it is said, will be rich in the oddities to be gathered in the north of England.” The first number was published on the 31st, and is reviewed on the same date: "The characters are drawn twice over,-to the eye as well as to the mind. Before they escape from the passport or hue-and-cry style in which 'Boz' takes them down, they are compelled to sit for their likenesses to Phiz.'"

The completion of Oliver Twist' is noticed on the 17th of November.

On the 3rd of August, 1839, it is stated that the 'Pickwick Papers' have been translated into Russian.

On the 7th of November, 1840, the first volume Clock.' of 'Master Humphrey's Clock' is reviewed. The writer of the article was Thomas Hood.

'Farnaby

Rudge.

In its review of 'Barnaby Rudge,' on the 22nd of January, 1842, the Athenæum says: "This story is now complete. The illuminated Clock of Master Humphrey has run down for ever, and with its last chime the works of its maker have come to a temporary stoppage. Availing himself of the pause for a little well-earned rest and recreation, the author, it appears, has sailed on a long-projected trip to America."

On the 16th of July a letter appears from

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